Coconut Salmon ~ Mmm, Mmm, good!

I had an urge to make pudding last night. What to use? A bit of brown rice in the cupboard and part of a huge can of coconut milk! That’ll do the trick. But, what to do with the leftover coconut milk?

Salmon thawing in the frig for supper and why wouldn’t coconut milk fit the bill? Think tropics -- hand-caught fish and coconuts falling off tall trees. Well, enough of that talk. After all I’m in the middle of New York State. The nearest coconut tree I know of is at the Smithsonian Mall -- in the Conservatory of the U.S. Botanic Gardens -- in Washington DC, five hours to the south.

A basic pan-seared salmon fillet is my favorite. A couple of tablespoons of flour, salt & pepper. Warm the pan over medium heat and add a tablespoon of olive oil and one of butter. Dredge the salmon fillet in the flour mixture and shake off the excess.

As soon as the bottom is browned and the fish looks cooked just 1/8-1/4 inch up, turn the fish with tongs. Cook for another 3-5 minutes then start spooning on coconut milk. The milk will sizzle away when it drizzles down onto the pan. Keep spooning for a minute or two.

Turn off the heat under the pan and place the fillet on a plate. Cover the fish with a “tent” of aluminum foil tucked tightly around the edges of the plate.





Stir a few more spoonfuls of coconut milk into the pan.

After a minute or two, remove the foil tent and spoon the extra sauce onto the salmon.

I completed my meal with a mixture of mesclun (baby field greens) and arugula from my garden, topped with EVOO and red wine vinegar.




TV TRAY



As a single person, I sometimes often take my meal to the living room and eat off a TV tray while watching a movie or documentary. TV tray meals are usually carefully prepared thrown together with whatever happens to be in the kitchen, no measurements recorded.

Tortillas, ham, sour cream, chives, cream cheese, tomato, provolone cheese; broccoli


(Last but not least, I hope you'll take a few minutes to visit my other blog, CORNING NY STEP BY STEP -- a view of the city where I live.)

TWO Triple-Decker Toasted Cheese, Tomato and Herb Sandwiches

So few tomato plants, yet so many tomatoes. I’m overwhelmed with tomatoes. Even knowing that I’m competing with a greedy squirrel (or could it be the skunk I smell several nights each week), there seems to be a plethora of tomatoes in my little garden.

I made a tomato vegetable pie and I’ve given some tomatoes away, but still I pick tomatoes. Because of the previously-mentioned creature, the moment I see as much as a glimpse of color other than green, I pick a tomato and place it on the windowsill.

Thank heavens, the supply is finally winding down. But, this past week the sill was getting crowded, so I decided to have a simple sandwich supper, two nights in a row.

Thus was born TWO TRIPLE-DECKER TOASTED CHEESE, TOMATO AND HERB SANDWICHES!


Ingredients for four sandwiches...

12 slices whole grain bread
butter and/or extra virgin olive oil

Sandwich #1 ~
4 oz. cream cheese (half an 8-oz. box)
grated cheddar cheese (I grated sharp white cheddar)
fresh tomato slices, enough to cover 8 slices of bread
fresh basil leaves, cut in thin strips
fresh sage leaves, cut in thin strips
freshly ground black pepper
raw, shredded carrots

Sandwich #2 ~
4 oz. cream cheese (half an 8-oz. box)
shredded cheddar cheese (I bought this yellow cheddar already shredded)
fresh tomato slices, enough to cover 8 slices of bread
fresh basil leaves, cut in thin strips
fresh sage leaves, cut in thin strips
freshly ground black pepper
raw, shredded carrots
small cooking onion, cut in thin strips


Directions...

1. To prepare tomatoes: slice tomatoes, place on plate and sprinkle with basil strips and freshly ground black pepper. Loosely cover and set aside.

2. To prepare cheddar cheese: grate cheese, cut fresh sage leaves in strips, mix in small bowl. Loosely cover and set aside.

3. Spread a thin layer of butter on both sides of all twelve (12) slices of bread (or brush with EVOO). Note: I used butter for the first night and brushed EVOO on my slices of bread on the second night. No noticeable difference, as far as I'm concerned.

4. For each sandwich, over medium heat, brown both sides of one slice of buttered bread and brown only one side each of the two remaining slices. You can brown all the slices as directed before assembling the sandwiches.

