Pip's Plate

Here is an update to an older post I made at least 2 years ago regarding the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s most recent sustainable seafood guide.

On their website, you can find the most recent sustainable information on all kinds of fish and seafood. It’ll tell you about how the fish and seafood is farmed, if it’s overfished, if it’s a good fish choice, etc. They also have a section on sushi.

Or you can download their pocket guide to take with you to the grocery store and have it on reference at all times – works great for deciphering restaurant menus when you go out to eat.

Get the Monterey Bay Aquarium Fish and Seafood Pocket Guides based on region at their site

Get the Monterey Bay Aquarium Sushi Pocket Guide at their site

I went to my first LAN party a couple weekends ago at a coworker’s house. (Before you skip on to the next post, YES, there is a recipe included here.) It was SO MUCH FUN. Aside from the fact that a group of us play shoot-em-up video games over the lunch hour every day at work, it’s so much more fun to spend at least 8 hours playing on a Saturday. Yes, I officially reached geek status with this event. And I’m OK with that.

I said I’d bring something over and decided to make spring rolls (which were mediocre so I’m not even going to include the recipe here) and the recipe I’m about to talk about.

These were quite good, and you can make them gluten free if you want. Just use a gluten free flour. These were great because they were easy to eat in your hand but not greasy. These would be great as a brunch item too.

The recipe calls for a regular size muffin tin. If I were to make these again, I would make them in a mini muffin pan so there were more. In this case, I would cut the zucchini smaller instead of sliced, but keep a few sliced ones for the garnish.

Little Zucchini and Basil Fritattas

Total Time: 35 min

Active Time: 15 min

Makes: 12

Ingredients

2 T dry breadcrumbs*

2 T olive oil

2-3 cloves garlic, thickly sliced

2-3 zucchini, sliced into 4mm-thick rounds

8 eggs

8 basil leaves, sliced

3/4 cup grated parmesan

100 g feta (preferrably marinated)

1/2 cup self-rising flour**

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Butter a 12 hole nonstick muffin pan. Dust each hole with crumbs then tap out the excess.

Place the olive oil in a large skillet. Gently head the oil over medium-low heat for 1-2 minutes until the garlic starts to sizzle. Remove garlic and discard.

Increase heat to medium-high. Fry zucchini on both sides until golden. Drain on absorbent paper.

In a large bowl, lightly whisk eggs with a fork with the basil, salt and freshly ground pepper (enough to cover the surface of the mixture) until just combined. Stir in the Parmesan and flour until combined.

Divide the fried zucchini and feta throughout the muffin tin. Place 12 pieces of zucchini aside as a garnish.

Pour the egg mixture into each muffin hole (about 1/4 cup) and top with a slice of zucchini.

Gently tap the sides of the muffin tray to ensure the mixture has spread throughout the muffin hole.

Bake for 20-25 minutes – until the the fritattas feel firm when gently pressed and spring back.

Remove from oven and allow them to settle in the pan for about 10 minutes before gently easing them out.

based off of this chow.com recipe

*I typically bake in stoneware, so I don’t need to grease anything. I skipped the breadcrumb step altogether. If you don’t have stoneware, I use rice breadcrumbs as a GF alternative.

**Use gluten free flour here instead if you wish to make these GF.

Light and creamy usually don’t go together. But! If you substitute sour cream for heavy cream, then you still end up with a creamy consistency and cut off a lot of the fat.

This is another recipe that I whipped up from stuff I had on hand at home when I didn’t feel like going to the grocery store.

This recipe is vegetarian, but you could easily add shrimp or chicken to it if you like. Just add protein after the garlic and onion, cook for a few minutes till brown, then add the tomatoes and stew for about 5 minutes, then add the remaining ingredients and follow the instructions.

Light Creamy Pasta

serves 4

time under 20 minutes

8 oz egg noodles

1 T olive oil

2 garlic cloves, minced

1/2 small onion, sliced

14.5 oz canned whole tomatoes, crushed by hand

1/4 cup sour cream (any variety – soy, light, fat free, etc)

6 oz artichoke hearts, quartered, not marinated or packed on oil

1 T fresh chopped thyme

salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

1. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Cook egg noodles for about 3 minutes (they should be al dente). Reserve the pasta water when draining.

2. Heat 1 T olive oil over medium heat in large skillet. Add garlic and onion – saute for 1 -2 minutes or until soft.

3. Crush tomatoes in a bowl by hand just to break them up so you don’t have huge chunks of tomatoes. Add to the pan with the sour cream. Mix well to distribute the sour cream.

4. Add artichokes and pasta. Continue to cook until everything is heated through and the pasta is cooked – about another 3-4 minutes. Add additional pasta water if you need more liquid.

