Sasha's Kitchen: Chipotle Rubbed Flank Steak with Corn-Avocado Salsa

I made this delicious steak recently, on Christmas Eve for our stay at home boring Jewish Christmas.  The meal was surprisingly easy and delicious.  The one thing I didn't anticipate was how smoky grilling a chipotle rubbed steak is - it made the kitchen very smoky! The resulting flavor was a little but on the spicy side, but very flavorful and went nicely with the corn and avocado salsa.  This would be a great summertime dish made on an outdoor grill as well, although I obviously made it indoors in a grill pan.

Sasha's Chipotle Rubbed Flank Steak with Corn-Avocado Salsa
One 1/2 lb flank steak
2/3 cup orange juice
3 canned chipotle peppers in adobo
2 diced cloves of garlic
2 T olive oil
1 cup corn
2 avocados, peeled and chopped
1 T lime juice
1/2 small jalapeno pepper, seeded and diced
1/4 cup minced red onion

In a blender, combine the chipotle peppers, orange juice, olive oil and garlic and puree.  Marinate the steak for ten minutes.  Remove the steak from the marinade and let the excess drip off but don't wash off the marinade.  Grill as desired in your grill pan or outdoor grill on both sides.

In a separate bowl, combine the corn, avocado, lime juice, jalapeno and red onion and serve on top of the flank steak as salsa.

Sasha's Kitchen: Chipotle Rubbed Flank Steak with Corn-Avocado Salsa

Sasha's Kitchen: Zucchini Corn Fritters

Farm fresh zucchini and corn are so good this time of year, that I couldn't resist a fun, healthy variation on traditional zucchini fritters. I only fry with canola oil - never with vegetable oil, so they're about as healthy as they can be. I used local corn and zucchini for the recipe and it was absolutely delicious, sweetened by the delicious sweet corn that I shucked. They key to this recipe is squeezing all of the water out of the zucchini, so that it doesn't make an overly watery batter.  This is a great weekday meal, and I plan on making another batch this coming weekend as a dinner party appetizer. A recipe like this really just reminds me of summer!

Sasha's Zucchini Corn Fritters
Two large zucchini (about 4 1/2 cups shredded zucchini)
3 ears of corn, shucked
4 eggs
3/4 cup flour
1 small onion, diced
1/2 tsp cayenne
1/2 tsp paprika
1/4 cup curly parsley, minced
pepper to taste
canola oil for frying
serve with lowfat yogurt

Shred the zucchini using a cheese grater and allow to drain as much as possible over a colander or strainer.  Scramble the eggs and mix with the shucked corn, onion, spices, parsley, flour and pepper.  Squeeze the shredded zucchini in handfuls to get rid of as much of the water as possible and then combine with the other ingredients.  Heat about a quarter inch of canola oil in a frying pan. Drop heaps of the zucchini-corn mixture and form circular shaped fritters. Cook until golden on both sides, about 2-3 minutes. Remove and allow to drain on parchment paper. Serve with yogurt.

Sasha's Kitchen: Zucchini Corn Fritters

Sasha's Kitchen: Summer Vegetable Risotto

I can't exactly take all the credit for this dish. I had planned on making a summer vegetable risotto, after the spring vegetable risotto I made a while back was so good. I bought some great locally grown vegetables for the summer dish, but asked my mom and my husband to execute the actual recipe, since Brad is a skilled risotto maker and my mom was visiting. The end result was absolutely spectacular, and luckily we have great notes on each person's contributions to this dish. The vegetables were prepared perfectly, a lovely al dente, and this might just be the best risotto yet at our house - a true feast!

Garden Fresh Summer Vegetable Risotto

2 cups arborio risotto rice

6 cups low sodium chicken stock

4 carrots, chopped

2 ears of corn, shucked

1 cup of fresh english peas

5 scallions, thinly diced

2 yellow zucchini, thinly sliced

zest of two lemons

1 cup of white wine

1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

1 onion, diced

1 heaping tablespoon of diced garlic
1 1/2 tsp fresh thyme

Saute the garlic and onions in about three tablespoons of olive oil. Cook for several minutes until the onions are translucent. Then add the arborio rice in three tablespoons of olive oil. Then add the wine and cook over medium heat until half of the white wine is gone and dissipated. Add one cup of chicken stock and allow to reduce before adding the next cup of chicken stock. Keep adding and reducing the chicken stock, one cup at a time until fully reduced and the risotto is fully cooked. In total you will add about six cups of chicken stock. 

