Celery and Quinoa Salad

Quinoa has become one of my favorite ingredients. I often just add it to my salad if I want a more filling salad. Whenever I'm clueless about what to take to work for lunch, the celery quinoa salad is my answer. You can put this salad together in less than 10 minutes, it's filling, nutritious, healthy and delicious.

Ingredients:

1 cup quinoa
1/2 cup thinly sliced celery
Juice of 1 lime
2 teaspoon dried dill
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
salt to taste
3 table spoon olive oil

Directions:

Cook the quinoa, let it sit in the fridge for about 15 minutes to cool down. I like this salad cold, so I usually put the quinoa in the freezer for 10 minutes so it cools down even faster.
Slice the celery very thin. Mix together with the quinoa and dill. Add the olive oil, garlic powder, lime juice, salt and pepper and mix well. .  Adding some green onions will also give it a kick and makes it tastier.

Enjoy!

Shrimp with Ajo Blanco

Me and sea food never got along. But somehow,  I like shrimps and as weird as it sounds, oysters.  Although, this dish has nothing to do with oysters, it's made with jumbo shrimps, almonds and lots of garlic. Yes, the Ajo Blanco that is. Ajo Blanco is a spanish cold soup that is made with blanched almonds, garlic, olive oil and sherry vinegar.  I  had this dish at my favorite Spanish restaurant Contigo in Noe valley, San Francisco. This restaurant never disappoints and I highly recommend it. I have gone back several times and the beauty of this place is that they have a seasonal menu, so they always have something new for you to try. The downside of that is, they don't always have this shrimp dish and that's when I decided to make it myself.

Ingredients for Ajo Blanco

3 cloves of garlic
1/2 cup *blanched almonds
5 Tbs olive oil
3 Tbs sherry vinegar
3 cups water
3 slices of stale spanish bread or baguette
salt to taste

* to blanch the almonds, leave them in water for 1 day, peel them and dry in a towel.

Ingredients for Shrimp

De-shelled and De-veined jumbo shrimps
1 clove garlic
1 lemon
Bell peppers for garnish
Salt and pepper to taste

Soak in the stale bread in water for half an hour. Meanwhile, mix the garlic and blanched almonds in a food processor until smooth.  Remove the bread from water and squeeze out the water. Mix with the almond mix. Slowly add the olive oil then vinegar. Mix well and add the water at the end. The texture should be like a smooth thick soup.

Prepare the Shrimp

Marinate the shrimps in some lemon juice, garlic, salt and pepper. I like to grill the shrimps but you can also pan fry them.

Pour the Ajo Blanco in a shallow bowl,  place four shrimps in it. Chop the bell pepper into square pieces for garnish and sprinkle on top of the shrimps.

Enjoy!

Chicken in Red Wine Sauce

What do you do with a bottle of opened wine that you just never got to finishing? It probably rarely happens, but when it happens, I got an answer for you. Make this dish! It's super simple, fast and tasty.

If you've ever had coq au van and you've like it, you are definitely going to like this dish too. The ingredients are not quite the same but it looks and tastes very similar and I'm pretty sure it's faster to make.

This recipe was inspired by a different chicken recipe my dad used to make when we were kids. The only difference is that he used vinegar instead of wine.

It's best served with rice.

Bon appétit :)

Ingredients

2 Pieces of chicken thighs
2 pieces of chicken breast
1/3 cup corn
1 1/2 cup sliced mushroom
1/3 cup chopped Onions
1/4 cup chopped orange bell pepper
1 tablespoon corn strarch
1 1/2 cup red wine
salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Cut the chicken thighs and chicken breasts into smaller pieces and wash them. Coat them in corn starch.
In a medium size pan, caramelize the chopped onions along with the chopped bell pepper. Saute the mushrooms in a separate pan and set aside.

Add the chicken to the onions mix and saute until lightly brown. Add salt and pepper.

Pour the wine and cook for 30 min or until the chicken is cooked.  If after 30 min, the mixture is still watery, mix some flour or corn starch in  2 to 3  tablespoon cold water and add to the mix.

Mix in with the mushrooms and the corn, cook for another 10 min and serve with rice.

Mission Pie

Are you a cake or pie person? As the picture suggests, I'm actually going to talk about pies. Sorry cake eaters.

Dear pie eater, you will absolutely love Mission Pie. Another gem in the Mission neighborhood, on the corner of Mission and 25th, Mission Pie offers a selection of pies, from banana cream pie to ginger and pear pie . Their big, rustic communal tables, smiling employees, and scrumptious sweet and savory pies makes this place look as San Francisco as it gets.

On a sunny Sunday afternoon, my friend and I  walked into Mission Pie and stood in line  eying the pies on display, not being able to make a decision. I asked one of the employees if I can get in the back and take pictures for my blog. As I was back there taking pictures, I wished I had also asked for a fork and permission to have a bite of every single one of them.

