Toasted Sesame Salmon

Here's another recipe I found in a Pampered Chef cookbook.

My parents took us on a trip to Costco last weekend, which is a pretty big adventure. It's really easy to start grabbing everything that looks good and throw it into your basket, and before you know it you've collected a bazillion dollars worth of merchandise. We kept track of pricing as we went along and managed to get out without totally breaking the bank!

One of the things that was on our list of must-buy items was salmon. Costco sells bags of frozen, individually wrapped salmon filets. It makes it easy to thaw just as much as you need.

Being in the Midwest, buying fresh salmon can be pretty hit-or-miss. After one too many attempts at buying from the seafood counter, only to realize when I got home that the fish was... less than fresh, I've decided that frozen is the way to go.

The other ingredient in this recipe I should mention is the tahini paste. Tahini is made from ground sesame seeds. I originally bought it to use in making my own hummus (which surprisingly easy to do.)  I had trouble finding this in the store, which resulted in me ordering two GIGANTIC bottles from Amazon (seriously, I could make 2 batches of hummus a day for a year and not get through those things.) However, I've since seen it in the organic/natural food sections of the grocery store in much more manageable sized bottles.

Toasted Sesame Salmon

Ingredients:
4 tsp sesame seeds (I bought pre-toasted)
3 Tbsp prepared teriyaki baste and glaze
1 Tbsp tahini paste
1 tsp toasted sesame oil
1 garlic clove, pressed
4 salmon fillets

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit.

2. (If your seeds aren't pre-toasted:) Place sesame seeds in saute pan. Cook and stir over medium-high heat for 2-3 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from pan to cool.

3. Combine baste and glaze, tahini, sesame oil, and pressed garlic in a bowl and whisk well.

4. Place fillets on medium sheet pan. (I put parchment paper on the baking pan just in case the glaze got too sticky.) Brush each fillet with glaze mixture using a silicone basting brush. Sprinkle 1 tsp of the sesame seeds over each fillet.

5. Bake 12-14 minutes or until fish flakes easily with a fork.

Baked Ziti

Tonight's dinner was baked ziti. It's another quick and easy pasta dish and spaghetti alternative.

This makes a big 9x13 pans. You can easily divide into two 8x8 pans to freeze one or give one away.

Baked Ziti

Ingredients:
1/2 box ziti pasta
1 jar spaghetti sauce
1/2 tub (15 oz) ricotta cheese
1 8oz bar mozzarella cheese, grated
1/4 cup (or more) parmesan cheese
1 lb ground beef (not pictured)
1/2 cup pasta water

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Cook pasta and drain, reserving 1/2 cup of water.
3. Brown the ground beef and drain.
4. Mix spaghetti sauce, ricotta cheese, & pasta water in large bowl. Stir it really well to make sure the ricotta is "dissolved" (no big chunks.)

 5. Add pasta, meat, and 1/2 cup mozzarella to the sauce mixture. You could buy a package of pre-shredded mozzarella, but I always get a bar and shred it in myself in my food processor. It takes about 10 seconds and it melts so much better (and tastes so yummy!)
6. Spoon the mixture into a 9x13 baking dish sprayed with cooking spray.

7. Sprinkle the top with the remaining mozzarella, then shake Parmesan over the top to fill in the gaps.

 

8. Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 30 minutes. Then uncover and bake another 10 minutes so it gets all nice and golden brown on top. 

9. Enjoy!

 

 

Curried Chicken with Couscous and Naan

I used to think that cooking Indian food was super intimidating. It's a whole different world of spices, flavors, ingredients... eek! But once I bit the bullet and tried it once, suddenly the world of curry was no longer terrifying. It's been over a year since I made curry, though, so when I ran across a recipe for curried chicken and couscous in my Pampered Chef cookbook, I decided it was time to try it again. This recipe was actually pretty dang simple, but incredibly tasty.

I did make naan bread to go with it, even though I probably didn't need to with the couscous already in there... but curry and naan go together so well it was worth the extra effort!

Curried Chicken with Couscous

Ingredients:

Chicken and Curry
1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breasts
3/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
4 medium carrots
1 medium onion
1 tsp vegetable oil
2 tsp curry powder
1 can coconut milk

Couscous
2 cups chicken broth
1 1/3 cups uncooked plain couscous
1 Tbsp butter

Things I left out: 1/2 cup golden raisins in the curry, 2 Tbsp fresh cilantro in the couscous.

Directions:

1. Cut chicken into 1 inch pieces. Lightly spray a skillet with vegetable oil or cooking spray. Heat skillet over medium-high heat for 1-3 minutes until hot.

As skillet heats, combine salt and pepper. Season chicken with half of the black pepper mixture. Cook chicken about 2-3 minutes or until golden brown. Turn chicken over, cook 2-3 minutes or until center of chicken is no longer pink. Remove from skillet and set aside.

