Archive | January, 2012

Festive Coleslaw with Mango

30 Jan

I made this coleslaw to go with the spiced ribs.  I wanted to infuse some sweetness to the salad to complement the spicy ribs — and had the idea to add mango into the mix.  The mango adds a faintly sweet, slightly tart quality to the coleslaw, and brightens the salad.  It’s colorful and flavorful, and pairs very nicely with the spicy ribs.  This coleslaw was a big hit at the birthday party — what a great way to get a solid vitamin C boost from the cabbage!  The coleslaw is excellent the next day.

INGREDIENTS

  • Half a head of cabbage, finely shredded (**I use a knife to thinly cut the cabbage.  Make sure to take out the core, and cut the half cabbage in yet another half — quartered — and thinly cut the sections.)
  • 1 large carrot, finely shredded (**I cut the carrot into thirds, then slice thinly length-wise/vertically; then I finely chop them into thin “match sticks.”)
  • 1 small red onion, finely sliced
  • 1 mango, finely chopped into “matchsticks”
  • 1 stalk of scallion, finely chopped

DRESSING

  • 2 tbsp organic mayonnaise (made of free-range eggs)
  • 3 tbsp good quality white vinegar
  • 1/4 cup organic olive oil

Chop all the vegetables and place in a large bowl.  In a small bowl, whisk together the mayonnaise and white vinegar.  Slowly whisk in the olive oil, mix until smooth and silky.  Season with salt.

Pour the dressing over the salad and toss.  Cover and refrigerate for at least an hour before serving.

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Rock the Party Spicy Ribs

29 Jan

We threw a birthday party for our musical director, Conrad, in our Stockholm apartment.  Conrad has known David since he was 16, and we’ve all worked together on Dirty Dancing since 2004 — he’s family to us, and it was wonderful to celebrate his birthday with him, his wife Penny, Eleanor, Michael, and our set designer Paul.

I wanted to make the dinner a casual affair, and also wanted to cook something that you don’t often find at Stockholm restaurants.  I decided to make spiced ribs, which were a resounding success.  These ribs are easy to make and delicious — although eating can get messy, with good, friendly company, it’s a lot of fun to eat with your hands!  (Just have plenty of paper towels on hand.)  These ribs would be great for Super Bowl parties, too.  (I will be staying up late to watch next weekend!)

“ROCK THE PARTY” SPICY RIBS

**NOTE: The measurements below are for 1 full set of ribs (2 large ribs).  For the party, I made 4 sets of ribs, and so multiplied the ingredients by 4.

DRY-RUB

  • 3 tbsp paprika
  • 2 tbsp garlic powder
  • 1 tsp good quality salt (I used Himalayan pink salt)
  • 1 tsp cayenne pepper
  • 1 tsp cumin

Mix the ingredients together.

Because our oven in Stockholm is tiny, I cut each rib in half, to make the refrigerating/baking process easier.  Coat the dry-rub onto the ribs, both sides.

Stack the ribs on top of each other, and cover tightly with cling wrap.  Refrigerate overnight.

Preheat the oven to 175C (or 350F).  Lay out the ribs in a baking pan or tray covered with foil.  Cover the ribs with foil, and roast in the oven for 1 hour 15 minutes.  Take off the cover, and cook for another 15 minutes.  Let the ribs rest for at least 5 minutes, then cut into pieces.

I served the ribs with some coleslaw and an arugula salad with fig and toasted pine nuts — I will post the recipes for them soon!

Happy party people

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Sunday Roast: Roasted Garlic/Onion Parsnips + Roasted Leg of Lamb

25 Jan

Roasted parsnips are a new vegetable dish in our home.  I’d never cooked parsnips before, but turns out they are quite easy to roast.  A little sweeter and nuttier than carrots, parsnips pair very nicely with slow-roasted lamb — and together, they make a great Sunday dinner!  My favorite recipe for a slow-roasted lamb is Jamie Oliver’s “Incredible Roasted Shoulder of Lamb” — although the recipe calls for the shoulder, you could also apply the roasting method on a leg, which is what I did.

As for the parsnips, here’s how I  cooked them:

Preheat the oven to 400F (or about 200C).  Peel the parsnips and cut them into approx. 1/2 inch slices; lay them out in a baking dish.  Chop up a red onion (or 2, if you like red onions); peel and halve 6 or so cloves of garlic.  Add some sprigs of thyme or rosemary.  Drizzle with olive oil, season with salt and pepper, and mix.  Add about 3 tablespoons of water.

Cover tightly with foil, and put in the oven.  After about 20 minutes, take off the foil.  Toss the parsnips/onions/garlic, and continue to roast for another 20 minutes or so, until tender.  I like to keep moving the vegetables, so that they brown evenly.  If you want to crisp up the edges, broil for 5 minutes at the end.

The turnips keep for several days and make for a delicious sweet-ish veggie snack!

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Simple Dishes: Seared Duck Breast + Broccoli

22 Jan

Seared duck breasts are surprisingly simple to make.  We love duck —  they make a great departure from chicken, beef, pork, lamb… the usual meats we eat.

Here’s how I usually sear duck breasts:

Rinse and pat-dry the duck breasts.  Score the skin side — I like to make the cross-hatch quite small, so that the fat really renders out and makes the skin crispy.  Salt and pepper both sides, and let it stand at room temperature for half an hour.

