Tortilla crusted tilapia with spanish rice and avocados

30 July 2014

Tortilla crusted tilapia with spanish rice and avocados

Today is a day to celebrate as the stove was replaced with a new unit. The old unit had a broken bake function, which effectively handicapped me. It seems as though that during the duration of the broken oven unit, I craved all foods that required baking: oven roasted foods in general.

To warm up to the new stove, our chef served this nicely pan fried tortilla crusted tilapia, paired with spanish rice, consisted of black beans, tomatoes, and onions with a side of fresh creamy avocados.

Here's to grand adventures with the new stove!

Red quinoa with fried chicken

29 July 2014

Red quinoa with fried chicken

From what I can see, "red" lettuce and "red" onion are more purple than red. No qualms there though, as these two ingredients, along with roasted bell pepper contribute to its name. The quinoa, to me, tasted like curry at first. I think due to the Worcester sauce. Apparently it contained nutmeg as well. Mmm spicy. The fried chicken, store bought as frying large items is kind of a hassle.

Tofu fried rice

24 July 2014

Tofu fried rice

Was getting pretty spoiled over the past few days with such fancy foods. Need to take it easy with some comfy food tofu fried rice. Comes with broccoli, bell pepper, carrots, pan fried tofu, edamame and eggs.

Blackened salmon, sweet potatoes, and kale wheat berries

23 July 2014

Blackened salmon, sweet potatoes, and kale wheat berries

I am a huge fan of salmon, raw or cooked. Its flavor is on the heavy side among the different fish available, which may be why I like it so much. Today's dish consists of wheat berries (i think my first time eating them) mixed with blanched kale and topped with crunchy fried red onions, sweet potatoes, and the main dish of blackened salmon marinated with soy sauce and spices topped with sesame seeds. I have to say that kale has grown on me as a staple among vegetables, and to think I only started eating it last September! The fish was excellently made, and I am pretty happy with this picture of it as well.

Spaghetti with breaded scallop and bacon

22 July 2014

Spaghetti with breaded scallop and bacon

I dont usually incorporate bacon into my cooking, so the only thing I do with bacon is have it for breakfast with eggs. Not very versatile. However, this dish showed me that bacon is good for flavoring sauces as well, looking elegant while being devilishly delicious. Tender scallops with a crisp, fresh tangy tomatoes, vibrant spice of parsley. These elements keep the bacon based sauce from making the spaghetti feel heavy. Bravo!

No bake cheesecake

17 July 2014

No bake cheesecake

Oh no. Backdating. The number 1 enemy of live notebooks. Luckily, this blog does not fall under the requirement of being a live notebook, thus backdating is...acceptable.

Being without a functional oven for over a week, i have been unable to make any baked goods for work nor myself. I managed to get by with some of the care package items my cousin sent me for my birthday, of which I have color coordinated. However, this week I was determined oven or not to make something. Having some gelatin sheets leftover from my V8 cake attempt back in November, I decided on a no bake cheesecake. crust contained butter, graham cracker crumbs, brown sugar and cinnamon. cheesecake filling contained cream cheese, condensed milk, lemon juice, lemon zest, vanilla extract, and gelatin. cheesecake topping was made with raspberry juice, sugar, lemon juice, and gelatin. cheesecake decorated with sliced kiwi and blueberries.

Chipotle salmon and Mediterranean style couscous

21 July 2014

I dont know if I mentioned this before, but I am a huge fan of spicy foods (as well as sweets) Spicy foods make eating fun in the form of a challenge. Questions like "can I handle this dish" or "does spiciness work with this ingredient" pop up in my mind. The salmon in question here definitely was mildly spicy but it was a lingering spiciness, while very moist and had peppery smokey flavor. The couscous served along with this dish was nothing short of marvelous with almonds slivers, raisins, caramelized onion and zucchini. Rijn on!

Massaman curry, salad medley

18 July 2014

Massaman curry

The typical curries I order when I go out are red, green, and mango curries. I cycled through them such that I was unaware other great curries even existed, but now I have a new arsenal to add to my curry collection! Introducing the massaman curry in all its glory with its phenomenal combination of cardamom, coconut milk, star anise, bay leave, onions, potatoes, peanuts, and a lot of spices mixed in the massaman curry paste. This curry was made with a nice cut of chuck roast that was carefully cooked overnight, making for a great aroma to wake to.

20 July 2014

Salad medley

Yes. I did it again, my fixation with the word medley helped me name this dish. I have to confess that while I am not a particular fan of salads, this salad has a lot going on for it. Corn, hard boiled eggs, tomatoes, lettuce, croutons, Parmesan (is that Parmesan? i recall we ran out), fried onion, and Lima beans. This is not slathered in dressing, only one ingredient salad. This is a salad party. Rijn and dine on!

