Food and Crafts for All Occasions

Marinated Green Beans, Vietnamese Style

This is not a traditional Vietnamese recipe, but rather my play with Vietnamese ingredients. Quite a successful play, I should say. These beans turn out really mind blowing: slightly sweet and tart, and spicy, and savory, and packed with umami.

Green Salad with Smoked Trout, Poached Eggs, Potatoes and Asparagus

This has been one of my favorite salads lately. Sort of a version of Niçoise salad with smoked trout instead of tuna and poached eggs instead of boiled ones. My greens choice for this salad is a mix of frisee (I love ’em bitter!) and Asian greens mix (not to be confused with Asian salad mix!) which includes mizuna, pak choi, baby tat soi and other fancy and very tasty herbs.  If you cannot find Asian mix in stores, go for Spring Salad Mix or something like it.

As for the trout, you can smoke it yourself or buy it in a store. Trader Joe’s carries quite delicious and inexpensive smoked trout. If you want to smoke trout yourself and are a happy owner of a Green egg grill, follow the instructions given here for salmon. The only difference with trout would be that you would need much less salt and shorter time to cure it in the fridge since trout fillets are much smaller and thinner than salmon. For the same reason, the cooking time will be shorter too. Shoot for 45-50 min.

Roasted Garlic Spears

Late spring and early summer are the season of all sorts of green scapes and spears: onions, leeks, chives etc. They are considered a super healthy food and also are quite delicious. I came across them in many stores this year- Asian supermarkets, Metropolitan Market, QFC.

My current favorites are garlic spears. When raw, their flavor reminds me that of ramps, wild leeks (in Russia we call it ‘cheremsha’ with a stress on the last syllable), fresh, sharp and very garlic like. We like to dip the raw stems in salt and use a chaser to a shot of vodka along with a crusty rye bread.

When cooked, their sharp flavor mellows down significantly and is reminiscent of that of roasted garlic cloves. Roasted garlic spears are an awesome side for grilled or roasted fish or poultry. Better than asparagus, to my taste!

Grilled Radicchio and Belgian Endive

Whenever we grill fish, meat or poultry, we also grill some vegetables to go as a side. Halved tomatoes, whole mildly spicy peppers like Poblano, Anaheim or sweet Korean; asparagus, mushrooms, and basically whatever vegetable we find appropriate for a certain dish. Our recent favorite to go with a whole grilled fish are radicchio and Belgian endive.

Grilled Whole Trout

Grilled whole fish has become one of our most favorite casual dinners. As I have mentioned before, we’re happy owners of a Green Egg, a ceramic charcoal grill, that is perfect for grilling, smoking and even pizza baking.

When grilled right, a whole fish has a beautiful thin, crispy skin and tender and moist flesh.

Sautéed Chard with Kalamata Olives, Sun Dried Tomatoes and Basil

Sautéed chard makes a flavorful side dish to serve along with roasted or grilled fish or poultry. It’s also perfect as a stuffing for pies and quiches, as a pizza topping or as a sauce for pasta. The earthiness of chard plays wonderfully with sweetness of sun dried tomatoes, saltiness and tartness of Kalamata olives, sharpness of garlic and strong, fresh scent of basil.

Tuna Poke

Poke (POH-kay) is a Hawaiian chopped raw fish dish that is usually served on top of boiled rice. When on Hawaii, we can live on poke only (well, add fresh fruits, too!). Poke is ubiquitous there – you can find it in restaurants, in supermarkets, in special poke cafes.

Warm Salad with Farro/Barley, Radicchio, Frisee, Wild Mushrooms and Poached Eggs

This a more recent and more "mature" variation of this recipe. It's so balanced in flavor and textures so you would not need anything else to serve it with. Though if you never feel satiated unless you had some meat or fish in your stomach, a few seared scallops or sautéed sweetbreads would be the best choice.

Tomato Season: Two Favorite Salads

Tomatoes are my most favorite veggies and the only edible plant (besides cooking herbs) that we grow in our yard. We don’t have much of a planting space around the house, but whatever little we have Ilya turned into very tall raised beds. Which is perfect for tomatoes because, as those of you who grow tomatoes know, the deeper you plant tomatoes, the larger the root system, and the larger the root system, the larger the tops of the plants. And the larger the tops, the more tomatoes you’re going to harvest.

We usually plant cherry and grape tomatoes simply because Seattle summer is quite short and other kinds may not have enough time to mature and ripen to perfection. Our cherry tomatoes always turn out great and taste like little sugar bombs, as our neighbor and friend calls them.

Korean Carrots

First of all, I have to explain what this salad has to do with Korea because you wouldn't find this dish in Korean restaurants either here or in South Korea. Only in Russia or the countries that once were USSR republics.  

Sautéed Eggplants with Soy Sauce, Rice Vinegar, Garlic and Dill

I don’t know what took me so long to post my best-loved eggplant recipe. I’ve been cooking it quite often for the last ten years and every time I’m amazed all over again how delicious it is. The recipe takes almost no time and effort to make, so all you busy bees out there can easily cook it on a weekday night.

Tara Nabe: Japanese Black Cod and Matsutake Mushroom Soup

I am not the biggest fan of the fall in Seattle with its heavy rains and gusty winds. The only thing that somewhat reconciles me with this season is that it is a wild mushroom season as well. Chanterelles have been around for about a month; matsutake have just started and trumpets are coming to the markets and stores any day now.

On a rainy Saturday like today I love to treat Ilya and myself with some nice warming soup. Like Tara Nabe, a fantastically fragrant Japanese soup with black cod, matsutake mushrooms and mizuna. I fell in love with this soup at Nishino restaurant several years ago and reconstructed the recipe at home so we can enjoy it any time we want. Since then, I cook it whenever matsutake are in season.

In Loving Memory of the Summer Gone Too Fast: A Salad with Avocadoes, Tomatoes, Palm Hearts and Bell Peppers with Cilantro Dressing

Summer is suddenly gone and just like most Seattleites I am not ready to let it go. I’m currently in the denial stage of grief, especially because of the sun peeking out from behind the clouds more and more often and a patch of blue sky here and there becoming larger and larger. A perfect setting for me to pretend that it is as warm and vibrant outside as it was just a month ago.

Niçoise Salad

Whenever we’re in a mood for a lighter dinner, I made a large “all inclusive” salad like Caesar with chicken or fried oysters or Niçoise. Here you have your proteins, greens and starches all in one light and healthy dish.

Grilling Season: Grilled and Marinated Bell Peppers

Grilled bell peppers are no less tasty treat than grilled Anaheims or Poblanos. To my taste, however, whereas mildly spicy green peppers are great served as they are, almost right from the grill, bell peppers become even better and develop more complex flavor after being slightly marinated.