How many of you have procrastinated on something this week? Spill! :)

If you can only see me now, my hands and arms couldn’t be any higher! In August, my brain slows down, my discipline goes on vacation and I am stuck with a mid-summer love affair with someone called Procrastination or Cunctation. I call him CunkyPunky. (See? This is beginning to sound more fun than it really is.) I just have to accept that August is CunkyPunky time and I should just breathe and relax. Aside from procrastinating with CP, I’m also trying to balance bank accounts and to keep sane in the midst of paying even more taxes. I don’t even want to think about it, because aside from my already-planned trip to Blogher Food, there’s another event that I would love to attend: Foodbuzz in November. (I call it an injustice that they are both held in San Francisco! Woe is me, who lives across the north border.) Just when I need to “kick ass” in the making-money department, all CP wants to do is drag me to graze in the grass like spoiled cows living in a luscious Hawaiian ranch–that kind of downtime. I have to remind him that traveling involves money, which involves doing something.

Ayayay.

This super simple breakfast post was supposed to be up last week, but CP and I had a week-long rendezvous. I’m sorry. But I hope you’ll forgive me. It is very easy to do anyway:

Just cook berries in simple syrup of 1 sugar :1 water proportion, wait for it to thicken, then set it aside to cool down. Serve generously on top of your favorite yogurt.

In my case, it’s the Fage 2% greek yogurt. That’s it. No theatrics, just plain and simple food. I eat this for breakfast, as a dessert or as a snack. It’s a great way to save berries that might otherwise go bad this summer, especially if you happen to haul big boxes of them from the farmer’s market.

I’m still rallying to have Fage here in Vancouver. I have never seen it here. Hello– Fage?!?!?!

In case you were wondering– No, Fage isn’t a sponsor of this blog. I just happen to love it so much that I milk my parents, who cross the border several times a month, to bring me Fage. It’s that good.

© Gourmeted.com, 2009. | Permalink | 20 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: berries, blueberries, breakfast, dessert, easy, fage, greek yogurt, simple, yoghurt, yogurt

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I actually picked up Pollan’s book when I got here in Vancouver. Was it such a coincidence that my frequent weekly stops — my friend’s spa and my chiropractor — are within the same vicinity as the Granville Island public market? It’s meant. :-) Last week, after having a facial that made my skin very happy and getting one of my last few therapies for my back, I headed down to the public market to shop for dinner. I picked some beautiful fresh sea scallops, fresh spinach linguine, rye sourdough bread [not in photos], pancetta [what a deal for $2.29 for 100 grams!], and rosemary.

And voila, dinner:

The scallops were to die for. They were so unbelievably fresh, sweet, and did I mention they were huge? I seared them on the same pan and oil where the pancetta was fried. I cooked the ‘sauce’ on that pan as well, so it had all the nice flavors to go with the tomatoes, onions, and garlic. The scallops cooked darker than usual because of the whole wheat flour it was rolled in, but you can use white flour if you prefer. I placed the crispy pancetta one on top of another, then a little stem of rosemary (you’ll be using just one rosemary sprig divided into three for this recipe), and the hot scallop going on top. The heat brought out the nice aroma of the rosemary.

I’m still trying to learn to sear scallops. It looked so easy during our cooking class but alas, I couldn’t replicate them. Ugh. Here I go again, being the perfectionist. I hope it’s not going to be an obsession like those Cinnamon Rolls.

Without further ado, here’s the recipe [and almost step-by-step photos]:

Please visit the site to read the rest of the entry.

© Gourmeted.com, 2008. | Permalink | 7 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: linguine, pancetta, pasta, scallops, seafood, searing

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Aside from baking salmon ‘sandwiches’, I like making salmon in pockets. Why? It’s the simplest thing to prepare and you get a great tasting salmon that’s cooked to perfection. You can eat with grains, veggies, or if you’re like me who likes quick cooking, enjoy it with whole grain spaghetti.

I love that you just put everything in each ‘pocket’, leave it to bake and it’s done. See?

Have a go at it sometime and you’ll love that you don’t have to put too much effort to be rewarded with a great little dish that could (win your heart).

BAKED SALMON POCKET

Ingredients (Serves 1)

• 1 salmon fillet, about an inch thick
• 1 roma tomato, cut in chunks
• 1/4 cup white onion, sliced
• lemon juice (quarter a lemon and have one for each fillet)
• extra virgin olive oil
• salt
• pepper

You’ll need parchment paper or aluminum foil to make your ‘pocket’.

