Potato and Celery Salad with Ricotta

Hello everyone! I made this little dish a little while ago and never got a chance to post it - so here you go! I made this salad as a starter dish for some dinner that I can't remember the rest of...

The inspiration for this puppy came from the salad I had at Pizzeria Libretto in Toronto with Chloaye and Tatomme (it's practically a direct recreation of the dish...from everything I remember of it)! I think I remembered everything pretty well though, as this salad tasted almost identical to the one I had then! So enjoy this simple, fresh potato salad recipe!

Potato and Celery Salad with Ricotta

I won't put any measurements because everything depends on how many you're cooking for and your tastes!

baby red, white or fingerling potatoes

white onion

celery

olive oil

dijon mustard

white wine vinegar

flat leaf parsley

ricotta cheese

milk

salt and pepper

Wash and cut your potatoes into nice bite sized wedges or slivers, and bring to a boil in salted water and cook until the potatoes are "al dente" - the potatoes being nice and cooked yet still firm gives this salad a nice texture.

Meanwhile, cut your onion into small slivers, as well as your celery (I cut it on a big angle because that's how they did it in the restaurant)!

Next, mix a little milk into your ricotta cheese, so it's nice and oozy on the plate. Also add in a bit of olive oil and a big helping of salt and pepper to the cheese, and place this mixture down on your serving plates like so:

When the potatoes are finished cooking, let them cool down, and then add them to a large bowl with the celery and onion.

Now it's time to whip up the dressing! I just did a simple olive oil and white wine vinaigrette and added in the most minute amount of dijon for a little zing, and of course salt and pepper.

Toss your potatoes, celery and onion in your dressing.

Lastly add the chopped parsley to this mix and combine everything.

Place your potatoes and friends in a nice little pile on top of the ricotta, and give the salad a good drizzle of olive oil to finish it off!

Enjoy!

I have to say I am quite impressed with how this turned out and will definitely be making it again. It tasted so fresh...and the simplicity of the flavors was a nice change and great way to start a meal! It was very pretty too (I'm a sucker for aesthetically pleasing plates and colours in food)!

Oh yeah, and if you're feeling a little wary of the ricotta in this dish - try it! It might sound bizarre, but it's soo good! Especially since you transform it into a creamy, milky, savory component of the dish with all the salt and pepper and olive oil you pack into it. Mmm.

So there you go! I hope you all enjoy this salad. I thought it was a nice spring salad recipe...but it looks as though spring has disappeared once again (as always), so you can just pretend it's spring in your kitchens with this little dish!

xoxo

Mariel

Shepherd's Pie and Paddy Whisky

Hello lovely people! So it's been over a week since I posted last...and I figured there's probably no better day to get back into the rhythm of things than the holy day for Flanagan's itself, St. Patrick's Day! I'll skip all the small talk and get down and dirty and into the recipe for the slightly Irish dinner I cooked up tonight, shepherd's pie. Okay...I know it's an English dish, but it's only an Irish sea away, and that's close enough in my books!

Traditional Shepherd's Pie

5-6 large russet potatoes

1-2 pounds lean ground beef

4 medium sized carrots

1 onion

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter 

 1 tablespoon of canola oil

worcestershire sauce, to taste

1 teaspoon dried thyme

1/2 cup frozen baby peas

3/4 cup beef stock

2 tablespoons flour

salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Peel and dice the potatoes, and bring them up to a boil in a large pot of water until soft.

Meanwhile, dice up the carrots and onion, and cook them in a large pan with 1/4 cup of the butter and the bit of canola oil until fairly done.

Then add the ground beef to the onions and carrots, and cook until the pinkness is gone from the beef.

Add the worcestershire sauce, thyme, peas and beef stock to the pan and simmer until most of the liquid is gone.

Add in the flour and stir well, and season the mix with salt and pep.

Drain the potatoes when they are finished cooking and mash using the remaining butter.

Pour the beef mixture into a large enough baking dish, and top it off with the mashed potatoes. Use a fork to make little ridges/peaks so the potatoes get extra crispy in the oven.

Pop the dish into the oven until the potatoes are nice and golden and the pie is bubbling!

I have to say - I love Shepherd's Pie! It is the ultimate comfort meal for me... And while I'm saying things, here's the reason I even made dinner tonight!

You see, it was actually Dad's turn to make dinner tonight...but he let his ancestry get ahold of him and got a little carried away with the "Paddy's". That's okay though...we are Flanagans!

With the shepherd's pie we just had a nice, simple green salad in an attempt to off-set all the starch on our plates!

Ahh it feels good to post again...I cannot let this much time go in between posts again!

xoxo

Mariel

Korean Chicken Wings and More

Hello everyone! I've got some very yummy recipes for you to try out from tonight's dinner! 

I was on supper duty today, and came home to see a big package of chicken wings sitting out on the counter defrosting. Not in the mood for the usual buffalo or salt and pepper wings, I went searching through the fridge and cupboard to see what we had to add some interest and flavor to those puppies. Upon searching, I realized that we were running pretty low - on almost everything!

It must have been my craving for something nice and garlicky paired with our abundance of Asian flavours that inspired tonight's meal! Whenever I think garlic + Asian ingredients, Korean food always come to my mind first. 

