Reminiscing Portugal...making Cataplana

Two summers ago, Michele and I took a trip that became our most favorite - a two week adventure in Portugal. Portugal is such a gem - great wines, delicious seafood and pastries, a variety of beautiful beaches ( rocky cliffs and sandy ones), tile-covered houses, and gentle people. We spent most of our time in Lisbon and exploring Algarve and its beaches....and surprisingly, we found our love for Portuguese food, especially Cataplana, which is a savory stew. Of all the different Cataplanas we had, we enjoyed seafood and pork the most.

Me ( extremely tanned) with our very first Cataplana at a restaurant at Portimao

Tapas, Portuguese style, lots of seafood!

One of the posadas we stayed at...

This week, we decided to make amêijoas na cataplana, which is a clam, pork, sausage and bacon stew. Seafood and pork three ways! Making this dish would take us back to our wonderful trip we had in Portugal...the summer where we just went beach hunting, posada hopping, and ate lots of amazing food.

The recipe Michele worked on is inspired by Andrew McMeel's Cataplana, but of course, we made our own slight tweaks and added arborio rice....making a combination of Portuguese seafood and pork stew/ Risotto.....

Ingredients:

1 can (28-ounce) Italian diced tomatoes

tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

2 (1/4-inch-thick) slices bacon, cut into ¼-inch dice

1 cup chopped yellow onion

1 chopped red bell pepper

1 chopped yellow bell pepper

3 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped

2 jalapenos, diced

4 ounces andouille sausage cut into ¼-inch

dice 8 ounces pork tenderloin cut into ¼-inch cut

2 teaspoons sweet paprika

1 cup dry white wine

2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh Italian parsley

3/4 cup of Arborio rice

2 pounds little neck clams, cleaned

ciabatta bread

Preparations:

There's a specific cataplana pot, but since we did not have one, we used a dutch oven instead.

In a dutch oven, heat the olive oil over medium heat until hot enough to sizzle a piece of bacon. Add the bacon and cook, stirring, for 5 minutes, or until lightly browned. Add the onion and red and yellow peppers and sauté, stirring, for 8 minutes, or until the vegetables are wilted and beginning to turn golden. Add the garlic and jalapeno, sauté for 2 - 3 minutes. Stir in the andouille and pork tenderloin and cook, stirring, for 3 minutes, or until lightly browned. Sprinkle with the paprika and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Add the wine, tomatoes, and parsley and bring to a boil. Add 3/4 cup of arborio rice. Decrease the heat to low and cook, for 30 - 40 minutes, or until liquid is slightly reduced, the sauce becomes thick and the rice is cooked. Spoon half of the sauce into the cataplana; spoon the clams on top. Spoon the remaining sauce on top. Secure the cover in place.


In the meantime, slice ciabatta bread and toast it in the oven at 350 degrees for 5 minutes.
Place the cataplana over medium heat and cook for 10 minutes, or until the clams have opened. Bring the cataplana to the table and, using oven mitts, carefully remove the cover. Discard any clams that failed to open. Spoon the clams, risotto and rich sauce into warmed shallow bowls and serve at once with toasted ciabatta bread.

With the jalapenos cooked in the stew, this dish is really spicy... its delicious because you can taste all the layers of sausage, bacon, bell peppers, and clams.... all so yummy with a depths of savory!

It's another one...Squid and zucchini pasta

It's funny how we make our favorite dishes over and over again.

This past weekend, Michele made squid and zucchini pasta. I love how the zucchini breaks down and is infused into the pasta. Just splendid!

Here's a previous post for the recipe, Seafood Zucchini pasta.

Mussels, scallops in white wine and frites

We have to admit, although we are tired of watching Bobby Flay throw red and green things in a blender, he does showcase "fun" foods. Despite our complaints about Bobby Flay being a businessman vs an innovative chef, I have to admit that his throwdown for mussels and frites really made us want to cook it at home.

