Engaging stories of love, joy, comfort and friendship with proven scrumptious, healthy recipes, we celebrate LOVE as the secret ingredient for wonderful food!

Grilled Flounder with Sweet Tomato and Chili Chutney, Rosemary and Sage

September 3, 2020 by Mary 8 Comments

How many of you adore eating fish but are longing for ways that are quick and easy and would love to add a new zing to just a regular old piece of grilled fish with EVOO, salt and pepper? And how many of you have a refrigerator full of various condiments that take up too much room? I know. So this simple recipe of Grilled Flounder with Sweet Tomato and Chili Chutney, Rosemary and Sage delivers on taste and ease all in one!

You don’t necessarily have to go out and buy The English Provender Co. Sweet Tomato and Chili Chutney. Although this is very tasty with a savory sweet hot vibe, I say you should try to use up something you already have that has the same vibe. Wouldn’t that be even better?

Of course you could also dress up a piece of fish with my versatile Green Sauce, but that takes more work than I was willing to do last night. ( I can be so lazy…)

Think of flavors you LOVE…

Since it is only me eating now, I am trying all kinds of flavor combinations and I have been fascinated by mixing up sweet summer fruits with meats and fish. I mean, why not? I want to eat something new, surprising and different. After all, being totally alone in this Covid time, cooking and eating (and drinking wine) are the highlights of my day, so I love experimenting.

And I have made a commitment to myself to clean out the fridge of all of these jars! You see, my kids stayed in my apartment in the city for nearly seven weeks and cleaned out that fridge of outdated things and used the others, so now I want to do that here, upstate.

I have tons of jam that I never use on toast. I want to attack those – maybe on grilled pork chops soon…

Get creative!

I hope this post will spur some creativity on your part. Go ahead and try an unusual combination. Have fun! Experiment and enjoy. But remember to always make it with LOVE.

GRILLED FLOUNDER WITH SWEET TOMATO AND CHILI CHUTNEY, ROSEMARY AND SAGE – serves 2

1 lb. fillet of flounder
Extra virgin olive oil
½ TBS. The English Provender Co. Sweet Tomato and Chili Chutney
2 sprigs of fresh rosemary, chopped
1 sprig of fresh sage
Salt
Pepper

Preheat your grill or oven to 425 F degrees. Use a grilling vegetable pan for the grill.

Thoroughly wash and pat dry the fish. Coat both sides with a thin film of olive oil. Salt and pepper on one side only. Then spread on the Sweet Tomato and Chili Chutney. Top with chopped rosemary and lay the sage sprig on top.

Spray the grill pan with high heat grilling spray or if using the oven, line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.

Grill or roast for about 5 minutes.

Use 2 spatulas to remove the fish to a platter. Cut in half and serve.

Enjoy!

My dinner – with 1/2 sweet potato and fresh cut arugula and tomatoes from my garden!

Best Salmon Casserole

June 11, 2017 by Mary 20 Comments

Salmon casserole plated with asparagus, boiled potatoes, and tomatoes.

Salmon casserole plated with steamed asparagus, boiled buttered potatoes and fresh tomatoes.

My mother used to make this casserole when there were only two kids home (out of six) as a Friday night rotation. Remember, no meat on Fridays! Casseroles are so old fashioned but this one is truly a “Best Salmon Casserole” and great to make when you have nothing in the house as it uses canned salmon. I used to make this when our kids were young and everyone loved it.

So with Steve and his cancer taking over his appetite – and he needs to eat to be nourished to get well, I have been beside myself trying to figure things out – which, by the way, seem to change hourly. So I thought I’d try to go back to basics – to this old-fashioned salmon casserole recipe from my mother.

What is it – with all us?

It seems that you reach a certain age and all hell breaks loose just when you’re looking to relax just a little bit?

Poor Maureen at Orgasmic Chef – her husband had a very bad fall and is suffering from a head injury. “John fell while going up the stairs to bed and hit his head on a rendered brick wall. A fractured skull, bleeding in the brain, pneumonia and a couple of other things ended up with him in an induced coma and on a breathing machine.” How awful and how very sorry we all are to hear this, Maureen.

And then Maureen, herself, is dealing with lots of pain due to Forestier’s Disease/DISH disease. While she says, “I have a doctor I trust completely and that means so much. While there is no cure for the disease I have, it is manageable if the right medicines are found. My problem has always been that I don’t react well to most all pain relievers. Recently, I was headed to blindness before we tracked the culprit down and reversed the changes to my eyesight by stopping a drug. Now I wear a patch on my back that has brought me to nearly normal most days.”

I am waiting for my husband to get a CT scan to ascertain what is going on. His platelets are too low to go back on the cancer medication. My neck and shoulders are killing me from stress. Writing this here in the waiting room is helping.

