Paleo Pesto Salmon Skewers

Pesto Salmon Skewers

We loved this recipe!

The other day we posted a recipe for Dairy Free Pesto which we used on these salmon skewers.  Hindsight, although the lemon slices on the skewers made the dish look pretty, the lemon over powered the pesto...but it still tasted great!  (the lemon was inspired by this photo -- we might try this recipe too!)

The asparagus was ok...but this bunch was so skinny it was difficult to put them on the skewers -- they kept splitting.

This made a nice, light dinner for us on a humid Sunday evening.

RECIPE:
Serves: 6 skewers
Prep time: not including making the pesto, approx 15 minutes
Cook time: we used a grill pan, so we could only grill 3 skewers at a time, approx 16 minutes

24 cubes of wild caught salmon (approx 1 1/2 lbs.)
3/4 c. Dairy Free Pesto
18 slices of lemon (optional)
veggies if you like (we would have used cherry tomatoes if the male half liked them)
6 bamboo skewers (soaked in water for an hour)

Marinate your salmon in the pesto (we left it in the bag for about 30 minutes) -- we used a large ziploc bag.  Thread salmon and lemon on the skewers.  Heat a grill pan over medium heat.  We lightly wiped our pan with olive oil then place the skewers on the grill pan.  Grill for approximately 3-4 minutes on each side, cook until done.  The salmon we picked up was from Costco and definitely isn't fresh, so we don't like to eat it underdone.

Enjoy...we sure did!

Dukan Grilled Ono with Aji Criolla Sauce (it's Paleo too!)

Grilled Ono with Aji Criollo Sauce

We loved this dinner!

It was very, very simple.  We made the Aji Criollo sauce from this post to go with this simply grilled Ono or Wahoo recipe.  We were feeling the need for a healthy, lean and easy to prepare meal, so we pulled out the Ono we had in our freezer from our fish guy.  It was perfect and the Aji Criollo gave it a nice kick without making the dish heavy.  The male half is not a fan of sauces, but he actually like this since it was spicy and light.

You don't have to use Ono for this recipe...Mahi Mahi or most other fishes would go nicely with the Aji Criollo.

RECIPE:
Serves: 2
Prep Time: less than 5 minutes (not including the making of the Aji Criollo)
Cook Time: around 10-12 minutes, depending on how thick your fish is

1 1/2 lbs. of Ono or pretty much any other fish that tastes great grilled
adobo seasoning (for the Paleo folks, we will be making our own adobo seasoning soon and will post the recipe)
Aji Criollo sauce

Heat your grill pan over medium heat.  Cut fish into pieces (not too thick and not too thin).  Rinse and pat dry your fish.  Lightly season with adobo seasoning ....you can use more...we have high blood pressure, so we usually go easy on the adobo seasoning.  

Place fish on grill pan (lightly sprayed for the Dukan folks and lightly wiped with extra virgin olive oil for the Paleo folks).  Cook until half way done, flip the fish over and finish cooking.  Be sure to cook your fish through if it's not fresh but don't overcook or it will dry out.

Top fish with some Aji Criollo sauce.   We had ours with some grilled asparagus.

Enjoy...we sure did!

Dukan Ono Fish Tacos (It's Paleo too!)

Dukan Ono Fish Tacos

We loved this recipe!

Decided to use up our leftover Fire Roasted Salsa for the tacos and another avocado salsa recipe to garnish our tacos.  The male half of this couple is not a big fan of sauces so I figured the salsa and avocados were enough.  These were very tasty.  We followed most of this recipe which we found while searching for Whole 30 recipes.  We used Ono instead of Salmon because we already had it on

hand.

We'll try this recipe again but with a softer fish (but not too soft).  For me, the Ono was a bit too stiff...the male half of this couple didn't mind.  The fish was frozen, but when we purchased it it was fresh from the fish auction so after defrosting it still tasted great!    Oh and we didn't have coriander (darn beetles got to them) but the original recipe does call for 1 t. ground coriander).

A couple notes relating to Dukan - while in Cruise the first time around, we didn't eat avocado but the second time around, we've had avocado on a couple of occasions but not often and not a lot per serving.   So for those in Cruise still needing to lose weight, have this without the avocado salsa!

Speaking of the avocado salsa, it was good, but not one of our favorites.  We actually prefer our Avocado Tartare recipe.

We ate three tacos each!  It was a nice refreshing dish on a very voggy and humid day.

RECIPE:
Serves 2 very hungry people
Prep Time: 30-40 minutes (not including the time to make the salsa)
Cook Time: about 15 minutes or so

1 1/2 lbs. fish (your choice, depends on what you like in your fish tacos or what you can get your hands on, we used Ono)
olive oil spray - we spritzed our fish with olive oil, I think we used less than 1 t)
nonstick spray if you're on Dukan, olive oil for the pan if you're on Paleo
small head of romaine lettuce or lettuce of your choice
Fire Roasted Salsa


Fish seasoning
1 t. pure sea salt
1 t. ground cumin
1 t. paprika
1 t. onion powder
1 t. black pepper

Avocado Salsa ingredients
1 avocado, peeled, seeded and diced
1/2 sm. red onion, diced small
2 jalapenos, seeded and diced (I wish we minced ours)
Juice from 2 limes
1 T. extra virgin olive oil (we used less than this)
2 T. cilantro, finely chopped
Pure sea salt to taste (we added very little due to high blood pressure)

Rinse and pat dry fish.  Cut into 1 1/2" sticks that are approximately 3 -4 inches long or whatever shape
you can make from your piece of fish.    Mix fish seasoning together in small bowl, spritz fish lightly with olive oil, place fish in a large zip lock bag, rub seasoning all over fish and let marinate in refrigerator at least 30 minutes.