The carrots were sliced and steamed in a steamer until almost tender. The peas were separately then steamed in the steamer, also until almost tender. Then, briefly saute the corn kernels in a scant tablespoon of olive oil. Saute the zucchini lightly, separately, in a tablespoon of olive oil. 

Add the vegetables to the risotto. Then mix in the thinly sliced scallions, thyme and lemon zest and a half of cup of grated parmesan cheese, and serve hot.

Sasha's Kitchen: Summer Vegetable Risotto

Amasea's Kitchen in Sun Valley: Weird but delicious BBQ sauce

Sorry I don't have my own pictures for this one; it was seat-of-the-pants -- but so delicious, I just had to share!

I've been going through the old ingredients in my pantry, seeking things I haven't used in a while to clear out. The new year and all...

I knew I had some dried tamarind pods, but while seeking those (which I was able to revive and clean the pod casings off of by dipping them in hot water -- any suggestions on what to do with them?), I found some rolled guava paste from Trader Joe's.
Which, not incidentally, is probably my favorite chain store ever, but I live no closer than 350 miles from one, which depresses me. Another hit against Idaho, which this year is slightly redeeming itself by having remarkable skiing and increasingly impressive restaurants in Sun Valley. Come visit!

The guava paste was pretty dried out -- I was a little scared to look at the expiration date, so I didn't, but they *were* individually wrapped. I put four of the little rolls (about half an inch by 1.5 inches each) in a small bowl and topped them with boiling water to attempt a rehydration.
They sat in that for several hours as I finished work, then went in a tiny Cuisinart blender with about half a cup of orange juice. It took a lot of chopping and grinding to get the guava rolls to achieve a smooth texture, and more to get the same texture out of the large chipotle pepper (canned in adobo) that I added after realizing the mixture was just too sweet. I also added a few grinds of salt and pepper and about a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar somewhere in there for umami.

In a large stainless steel skillet, I heated olive oil and a dash of salt on medium high until a drop of water sizzled, then tossed in some boneless chicken breasts (because of their large size, I cut one into three pieces and the other into two pieces lengthwise). I seared them on both sides, then poured on the guava sauce, reduced the heat to medium, and cooked until the chicken was done.
Then I poured in about 3/4 cup chardonnay to deglaze the pan, and let it boil down for oh, three minutes or so before plating atop the chicken. Thinking back, a light red wine might have been a richer choice, but I liked the clean flavor the white gave the sauce.

Meanwhile, I cooked quinoa in our *amazing* wedding-gift rice cooker. Which I believe is the first time I've cooked quinoa in my adult life -- but it worked out remarkably well, despite smelling odd during the first half of the cooking time. With the Costco-sized bag of dried quinoa I just opened, this IS happening again.

In a small saucepan, I melted 1/2 tablespoon of butter and two large pressed cloves of garlic. I added about a cup of organic canned corn, a little salt and pepper, and some fresh thyme from the plant the husband and I were given by the B&B where we spent our short honeymoon, which has survived on the windowsill despite minus temps outside.
Then after a few minutes, a few tablespoons of half and half. I'd have used cream, but this was a spur-of-the-moment dish, and I had to go with what was in the fridge.
The corn mix went on top of the quinoa...

...and the result was -- DELICIOUS.
The barbecue sauce was hot, sweet, umami-esque, perhaps the best non-tomato-based BBQ sauce I've ever had. The corn mix on the quinoa an excellent creamy foil.
I think the only thing that would have made it better would have been a spicy greens salad on the side for a fresh, crispy bite, or perhaps some pickled radishes.

