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

Pasta with Flounder in a Red Sauce and Roasted Broccoli with Radishes

March 17, 2014 by Mary 28 Comments

I’m so embarrassed, I forgot to mention in my last post that 10% of Mary’s secret ingredients’ annual profits will be donated to Feed the Children, a wonderful, worldwide organization that provides nourishing food, hygiene items, educational books and supplies for boys and girls in need.

I have always said that there is plenty of food in this world. It just needs to be redistributed and to not go to waste. Please take a look at these links and articles. No one should go hungry. I’m very excited to be able to give this non-profit a helping hand with MARY’s secret ingredients. Man, I would love to play a part in eradicating hunger in this world – it’s on my bucket list. You can help. All the more reason to order a box! Feed yourself and your family while feeding the needy children of the world.

This past week, the day after we arrived home from California, at around 5 pm, our youngest son informed me that he and his girlfriend would be home for dinner. That morning, I had taken two flounder fillets out of the freezer and had planned to roast them for Steve and me and make a simple vegetable for dinner. So now I only had a little over 1 lb. of fish for four people. I was tired and crabby from the travel and time change and had no desire to go to the fish store uptown to buy more fish and a decent vegetable. What to do?

Walking to the subway on the way home, while talking out loud to my husband, I decided to make it stretch. I called my son, Zach, and asked him to mince 5 cloves of garlic, pit and chop 15 olives, take the anchovies out of the fridge and make sure the flounder fillets had thawed. (They hadn’t.) I thought, let’s make a pasta dish with the flounder in a red sauce! Add some anchovies and olives for an extra boost of flavor! I stopped in the grocery store downstairs in my building and bought some broccoli and a beautiful bunch of large radishes. I tossed those with some olive oil and salt and pepper, and roasted them at 425 degrees for about 15 minutes, along with the recipe below and we had a super delicious, satisfying dinner for everyone; quick to boot, with everything ready in about 40 minutes. Suddenly I wasn’t crabby anymore! (A little food does wonders – think of what it could do for the world!)

Now, because I only had buccatini in the apartment, which is a big noodle, I did not toss the sauce with the pasta, but served the pasta in a bowl, drizzled a tiny bit of olive oil on top and then ladled the red fish sauce on top. If I would have tossed it all together before serving, I would have broken up all those beautiful little pieces of flounder and made mush out of them. Not a good thing, nor pretty to serve. Now I know the true Italians would disagree with me here but that’s what I did, allowing each individual to mix it up in their own bowl.

PASTA WITH FLOUNDER IN A RED SAUCE – serves 4

2 tbs. olive oil
5 cloves of garlic, minced
1/3 of bunch of parsley leaves, washed, dried and chopped
2 tsp. tomato paste
1 – 28 oz. can of whole San Marzano tomatoes, hand crushed, with the sauce
5 flat anchovy fillets, patted dry with a paper towel, chopped
Salt
Pepper
2 fillets of flounder, about 1.3 lbs., washed, dried, cut down the middle and then cut into 1/2” chunks
15 olives, black and green in oil, pitted and minced
1 lb. pasta – bucatini or fettuccine

Put a large pot on water on to boil for the pasta.

Warm olive oil in a large skillet. Add minced garlic on low heat and stir for 5 minutes. Raise heat to medium – medium high and add the chopped parsley and cook and stir for 1 minute. Add the tomato paste and stir for 1 – 2 minutes. You must always try to brown the tomato paste in order to get the most flavor out of it – this is key!

Then add the hand crushed can of tomatoes with the juice along with the anchovies and let the whole thing vigorously simmer for about 10 minutes to thicken.

Meanwhile your pasta water has probably boiled. Salt with course sea salt to taste like ocean water (you know what that means, do not taste it and burn your tongue) and add your pasta. Stir and cook until al dente.

