Provencal Salmon Burgers With Cucumber Sauce

Ingredients:

3 cups each cauliflower and broccoli florets (1 lb. total)
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1 pound salmon fillets, skin and bones removed, cut into chunks
1 egg white
3/4 teaspoon herbes de Provence
5 kalamata olives, chopped
1 tablespoon chopped capers
1 tablespoon finely chopped red onion
2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
Olive oil cooking spray
4 whole wheat buns
Green leaf lettuce, torn (optional)

Cucumber Yogurt Sauce:

1/2 cucumber, peeled and seeded
1 cup nonfat plain Greek yogurt
1 crushed clove garlic
1 teaspoon lemon juice


Instructions:

 1)  In a medium saucepan, bring 4 cups water to a boil.  Add cauliflower and broccoli.  Cook for 4-5 minutes, until tender but still firm.  Remove vegetables from pot and toss with lemon zest and set aside.

2)  In the bowl of a large food processor, combine salmon, egg white, herbes de Provence, olivers, capers, onion and Dijon.  Pulse 3 or 4 times until mixed but salmon is still chunky.  Remove and form mixture into four 4-ounce patties, set aside.

3)  Prepare cucumber yogurt sauce.  Grate cucumber over a cheesecloth or clean towel.  Wrap up cheesecloth or towel and squeeze tightly until all of the liquid is removed from the cucumber.  In a medium bowl, combine cucumber, yogurt, garlic and lemon juice and mix well.

4) Heat a medium saute on medium-high heat and mist with cooking spray.  Place salmon patties in pan, mist tops with cooking spray and cook for 4-5 minutes per side.

5) To assemble burgers, place each salmon patty in one bun and top with 1/4 cup cucumber yogurt sauce.  Add lettuce to burger, if desired.  Serve with one cup broccoli-cauliflower mixture on the side.

* serves four, takes about 15 minutes to prepare

* one burger with one cup vegetable mix equals 342 calories

* I don't like raw onion or garlic, so I would saute it lightly or parboil it before mixing it in.

* You could also skip the burger aspect and eat the patties over rice, or just with the vegetables.

* untested

Broiled Pineapple With Rum

Ingredients:

Prepare an average sized pineapple, cut into wedges or rings
Brown sugar, as much as needed
1/4 cup rum

Steps:

1) Spread the pineapple slices into one layer in a ceramic or glass baking dish, sprinkle lightly with brown sugar and bake in the oven at 350 degrees for about ten minutes.

2)  When the pineapple begins to brown a bit, remove it from the oven.

3)  Heat 1/4 cup of rum in a small saucepan and pour the rum over the pineapple slices.  Strike a match, carefully light the rum and flame the fruit.  When the flame subsides, serve the pineapple warm from the dish, or at room temperature.

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*  Smaller pineapples tend to be sweeter.  One way to test for ripeness is to pull the center leaf out of the crown.  If it removes easily, it is ripe.

* To clean the pineapple, use a serrated knife and cut off the top and bottom of the fruit, then peel away the skin along the curves.  Next remove the "eyes" that run around the exterior in a spiral, using a sharp paring knife.  Work around the pineapple in a circular spiral fashion.

*untested

Creamy Mushroom Sauce

Ingredients:

1/2 cup vegetable stock
1 cup heavy or whipping cream
1 1/2 teaspoons unsalted butter
6 ounces portobellow mushrooms, stemmed and chopped
4 ounces button mushrooms, stemmed and sliced
1 teaspoon chopped fresh oregano
1 teaspoon chopped fresh chives
1 teaspoon Italian flat-leaf parsley chopped
Sea Salt
Ground White Pepper

Steps:

1) In a medium saucepan over low heat, combine stock and cream and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer until thickened, about four minutes.  Remove from heat.

2) In a skillet, melt butter over medium heat.  Add portobello and button mushrooms and saute until softened, about five minutes.  Stir into cream sauce with oregano, chive and parsley.  Season with salt and white pepper to taste.  Serve warm.

* untested

*  Makes two cups

* topper for rice or pasta or beef dish, like Salisbury Steak

Chicken & Vegetable Delight

Ingredients:

1 pound boneless chicken breasts, cut in thin diagonal slices
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 tablespoon water
1/4 pound broccoli florets
1/4 pound cauliflower florets
3/4 cup red or yellow bell peppers, 1-inch dice
3/4 cup green bell pepper, 1-inch dice
1 large carrot, 1/4 inch bias slices
3 ounces shitake mushrooms
1/2 cup fresh baby corn, halved
1 cup fresh snow peas
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 bottle Wegman's Garlic Simmer Sauce


Steps:

1) Mix sliced chicken with cornstarch and 1 tablespoon water until chicken is coated; set aside.

