Tag: orange pepper
Pasta with Sausage and Sweet Pepper Sauce
- ½ pound pasta, al dente with a cup of pasta water set aside
- 4 chicken sausage links, chopped in ¼ inch pieces
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
Heat a large frying pan with the olive oil. Add the sausages and sauté on medium high heat, stirring constantly. Saute for 4 to 5 minutes till the sausages are golden brown. Keep aside.
- 1 cup fresh tomato sauce or marinara sauce
- 1 red pepper
- 1 orange pepper
- 1 tablespoons extra light olive oil
- Salt
- 1/3 cup shredded parmesan cheese
Start the grill outside or preheat the broiler. Coat the peppers with the oil and grill or roast them till the skin is charred- about 20 minutes. Place the peppers in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap for 20 minutes. Take the peppers out and peel the skin and take the seeds out. Place the peppers in a blender with the tomato sauce. Blend till smooth. Taste for seasonings and add salt if needed.
Add two cups of the sweet pepper sauce to the sausages and add the pasta and half cup of the pasta water (add more water if needed). Mix well and check for seasonings. Serve with cheese on top.
Thai Fried Rice with Red Curry Chicken
This is a delicious meal to make either through the week or on the weekend- maybe this would be a great Sunday meal as it is a bit involved with quite a few ingredients.. but it is worth it!
- 1 pound chicken thighs, skinless and boneless, cut in 2 inch pieces
- 2 tablespoons red curry paste
- Juice of a lime
- 1 tablespoon tamari
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons peanut oil
Marinate the chicken pieces in the red curry paste, lime juice, tamari, honey and salt for at least 2 hours, ideally 6 to 8 hours. Keep aside.
Transfer to a lined cookie sheet, drizzle with peanut oil and broil till both sides are brown. Change the oven to bake and finish baking the chicken till cooked through.
Rice
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1 tablespoon peanut oil
- 11/2 cups brown rice, rinsed
- Juice of half a lime
- 4 cups water or broth
- 2 teaspoons salt
Heat a pan with the butter and oil. Add the rice and sauté on medium heat for 2 to 3 minutes. Add the lime juice, water and salt. Bring to a boil and simmer partially covered with a lid until the moisture is cooked off on the surface, about 5 to 10 minutes. Lower the heat and cover and cook for another 30 minutes or till the rice is cooked through. Transfer to a platter to cool.
Sauce
- 1 tablespoon creamy peanut butter, softened
- Juice of a lime
- 3 tablespoons sweet garlic chili sauce
- 3 tablespoons coconut milk
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
Mix all the ingredients in a small bowl and keep aside.
- 2 tablespoons peanut oil
- 3 garlic cloves, grated
- 2 inch ginger, grated
- 1 cup shredded carrots
- 1 cup shelled and cooked edamame
- 1 orange pepper, chopped
- 2 eggs, beaten
- ½ cup cilantro, chopped
- 3 green onions, chopped
- 2 teaspoons salt
- ½ cup roasted peanuts, chopped
Add the cilantro, green onions and salt to the beaten eggs and keep aside. Heat a wok like pan with the oil. Add the garlic and ginger and sauté on medium heat for a minute. Add the carrots, edamame and the orange pepper. Saute on medium high heat for 2 to 3 minutes. Create a round space in the middle of the pan by moving the veggies aside and pour the egg mixture in the middle of the pan and stir on medium heat and slowly incorporate all the vegetables. Mix well and add the cooled brown rice. Mix well. Add the peanut sauce and check for seasonings. Mix well and serve with the chicken and chopped peanuts on top.
Sweet and Sour Shrimp
I saw a version of this recipe somewhere on tv.. I can’t remember where or exactly what it was.. I think it was a Filipino recipe. It looked fantastic with a fried egg served on top. I made a brown fried rice to serve with this delicious dish.. recipe coming up tomorrow!
Sauce
- ¼ cup ketcup
- 2 tablespoons Chinese rice wine
- 1 tablespoon tamari
- 1 tablespoon mirin
- 1 tablespoon sweet and hot garlic sauce
- 2 to 3 tablespoons water or broth
Mix everything in a bowl and keep aside.
- 1 pound medium shrimp, shelled and deveined
- 2 to 3 tablespoons cornstarch
- Salt
- Pepper
- ¼ cup peanut oil
Place the shrimp onto a flat platter. Sprinkle cornstarch, salt and pepper all over the shrimp. Heat a frying pan with the oil and brown the shrimp in batches on both sides on high heat briefly. Take out and keep aside.
- 2 tablespoons peanut oil
- 2 tablespoons fresh ginger, grated
- 4 to 5 green onions, chopped
- 1 red jalapeno pepper, deseeded and finely chopped
- 1 large orange pepper, cut into 1-inch squares
- ½ cilantro, chopped
Heat a wok like pan with the oil. Add the ginger, green onions and jalapeno. Saute on medium high heat for 2 to 3 minutes. Add the orange pepper and sauté for another 2 minutes. Add the shrimp, sauté for a minute and add the sweet and sour sauce. Mix well and bring to a boil and simmer until shrimp are cooked through but not over done. Garnish with cilantro and serve with rice. Add an egg if desired.
