SWASHBUCKLED! S2E3: Sushi-Bagel-Pasta

Since Amanda and Marie are running in the Rock N Roll Marathon and Half (respectively) this weekend, we decided to go all in on the carbs and excessively long and rambling recipe titles. Watch as we try to fuse together one too many cuisines. Will we add SO MANY flavors where it finally works? You’ll have to watch to find out!

 

 

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Ingredients featured in this week’s episode:

This might have been the weirdest combination of items we have made in the Fearless Flying Kitchen. But it totally works! Comfort food at its best. Risotto is normally made with a short grain rice, but our risotto is made from a short grain pasta, Orzo! Between the carby-goodness of the Orzo and the flavors of the Miso-Ginger Broth, the base  reminded us of the comfort food of our youth, “Oriental Flavored Top Ramen.”

The completed dish also reminded us of one of our favorite fresh (ie. Heat and Serve) items, Greek Style Chicken with Orzo, Spinach and Feta Cheese. However our version would be called the “Asian Style Salmon with Orzo, Mushrooms, Edamame and Goat Cheese…Oh and A Chutney Of Cucumbers and Lychee”

And speaking of that chutney, it was a great stand alone item and makes a great side dish or topping. We’ll definitely be revisiting that again.

Couple other things about this dish: smoked salmon really was wanting to be a breakfast item, and Marie brought it because it tasted so good with bagels and cream cheese. It had a distinct flavor in the risotto dish (which I want to make again but with a plain baked salmon) that mellowed out a bit once we added the goat cheese.

 

 

Miso Salmon Risotto with Cucumber Lychee Chutney

• Servings: 4
• Time: 30 min
• Difficulty: moderately easy
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Recipe by Amanda Hibshman, RDN

Ingredients

• 1 Cup Orzo
• 2 Cups Miso Ginger Broth
• 1 Cup Water
•  2 Tbsp Butter, divided
• 1/2 Shallot, minced
• 1 Garlic Cloves, minced
• 1 Cup Fresh Edamame
• 1 package Shiitake Mushrooms, sliced
• 1 Package Smoked Salmon
• Cucumber-Lychee Chutney
  • 1 Cucumber, peeled and diced
  • 8 Fresh Lychee, peeled and diced, with juices
  • 1 Tbsp Red Onion, Minced
  • 1 tsp Fresh Ginger, grated
  • Zest and Juice from Half a Lime
  • 1/4 tsp Fresh Ground Sea Salt
  • 2 Tbsp Rice Vinegar
• Toppings: Green Onion, Everything but the Bagel Seasoning, Goat Cheese Crumbles

Directions

1. Make Cucumber-Lychee Chutney: Combined all ingredients in a bowl and mix together. Refrigerate for a half an hour.
2. Make Risotto: In a pot, warm up broth and water on medium-low. In another pan, over medium heat, melt 1 tbsp butter in a pan. Sautée shallot and garlic cloves for a few minutes. Add in orzo and cook for another couple minutes to brown a little. Now, you can begin to add a half a cup of warm stock/water until absorbed, then add another half cup, and continue this until all the liquid is absorbed. Make sure the heat is set to medium and you are stirring constantly.
3. Once all the stock is gone, you can use the same pot to melt 1 more tablespoon of butter and sauté the sliced shiitake mushrooms and fresh edamame over medium-high heat. This won’t take long to cook, you just want the mushrooms to soften and the edamame to warm throughout.
4. To assemble, place a a quarter of each in a bowl in the following order: orzo risotto, mushroom edamame mixture, smoked salmon (flaked, although see note at the bottom), cucumber-lychee chutney, and then the toppings (green onion, goat cheese and everything but the bagel seasoning).

