Archives for Restaurant Challenge category
As you already know, I like re-creating meals with some twists from restaurants or eatery places that I have visited. It is fun to brain storm what is in the sauce or soup.
One of the restaurants I like to go to is Olive garden.
In their soup menu, I like ” Zuppa Toscana” and “Chicken and Gnocchi soup”.
One night, I decided to recreate this soup at home and making gnocchi from scratch.
The gnocchi came out pillow soft and I am happy with the result.
Since we have a little son who likes tender food, and I worried if I made it too hard, it might choke him with less teeth in his back molar area.Therefore, my gnocchi in this recipe is touch softer than I myself would prefer but it was all good.
If you prefer harder gnocchi than mine, you can add in more flour to your preferred softness in the dough.
Chicken and Gnocchi soup ….
<Gnocchi>
Ingredients for Gnocchi:
2 yukon gold potato
1 Egg
1/2tsp kosher salt
1/8tsp ground black pepper
1/4C freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1 1/3C all purpose flour
pinch of ground nutmeg
<Chicken and Gnocchi soup>
Ingredients for Chicken and Gnocchi soup;
Boneless skinless chicken thigh 8 oz
kosher salt
ground black pepper
parsley handful
2 carrot shredded and chopped roughly (chopping is optional)
handful fresh spinach chopped fine (or you can chop rough)
1/2 sweet onion chopped
1 celery chopped fine (or thinly sliced)
1 clove garlic chopped
2 tbs butter
5tbs flour
1.5C chicken broth plus some for steam baking
2C milk
1C heavy cream
dash of dried thyme
< Gnocchi>
1.Wash Yukon gold potato and wrap them with plastic wrap and microwave about 7-8 minutes til tender (or, you can boil the potato to tender)
2.peel off the potato skin and mash them (if you have ricer, use it to make softer gnocchi) and cool down
3.In a small bowl, add in lightly beaten egg,salt,pepper and nutmeg and stir
4. In the potato bowl, add in egg mixture above and mix
5.To the counter, put the potato egg mixture and knead with hands and little by little, add in cheese, and flour to smooth sticky dough
**Do not knead too much or you get heavier gnocchi
6.Dust the surface and take some dough off from the dough ball and start forming the log by rolling the dough under both of your hands back and forth
7.Cut off the log into 1/2″ or so pieces or the size you like the gnocchi to be, and set them aside on the flour dusted plate
8. Cut off plastic wrap and place it over small baking sheet and place extra gnocchi you made and cover them with another sheet of plastic wrap and place the baking sheet in the freezer so you can freeze the gnocchi for the next time.
When gnocchi gets frozen put them in the freezer bag and keep them in the freezer.
For this recipe, you would need about 8-9 oz only
<Chicken and Gnocchi soup>
I start off preheating the oven at about 425F
1. To small baking sheet, line the non stick foil and place 2-3 boneless skinless chicken thigh (about 8 oz) and sprinkle kosher salt and pepper all over and let them sit for 15 minutes.
2. Then, add in a little bit of chicken broth (less than half the height of thigh) enough to steam baking the chicken thigh and, bake them in the oven for 12 minutes and flip over and continue baking them for another 12 minutes until internal temperature reaches 165F
3. When chicken is done, set it aside and cool it down
4. To the sauce pan, add 2tbs butter and let it melt, and add 1 clove of garlic chopped, and when you can smell the garlic, add in 2 carrots shredded and chopped (for our son,I chopped to shorten the shredded carrot length but you can simply use the shredded carrot ), 1/2 sweet onion chopped fine, 1 celery chopped fine, and sprinkle dash of dried thyme and stir and cook a bit til vegetables are tender
5. Add 5 tbs flour and stir and cook a bit and add in 1.5C chicken broth, and stir and add in 1C milk and let it simmer
6. Chop up the cooled chicken thigh to bite size pieces and add to the soup and stir
7.When soup is close to finish, add in about 9 oz of gnocchi and cook until gnocchi float to the top and add 1C heavy cream, chopped fresh spinach about handful
8. Cook about a couple of minutes more
9. Season the soup with salt and pepper to your taste, and add in handful of parsley chopped very fine and serve
Enjoy!
Jun 06, 2016 | | Restaurant Challenge
If you have been reading food/cooking entries from the past, you would notice that I love to cook/bake.
I cannot bake bread everyday but, I do love bread baking a lot.
For me, bread baking is like comforting in many ways from kneading the dough, aroma while bread is being proofed or being baked,sound of crust when you slice into the bread..
There is something about the bread baking that makes the whole experience special.
When I started baking bread,I got myself a book for bread baking,and I tried one type of recipe for French bread (Baguette) over and over until I get satisfied result from making one. I made so many French bread to learn the basic technique,and get to know more about bread baking in general.
I find that making artisan bread has depth in learning and more technique,and I have got a lot more to learn about it.
One of the restaurant we like to go to is called “Texas Roadhouse” and I love their salmon dish a lot. Our son Liam loves salmon dish too and my husband loves prime ribs there.
That being said, no matter what dish we decided to get, one thing that we always can enjoy and love them is their roll with cinnamon butter.
It is uniquely tad sweeter than Hawaiian roll, but not too sticky sweet and it has soft texture. The cinnamon butter that comes with the rolls is die for.
Our son Liam enjoys their rolls a lot too.
Just recently, I had fun trying to recreate their famous roll AND cinnamon butter.
The review from my husband was good one. He said roll was good and I nailed it for the cinnamon butter:-)
Liam reached out for the roll first and ate them all without play with roll time and it was a hit for him.
Personally, I feel their rolls are a bit more sweeter than mine but if you make slit in the middle of the roll and place cinnamon butter and eat it,it tastes same so, I am happy with how it came out.
In this entry, I would like to share the recipe with you so you too can enjoy baking their roll ad make their butter at home.I hope you like them.
Texas roadhouse dinner roll with cinnamon butter, Yassy’s version…
<Texas roadhouse dinner roll>
Ingredients for roll
1C milk
2.5tbs butter
3 tbs honey
2 tsp brown sugar
1 whole egg lightly beaten
2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast
1/2 tsp salt
1 3/4 C unbleached all purpose flour
1 C plus 1 tsp unbleached bread flour
0. Preheat the oven at 200F and when it reached to 200F,turn the oven off
1. In the sauce pan, pour 1C milk and let it come to luke warm (110F-115F)
2. Remove the sauce pan from the heat and mix in the 2.5 tbs butter, 3 tbs honey 2 tsp brown sugar and stir until melted
3. Pour the milk mixture into a large bowl
4. Add lightly beaten 1 whole egg and 2 1/4 tsp dry yeast ,1 3/4C unbleached all purpose flour,1/2tsp salt, and mix
** If you use jar of dry yeast, make sure the yeast is at room temperature. Cold yeast would not make your dough rise properly.
** Milk temperature to rise the dough (proof the dough) should be at 110F-115F. Lower temperature milk would not proof the dough properly, and higher temperature Milk would kill the yeast and would not proof the dough
properly.
5. Add 1 C unbleached bread flour and mix well
6. When dough came together,sprinkle some flour on the counter and transfer the dough to the counter to begin kneading the dough until the dough is smooth,elastic dough about 6-8 minutes
** Using silpat mat is easy to work with
7.You can test your dough to see if you knead it more. Do the Windowpane test.
What is windowpane test??
