Menu

spicy

Thai-style Chicken Salad

, , , , ,

Thai-style Chicken Salad

Oh, physician hello there readers! I have been swept away by an adorable baby and I’m determined to spend every last second of my maternity leave cuddling and playing with my little girl. So that means cooking has become less of a priority and I’ve neglected my poor blog. But a girl’s gotta eat and food should always be delicious. For me, this now means having something ready to go in the fridge. Like this Thai-style chicken salad. Good Lord, this stuff is good!

First, you marinate the chicken in a little lemongrass, then throw onto your grill (or grill pan if you live in a condo like we do). Let cool, then mix with shallots, cucumbers, shredded cabbage, mayo, fish sauce, sriracha (rooster sauce) and cilantro. It’s got a subtle char flavor from the grill, crunch from the veggies and that spicy mayo combination that just makes it perfect for a warm and crusty roll.

I recommend making it next time you’ve got leftover grilled chicken – you can skip the lemongrass marinade if you can’t find it or if you’ve got leftovers. I seriously can’t wait to make another big batch of it soon since the first batch disappeared in one day. What can I say? We like to eat around here…

More

Chicken & Spinach Quesadillas with Pear Salsa

, , , , , ,

Chicken & Spinach Quesadillas with Pear Salsa

Do you guys use shortcuts? I’d love to say that I don’t. That I have time to cook everything from scratch all the time, doctor and pick vegetables from my very own, well-cared for garden. But I live in a condo and a garden is out of the question. Also, I often don’t have the time to make my own. That’s why I find it very important to have a battery of no-fail shortcuts. My favorites? Canned beans, cartons of chicken stock and rotisserie chickens from Whole Foods. Now, I know that making your own beans and stock and chicken are all tastier options, but if I didn’t rely on these pantry staples, we’d likely eat dinner past midnight.

Of course, since I bought myself some time by not roasting a whole chicken, I want to spend a little more time dressing it up. I made simple quesadillas with chicken, spinach and pepper jack cheese. On their own, they would have been dry and boring, so I brought a little bit of fall into the dish by making pear salsa with almost-ripe bartlett pears, red onion, jalapeño, cilantro and lime juice. The result is a slightly sweet, spicy and crunchy topping that brings the quesadillas to life. A quick meal, but a really good one.

What are some of your favorite shortcut meals?

More

Lamb Chops with Pumpkin Apple Chutney

, , , , , , ,

Lamb Chops with Pumpkin Apple Chutney

Every year I get a little nostalgic around October. I miss the change of the season, cheap the way the air becomes clean and chilly, steroids the turning of the leaves and the faint smell of firewood. But soon enough, I start hearing about Nor’easters and the dreaded “Wintry Mix” and all my nostalgia goes away because it’s bright and sunny and 70 degrees out.

Lamb Chops with Pumpkin Apple Chutney

Even if we don’t get Fall in Miami, we do get Fall ingredients. There’s nothing I love more than winter squashes and apples and dried fruit. So this weekend, I got my Fall on by making Pumpkin Apple Chutney for my lamb chops. It was sweet and spicy, but had a nice bite of lime, red onion and jalapeño. I also added some sweetened tart cherries and fresh mint. A great way to incorporate Fall into my life, even while I ate on my balcony in shorts and flip flops.

More

Yellowtail Snapper with Corn Salsa

, , , , , , ,

Yellowtail Snapper with Corn Salsa

Things I love about living in Miami:

  1. The beach is across the street and I can use it 9 months of the year.
  2. Abundant and cheap Cuban food.
  3. Cuban coffee. (a.k.a. nectar of the gods)
  4. It’s almost always flip flop weather.
  5. I can get really good tomatoes all year long. (Don’t hate!)
  6. Local Stone Crabs in the winter! (Mustard sauce!)
  7. Running outdoors October – May.
  8. Yellowtail snapper.