NOTE (WHAT AMANDA WOULD DO DIFFERENTLY)- Instead of using the smoked salmon, you can bake fresh salmon. To do this, pre-heat oven to 400 degrees, place salmon on baking sheet and rub with olive oil and top with fresh sea salt and pepper. Bake for about 16-18 minutes. This will decrease the smokiness of the salmon, and would be a great flavor to add to the top of the orzo risotto. You probably wouldn’t need to add the goat cheese and bagel seasoning.

 

We made the Blueberry-Lavender Coffee Popsicles by combining 1 cup of Blueberry-Lavender Flavored Almond Beverage with 1 cup Cold Brew (Black) Coffee and 1-2 Tbsp Coffee Syrup (start with one Tbsp and then add a little more if you like it sweeter). This will make about 10 popsicles, with each one containing 12 calories, 3.7g carbs, 3.2g sugar,  and 11mg sodium…not too bad if you are looking for a sweet, summer treat that won’t  break the scale. I mean, it’s basically the same as breathing air…plus a little sugar…

However, these popsicles are a little on the “icy” side. Great flavor though! You can experiment with adding a couple tablespoons of half and half into the mixture, which would no longer make it vegan, but might improve the mouthfeel a tad.

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SWASHBUCKLED! S2E1: Jessie Spano Special

Welcome Back!

We’re SO EXCITED! We’re SO EXCITED! And unlike Jessie Spano in Saved by the Bell, we are NOT scared to bring you SEASON TWO of SWASHBUCKLED!

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Ingredients featured in this week’s episode include:

85% Lean Ground Beef

Chevere with Honey

Heart of Palm Medallions

Organic Thyme

The reasons behind the choices? Marie chose ground beef because she just loves a good cheeseburger. The chèvre cheese, because, why not? In our Simpler Wines Facebook Live Event, our friend, Ryan, suggested we use “Palm of Heart” in one of our recipes. And last, she brought thyme as a way to pay homage to one of our favorite 90’s TV shows, Saved By The Bell.

Really wanting to impress Marie for the season premier, Amanda decided to go for the cheeseburger, even though there wasn’t any buns in the house. We made this awesome 40-minute Hamburger Bun Recipe from Taste of Home. It was quick and easy, and had a biscuit-like quality to it. We replaced 1 cup of the flour with White Wheat Flour for an earthier flavor and improved nutrition profile. Make sure you watch the episode for extra tips on making yeast bread from scratch.

However, if you don’t want to make your own bread and have an opportunity to go to the store, these Parm-Iago Rosemary Rolls (pictured to right) make excellent slider buns and would work well in this recipe.

We started out by “blooming” our thyme, which releases more flavor than just sprinkling into whatever you are preparing. Since some flavor compounds in some herbs and spices are fat soluble, you can extract more flavor when they are cooked (over low heat) with a fat source. We chose a mixture of oil and butter for this recipe, but you could easily just choose one or the other. Remove the herb before adding other ingredients.

(SPOILER ALER) We loved this meal and would definitely do it again. Highly recommended!

'Never Enough Thyme' Burgers

• Servings: 6
• Time: 20 min
• Difficulty: easy
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Recipe by Amanda Hibshman, RDN

Ingredients

• 85% lean Ground Beef
• 1 Tbsp Balsamic Vinegar
• 1 tsp Worchestershire Sauce
• 1 tsp Garlic Powder
• 1 Tbsp Olive Oil
• 1 Tbsp butter
• 10 sprigs of Fresh Thyme
• 1 Red Onion, thinly sliced
• 1 Bag Hearts of Palm (or Palm of Hearts), sliced
• 3 Garlic Cloves
• 1 bag fresh spinach
• 2 tsp Dijon Mustard
• Sea Salt and Fresh Ground Pepper to taste
• Chèvre with Honey
• Glaze (Balsamic Glaze)
• Your favorite bun (we love THIS RECIPE)

