Salmon, Pesto Penne with Stir-Fry Garlic Spinach

Today’s post is salmon, pesto penne with stir-fry garlic spinach.  This idea is taken from my son’s creative mind in foods. As a team we created another fancy dinner for the family.

British Columbia of Canada has the best salmon. You can get this everywhere and in season all year round, and the price is not pricey. Since salmon is loaded with omega 3 and classified as brain food, our family likes to eat this very often. There are many ways of cooking salmon. Each cuisine has its own unique specialty. To name a few; Chinese like to steam it in black bean sauce or pan fried it just salt and pepper, Japanese as we all know- "Salmon Sushi" or "Salmon Sashimi" eat it raw, and the French likes it boil or pouch etc., They all have their special technique of creating this dish and always tasted delicious. What my son and I did is to boil it in salt and pepper with white wine sauce, it so simple and yet delicious.

To go with this, we used pesto penne as starch. The favor in pesto is so light fitted perfectly with the salmon. Wee touched up the dish with stir-fry garlic spinach. The whole meal takes no more than 45 minutes to complete from preparation to completion, of course with my son’s help….

Ingredients:

  ½ of a good size salmon (serving for 3) 

·         1 lbs of fresh spinach

·         3 cups of Penne

·         2 cups of fresh basils

·         3 tablespoons of Pine nuts

·         ½ cup of parmesan cheese.

·         1 handful of grated mixed cheese (for garnish)

·         2 cups of white wine (white Zinfandel)

·         Lemon (for garnish)

·         1 teaspoon of salt

·         ½ teaspoon of pepper

·         3 cups of olive oil

·         1 ½ of fours

·         3 cups of cream

·         3 cloves of garlic (diced)

Preparation:

Salmon:

Marinate the salmon with salt and pepper. Preheat the oven to 350 degree for 5 minutes; place the salmon in the middle rack and let it bake for 10 minutes, cover it with a tin foil to trap the moisture in. On the side, create the white wine sauce for the salmon. Bring the cream to boil in a pot, add flours and stir until it becomes thicker. Add a touch of salt and pepper to adjust the taste. Finally, add the white wine in last.

Penne:

Boil the pasta on a separate pot. Create the pesto sauce on the side in a blender with olive oil, salt, pepper, parmesan, fresh basils, garlic and pine nuts. Once the sauce is created, mix with penne in a salad bowl. Place a handful of mix grated cheese on top for garnish.

Spinach:

Bring the olive oil to boil with diced garlic. Place all the fresh spinach in and stir-fry until cooked. Once the salmon is baked, place everything on a plate and serve. It’s delicious! 

Turkey Pie:

Happy New Year everyone! It has been a very busy holidays; preparing dinners, shopping for gifts, wrapping gifts and setting up last minutes Christmas tree to celebrated these wonderful seasons. Now it has come and gone! Everything is back to normal. I wish year 2011 will brings everyone a prosperous year and might all yours dream come true.

On Christmas Day, our family had a tradition Christmas feast. All family members come together to celebrate this special day. Numerous foods were made on the dinner table and we had fun. We cooked a huge turkey for the family and as usual there were leftover. What should I do with the leftover? I've decided to make turkey pies.



For today’s post, it’s the first turkey pie I've made in life. It’s not the greatest but it’s edible. The most important part is…my family loves it. I used the leftove turkey to make into three turkey pies. I create my own dough with flours from scratch. I think they turned out great but it can still be improve. We ate one and give the other two to my in laws.

Indigents:

     Pie filling –

·         Leftover turkey (skinless)

·         1 cup of chopped onion

·         1 stalk celery

·         4 carrots (cut in small cubes)

·         1 cup peas

·         1 cup of green beans (frozen)

·         1 teaspoon salt

·         3 pinches of black pepper

·         2 teaspoon of chicken stock

·         2  tablespoon of olive oil

Pie crust –

·         2  cups All Purpose flour

·         4 teaspoons of baking powder

·         4 tablespoons of butter

·         2/4 teaspoon salt

·         1 teaspoon ground sage

Preparation:

Cook the pie filling first. Bring the garlic to sizzle in a frying pan with olive oil. Pan fries the turkey with the vegetables. Close lid to simmer for 15 minutes. Make the cream base sauce with butter, flour and milk on a separate pot. Drain out the turkey filling and mix with the cream sauce. Keep the juices from the turkey filling to use that as gravy if prefer. Let the turkey simmer for another 15 minutes.

In the large bowl combine flour, baking powder, ground sage, salt, cold butter and milk. Form the dough into a ball and roll out. Slightly grease the pie dish before placing the flour piece on the bottom. Fill pie dish with the filling just right to the rim. Cover the top with another piece of flour. Close up the rim. Brush the top with egg whites. Poke three holes with fork on top for air release. Preheat oven to 450c and bake the pie for 20 minutes. Cool the pie off for about 10 minutes before serving.