Fried Fish with Blistered Broccoli and Yogurt Sauce | You've Got Meal!

This post is supposed to be about a simple healthy recipe. Actually, when I think about a whole healthy dish the first option is some fish (simply cooked), broccoli (I love it in any way) and a cold yogurt sauce (no cooking required).

So, "surprise, surprise" last week we did just that because I wanted something really light.

For the fish:

• You will need fillets, so if you have a whole one, you need to try to fillet it.
• We used zander fish, you can also use perch or other fish of your choice.
• You will need to season the fish, just salt and pepper on both sides will be fine, we also added some chili flakes.
• Pour 1 tbs oil in a pan and fry the fillets on both sides, until golden/ golden-brown 

As a side:

• We have used broccoli like this in this dish.
• Cut the broccoli into florets, keeping a long enough stalk for each floret.
• Cut each one in half so you have a flat surface to place them in a skillet. 
• Heat up some olive oil on high heat, put the veggie with the flat side down in there and cook until you get a brown color. 
• Turn the broccoli on the other side and pop the pan in the oven for 10 minutes. 
• When plating the broccoli, add a splash of lemon juice, some chili slices or flakes and garlic slices.

The sauce is super simple, one you can use every time you have no idea what sauce to cook, if you run out of time or you you just need some freshness to your dish.

• Mix in some yogurt with lemon juice.
• To spice things up, add one crushed garlic clove, some paprika, pepper and dried oregano.
• Being so light, this works best with fish and salads.

Enjoy,

Sweet Potato Salad and Simple Salmon | You've Got Meal!

This dish started with us buying a couple of sweet potatoes before Thanksgiving,  with the thought in our minds to use them for a dish for that occasion.  Lazy as we (sometimes) are we missed the deadline,  but that doesn't mean that we couldn't make a delicious dish nonetheless.

The pairing between the sweet potato and the fresh salmon works really well, but you can choose to serve just the salad, in which case just use some smoked salmon pieces.

The ingredients for 3-4 portions (depending on who is eating them):

• 600 grams of sweet potato, cut into bite size pieces, 
•  soy sauce, 
• olive oil, 
• pepper, 
• the juice of 1 orange, 
•  pomegranate seeds, 
• 4-5 scallions,  
• sesame seeds, 
• 2-3 cloves of garlic, 
• ginger, one thumb sized piece 

1. In a large bowl, mix together the potatoes with 3 tablespoons of soy sauce, the same amount of olive oil and some pepper. 
2. Place the yams in oven proof tin lined with cooking paper, making sure they're not too crowded. 
3. Sprinkle sesame seeds on top and mix in the tin. 
4. Put the potatoes in the oven, 170 Celsius,  for about half an hour or until the yams are done- do a taste test, they get creamy on the inside and with a slight crust on the outside. 
5. Put the potatoes on a plate and sprinkle the chopped scallions on top, same for the pomegranate seeds and the thinly sliced garlic. 
6. For the dressing mix the orange juice, 1tbs of olive oil, salt, pepper and 1/2 of a teaspoon of finely grated ginger. 
7. Pour the some of the dressing on the potatoes and mix to coat.

The salmon: we had a couple of steaks, 200 grams each.

1. Make sure they are boneless, move your hand on top of the meat, looking for anything resembling the pinch of a bone. Remove them before cooking. I've seen most of these bones especially in thicker pieces of meat. 
2. Sear the salmon on high heat, in a couple tablespoons of olive oil for 1 minute on each side. 
3. Next, pop the fish in the oven,  skin side down,  160 Celsius,  for around 10 minutes.  
4. In the last minute, pour a few drops of the salad dressing on top of the fish, and, if you feel like necessary, turn it up side down in order to get more of a crust on the meat. 
5. Don't put the orange juice too early, the sugars in it will burn.
6. Garnish the salmon with some chives and serve it with the sweet potatoes salad. 

Crazy-simple and goooood!

The fish and the yams go great together and, like I said before, you can choose to use smoked salmon. Or you can decide to use the yams as a side dish for something else.  In any case, the sweet potatoes are (even if a little late) a great Thanksgiving or Christmas side dish recipe.

Enjoy,

Vegetable Stir Fry with Crispy Pork | You've Got Meal!

We are posting the recipe knowing that it might mean the beginning of the end for a lot of Chinese take away restaurants. Yes, people, YOUVEGOTMEAL is showing you how they make it so you can just do it yourself. Well, us and a lot of other people online, but why would you listen to renowned chefs? Now, modesty and everything behind us let’s get cracking.

For the vegetables you will need : 

• 1 red bell pepper, 
• 2 medium carrots, 
• 1 medium onion, 
• 1 thumb sized ginger, 
• 1 tbs. of five spice, 
• 1 medium hot chili, 
• 2 tbs. of dark sugar, 
• 1-2 tbs. fish sauce, 
• 2-3 tbs. soy sauce, pepper, peanut or sesame oil. 

For the meat : 

• 150 grams of pork (we had some meat from a shoulder cut that we cleaned the fat from), 
• salt, 
• pepper, 
• vegetable oil, 
• 100 grams of corn starch.

