Cooking for me, and maybe... I'll share.

Saffron Broth
One pinch of saffron
Half a cup of fish broth
10 baby potatoes

6 mini heirloom tomatoes
olive oil
2 tablespoons onion
2 tablespoons fennel
1 tablespoons tomato sauce

1 cod fillet

Dissolve the saffron in the fish broth
Put in the potatoes and cook until softened

Sauté onion, fennel and tomato sauce until soft.
Add saffron broth and potatoes.
Keep warm.


Pat fillet. Grease a baking dish with ¼ teaspoon olive oil. Salt and pepper cod and place on the baking dish. Cover the baking dish with an aluminum sheet. Place the dish inside the oven and bake for 30 minutes. Get a fork and check if the steaks can be easily flaked. If the flesh of the fish can be flaked with the fork, then remove the dish from the oven to avoid overcooking. Transfer the dish in a clean plate.

Garnish with baby tomatoes and potatoes.  Lemon.


--------
Fish stock
1 pound of fishbones
5 large bay leaves
5 garlic cloves
2 liters of water

1/4 cup butter
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup mashed roasted butternut squash
3/4 cups whole wheat  flour
1/4 flax meal
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 tsp. ground cloves

- Mix all dry ingredients
- Cream butter and sugar. Add the egg, vanilla and spices mix until the batter is slightly lighter in color.
- Mix in the butternut squash and taste (add more spices if needed.)
-Mix in the dry ingredients.

Bake at 325 until fork come out clean.

1/6 of a loaf portion.

Aprox. 193 calories,

40

carbs, 3g fat,

4g protein,

3g fiber,

27g sugars.

 

1 tablespoon Olive Oil
2 scallions white part
1 scallion green part
1 tablespoon Shallots
1 garlic cloves
1 T Ginger
1 package Edamame beans (16oz) cooked
2 cup Chicken or Vegetable Broth  (adjust to how liquid you like it)
1/4 tablesopoon  White Soy Sauce (optional)
Sriracha
Microgreens

- Finely chop the white part of the scallions, shallots, ginger, garlic
and saute in olive oil (don't let it brown).
- Add the chicken stock until hot (letting soy sauce evaporate  - add edamame for one minute
- Put everything in a food processor until desired consistency  (may be too thick at this point)
add more warm chicken broth, vegetable broth or water.

Serve over microgreens, sprinkle green scallions and add sriracha sauce.

2 servings 150 calories each.

    1 container greek yogurt (I used 2% fage)
   1/2 envelope gelatin
      1 tablespoon vanilla extract or better yet (half a vanilla pod)
      2 tablespoons sugar
   1/2 cup of blueberries
   1/4 cup oats
   1/4 tablespoon lemon juice
      1 teaspoon maple syrup
      6 almonds

- Mix yogurt, vanilla and 1 1/2 tbs sugar (add more sugar or vanilla to taste)
   If using a pod heat it in 3 tbs of milk and scrape it.
- Dissolve gelatin in 2tbsp of water. Mix into the yogurt.
- Put mixture in 2 small ramekins

For the sauce
- Heat blueberries, add 1/2 tablespoon of sugar (add more if your berries are too tart)
- Add 1/4 tbs lemon juice, and continue heating over medium until they sweat a bit of liquid.
- Allow it to cool.

For the oats (you can always use granola instead of this)
- Roast oats and crushed almonds in a pan.
- Dissolve the maple syrup in 1/4 tbsp of water and sprinkle over the oats.
- Allow them to cool.

Assemble
- Put Oats (or Granola on a plate)
- Unmold pannacotta
- Cover with berries

Mare~ I bought myself an habanero plant... so had no option but to cook Yucateco.

Tilapia en Achiote
1 tilapia filet
1 tbs achiote paste
1 tbs mexican oregano (if you don't have mexican do not add)
3 tbs bitter orange (http://tinyurl.com/66wfpnx)
1/2 tbs white vinegar
1 banana leaf
1/2 red onion slice (use white onion if you can't find it)
Habanero (optional)
1/2 lime

Make a paste with achiote, oregano, bitter orange and white vinegar, salt. Put fish the banana leaf, season with achiote paste, put onion under and over the fish. Wrap in banana leaf. Bake at 400F for aprox 15 min. (Banana leaf may burn. I like it that way, but if you don't, wrap in aluminum wrap before baking.) Open packet, add lime juice. Serve with habanero and black beans.

Very simple lunch today ... Filete de Pescado with Calabacitas.

