Peter's Sofrito and Marc's Spicy Yakisoba - Two Great Recipes!

Today, I thought I'd share with you two recipes I made recently from two fantastic blogs. The first being Peter's recipe for Sofrito over at Kalofagas.

As soon as I spied it with my little eye, I had to make it.

Peter's Sofrito

I followed his recipe exactly, apart from using pork escalopes as I had some in my fridge.

I also served mine with Greek roast potatoes and I have to say this recipe was so lovely. I cooked mine in my tagine, any excuse to use it!

The pork was really lovely and tender and the sauce was dee-lish.

For the potatoes, I par boiled them in lightly salted water for a few minutes.

Drained the water from them using the lid of the saucepan, gave them a shake to fluff up the edges. Drizzled them in a good amount of olive oil and squeezed with lemon juice. I put some lemon wedges in with them and seasoned with a little more salt and pepper and dried Greek oregano. Popped them into a pre heated oven - 200C/400F/Gas6 for about 45 minutes, turning them and basting with the oil half was through.

Marc's Spicy Yakisoba

The second recipe I had a go at was Marc's Spicy Yakisoba over at No Recipes.
I know I mentioned making this in my last post and so I've already said how yummy it was. Such a lovely and easy stir fry that as soon as I saw Marc's post I knew I'd be making it.

Again, I followed Marc's recipe exactly and I used chicken. It was amazing with a nice tingly spice to it and the crunchy vegetables, it was just totally yummy.

My photo is not making this dish look as nice as it really is so pop over to Marc's to see how it ought to look!

So, thanks you two for these great recipes, both of which I will make again and I really enjoy reading both blogs!

Teriyaki Salmon and Some Other Nice Things

Quick and simple is what I was after yesterday! So, out came the kitchen foil and salmon yet again.

I made it up as I went along finding more things to add to my foil parcels.

Therefore the whole dish was made from bits and bobs in my fridge - for example just half a bell pepper is needed and one carrot - nothing too costly, just left overs really.

The picture below is one salmon fillet ready for the oven.

I prepared this before I went to work, so when I arrived home all that was needed was to pop the parcels into the oven and stir fry some rice noodles.

Da da - dinner sorted!

You will need to serve 2:

2 pieces of salmon fillet - skinless

a bottle of Teriyaki marinade - you wont need the whole bottle though!

1 small cube of fresh ginger root (half and inch cube) - peeled and finely diced

Put the salmon fillets into a small dish and add a good dose of the marinade and the chopped ginger. Cover with cling film. Keep basting them and leave for at least half an hour.

Preheat your oven to 200C/400F or Gas 6

Meanwhile, you can prepare the rest of the ingredients.

1 small carrot - sliced into very thin strips

half of a red bell pepper, or any colour you fancy - sliced into thin strips

1 small red onion - again sliced into thin strips

half of a fresh green chili pepper - de-seeded and sliced very finely

a lime - slice half of it and keep half for squeezing over that salmon later on

a little olive oil

How to do it:

Remove the salmon from the marinade but reserve the liquid for later.

Get yourself a two large pieces of good quality kitchen foil - the thin stuff isn't any good as it will tear easily.

Drizzle a little olive oil on each piece of foil.

Lay one piece of salmon in each foil - you will be making a parcel from the foil.

Add equal amounts of the sliced ingredients, bell pepper, onion, carrot and lime to each parcel and sprinkle with the chopped chili pepper.

Squeeze the lot with a little lime juice from the half you kept earlier.

Drizzle with a little of the marinade liquid and a little olive oil.

Bring the foil up each side till they meet and make a parcel.

Pop them onto a baking tray into a preheated oven for about 20 minutes - depending on the size of your salmon pieces.

The end result was yummy. My picture isn't too good, but you can get the idea through the blur!

I served the salmon in the foil with some stir fried rice noodles that I'd added a little soy sauce to when stir frying. Simple and delicious!

Top Tip;
Did you know you can freeze fresh ginger root? It doesn't loose any of it's flavor and so you can be sure to always have some handy! All that happens to it is it goes soft. It defrosts in no time at all and can be used as normal.
So, next time you buy some freeze a bit in a plastic bag.