Shredded Cabbage with Peppers
I thought I would finish the week off with a vegetable dish. As I may have mentioned many time before, my husband loves cabbage. I am not a huge cabbage fan, so I don’t find myself picking it up very often at the grocery store. I have to admit, once I cook it, I do love it. I am not sure why I don’t cook it very often.
Anyway, this one is made with sweet peppers and spiced with cumin and mustard seeds. Curry leaves provide a great flavor to the dish as well. Best of all, it is very quick to make… enjoy!
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Roasted Cauliflower, Broccoli & Sausage Served On Polenta
This was a great dish I made up the other day. It was one of those days where I had no idea what I was going to make. I looked in my fridge and I had half a cauliflower and a bag of broccoli. As usual, I had sausage in the fridge as well. I took all of those ingredients out and decided to use them for an entree. I roasted them with a drizzle of olive oil until everything was golden brown and delicious. I then added the sweet pepper and tomato sauce to the veggies and sausage and made a delicious concoction.
I could have served it with al dente pasta but I thought of something different- how about polenta?? I had not made polenta in a very long time so I wasn’t sure if I had it in my pantry. I found just enough for the evenings dinner. A lot of people buy the pre-made polenta in a large tube. I don’t think that stuff tastes really good. Make it fresh- it is super simple and delicious. I used a combination of chicken broth, milk, parmesan cheese and a bit of butter. It took all of 10 minutes to make, and I had a delicious, healthy starch to serve for dinner.
I served the vegetables and sausage on top of the warm, creamy polenta. It was unbelievably delicious. It took a bit of convincing for my daughter to try the dish. It was the first time she tried polenta and ate it- I am not sure how happy she was, but she ate it.
Try the roasted cauliflower, broccoli and sausage on polenta- you will love it.
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Jungle Shrimp- A Malaysian/Thai Style Shrimp
I have recently started writing for the Patch– which is a online blog owned by AOL. Most towns around Maplewood have their own local patch.
I recently did a restaurant review for the Chatham patch and talked about a restaurant called Taste of Asia. We had a really nice meal and I decided to replicate a dish called jungle shrimp. It was delicious at the restaurant and I came home and did a lot of research to figure out the ingredients. It turned out it had a lot of Thai flavors. I went shopping to Whole Foods and bought some kaffir leaves, lemongrass and palm sugar. I made a sauce out of orange juice, tamarind and fish sauce etc.
I sauteed the shrimp with some sweet peppers and onions and added the sauce. The dish was delicious- not the same as what we had at the restaurant but very enjoyable.
I loved the complex flavors of the sauce with the tamarind and the palm sugar. I served the dish with some fried rice to make it a complete meal.
If you are able to get all the exotic ingredients- no problem. You can substitute the palm sugar with honey, tamarind with lime juice, kaffir limes with lime zest, etc. The idea is to get a similar flavor- it doesn’t have to be exact. I would highly recommend it!
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Avocado Salad with Lime Dressing
Looking at this salad cheers me up- it gives me hope as I wait for the weather to get warmer! Since I made the chorizo rice and beans yesterday- I was looking to make a fresh crisp salad to go with it. Avocados came to mind and I thought I should go with the lime and roasted cumin seeds theme from the rice dish. Initially I was looking to incorporate some greens in the salad- but as I thought about it more, I realized a chopped salad with peppers tomatoes and avocado may be the way to go. Right before serving the meal, I decided to add the salad on top of the rice instead of as a side. I also drizzled some of the lime dressing on top of the rice. Well, it was a fantastic idea- if I do say so myself!! The different textures were fabulously happy in my mouth. The creamy rice with the chorizo melted against the crunchy peppers and green onions. The tanginess of the dressing brought out the smokiness of the rice and beans. Of course the silky avocados were delicious as well. Overall it was a very successful dish- well, I guess the red wine didn’t hurt!
- 1 ripe avocado, cut into 1-inch pieces
- 1 orange pepper, cut into 1-inch pieces
- 1 medium tomato, cut into 1-inch pieces
- 2 green onions, chopped
- ½ cup cilantro, chopped
- Salt to taste
- Lime dressing
Add all the vegetables in a medium bowl. Add half of the dressing with salt to taste. Mix well and keep aside for an hour. Add the rest of the dressing before serving.
Lime Dressing
- 2 limes, juiced
- 1 teaspoon roasted cumin seeds, ground
- ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
- 2 teaspoons honey
- Salt and pepper to taste
In a small bowl, whisk the limejuice, cumin seeds and honey together. Slowly add the olive oil and whisk the lime mixture. Add salt and pepper and taste for seasonings.