Talk about lucky!

A mother is always happy when her son has had the sense to marry a wonderful woman. But seriously, he got very lucky cause she can really cook! Recently, I have been the happy recipient of just a few of the dishes that she whips up. So, eat your heart out as you see what I've been enjoying and I haven't lifted a finger! Happy Mother-in-Law :-)

Homemade popovers!

Delicious Hot & Sour Soup

Bi Bim Bop!

Shepherd's Pie

Mexican Brunch: scallion potato pancake, bean/salsa tortilla, and mushroom swiss chard saute´

Got Portobellos? Stuff 'Em!

I had a large package of large portobellos and in the pantry I also had half a bag of Pepperidge Farm Herb Stuffing--so stuffed mushrooms it was!

Preheat oven to 400

6 large portobellos, stems removed and scoop out the gills with a spoon.
Put mushrooms in baking pan and bake for 10  minutes, then turn for ten more.

In the meantime chop 1/2 and onion and a stalk of celery and sauté in a medium saucepan and then add 1/2 cup butter and 1/2 cup water. Bring to a boil and add two cups stuffing.

Stuff the mushrooms, and drizzle some jarred marina sauce over each stuffed mushroom and sprinkle a bit of mozzarella cheese on each. Bake for 20 minutes.

Chicken Vesuvio

We eat a lot of chicken and this recipe is a winner. It's quite tasty and quite easy to put together. I modified a recipe I found from the Food Network--thank you Giada!

Chicken Vesuvio
Recipe courtesy Giada De Laurentiis

4 servings

Ingredients
3 tablespoons olive oil
4 chicken thighs with skin and bones
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 1/2 pounds small red-skinned potatoes, halved
4 large garlic cloves, minced
3/4 cup dry white wine
3/4 cup chicken broth
1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried thyme
8 ounces frozen artichoke hearts 
2 tablespoons unsalted butter

Directions
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.

Heat the oil in large ovenproof pot over high heat. Sprinkle the chicken with salt and pepper. Working in 2 batches if necessary, cook the chicken in the pot until golden brown on all sides, about 10 minutes. Transfer the chicken to a bowl. Carefully add the potatoes to the same pot and cook until they are golden brown, stirring occasionally, about 10 minutes. Add the garlic and saute for 1 minute. Add the wine and stir to scrape up any brown bits on the bottom of the pot. Add the broth, oregano, and thyme. Return the chicken to the pot. Stir to combine. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat.

Cover and bake in the oven until the chicken is cooked through, about 20 minutes. Transfer the chicken to a platter. Arrange the potatoes around chicken. Add the artichoke hearts to the sauce in the pot. Cover and simmer over high heat until the artichokes are tender, stirring often, about 4 minutes. Turn heat to low. Stir in the butter. Pour the sauce over chicken and potatoes, and serve.

Bam!

This is a pretty good jambalaya recipe from Emeril if you have the time to make jambalaya from scratch and aren't taking a short cut and using a mix. This really does just feed four so you might want to double the recipe if you wanted to have leftovers!

Cajun Jambalaya

Recipe courtesy of Emeril Lagasse

Serves:
4 servings

Ingredients
12 medium shrimp, peeled, deveined and chopped
4 ounces chicken, diced
1 tablespoon Creole seasoning, recipe follows
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup chopped green bell pepper
1/4 cup chopped celery
2 tablespoons chopped garlic
1/2 cup chopped tomatoes
3 bay leaves
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon hot sauce
3/4 cup rice*
3 cups chicken stock
5 ounces Andouille sausage, sliced
Salt and pepper
Directions
In a bowl combine shrimp, chicken and Creole seasoning, and work in seasoning well. In a large saucepan heat oil over high heat with onion, pepper and celery, 3 minutes. Add garlic, tomatoes, bay leaves, Worcestershire and hot sauces. Stir in rice and slowly add broth. Reduce heat to medium and cook until rice absorbs liquid and becomes tender, stirring occasionally, about 15 minutes. When rice is just tender add shrimp and chicken mixture and sausage. Cook until meat is done, about 10 minutes more. Season to taste with salt, pepper and Creole seasoning.

Per Serving: Calories: 402; Fat: 16g (Saturated Fat: 4 grams); Protein: 24g; Carbohydrates: 38g; Sugar: 4g; Fiber 0g; Cholesterol: 97mg; Sodium: 800mg

Emeril's ESSENCE Creole Seasoning (also referred to as Bayou Blast):
2 1/2 tablespoons paprika
2 tablespoons salt
2 tablespoons garlic powder
1 tablespoon black pepper
1 tablespoon onion powder
1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon dried oregano
1 tablespoon dried thyme
Combine all ingredients thoroughly.

Yield: 2/3 cup

*we used brown rice so if you do that you need to cook it longer and add more liquid--we also threw in some green peas for good measure!

Put an Egg on it!

When you want a fast, delicious lunch and you happen to have leftover Korean spicy pork in the fridge and a package of Gourmet Spicy Shin Ramyun in the pantry you're in business.

To the package of ramen you add the leftovers, any green veggies (we had brussels sprouts), some chopped mushroom, green onion for garnish---and of course--don't forget to put an egg on it!!

I'm Back!

I have been very lazy about keeping up with this blog! Lots of cooking has been going on the past several months and I have taken some pictures so I will try to post some dishes in the coming days. No promises though-Ha!

Here is a dish that my daughter-in-law made and it's so so so good!

Miso Black Cod---adapted from Nobu
Ingredients:

2-3 black cod fillets (about 1 lb)
For the marinade:
1/4 cup sake
1/4 cup mirin
4 tablespoons white miso paste
3 tablespoons sugar

Method:

1. Mix the marinade ingredients thoroughly in a plastic container (with lid) and set aside. Save some for plating purposes.
2. Pat the fish fillets dry with paper towels and put them into the plastic container with the marinate. Cover the lid and leave to steep in the refrigerator overnight or for 24 hours.
3. Preheat oven to 400 degree F.
4. Preheat a skillet
5. Lightly wipe off (with fingers) any excess miso marinate clinging to the fish fillets but don’t rinse it off. Place the fish in the skillet and brown on one side for two minutes.
6. Transfer the fish fillets to the oven and bake for 10-15 minutes. Be sure to grease the fish pan and put the fish brown side down. Cook until it flakes easily--don't overcook.
7. Add a few extra drops of the marinade on the plate and serve hot.

Cook’s notes:

1. You can substitute black cod for see bass or salmon or any kinds of flaky fish fillets.
2. There are many different kinds of miso (red, brown, white, and more). Make sure you get white miso.
3. I like my miso cod more intense with the flavors of sake and miso, and that being said, the marinade sauce might be too watery for plating purposes as one of my readers pointed out. Heat up the sauce to thicken it if you wish to use it for plating. Or if you like, you can reduce the amount of sake and mirin to slightly less than 1/4 cup each.
4. Use 5 tablespoons miso if you prefer a deeper miso flavor.

She served it with sautéed baby bok choy with garlic, ginger, onion and chopped mushroom and finished with sesame oil, white pepper, and some oyster sauce.