Steamed Salmon with a Ginger/Soy Glaze

Tonight I made another recipe for the Zaar World Tour. I was making a recipe for the "Hot and Steamy" challenge. There was a recipe I found to be interesting called Steamed Salmon with Soy Glaze and I decided to make that last night.

There was one problem with that.

There recipe wasn't complete.

It was missing directions for the noodles and green beans.

I sent a message to the woman who posted the recipe and she let me know that she is trying to edit the recipe and get it fixed, but let me know how to complete the recipe. I didn't get the message until well after dinner last night. That wasn't much of a problem though because I just changed around my plans.

This was delicious!!! It is also low calorie, according to the nutrition facts on Recipezaar. This was pretty easy to make as well. The most difficult part was grating the ginger because it was so moist.

This is definitely a recipe I'll have to make again sometime!

Steamed Salmon with Soy Glaze

4	skinless salmon fillets, 6 oz. each
3	tablespoons soy sauce
1/2	cup soy sauce
1	garlic clove, minced
1	tablespoon finely grated ginger
2	tablespoons shredded ginger
2	tablespoons rice wine or sherry wine
1/4	cup rice vinegar
2	tablespoons lemon juice
1	tablespoon sugar
2	tablespoons sliced scallions
1 (18 3/4	ounce) package soba noodles or 1 (1 lb) box whole wheat pasta
1/2	lb small green beans, sliced in half lengthwise

1. Place the salmon in a shallow dish. Combine 3 t. of the soy sauce, the garlic, grated ginger, and 1 T. of the rice wine and pour over the salmon, turning to coat. Cover and marinade for 15 minutes in refrigerator (fish shouldn't be marinaded for much longer than that).
2. Place the rice vinegar, lemon juice, sugar, the remaining soy sauce, and the remaining rice wine in a small saucepan over low heat. Stir, and when sugar is dissolved, bring to a boil, and cook until reduced by half, about 3 minutes. Set aside and keep warm.
3. Fill a large saucepan with 1 inch of salted water and bring to a boil. Remove the salmon from the marinade and place in a steamer basket over the pot. Sprinkle the scallions and shredded ginger over the salmon. Cover and steam over the boiling water for 4 minutes or until cooked through. Remove and keep warm.
4. While the salmon is cooking, bring a pot of water to a boil and cook noodles to package directions. Add green beans to the noodles for about 3-4 minutes of boiling time.
5. Drain the noodles, serve on a plate, topped with the salmon, and pour some glaze over the top.

Enjoy!

Sweet and Sour Pork with Pork Fried Rice

I'm participating in a cooking event on Recipezaar called Zaar World Tour 4. We are trying recipes from or inspired by various regions from around the world. Apparently we don't visit all regions for each tour, this time we are doing Asia (huge region, I'm surprised it isn't broken down more since there is so much variation), Germany and Benelux, Italy, Canada, Central and South America, Africa (except for the northern part), Eastern Europe, and Greece.

This week we are working on Asia and Germany and Benelux. Italy is a Wild Card that we can do until the end of the game.

On Saturday night, I did my first recipe, we have until June 5th to complete it, but apparently starting on Saturday was a bit later than we were supposed to do. I wasn't happy about that, I figured that as long as it was done by the 5th it was no big deal. I digress....

I decided to start with an Asian dish. I had Pork defrosting, so decided to make pork fried rice and Lee said he wanted Sweet and Sour Pork Balls to go with it. I didn't feel like getting any ground pork, so I found a recipe for regular Sweet and Sour Pork and did that.

These recipes turned out pretty well. I would prefer the Sweet and Sour Pork without the pepper, but Lee loved it and I had to make extra for him to eat with some of the leftover rice. I added some extra soy sauce to the rice to give it a bit more flavour.

This recipe I used makes A LOT of rice!!! Apparently it wasn't too much for Lee because I realized today there isn't any more rice left. Lee ate it all!

