Swordfish!

For the first time, I've decided to cook some fish-- even though my dad thought that some fishy smell was gonna stay in the house forever. But he thought wrong. :O I got the recipe from Giada De Laurentiis' book, Everyday Pasta. I changed it a little because I don't have a grill so I pan-fried it instead.

Fish:
Swordfish seasoned with Salt, Pepper, and Olive Oil.

Pasta:
Citrus Pesto
1 bunch of fresh basil stemmed [3 cups]
1/2 c. toasted pine nuts
1 clove of garlic
zest and juice of 1 lemon and 1 orange
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 c. parmesan cheese

Boil Pasta [I used angel-hair]. Drain and Reserve 1/2 c. of water. To make the pasta, blend the basil, pine nuts, garlic, lemon and orange zest and juice, salt, and pepper in a food processor until finely chopped. While running, slowly add olive oil so that the pesto is smooth. To save time, you could always buy premade pesto sauce and add the citrus ingredients. I did that and shoot, it still tasted phenomenal and hey, it's like Sandra Lee's Semi-Homemade.

Grill Swordfish. And serve pasta topped with parmesan. Place a swordfish on top and garnish with some zest.

Yay. :D

oh yeah by the way guys... it's summer...

Soba Tsuyu

This dish is known as Soba Tsuyu. It can be considered a healthy meal by most people. It's very simple to make. I'm not sure, but it might be an acquired taste for Asian Sauces. Soba is buckwheat noodles. Soba Tsuyu is the easiest dishes to make using Buckwheat Noodles.

-Soba Noodles
-1/2 c. Soy Sauce
-2 cups Dashi Soup [buy the powder kind and just mix with water until you get the saltiness you like]
-Mirin
optional:
-scallions
-Furikake

Boil Soba Noodles [one bundles should be enough for like 3 meals] until soft. Wash with cold water to stop the cooking process and set aside in the refrigerator to cool if necessary.

For the Sauce, mix about a 1/2 cup of soy sauce, 2 cups of dashi soup [you can find the powder mix kind in the asian aisle or an asian theme store], and 3 spoonfuls of mirin [it is a type of rice wine vinegar but whatever rice wine vinegar should be fine]. Mix together over a stove until boiling. Cool in the refrigerator. If you are lazy you can always buy the Soba Noodle Sauce in a Japanese Store.

If you want, cut some scallions and mix it with the sauce-- it's really all up to taste. Serve cold-- it's a cold dish. Mix sauce and Noodles. Decorate with Nori pieces or even Furikake [dried salted vegetable or fish "powder"--more or less "pieces"] with shreded Nori.

Lately, however, I really want to retry making those Chocolate-Cherry Cookies posted by Erielle of Fancy Toast that failed at the Christmas Baking Contest-- I didn't put enough Baking Powder [and we ran out of it] so the delicious cookie dough refused to rise. I had tried using Baking Soda but to no avail. Oh well. Ah~ it was good dough.