2) Blanch vegetables in a large pot of boiling salted water 2 minutes, drain and set aside.

3)  Heat oil in stir fry pan on high; stir fry chicken 4-5 minutes (oil must be hot, but not smoking).

4)  Add veggies and sauce to stir fry pan.  Stir fry 3 minutes to heat through.

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* I used this recipe as a rough template for what I had on hand to eat.  With stir fries, they are often yielding to change.

*  I didn't use chicken, nor did I use cornstarch to make a coating.  I used about 5 large shrimp that I thawed, removed tails and chopped in half for my protein.

* I didn't have shitakes, cauliflower, and I skipped the green bell pepper.

* You can find the fresh baby corn, bagged, at Wegman's.  I've never seen them that way, other than canned which are not the same, at other stores.

* I served this with Basmati rice.

*  I added about a tablespoon of peeled, grated fresh ginger.

*  I did cook the vegetables in water for a bit longer than they recommend, then drained them.

* I also used two diced scallions, not called for.

* I sauteed the vegetables, then I added some sesame seed I had roasted and the chopped shrimp at the end.




























Serves 4 |  Total Time  20 minutes |  Calories  250 per serving

Honey-Roasted Squash

Ingredients:

4 mixed winter squash such as acorn or butternut, about the same size for equal cooking time
2-inch piece of ginger, peeled
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup water
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

Steps:

1) Preheat the over to 450 degrees and position a rack in the middle of the oven.  

2)  Cut each squash in half and scoop out the seeds and fibrous flesh from inside.  Then cut larger ones in half again.  Transfer to a large bowl and set aside.

3)  Thinly slice the ginger, then cut into thin matchsticks and set aside.

4)  In a small saucepan, melt the butter and honey.  Add 1/4 cup of water and the ginger and stir well.

5)  Pour the butter and honey mixture over the squash and toss well, making sure that all of the squash pieces are well coated.  Sprinkle the salt over the squash and toss.

6)  Spread the squash evenly on a treated baking sheet and transfer to the oven.  Bake 45 minutes to 1 hour, turning and basting the squash every 10 to 15 minutes.  Add a few tablespoons of water as the squash roasts if it seems to be burning.  The squash should be golden brown and very soft when done.

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*  You can use butternut, acorn, sweet dumpling, delicata or carnival varieties of squash.

* I would put foil on the baking sheet and do a thin coating of oil to keep the pieces from sticking.

* Since you have to baste the squash every 10-15 minutes for up to an hour, I might be tempted to hold back a little of the coating, or make a little extra.

Untested

Carrot Pickle

Ingredients:

8 medium carrots, peeled
2 cups apple cider vinegar
2 cups water
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup kosher salt
1 tablespoon fennel seeds
1 tablespoon coriander seeds
2 arbol chilies

Steps:

1)  Slice the carrots as thinly as possible, either into rounds or on the diagonal (bias.)  Put in a harge heatproof bowl.

2)  In a saucepan, combine the vinegar, water, sugar, salt, spices and chilies and bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar and salt.  When the sugar and salt have dissolved, pour the pickle over the carrots.

3)  Let the pickles cool at room temperature and then put them into a plastic or glass container, cover, and refrigerate.  The carrot pickle will be ready to eatt the next day and will keep for two months.

*Untested

Dashi Beef & Mushrooms

Dashi Beef & Mushrooms

Ingredients:

1 pound sirloin cut into strips

1 1/2 cups onions, sliced

1 1/2 cups red bell pepper, sliced

5 ounces shitake mushrooms, sliced

6 ounces baby white pearl mushrooms

1 bottle Wegman's Mushroom Dashi Simmer Sauce

2 tablespoons soy sauce

1 tablespoon sugar

2 tablespoons vegetable oil, divided

Steps:

1)  Mix the sliced beef with soy sauce and sugar and set aside.  

2)  Heat one tablespoon of oil in a stir fry pan on high.  Stir fry half of the beef 3-4 minutes, transfer to a clean platter.  Repeat with remaining beef.

3)  Add remaining oil to the pan, add veggies and stir fry one minute, until the mushrooms are soft.

4)  Return beef to the stir fry pan, add sauce.  Stir fry 2 minutes to heat through.

Serves 4.  Total Time:  25 minutes.  Calories:  390 per serving.

Notes:

* I didn't use meat the first time I made this.  I used a soy product made by Wegman's which is a bag of tofu beef strips.

* I didn't have shitake mushrooms, so I added a handful of snow pea pods with only the ends trimmed off.

* I didn't have white onion, so I used 2 scallions which I diced.

