What about Salad????

Sometimes we eat so good and eat so much, we are just begging for one of those quick and delicious meals where you don't even have to turn on the stove or light a fire. Well guess what??? Salad is your answer.

Lupe and I have been in that boat many times so we turn to a garden salad. We don't have to cook anything. We just go into the yard and pick what we want in the salad. What we don't have is remedied by a 10 minute round trip to the local store.

Last night was one of those occasions and here is what we had to eat...

This salad was made up of iceberg lettuce on the bottom, topped with a variety of baby sprouts, diced young Roma tomatoes, freshly picked mango which I cut into chunks, and garden fresh Japanese cucumbers. I added a sprinkle of grated Colby/jack cheese and black pepper and garnished with a hot pepper. My dressing of choice was spicy Catalina.

Did we ever have a fulfilling dinner. And the taste, with all those garden veggies, was excellent. 

So the next time you're hungry but don't feel like cooking or take out, whip up one of these bad boys. You'll find yourself relaxing with a smile on your face.

Until next time....

Breakfast on Guam

Nothing I love more than a good breakfast. Fortunately for me my wife, Lupe, is a Master at it. Here is just another of her fantastic breakfasts that she put together...

We have here scrambled eggs with Colby/jack cheese and green onions and diced, fresh eggplant from the yard, pan fried potatoes, Canadian Bacon (ham), avocado, fresh cantaloupe, wheat bagels with homemade Mango and hot pepper jam (courtesy of Bill and Sonja Bradford of Agat), and a little OJ to wash it all down.

If this doesn't start your day off right, something is wrong!!!

So the next time you need to power up, eat a little more than scrambled eggs and bacon. Go the full course. After all, you don't want to peter out halfway through the day.

Don't forget to visit my other blog, BBQGuam.

Until next time.... 

Fresh Mango and Hot Pepper

It's mango season on Guam right now. And there is an abundance of mango. My wife, Lupe, has been busy doing all kinds of things with our mangoes from our tree. She has been cutting up mango for the "meat" and bagging it for the off season. Right now she makes mango smoothies and mangosicles. Both which are great for our hot weather. But today she made a form of "pickled" peppered mango. 

Here is a photo...

Pickled Peppered Mango

What she does is peel the green, unripened mango. She adds a whole clump of garlic which she slices. Then she mashes fresh hot pepper and adds that. The last step is salt to taste.

What happens is the salt extracts the juices from the mango and causes it to "pickle" itself. This must be refrigerated or it will spoil. But after about a day, the mango blends well with the rest of the ingredients.

Once you start eating this delicacy, it goes down like candy and is hard to stop.

This is a great appetizer while BBQing....as long as you have plenty of cold "beverages" around.

Until next time....

Ginger/Scallion Sauce

Ginger/Scallion Sauce

Made this killer Ginger/Scallion sauce from a recipe that I saw in Saveur magazine.  Super easy to prepare. This sauce will definitely light up your taste buds. It has already passed the Lupe (wife) test. Great to mix in with your BBQ, noodles, Misu soup or any other soup for that matter. Just put it on just about everything. And if you add some hot pepper, OMG!!!!

Just follow this link to the sauce recipe...

http://www.saveur.com/article/Kitchen/Momofuku-Ginger-Scallion-Noodles

Don't forget to visit my other blog BBQGuam.

Until next time.....

Thai Vegetable Curry

Thai Vegetable Curry

I love exploring the various Asian cuisines. The cuisines of each Asian country are as different as their landscapes yet they bear certain similarities also. As I try out the dishes from these countries I can only describe them as an adventure in flavors. This recipe, Thai Vegetable (Veggie) Curry is one such dish. Just looking at the picture will tell you it has a lot going on. Even more will happen when you take your first bite.

Here is my recipe for this traditional Thai dish and mind you, this curry is totally unlike Indian curry.

