Mediterranean Tri-Colored Couscous Tabbouleh Salad

Who is a huge fan of Mediterranean food?  Raise your hands higher!  This salad is for you.  Traditionally, tabbouleh is made with bulgur.  This version is with tri-colored couscous.  Won't you give it a try?  It's a perfect salad for a summer picnic, a potluck get together.  It goes equally well on its own or as a side to grilled lamb.

Mediterranean Tri-Colored Couscous Tabbouleh Salad

Ingredients

1 cup tri-colored couscous
1 English cucumber, diced
2 large tomatoes, seeded and diced
1 sweet bell pepper, cored and diced
1 bunch parsley, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons olive oil
zest and juice of 1 lemon
salt and pepper to taste

Garnish: butter-roasted pine nuts

Directions

1.  Toast couscous in a nonstick pan over medium heat until it is heated through and lightly browned, about 5 minutes.

Photo courtesy of Priya Alahan Photography

2.  Pour 2 cups of boiling water over couscous.  Cover and allow to sit until the water is fully absorbed.  Fluff couscous with a fork, transfer to a salad bowl and slightly cool.

3.  Add vegetables, parsley and garlic to couscous.

4.  Whisk together olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper.  Pour over the couscous and the vegetables and stir gently to combine.  Cover and refrigerate for several hours.  Right before serving, sprinkle with butter-roasted pine nuts.

Photo Courtesy of Priya Alahan Photography

Time to eat!

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Morning Sunshine Juice

Good morning! I must admit that after two weeks away in Italy, one of the things I have missed most about my daily routine is a glass of fresh juice in the morning.  Back to work, I am once again juicing.  This week, I have been drinking what I am calling Morning Sunshine Juice.

Ingredients

2 apples, quartered
2 carrots, chopped
1 orange, peeled and quartered
1/2 lime, peeled
1/2 inch ginger root

Directions

1. Juice all ingredients and stir together.  Serve straight up or over ice.

This is light and refreshing and super energizing.  Enjoy!

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Knife Safety in the Kitchen ~ Where to Store Your Knives



As some of you may know, I teach Knife Skills classes - the essential know-how for every cook in the kitchen.  As part of my classes, I discuss knife safety and a variety of ways to keep the knifes safe.

 

I've been dreaming of a magnetic knife strip for quite some time and am happy to report that the dream is now a reality. 

 

Usually, the magnetic strips are attached on the kitchen's backsplash and the knives hang vertically.  The Artist and I hung the strip on the bottom of the kitchen cabinet (ok, he hung it up and I just watched).  The knives are attached to the strip horizontally, taking very little space.  I love it!

If you have kids or pets in your household, I would recommend a different system to store your knives, for safety reason.

Interested in signing up for a Knife Skills class? Let me know - I teach both individual and group classes.

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Do Good, Eat Well, Support FareStart ~ Seattle

There are plenty of restaurants in the vicinity of downtown Seattle where you can stop by for lunch.  I want to give you a few reasons why you should pick Farestart as your next lunch destination.

Farestart provides on the job training (culinary education) for homeless and disadvantaged individuals

Farestart feeds thousands of homeless and disadvantaged children, women and men

The menu offers weekly specials based on the availability of produce and the season

You can enjoy a special dinner with food and wine pairings prepared by Seattle's Top Chefs on selected Thursday nights.

So there you go, do good, eat well and support FareStart.

I happened to arrive at the restaurant on a particularly sunny afternoon to appreciate the open space, high ceilings, and light.

The wall of fame displays the photographs of the chefs who cooked at FareStart and plates with the names of donors.

Here are just a few of the core values: sustainability, respect, openness, collaboration and acceptance.

After browsing the menu, I selected fish tacos with corn and bean salad (pictured above) and my lovely lunch friend went for the meat...with bacon...barely cooked.  She was a fan.  However, word of advice - if you are looking for a glass of wine to go along with your lunch, you will be greatly disappointed (just like my friend) - FareStart does not serve alcohol with lunch.

FareStart is located

7th & Virginia

Seattle, WA 98101

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Dinner Under 30 Minutes ~ Mexican Fiesta

Are you hungry for a Mexican Fiesta dinner?  Stay home, skip the drive to the restaurant, and in 30 minutes you will sit down to a spread of black beans, chicken and duck fajita, fresh yogurt cheese, brown rice, and pico de gallo.  How is it possible, you might ask?  With a well stocked refrigerator and pantry and a little bit of culinary innovation.

 

For the Black Beans, in a sauce pot over medium high heat, saute a chopped onion with minced garlic and ground cumin and chili powder.  Add an undrained can of black beans, 1 bay leaf and water as needed.  Reduce the heat to medium low and simmer the beans, stirring occasionally, until dinner is ready.

