Saturday, May 08, 2010

Smoked salmon pan pizza with goat cheese

I am trying new variations on smoked salmon. I wanted to make something that was warm but I didn't want to cook the salmon. So here is what I came up with.


Heat a large pan and add 1 tbsp olive oil. Cook both sides of the tortiall until crisp.
Place a few thin slices of goat cheese
Sprinkle chopped green onions and tomatoes
Sprinkle some oregano to your taste (goes very well with goat cheese)
Then remove from the pan after the cheese is warmed or slightly melted
Top with pieces of smoked salmon
Season with fresh black pepper and enjoy!

Sunday, May 02, 2010

BBQ leftovers panini - grilled lamb, onions and gorgonzola

It happens only rarely but sometimes I have left over food from my bbqs. Reheating bbq leftovers usually leads to very stiff meet. Today I want to share one my favorite ways of making the most of leftover grilled meats. A simple panini.

Thinly slice whatever left over meat you have- I think this works particularly well with lamb but a steak or any kind of chops will also work fine. Of course, the more rear your grilled meat the better. If you have left over grilled onions, slice them as well.

Place the sliced onions on a large piece of bread. Place the meat over the onions. Top with thinly sliced gorgonzola or any kind of blue cheese to your taste. Season with salt and pepepper. Sprinkle some freshly chopped parsley to add a refreshing flavor. Place a second slice of bread over and grill on a pan, a panini grill or even a George Forman grill and enjoy!

Stuffed grilled mushrooms- three cheeses and greens

So far so good! We're firing up the grill pretty much every weekend to not miss a single sunny day. Several of my childhood friends came together last night and for Adana's sake (grilling capital of Turkey!) we fired up the grill. I wanted to make grilled stuffed mushrooms. Normally I would fill them with mozzarella or pepperjack cheese but when I saw that we didn't have any of these I came up with this recipe and it was a huge hit!

Wash and remove (and keep) the stems of 1 kilo of large button mushrooms (about 30 pieces).
Place the following in a bowl and blend it with a hand blender. You can also mix everything in a blender:
Stems from the mushrooms
4 scallions
Half a bunch of parsley
50 gr of danish blue cheese
50 gr of edam cheese
50 gr of goat cheese
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tea spoon freshly cracked black pepper
1 tea spoon salt

This will create a soft green paste. To make it less creamy and to not lose any of that tasty mushroom juice (and fat from the cheese) fold in 1 cup of bread crumbs.

Spoon the mixtures into the mushrooms. Grill for about 1o minutes. You can also bake them. Enjoy!