Blueberry and Shrimp Salad with Lemon Vinaigrette

Heather McPherson, the food editor of our local paper, makes guest appearances on my favorite radio station. Every Wednesday morning, she presents a recipe for listeners to try. The dish is seasonal, easy to make, and always sounds fantastic.

A little while ago, Heather featured this shrimp and blueberry salad. My first reaction was, "Shrimp and blueberries!? That's an odd combination." The morning radio crew reacted that way as well. I was intrigued by the flavor combination, so decided to make the salad with the plethora of blueberries in our house. All the ingredients worked together! The blueberries complemented the sweetness of the shrimp, and the citrus in the vinaigrette kept the salad from being too sweet.



Blubeberry and Shrimp Salad with Lemon Vinaigrette
Adapted from The Dish
by Heather McPherson



Lemon Vinaigrette:
¼ c vegetable oil
3 Tbs lemon juice
2 tsp sugar
1/8 tsp salt
Few dashes of ground cayenne pepper

Salad:
12 oz medium cooked shrimp, peeled and deveined
6 c mixed salad greens
2 c fresh blueberries
½ c walnut pieces
½ c edamame or green peas, cooked and cooled
½ c feta cheese, crumbled

In a small bowl, whisk together the vinaigrette ingredients. Adjust seasoning to taste. Remove 3 Tbs of the vinaigrette and place in a large salad bowl. Add shrimp and toss. Let stand for 5 minutes. Add salad greens to the bowl and toss. Divide salad evenly into 4 bowls. Sprinkle walnuts, edamame, and feta cheese over the salad. Drizzle with vinaigrette.

Vacation Food

I'm currently in Belgium on vacation. Hubs has family who lives there, and we jumped at the chance to visit. We've been having lots of this:


And these


And have tried these


And of course, this

Boston Cream Pie

My father-in-law lives in town, and does a LOT of babysitting for us. He covers the few times during the week that Hubs' schedule and my schedule don't overlap. He loves hanging out with the tyke. They go on lots of walks together, and help each other with small projects around the yard.

FIL's birthday was over Memorial Day weekend. He rented a room at the beach, and invited us over for the day. He also hinted that he would like a Boston cream pie for a birthday cake. I was happy to oblige.


I used the Baker's Illustrated recipe found on Annie's blog, and the cake was one of the moistest sponge cakes I've ever had. The custard, however, never set and became a runny mess. After reading the comments in the blog post, I guess I didn't cook the custard long enough. I ended up using a Martha Stewart recipe for the custard.


Boston Cream Pie
Cake from Annies-Eats, originally from Baking Illustrated
Pastry cream from Martha Stewart

Pastry cream:
2 c milk
½ c sugar
4 large egg yolks
2 tsp vanilla extract
Pinch of salt
6 Tbs cornstarch

In a medium saucepan, combine milk and ¼ c of the sugar over medium heat. Bring to a simmer. In a medium bowl, whisk the egg yolks and remaining sugar until well combined. Whisk in vanilla and salt. Whisk in cornstarch, 1 tablespoon at a time, until fully incorporated. Slowly add about 1 cup of the milk mixture to the egg mixture, whisking constantly to prevent the eggs from cooking. Add this back to the saucepan with the remaining milk. Continue cooking over medium heat, whisking constantly, until the mixture comes to a full boil.

Transfer mixture to a medium bowl. Cover with plastic wrap, pressing the wrap against the surface of the filling to prevent a skin from forming. Chill overnight.

Cake:
½ (2 oz)c cake flour
¼ c (1.25 oz) all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
3 Tbs milk
2 Tbs unsalted butter
½ tsp vanilla extract
5 large eggs, room temperature
¾ c (5.25 oz) sugar

Adjust an oven rack to lower-middle position. Preheat oven to 350°F. Line the bottoms of two 8-inch round cake pans with parchment paper. Grease and flour the sides of the pans; set aside.

