Redondo Pier Fish Market

Next time you go to Redondo Beach you have to stop at the pier. On the bottom floor next to the arcades is a small food court filled with small fish markets. I ended up at the "Quality Seafood" where you pick your own fish and they grill it or fry it for you with sides to choose from. (French Fries Garlic Bread, Macaroni Salad....). I chose to go with some sole and some Red Snapper. The marinade they throw on the fish before grilling it is delicious and they always cook it to perfection. There is every kind of fresh seafood you could possibly hope and even though the dining area looks a little run down it's some of the best seafood i've had around town. Plus it's affordable and there's a beer stand next to it offering cheap options too.

http://www.yelp.com/biz/quality-seafood-redondo-beach

Quinoa cakes and Smoked Salmon

Today I wanted to eat some of the smoked salmon that was in my fridge but i didn't have any bread and I didnd't want to just throw the salmon in pasta or an omelete that was going to cook the salmon and ruin the taste so I ddecided to make some small quinoa cakes.

I cooked the quinoa in a rice cooker, poured it into a bowl and added some italian herbs, basil, garlic, salt and black pepper, some flour and one egg. I made some small patties out of the mixture that I sizzled on a skillet. once they were ready I let them cool down for a few minutes, added a little bit of sour cream, a slice of salmon, and some lemon juice. it was delicious.

Homemade Moussaka

When I travel around the world some of my most memorable memories revolve around food. From street food to fancy restaurants, from munchies to locals cooking for us, food is always a catalyst for good times. One of my favorite cuisine so far has been Greek food, mainly because they use olive oil in everything. So when I get nostalgic I usually cook a mean moussaka that appease my withdrawal of Greek food for a while. My friends were coming over to spend the evening and I decided to make one.

Moussaka is the Greek version of the lasagna, (or maybe lasagna is the Italian version of the Moussaka....I don't know my food history very well) but instead of beef it's ground lamb and instead of layers of pasta there are layers of eggplants. It's an easy recipe and in Los Angeles the hardest part of that dish is actually finding ground lamb in a local store (I bought mine at Payless Internatioal Market - 10817 Venice Boulevard, Los Angeles -)

Ingredients (4 people):

- 2lbs of Ground Lamb

- 3 Eggplants

- Tomatoe Sauce

- One onion

- 200g of Feta Cheese

- 200g of Swiss/Gruyére Cheese

I would recommend preparing the eggplants slices first: Wash and cut the eggplants in slices with the skin on. Drizzle olive oil and let them roast in the oven for bout 15 minutes then sizzle them on a separate pan at a low temperature until they get a little soft. Keep the slices on a separate plate for later.

Cook the onions in a pan until golden, add the ground lamb and cook until the meat is almost ready, add red wine, crumbled feta cheese and a can of tomatoe sauce (or real tomatoe sauce if you have the time ;) and let it simmer for about 10-15 minutes.

In a separate oven safe dish you will cover the entire bottom of the dish with eggplants, then you will add a layer of the meat sauce until you have completely covered the first layer of eggplants. Then you w ll add another layer of eggplants You will repeat that process until the dish is full. Add a layer of swisss/gruyére cheese at the top for a nice cheesy crust and put in the oven on 375 degrees for about 25 minutes or until cheese is browned to perfection.

Then enjoy this dish with a few friends and a nice glass of wine....mmmmmm. 

Tornado Potato at the "High Times" Medical Cannabis Cup

I was at the Medical Cannabis Cup sponsored by "High Times" yesterday and had a fun time there. After getting our wristbands to access the "Medication Area" (Don't worry, if you don't have a prescription there's a doctor ready to help you out right in front of the security checkpoint) we got a giant hit of cannabis wax in our lungs and headed towards the food trucks. Having a food truck at a gathering of hundreds of stoners must be good for business and I'm sure that people had to fight for these golden spots. We tried to look for the smallest line before deciding to get in line for some "Tornado Potato". This food truck is genius in its own ways, it found a way to make potatao look even cooler than curly fries. They peel a whole potato in a way that it wraps around a stick and they fry it. There's not much to eat on there but it is visually enticing and the perfect munchies food. We chose the 'Tornado" that came with a sausage on the stick...so it was basically a hot dog wrapped with potato chips....and some Parmesan/garlic powder. It was surprisingly good but I would highly recommend trying one with the sausage if you end up at this truck because the regular Tornado seems like it would leave you wanting more.

