Fell off the Horse

To my 4 loyal readers, I'm sorry for my lack of posting these past several months. I wanted to write, but was just too lazy or didn't have my camera handy to shoot the food. I've also been in a poor cooking rotation. Nothing too excited has come out, and I promise the few adventurous things I did try, were not fit for human consumption. I will say this, I plan on jumping back in with both feet this week. Well, not tonight. Got Yankee tix tonight. But soon, I plan to conquer kholrabi, overcome okra, dominate duck, and cook the hell out of a live lobster!
Stay tuned, I will get back out there.

My Hiatus is Over and I Bring You The Spicy Sauced Salmon!!!

I can't believe that I haven't cooked creatively for a month!! I mean, I've cooked and some things have made mouths happy (though no skittles have been used in my gastronomic adventures), but nothing blog-worthy. There was a week on vacation in sunny Palm Springs, California where we had many wonderful meals and lots of drinking. Vineyards are fun and we drank a lot.  I can recommend if anyone is planning a trip to Temecula. It wasn't Napa, but it was damn good. Plus I had a first in my life. I went to an olive oil tasting. It was like doing shots, but no booze. And none of that infused stuff, it was real cold pressed olive oil. Brought some home, can't wait to use it.
Ok, so back to our recent culinary exploit, I found a great cut of salmon and found a sauce recipe from Ellie Krieger on FoodNetwork that I appropriated and altered a bit due to a lack of ingredients in the house. I have always wanted to learn to make my own pasta sauce and I plan on doing it, hopefully sometime soon, but this recipe was a shortcut with a great result.  It's got a nice kick for those who enjoy some heat.

Spicy Sauced Salmon
(borrowed from Ellie Krieger)

• 1 tablespoon olive oil


• 4 cloves garlic, minced

• 1 (14-ounce) can diced tomatoes, juice included

• 1 (12-ounce) can tomato sauce

• ½ tablespoon of red pepper paste

• 2 dried whole red chile peppers

• 1 teaspoon ground cumin

• 1/2 teaspoon celery salt

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

• Salmon fillets

• 1/4 cup chopped cilantro leaves (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Rub olive oil into salmon fillet and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast for 25 minutes (This is the easy part)

Heat oil in a large saute pan over medium-low heat. Add garlic and cook until soft and golden, about 1 minute.

Add diced tomatoes with juice, tomato sauce, red pepper paste, chili peppers, cumin, celery salt and 1/4 teaspoon each salt and pepper. Bring to a boil.

Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for 10 minutes until sauce thickens slightly. Remove from heat, and remove chile peppers.

Serve and enjoy.

I made it with a basic steamed string beans, which I then sauteed quickly with diced garlic.

The aroma of garlic fills the air

My wife is a huge mashed potatoes fan. I mean big time. I've tried to make many variations for her. Some successful, some not so much. I've learned that while my broccoli & cheddar mashed rules, my lobster mashed failed miserably. Once, I found a list of 50 top mashed potatoes. It took one basic mashed recipe and had a whole bunch of add-ons/variations to make the spuds turn to studs. Now there are 51.
Today I got motivated to create my own variation. Lately, fresh garlic has found its way into most of my recipes. Don't know why, but  it has. This particular recipe was actually inspired by my mom.  She's a great cook and someone who showed me the joy of roasted vegetables. She also makes great roasted garlic. Just make sure you're using real fresh garlic.

Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes
-6 or 7 large Yukon Gold potatoes. (Don't use Idaho)
-1 cup milk
-1/2 stick of butter
-salt
-pepper
-2 cloves of fresh garlic
-handful of chives
-olive oil

Put a pot of water up to boil. Wash and peel potatoes.

Once the water boils, submerge potatoes for about 30-35 minutes until you can easily stick a fork in them.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Take 2 cloves of garlic and cut off the top so each head has the top removed.

Drizzle olive oil onto garlic cloves, then wrap each in tin foil and roast in the oven for about 30-40 minutes.

Drain potatoes

Put potatoes back in pot and mash half way. Add butter and milk.

Take out garlic from oven and once it's slightly cooled, squeeze garlic out of its skin.

Mix garlic into mashed potatoes, making sure you don't leave big chunks.

Chop your chives and add them to your finished product and salt and pepper to taste.