In a small bowl, whisk together the cake flour, all-purpose flour, baking powder, and salt. In a small saucepan, combine the milk and butter and heat over medium-low heat until the butter melts. Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla; set aside.

Separate 3 of the eggs, putting the whites in the bowl of a stand mixer. Reserve the 3 yolks plus the other 2 whole eggs in a separate bowl. Fit the mixer with the whisk attachment and beat the whites on low until foamy. Increase the mixer speed to medium and gradually incorporate 6 Tbs of the sugar. Continue beating until the whites form soft, moist peaks. Be careful not to overbeat. Transfer the egg whites to a clean mixing bowl. Add the egg yolk-whole egg mixture to the stand mixer bowl. Beat the egg mixture with the remaining 6 Tbs of sugar at medium-high speed until very thick and pale yellow in color, about 5 minutes.

Add the beaten egg mixture to the bowl of whipped egg whites. Sprinkle the flour mixture over everything in the bowl. Fold very gently with a spatula, about 12 strokes. Make a well in one side of the batter and pour the milk-butter mixture into the well. Continue folding until the batter shows no trace of flour and the eggs are evenly mixed.

Immediately divide the batter between the prepared cake pans. Bake until the tops are light brown and spring back when touched, about 16-17 minutes. Remove pans from oven and run a knife along the edges of the pan to loosen the cakes. Transfer to wire racks by inverting a wire rack onto a cake pan, flipping the pan and rack over, and removing the pan, leaving the cake on the wire rack. Repeat with other cake pan. Cool completely.

Chocolate Glaze:
½ c heavy cream
2 Tbs light corn syrup
4 oz semi-sweet chocolate, finely chopped
¼ tsp vanilla extract

Combine heavy cream and corn syrup in a medium saucepan. Warm over medium heat and bring to a simmer. Remove from heat and add the chocolate. Cover and let stand for 8 minutes. Stir in the vanilla gently until glaze is smooth. Cool until tepid, so that a spoonful of glaze slowly falls back into the pan. You can chill the glaze to speed up this process, stirring every few minutes to ensure even cooling.

To assemble the cake, place one cake layer on a serving plate. Spread custard evenly over the top. Place second cake layer on the cake. Pour glaze in the center of the cake surface. Gently spread the glaze using smooth strokes until the glaze covers the entire top surface of the cake.

Father's Day

As Father's Day approaches, I find myself thinking of my dad. It's been four months since he passed. He really loved being a grandfather. He kept a digital picture frame close to his chair in the living room. Whenever an image of the tyke appeared in the frame, my dad would say, "He is so darn cute!"


So now I turn to celebrating my husband on Father's Day, who is a tremendous dad. My son tries to be just like him.


We celebrated Father's Day a little early this year because we will be flying around on planes on the actual day. We are both huge Star Wars fans, and have been subtly indoctrinating our son.


Little does he know that he partakes in the Rebellion with each bite of his sandwich.

Blueberry Lemonade

Blueberry season in Florida started at the end of April, and went through early June. By the time we had a free weekend to go picking, most of the u-pick farms had closed. Luckily we found a place still open. And even luckier, the berries were organic. And luckier still, the berries were incredibly sweet and ripe. We picked 5.5 lbs, and they didn't last long in the house.

One way we've used up the berries was in this blueberry lemonade. We tasted some at the blueberry farm, and I immediately tried to make my own. It was tricky finding the right balance of sweet but not too sugary. This drink is a perfect refresher for those hot summer days ahead.



Blueberry Lemonade
Original recipe

1 c fresh blueberries
½ c fresh lemon juice
1/3 c sugar
3 c water

Place blueberries into a medium saucepan. Pour a little bit of water in the bottom – just enough to cover the bottom of the pan. Heat until the water starts to boil. Remove from heat, and crush blueberries with a potato masher. Pour blueberries into a fine mesh sieve. Strain the juice into a large pitcher and discard the solids. Add the lemon juice and sugar; mix until sugar dissolves. Add the water. Chill in the refrigerator. Serve over ice.

