Kitchen Conundrum

Everything Tuna With Udon Noodles Recipe

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Tuna 3To be honest, we are really meat and potatoes people. Or rather, poultry and potatoes people. When we first married, Ari’s idea of tuna was canned tuna and while I did like some sushi and some fish, I only ate it out of the house. On occasion. And very rarely at that.  But because we are both trying to live a little healthier as we get older (never to late to start, right?!) our red meat intake has been significantly reduced and our fish intake has increased in it’s place.  So,  we have been experimenting with fish varieties and recipes we think will please our entire family. We love Udon noodles and cooking with Mirin and this Everything Tuna steak is a perfect match. Fish sticks, stand back!

Everything Tuna With Udon Noodles Recipe
 
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Ingredients
  • 4 tuna steaks (4-5 ounces each)
  • ¼ cup dried onion
  • ¼ cup dried garlic
  • 1 tablespoon sesame seeds
  • 1 tablespoon poppy seeds
  • 1 tablespoon coarse sea salt
  • 2 egg whites
  • 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
  • 1 tablespoon sesame oil
  • 1lb Udon noodles (cooked per package directions, reserving 1 cup of pasta water)
  • ¼ cup soy sauce
  • ¼ cup Mirin ((sweet, cooking rice wine))
  • 3 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
  • 1-2 scallions (chopped, green part only, for garnish)
Method
  1. Rinse the tuna steaks and pat dry with a paper towel. Set aside.
  2. Set up your “batter” station by setting out two flat pans with rims. In one pan, break up the egg whites with a fork for the egg wash. In the next pan, combine the onion, garlic, seeds and salt.
  3. Because the tuna takes very little time to sear, go ahead and cook your Udon noodles per the package directions. Be sure to reserve a cup of the pasta water to add to the sauce. Add the water and noodles back to the pot and keep over a very low flame. Add the soy sauce, Mirin and rice wine vinegar. Keep warm.
  4. In a large skillet, heat the vegetable oil and sesame oil over high heat being careful not to let it smoke.
  5. Working quickly, dip the tuna into the egg wash and then the seed mixture and coat the steak completely.
  6. Place the tuna in the hot skillet to sear. About 1 minute on each side for rare tuna.
  7. Add a portion of noodles in a large bowl with sauce and top with a tuna steak and a sprinkling of scallions.

 

 

Enjoy with a glass of Rose or a crisp Riesling and you will have a lite, healthy meal.

 

 

 

Green Market Baking Book and Giveaway!

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GMBB Cover ImageCongratulations to Lisa @FitintheMidwest! You have won The Green Market Baking Book!

With the incredible increase in interest in eating locally grown and health mindfully, The Green Market Baking Book by Laura Martin is a wonderful cookbook for any kitchen. This book gives people alternatives to baking with refined sugar and artificial sugar products, while encouraging them to support their local food communities. A contributional effort spearheaded by Ms. Martin, this book features 100 mouthwatering sweet and savory baked treats chosen from the best chefs and bakers from across America — all created from locally produced sustainable whole foods using natural sweeteners, and featuring dairy- and gluten-free treats along with vegan and low-fat variations.

The book is broken down into 11 sections beginning with the chapter, Answers to A Few Questions. This section does a great job of explaining why not to use sugar and why you should use organic. Additional sections discuss Ingredients, Stocking the Pantry and Substitutions. There is a great Substitution Chart, helpful in showing you how much natural sweetener to use to replace sugars in your recipes.

The heart of the book are the sections devoted to each season, aptly titled, Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter, featuring how to’s on selecting that season’s ripest produce and recipes highlighting those seasonal flavors we all love.

Some of the wonderful seasonal recipes included in the book are:

  • Alice Waters’s Whole Grain Waffles
  • Dan Barber’s Vegetable Frittata with Potato Crust (wheat-free)
  • Christine Carroll’s Plum–Walnut Upside-down Cake
  • Rozanne Gold’s Yellow Squash and Sundried Tomato “Quiche”
  • Carol Anne Wasserman’s Chocolate Cupcakes with Dark Chocolate Ganache Frosting (dairy-free)
  • Cynthia Wong’s Honey-Figgy Toffee Pudding
  • Terese Allen’s Rosemary Buttermilk Biscuits for Organic Valley
  • Meredith McCarty’s Toasted Almond and Orange Cake with Orange Glaze (dairy-free)
  • Shermer Pecans’ Apple Oat Pecan Drops (vegan)
  • Linton Hopkins’s Rosemary Olive Bread (dairy-free)

Near the end of the book are a few pages highlighting Growing Your Own and Preserving The Harvest. From soil tips to the best freezing and canning methods, this book really leaves nothing out! The Appendix points you to various suppliers for Organic Baking products and how to find your local Farmer’s Markets.

