Biggest and BEST Asado Argentino

Welcome home!!!

Normally when I see a BBQ full of meat, I think that I'm in for a boring dinner of overcooked steak and a decent chorizo.  Typically, I bring vegetables or demand a chicken to be grilled as well.  BUT my life changed the other week when I ate the RIGHT meat and now I have a new found respect for Argentine beef.  Key to an asado's success (at least for me) is a good asador, entraña, a nice rib (costilla), and chorizo. Sencillo.

This was a mega asado for 20 people with costilla de something, entrana, chorizo, morcilla, and other ridiculously good cuts of meat.  I had to add a little yankee flair with a potato and pesto salad.  All 10 puntos.

The magic grill

All it needs is a little salt

Yes please

My potato salad

Pesto pasta salad

Fritto Misto: Pasta in Santa Monica

As evident from the following photos, my recent stint at Fritto Misto with an old friend from college was by no means a light meal.  Fritto Misto is famous for it's homemade pastas and for good reason.  The menu has 2 pages of suggested pasta combos or you can design your own.  I'm not usually a pasta person, but there is literally nothing else on the menu so I went for the pesto, chicken pasta.  There is an option for a "lighter" version strictly underscored with a comment that you will be compromising flavor if choosing this option. I, however, will most certainly choose this option in the future because there was a little too much fat, I mean "flavor", on my regular plate.  A great choice for pasta lovers, but I would have liked to see a fish or pizza on the menu as well. 

Pesto pasta with chicken and more pesto

Spicy chicken pasta

My style pasta primavera

Pasta Primavera my style

Sometimes when I'm feeling like eating healthy I go to the verduleria and pick out one of each colored vegetable.  The food looks great and makes you feel good.  This was a simple rice noodle pasta with sauteed veggies and grated parmesan cheese.  Simple and tasty.

Ingredients:
Rice pasta
Veggies of choice: carrots, corn, onion, bell pepper, etc
3 cloves garlic
Bunch of basil
Grated cheese
Salt and pepper

Directions:
Bring salted water to a boil.  Add the noodles and boil for 5 min, lower heat and eventually turn off.  They cook fast and are easy to work with.  Just taste to make sure they are tender, and drain.

Saute veggies in a pan.  Add onion and garlic first, cook 5 minutes and then add the rest.  Add the pasta to the sauteed veggies and mix in chopped basil.

Serve with grated cheese on top and salt and pepper to taste.

Pad Thai

It's been far too long since I've posted a blog and even longer since I've been able to cook.  I miss it and I'm getting back in the action.  My new favorite thing to cook is my version of Pad Thai.  You can buy rice noodles in any dietetica and add whatever veggies, meat, tofu, egg, etc you want.  The sauce is the only tricky part, but you can find the ingredients in Barrio Chino easily and no cheating is required!  With the ingredients, it's an easy meal that shouldn't take more than 30 min to make. 

Pad Thai

Ingredients: 
Rice Noodles - small package feeds 4
1 package of cut veggies (the ones they prepare for sopa)
Other veggies of choice (I threw in broccoli this time)
1 green onion, chopped
1 chicken breast or tofu cubed
2-3 eggs, scrambled in a separate pan
Peanuts

Sauce: (I am guessing on these proportions because I just add until I like the taste, but they seem about right).
3 LARGE tablespoons of peanut butter
1/4 cup of soy sauce
1/5 cup of rice vinegar
1 tsp sesame oil
1/4 cup of honey
2 tsp of siracha
1 tbsp of diced ginger and garlic
Pinch of dried or fresh chili

Directions:
1. Bring salted water to a boil.  Add noodles, wait 1 min and turn heat off.  If you buy the thin rice noodles (which i recommend), they just need to be heated until tender.  Takes about 3-5 min.  Drain noodles and set aside.

2. Saute veggies in pan until tender.  Do not add salt.

3. Prepare sauce in small pot.  Add a touch of oil on medium heat.  Add ginger and garlic.  Saute for 1 min.  Add soy sauce, vinegar, oil, and chili.  Stir 1 min on higher heat.  Add peanut butter and honey.  Stir until it's all incorporated.  Keep on med high heat until sauce begins to reduce.  It should taste really strong, so strong you wouldn't want to eat a spoonful straight.  This is good because it needs to coat all the noodles and veggies.  Trust me that it may seem like a lot of sauce with a lot of flavor, but after it's spread out through everything, it's the perfect amount.  Let the sauce reduce until pretty thick.

4. Scramble eggs.  Add veggies to noodles and pour sauce on top.  Mix evenly.  Add eggs, green onions, and peanuts.  Mix lightly. 

