The Traveling Epicurean

Herbs

pureed cilanto, garlic and Greek yogurt, Basil pesto

Chilean Sea Bass with Green Goddess Sauce II

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Chilean Sea Bass with Green Goddess Sauce II

Chilean sea bass is full of flavor and has large meaty flakes. This is an oily fish so you need to have some kind of citrus to balance it out and that’s why my green goddess II is a perfect match!  The lemon and mint in the green goddess II are key flavors in complimenting the sea bass. I am all for cooking fish rare, even sashimi style but you cannot eat this fish under done. Chilean sea bass turns gelatinous and rubber-like when under done while on the other hand when cooked properly, even slightly over, turns it into a buttery, soft fish.

I think presentation is important when friends are over for dinner and you are plating the meal but keeping it fun without a lot of work is even better so you can enjoy being with your friends. That’s why I came up with my baked sweet potato haystacks. Not only are they delicious and good for you but are super easy to add to the garlic-spinach and sea bass layers making for some good eye candy.  Use a kitchen zester to make the potato strings. It’s really quite easy and they only bake for 10 minutes and no more or the strands of potato begin to burn.

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Ingredients for the Chilean Sea Bass:

Directions for the Sea Bass:

  1. Pre-heat oven to 350º
  2. Rub olive oil on seabass
  3. Add dash of salt and pepper
  4. Heat up the sauté pan on medium/high heat
  5. Add sea bass to the hot pan and sauté 4 minutes on each side
  6. Put pan into the oven for 8-10 minutes
  7. Layer on a plate a small mound of fresh sautéed spinach with garlic
  8. On top of spinach put a pile of sweet potato haystack
  9. Place a piece of sea bass on the very top and drizzle green goddess sauce II around plate and serve with a lemon wedge

Ingredients for the Baked Sweet Potato Haystack:

  • 1 large sweet potato
  • 2 Tbsp oilve oil
  • 1 Tsp onion granules (do not use garlic …they make the potato strings bitter)
  • 1/2 Tsp salt

Directions for the Baked Sweet Potato Haystack:

  1. Pre-heat oven to 375º
  2. Use a potato peeler to peel the skin off of the sweet potato
  3. Then begin to zest strands from the sweet potato
  4. You will get little mounds of pulp like texture from the potato while you are zesting so just keep putting that aside…you don’t want the pulp in with the haystack strands.
  5. Once one side is hallowed out just flip the potato around and zest the arc of the other side
  6. Take the pile of sweet potato strands, place them on a cookie tray and squeeze them with a paper towel to get some of the moisture out.
  7. Add 2 Tbsp olive oil
  8. Add 1 Tsp onion granules and 1/2 Tsp salt and mix stands with your hands
  9. Using your fingers spread strands in an even layer on the cookie tray as best as possible
  10. Bake for exactly 10 minutes
  11. Take out of the oven and scoop mounds of potatoes onto the beds of spinach to make your sweet potato haystacks
  12. Then place your fish on top of the haystack and drizzle green goddess sauce II around the plate



Best Mango-Avocado Salsa Ever

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Best Mango-Avocado Salsa Ever

This truly is the most amazing salsa ever!  In fact I found salsa difficult to photograph so I took many pictures of the finished salsa worried that you won’t be able to tell how delicious it is just by looking at the pictures.  Gotta love those sweet and hot flavors together and just knowing that it is all so good for you makes it even better, if that’s possible.   I make this for friends when they come over it’s the first thing gone.   There really is nothing like refreshing mango-avocado salsa in the hot summer months but why should we have to wait until then when we can enjoy ripe mangoes in the winter too!  When I go to the market to buy mangoes this time of year they are usually not quite ripe enough to eat right away.  It’s one of those things where you need to plan a few days ahead so you have time to leave them on your counter to fully ripen.   It’s definitely worth the 2-3 day wait for the mango to soften slightly and the juicy flesh to turn a deep golden color and taste as sweet as honey.  Be sure not to let them get too soft….better to be slightly soft then mushy because that lovely golden flesh starts to turn brown.