Remove fish from refrigerator.  Start on avocado salsa.  Add all ingredients to a bowl, mix gently and chill until the tacos are ready to assemble.  Rinse, clean and drain lettuce.  We made 3 tacos for each of us.

Heat your grill pan on medium high heat.  Coat pan according to which diet you are on.  Cook fish.  When fish looks about half cooked, flis fish over and cook until done.  Ours took about 3 minutes on each side.  While the fish is cooking, dry your lettuce.

When fish is done, assemble tacos.  We placed a piece of fish in the lettuce, drained as much liquid as we could from the salsa, added a layer of the drained salsa to the fish and topped with some avocado salsa.

Enjoy...we sure did!

Dukan Seared Ahi Tuna

Seared Ahi Tuna

We both loved this recipe!

Why we've never tried to make it at home...we just don't know.  Last week we got back in touch with our fish guy...for those new to our blog, we are very lucky to know a guy here in Honolulu who enjoys going to the fish auction.  What this basically means is, we pay his much lower weight for fresh fish which is sometimes less than 1/4th the cost in a market like Whole foods.  The taste is also fresher.

Originally we envisioned baking or grilling our fish but our fish guy was so excited to tell us he just cut some ahi tuna and it sashimi grade...for those not familiar with the term, it basically means it is a very good quality and can be eaten raw.  Our fish guy said "you're not going to cook this are you?!"  So, we decided to have Seared Ahi Tuna.

This is a very tasty and easy dish to prepare.  The fish cooks VERY quickly since you're searing it, not cooking it through.  We used Tom's Blackened Seasoning from allrecipes.com...we used Truvia instead of sugar, but other than that, we used the recipe as is....oh except we made only a quarter of the recipe.   For the ahi, we followed Foodland's recipe...we made the avocado tartare too...that recipe will be coming up on Monday, April 8th!  This can be Paleo - use Stevia as your sweetener for the seasoning.

We are definitely making this again.

RECIPE:
Serves 3-4 (depends what you're having it with, if you're having a starch, etc.)
Prep Time: approx 20 minutes
Cook Time: less than 10 minutes

2 - 6 oz. sashimi grade ahi tuna blocks (we tried to cut ours into 1 - 1 1/2" blocks, try not to cut your fish too thin or it'll cook too quickly)
1/2 T. extra virgin olive oil
blackening spice (see below)

Blackening Spice ingredients:
1/4 T. paprika
1 t. dried thyme
1/2 t. onion powder
1/2 t. garlic powder
1/4 T. natural sweetener (we used Truvia) - use Stevia if you're on Paleo (but I would try less than 1/4 T. first)

Wash and pat dry your fish.  Heat your pan on high heat for a couple of minutes.  Brush fish with olive oil and season evenly with blackening spice (if you're in Attack, omit the olive oil, rub the seasoning on your fish and spray your pan with a little bit of non-stick spray).  We didn't add any more salt but you can season your fish with salt before the blackening spice if you wish.  Place fish into hot pan, sear on all sides until brown on the outside and opaque on the inside, about 1 minute per side.

Remove fish from pan and place on a plate lined with paper towels.  Let fish cool before slicing.  We used this time to make our Avocado Tartare.

The male half of this couple had his fish with our Sesame Cucumber Salad, Avocado Tartare and Okinawan Sweet Potatoes.  I had the same minus the potatoes.    This can be eaten as is - Pure Protein or served with veggies.

Enjoy...we sure did!

Dukan Riceless Temaki (Sushi Handrolls)

Riceless Temaki Sushi Handrolls

We loved this recipe...and you can use a lot of different ingredients to make a temaki or handroll and they are very easy to make once you get the rolling/tucking technique down.

We don't recommend anything too wet that may soak through your nori or seaweed wrapper.

Ever since I can remember, my grandmother (and later all the female grandchildren) always rolled makizushi for New Year's Eve (and Day) -- a traditional "round" roll and we always used an odd number of ingredients for good luck.  Our makizushi usually consisted of sliced shiitake mushrooms, kampyo (strips of dried gourd reconstituted in the same water you boiled the shiitake mushrooms), egg omelet cut into strips, unagi (eel), dried ebi (shrimp) -- both colors -- red and green and carrots.

This year we didn't make sushi -- we knew we would most likely eat just one piece if we did make sushi.  So, on New Year's Day we decided to make some Riceless Temaki Handrolls with nori (seaweed wrapper), poke (seasoned raw fish) and an egg omelet made with tobiko or fish eggs.  You can really use a lot of different ingredients in a handroll.  We have lots of tobiko in our freezer and it was a PP day.  If it were a PV day, we would have definitely added either cucumbers, sprouts, seasoned lettuce, enoki mushrooms or other veggies.   Other items you can use - our kamaboko dip (recipe coming!), imitation crab, etc.)

Nori -- Seaweed wrap

Regarding nori (seaweed wrapper), check the package when purchasing -- there's usually sushi nori and musubi or omusubi (rice ball) nori.  We find the musubi nori a little chewier.  Some stores also sell already cut temaki (handroll) nori but if you buy the sushi nori, you can easily cut your nori in half for handrolls.  We don't usually buy Korean nori, but it is very tasty -- we've noticed it's stickier.  Try not to buy super cheap nori, those are generally very thin and break easily.  Most nori will have a shiny side and a ridged side.  We usually place the shiny side out.  As far as we can tell, nori or seaweed is Dukan and Paleo friendly.

Nori cut in half for handroll, front piece is the shiny side, back piece
is the ridged side.

