Watson House Wednesday, #12: Sesame Salmon

Has it really been two and a half YEARS since I updated this site?  Crazy to think that all of that time has flown by so quickly!  For now, I can't say for sure that I'll be going back to a weekly post on this, but definitely much more frequently than that!

Recently, our family has been discussing ways to eat more healthy meals at home.  We find that when we go out to eat, the affordable options (that the kids will still eat) tend to be pretty unhealthy, loaded with fat and carbs.  One of the options that came up was the idea of eating fish more often.  Not only is it tasty, but also pretty quick to prepare.  I got a large pack of salmon on sale, and wanted to try preparing it in different ways.  One night, I wanted to try a Teriyaki marinade, but then realized I didn't have any Teriyaki sauce on hand, so I had to improvise.  I mixed up my own marinade, and it turned out to be a hit, so I wanted to share it! 

The first time through, I just mixed ingredients until it tasted about right, but the second time through, I remembered to record the amounts of the ingredients that I used.  The orange juice was a new addition the second time, but I think it really added a lot to it!  I combined soy sauce, hoisin sauce, sweet and sour sauce, black vinegar, orange juice, garlic and ginger.  I get black vinegar at my local Asian grocery store, but if you can't find it locally, balsamic or rice vinegar would probably work well here.  I placed the salmon fillets (skin on) in a dish, and poured the sauce over them, making sure all surfaces were coated, then put the cover on, and put it in the refrigerator to marinade.    

Once the fillets had marinated about 20 minutes, I heated the oven to 450 degrees, removed the salmon from the marinade, and placed it skin-side down in a baking pan lined with parchment paper (oven safe).  (After trying it, I would skip the parchment next time, even though the skin sticks to the pan.  The skin crisps up, and slides off easily from the fish.) Then I brushed the fish with toasted sesame oil, and sprinkled with sesame seeds, before placing into the oven.  I love using toasted sesame oil, because of the rich, nutty flavor that it adds to foods.  A little goes a long way, so this is a flavorful way to keep the fish moist during baking, without adding too much fat.  For a spicy kick to this recipe, you could also brush the salmon with a few drops of your favorite hot sauce, or a pinch of red pepper flakes before the sesame seeds!  

Ye old red-and-white cookbook (the Better Homes and Gardens: New Cook Book*) says to bake the fish at 450 degrees for 4 to 6 minutes, per half inch thickness, so these fillets went in for about 10 to 12 minutes, until it flaked easily with a fork. You will want to adjust your cooking time to the thickness of the fillets that you have.  

I've made this a few times now, and it's been well-received by my family.  And if you make the sauce ahead of time, it makes an easy mid-week dinner with your favorite steamed veggies or rice dish!  

Sesame Salmon

1 large salmon fillet (skin on)

1/4 cup soy sauce

1/4 cup sweet and sour sauce

1/8 cup black vinegar (can substitute balsamic or rice vinegar)

1/8 cup orange juice

1 teaspoon Hoisin sauce

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

3 tablespoons toasted sesame oil

1 to 2 tablespoons sesame seeds

a few drops of hot chili sauce OR a pinch of red pepper flakes (optional)

Cut salmon into portions, rinse, and pat dry.  Mix together soy sauce, sweet and sour sauce, black vinegar, orange juice, Hoisin sauce, garlic and ginger.  Place salmon in a dish or bowl, then pour the sauce mixture over it, making sure all surfaces of the fillets get coated with this marinade.  If there is more marinade than needed, reserve the remainder to use as a sauce for later.  Cover and refrigerate for about 20 minutes.  Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.  Prepare a baking pan by brushing lightly with oil, or lining the bottom with parchment paper.  Remove salmon from the marinade, and place the fillets skin-side down in the baking pan.  Brush each portion with about a tablespoon of sesame oil.  If desired, brush the salmon with a few drops of hot chili sauce, or a pinch of red pepper flakes.  Sprinkle with sesame seeds.  Bake the fish at 450 degrees F for 4 to 6 minutes per half inch thickness, until it flakes easily with a fork.  

* https://www.amazon.com/Better-Homes-Gardens-Cook-Book/dp/0696000121/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1507647911&sr=8-2&keywords=better+homes+and+gardens+cookbook

Watson House Wednesday, #11: Jenn's Spaghetti

Well, life is still crazy busy, and I missed last week, but I wanted to jump back in this week.  :)

Spaghetti is admittedly one of my favorite foods on the planet.  Seriously, before I could even use a fork, I was shoving it into my face.  It's not something that I've made very recently, but it is something I've made often over the years.  It was one of the first things my mother taught me to cook.  Just the smell of those special ingredients being combined is like comfort food kitchen magic to me!

Spaghetti is a food that is variable, versatile, and easily adjustable to taste.  You can use different meats, different herbs, and different additions to the sauce.  After many versions, many experiments, and many years, this is the current favorite version at our house.