Thursday evening rolled by and I was having a bad day. Michele knows the best way to cheer me up is through food...so in order to stop me from buying a dozen of donuts, he suggested to cook mussels and frites for me the next evening for dinner.

We really love cooking and enjoying a completely relaxed Friday night at home. Michele wanted to be creative so he added scallops to the mussels, and we were in luck- the scallops looked gorgeous at the grocery store that day. We also wanted to add some veggies since we our vacation diet lacked vegetables, so he added yellow and orange peppers as well.

The challenge was making perfect frites. Our pot was overcrowded with sliced potatoes that it took too long to fry, so the frites tasted like it soaked up way too much vegetable oil. But I sprinkled the frites with some salt and cayenne pepper and it was delicious! I think I'm addicted to making homemade fries now!

Tilapia with tomato, artichokes, tofu

Hearts of gold Tilapia with tofu cubes

A light yummy tilapia for a weekday dinner. However, any kind of white fish like cod, haddock, grouper, and chilean sea bass fillets would all work well in this recipe. We went with tilapia since it was the fresh fish vs. the defrosted ones at the market. The tofu soaks up all the delicious fresh juices from the ingredients, and adds a fusion twist to this dish. Serve fresh with simple veggies.

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon olive oil

2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup red wine

2 tablespoons of white wine
2 roma tomatoes, diced

1 1/4 teaspoons fresh rosemary

half carton of extra firm tofu, cut into cubes

1 1/4 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon fresh-ground black pepper
2 pounds tilapia fillets
1 1/2 cups defrosted artichoke hearts
2 tablespoons chopped mint

1 1/2 teaspoons with red pepper flakes

Preperation:

Sprinkle the tilapia with salt and pepper, a dash of white wine and set aside.

In a large deep frying pan, heat the oil over moderately low heat. Add the garlic and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 1 minute. Stir in the wine, tomatoes, rosemary, 3/4 teaspoon of the salt, and 1/4 teaspoon of the pepper. Add tofu cubes, bring to a simmer and continue simmering, covered, for 10 minutes.

Add in artichoke hearts and red pepper flakes, and simmer for 5 minutes. Nestle the fish in the sauce, pour in red wine, bring back to a simmer, and continue simmering gently, covered, until just done, about 6 minutes for 1/2-inch-thick fillets.

Now, carefully remove the fish from the pan. Stir the fresh mint into the sauce and cook until warmed through, about 2 minutes. Stir in any accumulated juices from the fish. Spoon the sauce over the tilapia.

Pair with greens, here we paried with plain blanched broccoli to give it a nice balance.

lazy wife's Chinese stir-fry

Chinese stir fry on wild rice

Here’s one of my lazy wife’s one-pan stir fry for dinner. It tastes really good, and we always can’t stop ourselves with second and third helpings, because flavorful stir- fries just make you want to devour more with rice!

This crazy stir fry is a combination of shallots, dry scallops, mushrooms, carrots, celery, tomato and potato. Real filling and yummy!

This is a healthy dish and helps you get rid of the carrots, potatoes and celery you have lying around in your fridge

Ingredients:
Dried scallops, soaked in cold water
Shallots, sliced
Mushrooms, sliced
Carrots, diced
Celery, diced
Potato, diced
Cherry tomatoes, halved
Rice wine or sake, ¼ cup
Hondashi
Salt
Half a Serrano chili, chopped
Wild rice ( or brown rice)
(1/4 cup chicken stock) if needed

Preparation:
Soak the dried scallops in a bowl of water for 20 minutes.

In a sauté pan with oil, cook the shallots, mushrooms, and dried scallops. Season with salt and a little sprinkle of Hondashi. When the ingredients are cooked through, add Serrano chili, carrots and potato, pour in rice wine and simmer for 10 minutes. Add tomatoes and until the mixture thickens. If the liquid runs out, add some chicken stock.
Then add celery, continue to cook. Check to see if it is well seasoned. If not, add some more salt and pepper.