If you've never rolled a handroll, it's fairly easy once you get the hang of it.  This is the first time we've posted a video on Blogger, so we're hoping it works...it's a short, simple tutorial on how to roll a handroll (it's posted just before the recipe below).

Place your omelet piece down at an angle facing the left

Place some poke on the omelet

Pick up the nori and hold in your left hand, use your right hand to push
left bottom corner up and start to tuck under the right side of the
omelet.

Keep rolling and tucking carefully.  It's one of those -- be firm but gentle.
Too firm and you'll smash everything up, too gentle and your handroll
will be too loose.  It may take you a couple of tries, but almost anyone
can learn to make a handroll!  Don't give up!

RECIPE:
Makes 4 handrolls
Prep time: 10-20 minutes
Roll Time: once you get the hang of it, rolling won't take long at all

1/8 lb. Ahi Limu Poke (Seasoned raw tuna with seaweed)
1/8 lb. Salmon Poke (Seasoned raw salmon)
2 full sheets of nori cut in half
2 eggs
1 T. tobiko (fish eggs) - this is optional, these are usually on the salty side for us, so we didn't add anything else to the eggs, but if you're making just a plain omelet or some other kind of omelet, you may want to season it -- even with hot sauce if you'd like

Beat eggs in a bowl (be sure to get some air in there!).  Add tobiko and mix.  Fry omelet in a pan over medium heat -- cook they way you like them.  We don't like our eggs runny, so we usually cook them a little more well done.  We used non stick spray in our pan but if we were making a true Paleo meal, we probably would have used a little bit of bacon grease or a small amount of olive oil.

Remove egg from pan and cut into 4 pieces (see photo above).  If your egg is longer than the nori wrapper, fold your egg.

We rolled two handrolls at a time for the photo taking session but normally we roll one at a time and we usually lay all the ingredients on one plate and roll as we eat...this way your nori doesn't get soggy -- it ends up chewier and for us, a little more difficult to eat.  If soggy nori doesn't bother you, go ahead and wrap them all before eating...it's really up to you.

Place your egg on the left side of the nori, angled to the left.  Place some poke on the egg.  Pick up your nori carefully and hold in your left hand (see photo above).  With your right hand, start rolling and tucking the left bottom corner of your nori under the egg.  Keep rolling and tucking until you have just the bottom right corner of the roll sticking out.  Dab a little water on the corner and close your sushi.

As mentioned above, rolling sushi is one of those things where you have to have a firm, but gentle touch.  Too firm will smash everything and too gentle will result in a loose handroll that will fall apart with the first bite or sooner.  Practice before you roll for a party!  Handroll parties are fun too!

Enjoy...we always do!

Dukan Spice Rubbed Salmon

Spice Rubbed Salmon

We loved this recipe!

We don't eat spiced rubbed anything too often, but saw this recipe pop up on Skinnytaste.com's blog and decided to stash it away.  It was easy to prepare, tasty and something different for us.  We skipped the Black Beans and Corn part of the recipe.

We ended up using 6 smaller pieces of salmon since we were using the tail end of our Costco slab of salmon.  If you're using pieces not similar in thickness, remember to throw the thicker pieces on the grill before the skinnier pieces!

I had this by itself on our PP day.  The male half had his with red rice.

RECIPE:
Serves: 2-4
Prep Time: 10 minutes or so

Cook Time: 8-10 minutes (it really depends on how thick your salmon is, ours were fairly thin so they cooked up fast)

Spice Rub:
1 t. smoked paprika
1 1/2 t. Splenda brown sugar (we'll probably use 1 t. next time)
1/2 t. chipotle chili powder
1/2 t. ground cumin
1/2 t. kosher salt
1/4 t. black pepper
1/2 t. unsweetened cocoa powder

1 lime, juice of
4-6 pieces of salmon (depending on the size again)
lime wedges for serving

Combine all spice rub ingredients in a bowl.  Squeeze lime over both sides of your salmon, then rub your spice rub on both sides of the salmon and let it rest for 5 minutes.  Just before the 5 minutes are up, heat a grill pan over high heat, spray with nonstick spray and place salmon on grill pan.  Cook for 3-5 minutes undisturbed until the salmon is half way cooked, then flip your salmon pieces over and cook for another 3-5 minutes or until your salmon is cooked.  Do not overcook.

Enjoy...we sure did!  And we'll probably use this rub for steaks or chicken in the future.

Dukan Stir Fried Fish with Ginger and Eggs

Stir Fried Fish with Ginger and Eggs

Note: this is a scheduled post.

We enjoyed this recipe, but it probably would have been better with beef or chicken.

It's been a while since we made it so we can't remember if we loved it just liked it!  Must not have been loved since we haven't been wanting to try it again!  We do remember it being a very easy and quick dish to cook.

A few months ago we came across House of Annie's recipe blog.  It's beautiful and everything looks yummy.  They live here in Hawaii, but one of the bloggers is from Malaysia.  We decided to use their Stir Fried Beef with Ginger and Eggs recipe for our fresh shutome (swordfish).  

Our ginger did not come out as pretty as House of Annie's!

Note: We had this as a Pure Protein during our Reboot Attack phase...it does have oyster sauce, so it's up to you!

RECIPE:
Serves 2
Prep Time: 10-15 minutes
Cook Time: 5 minutes or so

1 lb. shutome (swordfish) or any other fairly firm fish, slice into thin pieces
1 T. cornstarch
1 1/2" piece of ginger, cut into small strips without the skin
4 green onions stalks, chopped (any size you like)
1/4 c. or less, water
1 egg, lightly beaten (you can use 2 if you like)
1 T. olive oil

For marinade:

1 T. Shaoxing Rice Wine (or dry sherry)
1 T. soy sauce
1 T. oyster sauce
1 t. natural sweetener (we used Truvia)
1/2 t. pepper

Rinse, cut and pat dry your fish.  Mix marinade ingredients in a bowl.  Coat fish with cornstarch, then pour marinade over fish and gently mix, be sure each piece of fish is coated.  Set aside.  Prep ginger, green onions and egg separately.  You'll want to have everything ready...this dish cooks up pretty quickly.

