Honey Soy Baked (or BBQed) Chicken Legs

Honey Soy Chicken Legs

Prep Time: 10 min + Marination Time

Cook Time: 30 min

Servings: 4

Ingredients

• 8 chicken legs
• Salt
• Pepper
• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 1/4 cup honey
• 1/2 TBSP Sriracha
• 1/4 cup mirin
• 4 cloves garlic, smashed and minced

Directions

1. Poke holes with a small knife in the chicken legs. Rinse them off and place in a gallon size Ziploc bag.
2. Mix ingredients and pour into the bag. Marinate the chicken legs at least overnight.
3. To cook, preheat oven 400 degrees. Place legs in a baking dish and bake for 30 minutes. Chicken legs can also be grilled on outdoor BBQ. 

Southern Brunch - Cajun Catfish & Cheese Grits w Buttermilk Cornbread & Mexican Corn

Once again, I am super behind in posting. It's been a busy few months at work, and traveling, but the winter weather has made for a good opportunity to catch up. Here is a post I started back in the summer when I convinced my family that lives in NJ to drive into the city to let me make lunch for them. 

I couldn't decide what to make. No one in my family is a picky eater really, but my Dad can be a bit particular. As I was thinking about what I had in the apartment and my options, I thought back to when I was a kid and how my Dad would occasionally bring home Cajun catfish from his company's cafeteria. We loved it.

This probably seems odd to some of you, but growing up in a first generation American household, we rarely ate out, and if we did, it was at a Chinese restaurant or the occasional trip to Roy Rogers and Pizza Hut. So, any American food that was brought home was a treat. Settling on making catfish, I decided to go with a southwest theme.

Buttermilk Cornbread w Cayenne Honey Butter

Prep Time: 10 min

Cook Time: 25 min

Servings: 9-16

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup butter
• 2/3 cup white sugar  
• 2 eggs  
• 1 cup buttermilk  
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda  
• 1 cup cornmeal  
• 1 cup all-purpose flour  
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• Softened unsalted butter, about half a stick
• Cayenne Pepper
• 1 TBSP Honey

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease an 8 inch square pan.
2. Melt butter in large skillet. Remove from heat and stir in sugar. Quickly add eggs and beat until well blended. Combine buttermilk with baking soda and stir into mixture in pan. Stir in cornmeal, flour, and salt until well blended and few lumps remain. Pour batter into the prepared pan.
3. Bake in the preheated oven for 30 to 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
4. Mix the softened butter, honey and cayenne pepper and serve with the warm corn bread

Cheese Grits

Prep Time: 5 min

Cook Time: 30 min

Servings: 4

Ingredients

• 2 cups whole milk
• 2 cups water
• 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 1 cup coarse ground cornmeal
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 4 ounces sharp Cheddar, shredded

Directions

1. Mix the milk, water, and salt into a large, pot over medium-high heat and bring to a boil. Once the milk mixture comes to a boil, gradually add the cornmeal while continually whisking. Becareful not to let the mixture boil over the pot. 
2. Once all of the cornmeal has been incorporated, decrease the heat to low and cover. Remove lid and whisk frequently, every 3 to 4 minutes, to prevent grits from sticking or forming lumps; make sure to get into corners of pot when whisking. Cook for 20 to 25 minutes or until mixture is creamy.
3. Remove from heat, add the pepper and butter, and whisk to combine. Once the butter is melted, gradually whisk in the cheese a little at a time. Serve immediately. 

Mexican Corn

Prep Time: 10 min

Cook Time: 20 min

Servings: 6

Ingredients

• 6 ears of corn, husks removed except for outer layer to protect corn from burning - soak in water for at least 30 min prior to grilling
• Grated Cotija cheese
• Mayo
• Cayenne pepper
• Unsalted butter (spray butter works decently well)
• Lime slices

Directions

1. Heat grill and grill corn until cooked through. Time will depend on the heat, make sure to roll the corn so it cooks evenly. You can add butter at this point or wait until later
2. Spread the corn with a bit of mayo and roll it in the grated cheese and sprinkle cayenne pepper to taste
3. Serve with lime slices