Bacon Wrapped Tater Tots

Today I woke up wanting a good breakfast. However, when I opened my fridge and realized how empty it looked, preparing a fancy breakfast was out of the question. But I still wanted to be semi creative and I thought that wrapping my tater tots with bacon would be the best idea in the world. Of course, the fact that I had smoked a joint right before coming up with this creation only enhanced the false sense of achievement I was feeling from getting a new idea. The illusion that I had come up with something cool and original was later  crushed when I googled "bacon wrapped Tater tots" and hundreds of links came up. It was very good nonetheless and I made an omelet with feta cheese to go with it. Probably only because feta cheese looked good on the picture.

It's all part of a Healthy Breakfast...

Buying croissants at 7-Eleven is always a good idea when you are coming back from a drunken night and you know you will need a big breakfast to soak it all up. However, they were not the fluffiest croissants in town and a few extra topping helped turn these dried croissants into one of the most delicious morning treat.

We cut the croissants in two pieces and toasted the halves in the oven toaster. We then added honey and slices of bananas on top of the buttery pastry and we covered it with some Ben & Jerry's Ice cream (“Stephen Colbert’s Americone Dream.” It’s vanilla ice cream with fudge-covered waffle cone pieces and caramel"). It was a delicious desert...errrr....breakfast I mean.

A day later I was going to physical therapy for my wrists where the doctor advised me to stop eating sugar for a while to help the inflammation. So I didn't tell him about this concoction. 

Happy New Year!

The new year started as every other year started: with a stomach ache....but the good kind. We celebrated new year's eve with a few close friends and had a fantastic time.

We started the night out with a few shots of Patron, which is probably not the best idea to start a night that is supposed to go at least until midnight. We then opened the first bottle of red wine and started rolling a few joints by the warm fire in the backyard. The night was still young. We started with some wild smoked salmon and a homemade dill dressing. The dressing was very much inspired by the IKEA dill sauce that you can buy in the food section. Last time I went to IKEA I wanted to buy some of that delicious dressing but they were sold out....there were probably a lot of other lazy cooks who had the same idea for their holiday meals. So I was forced to make my own.

Recipe:
- A Bunch of Dill
- Honey
- Sweet Mustard
- Olive Oil
- Black pepper and salt
- A few drops of lemon

It turned out to be good, even better than the Ikea version but then again trimming the dill into the bowl isn't the most fun thing to do one New Year's eve so here's the link to their awesome dressing: SÅS SENAP & DILL

After the salmon was done and we made a quick trip to the grocery store to get the paper plates that I had forgotten to bring, we shared a fe dozens of Jumbo shrimps cooked in white wine sauce. Note that at this point the white wine bottles are being opened and there is no stopping the mix of alcohol happening in my body.

- 30 Shrimps with shell on
- Onion
- Red pepper
- Cilantro
- Honey
- White wine
- Olive oil
- Black Pepper and Salt
- Some TLC

Cut the onions and the red peppers, sizzle in olive oil until golden, put a glass of wine, a teaspoon of Honey and let the shrimps simmer for a few minutes, throw the chopped cilantro in the pot and cover until shrimps are pink and ready to eat.

Everyone enjoyed the appetizers and it was then time to cut the cheese for the delicious cheese fondue we were about to have. after cutting the Comté, the Emmental and the Gruyère in pieces we poured some wine in the fondue pot, added a clove of crushed garlic and waited a few more minutes for the cheese to melt. Fondue is one of the best party food because not only is it fun but it also gets you drunk. believe it or not we did not have desert after the fondue but we did enjoy a digestive spliff.

Happy New Year Everyone!