Salt and pepper the sauce to taste and add the cut up flounder fillets. Lower the heat a bit and stir gently, often. Fold over with a rubber spatula to stir so you don’t break up the pieces of fish. This will take about 7 minutes to cook the fish. Then taste the sauce to adjust salt and pepper and at the very end, add the chopped olives. Remember the olives will add more salt so take that into consideration. Turn your heat off.

Drain the pasta when done. Place pasta in bowls and drizzle a little olive oil on top so the noodles don’t stick together. Then ladle some beautiful sauce on top in the center. Serve immediately, with LOVE.

ROASTED BROCCOLI WITH RADISHES – serves 4

1 head of broccoli, washed, stems trimmed and peeled, each stalk quartered or even cut more
5 large radishes, scrubbed, dried and quartered
2 tbs. olive oil
Salt
Pepper

Heat oven to 425 degrees. Toss broccoli and radishes with the olive oil and salt and pepper to taste on a rimmed baking sheet. Roast for 15 – 17 minutes until broccoli stems are fork tender to your liking. The broccoli heads will become a little charred, but I like them that way. They are so tasty. Serve immediately, very hot, on a side plate, with LOVE.

Enjoy!!

Indian Feast

September 30, 2013 by Mary 24 Comments

I love to learn about other cultures and their food traditions. And I love Indian food! Our good friends, Sumantra (from Calcutta) and Indrani (from Delhi), threw a big Indian feast on Friday night. We were celebrating Sumantra’s son, Sourav, heading off to Oxford for a year abroad of studying economics and Sumantra’s mom, who has been visiting for the past 6 months, returning to Calcutta this coming week. Her name is Manisha.

When Indrani invited us, I naturally asked if I could bring anything and she’s so sweet, she said, no it was a working day for me so I shouldn’t be bothered about bringing anything, just bring myself and my husband. Ha! It was a working day for her too. She came home at 2 pm and here’s the spread she had ready at 7 pm. Isn’t it gorgeous?So from the top, going clockwise, we have an amazing roasted goat dish using Manisha’s recipe, a bean dish with wonderful complex layered flavors, terrific vegetable patties, dal, a delicious paneer, boxes of dessert cheese balls waiting for their presentation time, homemade chutney with dates, a shrimp dish and rice and peas in the middle.

Manisha – she told me she likes big bindi dots!

Indrani is a great cook and she has often remarked about how Manisha is a really wonderful cook. So we were the lucky beneficiaries of both on Friday. Indrani used Manisha’s recipe for the goat, which was wicked good. And you can tell that Indrani instinctively cooks with LOVE, as everything was so delicious and their apartment was brimming with all good feelings. I ate more than I should have, but I’m not sorry!

Indian food is layered with complex flavors. Sometimes the spice kicks in on the back end. The ingredient list for any of the recipes is always long, yet the flavor payoff is great. And as Indrani says, the best part about cooking Indian food is that you can make everything ahead of time and just keep it warm in the oven until ready to serve.

This was quite a celebration of all good things and a wonderful party. A great time was had by all. But I forgot to take a picture of Indrani, Sumantra and Sourav. 🙁 Next time!!

Fish broth

June 11, 2013 by Mary Frances 10 Comments

So in my last post I described the beautiful red snapper fillets that my son got from his fish monger in Brooklyn for our celebration dinner. But what I didn’t mention is that he also brought the whole fish carcass home too! The head and tail attached to the body bones of our fish. Two of them. Both large.

“C’mon Mom, make some fish broth! Roast these while the fish is roasting,” is what he said.

Crazy kid! (What did I create?)

So I dutifully did roast them, that night during dinner.

I’ve never made fish broth in my life but what could I do? I had to! The next day, I packed and carried those roasted carcasses up to the country house and made broth – with a little celery, white wine, leeks, parsley, bay leaf, cloves and thyme. I think I even threw in a few crushed juniper berries. (I love juniper berries – explains why I love gin!)