Directions

1. Infuse thyme into oil and butter: over medium-low heat, melt butter and add olive oil and 8 sprigs of thyme. cook on low for about 5-10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
2. Remove thyme and discard. Turn heat up to medium or medium-high, and add sliced onion and sautée for a couple minutes, then add heart of palm. Cook for 5 minutes then add spinach, garlic, mustard and 2 additional thyme stems (chopped). Cook until spinach has cooked down. Salt and pepper to taste.
3. Make burger patties: Preheat grill to medium-high. Combine ground beef, balsamic vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, garlic powder, salt and pepper with hands. Mix well. Form into 6 balls and squash them into thin patties. Set aside (and don’t forget to wash your hands with warm soapy water!) Cook for about 4 minutes per side, until internal temperature of 165˚F is reached.
4. To assemble, slice bread in half, butter each half and cook on griddle for a couple minutes, until golden brown. Place a tablespoon of goat cheese on top bun, burger patty on the bottom, topped with 1/4 cup mixture of onions, spinach and heart of palm. Top with “GLAZE” (balsamic reduction or balsamic glaze).

“Never Enough Thyme” Burgers, featuring Balsamic Glaze, Chèvre with Honey, Hearts of Palm, and Spinach.

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SWASHBUCKLED! (S1E6): O Fortuna!

This week, Marie braves the frigid Southern California winter temperatures to bring over four mystery ingredients to the Fearless Flying Kitchen.

Read on for episode breakdown.

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Ingredients featured in this week’s episode:

Almond Windmill Cookies

Mango

Swordfish Steaks

Zhoug Sauce

It was a cold week in San Diego, so Marie brought over her favorite comfort food (Windmill Cookies), something tropical (Mango), something actually frozen (Swordfish Steaks) and something spicy to warm you up (Zhoug Sauce).

Let’s start with the ZHOUG SAUCE. Aside from being difficult to pronounce, it is a pretty perfect, versatile dip, that tastes like a cilantro and jalapeño pesto. It has “Yemeni Roots,” which we have concluded means it comes from YEMEN as opposed to having an ingredient that is the actual roots of the illusive yemeni plant.

We thawed our swordfish in a bowl of warm water for about 15 minutes, and then topped it with the Zhoug sauce and baked in the oven. The insert in the swordfish has a ton of cooking options (pan frying, grilling, baking, etc.). We also played with the Zhoug sauce as a veggie dip, with equal parts LOW FAT SOUR CREAM, PLAIN ICELANDIC YOGURT, and ZHOUG SAUCE. It was pretty spicy for a dip, but would be great on a pita with a meatball or falafel.

How pretty is this blend of bell peppers and mango?

Marie admittedly included the MANGO so she could learn how to cut it properly. This seems to be the one fruit and vegetable that I hear the most complaints about cutting. It is fairly easy to peel (with a knife or standard peeler), but then you have a very slippery surface that makes cutting into the awkward hard core pretty dangerous. You could also do the cut-first-peel-second method, but then it makes traditional peeling much more difficult. Some people swear by this “drinking glass” method of peeling mango. Try it and let us know how it works for you!

The flavors in the mango mix really well with the sweet bell peppers to create a tropical take on fried rice. All you need is some microwave rice, rice vinegar, and low sodium soy sauce, and you have a fun and easy weeknight side.

To finish off our meal, we experimented with some Windmill Cookie experiments. The first thought was to make a frozen yogurt. The key here is to only leave the yogurt in the freezer for 1-2 hours, just enough to begin to solidify, but not long enough to freeze completely. One thing we didn’t try (but you can!) is to put this in a popsicle mold, and freeze overnight.

Our favorite application was definitely the chia seed pudding. You could easily cut back on the amount of sugar and windmill cookies (by at least half), and it wouldn’t sacrifice flavor at all. I loved the addition of Chia Seeds for the additional nutritional boost (extra fiber, protein and Omega-3 Fatty Acids).

And lastly, this video wouldn’t be possible without the inspiration of this FABULOUSLY HILARIOUS Misheard Lyrics video for O Fortuna (from Carmina Burana). Marie and I have both performed O Fortuna with our choirs in the past, and think this video is hilarious every time we see it.

