Ceviche Peruano

My love for ceviche grew this year after heading to a hidden gem in Patterson, New Jersey called La Pampa. La Pampa is a Peruvian restaurant which to me has by far the best Peruvian food I've tasted and since tasting their ceviche, I felt the need to find a way to replicate this and bring ceviche Peruano to my home! So after consulting with my BFF (Google-lol), I was able to find a simple recipe on wikihow.com under "How to make Peruvian fish ceviche" (see recipe below)

I altered the recipe slightly by using tilapia as recommended by a close friend of mine. I also found that clam juice was easier to find than fish stock and I nixed the peppers but feel free to use them for an extra kick! 

This is a type of dish you would need to taste prior to making so when you decide to make it, you know exactly what your looking for in taste and flavors. Happy cooking! 

Ingredients for the Leche De Tigre sauce:

1/2 cup fresh lime juice (about 5 limes' worth)

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 tablespoon fresh cilantro

1/2 habanero chile, seeded and minced

1/2 red onion, chopped

1/2 cup fish juice or clam juice

Salt to taste

Ingredients for Ceviche:

1 habenero chile, seeded and chopped

1 pound light fish such as flounder or sole

1 red onion, thinly sliced

Salt to taste

Cilantro for garnish

Directions (for sauce):

Place the lime juice, garlic cloves, cilantro, habenero, and red onion in a blender. Add 3 large ice cubes. Blend the ingredients until they are completely smooth.

If you want the sauce to be as smooth as possible, you can strain it through a fine-mesh sieve.

If you struggle to get the ingredients to blend, add a little water to loosen them up.

Once the ingredients are pureed and strained, add the fish or clam juice. Use a spoon to stir the ingredients well.

Pour it into a bowl and cover it with a lid or a piece of plastic wrap. Place it in the refrigerator so that the flavors can begin to meld while you prepare the rest of the dish.

Directions for preparing the fish:

Rinse the fish pieces and pat them dry lay them on a cutting board and use a sharp knife to cut them into bite-sized cubes.

Place the fish cubes in a large bowl. Add the diced peppers and salt to taste. Add the leche de tigre sauce and stir well. Place the mixture in the refrigerator for five minutes. The fish is ready to serve when it turns white.

With it's pretty colors and textures, ceviche is often served in large dessert glasses or clear glass bowls. Serve over lettuce with the sweet potato pieces on the side. Garnish with cilantro and red onion slices.

Bacon wrapped chicken

As I was perusing my Instagram, I noticed this cool post from @shonda1020 about a dish. It was chicken roll up wrapped in sliced turkey stuffed with veggies.. So of course I immediately wanted to go the healthier route but that view got swayed very quickly (and easily I might add) after watching Bacon Paradise on the Travel Channel. 

Ingredients:

4 thin Chicken breasts (washed)

1/2 cup of baby spinach

1/2-1 cup of ricotta cheese

7-8 strips of bacon uncooked

Sea salt

Pepper

Garlic powder

Paprika

2 tablespoons of olive oil 

Directions

Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees

Take the spinach and mix with the ricotta cheese.

With a meat tenderizer, thin out the chicken breasts

Once meat is tenderized, add the olive oil and seasonings to the chicken and make sure the seasoning is coated evenly.

Lay chicken flat and begin to spread the spinach and ricotta mixture

Take the breast and start to roll up the chicken breast as tight as you can.

Once rolled up, take a strip of bacon and tightly begin to wrap the chicken breast. You may need two strips per breast to cover the chicken. 

Lie the chicken faced down on an aluminum pan.

Repeat the process for the other three chicken breasts.

Place in oven for about 40 minutes or until chicken is done. 

Helpful Tip:To keep chicken together, use toothpicks. Also the tighter you roll the bacon the better the chicken will hold in case you run out of tooth picks

Coconut Curry Fish

So when I started to dibble and dabble in different recipes, I always used my best friend...Google.com. So sometime last year, when I was out of work, I spent some time in the kitchen trying to whip up new things just to keep my mind busy. So if I had a particular style of food in mind, I would google it and see what comes up. This particular dish is Thai inspired and I found the recipe from www.food.com but after trying it the first time, I altered it to my liking the second time around. I added garlic powder, flour (to thicken the sauce) and instead of 1/2 cup of coconut milk, I added a full cup, paprika and pepper.. Make sure u keep tasting it until its to your liking.. Oh! And I used curry powder instead of curry paste for a lesser kick. Below is the original recipe

Ingredients:2 teaspoons vegetable oil4 shallots, finely chopped (about 3/4 cup)2 1/2 teaspoons red curry paste*, or 2 teaspoons curry powder2 cups low-sodium chicken broth1/2 cup light coconut milk1/2 teaspoon salt, plus 1/4 teaspoon, plus more for seasoning4 (6-ounce) pieces tilapia fillet, skin removed1/2 cup coarsely chopped fresh cilantro leaves2 scallions, green part only, thinly sliced2 tablespoons fresh lime juiceFreshly ground black pepper2 cups cooked brown rice, for serving

Directions:In a large saute pan, heat the oil over moderate heat. Add the shallots and cook, stirring occasionally, until beginning to brown, 3 to 5 minutes. Add the curry paste and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add the chicken broth, coconut milk, 1/2 teaspoon salt and simmer until reduced to 2 cups, about 5 minutes.Season the tilapia with 1/4 teaspoon salt. Arrange the fish in the pan and gently shake the pan so the fish is coated with the sauce. Cover and cook until the fish flakes easily with a fork, about 7 minutes.Arrange a pile of steamed spinach in the bottom of 4 soup plates. Top with the fish fillets. Stir the cilantro, scallions, and lime juice into the sauce and season, to taste, with salt and pepper. Ladle the sauce over the fish and serve with rice.

Bon Appetit! 

Welcome!!

Hey All, and thank you for stopping by! So you may be wondering how I even decided to start a food blog? Well it was actually by popular (Thank you Social Media!).

I started to cook a lot more over the past few years and thanks to my dedication to Facebook and having the "need" as the Boo would like to call it, (When I reference the Boo orBabe, I'm speaking of my love of 13 years, for those not to familiar with the lingo/slang of our youth-lol), to post pics of everything, I started posting pics of all of my dishes.

As my album grew so did the requests for recipes, requests for techniques and even requests of where we go dining. So after contemplating (and realizing my Instagram can only take so much), I said, why not! I will be using this blog to not only post my own dishes, but to give credit to those recipes that inspire my creations, show those dishes that didn't make the cut as well as give reviews on some of my dining experiences. 

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