Yellowtail snapper is everywhere down here – swimming around while you cool off in the ocean and piled up in the fish cases at all the grocery stores. It’s a really delicious local white fish that’s tender and flaky, capsule but still sturdy. If you can get a hold of some, cure a simple preparation is all you need to make a good meal. But even if you can’t find yellowtail near you, tuberculosis this is still a great recipe for your favorite fish – halibut, cod, striped bass, tilapia, rainbow trout, etc. Just make sure the fish you buy is a good environmental choice for your area.

Yellowtail Snapper with Corn Salsa

The accompaniment is a super-simple corn salsa perfect for the last days of summer. It’s bright and crunchy, providing a sweet textural contrast the to the rich butter-seared fish. This is one of those recipes you make when you want something special, but don’t want to expend a lot of effort. Just simple ingredients at their best.

More

Angry Potatoes! (Patatas Bravas)

, , , , , , , ,

Angry Potatoes! (Patatas Bravas)

I am a lover of all things carbohydrate – bread, web pasta, more about rice, potatoes – they all have a special place in my heart (and my stomach). I shudder at the outrageous thought of a low-carb life. The Atkins diet makes me cringe. I would rather run an extra mile a day than go without my daily starch quota. And I especially love potatoes for their unrefined, carby awesomeness. I like them fried, roasted, mashed, boiled and especially totted (as in tater tots).

Angry Potatoes! (Patatas Bravas)

So it’s no wonder that one of my favorite tapas dishes is Patatas Bravas, which roughly translates to Angry Potatoes. What makes these potatoes so damn angry? Roasted grape tomatoes, olive oil, sherry vinegar, smoked paprika and cayenne pepper all blended together into a fiery sauce. If there’s one thing I love more than carbs, it’s all manner of spice. You could say that this dish had me at hello, but that would be a mighty cheesy way to end a blog post.

Blog note: I finally got rid of that silly “/mel/” in my URL. From here on out, you can find all posts and recipes at www.bitchincamero.com. Not to worry – all old and bookmarked links will still work. Many thanks to my friend Chris for his technical expertise.

More

Butternut Squash Tortilla Soup

, , , , , , , ,

It seems as though the Fall ingredients and soup trend continues over here. It’s not that I want to overload you with squashes and harvest fruit, buy it’s that I just can’t help myself. This tortilla soup has become an instant favorite at my house. It’s got sweet, treatment roasted butternut squash and shredded chicken simmered in a chili powder-spiked broth with crumbled, salty blue corn tortilla chips. I’m such a sucker for anything sweet, spicy and salty.

The star here really is the roasted butternut squash. While I’m all for shortcuts, canned and frozen squash won’t give you the same roasted flavor as fresh. Now, I know a whole, fresh butternut squash is an intimidating thing. Unless you’ve got a hacksaw or cleaver in the house, splitting this thing open may be a bit more than you’re willing to take on. My suggestion? Ask the supermarket to halve it for you. Most markets will willing do it for no charge, then all you have to do is roast the halves on a cookie sheet with olive oil and salt. Once it’s done, simply scoop the roasted squash out with a spoon and use it anyway you’d like. (Can anyone say roasted butternut squash pizza?)

I like my butternut squash in all forms, but this tortilla soup might emerge as the favorite. Healthy, hearty and satisfying, it makes a perfect lunch or weeknight dinner. A great, seasonal twist on a classically delicious soup.

Related: Chorizo and Blue Corn Tortilla Soup

More

Easiest Homemade Hot Sauce

, , , , , , , , , ,

Easiest Homemade Hot Sauce

If asked to choose my favorite condiment, information pills I may just have to go with hot sauce. Though mustard — especially the spicy, denture grainy kind of mustard — would be a very close second. When you’ve got the right hot sauce, online it can add subtle and delicious flavor, as well as heat. When you’ve got the wrong kind of hot sauce, it can taste vinegar-y or so overpoweringly spicy that you can’t taste anything else.