Windowpane test is the test the gluten development in the dough.
What you do is to cut off small piece of dough,and gently stretch out/pulling to see if it will hold a paper-thin membrane.If it tore apart,you would knead a bit more and do the test again.
8. When dough becomes supple,smooth,elastic dough, drizzle Extra Virgin Olive Oil onto empty bowl and smear it around side and inside bottom to make easy for you to take the dough out later
9. Place the dough into the bowl,drizzle Extra Virgin Olive Oil over the dough and smear the olive oil all around the dough
10. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and place the dough in the oven,set the timer for 75 minutes
11. 75 minutes later, dough will be double in volume
12. Once the dough gets nearly double in volume, punch it down the dough , and take the dough out from the bowl onto the silpat mat/slightly floured surface
13. Divide the dough into 2 pieces and letter fold each piece and cover with plastic wrap and let it rest for 10 minutes
14. Take one piece and roll it out to rectangular shape with 1/2″ thickness and cut one piece into 8 squares,totaling 16 squares
15. Place them onto non stick foil lined pan sheet spacing about 1.5″-2″ between the squares
16. Cover the pan with plastic wrap loosely over the roll,and put it back into oven for another 40 minutes until dough gets nearly double in volume
14. Prepare for baking
15. Preheat the oven at 375F, and bake the roll for 10-15 minutes until top becomes light golden
16. Brush the top with melted cinnamon butter (recipe follows)
** This recipe can yield about 16 rolls
** You can also shape the dough into burger bun or hot dog buns
** Warm up the roll before eating next day:I like to wrap the roll with paper towel loosely and microwave 12-15 seconds
** My husband likes to make slit from side like a pocket and smear the cinnamon butter in it and eat it.It tastes good!
Enjoy!
<Texas roadhouse cinnamon butter>
Ingredients for cinnamon butter
4 tbs butter
3 tbs honey
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1. Put all ingredients in the food processor and mix to smooth
2. Put it on the plastic wrap and shape it like log and twists the both ends like candy and store them in the fridge to harden
3. You can slice the log as much as you want before warming up the roll to eat
Enjoy!
Apr 04, 2016 | | Restaurant Challenge
As you already know, I like re-creating meals from restaurants or eatery places that I have visited and loved. It is fun to brain storming what is in the dishes I like.
One of the restaurants I like to go to is Firebirds Wood Fired Grill.
When it comes to steak battle, Firebirds Wood Fired Grill wins over Bonefish Grill hands down, and for seafood/fish dishes and sauce creativity, Bonefish Grill is better.However, both great restaurants to check out if you have never visited them.
Anyway, almost all restaurant except Asian restaurants, serve the bread to start with. For example, Bonefish Grill serves crusty artisan bread with basil pest dipping sauce, Outback steakhouse serves the bread with whipped butter, Olive Garden serve the garlic bread, Firebirds woodfired grill serves semolina bread with whipped butter.
Me and my husband loves Firebirds’ bread.Therefore, I thought I would make one for us too,to try. Maybe their bread is a touch softer inside,which makes me wonder if they use milk instead of water or combine all purpose flour or bread flour and semolina flour, but mine was tasty enough.
I would like to share the recipe with you.
Semolina bread..
I do love bread baking.
For me, bread baking is like comforting in many ways from kneading the dough, aroma while bread is being proofed or being baked,sound of crust when you slice into the bread.. There is something about bread baking that makes the whole experience special.
When I started baking bread,I got myself a book for bread baking,and I tried one type of recipe for French bread (Baguette) over and over until I get satisfied result from making one. I made so many French bread to learn the basic technique,and get to know more about bread baking in general.
I find that making artisan bread has depth in learning and more technique,and I have got a lot more to learn about it.
Ingredients for semolina bread:
1.5 tsp dry yeast
5/6C water
2 tsp sugar
2C Semolina flour
2 tsp active dry yeast
1 tbs Extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp salt
0. Preheat the oven at 200F and when it reached to 200F,turn the oven off
1. In the small bowl, add 5/6C lukewarm water (temperature should be around 110F-115F), and add 1.5 tsp dry yeast and 2 tsp sugar and mix well and let it stand for about 10 minutes until it gets fluffy on top
2. In big bowl, add 2C semolina flour,1 tsp salt and mix well
3. Pour yeast-water-sugar mixture into the flour mixture,along with 1 tbs extra virgin olive oil and mix well
** If you use jar of dry yeast, make sure the yeast is at room temperature. Cold yeast would not make your dough rise properly.
** water temperature to rise the dough (proof the dough) should be at 110F-115F. Lower temperature water would not proof the dough properly, and higher temperature water would kill the yeast and would not proof the dough properly.
4. When dough came together,sprinkle some flour on the counter and transfer the dough to the counter to begin kneading the dough until the dough is smooth,elastic dough about 6-8 minutes
** Using silpat mat is easy to work with
5.You can test your dough to see if you knead it more. Do the Windowpane test.
What is windowpane test??
Windowpane test is the test the gluten development in the dough.
What you do is to cut off small piece of dough,and gently stretch out/pulling to see if it will hold a paper-thin membrane.If it tore apart,you would knead a bit more and do the test again.
6. When dough becomes supple,smooth,elastic dough, drizzle Extra Virgin Olive Oil (not the amount in the recipe above,this is extra) onto empty bowl and smear it around side and inside bottom to make easy for you to take the dough out later
7. Place the dough into the bowl,drizzle Extra Virgin Olive Oil (not the amount in the recipe above,this is extra) over the dough and smear the olive oil all around the dough
8. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and place the dough in the oven,set the timer for 90 minutes
9. 90 minutes later, dough will be larger size in volume
10. Once the dough gets nearly double in volume, punch the dough,and ,take the dough out from the bowl onto the silpat mat/slightly floured surface
11. Divide the dough into 2, and form the dough into disc/round shape.Then, sprinkle cornmeal on the nonstick foil lined baking sheet,and place the dough on them
12. Cover the baking sheet with plastic wrap loosely over the dough,and put it back into oven for another 30-45 minutes until dough gets nearly double in volume
13. Before baking, gently press the center of the bread with rolling pin, or slice the top a bit about 1/2″ or so with knife and spray (mist) the bread dough with water using spritz bottle, and sprinkle dash of corn meal on top
14. Preheat the oven at 450F
15. Bake them for about 8 minutes,and rotate the sheet pan to continue baking for another 9 minutes.Then,continue baking until bread sounds hollow when tapped.
** Bread temperature should be at 205F in the center
(Put the meat thermometer on back of the bread and read the temperature)
** This recipe can yield about 2 semolina bread
** You can also shape the dough into other shape too
Enjoy!
Mar 03, 2015 | | Restaurant Challenge
As you already know, I like re-creating meals from restaurants or eatery places that I have visited and loved. It is fun to brain storming what is in the dishes I like.
One of the restaurants I like to go to is Bonefish Grill.
This restaurant would have been one of the first restaurants I was taken to when I came to the states.
If you ask me what they do best, I think they probably do great on sauce that goes with dish they serve, along with seafood dishes.
If you like to taste best salmon dish from restaurant, I think Bonefish Grill comes top on the list and, 2nd would be Firebirds Wood Fired Grill.
When it comes to steak battle, Firebirds Wood Fired Grill wins over Bonefish Grill hands down, but both great restaurants to check out if you have never visited them.