Monitoring, helping, advocating is more than a full time job, which is why I’ve been away for over 5 weeks. Cancer is a moving target and Steve’s is a nasty aggressive one. But we are fighting back with all our might.

Make this Best Salmon Casserole and get some good comforting protein. Nothing better than a good ‘ole recipe from Mom.

BEST SALMON CASSEROLE – serves 4

¼ cup unsalted butter
2 Tbs. flour
1 heaping tsp. dried Coleman’s mustard
½ tsp. salt
Fresh ground black pepper to taste
2 Tbs. chopped fresh chives
1 can (1 lb.) red sockeye salmon – drain in a 1 cup measure to save juice, remove skin and crush bones
Milk or unsweetened almond milk
2 hard boiled eggs, chopped
½ cup panko
2 Tbs. melted butter

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Butter a 2-quart casserole.

Place eggs in a small sauce pan and cover with 1” of water and bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Drain and cover with cold water to cool before peeling.

Prepare the salmon in a medium sized bowl – drain the juices into a 1-cup measure, remove skin, crush bones, and flake.

Peel the eggs and chop. Add the eggs to the salmon. Just look at this beautiful blue eggshell, inside and out! Eggs are from Mike and Cindy’s Thunderhill Farm in upstate New York.

Melt butter in a small pot. Whisk in flour, mustard, salt and pepper. Cook for a bit, to color this mixture to cook the flour to make a roux. When browned a little, add milk to the juices to measure one full cup and gradually add the liquid into the roux, whisking constantly until sauce is smooth. Simmer and whisk until thickened.

Remove the sauce from the heat and stir in the chives. Add the sauce to the salmon and eggs and fold all together to combine completely. Place the mixture in your prepared casserole. Sprinkle panko evenly on top and drizzle with the melted butter.

Bake for 15 minutes and serve. Delish!

P.S. It’s interesting that my mother’s recipe says it serves 6 – and it probably did in those days as people ate less! But I think it’s safe to say it serves 4. This would make a great lunch entrée as well!

Wilder Condiments Honey Jalapeño Mustard with Leeks on Roasted Sea Bass

April 14, 2017 by Mary 4 Comments

So first I must tell you – this Wilder Condiments Honey Jalapeño Mustard is something else! The taste is pure wow – sweet, spicy, strong! It is the epitome of what honey jalapeño mustard should be. Imagine those three tastes coming at your taste buds, on the attack! Pure yum! I couldn’t wait to use this in one of my recipes.

Wilder’s mustards began as a backyard project, concocted between BBQ and beer brewing sessions by chef and owner Isabel Freed. Based along the sunny, surf swept coastline of Santa Cruz, CA, her hometown is her inspiration. Good food and good company are at the helm of everything she makes.

This honey jalapeño mustard is the perfect blend of sweetness and spice made with sustainably grown California jalapeños and honey. Isabel says, “It’s best enjoyed brushed over grilled chicken, with a crisp sauv blanc in a picnic basket.”

I beg to differ as I have found so very many great ways to use it, whether it’s straight out of the jar and tossed with some lightly sautéed vegetables or roasted mellow with some fish as I’ve done here.

Wilder Condiments HoneyJalapeño Mustard tossed with sauteed baby bok choy and garlic.

Sauteed baby bok choy with olive oil and garlic and tossed with 2 Tbs. Wilder Condiments Honey Jalapeno Mustard.

Don’t think of it as just mustard. It’s a wonderful condiment/dressing/topping to use in so many ways. And yes, you can also use it in a salad dressing for an added sweet and spicy tang.

Isabel says that good food and good company are at the helm of everything they make. This is exactly our philosophy of everything we deem worthy to put into our MARY’s secret ingredients

boxes. So with this spring box, we are getting you ready for all of your summer backyard BBQ’s!

But meanwhile, try it on this delicious roasted fish. I used a sea bass fillet, but you can use really any fillet. I’d bet it’d be just great on swordfish, but my local fish store uptown doesn’t always have that. For a super fresh, company-worthy meal, make this tonight, on this special Good Friday!

WILDER CONDIMENTS HONEY JALAPENO MUSTARD WITH LEEKS ON ROASTED SEA BASS – serves 4

2 Tbs. olive oil, divided
1 large leek, white and light green parts only, cleaned, split in half lengthwise and sliced
1.5 lbs. sea bass fillet
2 Tbs. Wilder Condiments Honey Jalapeño Mustard
Salt – preferably finely ground French grey
Pepper, fresh ground

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. Slick one Tbs. olive oil on top, in the shape of the fish. Spread the sliced leeks down on top of the olive oil in the shape of the fish.

Wash and pat dry the fish. Spread the 2 Tbs. Wilder Condiments Honey Jalapeño Mustard on the backside of the fillet and place mustard side down on top of the sliced leeks.