Having guessed that my shameless request for a fork would have probably been rejected, we ordered the lemon pie and the walnut pie. I also got a cappuccino to go with it. The crust was just a right about of thickness and the pie not too sweet. My favorite between the two was the walnut pie.

Walnut Pie

Lemon Pie

We devoured our pies and didn't have room to try another piece, but will definitely be back on probably more than one occasion to try the rest. I should also mention that they have vegan pies as well.

If you are having sunday blues, hungry for something sweet late at night, or if you just have a sweet tooth, pay a visit to Mission Pie. The pies will put a smile on your face and your tummy will be happy.

Kotlet (Potato and Meat Patty)

Everybody in the family raves about my mom's Kotlet. Kotlet,  beef and potato patties,  is amongst many things I miss about living at my parent's. It's fluffy and crispy and it goes well with a piece of Lavash or Sangak (if you are lucky to find this bread),  tomatoes and Torshi or pickles. So I tried very hard to replicate my mom's recipe and even though it turns out great, it never is the same.

Serving: 4 people

Ingredients

1 pound lean ground beef
4  medium to large size  Yukon Gold Potatoes
1 large onion
4 eggs
2 cups bread crumbs
Cooking oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Cook the potatoes, remove the skin and set them aside to cool down.
Use the small holes in your grater to grate the onion. This is that hardest part, if you get over this, you are pretty much good to go.  Use a potato masher to mash the potatoes or use your grater for this part. Mix the ground beef,  grated onions and the potatoes together with your hand. Add salt and pepper and mix well.

Mix the eggs together and add them to the potato and meat mixture. Mix well until you get a smooth but not so soft and runny mixture. At this point, you should be able to shape your patties easily without them falling apart.

 Start making your patties in whatever shape you like with 0.3 inch thickness. Traditional Persian kotlet is oval shape, but making your own shape is not going to change the taste. Thickness of the patties is important since we don't want to burn the patties or undercook them.

Heat 4 tablespoons of oil in a frying pan (preferably a bit deep to reduce the oil splashing all over your kitchen).

Spread the bread crumbs on a flat surface and coat all the patties with the bread crumbs on both side. Make sure the patties are not soft and you can pick each one up without it falling apart.

Fry the patties on both sides, one side at a time. When one side is turning brown, you can flip it over. The patties absorb a lot of oil and you have to constantly make sure there is enough oil in the pan so they don't burn.

 After both sides are brown, move them out of the pan and put them on a sheet of paper towel to absorb the excessive oil.

Serve with tomatoes, some Lavash and pickles or Torshi.

Enjoy!

Front Coffee

One thing I love about the up and coming Dogpatch neighborhood in San Francisco is its unique cafes.  Located on the border of Poterero Hill and Dogpatch, Front Coffee takes coffee to whole new level.
The cafe, a converted garage in the back of an art studio, opened up last summer in the back of an art studio on Missisipi and Mariposa.

They roast their own coffee in their charming, small cafe. If you are lucky, you get to see how they do it and smell the roasting beans. All the baristas are well mannered and very well dressed, in fact they all wear a vest and a tie at all times. Sometimes the studio's door is open and you get to peek at what they are working on.

On the side of the street, there are a few wooden tables and benches, always adorned with cute flowers.

Ok enough about how the cafe look like,  let me tell you about front coffee. The taste is nothing like I have tasted before.  The cappuccino is easily the best I've had in San Francisco, and we all know how San Franciscans are "particular" with their coffee.

A cup of cappuccino and a pastry from Front, certainly makes my morning.

So be sure to visit Front Coffee if you are ever in the neighborhood, you are not going to be disappointed.

Quinoa Salad with Avacado and Black Beans

I love Quinoa, but I always run out of ideas on what to make with it. Sometimes, I just add it to my green salad. It adds a nutty flavor to it and makes it more  filling and I wouldn't have to wake up hungry in the middle of the night.  It's nutty flavor and fluffy but yet crunchy texture goes well with pretty much any vegetable. It is also very good with black beans and avacado. This salad is a very simple and can be put together in 10 minutes. The only inconvenient part is that you have to let the quinoa cool down before making the salad, unless you like to eat warm salad.

  Ingredients:
  
  1 Avacado
  1/2 cup quinoa
  1/2 cup cherry tomatoes
  1/4 of a cucumber
  1/2 cup black beans
  1 lime
   Olive oil
   Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
   
Cook the quinoa, let it sit in the fridge for about 15 min to cool down. Cut the cherry tomatoes in 2 or 4 pieces (I like to cut them into 4 pieces).  Mix all the ingredients together and add olive oil, squeezed lime juice and salt and pepper.

Enjoy!