Mac & Cheese My Way

The other day I got a chain email the "Holiday Recipe Exchange" it was called. It took me a little while to think of a something I would make "in a bind and with few ingredients", then it dawned on me. Mac & Cheese my way.

I made this last Friday when I had only a little time to prep for a few girlfriend visiting. Its great for entertaining because its a basically a complete meal in itself. I served it with some roasted-garlic sauteed string beans (I love the thinner haricot vert. I get these frozen from Trader Joe's).

Ingredients:

1 Shrimp bag of cooked and de-veined jumbo shrimp
1 Pack of Turkey Bacon
3 cups of Shredded sharp white cheddar cheese
1/2 cup of Parmesan Cheese
3 tablespoons of Flour
1 1/2 cup of Milk
1 tbsp Olive Oil
2 tbsp Butter (I always like to use unsalted, it helps control the flavor)
1 tsp Cayenne
1 tsp Nutmeg

Instructions:
Pre-heat broiler (if you have a high-low setting, set to high)

Defrost shrimp overnight, but if you don't have time, you can run it under cold water for a few minutes. I prefer to remove shrimp tails for easier eating, some like to leave these on.

Cook pasta, strain, add olive oil and set aside.

In a large skillet, cook bacon over medium heat until crunchy. Set this aside to cool. Cut this into small pieces (kitchen scissors make this a breeze).

Using the same skillet (using this will help bacon flavor enhance the sauce), gently melt the butter and olive oil. Once this has melted, add flour and mix together.

Continue to mix, allowing the flour to cook. This will take approx 2-3 minutes.

When the flour and butter mixture is finally smooth, slowly whisk in milk.

Continue to mix until milk starts to bubble and mixture has begun to thicken. Add the cheddar cheese a hand full or so at a time, whisking until smooth each time. Continuing to mix, add the Parmesan cheese.

Once all the cheese has melted and mixture is smooth, add nutmeg and cayenne.

In a large bowl combine the cheese mixture to the cooked pasta. Add bacon and shrimp. Lay this mixture in a large greased pan. Place this in the broiler until the top is browned and appears crunchy. Then its ready to eat!

Enjoy hearty goodness!

Pastelón

When people find out I love to cook they almost always quickly and excitedly ask "Oh, what do you like to cook? Do you cook Latin food?"

I almost always bashfully reply in the negative, eliciting the same reaction I see when I tell people I'm not a good dancer.

Pastelón is my one redeeming dish. And I have to say, I couldn't have asked for a more delicious and satisfying one.

I've described it as "Puertorican Lasagna", " Plantain Sheppard's Pie" but more accurately it is a sweet and savory dish, a cousin of meat and potatoes; the ultimate comfort food.

All it takes are a few ingredients -

1 pk of ground turkey of beef (make the switch, go turkey!)

4 over-ripe plantains
1 pack of shredded cheddar cheese
2 eggs
vegetable oil

You can use any variety of the following to season the meat:

salt, pepper, garlic, onions, cilantro, tomato paste, paprika, cumin, hot sauce, green olives

Procedure:

First, find the darkest, ugliest looking plantains you can find (the uglier, the sweeter).

Cut plantains lengthwise. I cut the plantain in half then cut slices lengthwise.

Set the plantains aside

Saute onions, garlic, cilantro, tomato paste at medium heat, until onions start to become translucent.

Add the meat and season.

In a separate pan, heat about half an inch of oil. Once oil is hot (you can test this by dipping a small piece of plantain- if bubbles build around it, the oil is ready) add plantains.

Cook these until they are golden brown. Remember to turn them.

In an oven-safe pan lay a single layer of fried plantains, then sprinkle cheese, follow this with a layer of the meat mixture, and follow with a layer of plantains and continue...

Once you've layered all the ingredients pour the whisked eggs on top and shift the pan around so that it goes down all the corners. The purpose of the eggs is to keep the mixture together as is in most casseroles.

Add more cheese on top and bake at 350° for approx 25 minutes.

Soba Noodles!

For the past year, I've on a quest to cut down my simple carbs; rather to optimize my carb intake and truly understand the concept of "good carbs."

First cut was the bread. I must admit, this was never a huge part of my diet, so it wasn't hard to dodge.

My second cut was pasta. This was a more difficult and gradual cut. I mean, lets just say what we're all thinking: pasta is not only delicious and filling, it's cheap & easy. I couldn't cut it out all at once, so I moved onto whole grain pasta, even tried that "plus" pasta with extra protein. Though grainy, harder texture just didn't do it for me.

