Posts tagged cilantro
My romantic egg – Oeuf cocotte with salmon, asparagus and a cilantro-coconut pesto
Jul 15th
Mon oeuf romantique – Oeuf cocotte au saumon et asperges, pesto de coriandre et noix de coco
Thanks so much for all your kinds words on my previous post, you guys are really wonderful, kind and generous of your time. I do appreciate it a lot.
I think this dish is perfect for a tête à tête dinner (according to the dictionary, tête à tête is also used in English) to share with someone you care. I have been alone for about two weeks now, due to business trips of TP so I decided to have a tête à tête dinner with myself and I was quite happy about it.
Well, I think no matter what, you need to treat yourself as often as you can (that’s my theory on life) and enjoy anything even if you are by yourself.
My dog and bird are keeping me company…so temporarily being alone has some good sides and bad sides. You tend to enjoy the whole bed, no daily laundry, no mess around but then when you find a half mouse dead in your patio with just the tale and legs, you have to figure out a way to clean it…I suspect the neighbors cats left it as a present.
After one hour of thinking how to remove it, I was embarrassed to ask my neighbor (the most adorable neighbors you can dream of) but I didn’t want to leave this mess in the patio and lacked courage to pick it up, so I had to tell them that Mr. Cat must have played too hard with a mouse again, so Gary cleaned it up for me. Thanks Gary!
We do use cilantro and coconut in French cuisine, even though it’s not really something you would use on a daily basis, and parsley is more frequently used than cilantro, those two ingredients are not unfamiliar to our cuisine. This fragrant pesto is delicious, the raw coconut adds a smooth finish to the dish. Oeuf cocotte is such a versatile dish and so much fun to eat. You can also use fava beans instead of the asparagus and white fish instead of the salmon, just play with it.
This combination is truly a harmonious blend of flavors, and a perfect little dish for a light diner en amoureux… or a diner for treating yourself!
Ingredients for 4
- 2 salmon fillet or 7 oz (or 200 g), diced
- 6 asparagus, cut in one inch pieces
- 1 shallot, chopped
- 3 tbs dry white wine
- 3 tbs crème fraîche
- 1 tbs olive oil
- 2 eggs
- salt and pepper
For the cilantro-coconut pesto
- 1/2 bunch cilantro
- 1 garlic clove, crushed
- 0.70 oz (or 20 g) raw unsweetened coconut shredded
- 4 tbs olive oil
- salt and pepper
Preparation
For the cilantro-coconut pesto
Mix all ingredients in a blender.
Heat olive oil in a pan, add shallots and brown them. Add asparagus, wine, salt and pepper. Cover and cook until asparagus are cooked but still crunchy. Add salmon and cook for a few minutes. Add 2 tbs of pesto and stir for 30 seconds. Add cream and let it reduce a little.
Divide teh mixture into ramequins. Break on egg on top, add salt and pepper. Cook in a pre-heated oven until the yolks are runny and the whites still a little transparent. Serve with extra pesto on the side.
It's warm, it's flavorful, it's a salad – Warm quinoa salad, with cannelli beans, carrots and cauliflower with a four herb salsa
Jul 25th
C’est tiède, c’est plein de saveur, c’est une salade – Salade tiède de quinoa aux carottes, cocos, chou fleur et salsa aux quatres herbes
Today I said goodbye to my long time and faithful friend, my VW Golf I had for over 10 years, and that over the years turned into an old lady. I gave it to a charity and I have to admit that when the tow-truck came pick it up, I was somehow sad. I know it’s just a thing, and I should not get attached to material, but still, it was the first car I got in the US and I was somehow attached to it. We went through some good and bad times together. I did not feel comfortable selling it, since the steering wheel was really hard to manoeuvre and I stopped driving it for a month, fearing it would break down in the middle of the street…and many other things were wrong with it, so I figured I would give it to charity. C’est la vie, nothing lasts and things like people sooner or later quietly go.
OK, let’s not dwell on this, it’s just a car after all!