Beef and Broccoli

Hubs continues to love his wok. He uses it at least twice a week. In fact, he just made 21 lbs. of vegetarian fried rice for dinner for a women's shelter. With our new rice cooker, it was relatively easy to prep. The fried rice was enough to feed 80 people. They loved it so much that they went back for seconds until it was gone.

Beef and broccoli is one of my favorite takeout dishes, so of course we tried it at home. Hubs found that using the dark soy sauce gave the beef a rich color. It also caramelized a little more when cooked, which flavored the beef. The dish freezes and transports well, which means that my mom will get to try it. It also makes a good dish to take to new/expecting parents.


Beef and Broccoli
adapted from Cook’s Illustrated


1 lb flank steak, cut into 2-inch strips along the grain, and then thinly sliced across the grain
3 Tbs dark soy sauce (or regular soy sauce)
2 Tbs low sodium chicken broth
5 Tbs oyster sauce
1 Tbs light brown sugar
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp cornstarch
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 inch piece of ginger, peeled and minced (about 1 Tbs)
2 ½ Tbs vegetable oil
2 bunches broccoli, florets cut off and thinly sliced
1/3 c water
1 red bell pepper, seeds and membranes removed, and cut into small chunks
2 scallions, sliced on the diagonal


Combine beef and soy sauce in a gallon sized plastic bag. Seal bag, make sure all the beef is coated, and refrigerate for at least 10 minutes, or up to an hour. (I let it marinate for the amount of time it takes to prep the other ingredients.) Whisk chicken broth, oyster sauce, brown sugar, sesame oil, and cornstarch in a bowl. Combine garlic and ginger in another bowl.

Drain beef and discard liquid. Heat 1 Tbs vegetable oil in a wok over high heat until smoking. Add beef and break up the clumps. Cook without stirring for 1 minute, then stir and cook until beef is browned around the edges, about 30 seconds. Cook in 2 batches if necessary. Transfer beef to a bowl.

Add 1 Tbs vegetable oil to wok, and heat until just smoking. Add broccoli and cook 30 seconds. Add water, cover wok, and lower heat to medium. Steam broccoli until tender-crisp, about 2 minutes. Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate. Increase heat to high, and add remaining ½ Tbs vegetable oil to wok. Heat until just smoking. Add the red bell pepper and cook, stirring frequently, until peppers start to spot. Clear center of skillet and add the garlic and ginger. Mash with a spoon and cook about 15 seconds. Stir garlic and ginger into the peppers. Return beef and broccoli to the wok and toss to combine. Whisk the sauce to recombine, and add to the wok. Cook, stirring constantly, until sauce has thickened and is evenly distributed, about 30 seconds. Transfer to a serving plate. Garnish with scallions and serve.

A Small Change...

For a while, I've been thinking that I should reconcile my blog name with my blog url. It's not something I thought through when creating the blog. I had no idea about "branding" and all that when I started.

After much deliberation, I decided to change my blog name. I figured it was easier than changing the url, which is a step I'm not ready to take yet. Henceforth, this blog shall be known as Kokocooks. Now onto changing the name everywhere the blog is registered...

Miso Turkey Burger

It's regularly over 90 degrees, so it's officially grilling time! As the heat of summer kicks in we mostly cook on the grill. Now that we have an outdoor wok, I'm sure we'll use that even more.

I love burgers, but hate cooking them. I'm always afraid of overcooking the meat. I've made a deal with Hubs: if I put the burgers together, he'll grill them. It works out pretty well. These burgers came out super moist. The miso sauce, along with the mango and cucumber, added sweetness but not too much. I'll definitely make these again. I'm sure my mom would love to try them as well.