After a quick search on the internet to see how things go together nicely to form uniquely Korean flavours, I got started on making dinner!

The menu for the night: Korean chicken wings, Gamja Jorim (potato side dish) & Ol Namul (cucumber salad).

I started off with the wings, as they would take the longest. Here's how I made them!

Korean Chicken Wings

1 to 2 pounds chicken wings

2 tablespoons canola oil (plus more for frying)

3 tablespoons grated ginger

1/4 cup sherry or port

1/4 cup white or rice vinegar

2 tablespoons sesame oil

1/4 cup honey

1/2 cup soy sauce

1/4 cup Sriracha or other chili/garlic sauce

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Place wings on a baking sheet, sprinkle lightly with salt (there's a ton of soy sauce coming later), and cook in the oven for 35 minutes.

While the wings are cooking, in a medium sized frying pan or sauce pan over medium heat, add the canola oil and ginger.

Let the ginger cook for 2 minutes, then add the sherry, vinegar, sesame oil, honey, soy sauce and chili sauce.

Let this mixture simmer for about 2 minutes, then remove from heat and set aside.

In a large sauce pan, pour about an inch or 2 of canola oil, and let it heat up to about 350 degrees F for frying.

Add the cooked wings from the oven into the pot and let them crisp up and get golden brown.

Remove from the fry and let them chill out on some paper towel for a bit.

Finally, toss the fried and baked wings in the sauce and serve up!

These wings turned out amazing! The crispiness from the frying and the intense flavours in the sauce were so incredible. I will definitely be tossing those ingredients together again for a marinade, or another sauce in the future. It is packed with multi-layered flavour, and just the right level of spiciness. 

With our lack of ingredients, and need for some sort of salad/vegetable dish, cucumbers were the answer tonight. After a quick Google search, I learned that Korean food actually does include yummy cucumber recipes! What I did with the cucumbers was super simple, and they were a nice, cool addition to the meal.

Ol Namul (Korean Cucumber Salad)

1 long english cucumber

dash of salt

2 cloves minced garlic

2 teaspoons sesame oil

1 teaspoon sugar

1/4 teaspoon Sriracha

Cut the cucumber into circles, and "marinate" with a bit of salt while the chicken wings (or whatever else you're cooking) are being made.

Mix the remainder of the ingredients together, and dress the sliced cucumbers!

Serve chilled, enjoy!

The other thing I was surprised to learn tonight is that simple dressed, cooked, cubed, and cooled potatoes (a kind-of potato salad you could say) are also traditionally Korean! This made me happy as I was just not in the mood for rice tonight.

Gamja Jorim (Korean Potato Side Dish)

4 medium sized potatoes

3 tablespoons soy sauce

3 teaspoons sugar

2 teaspoons garlic, minced

3 teaspoons sesame oil

4 tablespoons onions, finely minced (scallions would have been much better, but we didn't have any)

Peel the potatoes and cut into approximately 1 inch cubes.

Place cubed potatoes into a saucepan with just enough water to cover them.

Bring to a boil and cook until just tender.

In the meantime, combine the rest of the ingredients in a bowl.

When the potatoes are cooked, toss them in the bowl while they're still hot and coat them with the mixture.

Pop in the fridge to cool down.

Serve chilled!

Here's my plate ready to be demolished!

All the flavours went together so well tonight (I sure am glad those cucumbers were in there for a little variety...)!

I hope you enjoy these recipes as much as I did! Tonight was a nice change from boring old chicken wings, and I learned a couple things about Korean cooking too!

xoxo

Mariel

Craving Something Spicy!

Hello my loves! I have to admit, today was a pretty lazy day. After a nice sleep in, I was in no mood to eat a big, heavy breakfast. In fact, I was craving some fruit (also, this craving made me realize that I do NOT eat enough fruit)! Also, it is orange season, have you had any navel oranges lately?? They are beautiful!

So here it is: my brunch. Kind of bizarre, but was exactly what I needed! Oranges, honey dew melon, and ambrosia apples, yum!

I also snacked on some organic potato puffs things...however we threw away the bag and I can't remember exactly what they were called! They are quite tasty, and a kind of healthy way to satisfy junk food cravings!

The day went by and I honestly accomplished nothing! I watched alot of food network... Oops! But soon enough it was time for dinner, and everyone in our house was doing their own thing so I just whipped up a plate of left overs!

I have had the biggest cravings for spicy foods lately, and every time I open the fridge door I am greeted by two gigantic jars of kimchi from the farmers market (you need to pick up a jar next time you're there, it's incredible), so I have been eating the stuff a ton lately!

In order to satisfy my craving, I ended up making the weirdest dinner of left overs ever...

I threw together a little salad of spinach, romaine, curried chick peas, and crumbled havarti, dressed with a balsamic and olive oil vinaigrette. And then I heated up some left over fettucini that I found in the fridge and loaded spicy kimchi on top!

Surprisingly, all these flavors tasted wonderful together...and it sure was spicy! Just what I needed.

I had a glass of soy milk with dinner tonight instead of almond milk. I needed a break from the vanilla!

We always drink Silk soy milk in our house...it's the best! Very smooth and rich, and there's never any gross soy grits!

After dinner I quickly got dressed up to go out for the night! It was such a nice lazy saturday, not too inspiring food wise, but nice nonetheless!

xoxo

Mariel