Kiwi Lime Cream Pie

I have been searching for a easy but tasty cream cheese recipe that didn't involve baking. I think I found it, and it's as creamy and tasty as you can imagine, without a single egg. I used sugar to sweeten, but I suppose you could use a sugar substitute like Splenda. Otherwise, I kept the recipe to fat free cream cheese, non fat cool whip and lowfat yogurt. I cheated and added a little mascarpone cheese for creaminess.

Filling Ingredients

• 2 - 8 0z Packages no fat cream cheese
• 4 - oz of marscapone cheese
• 3 - limes for juice and zest
• 1 - 6 oz KeyLime Kiwi Low fat yogurt
• 2 - tablespoons coolwhip
• 1 - Packet Knox gelatin

Glaze:

• 3 - Tablespoons marmalade or apricot preserve
• 1/3 - cup water 1/4 - sugar - optional

Crust:
I used a ready made gram cracker crust, but make your own. This recipe is meant to be a bake free to save a little time...


Bring cream cheese to room temperature and simply mix yogurt, marscapone, lime juice and zest until smooth. I did it by hand but your mixer will be better hehehe... fold in the cool whip. Prepare the gelatin as directed and add to mixture, incorporate completely, pour in to the pie shell and place in the refrigerator to cool. In the meantime you can prepare the glaze, in a sauce pan, add the water, sugar and marmalade until smooth and simmer to a boil, remove from heat. Peel and slice the kiwi and whatever other fruit topping you want to use. After pie has cooled, top with the Kiwi and other toppings, brush the glaze over the fruit to prevent it from browning. When ready to serve or present, add whipped cream. Or you could use a stabilizer in your whipped cream to keep it stiff longer.

There you go... a low fat, Kiwi Lime Cream Cheese Pie.

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Sushi

I've had sushi all my life, growing up in Hawaii, where it's a staple. As a kid, I remember being able to get maki rolls and cone sushi (Inari) for 25¢. They weren't fancy, in fact in some instances, the Inari was simply plain sushi rice in the abura age (fried tofu packets). Sushi, was and is pretty common in Hawaii so I never thought much of it , being able to get just about about anywhere.

It really wasn't until I moved to New York City with my high school sweetheart that I began to crave sushi, and become aware of the more exclusive nigiri type sushi. For me sushi and Japanese food was about as synonymous with Hawaiian food as I was gonna get in New York. But the 30 years ago, Japanese food in the City was not nearly as prevalent as it is now, and in most major metropolis cities in the U.S. at least.

Nigiri sushi is composed of hand formed rice usually with a swab of Wasabi applied to the rice and a piece of "fresh" raw fish laid on top. The variety of nigiri sushi is as wide as the kind of fish available to make it with. Sushi making has been nearly been elevated to a high art form, with practical and talented hands and finger techniques for forming the rice pods or rolling the maki in nori. Apparently sushi chefs spend many years perfecting the finger and hand techniques to properly form sushi rice.

One of the popular kinds of sushi I enjoyed as a kid, is the cone sushi or inari sushi which is rice stuffed into a fried tofu pocket. The simplicity of this sushi, with it's sweet taste of the rice with the tofu wrapper is unique and satisfying flavor. In this sample I inserted a a finger full of spicy japanese seaweed (Goma Wakame), and topped it with fine chopped carrots and scallions. Toasted black and white Sesame seeds is also an attractive and tasty garnish.

The Maki rolls are almost equally diverse in kind. Maki rolls use Nori, a kind of seaweed made by a shredding and rack-drying process and comes as thin as paper. You place the rice and the fillings on the nori and roll it up using a special bamboo mat made for the job. You could wrap just about anything fresh in the rolls, here I used cucumber, carrots scallions and salmon. I had some yellow pickled radish (Daikon) that I meant to use, but forgot, it's also a popular ingredient in maki rolls.

