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,

Roasted Chicken with Spicy Brussels Sprouts | You've Got Meal!

This dish is another one that here, in the YOUVEGOTMEAL! kitchen, sooths us when the cold starts banging at our door. For me, any roasted meat does that trick and the spicy, lemony  (also adorable) cabbage goes really well with it.

For the meat use a couple of chicken pieces, upper and lower leg, a breast with bone (you can choose to cut it in half), the drums of the wings, you get the idea – the meaty parts. 

Mix some white flour with some ground pepper, smoked paprika and turmeric (about 1 tsp of each). Wash and pat dry the meat, then  coat the chicken in the flour until has a light layer all over. Heat up some olive oil and cook the floured meat on all sides until golden, shouldn’t take more than a couple minutes. 

Next, arrange the meat in an oven tray, cut around 300 grams of potatoes into cubes and place them aside the meat. Sprinkle some more olive oil, salt, pepper and put the tray in the oven on medium high heat for about 30-40 minutes.

For the sprouts: 

500 grams of cabbage, 

a thumb size of ginger, grated, 

1 handful of chopped green onions, 

2-3 garlic cloves chopped, 

the juice of 1 lemon, 

salt pepper, olive oil. 

Put everything into an oven tray that can be covered with a lid, making sure to coat the sprouts with all the flavors. The cabbage will only take around 15 minutes  to cook, so wait before putting them in the oven, next to the meat. I like the sprouts to cook whole, you can choose to cut them in half or quarters, but be warned that the cooking time will drop.

Plate the meat, spuds and sprouts and sprinkle some more green onions (or chives) on top.

Enjoy,