 

 

For the chicken and duck fajitas, I rescued leftover cooked duck and rotisserie chicken sitting in the refrigerator by slicing it up and cooking in some vegetable oil with slices of red bell pepper, garlic, cumin, chili powder and a little bit of lime juice.  Cook until the meat is reheated through and the pepper is tender.

 

Reheat brown rice, if you are feeling especially in the mood, you can add sauteed onion and jalapeno with garlic and a generous amount of chopped cilantro.

For the pico de gallo, seed and finely chop a tomato.  Mix it with minced onion, minced garlic, chopped jalapeno and cilantro.  Squeeze of lime juice, salt and peeper season with fresh tomato salsa.

 

The fresh yogurt cheese was hanging out in the fridge from the Allrecipes.com shoot.  More cilantro, more lime, and a little bit of chili powder, turned this into a condiment similar to Mexican crema (sour cream).

 

Pop open a bottle of beer, heat up a few tortillas, and dinner is ready!

 

 

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Pho Seattle ~ Long Provincial Restaurant

I'm happy to share my latest pho spot in Seattle and it is conveniently located to Allrecipes.com and just a few minutes away from Pike Place Market.  Long Provincial Vietnamese Restaurant has a decor of an upscale place with prices of a hole-in-the-wall walk-up with fast and fuss-free service and bowls of steaming-hot pho.  The menu is lengthy with rice dishes, rice stir-frys and the house specials.  For now, I have been happily dining on pho with rare steak and spring rolls.  Come Spring, I might switch to a cooler side and order a  noodle bowl with lemongrass grilled pork and pickled daikon with carrots.

If you are in the area, be sure to stop by and discover the dishes of Long Provincial for yourself.

Location:
1901 Second Ave
Seattle, WA 98101

Phone:
206. 443. 6266

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Lasagna Recipe: Meat Sauce, Sauteed Vegetables and No Boil Noodles

There are times when it's easier to let someone else decide what's for dinner.  On this particular night, I turned to my brother and asked him to figure out what I should make for a family get together.  "Lasagna!" he said.  Perfect!  This hearty, comforting dish is relatively easy to make, feeds a hungry crowd and is not too time consuming.  Plus, just in time for our trip to Italy, I thought I should make something Italian-esque.

This was the first time I tried using no boil lasagna noodles and I believe I will never return to the other kind.

Lasagna Recipe: Meat Sauce with Creamy Tomato Basil Sauce and Sauteed Vegetables

Ingredients

Filling

1 # ground beef
1 jar creamy tomato basil sauce
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
4 garlic cloves, chopped
2 cups mushrooms, sliced
2 cups spinach leaves
salt and pepper to taste
1 can diced roasted tomatoes, drained

Cheese

1 # ricotta cheese
2 cups grated Peccorio Romano cheese, divided
2 cups shredded Mozzarella cheese, divided
1 egg
1/4 cup chopped parsley

Noodles

12 no boil lasagna noodles





Directions

1.  Saute ground beef in a skillet over medium high heat for 5-7 minutes, breaking it up with a back of the spoon into small pieces.  Stir in 1/3 of the tomato sauce, lower the heat to low, and simmer the sauce with the beef as you prepare the rest of the ingredients.

2.  Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat.  Add onion, garlic, and mushrooms.  Cook, stirring often, until the vegetables caramelize, about 12 minutes.  Stir in spinach, season with salt and pepper, and cook just until the spinach wilts.

3.  Stir together ricotta, 1 cup Pecorino Romano, 1 cup Mozzarella, 1 egg and parsley.

4.  Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

5.  Layer lasagna in a 9x13 baking dish:

• 1/3 tomato sauce
• 4 noodles
  
• 1/2 cheese mixture
• meat sauce
• 4 noodles
• 1/2 cheese mixture
• sauteed vegetables
• 4 noodles
• 1/3 tomato sauce
• diced tomatoes

• 1 cup Mozzarella cheese
• 1 cup Pecorino Romano cheese

6.  Bake lasagna in the oven until the cheese melts and bubbles, 30 minutes.  Allow to cool for 10 minutes before slicing to serve.  Reheats wonderfully the next day, if you have any leftovers.

What is your favorite recipe for lasagna?

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Recipe for Arugula Salad with Fennel, Cara Cara Oranges and Feta Cheese

Last night was family dinner at the house.  My brother requested that I make lasagna. With the meat sauce bubbling on the stove, I turned to making this vibrant salad of Fennel and Arugula with Cara Cara Oranges and Feta Cheese. 

Fennel has been an acquired taste for me - it has a slightly licorice undertone that I was not particularly a fan of when I first tried it.  What I found is a little bit of freshly squeezed lemon juice and olive oil mellows out the fennel flavor and brings out its natural sweetness. 