* Step Saver:  Use pre-cut beef strips and pre-cut mushrooms

* You will need to go to a Wegman's to obtain the mushroom-dashi simmer sauce which is kept in the produce department.

* I would serve this over Basmati rice (white or brown.)  I imagine it would also go well with lo mein noodles, or udon, and both of these can be obtained at Wegman's.

Pantry

• Don't Fear Salt   Salt is the essential ingredient that James Beard called the "sovereign of seasonings."  By itself, salt is overwhelming.  But when added sensibly to almost anything else, it recedes into the background to let the salted ingredient's flavor shine.  If you taste the salt, you've added too much.  Many cooks use too little salt; the result is food that is too bland or too bitter.

• Use Kosher or Sea Salt  Kosher salt lacks the anti-caking additives and whitening agents of common table salt and has a beguiling, coarse texture that allows you to fell how it will flavor, a quality that is easy to experience.  Rub it between your fingers and you'll know.  Sea salt has more potassium, magnesium, zinc and other nutrients than table salt.  The varieties of sea salt are colored and flavored by the waters from which they are harvested, giving you multiple options to explore.

• Season With Your Fingers And Your Eyes  Feel how much seasoning you are adding to a dish and watch it land on the food.  This gives you tactile and visual information about where and how to mix it.

• Experiment With Seasoning Salts  Just before you serve your food, your final seasoning provides one fast chance to balance flavor and enhance texture.  Some fine finishing salts worth investigation: Celtic (particularly the delicate fleur de sel de Guerande,) Maldon, Murray River, Hawaiian red (a favorite of mine,) truffle-infused, and smoked alderwood.

• Use A Pepper Mill  Pepper assigns to food an earthy, savory tone.  As tempting as it might be to use pre-cracked pepper, don't.  Freshly cracked pepper lives up to its promise:  stronger in both aroma and flavor.  A quick sniff of the pre-ground kind in comparison with one turn of the mill will demonstrate the qualitative difference.  Consider both coarse and fine texture options: use a coarse grind on beef, a fine grind on salad.  Also experiment with green, white, and red peppercorns which vary in flavor and intensity.  My personal favorite are pink peppercorns.

• When The Cook Has Done His Job, There Should Be No Need for Salt or Pepper On the Table  Well...theoretically.

• Select Oils With Taste In Mind  Olive oils offer the verdant and earth taste of...olive.  Toasted nut oils and pressed fruit oils with more forward flavors should be reserved to finish cooked foods.  Canola (which I never use after reading up on it,) vegetable, grapeseed and peanut oils all have little to no flavor other than that of fat itself.  I am a big fan of experimenting with oils, including Asian sesame oil and hot chili oil, and Wegman's makes an herb in bottle basting oil that I am partial to.

• Match the Oil With the Cooking Method  Here's the general rule:  the lighter the oil, the higher the temperature at which it begins to break down and smoke.  Deep-frying occurs at high temperature and requires an oil with a high smoke point like peanut or vegetable oil.  Olive oil, with its lower smoke point, is seldom used for deep-frying foods, but often for sauteeing or for mixing dressings.

• Use Dijon Mustard  It is the cook's standard, used in everything from mayonnaise and vinaigrette to meat rubbings and pan sauces.  It emulsifies and flavors potently without overpowering.

• Cook With Sugar  A pinch of granulated sugar, like a pinch of salt, can balance flavor and brighten food.  Bland tomato sauce?  Sprinkle in a touch of sugar to amplify the tomatoes' natural sweetness.  Sauteed onions need more flavor?  Add a light dusting of sugar to enhance the carmelization process.

• Never Lift A Lid When Cooking Rice  If you lift the lid before the rice has finished absorbing the liquid, you compromise the air pockets that have been steadily developing during cooking.  The rice will stick to itself and become dense and chewy.  To quash the urge to peek, use a glass lid.  You can monitor for a stable simmer and later confirm that the rice has absorbed all of the liquid.

• Always Let Rice Rest  Take the pot off the heat before removing the lid and fluffing the grains.  This allows any residual moisture to release itself from the air pockets in the rice.  If you were to fluff the rice without letting it rest, it would be too moist and sticky.  Rice grains should not stick together; unless you are making sticky rice or sushi rice.

• Season the Pasta Water, Not Just the Sauce  Add a tablespoon of salt to five quarts of water.  Do the same for boiling potatoes, too.

• Match the Pasta Shape To the Sauce's Weight  Never heard of spaghetti alfredo?  That's because creamy sauces adhere best to flat noodles, like fettuccine.  Long, narrow noodles like spaghetti or capellini are best with thinner sauces like pesto, oil and garlic, or carbonara.  Short, shaped pastas like rigatoni, penne, and fusilli pair well texturally with chunky vegetable and meat sauces.