Serve on a bed of warm rice, and there you have it - lazy wife's one plate dinner =)

Pettole con Cozze e Fagioli

square pasta with mussels and beans

Michele spotted some unique pasta the other day at the Italian grocery store - Pettole Abruzzesi - 2-inch little squared pastas. When Michele's parents were visiting, Michele's dad Gennaro wanted to make Pettole con patate, because Pettole goes great with potatoes. This type of pasta is meant to be cooked with a hearty sauce, a pasta sauce that is thick and cooked for many hours.

However, after searching for several recipes for this type of pasta, Michele landed with one of his favorite celebrity chef's recipe - Mario Batali's pasta with mussels and beans We slightly changed things up a bit, using canned beans and fresh cherry tomatoes, lots of wine, and of course, using pettole instead of penne. This dish is meant to be very hearty, garlicky and peppery, so add lots of pepper when making the beans sauce.

The apartment was filled with amazing aromas in the evening while this was being cooked. The beans were simmering away in white wine, releasing such a sweet fragrance that felt earthy, light and inviting. The mussels when being shucked after it was cooked in wine and garlic was oozing with aroma in the kitchen, with smells of fresh and juciness like it was straight from a Belgium bistro...

I also started to use fresh herbs from our balcony, and it just took homemade cooking to a new level!

Ingredients:

1 can of cannellini beans
1 small carrot, coarsely chopped
1 rib celery, coarsely chopped
4 pounds mussels, scrubbed
1/4 cup dry white wine

chopped garlic, 3 cloves
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
4 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
fresh cherry tomatoes chopped
1/2 pound Pettole abruzzesi pasta
1/2 bunch parsley, finely chopped
2 sprigs basil
Salt and pepper

Preperation:

In a saucepan, use medium heat and cook the beans with the chopped carrot and celery. Add 2 cups of wine and bring to a boil, then redue to a simmer, cover the pot, and cook until beans are tender, about 45 minutes to 1 hour. Check water level from time to time and add wine or boiling water as it cooks down so that beans are always covered. Again, this dish is meant to be very peppery, so Michele added lots of pepper every 10 minutes, when checking the sauce.

Place mussels in a large pan with the wine and chopped garlic, and set over high heat. Cook, stirring frequently, until all mussels have opened. Remove from heat and set aside to cool. Strain cooking liquid through several layers of cheesecloth and set aside.
When mussels are cool enough to handle, remove flesh and discard shells.

Bring 6 quarts of water to a boil and add 2 tablespoons salt.
In a saucepan, heat olive oil over medium-high heat and add garlic. When garlic is soft but not brown, add tomatoes and cook for 10 minutes, or until tomatoes are soft and disintegrating. Stir in cooked beans and simmer gently while pasta cooks.
Cook pasta in boiling water until it is almost cooked through, about 8 minutes. Drain the pasta and add to the bean mixture. Add the mussels and strained mussel liquid. Stir over low heat 5 minutes, then add parsley, basil, and salt and pepper, to taste. Serve immediately!

Seafood Zucchini Paccheri pasta 海鮮節瓜巴掌麵

The first time we had Zucchini Seafood Paccheri was at beach town Gaeta, which is a beautiful south side Italian gem located between Naples and Rome.

We ate lunch at a trattoria and the pasta was so amazing that as soon as we returned to Chicago, we cooked it at home...and when I returned to Taiwan, I cooked it for my family...and when Michele's parents came to visit us in Houston, we made it for them as well!

Paccheri is an interesting pasta, it's a large and hallow tube, and has a large diameter. A legend started that the Paccheri pasta was invented to hide garlic cloves inside the pasta tube for smuggling garlic from Italy to Prussia.

Paccheri also means "slap", like slap on the face...Kind of similar to Chinese, when we say 巴掌. Interesting onomatopoeia between different cultures....in English it's "slap", in Chinese it starts wth "巴", Italian also, "Pa"

Zucchini and seafood is a wonderful combination, and makes a great base for pasta as well.