Anyway, the Bonefish Grill has interesting side dish on the menu called “Herbed Couscous”. The couscous they use in the dish is pearl Couscous or also known as Israeli couscous. I have eaten regular itty bitty couscous that can cook up in a couple of minutes but I prefer the texture of the Pearl Couscous better.
The dish got Pearl Couscous,lemon, olive oil,basil etc.. and, when my husband ordered it, I got to taste test some of their couscous dish and I thought it was tasty.
Then,recently, I have tried recreating the Herb couscous that I tasted at the restaurant. In fact, since I liked it a lot, I have made it more than twice already:-) The dish is so simple but full of flavor. My version of the dish has toasted pine nuts while Bonefish one doesn’t,and the restaurant’s dish has more basil flavor but mine taste more lemon with hint of basil.
I like the texture the toasted pine nuts can give to the dish and I Prefer the dish with more citrus flavor,rather than strong basil taste as if basil pesto is mixed in the couscous.
It came out great and my husband ate it all.Nothing left on his plate:-) He loved it.
Therefore,I thought I would share the recipe with you.
Herbed couscous “Yassy’s version”;Herbed couscous with toasted pine nuts..
Ingredients for Herbed Couscous Yassy’s version:
1 clove garlic chopped
1 shallots chopped
1C Pearl Couscous
2 tbs pine nuts
1 1/4C Chicken Broth
2 tbs chopped fresh basil leaves
1 tbs fresh lemon juice
1/4tsp kosher salt
Extra virgin olive oil
<Herbed Couscous Yassy’s version>
1. Drizzle Extra virgin olive oil in the sauce pan,and add chopped 1 clove of garlic,chopped 1 shallots and stir
2. Add 1 C Pearl couscous,2 tbs pine nuts and stir to toast a bit
3. Add 1 1/4C chicken broth and bring it to boil,and stir and put the lid on. Then, lower the heat to medium low and cook for 10 minutes.
4. Add 2 tbs chopped fresh basil leaves, 3 tsp fresh lemon juice and stir
5. Add 1/4tsp Kosher salt, and stir
6. Taste and adjust the seasoning
Makes; 2-3 servings
Enjoy!
Feb 08, 2015 | | Restaurant Challenge
As you already know, I like re-creating meals from restaurants or eatery places that I have visited. It is fun to brain storming what is in the dishes I like.
One of the restaurants I like to go to is Bonefish Grill. Some of the reasons I go there are for their bang bang shrimp (spicy shrimp tempura in chili flavored sauce), Crab chowder, Bacon wrapped sea scallop, and more.
I like their seafood dishes because they do pretty good with fish dish. Many restaurants has fish dishes on the menu but,they tend to overcook the fish and, I do not care for as much as the fish dishes from this Bonefish restaurants.
In the past, I have attempted to recreate the bacon wrapped scallops with spicy mango salsa (You can see the recipe here), but I could not figure out how they wrap the bacon around the scallops so, I have left it out for the dish.
However,this time around, as second attempt, I think I came to a little closer to what it is served at the restaurant although since I wanted to explore the other kind of great sauce, I have made up the different sauce to go with the dish.
My suspicion as to why their bacon wrapped around the scallops comes out so crispy and scallops stay so tender and juicy is that, I think the key is in the thickness of the bacon (very thin bacon strip) ,and deep frying them.
To make the crispiest bacon you have ever tasted, you should deep frying the bacon strip.It never comes out greasy at all and, very very crunchy. If you make burger next time, try deep frying the bacon and see how it comes out.You will be surprised the bacon is really,really crispy.
In this entry, I would like to share the recipe of Bacon wrapped scallops with garlic sweet chili lime sauce as my second version of their dish. With my version, I will use the marinade that I normally use for shrimp preparation because it makes super tender in its texture and they are tasty.
Bacon wrapped scallops with garlic sweet chili lime sauce..
Ingredients for scallop marinade;
1/4 tsp Kosher salt
1 tbs corn starch
1 tsp sake
1/4tsp Baking soda
3 tbs water
Ingredients for bacon wrapped scallops;
8 scallops (3-4 scallops per person as side dish)
4 strips of bacon (1 bacon strip per 2 scallops)
vegetable oil
Butcher’s twine to tie the scallops
Ingredients for Garlic Sweet chili lime sauce;
extra virgin olive oil
1 clove of garlic grated
3 tbs sweet chili sauce
1 tsp Dijon mustard
fresh lime juice from 1/2 lime (about 1.5 tbs)
1/2 tsp chopped cilantro
<How to make tender scallops>
1. In the small container, mix 1/4 tsp Kosher salt, 1 tbs corn starch, 1 tsp sake, 1/4tsp Baking soda,3 tbs water well.
2. Add cleaned scallops (trim off the scallop ducts;the rectangle muscle that is attached to its side) and stir and put the lid on and keep in the fridge for 4-6 hours
3. Rinse the scallops well under cold running water and pat them dry with paper towel and follow the recipe.
<Cooking tips for scallops>
** When you cook scallop, pick the sea scallops, not bay scallop.
** When you purchase scallops on the fish counter, you may sometimes see rose pink colored scallops and pale white scallops. Do you know the difference between the two?
It is the difference between if the scallops are treated with STP (sodium triphostate), sulfite or not.
STP or Sulfite is sodium preservatives to keep the moisture in the seafood products such as scallops, shrimps and makes the shelf life longer.
Often times, STP treated scallops are pale white and if you test with microwave; place a scallop on the paper towel and microwave it for 15 seconds and you will see a lot of water will be coming out from the scallops.
Rose pink scallop is not treated with STP and it would not give out as much water as STP treated scallops if you do the microwave test.
This is something I learned from America’s Test kitchen TV shows. I think this is good thing to keep in mind.
Therefore, I personally prefer to have food preservative free so, I pick the rosey pink scallops over pale white scallops.
** When you cook scallop, a few things to consider.
1. Make sure scallop is fully thawed, marinaded in the recipe above and be at the room temperature. This same rule applies to cook steaks too.
2. Make sure scallop is not wet.
When I cook scallop, I usually place a paper towel over the plate and place scallop on top and place another piece of paper towel to take moisture out from the scallop.
By cooking moisture free scallop, you can cook scallop with nice seared mark on it.If the scallop was wet,you would not get any seared mark.
3.Season the scallops right before you place the scallops on the skillet.
4. Make sure the skillet is hot enough.
<Bacon wrapped scallops>
0. Marinade the scallops (recipe above)
1.Cut one strip of bacon into half per scallop you use. I usually make 3 -4 scallops per serving.
2. Cut the butcher’s twin to about 7″ or so per scallop
3. Pre cook the bacon strips in the skillet to render some fat;to the stage the bacon is still floppy but not cooked through. About 70-80% doneness
4. Take the bacon strips out from the skillet and set them aside on the paper towel to drain the oil
5. Wrap the scallop with bacon and secure it with butcher’s twine
6. In the skillet that are deep enough to shallow frying the scallops, pour the vegetable oil just enough to cover the scallops (about 3/4″-1″ depth of oil )
7. Drop the scallops and cook about 2 minutes and flip and cook about 3-4 minutes in the oil
8. When the scallops are cooked, bacon is fully cooked, take the scallops out from the oil and place them on the paper towel to drain the oil
<Garlic Sweet chili lime sauce >
1. Drizzle extra virgin olive oil in the skillet
2. Add 1 clove of garlic grated, and let it come to fragrant
3. When it got fragrant, add about 3 tbs sweet chili sauce and stir
4. Add 1 tsp Dijon mustard
5. Add fresh lime juice from 1/2 lime (about 1.5 tbs)
6. Add about 1/2 tsp chopped cilantro in the skillet and stir
7. taste the sauce and adjust the flavor
<How to assemble >
1. Pour the sauce in the center of the plate
2. Take off the twine from bacon wrapped scallops and place the bacon wrapped scallops around the sauce
3. drop some of the sauce on top of the each scallop
4. Serve
Makes;2-3 servings
Enjoy!