Jambalaya

17 July 2014

Jambalaya

Smoky. Spicy. Meaty. One of my favorite combination rice dishes out there. Today's jambalaya consists of spicy sausage, carrots, onions, corn, bell pepper, scallops seasoned with some custom spices. The rice itself was purchased in a box with its own jambalaya seasoning, this is cooked in a pot along with the scallops. The rest of the items were cooked in the following order: sausage first in the pan, cook and keep oil drippings in pan. Add onions, bell pepper, and carrots to cook, then finally add and cook the corn. Lastly mix with rice in pot.

I'm just marveling at the nice color contrast of this dish...rijn and dine!

Salmon farfalle primavera

16 July 2014

Is it bad that I binge post? I cannot say for sure, but I will try to be more diligent and post as soon as I can for fresh details.

Salmon primavera bowtie pasta

Bowtie-pasta, AKA farfalle, according to wiki is derived from the italian word farfalla (butterfly). (How romantic? maybe) I name this dish on my own accord, as with the other dishes, so I apologize and note this as a disclaimer in case I named the dish improperly. A name is important, but more so it must taste splendid as with this dish.

A whole medley (I have been listening to a lot of medleys) of vegetables went into this dish: asparagus, farro, mushrooms, spinach, and tomatoes. Despite the multitudes of vegetables, the salmon still stood out being well seasoned and all. Now that I look at the picture, it seems like there were nuts incorporated as well (cant say for sure since I gobbled this dish so fast) This dish wins by a landslide since I approve of asparagus, mushrooms, salmon, and spinach. (I guess I like subtle flavors as well)

Chicken beet and broccoli couscous

11 July 2014

Chicken, beet and broccoli couscous

To me, couscous seems like baby pasta, the smallest pasta I have ever eaten, but that is not at all a bad thing. This dish was made with rotisserie chicken bought from the store, steamed/blanched broccoli, and oven roasted beets. Simple and healthy ingredients that I probably would not have been able to come up with, lesson here: less is more.

P.S. If there were any dates missing from my chronological blog, it is either because I did not eat at home, I had leftovers, or I cooked. This is, after all, Rijn and Dine. Focus, people, focus!

Stuffed bell pepper, beets and mash

Ah, I've been slacking off with my posts.

07 July 2014

Stuffed bell pepper with dirty rice

 A great way to preserve the juices from the bell pepper and incorporate it into the rice. This dirty rice uses ground lamb, kidney beans, and various spices. The pepper held more rice than i imagined!

I would definitely try this out with other meats as well, perhaps roast pepper seasoned beef stuffed in bell pepper.

08 July 2014

Goat cheese mash with oven roasted beets and pepperoni

I just noticed that there has been a lot of dishes involving lamb/goat products. Good thing I like lamb! This dish was pretty heavy despite its looks with a lot of cheese infused into that mashed potato. The beets, one of my new favorite vegetables this year, add an earthy sweetness to contrast the mashed potatoes. I think it would be just fine without the pepperoni though (I'm not a pepperoni kind of guy, something about its acidity and toughness)

Roasted lamb, mediterranean salad, and mac & cheese

06 July 2014

Today I was unaware of what to expect for dinner, I had planned to maybe finish some leftovers in the form of fried rice or stew. To my surprise, it was not only mac & cheese, but roast lamb as well! (I like cheese and meat)

This was awesomely prepared with lamb seasoned with salt, pepper, chipotle pepper, cumin, and italian seasoning. These spices made the lamb quite tasty, as it can be difficult to remove the lamb odor.

The salad was tomato, olives, feta, celery, cucumber, pine nuts, and mint. (very refreshing contrast to the heavy lamb and mac & cheese)

And finally the mac & cheese, using Gruyere and brie and i think a few more cheeses, and roux. This was baked and broiled shortly for that nice crunchy top.

This definitely was the highlight of the weekend! Way to Rijn and Dine!

Green curry chicken and garbanzo bean salad

04 July 2014 and 03 July 2014

I was waiting for green curry the whole week after first hearing about it on Monday. This green curry is thai styled, and spiciness varies with amount of coconut milk used in the dilution. Green curry is typically the most spicy out of the red yellow and green curry series, which makes it one of my favorites as it is pretty hard to find spicy food here. (its always a tie for me between green and red curry) I love the aroma of all the spices in this curry. This was served with brown rice and tea. (prepared for spicy)

Here is a photo of the kind of curry paste used for this delicious dish.









For the day before, dinner was a smoky hot garbanzo bean salad served with farro (a kind of grain) The dish packed a nice spiciness to it with the nice combination of onion and goat cheese. A very healthy and quick dish to make (according to the chef only 20 minutes)

Thai style salad with pepper seared steak

01 July 2014

Today's dish was thai themed.
A refreshing salad with carrots, cucumber, bell pepper, red onion, cilantro. And what i believe to be slices of turnip and a party of spices and tangy lime juice.

This was served with a nicely seared steak seasoned with cumin and pepper. a good smoky spicy to balance the tart and juicy salad.

According to Rijn this only takes 45 minutes to prep (although mostly due to rice cooking in rice cooker and marinating beef with seasoning, on average his meals take 30 minutes to make)

Until next time, Rijned and Dined.