Braised Chicken and Broccoli Pasta

If you're reading this post then there is about a 4% chance that you've read all my posts and know that Italian food is not my favorite.  Every few months or so, however, I get a craving for pasta and set out to make some ridiculous kitchen-sink, whatever I feel like putting in it pasta dish.  This night was no exception and it was great.  My new favorite move is slowly cooking chicken in liquid because it gets so tender and then using the liquid for the sauce.  See below for recipe and step by step pics.

Saute Onions

Add spices to onions

Add chicken

Add wine and tomato sauce

Voila

Ingredients:
1 bag of pasta
2 pata de pollo with bone
1 can of tomatoes perita
1 large onion chopped
1 head of broccoli, chopped
3/4 cup of red wine
1/4 cup of quasi creme
Spices ( salt, pepper, garlic powder, sage, provencal, chili powder, sugar) - just about a 1/2 tsp of each to taste
Shredded cheese of choice

Directions: Saute onions and spices for 5-10 min.  Turn the heat up.  Remove skin from chicken and add to the hot pan, cook for 2 minutes.  Add wine and let it reduce.  Lower heat and add tomato sauce.  Let simmer and reduce for about 20 min.  Add quasi creme and let cook for 5-10 min more.  You can cook the chicken for as long as you like on low heat, but I didn't have time in this case.

Add broccoli and cook for about 5 min.  Remove chicken and broccoli and set aside.  Bring salted water to a boil and add pasta.  Let sauce thicken while pasta is cooking.  Shred chicken into bite-size pieces.  Once the pasta is ready drain the water and add it back to the pan.  Add the chicken and broccoli to the sauce and pour over pasta.  Top with shredded cheese and serve!

Israeli Couscous with Roasted Fennel

Israeli Couscous with veggies, feta, olives, and basil

I love Israeli couscous!  I made this dinner with the last remaining trader joes resources I had stored away.  I was inspired by these two recipes: recipe 1 and recipe 2.  I had never cooked fennel before and I really liked it.  The key was letting it brown and caramelize enough before flipping it over.  Next time, I'll leave the tomatoes whole because they really shrunk up on me and nearly disappeared.

Ingredients: (serves 4)
- 2 packages of couscous
- 1/4 kilo of cherry tomatoes
- 2 large fennel bulbs
- 100 grams greek olives
- 100 grams feta cheese
- fresh basil
- salt, pepper, honey, balsamic, olive oil


Directions: Follow the directions from this recipe for the couscous, but add the feta and basil rather than the herbs listed.  To roast the fennel, just cut it in thick pieces and lay on a baking sheet with salt, pepper, honey, balsamic, and olive oil.  Roast until it get some color and then flip and continue cooking until done.  You can't really over roast it too easily, so just check until it looks good.

Whole wheat pesto pasta with veggies

Ingredients

 Homemade pesto is the easiest and best way to spice up and ordinary meal.  This week's meal was inspired by all the beautiful, fresh produce I found at the verduleria and my last remaining goat cheese from Tandil.  I loved all the different colors and textures of this one.  Super quick and tasty!

The outcome, not the best photo of all time!

Ingredients: 
- 1 package whole wheat pasta (I choose a tricolor one)
- Fresh basil
- Handful of chopped walnuts or other nut of choice (pine nuts are the traditional, but super expensive here so I usually use almonds, but had walnuts this time.
- Sharp cheese (I use goat, but usually use parmesan)
- 1 eggplant - cut into bite size pieces
- 2 carrots - sliced
- 1 bell pepper - chopped
- 1 onion
- garlic (1 bulb for pesto and 1 for veggies)
- 15+ cherry tomatoes
- olive oil, salt, and pepper

Directions: First make the pesto by adding the basil, 1 garlic bulb, 1/4 cup shaved cheese, a handful of nuts, salt and pepper to a blender or food processor.  Then add about a 1/5 of a cup of olive oil.  Most recipes call for more oil until the pesto become paste like, but I find that you have to add so much oil that it's greasy and unhealthy.  So I just add a bit of water until it starts becoming a paste.  I also usually add about half a container of queso finlandia if I'm going to use it on sandwiches etc.  In this case, I didn't because it seemed like overkill.

Add chopped onion and garlic to a pan and saute until golden and clear.  Add eggplant and peppers and cook for about 5-7 min. When eggplant is nearly done, add carrots.  I hate overcooked carrots, so I add them last.  Cook until eggplant is done.

In the meantime, bring salted water to a boil and add pasta cooking until done.  Drain pasta, add veggies, cherry tomatoes, and pesto to your liking.  Voila!