5. For Sandwich #2, add the step of lightly sauteing the carrots and the onions.

6. Assemble in this order: bread (untoasted side down) topped with cream cheese, tomatoes and basil; bread toasted on both sides; cheddar cheese and sage; carrots (and onions if making Sandwich #2); bread (untoasted side up).

7. Place in heated pan, over medium heat (adjust as needed), topping each sandwiches with a lid or weighted plate. Turn when bottom side is browned. Brown second side to desired doneness.

These vegetables, cheeses and herbs were used according to what was available in my garden and my refrigerator. Take a look at what you’re growing or what’s in your fridge and you can create your own delicious sandwich.

Aha, I just remembered... if you look closely at the layout of ingredients with the yellow cheddar, you’ll see that I mixed in a few sliced almonds. A crunchy bonus!

Sweet and Healthy Cream Cheese Pancakes and Dark Chocolate Trail Mix Balls

Here are two more recipes that I added to my Pinterest boards. (If you're on Pinterest, you can find me at Kathleen Read Richardson.) Both of these offerings are sweet, but not too sweet, and both are guaranteed healthy.


CREAM CHEESE PANCAKES
You’ll find the complete recipe at the I BREATH... I’M HUNGRY... blog.

Cream Cheese Pancakes are low carb, gluten-free and require only four ingredients: eggs, cream cheese, stevia and cinnamon. Instead of buying stevia, I used 1 teaspoon Organic Blue Agave Maple Flavored Syrup which I had on hand after using some of it in Sweet Potato Veggie Burgers. I also topped my Cream Cheese Pancakes with the syrup.

My picture is terrible, but don’t judge the taste by my ability to flip these thin, delicate pancakes. I have yet to master the skill of gingerly sliding the spatula under them preparatory to turning them over. May be that I’m making them too big, or my “batter” is TOO thin. Anyways, the original blog has an absolutely gorgeous photo of them plated and ready to serve. I did like this AM dish, just a matter of remembering to allow time for the bubbles to die down after blending the batter and to soften some cream cheese.

As my blogging friend BAM would say, this recipe will feed two adults, or one hungry teenage boy.


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DARK CHOCOLATE TRAIL MIX BALLS


This one’s for you, CCU (Chocolate Chip Uru at GO BAKE YOURSELF) -- 16-year old queen of chocolate creations -- and was concocted by another of my favorite bloggers, Cory at THE ZESTY COOK

I spotted it and thought to myself that these might be a solution for my daughter, who has a 5-year old and a 9-year old playing ball up to three nights a week. They either have to eat a very early or a very late supper on practice and game nights. Dark Chocolate Trail Mix Balls might be the easy-to-prep, eat-anywhere, highly nutritious food that would get them through Little League season, or any other life-consuming sports season.

One of the ingredients called for is protein powder. My son, my daughter and my SIL are all familiar with protein powder and anyone of them may have it on hand right now. I, however, do not, so off to Wegmans I went, to check out the protein powders in Nature’s Marketplace.

So many choices! Most in huge canisters, with prices ranging from $11.99 to $29.99. With assistance from a Wegmans employee, I chose a 1.1 oz. package of Organic Hemp Protein Superfood Protein Powder at $.99. From Nutiva. I’m not promoting it; just giving you information.

Two scoops of protein powder, according to a search on the Internet, is equivalent to two tablespoons.

Quinoa... This recipe also includes quinoa. I have the hardest time remembering how to pronounce that word. It’s “keen-oh-ah”, or if you say it fast, it comes out “keen-wah”, or so I’ve been told.

Love it, love it, love it! They taste so good!

My substitutions -
Agave Maple Syrup for Honey
Raisins for Cherries (Next time I HAVE to try it with cherries!)

Remember, you’ll find the recipe for Dark Chocolate Trail Mix Balls at The Zesty Cook.


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HERBS FOR MY GARDEN

I bought the parsley and the thyme for my Chicken Kiev and who doesn’t need basil in their garden! While I may not use much of the sage in my kitchen, my grandsons and I love to pick leaves to rub between our fingers and breathe in the rich aroma. I also have a huge chive plant and a brand new cluster of lemon balm.

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