2. As chicken cooks, peel carrots; cut in half lengthwise, then thinly slice on a bias. Cut onion in half lengthwise, then crosswise into 1/2 inch wedges.

Add oil to skillet, saute carrots and onion 5 minutes or until crisp-tender, stirring occasionally.

Stir curry powder, (raisins, if you are including them) coconut milk and remaining black pepper mixture into skillet. Add chicken, simmer 3-5 minutes or until sauce begins to thicken.

3. For couscous, pour broth into a saucepan and heat until boiling. Stir couscous and butter into broth. Turn off heat and cover, let stand 5 minutes.  After 5 minutes, fluff with fork (and stir in cilantro if using it.)

4. To serve, divide couscous among serving plates, spoon chicken mixture over couscous.

Naan


Ingredients:

2 tsp dry active yeast
1 tsp sugar
1/3 cup water (warm)
2.5-3 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup plain greek yogurt
1 large egg

Directions:

1. In a small bowl, combine yeast, sugar, & water. Stir to dissolve and let sit a few minutes until it is frothy on top. Then stir in oil, yogurt, & egg until evenly combined.

2. In a medium sized bowl, combine 1 cup flour with salt. Add wet ingredients and stir until well combined. Continue adding flour 1/2 cup at a time until you can no longer stir with a spoon (about 1 to 1.5 cups flour.)

3. Turn the dough out onto a well floured counter top. Knead about 3 minutes, adding flour as necessary to keep from sticking. Dough should be smooth and soft, not sticky.

4. Loosely cover dough and let rise until doubled in size (about 45 minutes.) After it rises, gently flatten it and cut it into 8 equal pieces. Shape each piece into a small ball by stretching it back onto itself until smooth.

5. Heat a large, heavy-bottomed skillet over medium heat and spray lightly with non-stick spray. Working with one ball at a time, roll it out until it is 1/4 inch thick or 6 inches in diameter. Place rolled dough on skillet and cook until under side is golden brown and large bubbles have formed on the surface. Flip and cook other side until golden brown as well.

For most bubbles, don't roll out dough until ready to go in the skillet.

The naan was delicious with the chicken. I liked that the couscous in the curry dish was more of a texture than a flavor--it absorbed all that delicious curry sauce.You can pick up bites with the naan, or do like my husband and make a "taco" with the curry inside the naan.

Shrimp Orzo Skillet

I finally decided to pull out the Pampered Chef cookbooks I got at my bridal shower 2+ years ago. Steven and I are looking to eat a little healthier, so more veggies, less red meat.

This recipe was pretty tasty! I did a suggested substitution and used asparagus instead of peas (neither of us are big fans of peas) and was happy with how it came out. I also left out the mint they recommended

One complaint I have about the PC cookbooks is that they boldface the PC equipment they want you to use so it's easy to get caught on the bolded word and miss the actual ingredient (you know, the important stuff) you're supposed to use that equipment on. I had to re-read some steps a few times to pick out exactly what what supposed to be going on.


Shrimp Orzo Skillet

Ingredients
For the shrimp:
8 oz large uncooked shrimp (21-25 per pound)
1 Tbsp vegetable oil
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp coarsely ground black pepper
1/8 tsp sugar (helps to caramelize the shrimp)

For the orzo:
8 oz orzo pasta
1 garlic clove, pressed
2 cups chicken broth
1 cup clam juice
1 lemon
1 tbsp thinly sliced fresh mint (I omitted this)
1 cup blanched asparagus, cut into 1-2" pieces (or 1 cup frozen peas)
1 Tbsp butter

Directions

1. For shrimp, peel and devein shrimp. Add oil to a 10" skillet and heat over medium-high heat 1-3 minutes or until shimmering. As skillet heats combine salt, black pepper, and sugar in small bowl. Add shrimp and toss to coat.

2. Arrange shrimp in a single layer over bottom of Skillet and cook about 1 minute or until one side is browned and edges are pink. Remove skillet from heat and turn shrimp over with a small slotted spatula. Let stand an additional 30 seconds or until centers are opaque and shrimp is cooked through. Remove shrimp from skillet and set aside.

3. For orzo, in same skillet, combine orzo, pressed garlic, broth and clam juice. Bring to a boil, cover and reduce heat to medium-low. Cook 10-12 minutes or until orzo is cooked through.

4. As orzo cooks, zest lemon to measure 1 Tbsp zest, then juice the lemon to measure 1 Tbsp juice. Thinly slice the mint.

5. Remove skillet from heat and stir in asparagus, butter, and lemon juice. Arrange shrimp over orzo, cover and let stand 3-5 minutes or until heated through. Sprinkle with lemon zest and mint before serving.

In the end we got a tasty dish. The orzo had lots of flavor, the shrimp was delicious, the asparagus tender, and the lemon zest added a bit of freshness.