May 25, 2014 | | Restaurant Challenge
As you already know, I like re-creating meals from restaurants or eatery places that I have visited and loved. It is fun to brain storming what is in the dishes I like.
One of the restaurants I like to go to is Bonefish Grill.
This restaurant would have been one of the first restaurants I was taken to when I came to the states.
If you ask me what they do best, I think they probably do great on sauce that goes with dish they serve, along with seafood dishes.
So far, the best dish I have eaten there would be “Rhea’s Icelandic Arctic char; wood grilled and topped with sauteed spinach,lump crab,and lime tomato garlic sauce”,which is on May special menu.
I think it is a seasonal dish and,I cannot get it all the time but when they have one, it is the dish I would order.
Arctic char is meaty fish with mild taste of.. cross between salmon and trout and, I really like them. Even my husband,who is not a big fan of fish said he could eat it because it was not tasting fishy at all.
I love salmon, and Arctic char dishes served there. Many restaurants have Grilled fish on the menu but, many of them tend to serve over cooked dry fish or under or over seasoned fish.
However, their fish is beautifully cooked without over cooked, and they are juicy and moist with a bit of char on the fish. They really do good on seafood menu.
If you like to taste best salmon dish from restaurant, I think Bonefish Grill comes top on the list and, 2nd would be Firebirds Wood Fired Grill.
When it comes to steak battle, Firebirds Wood Fired Grill wins over Bonefish Grill hands down, but both great restaurants to check out if you have never visited them.
Anyway, the Bonefish Grill has interesting side dish (cold dish) on the menu called “Lemon kissed Quinoa”. It got red quinoa,lemon, olive oil,tomato etc.. and, when my husband ordered it, I got to taste test some of their Quinoa dish and I thought it was tasty.
Also, my husband who does not like raw tomato, raw cucumber could eat it without any problems and loved the dish.Therefore, I thought I would recreating the dish so we can serve at home as well.
Then,recently, I have tried recreating the Quinoa dish from Bonefish Grill restaurant and I think it came out pretty close.
Since I like more lemon taste in mine, mine is has more citrus flavor to it,but it came out great and my husband ate it all.Nothing left on his plate:-) He loved it.
Therefore,I thought I would share the recipe with you.
Lemon kissed Quinoa “Yassy’s version”..
Ingredients for Lemon Kissed Quinoa Yassy’s version:
1/2C Red quinoa
1/2C frozen edamame
1/4C chopped vine tomato (chopped to 1/4″ dice)
1/8C chopped red pepper (chopped to 1/4″ dice)
1/4C chopped cucumber(chopped to 1/4″ dice)
2 tbs fresh lime juice
5 tsp fresh lemon juice
3/8tsp kosher salt
1 tbs chopped cilantro
1/2 tsp Extra virgin olive oil
<Lemon Kissed Quinoa Yassy’s version>
1. Rinse 1/2C red quinoa in fine meshed kitchen sieve
2. Add 1 1/4C water in the sauce pan and let it come to boil
3. Once water is boiled, add red quinoa, pinch of kosher salt, and put the lid on and cook the quinoa at medium low heat for about 10 minutes
4. Lower the heat to simmer and cook about 5 more minutes
5. While quinoa is cooking, prepare another sauce pan with bit of water enough to cover 1/2C frozen edamame
6. Bring the water in the pan with edamame to boil and cook for 3 minutes and drain
7. Once red quinoa is cooked, take it off from the heat, stir and add 1/4C vine tomato chopped to 1/4″ dice, cooked edamame, 1/8C raw red pepper chopped to 1/4″, and put the lid on and let it sit for another 10 minutes
8. While waiting for the 10 minutes is up, cut the cucumber into 1/4″ for 1/4C worth
9. Once 10 minutes is up, add 2 tbs fresh lime juice, 5 tsp fresh lemon juice, 3/8tsp kosher salt 1 tbs chopped cilantro and 1/4C chopped cucumber, 1/2 tsp Extra virgin olive oil and stir
10. Taste and adjust the seasoning
Makes; 4-6 servings
Enjoy!
May 14, 2014 | | Restaurant Challenge
If you ask my husband what kinds of steaks he likes best, answer will be grilled steak. It is either thick cut of juicy medium rare fillet, or thinly sliced flavorful flank steak.
He likes various types of sauce to go with it from garlic cracked black pepper corn sauce (You can find the recipe here), Gorgonzola dolce sauce (Recipe here), citrus teriyaki sauce (recipe here) etc..
We do not order steak anymore at one of our favorite restaurants “Bonefish grill”, but in the past, we have enjoyed Bonefish Grill’s steak with gorgonzola butter on it.
We liked the steak a lot with the gorgonzola butter on top of the steak but, problem was that the butter was cold and not melted all the way when dish was brought to the table, plus it was too much butter on the steak and, I started making the recreated dish of theirs at home.
After that, I tried recreating some of their side dish,and we have Bonefish Grill meal dinner now and then at home
Recreating the restaurant dish is always fun thing to do because guessing the ingredients are fun, and building your own taste is fun too, and when I could make good one with my twist, sometimes, my husband comments “I like yours better”,which puts a huge smile on me.
Unfortunately, since I am expecting, I cannot enjoy the taste of soft cheese like gorgonzola cheese for now, but I used to make herbed gorgonzola butter ,which my husband loved them very much.
I have so far 2 version of herbed gorgonzola butter sauce.
So,I thought, I would share the 2 version of the herbed gorgonzola butter recipes for the steak plus Bonefish grill’s side dishes; “Garbanzo bean with spinach” , “Succotash”, and “herbed Jasmin rice”.
You can have your own “Bonefish grill dinner night” too!
My version of bean dish is much more saucy. I am fine with how they are cooked with the bean dish, but , the other day, when we visited their restaurant to enjoy seafood dish, our server told us that the bean side dish tends to be “iffy” among diners,and she was asking if it is ok with the meal we ordered.
We told her “It is fine”, and my husband added “My wife has a good recipe of the bean dish of yours,and we enjoy hers a lot.”
His comment made me happy, but if I had to guess, diners might be “iffy” with their bean side dish because their bean dish is rather dry.
Anyway, when I went to grocery store, I found out that our grocery store carry Gorgonzola Dolce. It is a Gorgonzola cheese imported from Italy, and Dolce is creamier,milder,and not as tangy as regular Gorgonzola cheese, and easy to melt into the sauce so, I decided to use the Gorgonzola Dolce cheese for one of the herbed gorgonzola butter sauce recipe.
However, regular gorgonzola cheese works just fine.
Herbed Gorgonzola butter with succotash, spicy garbanzo bean, and lemon herb rice..