Here are the fishes swimming around again.
So my plan is to use this for a seafood paella. I’ve never made paella, but my good friend Margaret made a delicious shrimp paella a few weeks ago and that has inspired me and given me the courage to try. And usually they say you need a special pan, which I don’t have, but she made hers in a Dutch oven. I think I’ll give it a go and it should be great. The broth is tightly tucked away in the freezer for now.

Now I need to inform you that I did not win that beautiful shiny red Kitchen Aid. 🙁 Thank you all for your comments and engagement but Stephanie got 58 comments and I had 53. Just those five little comments short did me in. Well I hope Stephanie enjoys it, and has room for it on her countertop.

And, I forgot to mention, our May newsletter went out in the nick of time on the 31^st. You don’t get it unless you’ve signed up for it. If you sign up now – in the upper right hand corner – I’ll make sure that you get that issue as it’s got a great grilled asparagus recipe as well as a wonderful Greek chicken you can do on the grill or in the oven. Both are terrific recipes for all summer long.

Have a great week!!

Our celebration/bon voyage family dinner party

June 9, 2013 by Mary Frances 28 Comments

I have been wanting to tell you about this for some time now. The Friday of Memorial Day weekend, we decided to throw an impromptu dinner party with just our family. We suddenly realized we had so much to celebrate! Our oldest is loving his new job, his girlfriend was leaving for Kuala Lumpur the next day to give a presentation during a convention there, our youngest, Zach was leaving for Vienna on Sunday to study German for six weeks and then vacation in Poland and Eastern Europe. Agata, his Polish girlfriend, just became a US citizen that week and her birthday was the next day! So we definitely needed a party, right?

So rather than going to the country on Friday afternoon, we stayed in the city and went grocery shopping. Everyone pitched in and after arriving home at 6:30 pm with the groceries, we had a full three course dinner to sit down to at 8:30 and we even had appetizers before. While we shopped, Zach and Agata set the table and sliced gobs of garlic for the mushrooms and the tatsoi. I wanted to do red snapper fillets and my fish market was too busy to deliver to me so I asked my Brooklynite son if he could hook up with his fish monger. He didn’t call to answer – he just texted me this picture!

We started with a leftover hummus dip that I had made earlier in the week and a wonderful store bought artichoke dip with vegetable dipping sticks and some crostini. The girls put together the pancetta wrapped mushrooms and I grilled those in a grill pan while the beets were roasting, rice was steaming, arugula and tatsoi were being washed. Corn nuts and toasted almonds rounded out the cocktail hour.

Here’s our salad to start – roasted golden and red beets on a bed of arugula topped with toasted walnuts, Gorgonzola cheese and a sherry vinaigrette. My husband picked a beautiful Pinot Noir to go with the whole dinner.

Our main course was red snapper fillets topped with olive oil, salt and pepper, a little dried Greek oregano, sliced plum tomatoes and thawed frozen baby artichoke halves, all oven roasted. I finished the fish with a drizzle of O & CO Olive Oil with Lemon and served it with steamed Jasmine rice on which I had drizzled some melted unsalted butter with chopped parsley. Everyone oohed and awed at the rice. (Sometimes just a little bit of good butter suddenly makes it special.)

And the sautéed tatsoi with olive oil and garlic was a huge hit. I found that at this little farmers market by my office, right outside of the mayor’s building, City Hall. I’m sure it was just picked that morning in New Jersey. The greens were amazing! And of course the fish was so fresh and so delicious! It could have stood on its own with just olive oil and salt and pepper.

Dessert had to be simple – Haagen-Dazs vanilla ice cream with Swedish butter cookies spread with Nutella. Simple, but really good! (Who doesn’t like Nutella?)

Many toasts were had and we all sang the Star Spangled Banner to Agata, which put her in tears. She and her mom are so happy to be citizens and they can even still keep their Polish passports. God Bless America followed while we all cleaned up. Sing-a–longs are just so much fun! It was a wonderful LOVE filled party.