Miso Turkey Burgers
Adapted from Burgers
By Paul Gayler

Glaze:
½ Tbs miso paste
2 Tbs maple syrup
1 tsp soy sauce

Burgers:
1 Tbs olive oil
¼ c finely chopped onion
1 Tbs finely chopped fresh ginger
1 ¼ lbs. ground turkey
1 Tbs miso paste
2 green onions, white and light green part finely sliced
1 Tbs soy sauce
1 tsp sesame oil

5 hamburger buns
Bibb lettuce leaves
Mango cucumber salsa (recipe follows)

In a small bowl, mix together the ingredients for the glaze.

In a skillet, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Saute the onion and ginger until
softened, about 5 minutes. Place onion and ginger in a medium bowl. Add the ground
turkey, miso paste, green onion, soy sauce, and sesame oil. Combine well and shape
into 5 patties. Pat them so they are about ½-inch thick (burgers will shrink a little during cooking.) Cook in a skillet or on the grill until browned on both sides and cooked through, about 3-4 minutes on each side.

To assemble burgers, split hamburger buns. Stack lettuce, burger, glaze, and salsa on the bottom bun.


Mango Cucumber Salsa
from same book as above

1 mango, stone removed and thinly sliced
½ cucumber, cut into thin strips with a vegetable peeler
1 tsp sugar
2 Tbs lime juice
Pinch Salt
¼ tsp dried chili flakes

Place ingredients in a bowl and carefully toss until well combined.

Vegetable Lasagna with Lemon Garlic Sauce

I'm still making and freezing meals for my mom. So far, she loves (or says she loves) all the food. She especially enjoyed the bean burritos, and grilled salmon with asparagus risotto.

I searched around for a veggie lasagna for my mom, and found this one. The lemon and garlic in the bechamel sauce appealed to me - lemon and garlic are two of my favorite flavors. And anything packed with noodles and veggies is fine by me.


Lemon-Garlic Vegetable Lasagna
Adapted from Hot Off The Garlic Press

Sauce:
¼ c butter
5 cloves garlic, finely minced
¼ c flour
4 c whole milk
1/3 c fresh grated Parmesan
1/3 c fresh grated Pecorino
Zest of 1 lemon
Salt and Pepper

Vegetable Filling
3 Tbs extra-virgin olive oil
1 small onion, diced
2 carrots, peeled and shredded
3 cloves garlic
1 zucchini, diced
1 yellow squash, diced
10 mushrooms, sliced
½ bag baby spinach

For lasagna:
Lasagna noodles
3 c shredded mozzarella
Large carton of ricotta cheese
Grated Parmesan

For the Sauce: Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Saute garlic in melted butter for 1 minute, stirring frequently to keep garlic from burning. Stir in the flour with a whisk and cook for another minute. Whisk in the milk, stirring vigorously to prevent lumps. Heat sauce until bubbling and thickened. Reduce heat to low, add Parmesan, Pecorino, and lemon zest. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Remove from heat and set aside.

For the vegetable filling: Heat olive oil in a large sauté pan over medium-high heat. Add onion and carrot and cook until soft. Add garlic, zucchini, squash, and mushrooms. Sauté another 5 minutes. Add spinach and cook until wilted. Remove from heat and set aside.

To assemble the lasagna, cook noodles in batches of 4 or 5 at a time, cooking until al dente (noodles should still be a little stiff.) Pour a little sauce in the bottom of a 13x9-inch deep dish baking pan. (Alternately, I use two 5x7x2-inch baking dishes and freeze one for later.) Spread sauce so the entire bottom is covered with a thin layer. Place a layer of noodles on top of the sauce. Layer some of the vegetable filling, more sauce, then some mozzarella. Place another layer of noodles on top. Layer ricotta, vegetable filling, sauce, and mozzarella. If you have space, repeat with another layer of noodles, vegetables, sauce, and mozzarella. For the final layer, use noodles, sauce, mozzarella, and Parmesan. Bake at 375°F for 20-30 minutes, until cheese is browned and bubbly. Remove from oven and let sit for 20 minutes. Use extra sauce to serve with pieces of lasagna.