Blackened Cajun Catfish 

Prep Time: 15 min

Cook Time: 20 min

Servings: 6

Ingredients

• 3 catfish fillets, prepared (soaked in salt water and rinsed/patted dry). Any thin flaky white fish can be used such as Tilapia.
• Fish seasoning, click on link for recipe
• Unsalted butter or vegetable oil

Directions

1. Season catfish fillets with fish seasoning on both sides.
2. Heat vegetable oil or butter in large frying pan with medium-high heat. Carefully place fillets in frying pan. Cook about 3-5 minutes, check that the fish has cooked thru half way. Add more butter or oil if the fillets start to stick. Flip over, cook about 3 minutes.
3. Remove from heat carefully so the fillets stay in tact. For easier handling, cut fillets in pieces.

Sunday Brunch @ Home - BLAT w/ Fried Egg & Sriracha Mayo

BLAT w Fried Egg & Sriracha Mayo on Toasted Ciabatta

Prep Time: 15 min

Cook Time: 10 min

Servings: 1

Ingredients

• Ciabatta roll or bread loaf cut for sandwich (about 6")
• Unsalted Butter
• 2 slices of bacon for each sandwich
• 1 egg
• Mayo
• Sriracha sauce
• Sliced avocado, about 1/4 for each sandwich
• Sliced tomato
• Lettuce
• Freshly ground black pepper
• Cheese, sliced or shredded. I used cheddar

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. While oven is preheating, make spicy mayo by mixing mayo and sriracha sauce. About 1 TBSP of mayo and 1 tsp of Sriracha sauce is what I used per sandwich. Add more Sriracha or less to your liking.
2. Lightly butter bread on both sides and sprinkle with pepper. Bake bread on baking sheet butter side up in for 8-10 min. 
3. Heat skillet, cook bacon on medium heat, transfer to plate with paper towel while the bread is baking.
4. Using the bacon drippings (remove any excess as needed), fry the egg sunny side up or over easy.
5. By now the bread should be done. Place the fried egg on the bottom slice of bread, add cheese on top of the egg, then bacon, tomato and lettuce. 
6. Spread Sriracha mayo on the top slice and top off the sandwich. Serve immediately.

Simple Crab Cakes w Lemon-Mustard Aioli

My very first blog post was a crab cake recipe I made for my family... I prefer this recipe, it is without crackers, and on the lighter side, but it is harder to cook. Dicing the red peppers extremely small will help keep the cakes together, but to keep them from coming apart you need to pack them tightly and be careful when flipping them. I served these with a lemon-mustard aioli.

Prep Time: 10 min
Cook Time: 10 min
Servings: 7-8 appetizers or 5 entree

Crab Cakes w Lemon-Mustard Aioli

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup panko (+2/3 cup for coating)
• 1 lb lump or premium fin crab meat picked over for shells
• 4 scallions, green parts only, finely chopped
• 2 TBSP minced parsley
• 1/4 cup finely diced red bell pepper
• 2 TBSP low-fat mayo
• 1 tsp fresh lemon juice
• 1 tsp Dijon mustard
• 1/2 tsp Old Bay seasoning
• 1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• Pinch of kosher salt
• Pinch of ground pepper (or red pepper)
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
• For sauce
• 2 TBSP Mayo
• 1.5 TBSP Mustard
• Lemon juice to taste

Directions

1. Mix all ingredients except for crab in a bowl. Add crab and gently mix in until just combined. You want to avoid breaking up the crab pieces.
2. Use a measuring cup to make patties. 1/4 cup for appetizers, 1/3 cup for entrée size work well.
3. You can pre-make these patties and/or freeze them for use later. They will keep in the fridge for a day.
4. Heat olive oil in non-stick pan over medium-high heat. Swirl to coat. Add patties and cook about 3 min on each side or until golden brown. Serve with lemon aioli sauce.

Seafood Chowder

On our trip to Alaska last month, we had some form of seafood chowder at almost every meal we had. While chowders are not the healthiest options, many based with heavy creams and made with butter... I put together this alternative with some inspiration from different recipes. If you choose to splurge and treat yourself, it can be made with cream, but the 'healthy' version I have posted below is delicious as is. You don't have to use all the seafood I did, as it can get very pricey.