 

And that's what we did.  Thinly strips of fennel and red onion were mixed together with lemon juice and olive oil and set aside to marinade.  The Cara Cara oranges are true beauties with their almost ruby grapefruit color were peeled with a knife and cut into disks to showcase their true beauty.

Cabbage Kimchi, Sauerkraut and Homemade Horseradish ~ Cooking and Food Styling with Allrecipes.com

I get asked quite a bit about what I do for work.  Well, I work for Allrecipes.com so naturally food is involved.  On the day that I am not in the office, writing scripts for videos, updating a grocery shopping list, or watching mouth-watering recipe videos for quality and content accuracy, I am in the kitchen.  I am in the kitchen in our studio, preparing the recipes, styling the food, and lending my hands to be the stars.  I am also known to say more than once to our videographers, "Do you think there's too much hand showing?"

This week we shot five recipes in one day.  Here are just a few photos.  I loved each and every one of the recipes and welcome you to make them at home.  Keep checking for the videos to make their debute on our site and on youtube.com

How about slicing five pounds of cabbage, for Sauerkraut?  Surely, you can use a food processor or a mandoline, but if you have mad knife skills, why bother?

As much as my stomach and Korean food do not agree, I love the Korean cuisine and its fermented condiments.  This was the first time I made kimchi with Napa cabbage.  Here, the kimchi is styled with seared tofu and we also mixed it in with brown fried rice, topped with a sunny side up egg.  Be sure to check the recipe for Spicy Cabbage Kimchi.

And as if we didn't have enough heat for one day, we filmed this recipe for Homemade Horseradish.  If you have a cold or a stuffy nose, get a sniff of this one and you should be cleared up in no time.

Interested to see more?  Let me know, I'll be happy to share.

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Recipe for Corn: Roasted Corn Salad with Avocados, Radishes and Tomatoes

Spring Roasted Corn Salad with Avocados, Radishes and Tomatoes

Lately, I have been trying to take a full advantage of having a gas stove at home.  I have roasted eggplant, sweet bell peppers and a few chilies.  The other day though, I decided to roast corn!  This slightly charred, sweet, vegetable became a base for a very refreshing, crunchy and colorful salad.  If you don't have a gas stove at home, try using your broiler or an outside grill instead.

Quick and Easy Lunch - Buckwheat with Coleslaw Mix

This lunch is brought to you by necessity, short on time, high in nutrition and perfect for Meatless Monday.

To a plastic container, add 1 cup of cooked buckwheat and 1 cup of coleslaw mix.  When ready to eat, stir in 1-2 tablespoons of water and microwave for 2-3 minutes, or until heated through.  Season with 1 teaspoon of Sriracha hot sauce, 1 teaspoon of olive oil, and salt to taste.

I'm surprised by how simple, yet delicious and filling this is.  Will you give it a try?

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Artichoke and Kalamata Olive Hummus ~ Recipe

Leave the containers of hummus at the store.  Pick up a can of garbanzo beans and a can of quartered artichoke hearts and head out to your kitchen where you will hopefully find tahini paste, lemon, garlic and Kalamata olives.  And in just minutes, with the help of your handy-dandy immersion blender or a food processor, you will whip up a batch of fantastic and flavorful Artichoke and Kalamata Olive Hummus.

How to Make Matzo Ball Soup ~ Recipe

I wonder how many families sat down to a bowl of Matzo Ball Soup this Monday as they celebrated the first night of Passover.  You could count my family as one.  The Artist and I celebrated at home with my parents. 

This Matzo Ball Soup however was prepared a few weeks earlier, as I was battling a cold and allergy attack.  I did feel better as I bit into light, airy balls of matzo and herbs and sipped on a delicate chicken broth with vegetables.

How to Bake Eggs

Because there are only so many times you can turn eggs into an omelet or a quick scramble for breakfast , I came up with a new way to prepare this breakfast staple.  Baked Eggs with Roasted Tomatoes, Sauteed Spinach, and Queso Fresco. 

Perhaps I was inspired by the French Onion Soup that I had prepared and styled for work earlier in the week, but the idea of placing eggs into traditional ceramic crocks intrigued me.

I just happened to have a batch of roasted Roma tomatoes on hand and so the layering process began.  Soon enough the Artist and I sat down to a breakfast of individual baked egg scrumptiousness.

Juicing 101

Today I had a sort of initiation into juicing.  We were shooting 10 juicing videos at work and can I just say, I'm a fan?  Not necessarily a full convert, yet, but close!

My favorite combination has been beets, apple, carrot, and ginger.  Sweet and spicy at once, and the color was phenomenal!  Let's see how my body reacts to tasting ten different juices.

Before we have videos available to share, check out the selection of produce we used.

What's your favorite juice?

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