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Ingredients:

  • 2 lg mangoes chopped 1/4″ cubed
  • 1 avocado chopped 1/4″ cubed
  • 2 med/lg size tomato’s or 5 small tomato’s chopped 1/4″ cubed
  • 1/2 vidalia onion (or yellow) FINELY chopped
  • 1 FINELY chopped jalapeno
  • juice from 1 lime
  • 2 Tbsp olive oil
  • 1 Tbsp rice wine vinegar
  • 1/2 cup coarsely chopped cilantro
  • a dash of Siracha (optional)
  • S & P

Directions:

  1. Add all of the ingredients to a large bowl and mix thoroughly.
  2. We really love to eats this salsa with blue chips.
  3. I have also served this salsa up on the tips of endive leaves, and or with a cooked shrimp on top of that ….yum!
  4. I must warn you this salsa is highly addictive……consume at your own risk! LOL

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TIP:  There is an easy way to get the pit out of a avocado which I have displayed in the pictures above.  After running the knife around the flesh of the avocado against the edges of the inside pit… put the knife down and twist the avocado halves and pull apart. Then stick the knife into the pit and do the same thing holding on to the knife with one hand and carefully twist the avocado pit and it will pop right out.  Then knock the pit off onto the board away from your hands.  This can be a little tricky the first time so I would advise that this would be for an adult to try.   Finally, Insert a large spoon and scoop the avocado along the edge of the avocado skin to remove avocado flesh.

Easy Pulled Pork Sliders

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Easy Pulled Pork Sliders

I love my easy pulled pork slider recipe because it works in an oven or in a crock pot!  There are so many different versions of pulled pork out there but this one is super easy because we use pork tenderloins instead of a pork shoulder. You just have the moist and delicate meat of the tenderloin pulled apart in seconds and mixed with a homemade BBQ sauce made in mere minutes that’s sweet and tangy!

The Easy Pulled Pork Sliders are made with tenderloins instead of a giant pork shoulder. The reason I love to do this is it’s so darn EASY! The tenderloins are cut in 1/2 then coated with a mixture of light brown sugar, Colemans Dry Mustard, onion & garlic granules, s & P. Placed into a large baking dish with a small 7.5 oz. can of cola poured into the dish. The Coca-Cola helps to keep it moist and gives it a little caramel flavor. It’s baked for 1 1/2 – 1 3/4 hours, cooled and shredded apart. At that time the Bourbon BBQ Sauce has finished simmering and just waiting to be poured of all the pulled pork and warmed thru…YUM!

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Ingredients:

Directions: 

  1. Pre-heat oven to 325º
  2. In a medium size bowl whisk together the light brown sugar and all the dry spices
  3. Wash and dry pork tenderloins, cut in 1/2 – across and place in baking dish
  4. Rub the brown sugar mixture all over pork tenderloins
  5. Add 1 cup coke to the baking dish and put into the oven, leave uncovered
  6. Bake tenderloins for 1 1/2 -1 3/4 hour until falling apart
  7. Remove from oven and let pork cool to touch
  8. Begin to pull apart pork in the same bake dish with 2 forks to the desired size
  9. Add the pulled pork tenderloin to a med. size pan and mix with BBQ sauce
  10. Add 1/2 cup BBQ sauce at a time until you have the desired amount for the consistency you want
  11. Pulled pork sliders are incredible with a little crunch from some broccoli slaw
  12. Serve on dinner or Hawaiian rolls w/Broccoli Slaw & a drizzle of my Green Goddess Sauce

FOR PULLED PORK WHILE YOU SLEEP:

INGREDIENTS: NOTE – If you have extra brown sugar/spice mix because you’re making 1 pork butt just store in Ziploc baggie for next time!

  • 14 lbs. (approx 2  6-7 lb.) Boneless Pork Butts
  • 2 cups light brown sugar
  • 1 tbsp garlic granules
  • 1 tbsp onion granules
  • 1 tbsp SMOKED Paprika (Spanish)
  • 1 tbsp Chipotle spices
  • 1 tsp Colemans dry mustard
  • 1 tbsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp finely ground pepper
  • 1tsp finely ground Italian seasonings
  • 2 cups coke & rootbeer OR 2 coke OR 2 rootbeer
  • 1 lg vidalia onion sliced into 1/2″ slices
  • 1 stalk celery cut up into 3″ pieces

DIRECTIONS:

  1. Pre-Heat oven to 275º
  2. Add all dry spices and sugar to a bowl and mix thoroughly
  3. Place onion and celery pieces in the bottom of a lg 18″ x 13″ x 3″ approx. and place the pork butt(s) on top
  4. Rub brown sugar/spice mix all over pork butt(s) and lay the pork so the fat side is facing up
  5. Cover tightly with foil for 8 hrs. WHILE YOU SLEEP!
  6. In the morning remove from oven and let cool so you can handle the meat
  7. Remove all the fat and place in a bake dish
  8. Skim fat off pan juices and add 1-2 cups of the juice back to pork to desired moistness
  9. Add Homemade BBQ Sauce to desired texture ….enjoy!

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