Unlike most of the recipes I post, this takes awhile to make. There is a lot of chopping and prepping involved so the 2nd time around I doubled the recipe, which just meant more chopping... :) It keeps well and only gets better after a couple of days. You can also freeze it for later.

Prep Time: 60 min
Cook Time: 2.5 hrs
Servings: 6

Seafood Chowder

Ingredients

• 1 lb shrimp with shells and head, peeled and deveined (save shells for stock)
• 1/2 lb bay scallops
• 1/2 lb monkfish, grouper, halibut or catfish
• 1/2 lb lump crabmeat, picked over to remove shells
• 6 pieces of thick-cut bacon, cooked and diced, fat reserved
• 1 TBSP unsalted butter
• 1 cup peeled and diced carrots
• 1/2 cup diced onions
• 1 cup diced celery
• 1 cup diced small white or red potatoes
• 1/2 cup corn kernels, fresh, frozen or canned is fine
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1.5 TBSP heavy cream (or milk, whole, reduced-fat, or skim, whatever you want)
• Minced parsley
• Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
• 1 can cream of mushroom condensed soup
• Seafood stock
• 2 TBSP olive oil
• Shells from shrimp
• 2 cups chopped yellow onion
• 2 carrots, unpeeled and chopped
• 3 stalks celery, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/2 cup good white wine
• 1 TBSP kosher salt
• 1.5 TSP freshly ground black pepper
• 10 sprigs fresh thyme including stems

Before you start the stock, wash and prepare seafood (soak in salt water for 10-15 min, rinse clean). You do not need to pat dry as the seafood will go into the soup.

Directions for Seafood Stock

1. Heat oil in stockpot over medium heat.
2. Add shrimp shells, onions, carrots, and celery and saute for 15 min or until lightly browned.
3. Add the garlic and cook 2 more minutes.
4. Add 1.5 quarts of water, white wine, salt, pepper, and thyme.
5. Bring to a boil and reduce the heat and simmer for 1 hr. Strain. You should have about 1 quart of stock.

Directions for Chowder 

1. White the stock is simmering, cook the bacon in a skillet on medium heat. Reserve the fat for use later. Drain and dice the bacon, set aside to add later.
2. Cut the shrimp, scallops, and fish into bite-sized pieces and place them in a bowl with the crabmeat.
3. In a heavy pot, melt the butter, and add the bacon fat on medium eat, add the carrots, onions, celery, potatoes, and corn. Saute on low-medium heat for 15 min or until the potatoes are barely cooked. Check the consistency of the carrots and celery as well, you may need to sauté for longer if the carrots are still hard.
4. Add the flour and reduce the heat to low and stir often for 3 minutes.
5. Add the stock and bring to a boil. Add the seafood and reduce the heat and simmer uncovered for 7-10 mins or until the fish is just cooked.
6. Add in condensed mushroom soup and bacon pieces. Stir gently.
7. Add cream or milk, if desired as well as parsley.
8. Add salt and pepper to taste, serve and garnish with parsley.

Steamed Chilean Sea Bass with Black Bean Sauce & Chinese Vegetables

This was one of my favorite dishes that my Mom used to make. I was always hesitant to try it because at around $16/lb I would be sad if it didn't turn out well. One day shopping in CTown I saw a piece of fish that looked pretty good and decided to give it a shot. My Mom was right, it is SUPER easy to make and so so delicious. 

Prep Time: 10 min
Cook Time: 15 min
Servings: 2-3

Chilean Sea Bass steamed in Black Bean Sauce

Ingredients

• Chilean Sea Bass Steak 
• 2 TBSP Black Bean Garlic Sauce
• 1 TBSP Cooking Wine
• 1 TBSP Soy Sauce
• .5 TBSP Sugar
• 1.5 TBSP or so of ginger matchsticks (I've had to cheat and use minced garlic from a jar)
• 3 scallions cut into 4 pieces and chopped lengthwise

Directions

1. Set up your steaming station. You can either use a plate on top of a steamer in a wok or place a baking dish on top of a steam plate in the wok. If you don't have a steam plate you can use a little bowl turned upside down and place the plate or a baking dish on top of it.