As the popularity of sushi has grown, so has the innovation in the ingredients and methods. A popular new kind of sushi is the California roll which is rolled into a cone sushi using the nori wrap and usually containing a certain amount of avocado and crab meat. In Hawaii, local favorite is known as Musubi, a kinda nigiri using fried spam as the topping. We even have a Philadelphia roll, using... you guessed... Philadelphia cream cheese as a filling ingredient

For the rice

• 2 cups short/medium grain white rice (I used Nishiki brand) Do not use long grain
• 1/3 cup rice wine vinegar
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons mirin
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

For the fillings

8 ounces Fresh fish (sushi grade) of your choice 4 crab legs (Kani) or immitation crab meat
3 stalks scallions (green onions)
1 cucumber - julienne
1 large carrot - julienne
1 Avocado - sliced 1 Daikon pickled radish
1 Tablespoon wasabi - more or less to taste

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Sample kinds of fish used for sushi and sashimi

Tuna - Maguro
Salmon - Sake
Yellowtail - Hamachi
Shrimp (cooked) - Ebi
Red Snapper - Ma-Dai
Sea Bass - Suzuki
Mackeral - Saba
Butterfish - Ibo-Dai
Octpuss - Tako
Eel - Unagi
Squid - Ika

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Island Inspired Macaroni Salad

Every once in a while I really get a craving for Hawaiian style, plate lunch macaroni salad. I think the utter simplicity of the salad is what is so appealing, basically elbow pasta with mayonnaise and a little sweet vinegar, maybe a few shreds of carrots, celery and onions, that it. Well a little salt and pepper too.

Well in this recipe I deviate a little, but not too much. First off, I use medium shells instead of elbow macaroni, and I also included fresh English peas, cause I love peas. Other than that, it basically Island inspired macaroni salad. I let the pasta go a little longer than usual, so it is definitley not al dente. Turns out the Hawaiians knew a little trick, the pasta is slightly over cooked so it is soft and pliable, but more importantly, it's more absorbent, soaking up all the liquid.

The tangy, slightly sweet salad is light and not too filling. I used low fat products to try to keep it somewhat healthy, 1% lowfat milk and a lite mayonnaise for the liquid mixture. I used white granulated sugar, but you could use your preferred sweetner or agave. To avoid curdling the milk, I added about three tablespoons of rice wine vinegar directly to the pasta after I rinsed and drained.

There's not a lot to it, but the taste is wonderful and a treat with local island favorites like BBQ terriyaki meats. In the islands, typical plate lunches come with a scoop of macaroni salad with two scoops of white rice along with the main course, sometimes served on a bed of shredded cabbage.

Ingredients

• 1 Box Medium Shells
• 1 Good size carrot diced
• 1 Stalk celery diced 1/2 Onion diced 1/2 cup green peas
• 3 Tablespoons Rice Wine Vinegar
• 1/3 Cup lite mayonnaise
• 1/2 Cup Lowfat milk (optional)
• 3 Tablespoons sugar (substitute sweetner of your choice)

Directions

Cook the pasta (Shells) as directed on the box. I let the pasta go just a minute or two longer. Drain and run cold water over the pasta to prevent further cooking, let stand while you combine the wet ingredients. If you're using fresh peas like I did, blanch them now while the pasta is cooking.

Wisk together the sugar, mayonnaise, and milk until smooth and incorporated. Place the pasta in a large mixing bowl and add the rice wine vinegar. Mix the pasta well with the vinegar and then add your chopped vegetables. Finally add the wet ingredients and fold the pasta until all the ingredients are uniformly coated. Let cool in refrigerator for at least an hour before serving. Add chopped parsely, green onions or chives for garnish.

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LaLupe Mexican Restaurant

After a long time of wanting to go to one of the many Mexican restaurants in what used to be predominantly the Italian Market section, I finally did. I brought my daughter with me to a little place that was quaint looking from the outside, called La Lupe, on 9th, right near the famous "Geno's" steaks. I was really looking forward to trying the food at the place that announces it's the "Very Best Mexican Food in Philly" right on it's colorful awning.

The place has a definite ethnic feel to it, and it seemed appropriate for a Mexican restaurant. The open air seating gives it a welcoming and airy feeling as the front of the restaurant opens onto the sidewalk, where there's also tables for dining al fresco. On this night, it was pretty quiet and there seemed to be more take-out orders than seated customers.