Calabacitas
6 green zucchini
3 plum tomatoes
3 slices onion
(salt)

Dice the onion, saute until transparent, add the tomato (diced), saute until soft. Add the zucchini (diced large). Add salt..
Cover and cook on medium heat over stove for 20 min or until zucchini is soft.

Fish
1 fish fillet
Wondra flour (this flour gives it a very nice coating since it is extra thin)
White pepper
Salt

Season fish with salt and white pepper. Coat with Wondra flour. Saute fish in olive oil until golden brown and flaky inside.

Serve fish on top of the calabacitas and add lemon.

200 calories

Dumplings
18 wrappers (Shanghai style)
10 large shrimp
1/cup stir fry veggie mix (miniature corn, broccoli, sugar snap peas, shelled edamame, carrots, portabello mushrooms, water chestnuts, red bell pepper, yellow bell pepper, shiitake mushrooms, soy beans and green onions)
1 scallion chopped
1 garlic clove minced
1/2 tablespoon shallot very finely minced
1 tablespoon Thai fish sauce
2 tablespoons grape seed or corn oil
1/2 tablespoon ginger
1/2 Thai chile
lime juice
salt

In a skillet cook shallot and garlic to soften. Add all the remaining ingredients and cook until the shrimp is half cooked.

Take out of skillet, let it cool and fill the wrappers.

Caldo de Camarón
(I cheated and used Knorr Caldo de Camarón but if you want to make it you can find the recipe here http://tinyurl.com/5wvqa7c)
Cilantro
Lime juice

--------
Boil the dumplings until the wrapper is soft, serve on the caldo de camarón, add cilantro and lime juice to taste.

Apple-Ginger souffle.
1 medium apple (peeled and sliced)
2 Eggs (separated)
1 egg white
1 medium apple
1 pinch ginger
1 pinch ground cloves
1 pinch nutmeg
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 or 2 tablespoons sugar

Microwave the apple until soft (2-3 min depending on the size)
Puree soft apple. Mix in spices and egg yolks.
Taste, add spices and sugar if needed. (I used 1 truvia packet.)

Beat egg whites until they hold peaks when beaters are lifted; whipped eggs should still be slightly glossy and should not separate into chunks (stiff but not dry).

Mix 1/3 of the egg whites in the apple pure. Fold in carefully the rest of the egg whites.

Put mixture in lightly oiled ramekin and bake at 375F for 15 min or until ready.

250 Calories

I have been craving these for almost two years, so decided to make them. Contrary to popular belief, Chiles en Nogada are pretty easy to make. The issue is getting all the ingredients prepped to cook. The Puebla nuns that invented the recipe had too much time on their hands!

If you have the added complexity of being in New York City where you can't get peeled unripe walnuts (unripe walnuts are only available two months of the  year - and peeling them is a major task,) or clean poblano peppers (you can buy roasted and deveined poblano peppers at Costco in Mexico) by the time you are peeling the pomegranate your fingers hurt :(

Cooking is easy. Make a picadillo filling (pork, apples, peach, plantain, pears, almonds, acitron "good luck finding this.") Fill the poblano peppers with the picadillo. Make a sauce (walnuts, Sherry, cream, sugar-if needed). Put the nogada sauce on the peppers, top with pomegranate seeds (they add sweetness so don't assume they are for decoration.) Decorate with parsley.

I modified my friend's grandmother's recipe. I will publish when I get the ok to do so.

All the flavors of apple pie in a healthy breakfast.

•    1/2 cup oatmeal
• 1       apple (Granny Smith)
• 1       cup of water
• 1       tbs brown sugar  (or Splenda)
• cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger
• cloves (optional)
• walnuts

- Boil the water, add spices and sugar.
- Slice apple and add to water. Boil until apples are a little bit soft (not a lot .. you don't want  a mushy mess.)
- Add oatmeal and cook for a few minutes until soft.
- Serve topped with walnuts.

Took the traditional Empanadas Tucumanas recipe and changed it a bit to make them spicier and to include a MAJOR NO, NO..  Cranberries! (Tucuman empanadas do not have raisins). Anyway, although not the original, I loved the flavor.

1 cup onion
1 garlic clove
1 bunch of scallions
6 cups meat (cut with a knife not ground)

3 teaspoons paprika (Spanish pimenton not any kind paprika)
3 teaspoons red pepper flakes - diavolochino. (I like it spicy)
1 teaspoon cumin

-Dice the meat with a knife or very coarsely with a food processor (do not buy ground meat), the difference is that the empanadas are juicer when cut.
-Dice the onion, scallions (white part), garlic and fry them until translucent.
-Make a paste with the paprika, pepper flakes and cumin add to the onions/garlic.
- Add the meat and cook only until it changes color (it will fully cook in oven)
- Dice and add the green part of the scallions
taste for spiciness.
- Add 1 cup of craisins plumped in water. (This is heresy but I like the sweet, tart flavor it brings)
-------- let rest all night ----------
make the empanadas, bake at 350 until brown.