1. To prep the fish, wash/soak in cold salt water for 10 min. I do this with all seafood to take out the fishy smell/taste. 
2. Mix all of the ingredients for the sauce and pour over the fish. Spread the matchsticks over the fish.

3. A 1.25 lb steak takes about 15min to steam. When there are 2-3 min left, scatter the scallions on top of the fish.

Serve this with some Chinese veggies. I don't really know what veggies I'm eating half the time, I just pick up what looks good. Look at the ends, if they are white and opaque it means they are old. Flowering yellow buds are also a sign of aging veggies. Pick up some that are bright green and where the leaves look healthy and not wilting.

Chinese Veggies w/Oyster Sauce

Prep Time: 5 min
Cook Time: 8 min
Servings: 2-3

Ingredients

• 1lb green vegetables washed and rinsed (veggies will cook faster if dry)
• 2 TBSP Oyster Sauce
• 1 TBSP Chicken Broth
• Smashed or minced garlic, 3-4 cloves, add more/less to taste
• 1 TBSP ginger matchsticks, add more/less to taste
• 1 TBSP vegetable oil
• 1 TBSP sesame oil
• White Pepper to taste
• 2 TSP cornstarch mixed with 1 TBSP water set aside (optional)

Directions

1. Heat oils in wok on medium/high heat
2. Stir fry garlic and ginger for 1 min
3. Add veggies, sauté for 2 min, add oyster sauce
4. Stir fry until veggies are cooked through, the sauce will be watery, as this comes to a boil, push the veggies to the side and add the cornstarch water mixture as the sauce boils. Carefully mix the cornstarch with the oyster sauce as it is boiling, the sauce will thicken

Instead of oyster sauce, you can use a mixture of chicken broth and fish sauce. If you do not have chicken broth on hand, use chicken broth powder. It's good to have on hand and is a great alternative to salt to use to season stir-fry dishes.

Salmon Three Ways - Hoisin, Miso & Maple

Salmon is probably my favorite fish to cook because you can make it so many ways, it is tasty, and reasonably priced. I order my fillets from FD, 2 center cut fillets between 6-8 ounces are $9.99. The cook times are for these size fillets. Below are three very easy recipes, Hoisin-Glazed, Miso-Glazed, and Maple-Glazed. The cooking directions are the same for each of these recipes.


Prep Time: 10 min
Cook Time: 10 min
Servings: 2

Hoisin-Glazed

Ingredients

• 2 center cut salmon fillets (6-8 ounces each)
• 2 TBSP Hoisin sauce
• 1 TBSP Honey
• 1 TBSP Soy Sauce
• 1 TBSP White Wine (I use Chinese cooking wine or white cooking wine)
• 1 TBSP minced garlic
• Salt and Pepper to Taste

Miso-Glazed

Ingredients

• 1 TBSP Red Miso
• 1 TBSP Soy Sauce
• 1 TBSP Mirin
• 1 tsp minced garlic
• 1 tsp minced ginger
• Salt and Pepper to Taste

Maple-Glazed

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup Maple syrup
• 1 TBSP Soy Sauce
• 1 tsp minced garlic
• Salt and Pepper to Taste

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees
2. To prep the fish, wash/soak in cold salt water for 10 min. I do this with all seafood to take out the fishy smell/taste. Pat dry. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
3. Wrap the handle of a skillet with foil (to remind you not to touch the pan after removing from the oven)
4. Heat about 1 TBSP vegetable oil in a med-high heat oven proof pan (sesame oil is also good for the hoisin and miso salmon recipes)
5. Sear the salmon skin side up for 30 seconds
6. Flip and sear the salmon skin side down for 30 seconds
7. Spoon glaze on the salmon and cook in preheated oven for 3-3.5 min depending on size of fillet.
8. Remove from oven and spoon more glaze, cook for 3-3.5 more min.
9. Remove from oven and transfer to plate, spoon remaining glaze on top of salmon fillet.

The glazes are also good drizzled over steamed vegetables such as broccoli and carrots.