Ingredients: 

• 2-3 Tbsp of the oil of your choice. I like Sesame Seed Oil
• ¼ Red Bell Pepper, seeded and sliced thin 
• ¼ Green Bell Pepper, seeded and sliced thin 
• 1 bundle of Kangkong (approx. ½ lb.) Use the leaves and very small stems only, not the larger stems. 
• 3 Thai or Thai Bird hot peppers, green, sliced thin and cross-ways 
• 3 Long Purple Japanese Eggplants sliced ¼ inch diagonally 
• 20 Young Long Green Beans like Asparagus Beans sliced diagonally about 1 inch long and par-boiled 
• ¼ cup loose Cilantro chopped 
• 10 leaves of Thai Basil chopped 
• 1 medium Onion thinly sliced 
• 3 tbsp Ginger minced
• 7 cloves Garlic minced 
• ½ tsp Black Pepper 
• 1 tbsp powdered Turmeric 
• 3 cups of fresh Chicken stock 
• 1 can of Coconut milk 
• ¼ cup of chopped Green Onions for garnish 
• 1 long Red Hot Pepper cut lengthwise in fours for garnish 
• Black Pepper for final garnish. 
• Salt to taste

Directions: 

1. First thing you do is prep everything and have it all ready before you start your cooking;
2. Using a wok, over medium/high heat, add your oil and sauté green Thai hot peppers, garlic, ginger and ½ tsp black pepper; 
3. Add chicken stock and turmeric and cook for about 1-2  minutes so that the flavors blend in;
4. Add coconut milk and the rest of the ingredients. Reduce heat to medium and cook for about 1 minute "tossing" the ingredients within the wok using two spatulas. 
5. Salt to taste. 
6. Plate your curry. Garnish with the chopped green onions and sliced red hot pepper.
7. Give one final sprinkle of black pepper.

You can serve this with white rice on the side.

That's it!!!

Here is another view of the completed dish....

Hope you give this a try. 

Until next time....

Cooking with Fresh Herbs

I have always heard about cooking with fresh herbs. How this really enhances the flavors of your menu items. Well I have dabbled with fresh herbs in the past but this year I decided to get serious and plant a herb garden with as many herbs as possible.

We have been doing this and using the fresh, garden picked herbs on our BBQ, Grilling and general cooking. Man let me tell you what....fresh, garden picked herbs takes it all to another level. Store bought herbs just don't compare. All I can say if you are ready for a mouth explosion, this is the way to do it!!! 

Here are some pictures of our herbs...

Dill

Cilantro

Mint

Thyme

Oregano

We have more herbs that we are waiting on to sprout. We are adding new ones all the time as I am able to obtain the seeds. Rosemary, sage, marjoram are just a few that we are waiting on.

You don't need a whole lot of room for this type of gardening. Just a few small containers and a little bit of your time and you will experience the outstanding flavors of garden fresh herbs in your cooking.

Use your own fresh herbs and elevate your cooking another level!!! You will definitely taste the difference.

Until next time....

Guam Salmon Salad!!!

We love a fresh vegetable salad in our household. And because we also love fish, the only natural thing to due is combine them both. Voila!!! Salmon Salad....

Here is how my wife Lupe makes her salmon salad:

Ingredients:

• 1 long Asian purple eggplant, diced thinly;
• 10 Star/Winged Beans, cut cross-ways about 1/8 inch;
• 8 Yard Long/Asparagus beans/frijoles, cut no longer than one inch and then blanched;
• 12 Cherry tomatoes, diced;
• 3 Green onions, diced;
• 1 Can of red salmon, 14-15 oz. can, break up the salmon, baked fresh salmon if you have;
• Juice from about 6 calamansi lemons;
• Salt to taste.

Directions:

• Toss the vegetables together just to mix them up good.
• Add just enough lemon juice to wet the mix. You don't want to soak everything!!
• Then add the broken up salmon. You add the salmon last so that you don't break it up into very small pieces when you toss the veggies.
• Add salt to taste and garnish with a little more diced green onions.

Notes:

Veggies are approximate to your desire and depending on availability in your area. Substitute if you like.

The eggplant is cut cross-ways about 1/8 to 1/4 inch thick. Then each piece is quartered.

If calamansi lemon is not available in your area, you can used regular U.S. yellow lemons and a very small squeeze of fresh orange juice. You want some tang for flavor though.

There you have it. A real great, refreshing salad with an abundance of flavors.

Enjoy!!!

Until next time....