Fish in white sauce

I was going for something similar to the previous recipe, but I'm currently residing in Paris in a dorm, so I have different ingredients on hand and different utensils to cook with.

Ingredients:
1/2 red bell pepper
4 - 5 white mushrooms
1 med clove of garlic
olive oil
rose wine

2 salmon filets (I really used 1 and then a filet of another fish whose name I don't remember, but the salmon was better in my opinion)

1/2 cup creme fraiche
1/2 cup coconut milk

Thougths/background: So I think I never knew what creme fraiche was until I bought it instead of creme today. I'll admit to that, but in my defense, I was rushed and trying to shop in french. Anyway, if you don't know what it is, it's like the step between creme and sour creme. I discovered this as I was in the middle of cooking the sauce and had to modify the recipe on the fly. By dumb chance, I also bought coconut milk, and it really complimented the creme fraiche in a very delicate way. Hooray!

Directions: Fry the bell pepper, mushrooms, and garlic in olive oil and wine. You could add other veggies, but these worked really well, in my opinion. When the veggies are sufficiently cooked, scoop them out and save in a bowl. Leave the wine/olive oil in the pan. In the same stuff, cook the fish. When the fish is cooked, set it aside as well. If you could keep it warm while this cooks, cool! I don't have the facilites for that. Now toss in the creme fraiche, and a minute later, the coconut milk. Let the sauce solidify some (I really hate the word "congeal") and then toss in the veggies. My veggies were still pretty wet, so I had to let the sauce sit on the stove a while longer. I also boiled some fettaccini in the meantime. Just place the pasta on the plate, throw some fish on top and pour the white veggie sauce over all of it.

Red Pepper Onion Cream Sauce

I was watching Ratatouille and I was inspired both to animate and to cook, but since I was hungry, I decided to cook. There wasn't much here, though, except some chicken breasts marinating in some soy sauce and some dying red peppers in the fridge. Yet somehow, I got pretty fancy with it all :).

Ingreds:
2 chicken breasts, cut into med. size pieces (marinated in soy sauce or salted)
1.5 red bell peppers (hey, it's what I had)
0.5 white onion
2 cloves of garlic, grated
ginger, grated (probably an amount proportional to 2 cloves of garlic)
olive oil
white wine (I estimate it was bout 2/3 - 1 cup)

0.5 cup heavy cream

Throw all the ingredients (except the cream, and reserving some wine) on a frying pan and let the veggies and chicken stew/fry until the chicken is cooked through and the veggies are soft. Transfer the chicken to a plate and keep warm if possible. Scoop out the peppers and onion with a strainer spoon and throw them in a blender. Blend the veggies until smooth. In the meantime, pour the heavy cream and the rest of the wine into the pan and bring to a boil, mixing the remaining cooking juices from the chicken and peppers. Simmer until white sauce is thick and creamy. So now you have chicken with two shnazzy sauces. The makings of something really delicious and with tons of potential for cool presentation :).

I made this with some fried potatoes. I just diced them in round circles (you need small potatoes for this, in my opinion), and fried them with a clove of garlic and some fresh thyme. Just poured the sauces over both chicken and potato and it worked really well.

Then my mom came home with some fresh veggies (finally! yay) and I warmed up the chicken for her. I kept her company and just had a diced cucumber with the remains of the sauce on my plate. It was still good lol :)

French-ish Beet Salad with Rosemary flowers

Ahhh rosemary flowers! My favorite new discovery. My rosemary bush is in bloom and I thought "why not?" and put a flower in my mouth! All the delicious rosemary taste without any of the harshness and hardness that you can't swallow.

Here's my mom's trick to beets: suck it up and peel them before you cook them, wash them and there you go: no earthy taste. She likes to microwave them in a glass dish, but I'm sure you could bake them with the same results.

Ingreds:
a couple cooked beets, grated or sliced thinly
a handful roasted almonds, sliced
a spring of chives, chopped
a handful fresh rosemary flowers (yum!)

1/4 cup lemon juice
1 tsp salt
1 tsp spicy mustard

Well it's a salad, you know what to do.

Oh and if you're lame and turn your nose up at beets, you can do this same salad with spinach or arugula and it's just as delicious. Just add honey to the dressing to make up for the sweetness of the beets.

Fruity salmon (honey lemon mango salmon)

Ok, this recipe is not for the manly-men in my family! They all hate sweet meats, but in the last few years I've actually learned to love them. It's weird, I thought my taste in food would change during puberty, but it didn't happen till I turned 20!

This recipe was actually a cross between two other very simple recipes. I'm going to describe them quickly without any measurements (which I'd have to make up anyway).

Recipe 1:
Make marinade/sauce for salmon (soy sauce, lemon juice, honey; ginger is also good here). Split into two tupperware containers, marinade salmon in one, save the other for sauce. Fry or bake the marinated salmon, adding the extra sauce on the top.

Recipe 2:
Take some fresh salmon and rub with salt and pepper. Take some mango puree (I just grate the mango), pour in some tinfoil and place the salmon filet on top, adding more mango on the top. Wrap and bake for 10 or so minutes. Unwrap and let brown for another 3 minutes or so.

Combined recipe:
Marinade the salmon. Put mango puree on the bottom of the tinfoil, then salmon, then top with extra sauce. Wrap and bake for 10 or so minutes. Unwrap and let brown for another 3 minutes or so.

I like the combined recipe because the honey, lemon, and mango play off each other really well.
Simple! Easy! Fun! Delicious!