Baked Tomato with Quinoa and Pomegranate Feta Salad

Quinoa, also known as the "Miracle Grain," is a personal favorite of mine. The taste and texture of quinoa is similar to brown rice crossed with oatmeal. Quinoa serves as a versatile component to a handful of classic recipes you usually make. For example, try being creative and replace your short grain rice with quinoa and make a risotto! Here's a dish that you will enjoy.

Baked Tomato with Quinoa and Pomegranate Feta Salad Recipe:
Tomato- 1 piece
Quinoa- 1/4 cup
Brown Rice- 1/4 cup
Mushroom- 4 pieces, chopped
Red Pepper- 1/4 piece, fine dice
Quail Egg- 1 piece
Feta Cheese- 1/4 cup, crumbled
Rice Wine Vinegar- 1 Tablespoon
Olive Oil- 2 Tablespoons
Pomegranate- 1/4 cup
Parsley- 1 Tablespoon, minced

Preparation for Baked Tomato and Quinoa
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a small pot of boiling water, add the rice and quinoa and cook till ready. then strain.
Cut the top off the tomato and empty out the seeds in the inside, so you can stuff the other ingredients in it.
In a Saute pan at medium high heat, add the mushroom and red pepper, then add the grain and rice and saute for a minute. Season and then stuff as much as you can in the tomato along with some crumbled feta. Place in the Oven for 5-7 minutes.

Preparation for Pomegranate Salad
whisk the oil and vinegar till emulsified. Add the chopped parsley, mix, then add the pomegranate seeds. You want to Fold in the feta cheese lastly so the vinegar doesn't break down the feta and make your salad look cloudy. Season.

Plating
Place the rest of the quinoa in the center of your dish, remove the tomato from the oven, and add on top of the quinoa. Crack the Quail egg and place on top of the tomato. Put the pomegranate in a side bowl or on the same plate and enjoy your meal!

Cornish Hen with Fig and Acorn Squash Pasta

I prepared this dish to be submitted for a contest on a food website. I felt like an interesting combination of squash and fig might appeal as a different approach to pasta. This dish has a great flavor of sweet and umami packed in each fork-load.

Cornish Hen with Fig and Acorn Squash Pasta Recipe

Cornish Hen Breast- 1 piece
Acorn Squash- 1/4 piece, par cooked, Diced
Pearl Tomatoes- 5 pieces
Dried Turkish Fig- 5 Pieces
Red Wine- 1 cup
Onion- 1/4 piece, small diced
Parsley- 1 Tablespoon minced
Sage- 2 Tablespoon Minced
Brown Sugar- 2 Tablespoon
Butter- 2 ounces
Pasta Linguine- 1 Cup

Preparation for Acorn Squash
Place the squash in an oven and set at 300 degrees for one hour or until cooked. If you can easily poke a knife through the skin then it is ready. After, cut in half, de-seed, de-skin and cut in cubes

Preparation for Dried Turkish Fig
Soak the Turkish fig in Red wine for 30 minutes to rehydrate.

Preparation for Pasta
Bring pot of water to boil with salt. Once at boil, place noodles in until cooked.

Preparation for Cornish Hen
Once the Acorn Squash is out of the oven, sear the breast on a saute pan till brown, then place in th eoven for 10 minutes at 300 degrees.

Final Preparation
Using the same pot that you seared the Cornish Hen, deglaze the pan with the red wine from the Turkish fig. Add onions, sage, and the squash until everything has been slightly sauteed. After, add all the butter and saute till the butter is dark brown. Add the sugar and stir then place ingredients in a bowl. Strain the noodles and toss in the bowl with all the ingredients including. Add the tomatoes at the end then season.

Marjan's Medley- Biscotti French Toast and Rolled Crepes with Honey Marscapone

This recipe is dedicated to my lovely sister Marjan!
Biscotti has been a traditional Italian Classic. Back in the day, it was useful for sailors at sea who depended on long preserved foods. Biscotti is the term for twice baked, which results in its hard bite. What if we soaked the biscotti in a french toast batter for an hour? The result was great! The Honey marscapone adds a rich smooth flavor to the delicate rolled crepes topped off with cranberry fig syrup.