Almond Windmill Cookie Dessert Extravaganza

• Servings: 8
• Time: 45 min
• Difficulty: easy
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Recipe by Amanda Hibshman, RDN

Ingredients

• 15 WINDMILL COOKIES! SALSA COOKIES! (hulk smashed)
• 1 can coconut milk
• 1 vanilla greek yogurt
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 Tbsp Chia Seeds

Directions

1. Crush mix all the windmill cookies (by hand, food processor, or blender) and combine with the rest of the ingredients in a mixer.
2. If you are making ice cream, then put in a small container and put in the freezer for 1-2 hours.
3. If you are making chia seed pudding, then add 1 Tbsp of chia seeds for each 1/2 cup of liquid. Stir well, cover and put in the fridge for at least 20-30 minutes so chia seeds can become gelatinous and thicken.

Swordfish Steaks

• Servings: 2
• Time: 20 min
• Difficulty: super easy
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Recipe by Amanda Hibshman, RDN

Ingredients

• 2 Frozen Swordfish Steaks
• 1 tsp Olive Oil per steak
• 1-2 tsp Zhoug Sauce per Steak
• Red Bell Peppers, diced

Directions

1. Thaw swordfish steaks, either overnight in the refrigerator or in a bowl of warm water. Preheat oven to 400
2. Once thawed, remove from package and place on a baking sheet.  Top steaks with 1 tsp of Olive Oil and Zhoug sauce (about 1-2 tsp per steak. If you want a subtle flavor, go for 1 tsp. If you like spice, go for 2). Rub the Olive Oil and Zhoug Sauce in a thin layer and top with chopped bell peppers.
3. Bake for 15 minutes and remove from over. Let set for 2-5 minutes and then serve with Mango Fried Rice.

Mango Fried Rice

• Servings: 8
• Time: 20 min
• Difficulty: easy
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Recipe by Amanda Hibshman, RDN

Ingredients

• 1 Mango, peeled and diced
• Half Red Bell Pepper, Diced
• Half Green Bell Pepper, Diced
• 1/2 Red Onion, Sliced thin
• 2 Tbsp Olive Oil
• 2 Bags Frozen Jasmine Rice, Microwaved
• 1 Tbsp Rice Vinegar
• 2 Limes, Juice only
• 1/2 Cup Cilantro, Chopped
• 2 Tbsp Low Sodium Soy Sauce (plus more to taste)
• Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. Peel & dice mango. Dice 1/2 red onion, 1/2 red bell pepper, 1/2 green bell pepper
2. Over medium high heat, warm Olive Oil. Once hot, add Onion and sauté for 3-5 minutes. Then add Bell Peppers and cook for another 3-5 min. Once Bell Peppers start to soften, add Mango and cook for 5 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, heat rice in microwave. Once cooked, add to pan (after you’ve added the mangos). Add in Rice Vinegar, Lime Juice, Soy Sauce, salt and pepper. Finish with Cilantro, and give it a good stir, then remove from heat and serve.

Slow Cooked BBQ Chicken Pizza on Honey Whole Wheat Crust

My husband has had a stressful week month year. The best way that I know how to provide comfort is through food. Pizza is one of my favorite meals, and I of course assume that it is every one’s favorite meals too. Normally, I purchase the pre-made whole wheat dough from Trader Joe’s. It is delicious and is a super easy weeknight meal. But I was in a mood to spoil, so I attempted my own version.

My favorite thing to make with the whole wheat crust is a BBQ chicken pizza. Now, I know half of you are probably grossed out right now. People have very strong opinions about BBQ on pizza. Love it or hate it, that is fine. I happen to love it. Mostly because I love just about anything on pizza.

I initially wanted to re-create a local favorite pizza served at Padres games: The BBQ Chicken Pizza.