I am so happy that I made Chinese food! I always think of this stuff as food I can never make myself, but apparently that's not true!

Partial Defeat....

So, I have been doing well with trying something new every day, but not with posting. I have been really busy and at least half of my new foods this month have been convenience foods. That is not what I intended this blog to be. I will continue with trying new foods, however the blog will be different. I will no longer post about any new food I try, but will only post about new recipes or foods I have made myself. I am disappointed I haven't done better, but I've realized that this goal is different from some something like Project365. I have to research to find new things and that takes up a lot more time than just finding something interesting, like I was able to do at first. May killed me, with work and social life, it just got the best of me. Lee doesn't want me to do this, but I think it's for the best. So I start anew in June, and hope it will make this a better quality blog.

Thanks for reading!

Robyn

Going to L'Opéra

This month's Daring Bakers challenge was a bit scary. We had to make Opéra cakes! I have never heard of an Opéra cake before and it was a very long recipe that involved lots of folding, something I have ruined many a dessert from not doing right.

I made these over the weekend. It was perfect timing because my sister's birthday was on Monday and I made mini Opéra cakes so everyone could try a bit.

Usually Opéra cakes are chocolate in flavor, but the hosts for this month, Fran of Apple Peaches Pumpkin Pie, Shea of Whiskful, and the co-founders Ivonne of Cream Puffs in Venice and Lis of La Mia Cucina, wanted these cakes to be in honor of the blog event "A Taste of Yellow" and the season of spring, for the northern hemisphere! We had to make sure our cakes were light in color. I decided to make a raspberry flavored cake.

I didn't see almond meal at my local grocery stores and I didn't feel like hunting for a health food store, so I just bought some almonds, blanched them, and put them in the food processor with a bit of flour to make my own almond meal. I felt like the joconde had a bit of a grainy texture, which is because I couldn't get the almonds fine enough, so I would prefer a finer grain, but it turned out well.

I love having my Kitchen Aid for this! I also love Alton Brown!

Kitchen Aid+Alton Brown=Robyn actually being able to fold!!!

With the Kitchen Aid, I was able to walk around and do other things while it was mixing, so I didn't get bored and I may have given up too early when mixing it with a hand mixer. I saw an episode of Good Eats when Alton Brown was doing some food that needed to be folded, and I saw him add the folds in thirds. I decided to try that for the joconde and the mousse and it worked a treat! I actually had a lot of air still in both and it didn't flatten.

I'm not a fan of white chocolate, so I ended up making a flavored glaze that didn't taste like white chocolate at all. It turned out fantastic and wasn't too runny at all. It actually cooled a bit too thick, so I had to heat it up before pouring it on the cakes. I didn't get the glaze as smooth and to the edges as I wanted, but it still looked nice.

For the assembly, I really feel it was easiest to make the cupcakes. I don't have any biscuit cutters, or round cookie cutters, so I used an egg ring to cut the joconde. It worked just fine. I put the buttercream in a pastry bag and piped it onto each layer of cake. It seemed piping would be the easiest way to get the buttercream neatly on the cakes. I also did this in another bag for the mousse. It didn't seem to flatten the mousse much, but the mousse did flatten once the glaze was poured on top and it set in the fridge.


The taste? These were really good! I thought it had a bit too much raspberry flavor, but apparently that was just me. Nobody else had that complain, even when I said I thought that and would change it next time.

For the original recipe and the techniques, you can visit any of the hostess's websites. I am posting the recipes I used for the glaze and mousse (for the buttercream, all I did was add some puréeed raspberries until it had a good color and flavor).

Raspberry Glaze (Thanks, Sandra!)

