Fennel, Orange and Red Pepper Salad

It is almost spring and I crave something refreshing. I love combination of fresh fennel and orange and tonight I made a salad using these ingredients. Salad was exactly what I needed. I served it with a piece of pan-fried Black Cod with Tom Douglas Salmon Rub with love.



Ingredients:

1 bulb of fennel, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon of finely chopped fennel fronds
1 red pepper, seeded and chopped into small pieces
2 oranges, navel
1 tablespoon of white wine vinegar
1 tablespoon of white sugar
2 tablespoons of olive oil
Salt and Pepper to taste

Preparation:

1. Peel orange with a knife so that you cut most of the membrane off and the flesh is exposed. Next from the top cut orange in half. Take each half and put it flat side down. Cut orange into thin slices so that each piece has several small sections of the orange held by the leftover membrane. See picture above.

2. In a salad bowl combine together fennel slices, fennel fronds, red pepper and orange slices. In a separate small bowl whisk together white wine vinegar, sugar and olive oil. Add vinegar and oil mixture to the salad bowl. Mix all ingredients together. Salt and pepper to taste. Cover the bowl with a plastic wrap and put it in a refrigerator for at least 1 hour before serving letting all the flavors meld together.

Victrola Cappuccino

Victrola Coffee shop is one of my favorites for a cup of cappuccino. I love stopping by it after work or on a weekend for a nice cup of coffee. I usually also get a small cookie. I had this cup and a cookie below today after gym.

New Bagel Place on Capitol Hill

Today my friend and I met for a bagel at a new bagel shop Eltana on Capitol Hill. The place was packed. I wonder if their last week's review in the Seattle Times had anything to do with this. Despite a big line we did get our bagels and sat down to enjoy them. I got sesame bagel with Eggplant Pomegranate Spread, which was more spicy than I expected but had a nice flavor. The bagels are much smaller than your usual bagels but they are tasty! My friend had honey almond spread on his sesame bagel. They have different spreads and other lunch items such as salads and soups. All in all it is a nice place to get a bagel.

Saturday Morning Breakfast

It is Saturday morning and I am making breakfast. Today it is Apple Smoked bacon, egg whites, Essential Bakery Rosemary Bread toast with butter and black currant preserves made by my mom from her garden in Lithuania. Plus coffee and fresh berries. What a great way to start a day! Even Tye, my rat terrier, enjoyed some bacon!

Angel Hair Pasta with Garlic and Chili Flakes

I love this pasta dish. Easy to make and garlic comes out so delicious!!!


Ingredients:

angel hair pasta (Capellini), 1/2 package or 8 oz.
1 big garlic, cloves peeled and sliced into 1/8 inch thick slices
chili flakes dried
olive oil enough to cover garlic in a pot
salt, 2 teaspoons
parsley or cilantro, chopped for garnish

Preparation:

Pour oil into a small pot, add garlic, salt and chili flakes and let garlic cook slowly on low heat for about 25 minutes. Be careful not to burn it. Stir occasionally. After about 20 minutes when you see garlic getting soft and brown cook angel hair pasta following instructions on a package. Once pasta is cooked, transfer it into a big bowl, pour the garlic and olive oil mixture and toss. Serve with some chopped parsley or cilantro. I usually serve it with roasted cauliflower, the recipe for which I posted earlier.

Roasted Cauliflower

Roasted cauliflower has beautiful golden brown color and is tender and sweet! Here is how you can make it.

Ingredients:

1 head of cauliflower
2-3 tablespoons of olive oil (depending on how large your cauliflower is)
salt

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 450F. Take a head of cauliflower and slice it vertically into slices, about 1/3 -1/2 inch thick. It is ok if some pieces fall apart when you slice the sides of a cauliflower. Rub cauliflower pieces gently on both sides with olive oil. Salt to taste. Layer cauliflower on a cooking sheet in a single layer. Roast cauliflower for 50 minutes turning once midway though.

Banana Tarte Tatin

Last night I wanted to make some easy dessert and I remembered this recipe for Banana Tarte Tartin from Saveur magazine from last year. The recipe is available online and is easy to follow.  Here is how I made the tart.

Ingredients:
3⁄4 cup of sugar
4 tablespoons of unsalted butter
1 teaspoon of orange zest
1⁄4 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
3 ripe bananas, halved lengthwise
1  9”x9” sheet of frozen puff pastry, Aussie Bakery brand, thawed. It is sold in many supermarkets in Seattle.

I preheated oven to 400F. First step is to make caramel sauce. I combined sugar and butter in a small pot. I kept mixing sugar and butter in a pot, first on a low heat and then gradually increasing heat to medium high. I made sure not to burn sugar by continually stirring the mixture. I followed instructions and continued cooking the mixture until it was deep golden brown color. The process took about 10-12 minutes. I removed the caramel from heat and stirred in orange zest and cinnamon. Next I poured caramel mixture into a round glass ovenproof pie baking dish and spread it to cover the bottom.

After that I laid bananas cut side up over the caramel. I needed only 3 bananas and cut some pieces as needed to fit in the baking dish.

Following the instructions I unfolded puff pastry sheet over bananas, trimming edges of pastry to fit the dish, and tucked in the edges. I used a fork to prick pastry sheet. I put tart into the oven, put timer for 30 minutes and forgot about it.

After about 20 minutes I checked on tart to see that it was cooking and right at 30 minutes I took the tart out. Just like the recipe said the pastry was puffed and golden brown and caramel was bubbling around the edges of the dish. I let tart cool off for couple minutes.

OK, so this was the tricky part. To serve, you need to place a serving platter or baking sheet upside down over the baking dish and carefully invert tart onto platter or sheet. It takes patience but I did it!

The last step is to cut tart and serve it with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream. I ate it just by itself and it was delicious. The next step is to make this tart with apples – a timeless classic!