Ingredients for Lemon Herb rice:
1C Jasmine rice
1 1/4 tbs butter
1/4C Italian flat leaf parsley chopped fine
lemon juice from 1/2 lemon
pinch of Kosher salt
Ingredients for Succotash:
1 tbs butter
1/8 red pepper chopped
1/8 green pepper chopped
1/4 sweet onion chopped
1/4C whole corn kernel
5 oz frozen edamame
Morton’s Natures Seasons
Ingredients for spicy garbanzo bean:
Extra virgin olive oil
1 cloves of garlic grated
1/2 shallots chopped
2 oz hot Italian sausage removed from the casing and broke into small pieces
9 oz drained canned garbanzo beans
Emeril’s Essence
1/4C white wine
2/3C crushed tomato
1 tbs white sugar
fresh basil leaves chopped
Ingredients for Herbed Gorgonzola Dolce butter (version 1):
1/8C pine nuts toasted
1.5 tsp chopped fresh rosemary
1 tsp chopped Italian flat leaf parsley
2 tbs butter
2 oz Gorgonzola Dolce cheese
1/8 tsp garlic powder
1/32 tsp ground black pepper
1/16 tsp kosher salt
Ingredients for Herbed Gorgonzola butter (version 2):
1/2 tsp chopped fresh rosemary
1/2 tsp chopped fresh thyme
1/4 tsp ground sage
4 tbs butter
2 oz Gorgonzola cheese, and 4 tbs toasted pine nuts
Ingredients for grilled steak:
2 tenderloin steaks
Extra virgin olive oil
McCormick Grill mate Steak seasoning
<Lemon Herb rice>
1. To the sauce pan, add 1C Jasmine rice, 1 2/3C water, 1 1/4 tbs butter and stir and let it come to boil on medium heat
2. Once boiled, stir the rice and turn the heat to medium low,cover with lid and cook for 10 minutes, and lower the heat to simmer to cook 10 more minutes
3.Once rice is done, fluff the rice and add 1/4C Italian flat leaf parsley chopped fine, lemon juice from 1/2 lemon, pinch of Kosher salt and stir and adjust the seasoning if needed
Makes; 4 servings
<Succotash>
1. In the skillet, melt 1 tbs butter
2. When melted and bubbly, add 1/8 red pepper chopped, 1/8 green pepper chopped, 1/4 sweet onion chopped, 1/4C whole corn kernel, and 5 oz frozen edamame and season it with Morton’s Natures Seasons and stir
Makes; 2 -3 servings
<Spicy garbanzo bean>
1. In the skillet, drizzle Extra virgin olive oil, and add 1 cloves of garlic grated, 1/2 shallots chopped and wait till it gets fragrant
2. Add hot Italian sausage removed from the casing and broke into small pieces 2 oz wt, and cook to brown
3. Add 9 oz drained canned garbanzo beans to the skillet, and season it with Emeril’s Essence and stir
4. Add 1/4C white wine, 2/3C crushed tomato, 1 tbs white sugar, and let it simmer for about 10 minutes or so
5. Add chopped fresh basil leaves at the very end
6. Taste and adjust the seasoning
Makes; 2 -3 servings
<Herbed Gorgonzola Dolce butter version 1>
1. In the skillet, toast 1/8C pine nuts to fragrant
2. In the food processor, add chopped fresh rosemary spring 1.5 tsp, 1 tsp chopped Italian flat leaf parsley, 2 tbs butter, 2 oz Gorgonzola Dolce cheese, 1/8 tsp garlic powder, 1/32 tsp ground black pepper, 1/16 tsp kosher salt and toasted pine nuts 1/8C and grind them to combine
3. Form it into log and place them on the plastic wrap and wrap them tightly and twist both ends like candy wrapper
4. Slice about 1/4″ Gorgonzola butter disc off from the log, and place it on top of the cooked steak
and broil until it gets melted and bubbly
** I usually wrap the Gorgonzola butter log again like a candy, and put it in the freezer bag
and freeze it.
Next time,you want to use it,all you need to do is to take it out from freezer when you cook the steak, and by the time steak is cooked and everything, Gorgonzola butter will be soft enough to slice.
<Herbed Gorgonzola Dolce butter version 2>
1. In the skillet, toast 4 tbs pine nuts to fragrant
2. In the food processor, add 1/2 tsp chopped fresh rosemary, 1/2 tsp chopped fresh thyme, 1/4 tsp ground sage, 4 tbs butter, 2 oz Gorgonzola cheese, and 4 tbs toasted pine nuts and grind them to combine
3. Form it into log and place them on the plastic wrap and wrap them tightly and twist both ends like candy wrapper
4. Slice about 1/4″ Gorgonzola butter disc off from the log, and place it on top of the cooked steak and broil until it gets melted and bubbly
** I usually wrap the Gorgonzola butter log again like a candy, and put it in the freezer bag and freeze it.
Next time,you want to use it,all you need to do is to take it out from freezer when you cook the steak, and by the time steak is cooked and everything, Gorgonzola butter will be soft enough to slice.
<Grilled steak>
1. 1 hour before the actual cooking time, take the meat out to let it come to the room temperature
2. Pat the steak dry with paper towel and,sprinkle steak seasoning both sides
** Wet/Cold steak would not make nice sear on the steak
3. On the skillet, drizzle extra virgin olive oil,and wait until you see the steam coming off from the skillet
** You would need screaming hot skillet for the nice good sear on the steak
4. Cook 6 minutes, and then flip and cook 5-6 more minutes for 1.5″ thick steak
** Omaha steak website here has cooking time chart based on the thickness of the steak and desired doneness
5. Take temperature of the steak
** For medium rare steak, take the steak out from the skillet when your meat thermometer reads 125F to 130F
** For medium,130F-135F is the temperature to take the steak out from the skillet.
** Temperature of the steak continues to rise while steak is rested about 5F-10F more
6. If the steak temperature was around 120F for medium rare, 125F for medium, place the sliced gorgonzola butter on top of the each steak and broil the steak till cheese gets melted and bubbly and take it off from the skillet
7. Serve
Makes; 2 servings
Enjoy!
Mar 23, 2014 | | Restaurant Challenge
As you already
know, I like re-creating meals from restaurants or eatery places that I
have visited and loved. It is fun to brain storming what is in the dishes I like.
It is also fun to order the same dish at different restaurants to
compare, and find their own personality in the each dish served.
One of the restaurants I like to go to is Bonefish Grill.
This restaurant would have been one of the first restaurants I was taken to when I came to the states.
If you ask me what they do best, I think they do great on
sauce that goes with dish they serve, along with seafood dishes.
They seem to adore Southeast Asian flavors and fond of using Sweet chili sauce and Sriracha,which is often used in Thailand and Vietnamese dishes.
When fall comes around the corner, their seasonal entree menu, side dish menu welcome new dishes that features “pumpkin”.
Pumpkin creme brulee, pumpkin ravioli.. that kind of stuff
Just recently, we visited the restaurant and had a chance to taste the seasonal side dish; Pumpkin ravioli. It was touch sweet for me but I liked it.
My husband,who is not a big fan of pumpkin, also loved them.
It is in my nature that if my husband found something he could eat despite the fact that he is not a big fan of, I would not slip through the chance to let him try again at home.
I usually start off with recreating the dish he liked and, then branch out the variety of cooking method, flavor of the sauce etc.. using the ingredient as he gets used to eating.
I have been doing great. He now has less nose up ingredients than before and, he eats better now.
If you like to taste the great pumpkin ravioli side dish from restaurant, I think Bonefish Grill does great job on that one.