5. Sprinkle with fresh thyme and add salt and pepper to taste.

In the most recent issue of Bon Appetit magazine (Feb 2009), they have a really great article on 50 Easy Ways to Eat Green.

What I discovered is Text Fishphone – it’s utterly brilliant! It’s the easiest way to find out what fish at your local grocery store is good for you (mercury levels, farming methods) and good for the environment (sustainable, farming methods). And it’s so simple: text 30644 and enter FISH, followed by the name of the fish you want to buy. It’ll return a text telling you if it’s a good one or not.

I’m on a budget. There, I said it. I have been for some time now, but now I’m actually paying attention to it. And it starts with food and cooking. I have so much stuff in my cupboards and refrigerator that I really should cook up things I already have instead of rushing out to the store to buy a whole bag of groceries for one dish that I’m dieing to make.

So last night I was rifling through some CSA veggies and trying to figure out what to do with a lot of stuff I have on hand. The list was fairly random: potatoes, winter squash, parsnips, dried cherries, beets, carrots, garlic, and on and on.

What I found out was I don’t have to sacrifice flavor or quality when making a dinner from what I have on hand. I did end up making a trip to the grocery store but only to pick up 3 items: chicken, onions (which were on sale yay!), and canned tomatoes.

This recipe is fairly easy and dinner can be on the table in under 60 minutes – and it’s all in one pot so clean up is super easy. You can vary the spices if you want, and I might even try adding a little vanilla bean next time since I have some in my pantry, but we’ll see since I rarely make the same dish twice.

I also thought this would only make 2 servings, but it made quite a bit more than I expected and easily serves 4. Round it out with a green salad for a complete meal, but to be honest there’s enough veggies in here that you’ll get plenty of vitamins.

The best thing about this is that you can vary this depending upon what kind of veggies you have around – root veggies would work the best since they can stew for awhile. And the chicken stays nice and tender. Oh, and it’s very healthy! It’s only 3 Weight Watchers points per serving.

One Pot Moroccan Chicken

Serves 4

Time: under 60 minutes

1 T olive oil

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 small onion, cut in half then sliced

1/2 pound organic skinless boneless chicken breast, cut into strips

1 t chopped fresh thyme

1 t ground cumin

1/4 t salt

1/4 t pepper

1 large potato, peeled and diced (about 1 cup)- I used purple Peruvian potatoes and the color was just amazing

1 small (bordering on teeny) winter squash, peeled, seeded and diced (about 1 cup) – I used Delicata and left the skin on

1/4 cup dried cherries

14.5 oz canned diced tomatoes

1 cup chicken broth

2 cardamom pods

2 whole cloves

salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

1. Heat 1 T oil over medium heat in large deep skillet. TIP: if you use stainless cookware, remember “hot pan, cold oil” to keep food from sticking to the pan – heat your pan and when you’re ready to start cooking, add the oil then immediately add the food. It works really well.

2. Combine 1 t fresh thyme, 1 t cumin, 1/2 t salt and 1/2 t pepper. Coat the chicken with this mixture.

3. Add 2 cloves minced garlic and 1 small sliced onion to the oil in the pan. Saute for 1 – 2 minutes or until starting to soften. Move the onion and garlic mixture to the side of the pan and add the chicken to brown it, turning once and cooking about 2 minutes on each side.

4. Add the squash, cherries, potatoes, tomatoes, broth, cardamom and cloves to the pot, combine. Bring to a boil then cover and reduce the heat and simmer for 30 minutes or until veggies are tender and chicken is cooked through.

Serve with rice. A new thing I tried for cooking rice and really like was instead of using water, I made African Rooibus tea and cooked my basmati rice in that. It added a lot of flavor and was quite delicious. Just heat 2 cups of water, add 2 teabags and let steep for 3-5 minutes. Then add 1 cup basmati rice and cook like normal.

If you’re looking for the place in Santa Fe, NM, where locals go for lunch, this is it. Waaaay good green chile sauce! This place is totally a local hangout. It’s fairly small and diner-ish but it’s friendly and beyond everything else delicious.

Did you know there is a difference between New Mexican and Mexican food? I’m told that New Mexican cuisine is a blend of Mexican, Southwestern, and Spanish. Can’t beat that!

At Red Enchilada, I had the combo plate with a beef taco, cheese enchilada, pork tamale, and beans and rice. All topped with an incredibly good and a bit lip-smackin spicy green chile sauce. Everything was just tasty as all heck.

Top it off with a nice refreshing guava juice and you’re all set for lunch!

Oh, and I can’t fail to mention to fresh, delicate donut-like sopapillas. Pour a little honey on and you’re on your way to sweet heaven.

Red Enchilada

1310 Osage Avenue

Santa Fe, NM

505-820-6552