200g heavy cream, divided (13.5 Tbsp or 3/4 cup + 1.5 Tbsp or 6.71 fl oz)
50g sugar (1/4 cup)
40g glucose or corn syrup (2 Tbsp)
50g white chocolate (1.76 oz)
5g unflavored gelatin (2.15 tsp)
1 tsp aroma or liquor of your choice
40g fruit pulp or puree
a drop of food coloring (optional)

1. Sprinkle gelatin over 1/5 cup (40g) of the cream in a small bowl and let stand for 10 minutes to soften (allow to soften while making the syrup).
2. Mix cream, sugar and glucose or corn syrup in a saucepan, bring to boil. Continue cooking for 4 - 5 min stirring continuously.
   
3. Add the chocolate and stir it in to melt completely. Remove from heat and add the gelatin/cream mixture, stirring until dissolved.
   
4. Add the aroma or liquor, the fruit puree and the food coloring. Mix well and let cool until smooth and almost creamy.
   
5. Refrigerate to set.

Raspberry Mousse

1	lb ripe raspberries
2	tablespoons granulated sugar
1	tablespoon Raspberry Twisted Smirnoff (or similar)
1/2	cup confectioners' sugar
1 1/4	cups heavy cream (or whipping cream)

1. Puree the raspberries together with the confectioners' sugar in a blender.
2. Whip the cream to stiff peaks.
3. Carefully fold the cream into the pureed raspberries.
4. Place in refrigerator to set.
   

Amish Friendship Bread

I'd never heard of Amish Friendship Bread before, but a girl at work brought some in and I got to try it. It was delicious! Apparently, it's the chain letter of the baking world. You get some sourdough starter and let it ferment for 10 days. You then split the starter into four parts and keep one to bake, one to start fresh, and two to pass on to others. Done righggt, you can have you and your friends baking forever! The recipe my colleague used tasted like a sugary corn bread. Definitely something I'll have to try to make myself sometime.

Sea Salt and Cracked Pepper Chips

To carry on with trying a few new variety of chips, I tried some Sea Salt and Cracked Pepper chips. MUCH better than the sea salt and vinegar chips! There was a distinct red pepper taste, but it wasn't overwhelming. I actually kind of like it and I don't usually like chips.

Mac and Cheese, Third Time the Charm?

I decided to try another mac and cheese today. I had some evaporated milk in the cupboards and it had a recipe for spicy broccoli mac and cheese. Lee has gotten to the point where he doesn't mind the cheese as much if there is something else to balance the taste. I thought the broccoli might help.

Well, the brocoli did help him out, but I accidentally substituted too much mozzarella cheese (putting in 16 oz. when all I needed was 2 oz. to make up for having only 6 oz. of cheddar because for some reason I thought I needed four cheeses) and the macaroni was too cheesy and stringy. I'll have to try this recipe another time with the right ingredients! Even I didn't want the leftovers.

Here is the correct recipe from the can of Carnation® Evaporated Milk:

Spicy Jack Mac & Cheese with Broccoli

2 cups dry elbow macaroni
2 cups chopped frozen or fresh broccoli
2 cups (8 oz.) shredded sharp cheddar cheese
2 cups (8 oz.) shredded Pepper Jack cheese
1 can (12 fl. oz.) evaporated milk
½ cup grated Parmesan cheese, divided
½ tsp ground black pepper
2 tbsp. bread crumbs

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
   
2. Bring water for pasta to a boil. Add macaroni and cook per package directions. Add broccoli for the last 3 minutes of cooking.
   
3. Drain.
4. While the pasta is cooking, mix the cheddar, Pepper Jack, evaporated milk, ¼ cup Parmesan cheese, and black pepper in a buttered casserole dish.
   
5. In a small bowl, combine the rest of the Parmesan cheese with the bread crumbs (I did more bread crumbs for a more bready coating).
6. Add drained macaroni and broccoli to the cassrole dish with the cheeses. Mix well.
   
7. Pour the bread crumb mixture over the macaroni, cover with aluminum foil and cook for 20 minutes.
8. Remove aluminum foil and bake for an additional 10 minutes or until the bread crumb topping is golden brown.