Went to the Greenmarket and got myself some Grade A Medium Amber maple syrup. Flavor is wonderful, but it's not cheap, so I had to understand better what I was about to buy to decide what to put on my pancakes.

Grade A Light Amber is light in color and has delicate maple flavor. It is made earlier in the season when the weather i...s colder.

Grade A Medium Amber is darker and has a discernible maple flavor.

Grade A Dark Amber is very dark and has a strong maple flavor used for cooking and baking.

What is sold as pancake syrup IS NOT maple syrup - it is high fructose corn syrup, cellulose gum, caramel color, preservatives and sodium hexametaphosphate (ingredients copied from Aunt Jemima's website.)

Don't know about you.. but if it tastes better and it is not full of stuff I can't pronounce. I will eat my breakfast with the real thing. 

Check out the health.com article on it http://www.health.com/health/gallery/1,,20464527,00.html .

1/4 pound crab
2 medium plum tomtoes
2 tablespoons onion
2 garlic cloves
2 tablespoons chile ancho
2 tablespoons chile guajillo
2 tablespoons epazote (dry) or 2 sprigs epazote (fresh)
2 cups water
salt or bouillon cube

fry the onions garlic

Hydrate the chiles in warm water
Fry the onions and the garlic in olive oil.
Add the chiles and fry.
Add the tomatoes (cut in small pieces)
add a cup of water
-- take out of the pan and mix in blender (I use a small one - the Magic Bullet)
take that salsa again and fry it again in a bit of olive oil
add the crab, add salt and another cup of water.

(optional - while cooking add two small balls of masa) while it is boiling

Thai Basil/Cilantro Prawns.... nothing special: fresh cilantro, fresh Thai basil, oyster sauce, garlic/chile paste (sold in normal grocery stores), lime and a tad bit of sea salt.

Filling
1/2 pound crab meat (cooked)
1 tbsp onion
1 tbsp parsley chopped
3 tbsp red pepper
1/2 lime
salt and pepper to taste

15 dumpling wrappers

For the sauce
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 tbs sugar
1 tbsp garlic/chile (you can find it in many grocery stores) http://www.importfood.com/sahf1802.html
1/2 lime

olive oil to fry

Mix filling ingredients and taste if you can eat this as a salad by itself it is good.. if not add a tad bit more of any of the ingredients to taste.

Take a dumpling wrapper.. Wet it on one side in the center a bit of your "filling'/salad" .. Do not overfill or you will have a mess... pinch the edges to make your dumpling. 
Put a bit of olive oil in a pan, and fry the dumplings. 
Cover the pan (the steam helps to cook the dough). Flip and cover again until done. 
For the dipping sauce... Mix all sauce ingredients (add sugar to taste). 

2.5 sticks of butter room temperature
3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 large egg
...1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla (real vanilla not the artificial crap)

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon fivespice
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg (fresh if possible)
chocolate optional

3 cups Quaker oats
1 cup coarsely chopped nuts (I used cashews)
Raisins (Jorge does not like them so these had none)

Mix flour, spices, baking powder

Cream the butter, add the sugar, add the egg and vanilla (taste - this is what your cookie base will taste like- oh well I taste because I love to)

Add the flour mixture (will be super sticky)
...
Change your beater hook to dough and add the oats, nuts and raisins.  
Make a ball - a fat one .. don't be shy... don't make it big so you don't feel guilty but make it fat so you feel it is decadent.

Bake at 375F for 10 min or a bit more if you want it super cooked.. ( I like them chewy and kind of raw) 

1 cup sugar
1 egg
2 tablespoons milk
1/2 tablespoon of vanilla
1 1/4 cup of whole wheat flour
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup oats uncooked
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 cups cransins (cranberries dried as raisins - I used Ocean Spray)
2 tablespoons orange grind
1/2 teaspoon salt (optional)
Mix in milk, vanilla, cranberries, orange rind.
(taste… need more berries or rind add)

Add oats, baking powder, flours.

Use a small scoop to make balls and bake at 350F for 8-10 min until edges are golden brown. I bake only 3-4 at a time and keep the dough balls in the fridge so I can wake up to fresh baked cookies.