Two of the things I really liked were the Sample Menu page, featuring recipes for nearly every occasion, and the drawings. While I usually love to devour cookbooks because of their beautiful photographs, this book features very lovely hand drawn pictures of fruits and vegetables. It suits the cookbook well.

Here is a very easy recipe from the book for a delicious topping that can be used over Shortcakes, Ice Cream or Pancakes:

 

Honey Strawberry Topping

Ingredients

3 cups local organic strawberries, hulled and sliced

1/3 cup local mild flavored honey (such as orange blossom or wildflower)

Method

Pour honey over fruit and let stand 30-40 minutes until ready to serve.

Reprinted from Green Market Baking Book © 2011 by Laura C. Martin, with permission by Sterling Publishing Co., Inc.

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See? EASY! And yet, so delicious!

There is a delightful recipe for Shortcakes in the book that would go perfectly with this sauce!  You can buy the book HERE, or I happen to have one copy of the book that you can WIN! Yes, win!

Mandatory entry – just leave us a comment here telling us a recipe that you make that uses locally grown produce.

Additional entries can be earned by completing these steps and leaving a comment telling us you did so with your links. Please be sure to leave a separate comment for each entry!

  • ”Liking” Kitchen Conundrum on Facebook.
  • Recommend this giveaway in your status update on Facebook.
  • “Following” @kitchconundrum on Twitter
  • Tweet about the giveaway
  • Subscribe to Kitchen Conundrum’s RSS feed

That’s a total of 6 entries you can earn!

Good luck!

One random winner will be chosen via ‘And the winner is’ plugin. Once the winner is chosen, the winner will be contacted via email and if winner does not respond within 48 hours, winner forfeits prize and another winner will be chosen at random.

This giveaway is open to U.S. residents only. Please be sure to leave a separate comment on this post for EACH entry. All entries will be checked and verified. You must enter a valid email address or Twitter handle so we can notify you of your win, otherwise you forfeit the prize and another winner will be chosen. You have until 11:59pm EST on Saturday, May 28, 2011 to enter.

Disclosure: We received one copy of this cookbook to review and one copy to give away. We did not receive any other compensation for hosting this giveaway.

Good Luck!

Ultimate Fajitas

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We love to make fajitas because the kids really enjoy making their own variations using lots of different ingredients. Then, they can wrap everything up and eat with their hands.  Who doesn’t love to eat with their hands?!  It’s fun for all of them.

We call these Ultimate Fajaitas because we try to get as many garnishes into the wrap as possible without losing anything out the sides. Sometimes, we just have to eat them open faced.

Fajitas-3

I am listing all the ingredients we serve with them- but you can pick and choose what you like to use in yours.

 

Ingredients

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts cut into thin strips

2 tbs vegetable oil

1 large red onion, sliced

4 mild green or red Chili peppers, seeded and sliced into strips

2 Red peppers, cut into strips

2 Yellow peppers, cut into strips

1 Green pepper, cut into strips

8 flour tortilla, warmed

Method

Heat the oil in a heavy skillet; cook the chicken strips over high heat, 5-7 minutes, or until fully cooked. Drain and remove to a plate.

Add the onion and chili peppers to the pan and sauté over high heat for 2 minutes. Add the bell peppers cooking over high heat for 4 minutes or until the vegetables have begun to have a blackened look around the edges.

Return the chicken to the pan and heat until sizzling hot. Serve right away, with warm tortillas, and many, many garnish options.

Small Bowls filled with the following garnishes:

1/2 cup sour cream

Guacamole (preferably homemade!) or avocado slices

1 bunch cilantro, broken up

1 large vine ripe tomato, diced

1 can black beans, heated through

1 can refried beans, heated through

Fresh corn kernels, roasted or 1 can corn, drained completely and heated in a large skillet.

Diced jalapenos

Diced Ancho chilies

Taco sauce

Montery Jack cheese, shredded

Cheddar cheese, shredded

Yellow rice, cooked per package instructions

 

Enjoy!