As per usual, a couple of notes before starting this dish. The title does  say crispy pork, but you can choose to just add the meat to the veggies in the stir fry and be done with it. I honestly think that cooking it separately and keeping the crunch factor brings a more special note to the whole dish.

The way we did this was by making the pork 1^st because it was a little more time consuming (compared to a stir fry, not a lot of things aren’t). Cut the meat into equal strips, and this is important because when you are dealing with quick cooking you want everything to be done at the same time and not have pieces of the same meal differently cooked. Next, season the pork with salt and pepper – easy on the salt. Run the meat through the corn starch, making sure the strips are well coated. Shake off any excess starch (it will burn badly in the oil) and cook the meat in a heavy base pan in which you have heated some vegetable oil to the blazing hot point. Cook for 3 minutes on each side or until it gets a golden color. Remove the meat from the oil onto some paper towels.  

Next, cut the pepper and carrots in sticks making sure they all have the same size. Slice the onion julienne style, clean and grate the ginger, slice the chili. Heat a couple tbs. of oil in your wok and fry the all the cut vegetables for 1 minute, until the carrots barely start softening. Next pop in the sugar, 5 spice and some grinded pepper and mix everything for another minute, making sure the vegetables are covered in the sugar and spice.  Add the soy and fish sauce, coat the veggies for another 30 seconds and remove from heat. You can add the meat to the vegetables at this point, but keep in mind that it you won’t get the same crispy outcome.

Serve the meat and the vegetables on top of some basmati rice, sprinkle some more soy sauce on top if needed.

Enjoy,

Easy Chestnut Gnocchi Recipe | You've Got Meal!

It is entirely Mrs. G's merit for introducing chestnuts in our kitchen and it was a stroke of inspirations from her. We first ate the woody fruit boiled and, although I have to admit my reticence, I really enjoyed the sweet, nutty,  taste of the chestnut. And, from that to gnocchi there was just one more step.

Chestnut gnocchi is a dish cooked in North Italy, in the mountainous region where wheat flour was often substituted with chestnut flour or buckwheat flour (Pizzoccheri della Valtellina comes to mind here). The gnocchi is really easy to make, either with pureed fruit or with flour, depending on what you can get your hands on. There isn’t much of a difference in texture or taste, but you have to keep in mind the fact that if you boil the chestnuts and mash them, they will have some water left in them. If using flour, also use potatoes (boiled or baked) and replace the wheat flour (all or part of it) with the chestnut flour.

Anyway, this the way we made the gnocchi: 

• 300 grams of blitzed (in a blender) boiled chestnuts, 
• 200 grams of wheat flour,
• 1 egg, 
• a healthy splash of a good quality, fruity olive oil, 
• salt.

1. Mix all the ingredients together, adding more water if necessary to make the dough. Knead it until you get a silky outcome and let the dough rest in the fridge for half an hour. Quick note here: love the color of this gnocchi – dark brown, similar to a classic toffee. 
2. Next, we split the dough into 4, and worked each piece into a, let’s call it snake form, 2 cm thick. 
3. Cut each string of rolled dough in equal 2-3 cm gnocchi dollops. 
4. In order to give them the classic look, roll each gnocchi on the back of a (preferably long) fork. 
5. In order to cook the pasta, bring to a boil a nice amount of salted water and put in it some gnocchi, put make sure you don’t overcrowd the pot, they will need room to rise and cook – I kept mine around 4 minutes longer after they’ve raised to the surfaced. 
6. Remove from the pot and let them steam for 2 minutes.

 

You know from previous posts that we enjoyed the butter-sage mix for the gnocchi, so we decided to play it safe for our first chestnut cooking attempt. 

1. Melt 75 grams of butter on medium heat and cook 2-3 tbs. of chopped sage in it for 30 seconds. 
2. Pop the gnocchi in the pan and mix well in order to make sure it is well coated with the sage and butter, cook for 2-3 minutes. 
3. Plate and grate a fair amount of Pecorino Romano, maybe add a tiny splash of olive oil. 

As a couple of conclusions to this dish, I have to say that chestnut gnocchi is not a bad option at all from the classic recipe, I would come back to it on special occasions, but I think I would stick to the spuds for the “everyday” gnocchi. 

The sweet and nutty taste is something special and it does give a rather unique feel to the whole dish -  also quite filling, I couldn’t eat my usual portion of pasta. And it does have the wow factor when presented at a dinner table, so keep that in mind when trying to figure out a menu for an occasion like that. 

Enjoy,

Beef Steak with Rosemary Roasted Potatoes

One of our favorite dinners in the YOUVEGOTMEAL kitchen is a tender, juicy, delicious beef tenderloin steak. And when paired with some crispy on the outside, tender on the inside potatoes, these 2 make for a memorable dinner (red wine also helps- it ALWAYS helps). We had 3 pieces of beef, about 150 grams each, 500 grams of potatoes, cut into wedges and washed 2-3 times in cold water, 4-5 garlic cloves, a couple tbs. of fresh rosemary, olive oil, 2-3 tbs. of red vinegar, salt, pepper. 