Jenn's Spaghetti
1 pound ground beef
4 cloves of garlic (or 2 tsp garlic powder)
1 medium onion
1/2 pound fresh mushrooms
2 tbsp fresh chopped oregano (or 2 tsp dried)
2 tbsp fresh chopped basil (or 2 tsp dried)
1 can (15 oz.) diced tomatoes (drained)
1 small can (8 oz.) tomato sauce
1 can (6 oz.) tomato paste
1 can condensed tomato soup
2-4 tbsp red wine

1 small package spaghetti noodles
2 tbsp olive oil

In a large skillet or saute pan, lightly brown ground beef.  Drain, and return beef to skillet.  Chop garlic, onion, and herbs, wash and slice mushrooms.  Add these to the beef, and cook over medium heat.*  Once the onions and mushrooms have cooked most of the way through, add the tomatoes, tomato sauce, tomato paste, tomato soup, and wine.  Heat through, stirring occasionally, then turn down to simmer.

Cook spaghetti noodles according to package directions, except add the olive oil to the water before adding the noodles.  Once the pasta is cooked and drained, stir the sauce, remove from heat, and serve.  Add a sprinkle of parmesan cheese if you like!

*Since my daughter has developed an aversion to mushrooms, I now saute these with a little olive oil and a sprinkle of garlic.  Then anyone who wants them can add them later, as they like.

Watson House Wednesday, #10: Saffron Rice

After a long hiatus, I’m back!  The holidays were great, but crazy busy.  Life has been the same recently, with birthdays, Valentines, and getting the garden started.  But I have a rainy day, and a rare day when I don’t have to go run errands, so it’s been a good morning to catch up on things!

My recipe this week is something new, but it turned out well, so I wanted to share.  Saffron is a seasoning that I have wanted to try for some time now, but since it’s pretty spendy, I've avoided it thus far.  But Santa decided to leave a small tin of it in my stocking this last Christmas, so I finally got to give it a go!  

I searched and debated over several recipes that include saffron for my first try using this exotic seasoning.  I finally decided to go with something simple, something that wouldn’t have a lot of other flavors obscuring or competing with the flavor of the saffron itself.  So we tried saffron rice, and it’s amazing!  I served it on our game night with chicken curry, but it’s really good even on its own.  I made a double batch, so we had leftovers, to everyone’s delight.  :)

Recipes for saffron rice ranged from very traditional (and kind of complicated), to fairly simple.  After considering several, I based my first attempt on this version.  It’s one of the fairly simple ones.  :)

http://toriavey.com/toris-kitchen/2011/09/saffron-rice/

Of course, me being me, I modified it a little.  So here’s how I made it:

Saffron Rice

2 pinches saffron threads

1 tbsp olive oil (You made need a bit more, depending on your pan.)

1 small to medium yellow onion (around ¾ cup minced)

2 cups jasmine rice

3 ¾ cup soup stock

1 tsp salt

Grind the saffron threads with a mortar and pestle.  (You could use a bowl and the back of a spoon, if you don’t have one.)  Add about ¼ cup hot water, and let it soak for at least 5 minutes to open up the flavor of the spice.  The original recipe says to leave some threads whole, but I forgot or missed this step.

Measure and rinse your rice.  Most recipes call for basmati rice, but I didn’t have any, and jasmine rice seemed to work fine.  Regular white or long-grain rice are not recommended, but they might work, although you’d probably have to cook them longer, and they may require more liquid.

Mince the onion, and put it into a large pot with the olive oil.  I put my onion in the food processor a bit too long, and it ended up rather like onion paste, but it didn’t seem to make much difference.  Saute over medium heat, until the onions begin to caramelize.  Then mix in the rice, and saute for another minute.  Pour all of the saffron liquid evenly over the rice.  Add the stock and salt, then bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for 20 minutes, or until all of the liquid is absorbed.  Fluff with a fork, and serve!

The stock I used in this recipe was some turkey stock that we canned after Thanksgiving.  The original recipe says to use chicken stock, or water with an added pinch of salt.  But if you wanted to make it vegetarian, I’m sure a vegetable stock would also be delicious.

Pictured above, this rice made a great meatless meal (except for the stock) with some button mushrooms.  The mushrooms were just sliced, then sauteed with a dash of salt, pepper, and smoked paprika.  Love those Spanish spices!  :)

Watson House Wednesday, Extra: Wiener Wraps and Other Fun With Hot Roll Dough

Watson House Wednesday, Extra: Wiener Wraps and Other Fun With Hot Roll Dough

Another great thing that Mom Watson makes with her hot roll dough is wiener wraps!  For this, you only need a batch of Mom's Hot Roll dough and a package of hot dogs.  We like the larger, smoked sausage dogs, so I usually double the recipe.

Make a batch of Mom's Hot Rolls, found here:
http://jennspersonalblarg.blogspot.com/2015/02/watson-house-wednesday-9-moms-hot-rolls.html
except do not form into rolls.