For a while I would make this pizza with basic BBQ sauce , “Just Chicken,” red onion, cilantro and mozzarella cheese. Slowly I have been tweaking the recipe to BAM! Kick it up a notch. (did I just say that? Am I stuck in the late 90’s?)

Now, I make this pizza using leftovers from Honey BBQ Chicken Sandwiches and make extra sauce by combining BBQ sauce, Italian dressing, honey, and garlic powder. Then I chop the red onion and cilantro together and dice them pretty small, and then layer the red onion and cilantro in the mozzarella cheese It is pretty great!

But what really stole the show tonight was the home made crust. I thought back to a time in college, when we had to create a food product to market. My friends made a whole wheat pizza dough with flaxseed, and it was delicious. I called my friend, Rachael, and asked her what they did. She said to just take a basic dough recipe and do half whole wheat flour, half white flour and then add flaxseed.

Sounds easy enough.

But, of course, I can’t even just stick to one recipe.

Instead, I looked up about 10 different crust recipes and took a little bit from each one. I knew I wanted to use honey as a sweetener instead of sugar. I wanted to use 100% white wheat flour (as opposed to half white, half whole wheat). I wanted to add in the ground flax seeds to give an interesting texture and wanted to be able to make it in my kitchen aid.

I was able to accomplish all of that and, what-da-ya-know, it actually turned out! I love when that happens. I even had enough to freeze for a later time!

I think my favorite part of the crust was the cornmeal on the bottom. I listed it as ‘optional’ in the ingredient list, but it really made it feel like a professional operation. So, without further adieu:

• Servings: 6-8
• Difficulty: moderate
• Print

Ingredients:

• 1/2 Honey Whole Wheat Crust
• 1 Cup BBQ Chicken (+ More BBQ Sauce as needed)
• 1 Cup Mozzarella cheese (More as needed)
• Handful Cilantro
• 1 slice of Red onion
• 1 Tbsp Parmesan Cheese

Assemble in the following order: BBQ sauce, BBQ Chicken, half of the cilantro and red onion, Mozzarella cheese, the rest of the cilantro and red onion, parmesan cheese. Bake at 425 for 12-16 minutes or until crust is cooked and cheese is melted.

Honey Whole Wheat Crust

Ingredients:

• 2 cups 100% white wheat flour
• 2 Tbsp ground flaxseed
• 1 cup lukewarm water
• 2 tsp honey
• 1 packet (2 tsp) active dry yeast
• 1 Tbsp flour
• 2 Tbsp Olive Oil
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 Tbsp Cornmeal (optional)

Directions:
Dissolve honey, tbsp of flour and yeast in warm water. Stir and let activate over ~10 min. In the meantime, add two cups white wheat flour (or one cup white, one cup whole wheat) to stand mixer bowl. Add salt and flaxseed. Stir well. Create a well in the middle and add liquid once activated and frothy. Mix with dough hook by hand until combined, then attach hook to stand mixer and mix first on low, then ramping up to medium/high. Mix for about 6-8 min, until smooth and pulls away from the dough hook and sides easily. Add more flour or water a tsp at a time as needed. Once mixed, flour a work surface and divide dough in two. Work dough with hands into a ball. Rub a little bit of Olive oil on top of each ball and then cover with a clean, warm kitchen towel. Let rise for 45-60 minutes. Form into pizza with your hands (not a rolling pin. Let gravity do the work). Sprinkle cornmeal on parchment paper and place formed dough on top. Place desired toppings and then bake for 12-16 min at 425.

Slow Cooked BBQ Chicken

Ingredients:

• 1 cup BBQ sauce
• 1/3 cup Italian dressing
• 1 Tbsp honey
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 3 frozen chicken breasts

Directions:
Combine together. Cover chicken breasts with sauce and cook on high in the slow cooker for 2 hours and then on low for 4 more.
If you need additional BBQ sauce for the pizza, combine just the first 4 ingredients.

Served with Watermelon chunks and Broccoli Slaw