Stuffed Mushrooms

I love this recipe. It has, among other things, mushrooms, olives and cheese, a combination of delicious things that gives as a result something mega-delicious. The first time I prepared it--for my first Christmas dinner in NY, back in 2007-- I used portobella mushrooms, but I think it is better with these bigg mushrooms for stuffing.

I got the idea for stuffed mushrooms from my father (he makes very good ones with cheese, bacon and white sauce), but the stuffing is mine.

Ingredients:

• 10 big mushrooms
• 10black olives
• 10 green olives (I used the ones stuffed with red pepper)
• 1 clove of garlic
• 9 scallions
• 1/5 sweet red pepper
• 3 slices of cheese

(It is not necessary to put salt because the olives are salty enough)

The first thing you must do is take the stalks away from the mushrooms and save them for later. Then, I like to cook the mushrooms in a pan, so that they don{t take too long in the oven. You can do this either with oil or with butter, as you prefer.  Put them at medium high heat with the hole down for two minutes, turn and cook until they start to through liquid, then take them out and place them in an oven proof tray.  Now prepare the stuffing: chop all the ingredients (except the cheese)  together with 5 of the stalks (save the others for some other recipe) and cook in the same pan where you cooked the mushrooms. When this is ready, place in the food processor with 1 slice of cheese, then stuff the mushrooms with the mixture and place in the oven at  400°F  (200°C) for 5 minutes.  Cover with the remaining cheese and broil for two minutes.

Mashed Peas

I think that for any Chilean the mashed stuff in the photo would seem like avocado, and though in many ocasions I eat salmon with avocado, this time I tried something new: mashed peas.  I got the idea from one of Jamie Oliver's 15 minute meals.

The recipe includes, besides peas, mint, and because I thought this to be a bit weird I did not dare to put the quantity recommended by Jamie (a handful), so I just used a few loose leaves: I regret it!! It was good, but with more mint it would have been much better.  The mint gives the mashed peas a refreshing aftertaste, but in my recipe you can barely feel it, you must definitely use more.

Ingredients

• 1 bag (500 g) of frozen green peas
• 10 leaves of fresh mint
• 1 clove of garlic
• 1 tbsp. of butter
• 1/2 lemon
• salt and pepper to taste

The preparation is easy.  Cook the peas following the direcctions in the bag, and in the last minute add the mint and the garlic.  Place all the contents of the pan (excepting the water) and the lemon in the food processor and mash it up until you get a nice consistency. Add butter, salt and ppepper and mix until the butter has melted.

My Mama's Flan (pimped out)

This is the typical egg flan (custard) that was made in my house, but with some modifications. The first variation is that I only used half of the ingredients, because we are only two persons.  The second is that instead of vanilla, the extract that is typically used, I used almond extract (it has a taste similar to amaretto), and I think it was a great choice. The third diference is that I added strawberries to the caramel, so it became a very pretty and tasty pink sauce.
Why did I add strawberries? Because I had strawberries that needed to be saved.  They were the remaining strawberries of a 2 pound-box that I had bought.  The ugliest ones, or the ones that were not quite ripe, the ones that nobody wanted to eat, but I now devoured.

 Ingredients
    For the flan (custard):

• 1/2 liter  of milk
• 4eggs
• 3/8 cup of sugar
• 2 tsp.of almond extract

    For the sauce:

• 3/4 cup of sugar
• 1/4 cup of water
• 10 strawberries

Preheat the oven at 350°F (175°C) .  Start by preparing the sauce: in a small pan place the sugar, water and strawberries at medium high heat. Once it starts to bubble and some foam appears, take out the strawberries, reduce the heat  and continue to cook until the sauce thickens.  Take it off the heat and put it in an oven proof tray for the flan.

While the sauce cools down, in a bowl mix all the ingredients of the flan by hand, trying not to put too much air into the mixture. Place the mixture in the tray over the sauce, and put the tray in a bigger tray filled with boiling water. Put in the oven for 45 minutes.    

To take the flan out of the tray you must wait until it is cold, if not it can breaks as it happened to me.

Quinoa with artichokes, olives and cheese

I discovered quinoa not too long ago thanks to Don Lucho (in spanish), who gave me many ideas for its preparation. He has one recipe with caramelized onions that is very good, but it requires you to dirty a pan and to cry while you chop the onion. 

Quinoa is a very complete food, and it is ideal for vegetarians because of its high content of esencial aminoacids. It also contains other nutrients, among which I would like to highlight magnisium, that can help to fight migranes.

What I like most about quinoa, besides its nutritional value, is its texture.  I do not find it to be particularly taste, and that is why I mix it with a paste of tasty things, that transform it into quite a good dish.

Ingredientes:

• 1 cup of quinoa
• 2 cups of water
• 5 small artichokes (coked)
• 15 black olives (10 for the paste and 5 to decorate)
• 3 slices of cheese
• cumin to taste
• powdered garlic to taste
• cayenne pepper to taste
• 1 tbsp. of olive oil
• salt and pepper to taste

To prepare the quinoa you must first bring to cups of water to a boil, then add the quinoa, put the heat to low, cover the pan and cook for about 15 minutes (until there is no water left).  Meanwhile place all the other ingredients in the food processor, and crush until you have a paste. Take the quinoa from the stove and mix with the paste of artichokes and olives with a fork.  