Biscotti French Toast and Rolled Crepes with Honey Marscapone Recipe

Crepe Batter Salted Butter- 2 Tablespoons
Almond Breeze Vanilla or Milk- 1 cup
Eggs- 2 pieces
Flour- 1 cup

Biscotti French Toast
Biscotti Almond Bread- 3 pieces
Almond Breeze Vanilla or Milk- 2 cups
Cinnamon- 1/4 teaspoon
White Sugar- 1 Tablespoon
Eggs- 1 piece

Honey Marscapone
Marscapone- 1/2 cup Honey- 1 Tablespoon

Cranberry Fig Syrup
Water- 1 cup
Brown Sugar- 2 oz
Dried or Fresh Figs- 4 pieces, Halved
Cranberries- 1 Tablespoon
Vanilla Extract- 1 teaspoon
Coconut Milk- 1/2 cup

Preparation for Crepe Batter
Whisk all liquids together and then sift and whisk in dry ingredients. In a non-stick pan at medium heat, pour in crepe batter. Once, the crepe is able to lift off the pan, carefully fold the crepe from one side of the pan to the other. Take off the pan and repeat.

Preparation for Honey Marscapone
Fold in all ingredients and store in fridge. Serve when ready.

Preparation for Biscotti
Whisk all ingredients and soak biscotti for one hour or until bread has rehydrated. Put biscotti in a pan at medium-high heat and cook till golden brown.

Preparation for Cranberry Fig Syrup
Place in a sauce pot and reduce till the syrup can coat the back of a spoon completely.

Plate and eat your wonderful Breakfast!

Baked Tilapia and Stuffed Potato with Portobella Mushroom

Tilapia has a very simple flavor to it and acts as more of a neutral taste, which allows a vast amount of opportunities to make a great dish with this fish. The natural juice from the sauteed portobella mushroom becomes the sauce which creates a strong rich umami taste to the whole plate.

Baked Tilapia and Stuffed Potato with Portobella Mushroom Recipe

Tilapia- 2 Filet Piece
Portobella Mushroom- 1 piece
Leek- 1 piece
Potato- 1 piece
White Onion- 1/4 piece
Red Wine Vinegar- 1 Tablespoon
Parmesan Cheese- 1 Tablespoon
Cream Cheese- 1 Tablespoon
Parsley-1 sprig
Sweet Chili Sauce 2 Tablespoon
Salt and Pepper- As needed

Tilapia Preparation:
You need to fabricate the fish so that it will be able to wrap around the potato and then tied by the blanched leek.
Slice the filet with your knife in an angled cut, 1 inch apart. Make sure not to cut all the way through otherwise you'll be having small separated pieces. Season and put aside.

Stuffed Potato Preparation:
Peel the skin off the potato. Start using your peeler to shape the potato in a symmetrical cylinder. Once even, core the center of the potato. Boil the excess potatoes as well as the cored potato. On a saute pan, Saute the portobella and onions. Once the bottom of the portobella mushroom has been browned, set aside.
Mash the cooked excess potatoes in a bowl with the sauteed onions, red wine vinegar, cream cheese, and parmesan cheese. Season.

Leek preparation:
Slice the leek and clean in between the layers. Take one layer and slice the leek so it ends up looking like a long shoe lace.

Final Preparation
Take the cooked cored potato and stuff the center with the mashed potatoes. Lay down the leek strands on a cutting board, then the filet of tilapia and then the cored potato. Wrap and tie the all three leeks around the fish so it stays firm on the potato. Place the product upright as well as the portobella mushroom on a sheet tray. Preheat the oven to 325 and cook for 15 minutes. Plate t your liking!

Snowed Thyme Garnish

As one of the elements to a great presentable dish, a garnish should always be used. An edible flower, a type of herb that correlates with the dish, or a stylized vegetable cut, all give your meal a flair to its appeal.
Here is one example of a garnish that can be used for dessert!

Snowed Thyme Garnish Recipe

Thyme 3-5 Sprig
Egg Whites- 1 piece
Sugar-1/2 cup

Preperation

Whisk the egg whites in a bowl. Put suger in another bowl. Place the thyme in the egg whites and make sure it is completely covered.

Whip the thyme so that any excess egg whites will prevent clumps of sugar. Generously cover the thyme with sugar and flick the stem so excess sugar comes off.

Put in the oven at 350 degrees for 3-4 minutes and then let thyme cool so sugar hardens.

Tip: You can use any type of herb for this type of garnish!