Smear the top side of the fish with the 1 remaining Tbs. of olive oil. Spread it around with your fingers and season to taste with salt and pepper.

Roast for about 20 minutes or plan on 10 minutes per one inch of thickness of the thickest part of the fish and leeks, until the fish is completely done, white throughout and a tiny bit flakey. Sea bass is a dense fish so check it with a knife and fork.

Serve with LOVE and enjoy!!!

Tuna Salad Sandwiches with Holy Schmitt’s Mustard Horseradish

March 22, 2017 by Mary 4 Comments

Tuna Salad is common enough, basic enough and simple enough, so why do you need a recipe? Because, this Tuna Salad is made with Holy Schmitt’s Mustard Horseradish and it is DELICIOUS!!

Take something as mundane as tuna salad and infuse it with life with this Holy Schmitt’s Mustard Horseradish and WOW!! It’s true, a few tablespoons of this and real flavor abounds. Besides, it’s healthy for you because horseradish is a true superfood, not to mention a sinus-clearing device. Chase the winter blues away, welcome spring and make this for lunch soon.

Because Matt Schmitt, a 4th generation Long Island farmer, plants the horseradish, nurtures it, knows that there are no chemicals to fertilize it, so it’s totally non-GMO and organic, harvests the root, scrubs them clean, peels them and grates them in his own converted garage/commercial kitchen, your can trust that this is pure stuff, the real deal.

I like a little hard-boiled egg in my salad. I think it adds some creaminess. You could leave it out if you’d like but I recommend it.

You know horseradish is a staple in all Slavic countries, where it’s cold and root vegetables rule. Horseradish is known to suppress the growth of tumors, has significant amounts of cancer-fighting compounds called glucosinolates and is chock full of iron, magnesium, calcium and anti-stress B vitamins. But you don’t even need to know all of those benefits – you just need to know it’s DELICIOUS!!

TUNA SALAD SANDWICHES WITH HOLY SCHMITT’S MUSTARD HORSERADISH – serves 4

2 cans, 5 oz. each, solid white tuna packed in water, drained and carefully flaked
1 hard boiled egg, chopped
¼ cup (scant) minced onions
5 Tbs. minced celery
4 Tbs. Holy Schmitt’s Mustard Horseradish
5 Tbs. mayonnaise
Salt
Fresh ground pepper
2 plum tomatoes, sliced
2 handfuls of baby spinach leaves, washed and air dried
8 slices of mutli-grain bread, toasted

Combine first 8 ingredients and fold together to combine. I really don’t like it when people mash up canned or jarred tuna. Fold it together with a rubber spatula so you will still have nice chunks of tuna.

Make your sandwich. Lay ½ handful of baby spinach leaves on one side of toasted bread. Put one quarter of the horseradish tuna salad on top, spreading evenly. Lay on top 3 slices of tomato. Top with other slice of bread. Cut in half. (My mother used to always cut diagonally – then my oldest son insisted on that for his school lunches – I did not do that here – sorry Mom.)

Dig in and ENJOY!!

Be the best tuna salad you ever had!

Roasted Salmon with Dijon Mustard and Beet Horseradish

February 3, 2017 by Mary 8 Comments

The headline on the latest Food and Wine magazine reads Eat Smarter, Live Longer, only I made a typo at first and wrote, Eat Smarter, Love Longer. That works too! In that vein, I invite you to try this latest recipe of mine, Roasted Salmon with Dijon Mustard and Beet Horseradish, that uses the superfood, Holy Schmitt’s Beet Horseradish, from our friends at the Schmitt’s family farm on Long Island.

Pairing their beet horseradish with salmon was an unlikely combination but I thought the colors would be spectacular and I was not wrong! This would be a perfect, easy and tasty dish to serve on Valentine’s Day!

My family has a beloved recipe of beets with horseradish. We call it Chrzan which I’ve since learned from my smart-alecky son who now speaks fluent Polish, chrzan is really only the horseradish. If you want to mention the beets, you say Ćwikła z Chrzanem. (And the phonetic spelling for chrzan is [h-shan] and Ćwikła z Chrzanem is [ch-vee-qua -z- [h-shan]-em.)

I know! Polish is hard and there is no V in the alphabet!

So horseradish is a true ancient superfood plus a super easy way to add huge flavor. The word horseradish goes back to the 1590’s in English. It combines the word horse (formerly used in a figurative sense to mean strong or coarse) and the word radish. Horseradish contains significant amounts of cancer-fighting compounds called glucosinolates which boost the liver function and suppress the growth of tumors. It’s a phenomenal source of iron and magnesium for energy production, calcium for healthy teeth and bones, and has a whole bunch of anti-stress B vitamins.

When you roast with horseradish, it almost becomes sweet. It definitely does not stay super hot. It’s a super easy way to add some deliciousness to your fish!