Glazed Pork Chops

This dish is based on this recipe of a blog that I really enjoy: Budget Bytes that specializes in cheap recipes.  Maybe in Chile  meat is not too cheap, but in the US it not expensive, at least not when you compare it with other things. For example, these four very thick pork chops cost only 6 dollars, and a pound of cherries cost more than 8, so the cherries stayed in the supermarket andthe chops came home with me.  

This is a sweet dish, because it has sugar, that melts when it gets hot, providing the glaze for the chops.

 

 

 

Ingredients

• 4 thick pork chops
• 1/4 cup of sugar
• 1/2 tsp. of paprika
• 1/2 tsp. of merkén
• 1/2 tsp. of powdered garlic
• 1/2 tsp. of pepper
• 1/2 tsp. of salt
• 1/2 tsp. of dried parsley
• 2 tbsp. of oil
• Fresh parsley

Preheat the oven at 350° F (175° C). Place all the dry ingredients on a dish and cover the chops in the mixture until you have used it all.  Heat the oil in a pan and cook the chops (approximately 3 minutes per side)  and then place in the oven for five minutes, to make sure that they are well cooked. Pass both sides of the chop through the sauce that has formed in the pan before serving,   and decorate with fresh parsley.

Chicken with Barbecue Sauce

Barbecue sauce is not at all a Chilean ingredient, but this recipe reminds me of my years as a student in Santiago, where besides learning physics, I was learning to cook.   I think this was my first invention in the kitchen, something that was not premade and that I didn't copy from home.  It uses barbecue sauce, a typical ingredient in the US, because one is in Chile, one tends to look for things outside.  Originally this recipe did not include mushrooms, but I believe they are a good addition.  

 

Ingredients

• 400 g of chicken cut in small pieces
• 1yellow onion
• 1 sweet pepper ( I used half of a green one ad half of an orange one, to make it colorful)
• 2 cups of sliced  mushrooms
• 1/2 cup of barbecue sauce
• 1tbsp. of corn starch
• 1 cup of water
• salt and pepper to taste

Season the chicken with salt and pepper and place in a hot pan with oil, cook until all the pink is gone. Take the chicken off the pan, and place in it the mushrooms.  Cook them until they are soft and then take out, placing them with the chicken.   Now is the turn for the onions and the sweet pepper: slice them and put them in the pan.  When the onion becomes translucent add back the mushrooms and the chicken, plus the barbecue sauce and half a cup of water.  Leave it at medium heat and when the sauce begins to bubble add the corn starch diluted in the other half a cup of water. Continue to cook, now in low heat until the sauce thickens.  You can serve it with rice or mashed potatoes, or the way we ate it this timeÑ in fajitas with avocado  ... super good!

Salmon with Smoked Paprika

Living in the US there are many foods form Chile that one misses, luckily salmon is not one of them, because not only it is always available in supermarkets, but most of the times it comes from Chile.

This way of preparing salmon is pretty simple, and it is also quite good.  The prep time is minimal, and the time it takes to cook is about 12 to 15 minutes, depending on the thickness of the fish, so it is a good option for weekday meals.  I like to serve it with rice and avocado, or with a green salad (dressed with lemon, salt, olive oil and pepper).

What makes this salmon something special is the smoked paprika, that gives a nice smell and flavor to the dish.  I think that it would improve with a touch of merkén. 

Ingredients

• Salmon
• Smoked paprika (enough to cover the salmon)
• Parsley, salt and pepper to taste

Place the salmon with the skin side down in an ovenproof dish and add the parsley, salt and pepper. Cover with paprika and put in the oven at  400°F ( 200°C) .  Cook for 12-15 minutes depending on the thickness.

Pasta with Sauce

When I buy my weekly groceries I am almost always motivated to buy healthy food, and many times it happens that I buy more vegetables than what I manage to eat in a week.   By the second week, the extra veggies are no longer fresh, and the truth is that I don't feel like eating them in salads. Today's solution: cook them, blend them, mix them with tomato sauce and eat them with pasta.

The recipe is simple and the sauce has a very special taste that reminded me of the chard balls (like meatballs but made with chard instead of meat) with tomato sauce that they cooked at home when I was growing up.  The larger the greens to sauce ratio, the more it resembles the food of my childhood, but if we put more tomato sauce, the veggies go unnoticed and it is an excellent way to feed a vitamin-packed meal to those who don't like greens.

Ingredients:

• 1 package of spaghetti (I used whole wheat)
• 2 casn of tomato sauce
• 1/2 a bag of veggies (I used arugula baby blend)
• 1 medium yellow onion
• 2 cloves of garlic
• oil, salt and seasonings to taste 

 While you boil water for the pasta, place the minced garlic in hot oil in a pan, and once it starts to become golden put all the greens and cook until they reduce in size and become dark.  Take the out of the stove and place in the blender together with the tomato sauce.

In the same pan saute the onion cut in small pieces, until it becomes translucent, and then add the sauce from the blender. Continue to cook for three minutes after it starts bubbling.

When the water for the pasta starts to boil add the pasta and salt, and cook for 7 minutes (or as instructed in the package).

Place the pasta in a dish, cover with sauce and enjoy.