Heat a wok over high heat.  Once hot, add the olive oil and swirl around in your wok.  Add ginger and stir fry...we didn't make ours golden crisp, but will do that next time.  Remove ginger from oil and drain on paper towels.

Add fish to the wok and stir fry for about a minute.  Add the green onions and stir fry for another 15 seconds.  Move the fish and green onions to the sides creating a well.  Add the water, then the beaten egg.  Stir everything together until egg is set.   Plate your fish and garnish with ginger.

The female half had this as is, no starch.  The male half had his over brown rice.

Enjoy...we sure did!

Dukan Fish Moco

Fish Moco (minus the over easy egg)

We loved this recipe!

Gosh, it feels like we've already typed this post, but can't seem to find it.  Perhaps we just imagined what we would say about this dish.  Just before the female half ended up with illness after illness, our fish guy had some fresh shutome or swordfish.  The female half reminisced about "small kid days" when her grandparents cooked fish with just Hawaiian salt and pepper.

For reasons we can't remember, we decided not only to pan fry our fish but to make a fish moco.  Loco moco's as we mentioned before is a local favorite.  A "traditional" loco moco in most cases is a mound of white rice topped with a hamburger patty, over easy egg and lots of gravy.  As the male half puts it, a heart attack on a plate.

This meal was very easy to prepare!

For the gravy, we used Dukanitout's mushroom gravy recipe without the mushrooms and we used chicken broth.

RECIPE:
Serves 2 (one of us has no carbs/starch)
Prep Time: 10 - 30 minutes (we had to remove the skin from our fish, etc)
Cook Time: 10 minutes

1 lb. shutome (swordfish) or any other fish you'd like, cut into thinner "medallions"
salt and pepper to taste
egg (usually 1-2 per person - this is optional)

For Dukanitout's gravy - minus the mushrooms:
1 c. chicken broth
1/4 t. Dijon mustard
1 t. fresh thyme
1 T. cornstarch
salt and pepper

Prepare your gravy ahead of time, then reheat just before serving.   Combine all gravy ingredients in a bowl and whisk until smooth.  Pour gravy into a small pot and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until your gravy thicken.  Add salt and pepper to taste.

Salt and pepper your fish...you can even use Adobo Seasoning to season your fish.  Heat a grill pan over medium heat, spray your pan with a little bit of non-stick spray and fry fish until cooked.  Our fish took just a couple minutes to cook on each side.  Try not to over cook your fish or it'll dry out.

Just before your fish is done, in a small frying pan, fry up an over easy egg for each person (or two).  Plate goes like this...fish first, egg, then your heated gravy.  Sorry, we forgot to take a photo with the egg on the fish.

If you're in Consolidation, you can have this over brown or red rice.

Enjoy...we sure did!

Giada's Salmon with Lemon, Capers and Rosemary - It's a Dukan Recipe!

Giada's Salmon with Lemon, Capers and Rosemary

NOTE: This is a scheduled post...took the weekend off and barely touched the computer!  Hope everyone had a wonderful Easter!

Had this not been so "lemon-y" we would have loved this.

Not sure if we did something wrong, but this was a little too much lemon for us...and the female half loves lemon-y things!   Don't get us wrong, it was still very tasty and we will make this again, but with less lemon.  We found this recipe on Giada De Laurentiis' page on Foodnetwork.com.  It looked simple and easy to prepare...and we just so happened to have fresh rosemary available!

Fresh rosemary isn't something we have all the time.  It's available, but it's very expensive and we both don't have green thumbs!  The lemon seemed to overpower the rosemary and capers.  The next time we make this, we'll probably use just one lemon slice for each fish and skip the addition of lemon juice.

We're positive this recipe would work well with our favorite Opah fish too :-)

RECIPE:
Serves 2 (on a Pure Protein Day, if we were eating this with brown rice or quinoa, this would have served 4)
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 8 minutes (our fillets were about 3/4" thick)

4 - 6 oz. salmon fillets (we actually had 2 at 6 oz. and the other 2 were smaller)
olive oil (optional, we didn't use any, but if you want to, brush oil lightly on both side of fish while seasoning fillets)
1/2 t. kosher salt
1/2 t. black pepper
1 T. minced fresh rosemary leaves (we would use 1/2 T. if you're using dried)
8 lemon slices (next time using just one slice per fillet)
1/4 c. lemon juice (that's 1 T. each fillet, next time using just 1 t. each fillet or just the lemon slices)
1/2 c. Marsala wine (or dry white wine)
4 t. capers
4 pieces of aluminum foil (we used 3 since we wrapped our two smaller pieces in one foil)

Rinse and pat dry fillets.  Preheat your grill or grill pan - we used a grill pan over medium high heat. Season with salt, pepper and rosemary (and olive oil if you are using it).  Place salmon fillets on foil pieces large enough to fold and seal tightly (ours came out so so, we used to be good at this since we've made foil packet dinners in our crock pot - we're rusty).   Top each fillet with 2 lemon slices (or 1), 1 T. lemon juice (or less if you don't want your fish too lemon-y), 2 T. Marsala wine and 1 t. capers.  Fold each packet tightly.   Place foil packets on grill pan and cook for approximately 8 minutes.  If your fillets are thicker, you'll want to cook them 10 minutes for every inch.  Carefully open packets when done and serve in the packet with the juices.