Both Em and I headed over the glass refrigerator where there is a large selection of beverages to choose from. The array of colorful fruit drinks and Mexican soda's is very appealing and there's also regular drinks like Coke, Snapple and Fuze. We both settled on Boing Guava juice which was quite good, however Emma, did point out that is still not as good as the Guava juice you get in Hawaii.

So I decided to order some Guacamole with our chips as I had just made a fresh batch of guacamole at home, and I wanted to compare. Well unfortunately we were both disappointed and while it was okay, it was no where near as good as the batch I made. Firstly, there was way too much cilantro in it and it simply overpowered the avocado. The mixture was runny and not very thick leading me to believe that their avocados were not fresh, and maybe even pre-packaged. We had just bought fresh avocados at the produce store in the Reading Market so we comparing it to that level of freshness.

Em, just ordered two tacos ala carte, one Bistec (steak) and Pollo (chicken), and they came wrapped in soft flour, tortillas stuffed with more cilantro, diced onions and guacamole. On the plate there were two slices of cucumber and radish. Em said she never saw an option for soft or hard shell tacos, but when we were leaving, we noticed another customer had, what appeared to be hard shell tacos which actually looked better.

I ordered the "Mixed" Fajitas combination platter, which included bistec, pollo and camarones. The platter also comes with arroz and frijoles, I was looking forward to this as it had been a while since I had a simple Mexican style dinner with rice and beans. There is no shortage of Mexican restaurants in the city and they seem to be popping up more and more. But I was gunning for a more rustic or common, street style Mexican food, not the nouvelle cuisine influenced style that Mexican restaurants now serve. While La Lupe delivered on this notion, the quality of the food was less than perfect. My Fajitas came out on a hot cast iron sizzle plate, but the contents came out steaming rather than sizziling. It's as if they had sauteed all the ingredients, including onions, corn, green beans, peas, carrots and mushrooms and then poured it onto the sizzle platter.

Though bountiful, the meat and veggies were not grilled, and the shrimp were pretty darned tiny. While the flavor of the combination was alright, there nothing notable about it. It was almost like a stir-fry and everything sorta mixed together with no separation of meats. I suppose fajitas, are really not an authentic Mexican dish and is more of a Tex-Mex concoction, so I am not sure what I was expecting. Perhaps I should have ordered a more typical selection, enchiladas or burritos and tacos.

Well it's unclear if I will make my way back to La Lupe again, as my first impression sadly, left me uninspired and even disappointed. There are other Mexican restaurants in this area of town, but I am not sure their offerings will be much better.

La Lupe Mexican Restaurant
1201 S 9th St, Philadelphia PA 19147
(215) 551-9920
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Beef Brasato

Not too long ago, I found a couple of nice cuts of rib eye steaks, there was a fair amount of marbling through the meat. I thought it might be good to make a beef Brasato dish. Since I did not have a bottle of Barolo or other dry Italian wine, I used a Pinot Noir, which turned out just fine I assure you.

In a nice big tri-clad pan, I added the meat seasoned with salt and pepper and browned on both sides. I removed the meat and leaving all the nice bits of fond in the pan, to which I added extra virgin olive oil. I then added the chopped onions, celery and carrots to the pan for a nice Mirepoix, I seasoned the mix with salt, pepper along with two good sized garlic cloves chopped fine. Before adding the wine, I sprinkled some fresh rosemary to the mix. After making the veggies happy with the wine, I added about a cup of tomato sauce, stirred let simmer a bit and returned meat to the pan, covered it and reduced heat to low and let cook for a good two hours.

You don't have to be a rocket scientist to know what happened after two hours of braising the meat. The meat was so tender and practically melted in your mouth. And, the sauce just filled in every nook and cranny with a wonderful flavor that was out of this world. This is really not a hard dish to prepare so I urge you to try it your self as soon as you can.

I served the braised beef with Yukon mashed potatoes and pan roasted veggies medley of Butternut Squash, Zucchini, Snow Peas and Shallots.

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Flat Iron Steak

The other day I grilled a "Flat Iron" steak, I marinated for 24hours in a my home-made Teriyaki sauce for the guys at work. Not to my surprise it was so delicious and the cut proved to be well worth the price per pound.

