Easy Chicken Paella

 I realized one thing today when I was making my solo dinner (Max had to do OT as usual) by throwing everything from the fridge into a pot that I do a lot of one-pot meals. It's easy and usually super delicious without dirtying any pans or plates. This chicken paella is like one of those tasty one-pot meals that have became part of our weekly routine.

Asparagus & Crab Linguine

Whether eating in or out, seafood has always been my top choice. There is just something about seafood that I can't get enough of. It's light, delicate and packed with flavors. It also seems like that when the weather gets hotter and my craving grows stronger too. What else can beat a bowl of delicious seafood linguine with nicely chilled Chardonnay on a beautiful summer day?

This time I splurged a little bit on really good pasta from the "fancy" organic grocery store in our neighborhood. Maybe next time I should try to make some fresh pasta from scratch.

I never realized peeling asparagus into thin ribbons can be this hard and time consuming. I wonder if there is any tricks out there that I'm unawared of.

Penne with Italian Sausage, Roasted Tomatoes and Arugula

Okay...I have to confess that I stole this recipe from Max. The dish he made for me before was delicious, however I think this time I did a much better job by using roasted fresh tomatoes instead of his favorite canned tomatoes :)  Actually either way this dish tastes so wonderful with a kick from the arugula.

Grilled Fish Tacos

Usually I don't complain about the heat and as a matter of fact a hot summer day is my best friend. I get energized whenever it's hot and sunny outside and on the days that's not warm enough, I would just go to my hot yoga class to enjoy the heat. However yesterday is a completely different story. With the humidex, it felt like over 40C! Yonge and Bloor never seemed so far away from University and Bloor when I frustratedly took my slowest stroll ever and could not feel more helpless holding a sweating cup of iced coffee with all the ice cubes already melted. Then it hit me that a day like this might not be so bad if I can have some delicious tacos and a cold beer. And that's what we had last night...No-fuss super delicious grilled fish tacos.

Sautéed Shrimp with Zucchini and Eggplant

 I hope everyone had a wonderful long weekend. It wasn't a long weekend to us because Max still had to work yesterday. However thanks to the weather not being screwy all the time, we spent a wonderful day in High park on Saturday just to get soaked up the sun. Not too sure about you, I find myself tend to have more junk food on the weekends. After all the chicken wings, beers, prosciutto, wine, steak, popcorn, chips, ice cream,... and all the other junk food I had for the past 3 days, I really feel like eat something light and healthy to detox my whole system.

Black Olive Salsa

Summer can't be any closer and I just want to spent as much time outdoor as I can. Even though our rental apartment doesn't come with a balcony, there are several lovely parks just steps away. So yesterday we had our first picnic of the year in the park. Being outside with all the greenery surrounds us and breathing in the fresh air even made a simple Chinese style cold noodle salad, butter and garlic sautéed spinach and homemade lemonade much tastier. I didn't take pictures this time because we hurried out to the park as fast as we can that I didn't grab anything else but only the food. Anyways here I want to share with you a healthy, light spring/summer dish. This black olive salsa is lovely when paired with pan-fried fish and also is quite delicious on its own.

Asparagus Risotto

I met up with a close friend on Tuesday after not seeing her for almost a month. As soon as she saw me, the first thing she said was "gosh! you gained weight!" hmm...Thanks and I missed you too? What can I say? I love food! Well, I would also love to get myself fit into that tight little pair of faux leather legging I got last fall. With that in mind, I digged out my yoga mat and headed to my hot yoga studio for the most challenging class after two weeks' absence. The result? disgustedly sweatily satisfied and energized! So I decided to make a delicious asparagus risotto and bake some fish for dinner to reward myself. Yes, food again.

The recipe I followed this time is from The Silver Spoon (a new cookbook I got from BMV on Bloor street last Sunday) with few changes. I added some sugar peas (that had been sitting in the fridge for quite a few days and I had completely lost the original cooking inspirations that I had in mind when I decided to buy them in the grocery store) and also I added zest from 1 lemon to bring some citrusy zesting excitement to this traditional spring dish. My only mistake that I made this time? After the rice was done, I moved the pan to another burner that I forgot to turn off. And it was already a little bit too late when I finally noticed the rice was getting dryer. Oh well..Bon Appetit!

RISOTTO CON PUNTE DI ASPARAGI

Asparagus risotto (Recipe is from The Silver Spoon by Phaidon Press)

Serves 4

1 pound 2 ounces asparagus, spears trimmed

6 1/4 cups vegetable stock

5 tablespoons butter

3 tablespoons olive oil

1/2 onion, chopped

2 cups risotto rice

salt

Parmesan cheese, freshly grated, to serve

• Cook the asparagus in a pot of salted, boiling water for 10-12 minutes until tender, then drain and cut off and reserve the spears. Chop the stems and set aside.

• Bring the vegetable stock to boil

• Meanwhile, melt 1tbsp butter in a skillet, add the asparagus spears and cook over low heat, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes, then remove from the heat and set aside.

• Melt 2tbsp butter with the olive oil in a pan , add onion and cook over low heat, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes.

• Stir in the rice and cook, sirring, until the grains are coated in fat, then add the chopped asparagus stems.

• Add a ladleful of the hot stock and cook, stirring, until it has been absorbed. Continue adding the stock, a ladleful at a time, and stirring until it has been absorbed. This will take 18-20 minutes.

• When the rice is tender, stir in the remaining butter and the asparagus spears. Serve with Parmesan

Julia Child's French Mussels Steamed Open in Wine and Flavorings

I am the biggest fan of seafood. Whenever it comes to dinner selection, I always tend to choose seafood over red meat. So it was really hard to pass on when I saw theses fresh mussels in the grocery store. Come on what else can beat a nice glass of white wine with steamed mussels on a warm spring day! This time instead of doing it my usual Italian way I opted for the French style adapted from Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking.

Moules à la Marinière

Fresh Mussel Steamed Open in Wine and Flavorings

2 cups of light, dry white wine

1/2 cup minced shallots/ green onions/ very finely minced onions

8 parsley springs

1/2 bay leaf

1/4 tsp thyme

1/8 tsp pepper

6 Tb butter

6 quarts scrubbed, soaked mussels (I used around 2-3kilos.)

• Bring the wine to boil in a pot with all the ingredients but the last two ingredients for 2 - 3 minutes

• Add the mussels to the pot. Cover tightly and boil quickly over high heat. Frequently grasp the kettle with both hands, your thumbs clamped to the cover, and toss the mussels in the kettle with an up and down slightly jerky motion so the mussels will change levels and cook evenly. In about 5 minutes the shells will swing open and the mussels are done.

• with a big skimmer, dip the mussels into wide soup plates. Allow the cooking liquid to settle for a moment so any sand will sink to the bottom. Then ladle the liquid over the mussels. sprinkle with parsley and serve immediately.

Something important:

The most crucial step of preparing the mussels is SOAK the mussels for at least 2 hours! This way you can get rid of the sand and dirt that's been hiding inside the shells.

Black Cod with Olives and Potatoes in Parchment

Finally spring is here to stay in Toronto. After a really long winter of pasta and stew and more pasta and stew, my taste buds are yearning for even more green and vibrant elements than my eyes do. So last week I made this Black Cod with Olives and Potatoes in Parchment as a start of eating more light and healthy meals. (Recipe can be found here: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Black-Cod-with-Olives-and-Potatoes-in-Parchment-242013)

Instead of following the recipe to tie up the parchment paper with kitchen string, I baked the French style fish en papillote by folding the parchment paper into a pouch.

Voilà!