Now, my recreating the Bonefish Grill’s pumpkin ravioli began.
When you would like to recreate ravioli, it has to start from making your own pasta dough.
Making a pasta dough was not my first, but since my first pasta making was for Palette’s chicken and lamb tortellini with pink sauce (You can find the recipe here) for the kibble makeover dish for this blog, I was not sure how well I can make the basic pasta dough.
However,making pasta dough is more forgiving than making pie crust or other pastry dough, and I think I could make a good one.
Whenever I plan to make time consuming stuff such as Gyoza dumplings, spring rolls, ravioli or things that freeze well such as meatballs,croquette etc.. I tend to make bigger batch and freeze some for later for quick cooking.
This time was also no exception and, I have made 24 ravioli,and I froze the leftover basic pasta dough so I can make them into whatever I want it to be whether Fettuccine,Spaghetti or something else.
My version of Bonefish Grill’s “Pumpkin ravioli” has touch of Pecorino romano cheese in the filling to tone down a little bit of sweetness of pumpkin filling and, the sauce is brown butter sauce and garnished with toasted pine nuts and fried sage,which by the way adds great flavor to the ravioli.
In this entry, I will share the basic pasta recipe,which you can make them into Fettuccini,ravioli,tortellini or whatever you would want it to be, plus the recipe of my version of Bonefish Grill pumpkin ravioli side dish recipe.
Pumpkin ravioli with brown butter sauce..
Ingredients for basic pasta;
2C plus 21 tbs Unbleached All purpose flour
6 large egg whole plus 1 egg yolk
2 tbs Extra virgin olive oil
1 tbs salt
Ingredients for pumpkin ravioli filling;
extra
virgin olive oil
1 shallot chopped fine
2 tbs light brown sugar
2 tbs dark brown
sugar
1C pumpkin puree (recommend Libby’s 100% pure pumpkin)
1/8 nutmeg
1
tsp grated Pecorino Romano cheese
pinch of kosher salt
pinch of
ground black pepper
Ingredients for toasted pine nuts;
2 tbs pine nuts
Ingredients for fried sage;
fresh sage leaves (1 leaf per ravioli)
Ingredients for brown butter sauce;
4 tbs butter
1 tbs balsamic vinegar
<Basic pasta>
1. In the food processor,add 2C plus 21 tbs Unbleached All purpose flour,6 large egg whole plus 1 egg yolk, and 2 tbs Extra virgin olive oil,and 1 tbs salt and mix for about 40-50 seconds or the dough becomes cohesive
** If the dough was too sticky and sticks to your finger, add 1 tbs of flour at a time until dough becomes tacky.
** If the dough were too dry, add 1 tsp water at a time till the dough comes together
2. Process extra 30 seconds or so to incorporate everything till you see the ball of dough start bouncing in the food processor.
3. Knead the dough about 2 minutes and make the dough into log and flour it,wrap it with plastic wrap,and let it rest for at least 2 hours
** resting the dough makes the dough absorb more water and it becomes easy for you to roll out the dough
4. When dough was rested, divide the dough into 3 section. The whole dough should weigh around 30 oz and each portion of dough is about 10 oz dough.
5. Divide the 10 oz dough into half,which means, one portion becomes 5 oz dough at this point.
6. Take one 5 oz dough and wrap the rest of the dough with plastic wrap to prevent them from drying out as it stands.
7. Put the one portion 5 oz dough on the lightly floured surface cut side down, and gently flour the dough, roll it out into long,thin rectangle shape
** The
dough can be rolled with rolling pin easily.
** If you have pasta machine, what I did was to roll out the dough into about 1/4″ thickness first with rolling pin and run it through the Pasta machine dial #6, then, flour the dough both sides again and run the dough through the pasta machine dial #4
You do want thin enough dough but not too thin because you do not want them burst out the filling in the boiling water when you cook them as ravioli.
When you use pasta machine, sometimes, dough can tear as it runs through the pasta machine. I find that it happens if you did not flour the dough both sides enough
The pasta machine I used is called “My Perfect Kitchen Pasta Machine” and it is about $30 at Bed bath and beyond.
I have not tried using it for Fettuccine shape yet but so far,I like them.I am happy with what I got.
8. Flour the baking sheet and place the rolled pasta sheet and cover it with plastic wrap. One sheet will be about at least 17″ long
9. Take another 5 oz dough portion and roll out the dough
10. Using the biscuits cutter 2.5″ diameter one, make slight mark on the pasta sheet so you know where you would put the filling on
11. Put the 2 tsp of filling on the center of lightly marked each circle on the pasta sheet,and brush the dough around the filling with water
12. Take the rolled pasta sheet you have placed on the floured baking sheet and gently cover the pasta sheet with ravioli filling
13. Feel around the filling area, and press it around to seal
** Make sure that air would not get trapped with the filling
14. Cut out the dough with biscuits cutter 2.5″ diameter size
** It is best to keep the excess dough with plastic wrap while you are still working on cutting out the ravioli so the excess dough would not get dried out and still manageable to re-shape again and roll out the dough to make more ravioli
If the excess dough got dried out, apply a touch of water,knead a bit, and adjust with dusted flour to roll out the dough again
15. Place the filled ravioli on floured baking sheet
16. Repeat step#9 through #15 until reaching the number of ravioli you would like to make
** 15 oz dough makes 24 ravioli
17. In the boiling water, gently toss the ravioli one by one,and cook them for about 3 minutes to 5 minutes or until it floats to the top
18. Scoop up the cooked ravioli onto skillet and pour brow butter sauce* (recipe follows) and coat it with the sauce and plate them up
19. In the plate, place ravioli coated with brown butter sauce, sprinkle toasted pine nuts,fried sage (best served 1 fried sage leaves per ravioli)
20. serve
Makes; 24 count pumpkin ravioli plus extra basic pasta dough for later use
** If you make big batch of ravioli like I do, after making enough of it to freeze, line the baking sheet with plastic wrap,place extra ravioli in single layer and cover the top with plastic wrap and freeze them till firm
After that, you can put them into freezer bag with label,cooking instruction written on its front. This way, the ravioli would not get stuck each other when fully frozen.
<pumpkin ravioli filling>
1. In the sauce pan, drizzle extra virgin olive oil, and add 1 shallot chopped fine,and when it started to get translucent in color, add 2 tbs light brown sugar, 2 tbs dark brown sugar and stir
2. When sugar got melted and shallot got nice brown on edge a bit and translucent, add 1C pumpkin puree, 1/8 nutmeg, 1 tsp grated Pecorino Romano cheese, pinch of kosher salt, pinch of ground black pepper and stir
3. Taste and adjust.Set it aside to cool down
<Toasted pine nuts>
1. In the skillet, add 2 tbs pine nuts and toast until it starts browning and smell nice toasted smell. Take it off from the heat and set it aside
<Fried sage>
1. In the skillet, drizzle extra virgin olive oil and add fresh sage leaves and cook until it gets crisp
2. Take the crisp up sage leaves and drain the oil on the paper towel lined plate
<brown butter sauce>
1. Melt the 4 tbs butter in the skillet
2. when the butter started to get brown, take the skillet off from the heat and add 1 tbs balsamic vinegar and stir and pour it into small container
Enjoy!
Oct 05, 2013 | | Restaurant Challenge
As you already know, I like re-creating meals from restaurants or eatery places that I have visited and loved. It is fun to brain storming what is in the dishes I like.
