double decker hamburger sliders....at kitchen! kitchen!



A Double Decker Hamburger Sliders With Goat Cheese
I had one of those impromtu gathering of friends who came at such a short notice!
Bless those friends!
So what to make on such a short notice?!....
A freshly baked baguette, grilled eggplants, goat cheese, sun dried tomato pesto
and you've got a PARTI!
Layer 2 beef sliders on  pieces of toasted baguette smothered
with goat cheese, next a piece with sun dried tomatoe pesto;
grilled eggplant, add a bit of green
and a bamboo skewer to keep them in place. Surround the platter with your favorite
grilled vegetable  like zucchini and serve with your favorite dressing.



simply grilled!...at kitchen! kitchen!

What could be more simpler than grilling th freshly bought
vegetables at Samaha.
Just add your favorite dressing and it's a great accompaniment
to any grilling you will do this summer!


 

gravlax and avocado tartare......at kitchen! kitchen!

Gravlax And Avocado Tartare
This is a takeoff of my previous posting dated 6/12/12 "Avocado Gravlax Cake"
I made a larger version of it and layered the diced gravlax,
avocado and diced tomatoes to serve as an appetizer that would serve six.
Follow the previous recipe and triple the ingredients for a 4-1/2" diameter mold.
Your family and friends will love it!
(You may use store bought smoke salmon instead of gravlax).

summer foraging....at kitchen! kitchen!

My First Summer Foraging At Samaha Farm
It does not look much, but what I could do with it is endless.
The 97 degree heat today did not stop my foraging at the farm stand.
They don't have everything yet, but the anticipation is palpable.

Shrimps & vegetable crisps...again.....at kitchen! kittchen!

Shrimp & Vegetable Crisps
I made this dish previously and you may check my previous posting
dated Nov, 8, 2010 - Shrimps & Vegetable Crisps.
You could just do all vegetables and skip the shrimps.
It would be just as delicious.
This dish is worth repeating and a great crowd pleaser.
 Serve with garlic and white balsamic vinaigrette dressing.

shrimp & vegetable yellow rice....at kitchen! kitchen!

Shrimp and Vegetable Yellow Rice
A delicious dish to serve when you have a large crowd!

This dish is so simple to make - similar to paella but easier and less fussy but packed with flavour.
I made this dish when we had a gathering of all my nieces to bid farewell to my visiting family. What a lovely and delicious send off. We have this tradition of each member bringing their favorite dish -a "potluck" farewell gathering of sort. So what a better way to feed a large crowd with a dish packed with flavour.

1 pkg of Goya yellow rice - serves 8-10 ( follow direction on the box) and set aside
2 lbs of large shrimps shelled and devein
2 medium size zucchinis sliced about 1/4 of an inch
2 red bell peppers cut lenghtwise
1 pack of string beans or haricort vert (blanched)
slices of 1 large smoke spanish sausage
1 medium onion chopped
4 cloves garlic smashed
Salt and black peper
flat leaf parsley

Sautee the shrimps in olive oil in a large pan (preferably a paella pan) with the chopped onions and garlic just until pink (season with salt and pepper). Remove shrimps from pan and set aside.
In the same pan throw in the red peppers and stir for a minute or so; next add the zucchinis and the string beans; then the sliced sausage stirring for another minute. Add the cooked yellow rice and stir until thoroughly combined then lastly add the shrimps and incorporate well with the rest of the ingredients. Add a little more olive oil if necessary and correct the seasoning. Sprinkle with roughly chopped parsley and serve with wedges of lemon.

a midnight snack.....at kitchen! kitchen!

A midnight snack of smoke turkey, jarlsberg cheese, tomato and baby spinach pannini sandwich

You would think that my son, after a whole day spent with his dad on father's day, he would have been thoroughly fed. But, not so. I was just thinking of making myself half a sandwich, when I saw him in the computer room working. Well, I have to ask if he wants a sandwich too. The answer of course was a big YES. A good mother as I am ( do I hear a drum roll)...I made a pannini sandwich of what I have in the fridge.

slices of smoke turkey
slices of Jarslberg cheese
slices of tomatoes
some baby spinach leaves
toasted whole wheat bread - with a dollop of mayo

Butter each end of the bread and put on a heated gridle and weigh it down with something heavy for a few seconds and do the other side until the cheese starts to melt.

a nasty, nasty habit of collecting old kitchen implements....at kitchen! kitchen!