Besides the strong lemon flavor, this was a great, light and easy dinner.

Enjoy!

Hawaiian Dukan Lu'au Foods

Note:  This is a scheduled post.

We love poke which is basically fresh fish cubed seasoned with salt, sesame oil and seaweed.  There are many recipes out there for poke.  When the female half was a little girl, poke was made mostly out of ahi (tuna) or aku (tuna also) with the above ingredients and maybe some green onions or onion slices and a little bit of chili pepper.  Now, you can get not only ahi or aku poke, but tofu poke, imitation crab poke, cucumber poke, tako (octopus) poke, swordfish poke, and more.  You can make it as fancy or simple as you like.  We generally have poke at least once a week.   Poke is something you find in most supermarkets and at almost every lu'au here in Hawaii.

Salmon Poke

For a nice addition to a salad, dice up some fresh raw fish of your choice, toss with a little bit of salt and sesame oil (you don't need a lot) and serve over salad with a light fat free dressing.  If you want to make your poke a little fancier, add sliced onions, fresh seaweed (or furikake if you don't have fresh seaweed), wasabi, tobiko or masago (both fish eggs).

We don't care for the shoyu (soy sauce) poke sold here, stores tend to use older fish for shoyu poke and it often times is too salty for us.  Here are some poke recipes (most of them probably don't need as much sesame oil as they mention and if they aren't Dukan'd already, they are easily Dukan'd):

Shoyu Poke
Aku Poke
Classic Ahi Poke

Lomi Salmon (or Lomi Lomi Salmon)

One of our favorites is the salmon poke at Safeway.  We prefer it without the shoyu based sauce they offer.  This really just has fresh salmon cut into cubes, lightly seasoned with Hawaiian salt and sesame oil.  Add in some slice onions (mildest you have), crushed red pepper flakes and green onions).  Refrigerate for at least half an hour before serving (see photo).    Make is as spicy as you like and with as many onions as you like.

Lomi Salmon is another item you will always find at a lu'au in Hawaii.  It's a very simple recipe...we don't have it often since the male half doesn't care for raw onions or tomatoes.  The female half decided to have some with her lunch (see photo below).  Here is a recipe for lomi salmon.  Lomi Salmon is definitely Dukan friendly.

Skinnytaste's Grilled Garlic Dijon Herb Salmon (It's a Dukan recipe!)

Skinnytaste's Grilled Garlic Dijon Herb Salmon

Wow, we LOVED this!

If we remember correctly, Dijon mustard is ok during Attack.  This recipe came from one of our favorite lowfat recipe blogs, Skinnytaste.   While not all of Skinnytaste's recipes are easy to Dukan, quite a few of them are and there are a lot of them that fit into Consolidation or you could have them as a lower fat Celebration meal.

We found this recipe, thought it sounded good but we didn't realize it would be this good :-)  Oh, forgot to mention...on Thursday we discussed how we keep forgetting to have our Pure Protein day.  There are weeks we plan for it, then something happens and we push it back, push it back again until it's been forgotten.  So, the female half decided she would play catch up and have about 4 Pure Protein days in a row.  The male half's weight has been good, so he's only doing 2 Pure Protein days.  This is how this recipe was chosen, as part of our weekend of Pure Protein days.

NOTE: the asparagus in the photos are for the male half :-)

We're definitely making this again.

RECIPE:
Serves 2 (as a Pure Protein meal)
Prep Time: 5-10 minutes
Cook Time: about 10 minutes

4 garlic cloves
1 tsp. dried Herbs de Provence (if you don't have any, you can make your own following this recipe)
1 tsp. red wine vinegar
1 tsp. olive oil (optional, we left it out)
2 T. Dijon mustard
1 lb. salmon fillets, 1" (we had a couple 1" and a couple about 1/2")
kosher salt and pepper to taste
lemon wedges for serving

Using a mortar and pestle or mini food processor, mash garlic with herbs, vinegar, oil if you are using it and Dijon mustard until it becomes a paste.  We didn't have either kitchen tool so we minced the garlic and herbs up really well first.  Set sauce aside.

Season salmon with a pinch of salt and pepper.  Heat a grill pan or grill over high heat until hot.  Spray pan with a little bit of non-stick spray and reduce heat to medium-low.  Place the salmon on the hot grill pan and cook without moving for 4-5 minutes (we cooked ours until it was just over 50% done).  Turn and cook the other side for an additional 3-4 minutes spooning on half of the garlic sauce evenly.

Turn and cook one more minute spooning the other side of the fish with remaining sauce.  Turn once again and let the fish finish cooking about one minute.  Fish cooking time should be approximately 9-10 minutes per inch.  If your fish is thinner, reduce the total cooking time.  We prefer our salmon slightly undercooked, so we cooked it for about 8 minutes or so.

Serve with lemon wedges.  The male half had his with brown rice and asparagus grilled in the same pan with the same sauce and some kalamansi (similar to lemon).    We're thinking about using this sauce on our meatloaf...well, the female half would like to, but the male half doesn't care for mustard...although he did like this recipe!

Enjoy...we sure did!

Dukan Clean Out the Fridge Salmon

Clean Out The Fridge Salmon or Salmon Poached in Wine

We had an uncle in town the other weekend, so not much cooking again.  We did host a family dinner and made our Dukan Asparagus Chicken which was a hit.  We made it with chicken tenderloins and we definitely prefer chicken thighs for this recipe.  Our uncle made a fabulous salad...we will post the recipe later, but it's NOT Dukan!  It made a nice treat though.

The night before he arrived we were trying to clean out our fridge knowing he would be bringing over his salad ingredients so the leftover white wine and stuffed olives turned our salmon into a quick but tasty dinner.