It is also fun to order the same dish at different restaurants to compare, and find their own personality in the each dish served.
One of the restaurants I like to go to is Bonefish Grill.
This restaurant would have been one of the first restaurants I was taken to when I came to the states.
If you ask me what they do best, I think they probably do great on sauce that goes with dish they serve,along with seafood dishes.
I love salmon, and eat the Grilled salmon dish at many dishes,and many restaurants serve over cooked dry fish or under or over seasoned salmon, but their salmon is beautifully cooked without over cooked and they are juicy and moist with a bit of char on the fish.
If you like to taste best salmon dish from restaurant, I think Bonefish Grill comes top on the list and, 2nd would be Firebirds Wood Fired Grill.
Both restaurants serve salmon very moist and juicy and tasty,but some of the salmon dishes Firebirds Wood Fired Grill (chili rubbed salmon with key lime butter) was over salted and even if I tried eating the fish with bread,it was like eating a block of salt and it was not pleasant experience.
That being said, their Wood Grilled Salmon (I always ask the server to have my favorite Ginger mustard aioli on side) is spot on dish and, they are not over or under seasoned and beautifully cooked without the fish being overcooked. This is one salmon dish I would highly recommend.
What makes Bonefish Grill’s Norwegian salmon makes extra special to me is that, not only the fish is cooked juicy and moist, but also they have great sweet-spicy Mango salsa to go with.
There are some other choices of sauces but my all time favorite is the Mango salsa. Their salsa is not like the one that look like all the components are chopped and mixed and served,which often times “dry” consistency and it does not add much flavor to the fish.
Theirs have consistency of the “sauce”, and it adds a little more flavor to the grilled menu and I love them.
Just recently,I made my version of Bonefish Grill’s Norwegian salmon with Sweet-spicy Mango salsa,and it came out super good.
Maybe my second version of Mango salsa introduce to you is a little spicier than Bonefish Grill’s Mango salsa but it was tasty.
I loved them. If you love salmon, you would love the flavor.
Palette the Corgi gets wild caught sockeye salmon in her diet and, I felt the eye on me while I am munching on my salmon. She looked like saying “Why are you eating my dinner?”
If you follow my blog entries, you would notice she is a big fan of fish and she loves salmon. In the end, I left small bits of salmon and gave it to her without salsa on top of course.She loved it!
Her nose was super wet and she was so excited to show off her good “sit” to me for more score
I think the Mango salsa goes well with many variety of fish, scallops, shrimps,and maybe good for grilled chicken etc.. as well. If you had steamed snow crab, you could remove crab meat, mix it with cooled salsa and serve it on the bed of lettuce, you could have it as salad. I think it is good for grilled meat type of wraps too.
Maybe protein source like Turkey,Lamb might be a challenge since it has unique flavor to its meat, but I can see variety of ways to incorporate this tasty mango salsa into your dishes.
In the past entry titled “Bonefish Grill menu; bacon wrapped sea scallop with Mango salsa Yassy’s version“, I have already introduced how to make sweet-spicy Mango salsa, but this one is another version of my mango salsa.
This one is a bit more spicier than the previous one and use a little different ingredients but, when it comes to heat, you can adjust your level of spiciness by reducing amount of ingredients that gives heat such as “sriracha”.
My version of Bonefish Grill’s Norwegian salmon with warm Mango salsa is broiled salmon with spicy Mango salsa.
Broiling adds the fish really nice flavor with bit of char on as if it come off from the grill and, I really liked it.
Broiled salmon with spicy Mango salsa..
Ingredients for Spicy Mango salsa;
1/8 Red onion chopped
1/8 Red pepper chopped
1/8 Green pepper chopped
1/8 jarapano pepper chopped fine
1/2 tsp Sriracha* (recommend Huy Fong Foods brand)
6 oz Mango (1 Mango) chopped to 1/4″ dice
1/8 tsp wasabi powder
1 tbs water
1.5 tsp sugar
1 tbs chopped fresh cilantro
1 tbs freshly squeezed lime juice
extra virgin olive oil
Ingredients for Broiled salmon;
2 salmon fillet (6-8 oz each, about 1″ to 1.5″ at the thickest part of the fillet)
pinch of kosher salt
pinch of ground black pepper
4 slice lemon
1 tbs salted butter
<Spicy Mango salsa>
1. Drizzle Extra virgin olive oil in the skillet and add 1/8 Red onion chopped, 1/8 Red pepper chopped, 1/8 green pepper chopped, 1/8 jarapano pepper chopped fine, and stir
2. Adds 6 oz Mango (1 Mango) chopped to 1/4″ dice, and add 1/2 tsp Sriracha, 1/8 tsp wasabi powder,1 tbs water, 1.5 tsp white sugar and stir and let it cook on simmer till thicken
What is Sriracha sauce?
Sriracha is a Thai version of hot chili sauce. It is a little thicker consistency than regular American hot sauce, and it has much different flavor to it. With consistency wise,it is more like a consistency of tomato paste if you will.
You can get the Sriracha chili sauce at International food aisle at the local grocery store or at Target. If you live near Asian stores, they should carry the condiment as well.
My favorite brand for Sriracha chili sauce is by Huy Fong Foods. You can look for green top squeeze bottle with white letters on. Below is a picture of Sriracha.
Sriracha..
** Wasabi powder can be found at international ail at local super market. The brand I used for this recipe is by sushi chef brand. Adjust
spiciness to your preference.
3.Take it off from the heat, pour it into the container and add 1 tbs chopped fresh cilantro, and 1 tbs freshly squeezed lime juice,and stir and adjust the taste
4. Serve with broiled salmon
** You can adjust spiciness with wasbi powder and sriracha to your preferred spiciness
** Mango salsa maybe good sauce for grilled chicken, fish, shrimp etc..
** I think if you omit vegetables ; red onion,red pepper,green pepper
from this recipe, and puree Mango with jarapano, cilantro, with same spices (wasabi powder, sriracha) and lime juice, it would make nice dipping sauce for the spring roll too.
<Broiled salmon>
0. Set the broiler on “HI”
1. Rub the salmon with pinch of kosher salt and pinch of ground black pepper all around and let it sit for a couple of minutes
2. 4 Slices off from the fresh lemon and set it aside
3. Line the baking pan with non stick foil,and place one slice of lemon under each salmon fillet.Place the salmon skin side down.
4. Place another one slice of lemon over each fillet
** Cooking fish with lemon is great way to keep the fish moist and tender
5. Put 1/4 tbs chunk of salted butter on both sides on each fillet
** This means, each salmon fillet has 1/2 tbs butter on top
6. Put them in the oven and broil for 5 minutes
7. Flip the salmon fillet over so the skin side will be on top,and let it broil for another 6 minutes or until the fish fillet reached to internal temperature at 137F
** As a general rule, every inch of fish fillet, you would cook fish for about 8-10 minutes total. However, some fish has more fat content than others, and following only cooking time is not the best way to have moist,juicy fish every time.
Best way to cook the fish without it being overcooked is to keep an eye on its internal temperature for the doneness.
** The thinner the fillet is, the less broiling time needed
** It is good idea to check the internal temperature when you take it out from the oven after 5 minutes broiling just to have rough idea as to where you are at and then,you can estimate the broiling time you want after flipping the fish fillet over
** Butter is nice to make the salmon fillet to get char a bit around edges when it is done, but since butter has low smoking point, even if the lemon is added to broil with, when you open the oven after 5 minutes broiling time, some smoky steam may comes out.