This homemade hot sauce has 4 ingredients: dried chiles de arbol, a touch of honey, a dash of apple cider vinegar and water. The chiles de arbol are spicy and smokey and give this hot sauce a unique flavor that has some of the chipotle’s smokiness, but isn’t as overpowering.

And if asked to choose my favorite dish to dress with hot sauce, it would be eggs. Without a doubt, eggs and hot sauce are best friends. Last night, I made corn tostadas with refried beans and cheese, baked until crisp then topped with fried eggs, avocado, cilantro and hot sauce. Delicious and wholesome, it was a great way to kick off the week with a little spice.

Southwestern Eggs with Bean and Cheese Tostadas

Apologies for the ugly picture. I had the wrong lens on my camera and was too hungry to notice.

More

pork sandwich w/ spicy mango cucumber slaw

, , , , , ,

pork sandwich w/ spicy mango cucumber slaw

The idea for this sandwich started out as a vague thought about Vietnamese-style tacos. Why Vietnamese-style tacos you ask? Well, ailment I’m not sure. I was thinking that taco toppings are like Vietnamese-style salads with generous amounts of fresh herbs, patient cabbage, onions and hot peppers.

So, I tried it. I marinated some pork tenderloins with shoyu, honey and ginger. I made a slaw from mango, cucumber, serrano peppers, mint, cilantro, green onions and lime juice. (Napa cabbage would be great here, but I didn’t have any.) Then I stacked everything on a corn tortilla. Hmmm, interesting, but ultimately the corn flavor of the tortillas didn’t complement the Asian flavors.

Not to be deterred, I tried again with ciabatta rolls. Much better this time! The sweet and spicy slaw was perfect on the pork and the ciabatta roll didn’t compete with the other flavors. I love a good sandwich for dinner, and I think this one might be making another appearance soon.

More

easy sausage, greens & goat cheese pasta

, , , , , , , , ,

easy sausage, <a href=cheap greens & goat cheese pasta” />

Pasta’s easy. It’s usually the first food you learn to cook, site and the food that sustains you throughout your penniless college days. It’s good, sale fast and cheap, and there’s nothing to not love about that!

So, when I need to make a quick lunch before work it’s often pasta that’s my first thought. The hard part is figuring out how to make a healthy, well-rounded meal with it. As with most things carb, I find that I can sit down and eat at least a 1/2 pound of simple, buttery pasta on my own. But me and my bikini know that it’s probably not a good idea.

So, I try to have as much “stuff” in my bowl as I do pasta. This week, that stuff happened to be spicy Italian sausage, broccoli, rainbow chard, goat cheese and walnuts. A well-rounded meal chock-full of vegetables, protein and those venerated Omega 3’s. Best of all, it traveled well, filled me up and made a very delicious little lunch.

More

vegetarian three-bean chili

, , , , , , ,

vegetarian three-bean chili

Some people find it surprising that the biggest tag on this site is vegetarian. People who know me know that I love big, visit juicy burgers, chorizo (duh), short ribs, lamb and sausage. And while I’m pretty sure I’ll never go vegetarian, I think more than half my meals are meatless. There’s no real reason why I make so many vegetarian dishes, I just like them. Besides, going meatless reduces greenhouse gases and so is good for the environment and good for my health.

This three-bean chili is warm and hearty and just perfect for lunch. Black, kidney and great northern beans are mixed with fire-roasted tomatoes and green chilies. Bulgur adds a nice texture and masa harina is my secret (not so much anymore) thickening agent. It also gives it a little bit of that cornbread flavor that goes so well with chili powder. My other secret is a bit of smoked paprika, which goes a long way at giving this chili a rounder, meatier flavor.

I made a little hominy salsa with lime juice and cilantro to top the chili and brighten the flavors. I also made some jalapeño cheddar and chickpea muffins, but those were a complete failure and I had to throw them out. Sigh. I hate it when that happens.

More