Heat a pan/skillet on high.  When hot, place the duck breasts, skin-side down, in the pan/skillet.  Sear the skin for about 7 minutes, until the skin is crispy and a golden brown.  Turn, and sear the meat-side, for about 6 or 7 more minutes for medium-rare (depending on size).  Transfer onto a plate and cover with foil, and let it rest for at least 5 minutes.

(**While the duck is resting, I sauteed some broccoli and garlic as a accompaniment for the duck.)

Slice the duck breast thinly.  Enjoy!

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David at Work

20 Jan

We had a day of filming dance silhouettes and movements yesterday.  The images will be used in the opening sequence of the Stockholm production.  David did an amazing job putting the pieces together and supervising the shoot.  It was a demanding but very productive day, and everyone felt happy about the results.  Here are a few snapshots from the day…

…better yet, here is a video of one of the dance couples, taken on my iPad as David went over the choreography with them (NOT the final product to be used in the show).  A behind-the-scenes sneak peek…!

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Spicy Lemon Paprika Chicken Thighs

18 Jan

These oven-baked chicken thighs are juicy, delicious, and easy-to-make — they are great during the work week, when you want to make a relatively simple dinner at home with a lot of flavor, and also yield plenty of leftovers for lunch the next day.

SPICY LEMON PAPRIKA CHICKEN THIGHS

  • 2 lbs. organic chicken thighs, skin on
  • 2 tbsp paprika
  • 1 tbsp garlic powder
  • 2 tsps cayenne power
  • 2 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp ground pepper
  • Zest and juice of one lemon
  • ¼ cup organic olive oil

In a bowl, mix paprika, garlic powder, cayenne powder, salt and pepper.  Stir in lemon zest, lemon juice, and olive oil, to create the marinade.  Check the taste and adjust the seasoning as necessary (you may want more spiciness here, for instance).

Add the chicken thighs and toss.  If you have the time, let the thighs marinade for a couple of hours –in full-disclosure, I often make this recipe when I don’t have time to marinate the thighs for much longer than 15 minutes, and the chicken still tastes delicious.

Preheat the oven to 215C (about 419F).  Lay out the chicken thighs in a roasting pan and roast for about 30 minutes, until cooked through.

Turn on the broiler and broil until the skin is lightly crisp, 2 to 3 minutes.  Take the roasting pan out of the oven, transfer the thighs onto a platter and let them rest for about 5 minutes before serving.

These chicken thighs are great the next day, even cold!

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Simple Veg: Grilled Japanese Eggplants

15 Jan

I found these beautiful, organic Japanese eggplants at the supermarket the other day.  Japanese eggplants have thinner skin than the more typical, large purple variety, which make them easier to grill skin-on.  The only problem was that I didn’t buy more of them, because I LOVE grilled Japanese eggplants and I should have been more honest about how many eggplants I could consume in one sitting.

Trim the top and bottom of the eggplants, and cut into about 1/2 inch slices, skin on.  Score the eggplant slices, making sure not to cut through to the other side.  Salt generously, and set aside for about 30 minutes.  The eggplants will “sweat” and soften.  When softened, rinse the eggplants under cold water and pat-dry with paper towels.  Toss in olive oil seasoned with salt and pepper.

In a heated skillet, grilled the eggplants until browned on both sides and the eggplants are extremely tender.

These grilled eggplants were AMAZING.  Melt-in-your-mouth tender, and we ate them in a flash.  Next time, I will make sure to buy more eggplants!

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Snapshots from Tech

15 Jan

David patiently working out the intricate choreography and stage traffic in the finale.

We have just completed week 2 of tech.  David has been working around the clock to put the show together.  We still have a lot to do before the first preview, and David is spending every available moment fine-tuning all the choreography in the show (of which there are plenty).

As we are in tech, my blogging has lagged a little bit.  I continue to cook a lot everyday, though, especially since we bring lunch to work each day.  There aren’t too many places to eat near the theater — there are restaurants, but they are pricy and we don’t have enough time to eat out during lunch.  The “fast” food places are either McDonald’s or Max (Sweden’s version of McDonald’s), which are no good for us.  So I’ve resorted to making double the amount of whatever we have for dinner, and we bring the leftovers for lunch.  This process has worked nicely so far.  I hope to catch up on blogging on some of the new recipes I’ve devised this week!

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Simple Veg: Orange-Thyme Roasted Carrots

15 Jan

Here’s a simple, delicious way of roasting carrots.  Preheat the oven to 200C (or about 400F).  Peel and chop carrots in about 1/2 inch thickness (I used 4 large carrots), and lay them out in a roasting pan.  Add a drizzle of olive oil and juice of one orange, season with salt and pepper, and mix well.  Throw in a a few garlic cloves (skin on), and a some thyme.  Cover the pan with aluminum foil and put in the oven.  Roast for about 30 minutes, or until a fork easily goes through the carrots.  Take off the foil and  broil for about 5 minutes, until the edges are slightly browned.  The fresh orange juice gives the carrots a nice brightness.

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Chacuterie & Smoked Salmon Platter

6 Jan


No cooking was required on my part here — but it was a good looking spread!  For hors d’oeuvres for our Christmas Eve dinner, we put out a spread of charcuterie and smoked salmon (2 types) alongside some nice gluten-free crackers and sliced cucumbers.   The spread was colorful, festive and appropriate for a laid-back but sophisticated snacking before the dinner.

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