8. Take the salmon fillet out from the oven, and serve with Spicy Mango salsa
Enjoy!
Jun 09, 2013 | | Restaurant Challenge
As you already
know, I like re-creating meals from restaurants or eatery places that I
have visited. It is fun to brain storming what is in the dishes I like.
It is also fun to order the same dish at different restaurants to compare, and find their own personality in the each dish served.
One of the restaurants I like to go to is Bonefish Grill.
This restaurant would have been one of the first restaurants I was taken to when I came to the states.
If you ask me what they do best, I think they probably do great on sauce that goes with dish they serve,along with seafood dishes.
If I had to pick the type of dish they do good on, then, probably salmon, shrimp,and scallops dishes.
Just recently,I have visited the restaurant and, I have ordered Grilled Arctic char topped with sauteed spinach and lump crab meat served with Lime Tomato garlic sauce.
It was on special menu, and even though I was not sure if I like the Arctic char or not,I tried them.
The dish was great. The server explained that the fish “Arctic Char is mild fish with taste cross between trout and salmon.”.
The color of the fish was pink/orange color like salmon and, to me, it tasted sweet,mild,very tender flaky salmon. Wikipedia site says the fish “Arctic char” is salmon family, and has close fat content to sock eye salmon.
I loved them. If you love salmon, you would love the fish. I hope they will keep the menu in the regular menu.I loved them that much.
Palette the Corgi had a little bit of Arctic char nibble and she went crazy for it too.
She loves seafood, just like me.
When you visit the restaurant, and look around, many table has their famous shrimp dish called “bang bang shrimp”.
I like their bang bang shrimp,too.
Only problem that I find is that they plate the hot shrimp over lettuce and, the bed of lettuce gets wilted by the time we get close to them.
Therefore,while I think lettuce has great color to use as garnish to make the shrimp stand out, I think it would have bee better if the lettuce was plated on side instead of being plated as bed for the star of the dish.
That way, diners can enjoy lettuce with the same tasty dish without removing wilted warm lettuce from the plate.
If you are not familiar with bang bang shrimp, “Bang Bang shrimp” is the shrimp dish where tender shrimps are deep fried and coated with spicy creamy sauce.
Recently, I tried re-creating their bang bang shrimp to see if I can make it as close as theirs taste wise, and possibly can make it as main meal by adding vegetables to it.
I wanted to use the flavor but wanted more healthier,substantial meal people can enjoy for dinner.
Overall,I think I came to close although maybe breading is different. Maybe if you tone it down a notch of sweet chili sauce, and Sriracha, the sauce I made might be close enough to Outback steakhouse’s seared Ahi Tuna dipping sauce “Creamy soy- ginger sauce” as well.
My husband thinks that their breading might be ground rice puff,but we will see. We will try his idea next time.
Unfried Shrimp with creamy sweet chili sauce..
Ingredients for shrimp marinade;
1 tbs sake
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1 tbs corn starch
10 shrimp (I usually use 10 shrimp for this)
3 tbs water
1. In the small container, add 1
tbs sake,1/4 tsp kosher salt,1 tbs corn starch and 3 tbs water, and mix well.Then, add
peeled,divined shrimp and massage shrimp with your hand and marinade
them in the refrigerator for 3-4 hours.
** Marinading shrimp make shrimp crisp tender
2.
Wash the shrimp very well under running water, pat them dry,and season
it as your recipe instructs you for the dish you will be making.
Ingredients for Unfried Shrimp with creamy sweet chili sauce;
12 medium shrimps, peeled and divined
1 tbs mayonnaise
2 tbs plus 6.5 tsp sweet chili sauce
1/2 tsp Sriracha* (recommend Huy Fong Foods brand)
1/4 tsp grated ginger
1/2 tsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/8 tsp lemon zest
1.4 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp cornstarch plus some more for dredging shrimp
Morton’s Natures Seasons
extra virgin olive oil
1/2 sweet onion sliced
1 carrot diagonally sliced
1 clove garlic chopped
1/8 tsp grated ginger
1/4 red pepper sliced
1/4 green pepper sliced
1 tsp frozen green peas
2 tbs ketchup
1/2 tsp sesame oil* (Optional)
1 tbs chopped green onion
1. Marinade shrimp* (recipe above)
2.
In the small container, mix 1 tbs mayonnaise, 6.5 tsp sweet chili sauce,1/2 tsp Sriracha, 1/4 tsp grated ginger, 1/2 tsp freshly squeezed lemon juice,1/8 tsp lemon zest, and 1.4 tsp soy sauce
What is Sriracha sauce?
Sriracha is a Thai version of hot chili sauce. It is a little thicker
consistency than regular American hot sauce, and it has much different
flavor to it. With consistency wise,it is more like a consistency of
tomato paste if you will.
You can get the Sriracha chili sauce at
International food aisle at the local grocery store or at Target. If you live near
Asian stores, they should carry the condiment as well.
My
favorite brand for Sriracha chili sauce is by Huy Fong Foods. You can
look for green top squeeze bottle with white letters on. Below is a
picture of Sriracha.
Sriracha sauce..
3. Wash the marinaded shrimp under cold running water very good, and pat them dry, season them with Morton’s Nature’s seasons, and dredge them in the cornstarch
4.
Drizzle Extra virgin olive oil in the skillet, and add shrimp that was coated with cornstarch
** Cook shrimp only single layer at a time, so you can get the crisp outside,and not steaming them
5.
When one side got brown/crisp, flip them over to cook the other side
6. When shrimp got cooked through take them all out on the plate
7. Add 1 clove of garlic chopped, 1/8 tsp grated ginger,and stir and let it get fragrant
8. Add 1/2 sweet onion thinly sliced, 1 carrot diagonally cut. When carrot started to tender, add 1/4 red pepper thinly sliced, 1/4 green pepper sliced, and stir
9. When vegetables are almost cooked, add 1 tsp frozen green peas and stir
10. Add 2 tbs ketchup, 2 tbs sweet chili sauce and stir
11. In the small measuring cup, add 1 tsp corn starch, 1 tbs water and stir. Then, pour it over the vegetables in the skillet and stir. Let the sauce thicken
12. Add mixture of mayonnaise and sweet chili sauce that you have made at step 2, and stir
13. Add cooked shrimp back in to the skillet and gently toss to coat the shrimp with the sauce
14. Add 1 tbs chopped green onion, and gently stir and plate them up
** If you like, at the very end, you can add a drip of sesame oil as well.This is optional.
Makes about 2-3 serving
Enjoy!
My husband suggested that this dish may go well with coconut rice. I agree with that.
If you like to make coconut rice, here is how you make it.
<Coconut rice>
Ingredients for Coconut rice:
1C Jasmine rice (recommends dynasty Jasmine rice)
2/3C water
1 C unsweetened coconut milk
pinch of kosher salt
1. In a sauce pan, add 1C Jasmine rice,2/3C water,1C unsweetened coconut
milk,pinch of kosher salt and put it on medium high heat
2.Once the rice started boiling,turn the heat down to medium low heat
and cover the pan with lid and cook for 10 minutes,and lower the heat to
simmer and cook another 10 minutes
Makes; 3 servings
May 21, 2013 | | Restaurant Challenge
