Seared Salmon on Baby Spinach

This next dish is a popular one from Epicurious and it's one I first tried with my ex. If you take a look at the recipe, there are 12 pages of comments (mostly positive) made and 93% would make this dish again. Another interesting tidbit about this dish is that I've had about 3 friends suggest this recipe to me and I've saddened them when I told them, "sorry, I've already tried it".

I've probably made this dish a dozen times (with my own twist of course) and it's still a "gourmet-ish" dish that's easy for a weeknight.

I also still see the ex's comment (in the review section) made on our behalf and today I still make this salmon with angel hair pasta. I find the pasta a good accompaniment to mop-up the sauce and the spinach.

My recommendations on this dish is to smear butter on the skin side of the salmon then season with salt and pepper and saute in the pan when the olive oil just starts to smoke...that's crispy skin to die for!

I would also increase the recipe for the pan sauce by a 1/3 if you're making pasta with this dish and double up on the baby spinach. The stuff wilts real easy and the recipe "as is" is a little chintzy in the spinach.

Grab some salmon, try it on a weeknight, open a bottle (or two) of wine, make the dinner as a couple or with a "friend", have some fun and if the dish turns out real good like when I made it, you'll get lucky (insert evil laugh here)!

Greek-Style Roast Lamb With Potatoes

Us Greeks do enjoy our lamb. Although we don't have it on our weekly roster of meals, it's always revisited. Lamb is often spit-roasted for Easter, lamb chops get the grill treatment, tougher pieces get braised or turned into stews and as I'm showing you today, roasting the lamb.

I found a good deal on some lamb shoulder at the market and my intent was to roast it just like a bone-in leg of lamb. If lamb seems out of your budget, try lamb shoulders. I bought mine for $11.00 and it fed 4 people generously.

Roasting lamb for myself (and as experienced by others) can end in varying, underwhelmed results. Sometimes it's overcooked and dry, other times it's too rare or to much fat and even some gaminess in the flavour.

I think I finally got the method right. The herbs I used are pairings with lamb (rosemary, oregano and thyme) but the I roasted and prepped it a little differently this time. The result? A lovely browned lamb, juicy and succulent on the inside and crisp roasted potatoes that absorbed the lamb juices. I achieved all this despite my having to roast the lamb to a medium-well doneness as the natives (Greeks) would have had my head!

If you want a rarer lamb, invest in a meat thermometer. I have one that has a wire attached so the display is outside of the oven and I even have an alarm to alert me just before my set doneness.

Greek-Style Roast Lamb With Potatoes

12 cloves of garlic
3 Tbsp. dried oregano
3 Tbsp. fresh chopped rosemary
3 Tbsp fresh chopped thyme
3/4 cup olive oil
1 Tbsp Dijon mustard
2 cups lemon juice
1 cup white wine
salt and ground pepper
1 8-lb leg or shoulder of lamb
6 lbs. Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled, cut into quarters lengthwise

1. Finely chop the garlic, herbs and add olive oil, wine lemon juice, mustard, salt and pepper (to taste) in to a container and mix well.
   
2. Place the lamb in a dish or large bag and pour half of the marinade over the lamb (reserve the other half for the next day's step). Coat the lamb well with the marinade and refrigerate overnight.
3. The next day, bring your lamb and marinade to room temperature an hour before cooking.
4. Pierce the lamb with a knife all over the meat and rub the remaining marinade all over the meat. Season the meat with salt and pepper. At this point you also want to prepare your potatoes. Toss in olive oil, a good squeeze of lemon juice, coat with salt and pepper and set aside.
   
5. Into a preheated oven of 425F, roast your lamb with the lid on for 30 minutes with the potatoes around the lamb. After, reduce your heat to 375F and roast for another45 minutes to an hour (the last half hour, take the lid off to give the lamb it's nice colour).
6. Serve with seasonal vegetables, some good Greek red wine and enjoy.
   

Giovarlakia Soup

I've talked about the phenomenon of liking foods as an adult that you hated as a kid right? Well, this dish is also not one those!

Giovarlakia (You-ver-lawk-ya) soup is another Greek comfort dish that I always liked, be it as a child or in my pseudo-adulthood.

