Monday, November 10, 2014

11/10 Veggie soup and Paraguayan soup

When you read the title I'm sure you though ; two soups together? Well actually the paraguayan soup is solid, is a kind of corn bread but with cheese and onions.
On Mondays I always need to eat soup, I don't know maybe because it was a tradition in my family and brought me memories of my childhood; so even my husband is not a fan of soups, I make them every week, at least once!

Veggie Soup

Ingredientes:
- 2 carrots peeled and chopped
- 2 finely minced garlic
- 2 celerys leaves? chopped
- 1 tomatoes chopped
- half medium onion chopped
- 2 small potatoes peeled and chopped
- 2 cups chicken broth
- oregano, about 1/2 spoon (6 leaves)
- 1/2 cup jazmine rice
- salt and pepper
- oil aproximately 2 spoons

Heat the oil in a stockpot over medium-low heat. 
When is hot add the carrots, garlic, celery, and onions; cook for 7 minutes until are soften. Add the chicken broth, salt, pepper. Cover to boil for 5 minutes, then add the potatoes and tomatoes and the rice, boil until the rice is ready. Turn off the heat and add the chopped oregano.


I used chicken broth Costco brand 


So happy with my herb plant i bought yesterday (oregano, thyme and rosemary) 



Paraguayan Soup

There are many recipes online of Paraguayan soup, but the best is and always will be the one made in Paraguay with paraguayan cheese, pork fat and in the firewood oven....ahhhh memories...
This time I'm going to try one a little healthier and with ingredients we can find in US. Usually I use here Queso fresco that is the closest one to paraguayan cheese, but today I'll use cottage cheese and see what happens. LOL

Ingredients:
- 1 medium onion
- 1 cup milk
- 1 cup cornmeal
- 3 tablespoons butter
- 2 eggs
- 8 oz cottage cheese
- 1 tbsp salt
- 1 tsp baking powder

Preheat the oven 375 degrees F. Grease and add a spoon of flour to cover a pan. Set aside.
In a large saucepan melt the butter over low heat and add onions and salt. Cook, stirring occasionally until the onions are soft, 5 minutes or more. Remove from heat, wait to cool down a little bit.


Then add the cottage cheese and the eggs yolk, mix very well, and slowly start adding the cornmeal and milk.


In a clean bowl place the white eggs and using a hand mixer, beat the eggs and soft peaks form, around 3 or 4 minutes. Then gently add the eggs to the cornmeal mixture.


Pour the mix in the pre grease pan and bake for 35 minutes or until a knife insterted in the center come out clean.


Remove from oven, wait to cool down a little bit and serve with the soup.


Here is the piece I ate, I like it...very moist, but next time for my healthier version I'll use less butter. Of course I forgot to take the pic of the soup, sorry :)



Note: In Paraguay this dish is very traditional to eat with barbeque (asado) and yucca, or also like this case to serve with a light soup.







Friday, November 7, 2014

11/8/2014 Potatoes and chicken salad

Hi there...
Today i'm doing something latin, it may be call in different ways in some countries of SouthAmerica and it has variations in the ingredients too. I know people from Venezuela and Puerto Rico has something similar...in Paraguay we call it "Salpicon de Pollo"

Ingredients:

- mayonaisse 1/4 cup (if you want to do healthier you can mix 2 spoons of mayo with greek yogurt and add garlic powder, salt and pepper) 
- 1 can of peas
- parsley 
- 1 chicken breast cooked and chopped
- 2 carrots cooked and chopped
- sliced black olives
- 1 pound potatoes peeled, cooked in boil water and chopped in cubes

Peel the potatoes and put in water to keep it from turn them in brown, meanwhile you put a pot of water to boil. Cooked until the potatoes are soft.




Mix together potatoes, carrots, peas


Saute the chicken in a pan with a spoon of oil, when it is brown add some water and add salt, pepper and bay leaves. Cook for 10 min, let it cool down.
Chop it in small pieces and add to the other ingredientes.


Add the black olives and the mayonaisse and some salt and pepper.
Put in the fridge; serve it cool!


PS. I forget to add the parsley :)
Try it  and enjoy it! 

Wednesday, November 5, 2014

11/4/2014 Stir fry pork with asparagus

A chilly morning today, but the forecast said it will be 90 by noon!
We have plans for a playdate at the park this morning, and a free? afternoon at home, that's mean I won't have a lot of time for cooking, so I'll go ahead and prepare some of my ingredients.
Today i'll doing a pork stir fry with asparagus. The original recipe asks for snap peas too, i didnt use then, not a fan.

I found this stir fry pork cut in the grocery store, I'm not sure if it is pork tenderloin as the recipe ask, but I gave it a try :)




Here are the ingredients I used:

1 pound stir fry pork
1 cup brown rice
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons sherry
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon corn starch
1 bunch of green onions, sliced thin
1 pound asparagus, trimmed and sliced pieces
1/4 cup water
2 cloves garlic, minced
1-inch piece ginger, peeled and minced
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
Salt and pepper


I added some olive oil to my wok and I started saute the pork over high heat, around 8 min, or until it was brown...
Meanwhile the pork was cooking I whisked together the soy sauce, sherry, sesame oil, corn starch and rice vinegar...


This is how it looked the pork, I set aside and in the same wok I added more oil and I started to saute the asparagus and green onions...for about 5 minutes, then I added the water, the ginger and garlic, and left for another 3 minutes...



Finally I added the mix and the pork, I cooked for another 5 minutes.


The rice I put in water hours before start cooking that helps to the brown rice to cook faster. When it was ready I mixed with some butter.


I think I overcooked the asparagus, they were a little soggy instead of crunchy :( but in general the flavor was good...

Below the link of the actual recipe...try it and let me know how did it go...



Tuesday, November 4, 2014

11/4/2014 - Pesto Linguine and baked salmon


I'm a stay home mom, busy, so when i have enough time I can make a very elaborated recipe but most of the time I make something quick and simple.

I tried to plan my meals ahead so I do my groceries once a week. Today I made a easy dinner...
3 principal ingredients:
- marinated salmon (sells at Costco, a very good deal and it is wild!)
- Linguine wheat pasta
- Pesto paste
Meanwhile my LO was taking her nap..I start boiling the water for the pasta with salt and oil.

I always put foil in my baking pan, is so much easier to clean...if you have to, sometimes it just stay clean!!
Salmon ready to go in the oven...350 degrees for 20 minutes.


When the pasta was ready I put in the colander to let the liquid to flow out, put it back in the pot and
add some butter, about 2 spoons of pesto paste and parmesan cheese.


And here we go...voila! My husband loves fried eggs, so I add one for his plate....



PS. Hope my english is not too bad :)