P. S. Everyone arrived safely to their destinations, thank Goodness.

I share this story with you to encourage you to not let a spur of the moment reason to celebrate pass you by because of some silly justification, such as that you hadn’t planned it. We all need to celebrate these special moments in life. Dinners don’t always have to be a big deal with numerous recipes. All of this I just made up on the fly (when you cook a lot, this is easy to do; if you don’t, check back with me and I’ll keep sharing my secrets) and I used some good store bought items (the dip, the frozen artichokes, the whole dessert). The quality of your ingredients do matter – the fish was so darn fresh, and good quality olive oil and finishing butter also matter, along with super fresh vegetables. With these you can have a feast, made simple, as long as it’s made with LOVE. The real point is about getting people together to celebrate the good times, the accomplishments, the travel, whatever is on your plate (no pun intended). Sure, you could even order up food, but if you make it yourself, you also get the bonus time of everyone working and being together in the kitchen. Why is it that even with large parties, everyone always ends up in the kitchen? Because kitchen parties are always the best, because that’s where the real co-creation happens!

Fillets of sole with sorrel

May 30, 2013 by Mary Frances 28 Comments

I did something really terrific last night. (at least I thought it was!) You should know that sorrel is one of my favorite herbs. It’s lemony and light and so interesting and surprising. I had some fresh sorrel I had just cut from my garden upstate on Monday, that I wanted to use and some fillets of sole. We got home late and hungry. Before it got so late, I had in my mind to roast the fish and make a sorrel sauce. You know, with garlic and olive oil and maybe a touch of cream, but it was late and we were starving, so I came up with this idea. Lazy, I suppose, but a beautiful concept. I remembered this dish I used to make all the time with sorrel when the kids were young. It was sautéed chicken, with lots of onions, and then you throw in the sorrel on top, cover it and it melts. It’s not a pretty dish because the greens turn dark, but it tastes fabulous.

So I thought what if I reversed that and put the sorrel on the bottom of the fish, having it melt underneath? Genius – don’t you think?! You wouldn’t see it then but still get all the flavor, having it form a simple sauce.

So that’s what I did – and here’s our green and white meal. But it was really, really yummy!! I served the fish with sautéed mustard greens with garlic and steamed Jasmine rice topped with chopped parsley.
FILLETS OF SOLE WITH SORREL
– serves 2

2 sole fillets, rinsed and patted dry with paper towels
2 handfuls of washed sorrel
Olive oil
Salt
Pepper
Chopped fresh chives

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Slick a rimmed baking sheet with olive oil. Arrange 2 handfuls of sorrel in the shape of your fish fillet. Drizzle a tiny bit of olive oil on the sorrel and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place your fish fillet on top, drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.

Roast for 10 – 12 minutes, depending on the thickness of your fish. Figure on 10 minutes for an inch of thickness, measured in the thickest area of your fish.

When done, carefully remove the fish with the sorrel leaves distributed on the bottom and garnish with chopped fresh chives.

This is the beauty of having super fresh ingredients, combined with LOVE, to make a fabulous, healthy meal in no time at all.

Enjoy!!

Maricel E. Presilla’s Cuban Avocado, Watercress and Pineapple Salad with Spicy Goan Shrimp

May 8, 2013 by Mary Frances 14 Comments

I’ve been wanting to tell you about the small dinner party I had a few weeks ago where I served the Vegetable Lasagna with No Pasta as a first course. You see, it all started with me wanting to make this salad I found on Food 52 – Amanda Hesser’s (formally of The New York Times fame) blog. It’s broiled pineapple, avocado and watercress with a cumin dressing. Doesn’t that just sound so unusual and so good?

Well, it was! And it was beautiful too!

The author’s note says that this salad is great served alongside spicy shrimp or slow cooked pork and black beans and rice. A Cuban meal!