The Flat Iron steak cut, also known as the Butlers' steak in the UK and oyster blade steak in New Zealand and Australia. The cut comes from shoulder part of the cow/steer and is sometimes referred to as the "top blade" roast or chuck. Until recently, the cut was basically thrown out by butchers as a long piece of tough connective tissue ran right through the center of it. A team of researchers from the University of Nebraska and the University of Florida developed a method to cutting and presenting this steak, which incidentally, is perfect for grilling.

The cut of beef is perfect for marinating and is porous enough to absorb the marinade, to add to the natural flavor of the beef. The meat has similar qualities to that of "Skirt" and "Flank" steak and lends itself to other dishes like stir.

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Hershel's East at Reading Terminal Market

Every now and then I get a urge to feast on a real big deli sandwich. Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on how you look at it, I don't live near famous deli's like Carnegie's in New York City. The sandwiches at Carnegie's are so huge you can't open you mouth wide enough to take a bite out of it, I kid you not. Only those who have been there can tell you and testify to it. But I'm not here to talk about Carnegie's, no. I here to talk about Hershel's East Side Deli, right here in Philadelphia, and specifically the one in Reading Terminal Market. While Hershel's is no Carnegie, this place is great, I love the open atmosphere of the market and kitchens of the old terminal market.

On one side, you can watch as they season and prepare the brisket before cooking, and then on the other side you can watch them take out the freshly cooked Corned Beef or Pastrami and carve it before your eyes. While there's no Deli-Double (a combination of Corned Beef and Pastrami)like at Carnegie, you can enjoy a over stuffed traditional Corned Beef, Pastrami or Reuben piled with corned beef, sauerkraut, Russian dressing and Swiss cheese, sandwich. There are other items on the menu to help complete the deli experience, like potato salad, cole slaw, chips and the rest. But the real heros are of course the sandwiches which are moderately priced for the quality you get.

They make a pretty good sandwich at Hershel's, and the fresh, soft rye is all what you expect to make a good deli sandwich topped with plenty of spicy mustard. Of course the meaty sandwich has to be stacked nice and high to meat "good sandwich" standards.

Viola! the Hershel's East Side Deli, Corned Beef Sandwich, and of course it comes with the mandatory deli pickle.

Hershel's East Side Deli
Reading Terminal Market
12th and Arch Streets
Philadelphia, PA 19107
Phone: 215-922-6220
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Marinara Sauce

The other night, I decided to make a Marinara sauce. Well actually I had been wanting to make a batch for sometime and I also had some wonderful sweet Italian sausage that needed something to compliment it. Marinara derives from the Italian word for sailor, marinaro. Turns out the tomatoes were easy to prepare and store once cooked, so the cooks on ships adopted tomato sauce for sea worthy travel.

I chose to use Cento brand whole peeled tomatoes to make my marinara sauce. I once saw a program that documented how they are vine ripened in Italy, tender select San Marzano tomato varieties are peeled and freshly packed with fresh basil in their natural juices. You can actually taste the difference, there is so much flavor in these tomatoes.

I added sausage and meatballs to my sauce to use with mezze penne pasta, but you can use the sauce to go with other pastas and meats as well.





Ingredients
2 - Tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil
3 - large cloves Garlic
1 - 32 ounce can Cento Peeled Tomatoes
1 - 12 ounce can Cento Tomato Paste
2 - 8 Ounce cans Cento Tomato Sauce 1
/4 - cup Baby Portabella Mushrooms - optional
1 - Medium size sweet onion chopped and diced
1/4 - cup red wine
1/2 - teaspoon Dry Oregano
Fresh Basil Fresh
Parsley finely chopped

In a large pot with a good bottom, add the olive oil over a medium high heat. First add the onions and then the garlic and get them good and sweaty. When the onions caramelize a bit, add the wine, loosen up any bits on the bottom of the pot and then add the mushrooms. To this add the peeled tomatoes, paste and sauce, I use a potato masher to macerate the tomatoes into the sauce. Stir in water from the tomato sauce cans and swish the can to get all the residue from the sides. Stir sauce and let reduce until nice and thick. Add pasta's or pour over meats like chicken, veal or meatballs.

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