Fish'n'Taters

I find Guy Fieri to be crazy amounts of annoying. I only really watch Diners, Drive-ins and Dives because it's probably on the better half of Food Network's programming and nothing is more irritating than listening to Bobby Flay mispronounce "chipotle" every five seconds since he is unable to make a dish that doesn't involve chipotle and ancho chile powder. *Anywho* one of the few high points on DDD was a salmon hash that looked tasty enough to attempt to make at home. The results were nomilicious!

I had a frozen salmon filet leftover from Lent and a failed attempt at dieting, so I had the most "elusive" ingredient on the list already on hand. Hence, I definitely *had* to make this.



The salmon also looked kind of gross after being shrink wrapped in plastic in my freezer for a couple months, so I felt much less guilty for chopping up a perfectly good piece of salmon.

Salmon Hash (or "Fish'n'Taters" as proclaimed by the 'sband)

4 oz salmon
1 large russet potato (~1.25 lbs), cubed into ~1/4 in pieces
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 onion, sliced
olive oil, butter
s+p
1/4 tsp paprika

Heat oil over medium in a large pan, add onions, pinch of salt and cook until translucent and a little bit brown.



Add potatoes and a large amount of salt, and a few grinds of black pepper (and maybe some butter if you're feeling adventurous). Cook until the potatoes are mostly done. Add in paprika and stir to coat all potatoes. Add in garlic and stir for 30s until fragrant.



Add in salmon, some more salt and stir the hash to break up and cook the salmon.



So I admit that the pictures don't look completely appetizing, but not all food must be beautiful to be delicious. I think my biggest problem was that I didn't soak the potatoes before frying which meant that they were still incredibly starchy. It wasn't a huge deal, but as one can see, they left quite a mess on the bottom of the pan. Overall, though, this didn't matter much and it was super duper tasty. :)

Food Fiestas

I adore alliteration and assonance. Anywho!

So after finishing up three talks in two days and the shorter of the two papers that I need so desperately to graduate, I'm totally not in the mood to continue working... which is when I started scouring the food blogs everywhere. Oh the internets, how you provide me with ample reasons to never work.

So in my quest to not work, I read a recipe for dumplings and it got me to thinking. I'd really like to have a dumpling party at some point soon. I had been pushing for a tapas party for awhile, but everyone thought I said "topless". Ew. I don't, however, have a space to do this in yet. I will soon leave my apartment and I'm not about to throw a party at my house. Or, really, at my dad's house... because it doesn't feel like home anymore. ::insert almost quarter-life-garden-state-esque crisis here:: I think Colby and I found an apartment in Austin. It has washer/dryer hook ups, allows pets, has a DISHWASHER, and is far enough away from downtown such as it's not completely distracting. I could have my own place again in less than a month. It feels good.

Refrigerator Pie

So I went to DC over New Years to visit Kate, and during one of my hangover recovery periods, I watched a whole bunch of Good Eats on my computer. One of the episodes was Egg Files II - Man with a Flan and Alton made quiche, which he dubbed refrigerator pie. It was super easy. I took a store-bought pie crust (yes, I know, I'm lazy) and then put a royale mixture in it and then stuff.

1 pie crust

royale mixture:

2 eggs
1 c heavy cream
2 pinches salt

fillings

Preheat oven to 350. Beat eggs and cream and then beat in the salt. Put your fillings in, but leave open spaces for the royale mixture to go. I used mushrooms sauteed in butter and garlic salt (I ran out of garlic. :( ), broccoli that I had pre-cooked a bit, and some white cheddar cheese with herbs. It has a name. I don't really remember it, though.

Don't fill everything up to the top. Bake for ~45 minutes, or until the filling is set to the consistency of jello.

It turned out really well. I was surprised by that. I had enough stuff left over to make flan, which actually seemed rather easy to make, but I don't own ramekins and upon further reflection hate flan, so I decided against it.

Spinach Tomato Pasta

Since my Thanksgivings are usually a lot more brief than everyone else's, I spent a lot of time staring at the TV. We were watching when Giada De Laurentis came on and she made this pasta which seemed super simple... and now that I've stolen my dad's huge ass pan (or what I've been calling a wok), I had something to make it in and it was yummy. Even Colby (who I made eat it) thought it was good.


1 lb pasta

1 clove minced garlic
1/4 c olive oil
8 oz cherry tomatoes, halved
1 bag pre-washed fresh spinach coarsely chopped

1/2 c Asiago + Parmesan or some other hard, salty cheese
salt and pepper to taste


boil the pasta until al dente in heavily salted water. Save 1/2 c of the boiling liquid. Drain. Cook the garlic in the olive oil until you can smell it, then add the spinach and tomatoes until the spinach starts to really wilt. Add in pasta, pasta water, cheese and toss. Season with salt+pepper to taste.

It was super simple and really good. I was going to add chicken, but my refreezerator got to the chicken before I could. :( Damn freezer burn.

Kyle, you should make this.