Amasea's Kitchen in Sun Valley: Weird but delicious BBQ sauce

Sasha's Kitchen: Crab Cakes With Spiced Corn and Pistachio Aioli

Today, for our Jewish Christmas, my husband and I decided to try out another recipe from the Marcus Samuelsson book, New American Table. We enjoy making crabcakes, and in the past we have made and enjoyed Goan Spice Crabcakes. Tonight’s recipe, which I made for lunch (we will be having leftovers again for dinner) is on pages 40-41 of Marcus Samuelsson's cookbook, and involves making three dishes: the crabcakes, a side of spiced corn, and a pistachio aioli.


To make the crabcakes, Samuelsson supplies the following recipe:

1 lb of baby yukon gold potatoes
2 cloves garlic
1 pound lump crabmeat
1 tsp mild chile powder
2 tsps dijon mustard
2 T mayonnaise
2 tsps chopped cilantro
2 tsps chopped mint
2 T cornstarch (note, I used 2 T)
1/4 cups panko breadcrumbs (note, I used 1/2 cup of panko)
olive oil


Coat in the mixture of panko and cornstarch. I had actually never made my other crabcake recipes with panko breadcrumbs in the past. I should have known better as the recipes always called for panko and not ordinary breadcrumbs. They always tasted great so I didn't pay attention to this. However, I used panko for the first time tonight and I can't believe I didn't realize this before. Panko breadcrumbs are much lighter and taste and look completely different from regular breadcrumbs. The end result is a lighter, crisper crabcake thanks to the panko. Lesson learned.

The next stage is to heat the oil (olive or canola) in a saute pan over medium heat and to fry the crabcakes. This recipe made about 17 small-ish crabcakes, and we each ate about three of them for lunch. Thus, expect to have lots of leftovers or invite some dinner guests.

To make the Pistachio Aioli Sauce

3 yukon gold baby potatoes
1/4 red wine vinegar
juice of lemon
2 garlic cloves
2 T pistachios
2 egg yolks
1/2 cup olive oil (or canola oil)
1 tsp pistachio oil
1 T heavy cream
1 tsp tarragon
salt and pepper to taste

I was familiar with aioli before preparing this recipe. My mom used to make pecan chicken with basil aioli when I was growing up, so I knew that by definition, aioli is prepared with raw egg yolks, just like a good caesar salad dressing. If you can get past that, it is delicious, totally safe and does not taste eggy at all (having said that, do not make this sauce if you have a health condition that makes it unsafe for you to eat raw eggs).

Boil the three small potatoes (with the rest and separate) and skin them. combine the red wine vinegar, lemon juice, and garlic and simmer to reduce to 2 tablespoons. Note that this will not take long and you will have to do it twice if you get distracted by something else in the middle of the reduction, as it will stick to the pot and make a mess.

Add the reduction to the potatoes and pistachios in the blender and puree. Add the egg yolks, olive oil, pistachio oil, mustard, 2 T water and puree/emulsify until smooth. The pistachio oil is very strong and thus you only need a small amount. It is, however, a bit on the expensive side.

Mix in the heavy cream and tarragon and serve with the crabcakes. I also topped the crabcakes with a bit of plum chutney from the Bombay Emerald Chutney Company. I normally do not use store bought sauces and salad dressings, but this one is the exception to the rule. It always tastes amazing with crabcakes, no matter what recipe I use and what other condiments I make to accompany the crabcakes. During months other than the winter, we can buy this wonderful chutney (and other great produce and goodies) at the farmers market at Washington Park in Park Slope.

Finally, to prepare the side of the corn, here is Saumelsson's recipe:

Spiced Corn

1 T olive oil
1 can of corn
2 tomatoes (I only used one because that's all I had and it's Christmas, so I wasn't going grocery shopping)
juice of 2 limes
2 T soy sauce
1/2 tsp mild chile powder
2 scallions
1 T cilantro (I intentionaly omitted this)
salt and pepper to taste

Saute the corn, garlic and tomato until golden in the oil for about 4 minutes. Then add the lime juice, soy sauce, and chile powder and season accordingly. Once it is fully cooked, add the scallions. I like cilantro but was not feeling it with this dish, so I left it out entirely.

Sasha's Kitchen: Crab Cakes With Spiced Corn and Pistachio Aioli