But just a hand full of months ago, while browsing the "Asian" section of the ethnic isle at the market I saw "Soba Noodles." After flipping the package over I found a huge surprise: 113 calories and 7 grams of protein per serving!

I was sold. I'd at least give them a try. After all, they looked a lot like angel hair.

The noodles only took about 8 minutes to boil. At first, their murky greenish-gray hue was a bit offputting.

After a toss in little sesame oil, some fresh garlic and come scallions, I was addicted!

Also, these noodles can be eaten hot or cold. At first, I was afraid to serve them with anything that wasnt meant to be "asian style", but recently I tossed them with some olive oil, some fresh garlic, sundried tomatoes and parmesan cheese & it was tasty!

That said, you can find them in the "Asian" section of your local grocery store. They're definitely worth a try.

Sriracha Guava Sauce

Guava is one of my favorite fruit flavors to implement with savory spices. Its balance of sweet, tangy yet earthy flovours makes it hugely versatile and able to stand up to proteins like lamb and salmon.

That being said, this wasnt always the way I felt about guava.

I grew up cringing at the sight of my mother gobbling gelatinous beet red guava paste with cubes of cream cheese as she and my family did around the holidays, and sometimes for dessert.

But surely like most puertorican kids, my fondness for guava grew. Confectioners sugar lured me to fluffy flaky guava turnovers and pan de bono led me to my latest find: guava sriracha sauce.

I was shocked to discover this rogue accoutrement accompany the famously familiar and ever so comforting cheese filled pan de bono as I sat down for dinner at Philadelphia's Chifa.

Stephen Starr's long standing eatery Alma de Cuba serves pan de bono with a mojo sauce heavy on mint and cilantro, but the new Latino on the block, Chifa serves this with a bold blend: guava preserves and the uber hot yet full flavored aged chili paste known by spicy food lovers as sriracha.

To my surprise the subtle flavor of the pan de bono was not at all overpowered by the punchy marmalade. In fact, the spice of the sriracha accentuated the creaminess of the cheese that fills the bread. The sweetness of the guava and highlighted an otherwise overlooked buttery flavor in the dough, leaving me wanting more.

Determined to have just that, I attempted to recreate the guava-goodness this weekend. I used this to garnish my shrimp empanadas...but ended up looking for excuses and foods to dip into it (even used it to flavor the base to a stir-fry!).

What may be the best part of this all is the fact that the sauce is comprised of only two ingredients which can be combined to suit the palate and heat tolerance of each enjoying it. My ratio is just under 1:1, guava beating sriracha.

Crisp, Cool Salsa

Keeping cool in the dog days of NYC summer can seem like an inescapable challenge.

If cooking a full hearty meal with your AC on blast in an 11x11 studio apartment doesn't sound appealing to you, you may want to simply not. That's how this cool salsa came about. No cooking, just chopping and mixing together some fruits and water veggies.

I've eaten this alone like fresh fruit salad, dipped crispy corn chips into it and also love to top light fleshed fish like Tilapia and Mahi with it.

Since its so versatile, I like to make a generous amount. Thanks to the citrus I don't need to eat it all at once - though stopping myself may prove to be an even bigger challenge than beating the heat!

Ingredients:

1 chopped fresh mango

1 small can of pineapple (drained)

1 cucumber (I like to peel mine because of the wax overload on these!)

1 small red onion

1 ripe avocado

about a handful of cilantro

Salt, pepper & lime juice to taste

Chop all ingredients to 1/3 inch cubes. In a large bowl mix roughly with your hands (you want to be gentle with the avocado). Finally, add salt pepper and squeeze in the limes!

*Remember the limes help keep the avocado nice and green even days after, so its crucial!

Let them eat Salmon cake!

In these recessionary times, I wandered the isles of my local grocery store, like many fellow hungry Americans, looking for ingenious ways to stretch the dollar. My main obstacle, never to sacrifice flavor. Afterall, I do live to eat, not eat to live.

There it was $1.79 for 14.75 ounces of omega rich Salmon. I looked curiously at the golden colored can as I walked through the isle toward my usual Albacore in water. Suddenly I stared at the opaque aluminum can and thought of my humdrum tuna salad. But the thought of salmon from a can?? No, I just couldn't do it! It was my unwritten, unacknowledged mental rule: "The only animal I eat out of a can is tuna!"

