Month: May 2014

Thai Quinoa Salad

This Thai quinoa salad with a ginger peanut dressing is out of this world and so good for you! The salad was introduced to me by my good friend Kathy who brought it to one of our other friends house for a graduation party. It was so addictive I found that many people, including myself, were going back for seconds and thirds. Come to find out that Kathy had acquired it from a food blog called ambitiouskitchen.com where you must go for a visit for some yummy, and healthy recipes. As always I have tweaked the recipe slightly but you can find the original at ambitiouskitchens.com under “crunchy cashew Thai quinoa salad with ginger peanut dressing”.

This is a perfect salad for summer especially if you need to bring a dish to the beach or to a BBQ because it holds up great and it’s not your run of the mill picnic salad, everyone will be asking you for the recipe! The flavors are much like my Thai cole slaw with the peanut butter, ginger, soy, sesame oil combo but here you have the delicious soft yet slightly chewy quinoa. You are just going to love this salad!

   

   

   

 

Ingredients for the Salad – Serves 12-15 side dish proportions:

• 2 1/4 cups cooked quinoa (follow quinoa directions …usually 2 cups water to 1 cup quinoa) but that will make more than 2 1/4 cups)
• 1 1/2 cups finely shredded red cabbage
• 3/4 cup diced red pepper
• 3/4 cup diced purple onion
• 1 cup shredded carrot
• 1/4 cup green onions diced (about 3 green onions)
• 1/2 cup coarsely chopped cilantro
• 1/2 cup cashew halves or whole …which ever you prefer
• 1 cup chick peas

Directions for Salad:

1. Add all of the above ingredients to a large mixing bowl
2. When the dressing is made add to bowl and combine all of the ingredients gently til mixed and enjoy!

Ingredients for the Ginger Peanut Dressing:

• 1/4 cup all natural peanut butter (I love Teddies Peanut Butter)
• 2 Tbsp fresh grated ginger
• 3 Tbsp reduced sodium soy
• 1 Tbsp Honey (I use Lavender Honey)
• 1 Tbsp red wine vinegar
• 1Tbsp rice wine vinegar (seasoned)
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• juice for 1 lime
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• A few dashes of Tabasco or your favorite hot sauce (OPTIONAL)

Directions for Salad and Dressing:

1. Add all of the above ingredients to a mixing bowl and whisk til combined
2. Pour over quinoa salad and mix

This salad would be great with some of my favorites like:

 

Elizabeth’s Cafe

Penne alla vodka con gamberetti or in english translation penne in vodka sauce with shrimp is a dish I first had in Urbino, Italy where I studied for a summer and a semester back in college. This became my very favorite pasta dish to eat there. I am a huge fan of sauces and you really can’t beat all the big flavors of a thick red sauce, cream and vodka (I also add in white wine or extra dry vermouth in my recipe) that all come together to create this wonderful creation called vodka sauce which is exactly how it’s made here in Madison, CT at Elizabeth’s Cafe. Adding in the shrimp just makes makes it that much more amazing and Elizabeth’s Cafe hits it right on the nose really bringing back those memories from Italy!

Every time I have eaten at Elizabeth’s Cafe they out do themselves in executing fine sauces and flavors in their dishes. When my friend Wendy and I met there for our celebratory birthday  lunch just recently they originally stated that they were making the vodka sauce and shrimp dish with rigatoni which wasn’t a problem for us, but since we had ordered saying “penne alla vodka sauce” when the plates arrived to our surprise they had specially made it with penne pasta for us. What a lovely thing to do, so simple yet going the extra mile for the customer! I highly recommend going to Elizabeth’s Cafe for the finer things in culinary cuisine. You can access their web site at perfectparties.com.

If you would like to make vodka sauce yourself I have two versions, one with cream and one with coconut cream for gluten-free:

The Engine Room

The Engine Room in Mystic, CT should definitely be on your to do list for fine breweries and gourmet dry aged beef burgers. My friends and I went there over the weekend and when we arrived we opted to wait at the bar for the circular booth to have  our dinner which was by far the best seat in the house. How fun was it to sit at their very fun bar sampling the specialty beers on tap. Our favorite was the Corendonk Abbey Blonde ale that was amazing with hints of citrus so delicious and smooth bringing beer to a new standard.

The restaurant itself has that very cool industrial look which I adore having a vast, yet warm, inviting feeling as though you are at some chalet. Our dinners were delicious from the turkey burgers to the homemade in house pastrami that was juicy and tender and their fries are to die for…may have been my favorite, The Caesar salad made with spinach was a refreshing change from the usual romaine and a citrusy dressing that was addictive and of course their gourmet dry aged beef burger goes with out saying …tender and melted in your mouth . I would highly recommend a visit here and you may want to make a reservation because they do attract a crowd.

If you like Caesar salads you may want to try my Caesar salad and Italian garlic croutons:

Italian Garlic Croutons

Italian garlic croutons are super easy and such a hardy and tasty addition to any salad! I keep the crust with these garlic croutons because it gives them more texture. My favorite salad with these Italian garlic croutons is a Caesar salad which I’ll be posting tomorrow so keep an eye out. These don’t last very long in our kitchen but if you do have a few left over after several days just put them in a Ziploc baggie and pop them into the freezer.

Above you can watch the Cooking Show on how to make my gourmet garlic croutons!

INGREDIENTS: Makes 12 -13 cups of Croutons – 1 Ex-Lg Ziploc Freezer Baggie of Croutons:

• 1- 1 1/2  large loafs of good Italian bead (14-15 cups croutons-use 1/2 stick butter and 3 tbsp olive oil if you have 10 cup of bread cubes)
• 4 large garlic cloves put thru garlic press
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 3/4 stick butter (salted) melted
• 4 tsp garlic granules (not powder) – Sprinkle 2 tsp per cookie tray
• 1 tsp salt
• A couple dashes of your favorite hot sauce Siracha -you can find this with the other hot sauces at the super market
• 2 cookie trays

DIRECTIONS:

1. Pre-heat oven to 400º
2. Slice bread into 3/4″ slices length wise
3. Then slice into 3/4″ squares, you don’t want them to be perfect – that’s what’s lovely about hand made croutons they don’t look like they came from a box
4. Melt 3/4 stick of butter
5. In a large mixing bowl add 1/4 cup olive oil, 3/4 stick melted butter, 4 garlic cloves thru garlic press, 1 Tsp salt, and whisk  to mix
6. Divide this mixture into two and pour onto the 2 cookie trays spreading them evenly all over the tray
7. Divide up Italian bread cubes into 2 and put onto the 2 cookie trays right on the olive oil mixture
8. Stir the cut up bread cubes all around the cookie tray to evenly coat and soak up all of the olive oil mixture. I use a pastry scraper (see photo) to do this…a tool which I use a lot!
9. NOW sprinkle 2 Tsp of garlic granules on each of the cookie trays filled with Italian garlic croutons
10. Put into the oven for 12 minutes
11. IMPORTANT – they go quickly at the end so you really need to watch them so they don’t burn
12. Let the Italian garlic croutons cool before putting them into a Freezer Ziploc baggie
13. I usually keep them on the counter for a few days then throw them into the freezer to store and keep fresh

You may also like to try these recipes with your croutons: