I’m always on a quest to find new and interesting things to serve for dinner.  When I came upon these fish cakes I just had to try them.  I did a few things wrong with mine.  First of all I made them WAY to spicy.  Rob and I were both suffering. On top of that I made them WAY too salty (which is the exact opposite of what I usually do) so it took us a while to get through dinner.  Make sure you measure with this one cause it’s already a pretty salty dish.  And make sure you know what kind of pepper you’re putting into it.  I just grabbed a red one that wasn’t labeled.  Wooooeeee it was hot!

2 cups cod meat (mackerel, haddock, or other white fish will work too)

1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger root

1/4 cup roughly chopped cilantro

1 dried or fresh red chili pepper, chopped finely (careful here!  It’s supposed to be a high heat pepper though)

1 heaping tablespoon curry spice powder

1 tablespoon unrefined sea salt (I would put less)

1 medium organic pasture-raised egg

2 tablespoons whole wheat panko bread crumbs

1 tablespoon coconut oil

For the Mango Salsa:

1 ripe mango, chopped into medium dice

1/2 teaspoon dried red chili flakes

1/4 cup minced red onion (I unthinkingly put in the whole onion.  Don’t do this!)

2 tablespoons freshly chopped cilantro

Juice of 1 lime

To prepare salsa, gently toss all of the salsa ingredients in a bowl, then let sit at room temperature for 20 to 30 minutes.

To prepare the fish cakes, heat the coconut oil in a frying pan and cook the fish on medium high heat on both sides until tender and the flesh becomes white and flaky.  Let the fish cool and place into a food processor.  Pulse it into small pieces, but avoid over processing; the cakes will need some texture.  Place processed fish into a bowl, add ginger, cilantro, chili pepper, curry spices, and sea salt.  Mix well.  Stir in the egg, then the bread crumbs.  Form equal portions of the mixture into cakes of desired size (4 is perfect).

Heat the coconut oil in a skillet over medium heat.  Brown each side of the fish cakes, continuing to cook them until they are hot all the way through.  Remove from pan and serve with mango salsa.

I found that some of my cakes fell apart while cooking and others didn’t.  Make sure you really mix in the egg and bread crumbs.  With the tweaks these will be really good. Rob loved them even though he could barely handle the spiciness.  Be careful with your salt and peppers and you’ll be good to go.  Happy cooking!

So I had a bit of an epiphany last night while I was sitting in a lecture on digital marketing (woo hoo yay I know).  I was thinking to myself, what is my thing with cooking?  What do I do that’s unique?  And it occurred to me that when I’m not cooking out of a healthy cookbook, I take regular old recipes and transform them into healthy, real food meals.  Lots of recipes call for canned goods and sauces and things that are processed but I rarely use those ingredient, I substitute real food in.  So, I want to get you, the reader, involved.   Send me a recipe that you think looks delicious but may not be the healthiest thing on the planet, and I will transform it into a healthy, real food recipe.  I’ll make its, taste test it, and then share it on my blog and let you know if its a win or a lose.  If you live close by, I may even invite you over to taste test it!  Email your recipes to theunrefinedpantry@gmail.com.  I look forward to your submissions!

~Laura

I’ve been taking soups and stews for lunch recently so I decided to try something new when I came across this quinoa salad recipe.  Every time I eat this I’m left wanting a second helping.  There are so many different tastes in it you can’t get bored with it! I made a double recipe of it because it’s only supposed to serve 2 or 3.  I’m not sure I needed that much.  I gave Rob a bunch to take home with him!

1 1/2 cups quinoa

1 tablespoon ground turmeric

1 crisp apple, cut into small chunks

3 celery stalks, cut into thin half-moons

1 small red onion, minced

1/2 cup fresh cilantro, roughly chopped

1/2 cup fresh parsley, roughly chopped

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1 to 2 tablespoons raw cider vinegar

1 tablespoon whole cumin seeds, toasted

1 teaspoon ground coriander seeds

Unrefined sea salt

1/4 cup raw pumpkin seeds

1/4 cup pomegranate seeds (if available)

Before preparing this recipe, it is very beneficial (but optional) to soak and sprout the quinoa.  I did not have time to do this with mine but I will give you the directions for both ways:

Soaking the quinoa:

Soak the quinoa in a bowl in 3 cups of water.  Lit it sit at room temperature for 2 hours, then strain and rinse well.  Return the strained quinoa to a bowl and let it sit at room temperature for another 8 to 12 hours.  You should see little tails shooting out of each little quinoa seed.  Rinse again.  In a sauce pot, bring 2 3/4  cups water to a boil, then add the quinoa.  Cover and simmer over medium heat for a total of 10 minutes, but around 5 minutes into cooking, add the turmeric to the water.  Once done cooking, turn off the heat and let sit, covered, for 5 minutes before emptying the quinoa into a bowl. Cool to room temperature.

Not soaking the quinoa:

Bring 3 cups of water to a boil in a sauce pot, then pour in the quinoa and lower the heat.  Simmer covered for 12 to 15 minutes.  Repeat the same final steps described above, adding the turmeric and letting it cool.

Once the quinoa has fully cooled (I put mine in the freezer cause I didn’t want to wait), stir in the apple, celery, onion, cilantro and parsley.  Stir in the olive oil and apple cider vinegar.  Season with the cumin and coriander, and a touch of sea salt, as desired.  Garnish with the pumpkin seeds and pomegranate seeds, if available.

This is a good one.  I hope you all enjoy it as much as I have been this week!  Happy cooking!

Mary has kindly written a review of her evening in my kitchen.  Yay, my first review!  Read it here:

“With school soon to be behind me, I decided I would start cooking a meal once a week.  Now, for a girl who barely cooks two meals a year (unless you count those gourmet microwave dinners), this was going to be no easy feat.  Luck would have it though that one of my nearest and dearest MBA partners in crime, Laura, had started a cooking blog!  Not only was it healthy and delicious looking food, but this girl is just as busy as I am, so doable.  Shortly after this decision, during a “post-MBA plans” discussion, I mentioned my upcoming culinary journey as well as my desire to practice my underdeveloped photog skills… Wait a second – cue light bulb – why not spend a night with Chef Cepeda herself and do both?  And so, my MBA afterlife was jumpstarted with a swift kick in the buds (of the taste variety) from some Japanese curry.

Let me give you just a little background before we get to the good, and I mean tasty-delicious-mouth-watering good, stuff.  Going into this, Laura posed the question, and I quote, “Hmmm what’s your fav thing ever?”  Now, I don’t know about you folks, but along with my “fav things ever” come some serious standards, but no, that didn’t scare this girl off.  After tossing around a few ideas, you could almost hear her inner Iron Chef exclaim “challenge accepted!” as she chose the recipe that she had never made before… Japanese curry.

Which brings us to last night.  Veggies were chopped, seasonings were sprinkled, and rouxs were rouxed.  You heard me.  My desire to take acceptable pictures slightly outweighed my desire to take acceptable cooking notes, so please see Laura’s post for additional details.  After way too much fun was had during the food photo shoot, we finally sat down to take a bite. Now, let us remember earlier when I mentioned that this is one of my favorite foods, so, you know, standards… Perfection!  I do not use that word lightly, but I, without a doubt, was eating the best Japanese curry I have ever had!  I know what you’re thinking, “clearly she’s never had *insert Japanese curry restaurant here*.” Well guess what, clearly you’ve never had Laura Cepeda’s homemade curry.  It was just spicy enough, full of flavor, and more than you could ever ask for from a plate of curry.  As soon as I am able to work up some culinary courage, this will be the first meal I try!”

~Mary Colleran (Yelp’s Mary C.)

I’m getting ready to head out of town for the holidays so I’m trying to eat all the food in my frige. I got an acorn squash in my last box so I decided to fix it for dinner last night. I LOVE squash but I usually just bake it and eat it plain and that’s too boring for a cooking blog. So this is what I came up with!

Only three ingredients! Super quick and easy!  This recipe is from Allrecipes.com.

My squash was a little on the small side so I didn’t use quite as much of the ingredients.

I also think I over cooked it a little.  I did what the recipe said for a normal sized squash. It was still good though.

1 medium acorn squash

1 tablespoon butter

2 tablespoons brown sugar

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Turn acorn squash upside down onto cookie sheet.  Bake in a 350 degree oven until it begins to soften, approximately 30 to 45 minutes.

3. Remove squash from the oven and turn onto a plate so that the flesh is facing upwards.  Place butter and brown sugar into the squash, and place remaining squash  over the other piece.  Place squash in a baking dish.

4. Place squash in the 350 degree oven and bake another 30 minutes.  Remove, spoon squash from skin and serve.

There you go!  Quick and easy side dish!  Happy cooking!