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No need to complicate things when you have the best ingredients. Donostia Foods Extra Virgin Olive Oil, tomato, pickled red onions. Will a slices of a nice, crusty country bread be used to soak up every last drop of oil? Yes.
Total Time: If you've made the pickled red onions ahead of time, which you should have as you should always have some available for topping anything and everything, the only time it will take you is the time it takes to slice a tomato. If you have a proper knife? Seconds. If you do not have a proper knife? Get a proper knife.
1. The photo says it all. Do what you have to do to get there. Pretty straightforward.
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You'll never go wrong with a classic take on pan con tomate. It's a staple for a reason. Deliciousness. But, adaptation is key to life, and trying new and different variations of anything can stimulate the senses and bring fresh perspective. And also be delicious.
A tribute to the original, in a different key, this pan con tomate eschews tomato pulp and garlic for a seasonal, spreadable preserve of tomato, chili pepper, lemon, sugar, and salt. The subtle heat of the chili and touch of sweetness from the organic cane sugar are a superb complement to a Cantabrian anchovy fillet or three, if you so choose.
Total Time: Absolutely none, cosmically speaking.
1. Heat a generous pour of olive oil in a pan, then add slices of a fresh loaf of hearty, crusty bread. Keep heating until you have a nice, crispy golden brown side, then flip and repeat.
2. Spread the spreadable tomato chili.
3. Top with anchovies, if you wish.
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Tinned seafood can come in quite handy when you'd like to make an incarnation of a typical tapa from Spain. Have a jar of salsa verde, as well? Then all it'll take is a few minutes heating up a grill pan and you'll be on your way to establishing an at-home tapas bar that will be revered by family and friends.
Total Time: However many minutes it takes to achieve the browning you seek for the squid.
Servings: You'll get six to eight squid per tin, and you should figure all of your seafood-loving guests will enjoy one, then several more because that first one was so good, so adjust quantities accordingly.
1. Open a tin of small squid and warm the olive oil from said tin in a grill pan. Beware of splatter.
2. Once heated, add the squid, turning occasionally to achieve that desired browning. Again, the threat of oil splatter here is high. Aprons and other protective measures are recommended, particularly if you're making this just before the arrival of guests. No need for that additional stress of having to quickly change into a new outfit. Unless you thrive under such pressure.
3. At the very end of the chipirones browning experience, add a bit of the salsa verde to the pan to get it nice and warm before plating. All it'll take is a moment or two.
4. Enjoy with a well-chilled white wine.
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As part of our Fine Foods from Across the Blue Planet series, where we'll be featuring a selection of some things we think work well with what we offer, or that we just plain enjoy, we'll also be providing recipes and serving suggestions. This is one of them.
This particular serving suggestion came to be after making sardine dumplings, and having quite a bit of the sardine concoction leftover. So, an unusual burger patty was formed, thrown onto a hot skillet, and a whole new culinary universe came to be. Behold, the...
Total Time: If you have leftover patty mixture from a previous meal, all you have to do is the aforementioned patty forming and hot skillet tossing.
1. If you haven't already done it, get a nice big bowl and mix together everything above except for the bravas sauce and bread, obviously. In what quantities? That's up to you and what you desire.
2. Once you have your sardine mix, form your patty. It's fun.
3. Heat your skillet on a medium heat, probably. Throw that patty on there.
4. Toast your bread or bun.
5. Flip your patty and top with cheese to get that nice melting action.
6. Prep your bread or bun with slaw and bravas sauce then add the finished to perfection patty and you have your sardine burger ready for the splendid lunch you've made for yourself.
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Why waste time tinkering with a new recipe when one has already been perfected? Ina Garten's recipe for garlic roasted potatoes is the only recipe we or you or anyone needs for roasted potatoes. Did we maybe add a little saffron? Yes. Okay, so a little tinkering can't be avoided. But, the saffron was just there. It worked.
Total Time: 10 minutes preparation, about an hour waiting about, pour yourself a cocktail and wait for greatness.
1. Look at Ina's recipe for the specifics. Follow them. Add a little saffron, if you'd like.
2. Pull those gorgeous little roasted potatoes from the oven and drench them with the delectable salsa brava.
3. Have another cocktail.
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Combining one of our fine foods from across the blue planet with our light and flavorful white asparagus conservas, should you take the time to whip this together for an afternoon tapa, upon the first bite you will nod with delighted satisfaction.