This is a meatball soup, finished off in the very familiar Avgolemono Sauce. It's also a quick dish, provided one has ready made stock and you don't mind rolling some meatballs.

I've had many varieties of Giovarlakia. Some good, some bad, some too thick, some too thin. Some like their meatballs real big, others real small.

I'll explain how I think Gioverlakia should be made. First, use a good chicken, veal or clear beef stock, be it homemade or store bought. It's a soup with delicate flavours and when you finish the soup with the Avgolemono mixture, one gets to appreciate the taste of the quality stock.

This soup should be a "medium thick". If made too thick, it can become paste-like the next day as the rice will absorb liquid. The soup should also not be thin or too sour from too much lemon. Did I mention it should be "medium thick?"

Finally, although my family always made large meatballs for this soup, I've found little, spoon-sized meatballs to work best.

Once again, the familiar flavour of Avgolemono has entered a Greek dish. Try this one out. It's a soup that eats like a meal, accompanied by crusty bread and finished off with freshly cracked pepper on the soup.

It's a cold, bone chilling day but I'm comforted by by big bowl of Giovarlakia soup.

Giovarlakia Soup

1 lb. lean ground beef
1 egg
1/3 cup Arborio rice + 1/2 cup Arborio rice for the soup
2 tsp. Vegeta Seasoning
2 tsp. pepper
2 quarts of good stock

Avgolemono
2 eggs
juice of 1 lemon
1 Tbsp. of flour

1. Mix your ground beef, egg, 1/3 cup of rice, salt & pepper in a large bowl. Form the entire mixture into meatballs.
2. Bring your stock to boil in a large pot. Drop your meatballs and 1/2 cup rice into the stock and bring back to a boil. Once you have a boil, reduce to a simmer (medium) with a just closed lid and cook for about 20 minutes. Take off the heat.
3. In a small bowl, beat the eggs, flour and lemon juice. While beating, add 1 cup of water.
4. Take a ladle of stock from your pot and slowly add it to your egg/lemon mixture while whisking.
5. Slowly add your egg/lemon mixture back into your pot of soup and simultaneously keep on stirring as you're pouring.
6. Adjust seasoning with salt and reserve for five minutes. Serve with some fresh parsley, cracked black pepper and some good bread.
   

Spinach Salad With Pomegranates

My dad recently returned from Greece and one of the things he "liberated" are some pomegranates from our tree at our summer home in Greece.

I keep telling him he shouldn't be bringing stuff back but he insists on "sneaking" some back into the country. It could be worse, I used to have a friend who worked for Canada Customs at Toronto's airport and he would tell us some pretty funny stories.

The one that stands out the most was the lady from eastern Europe that smelled funny. When one arrives in Canada by air, you're given a card to fill out to expedite the "interrogation" by customs officers. It's the standard customs stuff concerning what you bought by way of tobacco, booze, jewelry, fruits, vegetables, meats and dairy products.

This lady arrived in Canada and when she finally arrived at the customs desk, the officer noticed a weird smell. The officer immediately instructed her go to the left for "further" investigation.

A female customs officer then checked her out thoroughly but the luggage contained nothing smelly, nor did her purse or carry-on bag. Now the lady with the weird smell was summoned into an examination room...the strip search (again by a female officer).

The lady was instructed to undress. First her top came off. Nothing. Next, she was instructed to take off her dress.

The customs officer burst into laughter. The lady had tied a rope around her waist and had a big, honkin' salami dangling between her legs! "No meats are allowed to be brought in, ma'am".

Spinach Salad With Pomegranates

3 cups of baby spinach
1 small red onion, halved then sliced
1/2 cup button mushrooms, sliced
3 strips of crispy bacon, chopped
1/3 cup toasted walnuts, chopped
2 hard boiled eggs, quartered
1/3 cup pomegranate seeds
1 Tbsp. Dijon mustard
1 tsp. of dry tarragon
3 Tbsp. red wine vinegar
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

1. Into a large salad bowl, add your mustard and vinegar. Now slowly pour in your olive oil while whisking until you've reached your desired consistency. Add salt & pepper and reserve.
2. Prepare your remaining salad ingredients and reserve until salad is to be served.
   
3. Add the remaining salad ingredients, toss gently and serve.