Blood Orange, Blue Cheese, Hazelnuts and Avocado Salad with Champagne Honey Vinaigrette

This is another colorful and tasty salad that I enjoyed making tonight. And yes, I did have it with Petrale Sole fillets :) Here is how you can make the same salad.


Ingredients:

2 cups of mixed baby greens

1 avocado, peeled, seeded, halved and chopped

2 blood oranges, segments only 

1/2 cup of roasted hazelnuts, chopped 

4 inches by 2 inches piece of blue cheese, cut in 1/2 inch cubes

1 tablespoon of finely chopped shallot

2 tablespoons of olive oil

1 teaspoon of honey

1 teaspoon of Dijon mustard

1 tablespoon of Champagne vinegar

Salt and Pepper to taste

Preparation:

1. To make vinaigrette combine olive oil, shallots, honey, mustard and vinegar in a bowl and mix with a fork or small whisk. Add salt and pepper to taste. 

2. You can either buy roasted hazelnuts or roast them yourself. I usually roast nuts myself. Tonight I roasted hazelnuts in the oven at 425F degrees for 10 minutes. 

3. In a large salad bowl toss baby greens with the vinaigrette, blood orange segments, blue cheese cubes, avocado slices and chopped hazelnuts. Serve and enjoy every bite! 

Notes: You can vary amount of avocado, oranges, hazelnuts and cheese to your liking. I doubt you can go wrong.

Petrale Sole Fillet with Thyme and Lemon

Tonight I made Fresh Petrale Sole fillets which I got at a local Co-op Madison Market. I have tried several recipes for this type of fish before but none of them was really a "keeper." The trick is not to overcook fillets because they are so thin and not have them stuck to the pan while frying. So tonight I tried broiling this fish and I was successful! Fish turned out moist, flaky and tasty! The cooking method is very easy and requires minimal number of ingredients. Here is how I made it.

 Ingredients:

1lb of fresh Petrale Sole fillets
Juice of 1/2 lemon
Olive oil, 3 tablespoons
2 sprigs of Thyme, finely chopped
Butter, 1 tablespoon
Salt and Pepper to taste

Preparation:

1. Preheat oven to 400F degrees. To make marinade in a small bowl whisk together olive oil, thyme and lemon juice. Add salt and pepper to taste.

2. Wash fish fillets in cold water and pat dry with a paper towel.

3. Using your hands rub fish fillets with the marinade. Next, layer fillers in a cast iron pan. I had two layers in my pan. Depending on a size of your pan you might have more or less.

 4. Put cast iron pan in the oven and turn the broil on. Broil fish for about 7-9 minutes until it gets a nice light brown crust.

5. Take fish from the oven and put butter on top. Serve with potatoes and/or salad.

Mid-Morning Snack at Work

I love snacking on fruit during the day at work. This is what I had today: Orange, Blueberries and Roasted Almonds. And believe me it does not take that long to prepare this snack. You just have to slice an orange and wash blueberries. I do roast almonds myself. I buy raw almonds and then roast them for about 10-14 minutes at 425F in the oven. But if you want to avoid roasting just buy already roasted almonds.

Saturday Night French Dinner

I took French cooking class at PCC Natural Markets about four years ago and have cooked French onion soup, duck breast and legs on several occasions since then. But I always wanted to make French dinner with first course, second course and dessert. And this weekend I decided to do it. Each course had French cooking element in it but of course I had to add my own flavor!

Here is the menu with pictures of items that I actually made and served :) 

First Course

Caramelized French Onion Soup en Croute Baked with Gruyere and Petit Basque Cheeses Draped in Puff Pastry

 Second Course

Duck Breast a l’Orange, Roasted Fingerling Potatoes, and Avocado Grapefruit Spinach Salad with Champagne Honey Vinaigrette

Dessert

Mousse Au Chocolat, Molly Moon’s Ice Cream Selection and Fresh Berries

I have made some of the items on the menu before but some were also first time tries like Mousse Au Chocolat. Recipes for some dishes are from the cooking class I took, the rest are items that I tried over the years at restaurants or from my friends and I tried to replicate those dishes by finding recipes online. I think I succeeded and the person who shared this dinner with me agrees. I will be posting recipes for all dishes shortly.

The recipe for the Avocado, Grapefruit and Spinach Salad was posted earlier.

You must try Molly Moon's Handmade Ice Cream in Seattle if you have not yet. I served Strawberry Balsamic and Salted Caramel at my dinner last night. 

Avocado Grapefruit Salad with Champagne Honey Vinaigrette

Ingredients:

2 cups of baby greens

1 avocado, peeled, seeded, halved and sliced

1 grapefruit, segments only

1 tablespoon of finely chopped shallot

2 tablespoons of olive oil

1 teaspoon of honey

1 teaspoon of dijon mustard

1 tablespoon of champagne vinegar

salt and pepper

Preparation:

Combine olive oil, shallots, honey, mustard and vinegar in a bowl and mix with a small whisk. Add salt and pepper to taste. In a large bowl toss spinach avocado and grapefruit segments with the vinaigrette.

Spinach, Feta and Quinoa Salad

Tonight I decided to make yet another quinoa salad. My inspiration was Citrus, Quinoa, and Spinach Salad from the Sunset magazine. I made their recipe the other day but found green onions to be too strong and decided to use mini heirloom tomatoes instead in my variation. Here is how I made it.

Ingredients

½ cup of white quinoa

4 oz of light feta cheese, crumbled

10 -12 mini heirloom tomatoes, sliced in quarters

2 cups of fresh baby spinach leaves

1 teaspoon of red chili flakes

1 clove of garlic, minced

Zest and juice of ½ fresh lemon

2 tablespoons of Olive Oil

Salt and Pepper to taste

Preparation:

In a pan combine dried quinoa and water. (Ratio of quinoa to water should be 1:2, but I noticed that when cooking half a cup few extra tablespoons of water are needed). Bring to boil. Once boiling, reduce the heat so that quinoa is boiling, cover the pan with a lid, let cook for about 10-15 minutes until all water is absorbed and you can fork the quinoa.

In a meantime, prepare the dressing. Combine lemon juice, lemon zest, chili flakes, garlic and olive oil in a small bowl and mix the ingredients. 

In a large salad bowl combine spinach, tomatoes, feta cheese and warm quinoa and the dressing. Mix all ingredients together. Warm quinoa will wilt spinach just a little bit. Add salt and pepper to taste. Enjoy!

As for dessert I had a square of Theo Chocolate Bar with Mint. Theo Chocolate uses organic fair trade chocolate and is the only bean-to-bar chocolate factory in the US and they are located here, in Seattle!!! They also have factory tours. I plan on going to one very soon. I hope my trainer approves of 70% dark chocolate bite :)

Today's Discovery - Two Tarts Bakery in Portland, OR

Today I spent a wonderful day in Portland, OR walking around the Pearl District and Nob Hill neighborhood. I visited my usual favorites like Stumptown Coffee and Vivace Cafe. But the highlight of the visit was a discovery of a new bakery "Two Tarts" on NW 23rd Avenue. This bakery specializes in pint-sized artisan cookies. They have a website/blog and can even ship you their cookies :) For more details check out Two Tarts Bakery website.

Of course I could not resist and bought 13 cookies which came in a nice box :)

I bought a variety that included the following cookies: Pumpkin Whoopie Pies, Cappuccino Creams, Hazelnut Baci, Peanut Butter Creams, Earl Grey Shortbread and few others. We enjoyed them later in a day while walking in Japanese Garden in Washington Park.

My favorite were Cappuccino Creams :)

After eating few :)