Total Time: Minimal. We're talking a moment of whisking and a couple minutes toasting. That's it.
1. For the vinaigrette, mix olive oil, vinegar, garlic, and Mala spice mix. If you end up with extra, it's a nice salad dressing, too.
2. Toast the bread, and while you wait slice the white asparagus spears. As you do.
3. Put all of these things together: toast, baby spinach, white asparagus, vinaigrette, chickpea crumbs.
Adapted from the Fly By Jing's Mala chicken tenders recipe.
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As part of our Fine Foods from Across the Blue Planet series, where we'll be featuring a selection of some things we think work well with what we offer, or that we just plain enjoy, we'll also be providing recipes and serving suggestions. This is the first of such things.
Apologies to anyone skilled at folding dumplings for what you see here. It was an honest effort.
Total Time: I don't know.
1. Get a nice big bowl and mix together everything above save the dumpling skins and sauce itself. In what quantities? That's up to you and what you desire. For the dumplings in the photograph, three tins of sardines were mixed with one egg and about a tablespoon of everything else, with the scallions thrown in at random. It worked.
2. Once you have your sardine mix, lay out your dumpling skins in preparation for folding. As noted, the skills exhibited in this regard are lacking, admittedly. If you need more guidance, turn to that which we all do, YouTube.
3. For the cooking portion, again, the choice is yours. Steam them in a rice cooker, drop into a pot of boiling water, fry them. The rice cooker steam method was used here, for about 30 minutes, which worked well except for some troubles with the dumplings sticking to the steaming tray. A learning experience.
Adapted from the Fly By Jing's "An Ode to Chengdu Zhong Dumplings" recipe.
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Maybe it's Tuesday! Maybe not! It doesn't really matter. Space-time is flexible and we can enjoy tacos on a Tuesday, a Wednesday, even a Sunday. If you aren't quite sure what day it is, all the better; because these tacos are too good to be contained by any mere construct like a calendar. They are tacos for whenever the perfect moment might occur. And that moment is now.
All three of these tinned fish taco recipes take little preparation while providing tremendous satisfaction to those who eat them. So, that's nice. As an added bonus, they can be served hot or cold. Warm the fish lightly in a pan, if you wish. Or don't. They'll work either way. That's how good they are.
Also, yes. The personal favorite of this writer and therefore the top taco of the trio is technically not a fish. But, it is seafood. Fish adjacent. That counts.
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Total Time: 4 minutes, 42 seconds. Or more. Or less. Again, space and time are fluid.
1. Put all of the above together in taco form, as pictured.
2. OK, a little more detail is warranted. The guacamole used here? Purchased at the local market. It's there, and it's great, so that saved a step. Making your own is of course easy enough and a very personal matter. Do what moves you. The roasted corn was also purchased roasted and perfect for the condiment it was always meant to be. The pickled red onions were made ahead of time, with brown sugar and apple cider vinegar and they are currently being used on just about everything.
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Total Time: Always approximate.
1. Make that taco.
2. The spiced sauce in the tin includes olive oil, carrot, cucumber, red pepper, onion, and secret spice, so this one was kept particularly simple. Does it need something more to truly elevate it to a top tier taco? Perhaps. Recommendations being accepted now.
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Total Time: So worth it.
1. The aforementioned top choice of this tremendous trio is no fish at all. You will not hold that against it. You will savor every bite.
2. This squid comes tinned in a Spanish interpretation of an American-style barbecue sauce, which is a fun conversation in its own right. Combine it with a honey mustard slaw? An unstoppable flavor force to be reckoned with.
3. The slaw is a mix of a bag of slaw (obviously), old-fashioned coarse grain mustard, honey, salt, black pepper, and a couple tablespoons of milk. Mostly following the proportions found in this recipe, with a certain disregard for actually measuring anything.
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A superb little sardine appetizer with lots of little sardines (and piquillo peppers).
Total Time: The time it takes to toast the garlic toast, if you've already made the pickled onions, which you should have.