Preparation

1. Preheat over to 375ºF with the rack in the middle.
2. Cut a piece of parchment paper or aluminum foil big enough to fold over and tent (i.e. enough space at the top) an individual fillet. Place it on a baking dish or baking sheet.
3. At the center, put half of the onion, creating a ‘bed’ for the salmon.
4. Put the salmon on top of it and sprinkle with salt and fresh ground pepper.
5. Place the rest of the onion and the tomato chunks on top of the salmon, and lightly drizzle with olive oil.
6. Fold the lengthwise ends together, and fold and tuck in at the sides. Make sure to leave a tent/balloon at the top.
7. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes. Turn off the oven, then keep the salmon in the oven for an extra 10 minutes.
8. Take out of the oven and serve immediately. You can use a spatula to take it out of the wrapping or place the pocket on individual plates to serve.
9. Squeeze a bit of lemon juice on the salmon before devouring. Delish!

© Gourmeted.com, 2008. | Permalink | 19 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: quick & easy, salmon, seafood

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Tuna Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons solid light tuna in olive oil
• 2-inch celery stalk, chopped
• 1 teaspoon butter
• 1 teaspoon grated parmesan cheese
• 2 baby portobello mushrooms
• a few leaves of chopped Italian parsley
• salt
• fresh ground pepper
• olive oil

Preparation

1. Pre-heat oven (or oven toaster) to 350°F.

2. Combine all the ingredients, except for the mushrooms, in a small bowl. Add salt and pepper to suit your taste. The saltiness of the canned tuna might be enough for you.

3. Divide and spread the mixture on the bottoms of the two mushrooms. Placed mushrooms on an oven safe dish.

4. Bake at 350°F for 10 minutes. Take out and spray on, or drizzle over, some olive oil. Bake for another 5 minutes.

5. Remove from the oven, sprinkle with chopped parsley and tent with aluminum foil for 5 minutes.

6. Remove foil and serve. It’s fantastic to eat with rice, and can also complement a creamy and light pasta dish very well.

© Gourmeted.com, 2008. | Permalink | 7 comments | Add to del.icio.us
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I was inspired to make this from Patricia’s Spaghetti with Garlic and Spinach post. Queen of substitutions that I am, I loosely followed the recipe that she found on delicious. magazine [A very good magazine, by the way, but I digress.] and made my own version with pancetta and linguine. Here’s the visual step-by-step guide:

I just fried 3 thinly sliced pancetta with a drizzle of olive oil till it’s almost crispy, added chopped garlic and cooked it for a minute or two until the garlic turns golden brown. Took out the pancetta, and splash and fizzle goes the dash of wine (ok, it was probably 1/8 cup) and reduced it to half. Tossed in the linguine, spinach and pancetta. Ground some fresh pepper and sprinkled salt. Tossed. Took out of the heat and served with grated parmesan cheese on top. Now this is where I followed the recipe: I served/ate it with lots of parmesan cheese. So simple. So delicious. It couldn’t get any easier than that.

© Gourmeted.com, 2008. | Permalink | 4 comments | Add to del.icio.us
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Early last week I found a link from Tastespotting pointing to the Virtual Group of Italian Chef‘s page about the International Day of Italian Cuisines: January 17. [It's also my parents' wedding anniversary...not that we have the slightest of Italian lineage, but I just wanted to give a shout out to my folks who read this. Happyversary! :-)] On the GVCI site, this was posted:

For one day, everyone who makes, promotes or simply loves Italian food outside of Italy is invited to carry out a small activity to celebrate authenticity and quality in Italian cuisine.

This unprecedented celebration is led by over 130 Italian chefs and restaurateurs in 35 countries. They belong to itchefs-gvci, (Virtual Group of Italian Chefs) and will cook Pasta alla Carbonara according to the original, authentic recipe. This simple dish, a pillar of Italian gastronomy, is in fact the symbol of counterfeit Italian cuisine in the world at large. The International Day of Italian Cuisines, under the aegis of itchefs-gvci, is born of a desire to redress this imbalance.

Of course, being the newly fashioned Me-Too person that I am, I told Dan we’ll join in.

I doubled the serving-for-one recipe for our dinner and the pasta we ended up with was very tasty and creamy. I did not miss the cream, but Dan did. I think I put way too much cheese because it tasted a bit sharp. This recipe made me cry out load for a kitchen digital scale, because the ingredient measurements were in grams. I had to make estimates throughout the recipe.  That’s ok…you keep learning in the kitchen.

Here is the recipe posted on the itchefs-gvci.com site that I followed for this dish. We used pancetta because we couldn’t find guanciale, two eggs for the doubled recipe, and Parmigiano Reggiano for the cheese.

It’s really easy to make –

[Edited 20 May 2010 - I received a note from the Managing Editor of Greatfood.ie to remove their recipe. We shared the recipe here in celebration the so-called International Day of Italian Cuisines, but we cannot do so anymore--sorry folks! Kindly point your browser to your choice of search engine to look for the recipe. Thanks.]