If you are following Dukan rules to a tee, you probably won't want to use this much wine in your cooking unless you're well into Consolidation or in Stabilization.  This is something we probably would have made during Cruise though.  It's still low in fat.

RECIPE:
Serves 2 (without any type of carb)
Prep time: 5-10 minutes
Cook Time: approximately 10-12 minutes

1 1/2 lbs. salmon filet, we cut ours into 4 pieces
3/4 c.  dry white wine
1/4 c. water
1/4 c. stuffed green olives
1/2 t. adobo seasoning (the garlic powder type, not canned chili type)

You'll be poaching the fish.   We used our stir fry pan which is small on the bottom and allowed the liquid to just cover the fish.  Add wine, water, olives and adobo seasoning to the pan and bring to a boil.  Turn heat down and simmer the fish in the wine mixture until cooked.  We like our salmon slightly undercooked.  Cooking time will depend on how thick your salmon filets are.  Check them periodically.  If this is a Celebration meal for you, go ahead and use more wine.

Enjoy...we sure did!

Dukan Mahimahi Stir Fry

Mahimahi Stir Fry

We loved this recipe.

Monday is Chinese New Year and we decided we would make a few Chinese dishes this weekend.  We've saved several recipes from Rasa Malaysia's beautiful recipe blog but hadn't had a chance to try any of her recipes until today.   Some of her recipes are complex and some are very easy.  For our Mahimahi Stir Fry we decided to use Rasa Malaysia's Cashew Chicken recipe as a base.  We would have added some cashews but we haven't had any in the house since we started Dukan and we really don't miss it that much.

The stir fry sauce can be used with fish, chicken, pork, beef or just veggies.  We made Rasa Malaysia's recipe without the salt since we're watching our sodium intake, but it could have used 1/2 t. of salt or so.  We'll definitely make this again.

If you're in Cruise and are not bending the Dukan Rules, you may want to leave out the oyster sauce and sesame oil but your sauce will taste very different.  We added oyster sauce to our diet in Consolidation.

RECIPE:
Serves 2
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: less than 5 minutes

1 lb. mahimahi filet, cut into small cubes
1 t. baking soda
1/4 c. unsalted cashew nuts (optional)
1 small red bell pepper, cut into small square or triangular pieces
5 thin slices ginger
1/4 red onion, cut into small square or triangular pieces

Marinade:
1 t. corn starch
1/2 t. rice wine

Sauce:
1/2 T. oyster sauce
3/4 t. soy sauce
3 T. water
3 dashes pepper (white if you have it)
1/2 t. natural sweetener
1/2 t. rice wine
1/8 t. sesame oil
salt to taste

Place fish cubes in a bowl, sprinkle baking soda over the fish and rub in.  Let fish marinate for 15-20 minutes and then rinse the chicken thoroughly.  Be sure to rinse all the baking soda off.  Pat dry your fish.  Mix your marinade ingredients together and pour over fish.  Mix and let marinate for 15 minutes.

Mix sauce ingredients and set aside.  Have your veggies prepared, this dish cooks up really fast.  Heat wok over high heat, spray with a little bit of non-stick spray and stir fry fish gently until fish is half way cooked.  Remove from wok and set aside.  Spray wok again or use about 1 t. olive oil and stir fry ginger, peppers and onions until aromatic.  Add fish back to wok, then add sauce and gently stir fry until fish is cooked.  Add salt to taste.  If you're using cashew nuts, add those in, gently stir a few more times and serve.  If you're in Consolidation, this goes great with jasmine brown rice or you can eat it by itself like we did.

Enjoy...we sure did!

Chinese Steamed Fish

Chinese Steamed Fish

Kung Hee Fat Choy or Happy New Year!  January 23, 2012 is the Chinese New Year Day, the Year of the Dragon.  We don't live our lives by what fortune tellers say will happen each year, but it's always fun to read some of it, especially when you're with a bunch of girlfriends in a Feng Shui shop.  The female half of this couple is a Chinese American and her ancestors, like many other people's Chinese ancestors strongly believed in at least the characteristics of the Chinese Zodiac.

Last weekend our Chinese community held its annual Chinese New Year celebrations - a parade, numerous lion dances, two days of festivities, burning of firecrackers to chase away the bad spirits, etc.  The female half wanted to eat Chinese food to get into the spirit of things, but it seemed like 3/4s of the islands population wanted to do the same thing.  So, we decided to make our own Chinese Steamed Fish.

This recipe calls for more oil than is allowed on the Dukan Diet and if you're in Attack, it's definitely not allowed.   As long as you don't have this dish all the time or just as a celebration dish, you should be fine. We tried to find a recipe calling for the least amount of oil (some recipes called for 1/4-1/2 c. of oil).

This is an 'easy to make' and tasty dish.  We decided to poach our fish.  We should have cut our mahimahi filet thinner.  We really weren't planning on making this dish, so we didn't have whole green onions (only chopped ones) nor did we have fresh ginger.

RECIPE:
Serves 1-2 (if you're serving rice, this will feed two light eaters)
Prep Time: 10-15 minutes
Cook Time: 15 minutes or less

3/4 lb. mahimahi filet (you can use salmon, opah, etc.)