But it haunted me, all the way to the register. The golden glow of the can whose contents promised the very same for my post-winter lackluster skin & locks. But i thought: "no, no only lox." Despite the turmoil, I politely asked the cashier to pause as I ran over to the luring isle and grabbed a single $1.79, 14.75 ounce can of Atlantic Salmon.

I looked at the back label, not for inspiration, but merely salvation. What did I find? fish. tacos. Though I love them with light and tropical tilapia, salmon is much too hearty a fish to stuff into a shell if you ask me. So this, I would not attempt.

I took my non perishable can home, along with my perishables. My first thought was. . . salad? But the whole point of getting this salmon was escaping the bun that trapped my tuna and my palate in a quotidian cage of dissatisfaction.

I wanted this meal to feel hearty, home-cooked, warm, rustic yet refined. I wanted it all to come out of the shiny yet shanty golden can.

Many google and cabinet searches later my results were pretty satisfying if I may say so myself.
"Hearty? Check."
"Warm? Check."
"Home-cooked? Semi-check."
"Rustic? Definitely check."
"Refined? Well...3.5 out of 5 isn't too shabby!"

Here is my take on rescuing canned salmon and my hungry tummy- its a win-win, really.

Salmon Cakes

What you will need:

one 14.75 oz can of Atlantic salmon

2/3 cups of breadcrumbs

1/2 cup of chopped onion

2 small eggs

1/2 lemon's worth of juice

salt, black pepper, cayenne pepper, garlic powder (to taste)

3-4 Tb olive oil

Action!

1- Using your favorite can opener, open the can of salmon

2- Lightly whisk eggs just so that the york and white are blended together

3- In a large mixing bowl mix together all ingredients adding the seasoning last. I used about a teaspoon on each. Remember the salmon is already salted in the can, so there really isn't much need for a lot of salt.

4- Using your clean hands blend mixture together and make 2-inch rounds. These should be similar size/shape as sliders. I flattened mine slightly to get a crispier cake.

5-Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil at med temperature. Once the oil is hot ( you can try a small piece of salmon to test) place a few patties in the pan. Cook these for a few minutes on each side, until they are that coveted shade of golden brown.

Makes about six cakes best enjoyed with tomato wedges and a touch of tartar sauce.

Plantains Por Favor!

Being that I am of Caribbean descent, Puerto Rican to be more precise, I am often asked about one of my dietary staples, the plantain.

Plantains are similar to its smaller cousin, the banana but are in my opinion much more versatile. They can be cooked ripened or unripened, their flavor varying greatly depending on its stage in maturity.

Plantains are a huge part of my gastronomy. I quite honestly don't understand how so many can go on without knowing of their goodness! Hopefully this will inspire you to let them into your diet, as there are so many ways to eat them, you would be foolish not to.

Here are some of the most common, and most delicious ways to eat a plantain.

Pasteles - Pasteles are similar to tamales in the way that they are prepared. These are made with a puree of unripened plantain, that is laid of a sheet of wax paper and/or banana leaf, stuffed with meat and then wrapped and tied together with string. These are then cooked in boiling water. To me, and most Puerto Ricans, eating a pastel or "pasteles" as we call them most often (can't have just one) is synonymous with the Christmas holiday.

Mofongo- A savory dish also made with unripened plantains. Here plantains are first cut into medium pieces then deep fried, then finally molded into a "pilón" or wooden mortar. A stew then fills the mortar. This is often made of seafood, chicken or pork.

Mangu- Arguably a Dominican dish, this is one of the simplest ways to prepare a plantain. Unripened plantains are boiled and then pureed, often butter and garlic is added.

Pastelón- My all-time favorite way to eat plantains. Pastelón is very structurally similar to lasagna. Sweet plantains are fried into long strips that are layered between lots of cheese and ground beef.

Amarillos Fritos or Maduros - The most popular way to eat plantains is by simply peeling an over-ripened plantain cutting into 3/4 inch pieces and deep frying.

Tostones- Unripened plantains are fried, flattened and fried again: the result is a crunchy yet satisfying side dish or snack strong enough to scoop up anything on your plate.

Plantain chips- Becoming increasingly popular, a great alternative to potato chips. These are thin, crispy- whether store bought or homemade.

There really are countless ways to eat a plantain, and I'm sure as soon as I post this more will come to mind.

Look out - I'll be adding recipes for each of these. You owe it to yourself to give them a shot.