Clockwise; fish mold, some sort of weight; and a flour strainer

 I have this nasty habit of collecting old and antique kitchen implements. Must be some sort of a "collecting disease" that I can't seem to get rid of. I scour flea markets and antique stores and my eyes zeros in on anything and everything for the kitchen. The more strange looking they are the more fascinated I am. I love to guess and wonder what these tools were used for. These implements must have helped the previous owner create one of the most wonderful dishes. Take the fish mold for example, this must have been used to make a delicious fish aspic; as for the heavy disc with a handle, I really can't figure out what it was used for. But, I find it very useful for holding down panini sandwiches. And the flour strainer, I use it to hold small wooden spoons that I collect (what else)! So if the bug of collecting old kitchen tools hits you, don't resist, go for it.

bean cake/burger.....at kitchen! kitchen!

Bean Burger Appetizer

I made a small meditterenean salad last night to go with the "panko chicken"(posted previously).
Going into my "pantry" in the garage, yes, a quarter of the space in the garage has been turned into my pantry and storage for some of my kitchen implements. If you asked one of my nieces, it is not a pantry but a mini supermarket. My nieces just love to tease me about it constantly. Back to my mediterranean salad, I have an excellent large can of small white beans....the only can I have in my mini supermarket. So what to do with the leftover since I only used about a cup of the 32 oz. + can of small white beans. So, for lunch, the next day, I decided to make the leftover into bean cakes/burger. I have made this years ago before I even imagined to do a food blog. This is a recipe I saw in one of my zillion food magazines. It is so easy that I don't even need to look for that magazine. It is great as an appetizer or as a side dish served with vinegar/garlic vinaigrette. This is my own version of the original recipe.

What you need.....
1 large can of small white beans ( about 1 lb.& 13 oz. can) This will make about 10-12 small cakes
*Mashed 1/2 of the beans and leave the rest whole*
1/2 cup of chopped cilantro or flat leaf parsley
1/4 cup of diced scallions
salt to season
a sprinkling of cayenne pepper (for a bit of "excitement")
3 tablespoons of fine corn meal
2 tablespoon of flour (or chickpea flour)
1 tablespoon of olive oil
Mixed all of the above in a large bowl until well incorporated
Gather 2-3 tablespoons of the mixture and form into a mini cake (just like you're doing a regular burger) you'll have about 10-12 cakes/burger
Refrigerate for 10-20 minutes
Dridge each cake in a flour/corn meal mixture
Heat a large pan with canola oil - (the oil must really be smoking hot)on a medium high heat. (remember you are not cooking the cakes but browning each side, thus for the high heat).
Slowly drop each cake into the pan without crowding them until each side is golden brown.
Have a ready platter with a paper towel to drain the oil.
Serve and garnish with roughly chopped cilantro

Vinegar/Garlic Vinaigrette:
White wine vinegar
Salt
2 cloves of minced garlic

Avocado Cake Gravlax.....way to go!...at kitchen! kitchen!

Hello fellow bloggers and followers!  I have not really abandoned my blog....just call it a lull.. You see I was busy entertaining my visiting family from the mother country. So now that things have quite down, I'm starting to get into the swing of things, so to speak. This avocado cake gravlax was inspired by Hubert Keller, a french chef . He made an appetizer of avocado and crabs. Must be totally delicious. So, what a better idea to make it my own and used my home made gavlax instead of crabs. Creamy haas avocado is in full season right now and the jersey tomatoes are starting to come up....and on June 20th,  drum roll please.!..my favorite farm stand will open its' doors. I could taste the anticipation of the fresh, and home grown produce that I would encounter at Samaha. It's like going to a rock concert! Well, not quite...but sort of for the "foodie goddess" in me.

Avocado Gravlax Cake

Avocado Gravlax Cake:
(recipe for one appetizer)
1 medium size avocado
Juice of 1 freshly squeezed lime
salt and pepper
1 medium size tomato/blanched in hot water for 10-12 seconds and cooled immediately to stop from cooking. Peel the skin/remove the seeds and diced
1/4 cup of diced gravlax (google for gravlax recipe)
1/4 cup of diced seeded and peeled tomato

For the avocado:
Peel and scoop meat into the food processor with the lime juice and salt and pepper.
Pulse until blended with just enough bits of the avocado meat
Place a cookie cutter on a serving plate (use the cookie cutter as a mold)
Scoop 1/2 of the avocado meat inside the cookie cutter
Make some kind of well in the middle of the avocado and scoop in the diced gravlax
Completely cover the gravlax with the rest of the avocado, smoothing it as you go along.
Top with diced tomato and slowly lift the cookie cutter mold. *See TIPS below.
Garnish with thin slices of gravlax and some dill.

Tips: brush a little olive oil around the inside of the cookie mold for easy removal- and refrigerate for 5-10 minutes before lifting the mold.