For poaching:
1/4 c. green onions, chopped (if you have whole green onions, you may want to cut them into 3" pieces)
1/4 t. ground ginger (if you have fresh, use a 3" piece sliced into "coins")
small bunch cilantro, rinsed
1 1/2 T. Shaoxing rice wine (Chinese rice wine) or dry sherry
salt and pepper

Cilantro topping:
2 T. cilantro, rough chop
1 t. sesame oil
2 T. soy sauce
1/2 t. natural sweetener
1/4 t. salt
1/4 t. pepper

Oil topping:
2 T. olive oil
2 green onions, chopped (or sliced into 3" slices)
1/4 t. ground ginger (if you have fresh, 2" piece sliced into very thin slices)

We poached our fish in our stir fry pan.  Place the "for poaching" ingredients in your pan with enough water to poach your fish.  Do not hard boil the fish or your fish may flake apart.  We poached ours for about 11 minutes and it was still very moist.  Just before your fish is done poaching, put the cilantro topping ingredients in a small microwavable bowl and microwave for approximately 30 seconds.  When your fish is done, place the fish only on a serving platter and pour the cilantro topping mixture evenly on your fish.  Dry your pan and add the 2 T. olive oil to pan, heat until you see smoke.  Add the green onions and ginger, fry for approximately 10 seconds.  Pour your oil topping over your fish evenly.  Serve immediately with or without brown rice.

Enjoy...we sure did!

Dukan Phoenix Salmon

Phoenix Salmon

We loved this recipe.

It was light, tasty and easy to make.  Plus, we love salmon.   The salmon we used was frozen, from a slab of fresh salmon we bought a couple of months ago.  We washed it, dried it, wrapped it in paper towels and then in a gallon sized freezer ziploc.  We've seen most of our fishermen friends do the paper towel thing.

The original recipe came from the Electric Kitchen's website.  The Electric Kitchen was a cooking show sponsored by our electric company, Hawaiian Electric.  It is no longer on the air, but we've used quite a few local recipes from the site.  The recipe called for oil, but this is another recipe where the oil wasn't missed.

RECIPE:
Serves 2
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 8-12 minutes, depending on how well you like your salmon cooked and how thick your salmon filets are

1 lb. salmon filet (we cut ours into 3 pieces to fit all pieces into the pan at once)
1 t. garlic, minced
1/8 t. dried ginger (or 1 t. grated ginger)
1 t. cornstarch
1 T. white wine or whiskey
1/4 t. salt
dash of Chinese five-spice powder
dash of red chili pepper flakes
1/2 c. green onions, chopped

Rinse and pat dry your fish.  Mix the remaining ingredients together in a small bowl and set aside.  In a pan over medium heat sprayed with a little bit of nonstick spray, add salmon.  Turn salmon over after a minute and pour sauce evenly over your fish.  Cover pan, lower heat and cook until salmon is done to your liking.  We prefer ours just cooked and sometimes a little under done if the fish is very fresh.

If you're eating this dish with rice or quinoa, it would probably feed 3 people.  We used more than a pound of fish since it's what we had and we didn't want to leave a quarter pound piece in the freezer.

Enjoy...we sure did!

Spicy Tuna (Ahi) Bowls

Fresh ahi

We loved this recipe.

As mentioned in an earlier post, we made spicy ahi (tuna) bowls for the male half of this couple's birthday.   The way we've always made spicy ahi has been with a little bit of Japanese mayonnaise (which seems creamier) and chili oil. Since it was his birthday, we decided to turn it into a Celebration meal and have it the way we usually make it but using low fat mayonnaise.

You can substitute fat free mayonnaise if you can find it in your local market.  Omit the chili oil if you are wanting it to be closer to a Dukan recipe and use just the cayenne pepper.

This is a recipe we usually don't measure, we just add stuff, then taste, add more if needed, etc.  We will try to do our best in guesstimating what we normally use.

RECIPE
Serves 2

3/4 - 1 lb. of raw fish (tuna, salmon, etc, make sure it's fresh) usually feeds the two of us (one eating the fish with rice and the other just eating it without rice or wrapped up in nori or seaweed
cayenne pepper

Spicy Ahi

mayonnaise (Japanese, low fat or fat free)
chili oil

Sauce for rice:
soy sauce (low sodium)
water (only if you want to water your soy sauce down like we do)

Cut fish into desired size.  Sometimes we do small cubes and if we have time we sort of mince the fish, add to a bowl.  Sprinkle a small amount of cayenne pepper on your fish, if you love spicy food, use more cayenne pepper, but keep in mind you will add chili oil too.  Mix fish and cayenne, let sit for a few minutes.  In the meantime, prepare your mayonnaise/chili oil mix.  We normally make 1 T. at a time since we don't like our fish with too much mayonnaise.  Take 1 T. of mayonnaise and mix well in a small bowl until creamy.  Add a couple splashes of chili oil, mix well and taste add more chili oil is desired.  We like ours hot, so we use quite a bit of chili oil.  Add mayonnaise mix into fish.  Make and add more mayo/chili oil mix if desired.  Once you have the spicy taste you want, put your spicy fish mixture into the refrigerator.

If you're eating this over rice, we usually mix soy sauce with water and dab the soy sauce mixture on the rice before placing the spicy fish mixture on the rice.  The amount you use depends on how much rice you are eating and how many people you are feeding.  For two bowls, we normally use 1 - 2 t. soy sauce and 1 t. water.

Since it was his birthday, the male half of this couple got some avocado cubes added to his bowl!

Enjoy...we always do!

Dukan Chinese Fish

Chinese Fish

We liked this recipe.

We found this recipe on allrecipes.com.  It's titled "Chinese Fish"...that's it.  The recipe is simple and has a very light taste.  We omitted the cooking oil and sesame oil from the recipe to make it Dukan.  Next time we'll try this recipe with Chinese vinegar instead of cider vinegar and a little more red pepper flakes.

The recipe calls for orange roughy, but we had some salmon in the fridge so we tried this with salmon.  A thinner fish would probably work better that our thicker cuts of salmon.