This whole meal screams comfort food, and you can choose to add some ingredients both to the meat or to the spuds -  for example use some herbs to crust the meat or change the flavor package for the potatoes (I’m gonna get to that in a while). 

Take the meat out of the fridge at least 30 minutes before cooking it, heat up a non-stick pan with 2-3 tbs of olive oil and fry the steak on medium-high heat for 1 minute on all sides. Next, pop the meat in the same pan that you’ve seared it in for 7-10 minutes (depending on how rare you want it)- make sure the pan doesn’t have plastic components.

The potatoes- put them in salted water and boil them for 7 minutes, then remove them and let them steam for 3 minutes- make sure you give each wedge plenty of room. Next, put the potatoes in an oven tray, again, making sure, they have enough room, and give them a small splash of olive oil, salt and pepper. Cook the potatoes on medium heat for 20 minutes. 

Meanwhile, lightly crush the garlic cloves and mix them with the rosemary leaves and the vinegar, plus a little more olive oil. Sprinkle this mix on top of the potatoes and cook them for another 10 minutes. 

We served everything with a fresh and crispy salad made of salad leaves (something lettuga bowl) and  endives with a simple lemon-olive oil dressing. Sometimes, less is more, even in the kitchen.

Enjoy,

Noodle Soup with River Bass | You've Got Meal!

River bass is one of my favorite fish. The meaty, lean, white, subtle fish is very versatile and can be cooked in so many ways that is too bad that I don’t get my hands on bass very often.

And considering the fact that Mrs. G’s name day was coming, I decided to turn this fabulous fish into an Asian style noodle soup. To say she loves those is an understatement, and I would really like to see what she would do in a Ramen restaurant.

Cooking this soup is super simple and it’s composed of 3 parts: the fish, the stir fry, the boiled ingredients and the broth (the base of the soup). This feels like actually building the soup from different parts, the ingredients for each being: green onions, carrots, chili, garlic, ginger, sugar, soy sauce and fish sauce  (1 teaspoon each for the last 3) for the stir fry; broccoli and instant noodles to boil; cardamom, allspice, star anise, pepper, salt for the broth.

Start of by  gutting and cleaning the fish. Next, take all the ingredients for the broth and put them in a tea satchel. Place it in salted water and boil until the liquid has been infused by the spices. Next, massage the fish with some salt and a hint of 5 spice and place it in the oven, high heat, on a rack that has a tray under. Depending on the size of the fish, it will take to cook from 8-15 minutes.

Remove the fish from the oven and set aside. The next 2 parts take literally 2 minutes. At  the same time, boil the broccoli in the broth and stir fry the vegetables in a wok, in a little peanut oil .

Time to plate your soup. First, place the vegetables from the wok, then the instant noodles (that’s the kind I used here, but you can choose a different kind- just be careful with the ones that take longer to cook – boil them in the infused broth before adding them to the soup ), soup (up to 90% of the bowl), pieces of broccoli and flaked pieces of bass. Let the noodles cook- it takes 2-3 minutes, they will absorb a fair amount of liquid so feel free to add more broth to the soup if you feel like necessary.

Now, I’m gonna go and say here that the resulting dish was a comforting, savory soup. Thing is, in order to fully demonstrate this would be to actually show you Mrs. G just munching it away in under a minute (but she hid the recording). Like I said before, she LOVES her noodle soups.

Enjoy,

Beer Bread- Simple Recipe | You've Got Meal!

For some time, I've been saving on Pinterest some recipes for simple, beer bread. I never tried it before, although I am a big fan of homemade bread that does not require yeast and a lot of time. I was really curious to see if you could identify the taste of beer in the bread. The outcome was worth it!

What is great about the recipe is that it requires just a few ingredients, it is super easy to make and it is not time-consuming. The preparation it takes less than 15 minutes and after baking you have a great bread you made and of course, a lovely homemade bread smell for your kitchen. Who does not find that comforting, especially now that winter is knocking on our door?

Ingredients:

• 350 g all purpose flour
• 50 g rye flour (optional, or you can use 400 g ap flour )
• 125 g sugar
• 330 ml beer
• 2 tbsp melted butter

When I started making the dough I realized I didn't have enough flour so I also used some rye flour, but you can use all purpose flour only.

In a large bowl, mix the flour with the beer and the sugar. The resulting dough will be sticky. Place it in a buttered loaf tin or use some baking sheet if it makes you feel safer. I used baking sheet and it turned out ok. Place it in the preheated oven and bake for 45 minutes.

After 45 minutes take it out and pour the melted butter on top and return it in the oven for another 5 to 10 minutes.

My oven has some issues, being old and grumpy, and it tends to burn in the back, but that only affected the aesthetics of it all, the taste being amazing.

No, it does not taste like beer :), but rather like sugar. It is a bread more on the sweet side, perfect for some butter and jam. I have to say I will try it with less sugar and maybe some added salt and other flavors and keep you posted. Considering the minimum effort and the total cost of this bread it is a recipe to try and to save, the bread actually makes itself.

Enjoy,