Because we come up with something creative so rarely, it’s worth noting in our digital recipe box…so we can recreate it sometime. Last night we made opah with tofu sauteed with pears and shallots in a vanilla lilikoi dressing. Tonight we made a riff on that with an herb salad topped with Korean pear, shallots, dates and the vanilla lilikoi dressing. Good.

1/3 cup sake (Japanese rice wine)
1/3 cup mirin  (Sweet Japanese rice wine)
1 cup granulated sugar (or sugar to taste)
1 cup white miso  (soybean paste)
grated ginger (optional)

Bring sake and mirin to a boil for 10-15 min to burn off alcohol. Stir in sugar and miso on low heat until it forms a paste. Marinade any rich fish (salmon, butterfish, etc.) for 24-72 hrs then grill. Serve with ocean salad or some other tasty side 🙂

I actually made a tasty dinner last night, which is remarkable on two counts: 1) I made it (AND it was ready in time for dinner with no help from Dave); 2) it was tasty! So here it is for my future reference:

• chicken boneless/skinless thighs (2 packages)
• 1 jar of salsa
• 1 can black beans
• 1 can red beans (I found some with tex-mex seasonings in them)
• green onions
• cilantro
• 1 red pepper
• 1 red onion

Throw chicken in crock pot and stab it all over. Throw salsa in on top. Add half can of each beans. Chop up a little green onion and cilantro. Cook on high 4 hrs or low 8 hrs. Shred chicken into large pieces. Put in rest of beans and chopped red onion/red pepper. Serve with crushed tortilla chips, sour cream and chopped green onions and cilantro as garnish. You can add chipotle chiles if you want for more pop.

I improvised a marinade for our salmon tonight. It was really pretty good: fresh dill (from our garden!), tsp garlic salt, 1 clove garlic crushed, mac nut oil, lemon juice. We served it over arugula (also from our garden) with papaya seed dressing.

We enjoyed welcoming Dana’s husband, Jay, home from a 3 month deployment last night. He got home a week ago and immediately went to shift work, so we hadn’t seen him yet. They came over for an impromptu dinner last night – I’d harvested herbs in the morning and had a bunch of thyme on my hands 😉 so we crafted a new grilled pizza and had lots of food to share. Thankfully it turned out well (recipe below). Our good friends Mike and Angel (whom we first met in Groton with NR-1) came over with mangoes from their yard – we made some mango margaritas and hung out with them on the deck. It was so great to catch up and spend time with good friends.

Pizza: home made dough, grilled, then topped with sweet Italian sausage, ricotta, thyme, shallots and salt and pepper. (YUM! We will make this one again 🙂 )

We have enjoyed grilling pizzas since about 2003, when I first started baking fresh bread leavened with natural airborne yeast. We were living in Pensacola for a month, I’d just quit my job to move across the country with Dave, and was without a car since we’d sold one before moving. Only I could be restless without a job or a car and living right ON the beach. So I learned how to mix flour and water and cultivate starter on the windowsill. We started experimenting with grilled pizza and never looked back! It is so fun to throw dough on the grill and watch it rise, then flip and top. It’s ready in minutes. Here are all the ones we’ve tried. I think our favorites are the pancetta, the balsamic, and the asian fusion. Enjoy!

Red pepper pesto

Pesto made with red peppers, basil, garlic, parmesan, olive oil spread over dough with chopped, grilled sweet Italian sausage, topped with parmesan and  mozzarella.

Pancetta and mushroom

Porcini mushrooms, pancetta and shallots (sautéed in butter) topped with asiago, parmesan, romano and mozzarella.

Chop Salad

Finely-chopped salad with basil, chick peas, light ranch dressing and chicken. Use Greek salad dressing and ricotta for base under salad. Top with cheese and cracked pepper to taste.

Pear and gorgonzola

Caramelized pears, gorgonzola cream sauce, toasted walnuts and thin sliced fontina, topped with spring mix greens tossed in a little of the gorgonzola cream. Cracked pepper to taste. (Best with honey wheat dough).

Portobello

Portobello mushroom slices and sun-dried tomatoes (sautéed in oil, garlic and a little red wine) with ricotta, shredded fontina and asiago. Top with fresh garlic and fresh ground pepper.

Southwest

Chicken in Southwest marinade, sweet corn, red peppers, black beans, tomatoes, and Mexican cheeses. Top with salsa to taste.

What do we do with this eggplant?

Eggplant roasted on the grill, and layered on the dough. Top with smoked Gruyere cheese and caramelized onions.

Picasso

Spicy Italian sausage, red and yellow bell peppers. pineapple, and mozzarella cheese all layered on a rosemary dough.

Basil and balsamic

Rosemary and olive oil dough topped with a balsamic vinegar, garlic and basil emulsion, ricotta, mozzarella, and sundried tomatoes all topped with parmesan and Romano sprinkles.

Mediterranean

Kalamata olives, tomatoes and goat cheese seasoned with Mediterranean herbs on an olive oil dough, topped with fresh basil.

Harvest

Pumpkin, sweet Italian sausage, thyme and oregano, shallots, garlic, white wine and mild Jack cheese.

The Pendlebury

Tomato sauce (no chunks, please!) and mozzarella. That’s right, that’s it!

Asian [con]fusion

Grilled char-siu pork with stir-fried chop suey mix, garlic, Chinese 5-spice, scallions, and shiitake mushrooms all topped with creme fraiche and tofu.

Dave made a fabulous new pizza for Mother’s Day dinner. Great bend of sweet, salty and sour! The only problem we ran into was the watery veggies, even after straining and drying. Try adding the veggies last after you take the pizza off the grill.

marinate pork in char siu then grill

stir-fry:
chop suey mix (bean sprouts, carrots, cabbage)
sesame oil
shiitake mushrooms
garlic
Chinese five-spice
scallions

grill pizza dough 3 min on med, flip and top with tofu, pork and creme fraiche, adding the veggies after you pull it off the grill

I bought my first eggplant last week in an effort to broaden my cooking horizons. I read a couple recipes then winged it.

Dave grilled us some opah tonight, accompanied by asparagus/mushrooms/sesame seeds, salad and soba noodles. It was so ono (delicious) that I had to copy the recipe below in case you find any opah in your freezer 🙂 (We use the categories to find our recipes again – so this is as much for you as for us!)

Hawaiian sea salt – amazing – add to fish with lemon and grill (we did a Pacific blue marlin the other night, with sticky rice and salad and pineapple dressing – very tasty!); last night we had Kalua pig made with hickory smoke flavor and sea salt, cooked on low in the slow cooker for 16 hours, also very good. You remember my misoyaki butterfish? Also quite tasty – I’m going to see if I can add it to the recipe list.
deoderant with alpine lichen in it – hmmm…bought this yesterday because it seemed interesting. will let you know how it works! smells good.