RECIPE:
Serves 4
Prep Time: 5-10 minutes
Cook Time: 8 minutes

4 pieces salmon filets or orange roughy
1 c. water
2 t. cider vinegar
2 t. low sodium shoyu (soy sauce)
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 t. Chinese five-spice powder
1/8 t. crushed red pepper flakes
1/4 t. kosher salt
1/4 t. ground ginger

Rinse and pat dry fish.  In a large non-stick skillet, cook fish for approximately 2 minutes (spray pan lightly with olive oil spray).  Turn and cook for 2 more minutes.  Add the other ingredients (pre-measure your dry ingredients).  Cover and simmer for 4 minutes or until fish is cooked.

Enjoy!

Dukan Pan Seared Soy Salmon

We both loved this recipe.

Pan Seared Soy Salmon

This recipe was tasty and very simple!   Every Sunday our local paper comes out with a 'Dining Out' section.  The restaurant reviews aren't that fabulous especially since the same restaurants get reviewed for months!  There are times we don't even bother to look at it since we know the chances are there won't be any new restaurants.  The one part we do like is Chef Chai's section...he contributes a recipe every week. Chef Chai owns a couple of restaurants here...the more popular one being 'Chai's Island Bistro'.

The food at Chai's Island Bistro is always good, but pricey.  If you're on a budget, it's not a place you'd frequent.  However, the Oahu Gold magazine (which can be found online) does have a 'buy one get one free' coupon which can be used on Sundays, Mondays and Tuesdays.  This coupon is a better deal than the coupon found on Chai's Island Bistro.

This week we decided to try Chef Chai's 'Pan-seared Soy Salmon' recipe.  We Dukan'd it and watered down our shoyu (soy sauce) and it was perfect for us.  We are listing our recipe here.  If you want to try it exactly like Chef Chai, use 1/2 cup of shoyu (soy sauce) and 2 teaspoons mirin.

RECIPE:
Serves 2
Prep Time: 5 minutes, plus at least one hour to marinade
Cook Time: 3 minutes each side

1 - 6 oz. pieces salmon filet
1/4 c. low sodium shoyu (soy sauce)
1/4 c. water
2 t. sake
2 T. natural sweetener (we used Xylitol this time)

Rinse and pat dry salmon.  Place salmon into a large ziploc and in a pan (just in case).  Mix the marinade ingredients and pour over salmon.  Refrigerate at least an hour.   On medium high heat in a saute pan, spray a little bit of olive oil spray and cook each piece of salmon for approximately 3 minutes each side (depending on how thick your salmon is).

Enjoy...we sure did!

Dukan Misoyaki Opah

We liked this recipe.

Misoyaki Opah

Misoyaki Butterfish is VERY popular here in Hawaii.  It's one of our favorite dishes to order at local Japanese restaurants.  Butterfish is also known as black cod.  A good piece of black cod will just melt in your mouth.

We had a pound of opah left in the freezer and decided to try a misoyaki recipe for our first time (we've always ordered it in restaurants, never made it at home).   We followed this recipe and although it's low in fat, we probably wouldn't recommend it to anyone in the Attack or Cruise phase.

We sauteed our fish, but next time we'll broil it which is how most of the local Japanese restaurants prepare their misoyaki butterfish.  We'll also be sure to use the belly part of the opah or another fatty fish for this recipe.

RECIPE:
Serves 2
Prep time: 5 minutes plus marinading time - 24 hours
Cook time: a couple minutes for each fish

1 lb. opah (black cod or salmon would be great also)
1/2 c. white miso paste (sugar free, fat free)
1/2 c. natural sweetener
1/4 c. sake
1/4 c. mirin (sweet rice wine)

Mix the miso paste, natural sweetener, sake and mirin in a small pot, heat until smooth.  Let marinade cool a bit.  Rinse and pat dry fish, cut into "medallions".  Place fish in a large ziploc bag and place the bag in a foil pan (just in case).  Pour cooled marinade into ziploc bag and refrigerate for 24 hours.  Saute or broil your fish to your liking.

Enjoy!

Dukan Stuffed Opah

We both loved this even though it had a little too much seasoning for us.

Stuffed Opah, it really did look better in person.

It's been a while since we've had stuffed fish.  As a child, the female half of this couple's mother, as well as so many local Hawaii mothers and fathers would stuff fish with mayonnaise, green onions, portuguese and/or chinese sausage along with some seasonings.  Mayonnaise is no longer an option for us, neither are the two sausages which are very fatty.  So, we decided to use this recipe as a base to make a Dukan version stuffed fish.

If you like a lot of seasoning, follow the recipe below, but it was a bit too strong for us, so next time we'll be cutting is almost in half.


RECIPE:
Serves 2
Prep Time: 15-20 minutes
Bake Time: 20-25 minutes, 350 degrees Fahrenheit

2 pieces opah (or mahimahi)

Stuffing mix:
2 T. fat free sour cream (more if you want a creamer stuffing)
1 - 3 T. oat bran (depending on what kind of texture you're looking for, we added 1 T at a time)
2 T. green onions, chopped
8 oz. imitation crab, shredded (because one of us is allergic to shellfish)
1 egg
1 T. Old Bay seasoning (use less if you don't like strong flavors)
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 jalapeno, chopped (we removed the seeds, next time we'll use half the seeds for some heat)
Juice of 1/2 a lime (we squeezed the other half of the lime over the fish just before baking)

Mix stuffing ingredients.  Rinse and pat dry fish.  Cut pockets into fish as deep as you can.  Season fish with garlic powder (if you like strong seasonings you can use Old Bay on the fish also).  Stuff each piece with stuff (we also put some stuffing on top of the fish).  Place in baking dish, squeeze lime juice over fish.  Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 20-25 minutes or until fish is done.