Preheat the oven to 360 degrees.  On a floured surface, roll the dough out to between a half inch to an inch thick.  Cut into strips about an inch or more wide.  Wrap the dough around each of the hot dogs, and place on a greased cookie sheet.  Bake for about 15 minutes, or until golden brown.

If you end up with extra dough (This can happen, especially if you double the recipe.), you can form the remainder into rolls and bake them as usual.  Or you can experiment!

Last time I made the wiener wraps, I also made ham and cheese rolls, and they turned out pretty well!  Just take a strip or bit of shredded cheese, roll it up in a deli slice of ham, and wrap it up just like a hot dog.  Make sure you seal the ends well though, or the cheese will leak out in the baking process.  I will try to get a picture of these before they're all gone!  :)

You can also roll out this dough a bit thinner, and use it for mini-pizzas!

Edit: Here is one of the ham and cheese rollups.

Watson House Wednesday, #9: Mom’s Hot Rolls

Watson House Wednesday, #9: Mom’s Hot Rolls

What is your favorite dish at Thanksgiving? While stuffing, cranberry relish, and pumpkin pies are always popular, a favorite at any family gathering at the Watson household are the hot rolls! Slightly sweet, but savory enough to go with most dishes, they make an excellent edition to a special meal. These do take a little planning and effort, but are actually not too difficult to make, and totally worth it. This is my mother-in-law’s recipe for fluffy goodness!

Mom’s Hot Rolls
1 package (or 1 tablespoon) dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water
1 cup milk
1/4 cup, plus 1 tsp, sugar
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon salt
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 egg

In a small bowl, mix the yeast with the warm water and 1 tsp sugar. Let it set for at least 5 minutes, or until foamy.

Meanwhile, in a larger mixing bowl, combine milk, remaining sugar, oil, and salt. Warm in the microwave (or carefully in a small saucepan), until warm, but not hot. Add the egg to the milk mixture and mix well. Make sure that this milk mixture is warm to lukewarm, then add the yeast mixture to this and stir a few times. 

Add 3 cups of the flour, and stir. Gradually add remaining flour to form soft dough, kneading in flour until the dough is soft, but not sticky. (A small amount of additional flour may be needed for this.) Cover the bowl, and allow the dough to rise until double, usually 1 ½ to 2 hours. 

On a lightly floured surface, punch down and knead dough for a minute or two, then form into rolls. Place rolls into baking pan that is lightly greased (a baking spray works fine for this), then cover and allow the rolls to rise again until double, about 30 minutes. 

Bake at 400 degrees, for 12 to 15 minutes. Make about 2 dozen rolls.

Jenn’s note: I like to substitute 1 cup of the flour with whole wheat flour, and it works very well!

Watson House Wednesday, #8: Blue Sherbet Punch

Watson House Wednesday, #8: Blue Sherbet Punch
For my daughter's 8th birthday party, the theme of the party was the movie "Frozen."  Everything was in shades of blue, white, and silver, and the party punch apparently needed to match, as well. Last year, the kids went crazy over the sherbet punch I made, many had never tried one before! So Jasmine definitely wanted to have one again this year. After trying several recipes found on Pinterest, I finally ended up using a modified version of this one:http://getfreerecipes.hubpages.com/h…/baby-blue-punch-recipe
In a way, I simplified it by dropping the added sugar, and exchanging the white cranberry juice with white grape-peach juice. There was more than enough sweetness with the grape juice and soda, and the white grape-peach juice was available at Costco. It's one of those things that's actually simple to make, but seems so impressive to your guests!

Blue Sherbet Punch
1 2-liter bottle of lemon-lime soda (We used Sierra Mist.)
1 2-quart bottle of white grape-peach juice
1 packet of blue raspberry lemonade KoolAid
pineapple sherbet

Stir KoolAid packet into juice and chill both juice and soda before mixing. Mix equal amounts of soda and juice into punch bowl or server. Add several scoops of sherbet to the punch and give a gentle stir.

For a party of about a dozen kids and several adults, we found that doubling this recipe gave us plenty for everyone.

Watson House Wednesday, #7: Crock Pot Curry

Watson House Wednesday, #7: Crock Pot Curry

A good Thai curry is one of our favorite dishes, but it can be a little time consuming to make. Since we always seem to be short on time on weekday evenings, I decided to try this dish in the crock pot, and it worked out very well!

Ingredients:
1 to 1 ½ lbs. skinless, boneless chicken breasts or thighs
4 small potatoes
1 medium onion
2 large carrots
1 large yam
2 cups chopped cauliflower
2 cans coconut milk
1 or 2 tbsp red curry paste
2 or 4 tbsp yellow curry paste

Peel all vegetables and chop into chunks, then place into crock pot. Slice chicken into strips and add to vegetables. Whisk together one can of coconut milk and the curry paste. Pour this mixture over the chicken and vegetables, and stir. Cook on low for about 8 hours, or until vegetables are tender. Stir in second can of coconut milk. Serve with naan bread, rice, or couscous. The leftovers freeze well!