Matt Schmitt is the 4th generation farmer in Riverhead, Long Island. He converted one-half of a garage to be a commercial kitchen, grows 15 acres of the horseradish root and uses his German grandfather’s recipe to make the jarred variety. And right out of the jar, it is Holy Schmitt’s HOT!!

But I’m really delighted with this recipe. Super simple, nourishing, healthy and so tasty and different!

ROASTED SALMON WITH DIJON MUSTARD AND BEET HORSERADISH – serves 3 – 4

1.5 lbs. center cut salmon fillet
Olive oil
Salt – preferably French Grey
Pepper, fresh ground
1 Tbs. Dijon mustard
2 Tbs. Holy Schmitt’s beet horseradish, drained

Preheat oven to 425 degrees and place a rack in the top position.

Wash and pat dry fish with paper toweling. Cover a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper and put a thin film of oil down the size of your fish. Season the top side of the salmon with salt and pepper. Spread the Dijon mustard evenly on top. Then distribute the beet horseradish over the mustard coated fish.

Roast for 13 – 15 minutes for medium – medium rare cooked fish. Remove to a platter and cut into 3 – 4 serving pieces. Serve with LOVE and enjoy!!

Spaghetti Squash with Roasted Eggplant, Fresh Zucchini, Capers & Italian Tuna

October 24, 2016 by Mary 24 Comments

With an over abundance of vegetables in my fridge, and being banned from using acids, peppers and garlic, due to my husband having a bout with acid reflux again, take a look at this Spaghetti Squash with Roasted Eggplant, Fresh Zucchini, Capers & Italian Tuna dish that I created. My husband was smirking while I was making it. “Whaaat are you doing?” he asked.

No matter – I pressed on with my roasting, chopping and draining.

Well he had seconds, the last little bit for lunch the next day and woke up the next morning saying how good it was.

So there!

It is always so satisfying if they’re still talking about your dinner from the night before as the first words out of their mouth in the morning. My good friend Linda agrees. She is a self-proclaimed “ok cook”. Then she made a coconut shrimp dish with Blue Apron and experienced that type of compliment. She loved it!

It gives me such pleasure to make people happy. To know that know that my guests really enjoy my cooking – that is what I aim for and it is so appreciated when they tell me.

I’ll admit I often do something that drives my boys nuts and that is, after everyone is sitting down, has their plates full and has taken a few bites, I say, “Ok, are we happy?”

I recognize now that they hate it, so I have refrained, but I really just want to know if they’re happy and like the food!

For instance, a few weeks ago, I made a huge dish of paella – for the first time, and I did not do a good job of getting the rice crispy. And then I noticed that our new daughter-in-law, was not digging in with her usual gusto, so I asked what was wrong and she said she really didn’t like paella. Ahhh!

Had I known, I never would have made it, because my husband is not a fan either!

So there you go – I did a lot of work to create a mediocre dish that didn’t make people happy…

However, if you make this dish, you will make people happy!

Cook with love and enjoy!!

SPAGHETTI SQUASH WITH ROASTED EGGPLANT, FRESH ZUCCHINI, CAPERS & ITALIAN TUNA – serves 2 – 3

3 Tbs. olive oil plus more for drizzling
1 smallish spaghetti squash
1 smallish eggplant
2 heaping Tbs. of drained capers, chopped
½ of a zucchini, julienned
1 jar of Italian tuna, drained of olive oil
2 cups of mixed greens – baby kale, arugula and radicchio, washed, air dried and coarsely chopped

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. Cut eggplant into good-sized chunks and toss with 2 Tbs. olive oil, salt and pepper to taste. Roast for about 30 – 40 minutes until lightly browned and fork tender.

At the same time, cut the spaghetti squash in half lengthwise and scrap out seeds and pulp and discard. Take 1 Tbs. of olive oil and coat the edges and inside of each squash half, spreading it around with your fingers. Put 1/4” of water in a baking pan and place squash cut side down in the pan of water. Roast for 40 minutes in this position, then turn the squash over and roast for 10 – 15 minutes more, until squash is very tender, testing with a fork.

While eggplant and squash are roasting, drain and chop the capers. Drain the tuna and flake. Wash, air dry and coarsely chop the greens.

When squash is done, remove from the shell, using a fork to create the “spaghetti” and toss with the eggplant, the zucchini, capers, tuna and greens. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Drizzle olive oil on top and sprinkle on some drops of sherry vinegar.

Serve with LOVE and enjoy!!

I liked the contrast of the crunch of the raw zucchini and raw sturdy greens with the warm squash and eggplant. This is a very nice combination and the sherry vinegar drops at the end add the necessary acid to make it all “work” so nicely. I thought it might need a grating of Parmigiano cheese, which is why you see it in the photos, but no, it did not need it.