Salmon with PestoFredo Sauce and Avocado Salad

I never was a fan of fish until just recently when I enjoyed a beautiful salmon steak with baked lemon. It was delish! I like making sauces and one day I came up with this what I like to call PestoFredo; a combination of pesto and alfredo. I decided to try and use this sauce with salmon instead of just pasta. I loved it!!! Avocado salad is always a refreshing way to eat your veggies if you don't really like lettuce - like me. :) This meal is so simple to make and very few ingredients are needed. Don't be afraid to make salmon if you have never made it before.

Ingredients:

6-8oz salmon steak

2 lemons

Basil

Fresh parmasean cheese (you will need to grate this)

2 cloves of garlic

1 pint of heavy cream

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1 large tomato

1 small red onion

1 or 2 avocados

2 small limes

1 jalapeno

You will first scrub the fish with the juice of one lemon. Cut the lemon in half and start scrubbing the fish clean. Sprinkle a little bit of salt and pepper for flavor and let the fish sit while you make the sauce.

For the sauce, you will need either a blender or food processor. Start by chopping up the garlic in the food processor into tiny pieces. Throw in a few chunks of parmasean cheese. Chop that up with the garlic. Then throw in about 20-30 basil leaves. After those are chopped up, pour about 1/4 cup of olive oil and a 1/4 cup of heavy cream. If the color of the sauce is too light, throw in more basil leaves. Sprinkle a dash of salt and pepper to taste and squeeze some lemon juice in (about 1/2 tsp). It should taste delicious! haha

For the avocado salad:

Chop up some avocado, red onions, tomatoes (into chunks) and jalapenos(you can omit) and throw them into a big bowl. Squeeze the juice out of one lime and you're done. Simple!! :)

And voila! Plate the fish and pour some of that yummy PestoFredo sauce on top and some avocado salad on the side and now you're ready to eat.

**Enjoy**

Delicious Asian Chicken StirFry with Shanghai Noodles!

So I must thank my new friend Jennie for helping me with this craving for Asian food my boyfriend and I had one night, since I am a novice to cooking Asian food. I ran out of work and headed straight to the Asian Supermarket close to my house and grabbed all the necessary ingredients to make this dinner a success. I must say, this was one of the simplest meals I have ever made!
This is good news for everyone wanting to try this recipe. :-)




***Grocery List***

Ingredients:
1/2 cup Soy Sauce (I like to use Kikoman Low Sodium)
a few drops (maybe 1/2 tsp, don't put too much - it is strong!) Pure Sesame Oil (Kadoya)
1 tbsp Oyster Sauce (Lee Kum Lee)
1/4 cup Rice Vinegar or Mirin (Either one is okay)
2 tbsp Chili Garlic Sauce (Huy Fong Chili Sauce)
2-3 cloves chopped Garlic
1 tsp chopped Ginger (you must use fresh)
Green Pepper, Red Pepper, Onion (1 of each)
3 sprigs Green Onion (Scallions) use the light green part only
1 cup uncooked Asian Basil leaves
Choice of meat, cut into thin, diagonal slices - Chicken or Beef (Marinate beef for longer, 1 hr)
Shanghai Noodles (or your favorite type of noodles)

Marinade:
First things first, marinating the meat is crucial for the meat to soften and give it more flavor.
In a bowl, combine the soy sauce, oyster sauce, sesame oil, rice vingar (or mirin) and chili garlic sauce. Once you have created your marinade, put the chicken or beef in the bowl and let it sit for about 30 min. (1 hr or more and in the refrigerator if using beef)

~*~[A sauce for the stir-fry is needed also. To make the sauce, just combine the soy sauce, oyster sauce, sesame oil and chili garlic sauce (no need for rice vinegar or mirin) in the same measurements as the marinde and keep this aside]~*~

While the meat is hanging out and soaking in marinade, start chopping up the garlic and ginger. Set them aside. You can pre-cut your veggies or just do that while your meat is marinating. Cut your veggies into pieces similar to the way you cut the meat so that everything is consistent in shape and size.

If you have a wok, GREAT!, if not, it's ok - you can still make this dish. Get your wok, or pan, out and pour a couple of tbsps of sesame oil into the wok while it is hot. Throw in the garlic and ginger and watch them cook, be careful not to let them burn!

Once they're pretty much cooked, throw in the veggies. Please feel free to add more of your favorite veggies. i.e. - broccoli, carrots, shitaki mushrooms, etc) Put a few tbsps of the sauce into the wook and cook up your veggies until the onions are pretty much transluscent. When they're done, take them out and cook your marinated chicken or beef with all the juices from the veggies and sauce. YUM!

Begin boiling water in a pot for your noodles at this point.

When the meat is thoroughly cooked, bring the veggies back into the wok and start stir-frying!!!
Your kitchen will smart smelling amazing... You can add the basil and scallions in at this time and let them cook all together.

While the flavors, colors and textures are all combining in the wok, throw the noodles into the pot with boiling water. I like to add sesame oil and salt into the boiling water for the noodles. Let the noodles cook for about 2-5 min. No more because they will cook pretty quickly and you don't want sticky noodles. Take a taste test and make sure they're not sticky or al-dente. They should be cooked, not over-cooked. Take the noodles out when ready and put them in a strainer and add cold water to stop from cooking any more.

Now you're ready to serve and eat!!!

Serve the stir-fry on top of a bed of noodles and to garnish, you can add a basil leaf or some chopped up scallions.

Enjoy!