( Top: Seafood Zucchini pasta with rigatoni, bottom with spaghetti)

Ingredients:

zucchinis (thinly sliced)

squid ( tube and tentacles), octopus, and prawns, or mussels

white wine

chopped garlic

olive oil

salt & pepper

pasta ( Paccheri or rigatoni)

Best to use pasta that has big/ flat surface, such as Paccheri pasta, or use any pasta that has a wider area that will soak up the sauce.

Heat olive oil and cook the chopped garlic over low heat, for about 3- 4 minutes. Add the thinly sliced zucchini and continue to cook until the zucchini has turned into a bright green and the edges start to brown. Stir in squid, octopus and prawns, pour in white wine and cook for 5 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste. The best version is when you have the moist purplish sauce formulate from the octopus and squid tentacles.

In salted boiled water, cook the pasta until al dente.

When pasta is cooked al dente, drain and toss the pasta into the sauce. Slightly stir fry until the pasta starts to soak up the sauce, and turn off heat. Serve immediately, while hot.

Enjoy!!!

tiny white sardine and egg fried rice

Back at home, I love Shirasu, which are baby white sardines. I was able to find a small frozen packet at a Japanese grocery store and made egg fried rice with them. Be sure to use overnight rice to make good fried rice, for each grain to be hardened and seperated.

Ingredients:

overnight rice

Shirasu

chopped garlic

soy sauce

sugar

green onions

2 eggs, beaten

sesame oil

In a frying pan, use sesame oil to cook chopped garlic and shirasu. Stir fry with soy suace and sugar until the white fish has turned to a brown color. Scoop up and put in a bowl.

Return to the frying pan, pour 1 tablespoon of oil and add the rice, breaking it into pieces with a spatula. Add the stir-fried Shirasu back into the rice mixture. and then add the two eggs, stirring constantly, to make egg fried rice. When the egg pieces are cooked, turn off heat and stir in chopped spring onions. Serve warm!

Pasta with love

Pasta Panna e salmone ( Smoked Salmon Cream Pasta)

Chef Panico made his famous smoked salmon cream pasta this weekend. For me, it's a very romantic dish, because it reminds me of the first couple of times he cooked for me.

The first time Michele made this was when we just started to date each other. We were hanging out at his apartment at Sherman Ave, Evanston. I remember it was a late night and we were hungry so he whipped out his culinary skills and cooked a late night pasta. And boy, do I mean "whipped"...it was the first time I watched someone fervently stir flour into cream to create a thick sauce! Lots of love and attention is put into making a really creamy sauce!


Usually you can pair smoked salmon cream pasta with farfalle ( bow tie pasta), or with penne, because short pasta sticks better with creamy sauce. This time we used Casareccia, which is a twisted/ wrapped short noodle. It's sort of like a short ribbon with gaps, which is great because the cream gets stuck in between the noodle.

Ingredients:

one pint of half & half cream

flour ( 3/4 cup)

smoked salmon ( one pack) , cut into small pieces

chives ( one bunch, sliced into small pieces)

Casareccia pasta, or bow tie/ penne

salt & pepper

non-salted butter ( 2 tablespoons)

Preparation:

In a large boiling pot of water, add salt and cook the pasta.

In a small pot, pour in cream and put on medium heat. When the pot becomes hot ( before it reaches a boiling point), stir in 1 tablespoon of flour, and keep stirring until it dissolves. Once it dissolves, stir in another tablespoon of flour. Keep stirring in the spoons of flour, one by one, to avoid chunks of flour that may cake up. This may take time and you really have to tend to the cream. Add salt & pepper to cream for seasoning. When all of the flour is added into the half & half, it gradually becomes a think cream.

