With love, from my little kitchen to you...: March 2013

Hi!
Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I've been so busy and haven't really been cooking, but I am back now!

Tonight I wanted to make a nice, healthy, yummy, flavorful meal, but I had no idea what to make. But I went to Whole Foods, and got lots of inspiration there!
Anyway, what I got for dinner was: Cod, rapini (aka broccoli rabe), brown rice, and chopped pepper & mango "salsa".

Now, as I always say- time your meal so that everything is done at the same time! So step one is going to be the rice because this takes the longest to cook. For the rice, boil 2 cups water, add 1 cup rice and simmer for 20 minutes.

Next: start cooking the peppers. I used chopped red, orange, yellow and orange peppers that I found pre-chopped at the market. Cook these on medium-high for about 10 minutes with just little bit of olive oil.

While the peppers cooked, I chopped a mango. I bought a Mexican champagne mango that was on sale at the market. Besides looking different, it was the same on the inside as a regular mango.
Now, if you aren't familiar with how to chop a mango, then let me explain.
The pit of the mango is basically the entire center slice, about 1/4" thick. Stand the mango on your cutting board stem end down and hold. Place your knife about 1/4" from the widest center line and cut down through the mango. Flip the mango around and repeat this cut on the other side. The resulting ovals of mango flesh are known as the "cheeks." What's left in the middle is mostly the mango seed.

Then, turn the scored mango cheek inside out by pushing the skin up from underneath, and scrape the mango chunks off of the skin with a knife or spoon.

I then added the mango to the peppers, along with a little garlic and a couple spoonfuls of cherry jam. Yes, I said cherry jam! This will add a nice sweetness to the mix, and the sugar & gelatin in it will mix with the pepper and mango juices and thicken it all up to a beautiful glaze. Let this all cook over medium heat for a few more minutes.

While those cooked, I put the rapini into a covered casserole dish, then into the microwave for 6 minutes.

And while everything finished up, I put the fish on the grill, because this would only take about 5 minutes to cook.

Once everything was done, it was time to plate it all!

Now, if you are serving rice, here's a fun way to present it: pack it into a small dish or measuring cup, then put that onto the plate. It will make a nice little pile that will look so neat.