1. There are many suggested variations on how best to pickle red onions. What is one of them? This is! Mostly what we're talking about here is a mixture of thinly sliced red onions, apple cider vinegar, salt, sugar, warm water. Let it sit. Be patient. You can store them in the refrigerator for a few weeks, easy. Use them for all sorts of things. Tacos, perhaps.
2. Make garlic toast. You probably have a favorite way of doing this. No? Here's how Rachael Ray makes garlic bread.
3. Place the sardinillas and piquillo pepper slices on top of those pieces of garlic toast, the pickled onions on top of that, and over it all give a few turns of the black pepper grinder.
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Salad? Put clams in it! Pasta? Put clams in it! Soup? Put clams in it! So much protein (seven grams per tin), so few calories (32 per tin), so good with just about everything. Tinned clams, particularly Donostia Foods Clams in Brine, which in our very biased opinion are the best, can improve your lunch with just the the pop of a tin.
Below are three quick and easy recipes to do just that.
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Total Time: 5 minutes.
1. In a bowl, mix clams, celery, onion, garlic, and parsley with the olive oil and some of the brine from the tin. Mix it good. Then squeeze that lemon over it all and mix some more.
2. Put all of that on top of that fresh butter lettuce and enjoy the fruit of your (not hard) labor.
3. In what quantities should the above ingredients be used? That's completely up to you. You got this.
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Total Time: 30 minutes, maybe, but you can make it ahead of time and store it in the refrigerator, if time is of the essence.
1. In a pot, heat olive oil, then add onion, mushrooms, and garlic and sauté for a few minutes.
2. To that pot, add clams, carrots, soy sauce, ginger, sugar, cayenne pepper, salt, pepper, lemon zest, vegetable stock and coconut milk. Bring to a boil then simmer for 15-20 minutes.
3. Adjust with more or less of those ingredients, or whatever you a believe would be a worthy addition.
4. Enjoy.
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Total Time: 10-15 minutes.
1. Boil some water and cook pasta to a perfect al dente. You got this.
2. In a pan on another burner, melt the butter and mix in the white wine.
3. In that pan mentioned in step two, add the perfect al dente pasta and clams and heat until you think, yeah, yeah I want to have dinner now. Squeeze the juice of the lemon all about and garnish with parsley and guindilla peppers.
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Looks as good as it tastes. A vegan option for an afternoon snack or party appetizer that will win raves.
Total Time: 5 minutes.
1. Toast that pita. Maybe cut it into nice little triangles before toasting, maybe after. Whatever you feel like doing in the moment.
2. While toasting that pita, slice up the extra thick white asparagus in properly proportioned pieces so they fit on those toasted triangles.
3. More slicing. Slice up some pistachios, if you have full pistachios on hand.
4. Mix za'atar, arguably the most fun spice to say, into the cream cheese, to taste.
5. Take that toasted pita out of the toaster and top first with the cream cheese and za'atar mixture, then the white asparagus, then the pieces of pistachios. Drizzle with olive oil and give everything a spritz of fresh lemon juice.
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If you're looking for a chef who reinvented school food service to bring sustainable, healthy, plant-based, locally-sourced, made from scratch meals to students of the Santa Barbara Unified School District, and founded an award-winning restaurant and music venue, look no further. You've found who you're looking for. Chef Nancy Weiss.
In a district of over 15,000 children, she restructured kitchens and retrained over a hundred employees to develop a program dedicated to bringing healthy and delicious food to all, even over summer vacation, so students know they will always have a fresh, wholesome meal prepared and waiting for them.
In an effort to be as environmentally friendly as possible, vegan dishes are included amongst those healthy and delicious meals. Kid-friendly menu ideas were introduced quietly, and the students, quite literally, ate them up. Now, half the meals at Santa Barbara Unified schools are vegan.
Some further evidence of Nancy's outstanding work and dedication to her community: 2018 Santa Barbara Independent Local Hero Award, The Spirit of Service Award (from the City of Santa Barbara for commitment to composting and sustainability), The Golden Carrot Award (from the physicians committee for responsible medicine) and The 2017 Congressional Woman of the Year Award.
For more information and to contact Nancy Weiss, please visit chefnancyweiss.com.
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Nancy Weiss is great. Jeff Bridges knows.
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