At the same time, put butter in a skillet and then add the chopped smoked salmon. Stir fry a bit and then add the cream mixture, and adding more salt & pepper to taste. Stir in chives, and then add the drained pasta into the smoked salmon cream mixture. Fold gently inside the skillet.

Enjoy! It's very comforting and filling and full of love...

Asian Lettuce Cups

Prawn filled lettuce cups

Lettuce cups are a fun dish because it requires you to interact and assemble the filling into the lettuce, and eating with your hands make food taste better!

ingredients for filling:

1/3 pound ground turkey

1/2 pound prawns, peeled and cut into bite sized pieces

2 spring onions ( chopped finely)

3 garlic gloves ( chopped finely)

a bunch of chives

Lima beans 3 tablespoon

2 stalks of chopped celery

half of a red pepper, chopped

Hoisin sauce, 2 tablespoons

chili sauce, 1 tablespoon

sesame oil

Preparation:

In a skillet, heat up sesame oil and cook garlic and spring onions. Add ground turkey, stirring and breaking down the ground turkey to make sure it's not sticking together in lumps. Add in celery, red peppers, and Lima beans. Stir fry 5 minutes for 5 minutes. Then add prawns and chives, frying for only 2 - 3 minutes, and then stir in the Hoisin sauce and chili sauce. Turn off heat and remove the skillet from the stove.

Wash lettuce leaves and break carefully, and dry well.

Scoop filling into lettuce cup and serve!

Leek & Tomato Cod with fresh herbs

Leek and Tomato Cod with fresh herbs...

....served with wild rice and baby romaine greens

We saw these beautiful cod fillets at Whole Foods the other day and thought it would be a perfect, light weekday dinner dish.

Ingredients:
2 tsp olive oil
1/2 pound leeks, white and light green parts only, cleaned and sliced
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
mushrooms, sliced
2 small tomatoes
1 pound of cod fillet, cut into two pieces

white wine, 1 1/2 cup

fresh rosemary, chopped

half lemon juice

salt and pepper

Preparation:
In a large skillet sauté leeks, garlic and mushrooms in olive oil until softened.

sprinkle salt and pepper on the cod for seasoning, on both sides.

Add tomatoes and simmer for 7 minutes. Place cod fillets in skillet on top of vegetables, Pour in white wine and let it simmer for 10 minutes. Flip the cod to the other side, and cook for another 5- 8 minutes. Add salt and pepper for taste. Squeeze lemon juice and sprinkle fresh rosemary. Turn off heat but let the pot sit, the sauce should become thick.

Serve over wild rice and a bed of baby romaine greens.

Tilapia in mushroom, caper, white wine sauce

This is a healthy, yummy, light and easy dish to make at home...Fish is actually easy to make, especially in the US when you can get fillets clean and deboned at the grocery store. It's hassle-free and also a great alternative when we get tired of red meats and pastas...

Capers and lemon juice adds a tartness to this dish, and white wine really helps add depth to the taste. Together, the mushroom and capers are really flavorful and go great with fish and rice...

Ingredients:

Tilapia fillets

sliced mushrooms

thyme

white wine

capers

fresh lemon juice

salt and pepper

butter ( or for a healthier option, use olive oil)

First, season the Tilapia with salt and pepper

With low heat, put butter in pan and heat up until you see tiny bubbles. Remember to use low heat to avoid burning the butter. Add in sliced mushrooms, add the thyme, and stir-fry until the mushrooms are cooked thoroughly.

Lay the fish fillets in the pan, and top it with white wine, and then add in the capers.

Flip the fish fillet when one side is seared with a nice light brown crust. Continue to pan-fry the fillet until the fish is completely cooked through. When the fish is almost cooked, and you'd like a crust on the outside, you may turn the heat up in the last couple of minutes. Add salt and pepper for taste. ( With fish, you really want to avoid flipping often to keep the fillet in shape).

When the fish is cooked, turn off the heat and squeeze lemon juice on top

Hope you get to try this recipe!