Let’s go back to the fun world of cooking, I love to play with quinoa, it’s delicious in soups, salads, taboule and any kind of side dishes. The great flavor comes from the herb salsa I made, which enhanced this whole salad.
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cup quinoa
- 1/2 cauliflower
- 2 carrots
- 1 cup cooked cannelli beans
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 celeri stick
- 3 cloves
For the salsa
- 2 scallions
- 2 garlic cloves
- 1/2 bunch parsley
- 1/2 bunch cilantro
- 1/3 bunch mint
- 5 tbs olive oil
- 1 tbs balsamic vinegar
- 1/2 tsp cumin
- 1/2 tsp paprika
- a pinch chili powder
- salt and pepper
Preparation
If you are using dried cannelli beans, they need to be soaked overnight in water, if you didn’t have any and don’t have time, you can use canned beans, but they don’t taste as good as the dried ones.
Cook quinoa by steaming it, like you would make steamed rice. Add double its volume of water, bring to a boil, and reduce heat to a minimum and cover with lid. Cook for about 20 minutes.
If used, dried cannelli beans, cook them in water for about 30 minutes with 1/2 onion, 3 cloves, 1 celery stick, and 2 bay leaves. When cooked remove onion, cloves, celery, bay leaves, and drain beans.
Cut cauliflower in small florets, cut carrots in slices, then cut in half. Steam for about 10 minutes and set aside.
Mix the salsa ingredients in a mixer to make it into a smooth mixture.
When quinoa is cooked, place in a mixing bowl, add vegetables. Spoon salsa at the end and mix well.
The salmon wants to be a chicken – Sesame ginger grilled salmon with mixed salad lemon cilantro dressing
Jul 21st
Le saumon qui voulait être une aiguillette – Aiguillettes de saumon au sésame marinées au gingembre et soja, salade mixte à la vinaigrette de citron et coriandre
After coming back from New Orleans, I stuffed my fridge with fish and seafood, and it’s almost reaching to an end…I feel so much better when I have light lunches like this one, I get extra energy for the rest of the day.
San Francisco has been quite gloomy lately, the fog has a tough time disappearing and the wind makes you feel like you are in winter. We all know that San Francisco weather is what it is in summer, so I will stop complaining…but still I do enjoy the hot summer nights where you can wear tank tops and can sip a anything you want in a restaurant patio without worrying about the wind blowing your napkin away.
I used sockeye wild salmon for this salad, after reading that farm raised salmon has been injected with artificial color to get that orangey-pinky color, I got a little reluctant to get farm raised salmon. My dilemma is that by fishing in the oceans, wild species, we contribute to its extinction, and maybe one day there will be no more fishes in the oceans. Obviously wild salmon tastes much better and sockeye salmon has such a beautiful deep red color, but at what cost do we want to contribute to destruction the of the environment?
It’s something that has been bothering me and I will have to do more research on the subject.
Anyway, if you are anti-wild salmon for environmental reasons and feel comfortable consuming farm raised salmon, it’s up to you, I don’t want to eat artificial coloring if no need to.
Ingredients for 2
For the salmon and marinade
- 1/2 lb of salmon fillet
- 1 tbs shoyu or soy sauce
- 1 tbs balsamic vinegar
- 1 small piece ginger, grated
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tbs sesame seeds
- sichuan pepper
For the salad
- 1 carrot, cut in strips
- 1/2 lb cherry medley tomatoes
- 6 radishes
- 1/4 red onion, finely chopped
For the vinaigrette
- 2 tbs extra virgin olive oil
- Juice of one lemon
- 1 tbs cilantro, finely chopped
- salt and pepper
Preparation
Marinate salmon in marinade ingredients for about 4 hours. Cut in thin strips, add sesame seeds and broil in oven for a few minutes.
For the carrots, you can use a potato peeler to get those thin strips, if the strips are too wide, cut them in half lengthwise. Slice radishes in thin slices. Mix the rest of the ingredients all together. Add vinaigrette and toss. Keep some vinaigrette to sprinkle on top of the salmon.
When salmon is cooked, plate with some salad in the middle of the plate and salmon strips on top. Sprinkle with remaining vinaigrette.