Since it was our main course, that meant I couldn’t start with a salad. And with the weather finally getting warmer, soup was not appealing and the tomatoes are not ripe enough for a gazpacho. So that is how I came to the idea of starting the meal with the vegetable lasagna.

The whole dinner was amazing, as my husband and guests told me. I served the salad with some spicy Goan shrimp and Jasmine rice and black beans.

We finished with fantastic homemade lemon bars with a buttery rich crust studded with pine nuts. That recipe to come. But I forgot to take a picture of the shrimp – sorry.

MARICEL E. PRESILLA’S CUBAN AVOCADO, WATERCRESS, and PINEAPPLE SALAD – serves 6

2 bunches watercress
One 2 1/2 pound pineapple, peeled, cored, and cut into four 1-inch thick slices
1 tbs. sugar
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 tbs. fresh lime juice
1/8 tsp.+ ground cumin
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
2 Haas avocados
1 small red onion (5 ounces), thinly slivered lengthwise (I used a shallot – I couldn’t find the red onion I bought!)

Wash the watercress well in large bowls of cold water to remove the grit or sand. Discard any yellowing leaves and remove the tough stems; for this salad, you want only the leaves and tender stems. Spin dry in a lettuce spinner and refrigerate while you prepare the rest of the salad.

Heat the broiler. Place the pineapple slices on a baking pan and sprinkle sugar evenly on top of them. Broil about 4 inches from the heat source, turning once, for 5 to 10 minutes on each side, until golden brown. (You can line your pan with aluminum foil for easier cleanup, but not parchment — it may catch fire.) Let cool, then cut into 1-inch cubes. Set aside.

For the dressing, mash the minced garlic with the salt on a cutting board. Place the mashed salted garlic, lime juice, cumin, and pepper in a small bowl and whisk to combine. Slowly whisk in olive oil. Taste for seasoning. Set aside. I added a pinch more cumin.

Cut the avocados lengthwise in half around the pit and remove the pit. Take a small paring knife and cut 1/2″ strips lengthwise and crosswise but do not cut through the skin. Take a large tablespoon and scoop it all out in nice cubes. Alternatively, place the avocado halves cut side down on the work surface and slice lengthwise into 1/2″ wide wedges. Peel each segment by hand or with a paring knife, and cut into 1/2″ cubes.

Assemble the salad: Place the watercress in a medium bowl and toss with half the dressing. Arrange on a large platter. Add the pineapple and avocado to the same bowl and toss with the rest of the dressing. Mound the pineapple and avocado over the bed of watercress. Garnish with slivers of red onion and serve immediately.

SPICY GOAN SHRIMP – adapted from Michael Romano
– serves 4 – 5

6 dried red Thai chiles
12 whole black peppercorns
8 whole cloves
One 1-inch piece of cinnamon stick
1/2 tsp. cumin seeds
One 1-inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled
6 garlic cloves
2 tbs. Champagne vinegar
1 tsp. brown sugar
Sea salt
1.5 lbs. shelled and deveined raw shrimp, tails left on, thoroughly washed and patted dry
1.5 tbs. olive oil
Lime wedges, for serving

Grind the chiles, peppercorns, cloves, cinnamon and cumin in a spice grinder. Add the ginger, garlic, vinegar, brown sugar and salt and blend until smooth. Rub this paste over the shrimp and let marinate for 30 minutes.

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet. Add the shrimp and sauté over high heat until golden and just opaque throughout, about 1 1/2 minutes per side. Transfer to a platter, garnish with lime wedges and serve.

STEVE’S SUGGESTED WINE PAIRINGS:

White Wine: 2011 Eroica Riesling from Columbia Valley, WA, by Chateau Ste. Michelle & Dr. Loosen

Red Wine: 2010 Villa Mt. Eden Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast

Both are $20 or less and represent very good values. Trade up in these type of wines if you are not budget-constrained.