Roasted Red Pepper Seafood Pasta Salad

This amazing delicious pasta salad was utterly delectable! I savored every bite and could distinguish all the flavors in this dish.  Lately, I have been making my dishes gluten free, so the noodles I used were rice noodles.  If you cook them just right (al dente) they taste amazing.  This recipe is great for picnics and potluck lunches or dinners!  

What you need: 

•   12 ounces of gluten free pasta (You can find these at your Greenwise Publix or Whole foods)
•   2 bell peppers (red and yellow), halved, stemmed and seeded
•   8 garlic cloves (un-peeled)
•   1/4 cup of almonds (I bought the bag that has them pre-sliced)
•   1/3 cup of extra virgin olive oil
•   1 lemon
•   1 ball of fresh mozzarella (the kind that comes in a ball in water)
•   1 bunch of fresh basil
•   1/2 lb of peeled and deveined shrimp
•   1/2 lb of large sea scallops 
•   Fresh ground pepper
•   Oregano

What you need to do:

Preheat the broiler;

Bring pot of salted water to boil.  Add the pasta and cook according to package instructions.  Drain and rinse under cold water to stop the cooking process;

Place the bell peppers, cut side down on a foil lined broiler pan.  Place the garlic on the pan and broil until charred, (7-8 minutes).  Once charred, place in a bowl, covered and set aside for about 5 minutes.  (this will facilitate peeling them);

Heat a dry skillet over medium heat and add the almonds (shaking) for aout 5 minutes.  Chop and set aside to cool;

Squeeze the garlic out of the peel and place on a cutting board over a 1/2 teaspoon of salt.  Mash the garlic into a paste with a large knife.  Peel the roasted peppers and slice into thin strips and transfer them into a large bowl.

In a skillet, add one tablespoon of olive oil, add the shrimp and scallops.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Sear the scallops and cook the shrimp all the way through.  Set aside.

In the large bowl add the pasta, garlic paste and drizzle with the olive oil.  Add the peppers, scallops and shrimp and stir.  Grate 1 teaspoon of lemon zest, and squeeze all the lemon juice over the dish.  Stir;

Break the mozzarella into chunks with your fingers and chop the basil leaves, add them along with the almonds.  Add oregano, salt & pepper to taste and toss!

Thats it!  Hope you all enjoy this light tasting meal.  I know I did.  I paired this dish with a very cold glass of Ecco Domani Pinot Grigio.

Bon Appetite friends!!  & Happy Cooking!

Pepper Steak with Arugula Salad

This dish literally took me 10 minutes to make.  Healthy, fast and delicious works for me.  The Arugula leaf has a nutty bitter flavor I just love, and when paired with a lemon based vinaigrette and red onion, it’s to die for.  It definitely complimented the sweet peppers in the steak.  I found this to be a great combo!  Hope you do to.

What you need:

·       Steak strips (I bought them pre-cut at Publix)

·       1 white onion

·       1 green bell pepper

·       1 red bell pepper

·       Arugula lettuce

·       1 red onion

·       1 container of cherry tomatoes

·       Adobo to taste

·       Black pepper to taste

·       Mojo

·       Balsamic vinegar

·       Tomato basil seasoning from Mrs. Dash

·       Oregano

·       1 lemon

·       White wine vinegar

·       1 clove of garlic

·       Olive oil

Start off by seasoning the steak strips with a little bit of mojo, Adobo, black pepper and Mrs. Dash.  Heat skillet on high and add a little bit of olive oil.  Sear the steak strips then add the onions, peppers (Julienne) and cook until the veggies are tender.  At the very end, add about 2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar, stir and remove from heat.

Arrange your Arugula leaves on the plate and place tomato halves and red onion on top.  Serve the steak beside it and enjoy!

For the Dressing: Squeeze a whole lemon (until you have about ¼ cup of fresh lemon juice) and add the zest of the lemon, black pepper and oregano.  Add about a ½ cup of extra virgin olive oil, 1/8 of a cup of white wine vinegar and 1 minced clove of garlic.  (I like to blend with a mixer to make sure it blends really well and gets a dressing consistency).  Pour over the arugula salad.

I ate it just like that but I added brown rice for my boyfriend and he loved the meal.  Hope you guys enjoy it as much as we did.

Happy Cooking & Bon Appetite!

Pollo Guisado (Chicken Fricassee)

For this particular recipe which happens to be my step father, Jose “El Sonero” Torres’ favorite dish, that I make, I normally use a whole chicken.  However, this particular day, it was a personal request by him, and he LOVES drumsticks.  Being that I like wings, I just made it with drums and wings only and it tasted spectacular!!!  Hopefully you guys will love it just as much as my family does!

What you will need:

·       Chicken (whole or you can do thighs and drums or drums and wings…you get the picture) [[remove all the skin]]

·       1 large baking potato (peeled and diced into 1 inch cubes)

·       1 can of tomato sauce (no salt added)

·       1 can of tomato paste (no salt added)

·       Mojo (I use Badia)

·       My BASIC Sofrito

·       1 lime

·       Adobo (to taste)

·       Pepper (to taste)

·       1 packet of Sazon (by Goya)

·       Water

1.  Wash the chicken and remove all the skin;

2.  Give the chicken a little lime rub;

3.  Pour a generous amount (about ½ cup) of mojo over the chicken and with your hands, tumble the chicken in the bowl;

4.  Season with Adobo, black pepper and ½ of the Sazon packet;

5.  Heat a pot with about 2 tablespoons of Olive Oil (heat till smoking);

6.  Add the chicken and heat until browned on the outside (it will still be raw on the inside);

7.  Add about 4 tablespoons of sofrito, potatoes and the can of tomato sauce and stir.  Continue cooking for about 2 minutes;

BY NOW THE AROMA IS DRIVING YOU BONKERS!!

8.  Add enough water to cover the ingredients in the pot completely (almost like a soup) Do not add salt as the mojo seasons it enough);

9.  Add the tomato paste and the rest of the sazon, stir and cover;

10.      Continue to let boil on high stirring occasionally until the liquid thickens into a sauce

11.      Serve over white rice.

And there you have it folks.  Simple, delicious and Puerto Rican!

Happy Cooking!

Buen Provecho!!

My BASIC Sofrito

Why do I call is basic?  Because it is!  I keep it basic because I like to add a lot of chopped fresh veggies and herbs to my dishes and they change for each dish.  I don’t want to over-power the dish by adding way too much to the sofrito recipe and like it as my base.

Here is what you will need:

·       Two green bell peppers

·       2 white onions

·       A fist size amount of fresh cilantro leaves

·       2 whole heads of garlic (peeled)

Instructions: In a blender place all of the items above (chopped) with no more than a ¼ cup of water and liquefy.

I use sofrito when I cook ground beef, when I make soups, beans, yellow rice, spaghetti and pretty much in anything that will have a red sauce base.

GET CREATIVE AND HAVE FUN COOKING!