Fridays are a different kind of day for me. They are the only day when I am without Danika, my wife. Yep, we work together, and live together. And no, we don’t want to kill each other by the end of each day. We met working together in the film industry, and it would just seem strange now not to be together through the day (and obviously the evenings too). With the birth of Drake, our son, Danika decided to work from the office 3 days a week, and spend two days at home with Drakey. We are lucky enough to be working for a great company, and I get to work from home on Wednesdays. It works fantastically for us. I could never imagine a day when we weren’t together - until these Friday’s came along. Friday is “the other day” that Dani is at home, and unfortunately I have to work from the office. It is just plain odd. I am used to just swirling round in my chair, and seeing her sitting there working away since we share an office, and sit only a few feet apart. The call of “fancy a cuppa?” (would you like a cup of tea?) goes unanswered on Friday. It is just different, and is going to take a lot of getting used to, and in all honesty I doubt I ever completely will.

(more…)

This one sounds a lot more complicated than it actually is. It is actually deceptively simple. First I should note that the salmon looks a touch dry. This one I maybe cooked a couple of minutes longer than I should. There you are. I promised to post all new stuff that I cooked, even if I mess up slightly. The pictures don’t do this justice either. There, excuses excuses… Anyhow. So the salmon. I fancied marinading some salmon, and to me this is one of the best marinades for salmon. It is light, fresh, warm and inviting. It is a mix of Mirin (a rice wine, used for cooking), white miso (soybean paste), grated fresh ginger and rice wine vinegar. All this stuff can be found at a decent grocery store - you don’t even need to go to an Asian market for it (shame, cos we have some great ones here in Seattle). So this marinade gets whisked up until smooth. Before I marinade salmon (or most fish in fact) I like to wrap each fillet in cheesecloth. Why? Well, it helps keep the fish a little cleaner. It also keeps the marinade a bit cleaner too, so you can use it again if you need to. So the salmon gets coated in the marinade, covered, and left in the fridge for a bit. How long you ask.. well, I made this marinade in the morning before work, and cooked it that evening.

(more…)

What no pictures! how do I do a post without pictures. Well, I was cooking at a friends place, and didn’t have my camera with me. Boo hoo. Anyhow, this one really doesn’t need pictures to be honest - most of the recipe is the same as this one: http://mattikaarts.com/blog/?p=83 that I cooked a while back, the only thing that has changed is the fish.

I was in Whole Foods the other day, doing somewhat of a weekly shop (picking up stuff I couldn’t get at Ballard Farmers Market), and was looking for a fish to do with the roasted peppers recipe I did a while back. I had some peppers that had to be used up, and this is a decent dish for a cool day. One thing I do like about the Whole Foods fish counter is variety. So.. looking through the fish. Salmon was out of the question - having that a couple of times this week, and well, a white fish gives better visual contrast to this dish. Halibut? nope.. too expensive, and really not my favorite fish. Their cod didn’t look that great (prev. frozen, and it just didn’t look good). Some sardines might be nice, but so much with this recipe. Hmm… Then I eyed up the Skate wings. “Well, it has been a while since I have had Skate” I thought, and it was pretty reasonably priced too. (er, maybe 10 years since I have had skate). The wings looked decent, already filleted (still on the cartilage though) and had good colour. Well, that was a pretty easy decision really.

(more…)

This one comes straight out of Jamie Oliver ’s “Jamies Kitchen” book. Really tasty, and pretty fast to make. What is more, these wontons are steamed and not deep fried which obviously makes them much healthier too! For copyright reasons, I cannot type the method in - but I can tell you what they contain: Chopped Shrimp, red chili, cilantro, green onions, ginger, garlic, soy sauce, sesame oil. On the side, I decided to serve this just with steamed rice, and a great dipping sauce made by mixing equal parts of housin sauce and sweet chilli garlic jam (both available in the Asian aisle of supermarkets) together.

(more…)

I have to say that I am getting more and more impressed with the seafood counter at the Whole Foods in Bellevue. It isn’t Mutual Fish by any means, however it does have a really great selection of good quality fresh fish (a larger selection that Mutual actually). To top it off the fish guys that I have dealt with know their stuff, and are always chatty. I have found this certainly isn’t the case at all Whole Foods markets though! The new Seattle one, at Denny/Westlake has a tiny fish counter, bad looking fish, and people that could certainly know more about their products. The Bellevue one is convient for a stop in on the way home from work (yes, I admit… I work in Bellevue… ewwwww.) and I have to say gets more of my business than Mutual Fish because of it. I wish Mutual wasn’t completely out of the way for me, since it is in my opinion one of the best fish markets in Seattle. The selection is smaller than Bellevue WH, but the quality is higher, and the people are really good with fish. I still wouldn’t buy mussels or clams from WH though - had a couple of bad tasting batches from them, when Mutual has been consistently excellent.

(more…)

The Wrightfood cookbook has been in the works for quite a while now. I first came up with the idea over a year ago, and have been working on it ever since. The book is far from being done - only about 50% has been written and photographed in fact, but I wanted to get peoples opinions on the food, the photographs, the pacing of the recipes and so forth. Friends have said they love it, but then they would, they are friends. I need as many people as possible to take a look, and to let me know what they think - honestly.

So, here it is. The Wrightfood cookbook. The aim of the book is not to have thousands of recipes (this, as you see it here, is about 50% of what it will contain), but rather just a handful of really well documents quality recipes. Every stage in each recipe is documented with photographs, and decent descriptions. The idea is that a new cook and pick this up, and with little practice produce the food in here. No stone is left unturned, nothing is left to guesswork. The food is simple, clean, tasty and fresh.

http://www.mattikaarts.com/wrightfood/press/wrightfood.pdf - here it is. You will need Adobe reader to view it.

Hope you enjoy it, and let me know what you think.

I have to admit to a huge love of roast chicken. Back in Blightly roasting some kind of meat is a Sunday tradition. Families would get together over a large roast dinner, with meat, potatoes, vegetables, sauces, and a whole bunch of other stuff. If there is one tradition that is country wide, it would be that of Sunday lunch. When you were kids, if you were playing over at a friends house on Sunday, then it was almost expected that you would be there for Sunday lunch. Likewise, if you had friends over, they generally would stay for Sunday lunches too. It was honestly a great way of families to get together. A good sense of community too - people made sure kids were at the dinner table on Sunday. If a chicken was roasted, you would normally have stuffing (sage and onion normally), and bread sauce. Bread sauce sounds funky, but is actually really great. Milk is heated a variety of spices (cloves and onion often), to which breadcrumbs are added to form a thick sauce. Sounds horrible, but tastes great. If you were roasting some beef, you always had to have Yorkshire Puddings or “Yorkies” as they are known. These are really just small batter cakes, that are roasted alongside the meat. I will have to make some soon, and post them on the blog. You always had horseradish sauce with beef too. If you were having lamb, mint sauce was a must. Pork - always apple sauce. Roast dinners were always pretty traditional, not much changed from family to family. Families got together over a good meal and some drinks. No matter how crazy the week was, you always met for Sunday lunch.

(more…)

This one pretty much comes straight from the pages of “The Herbal Kitchen” by Jerry Traunfeld, the owner of the Herbfarm Restaurant. I have to say this book is really growing on me. I have cooked a dozen or so recipes from it, all have been great, dead easy to follow, with accurate cooking information. One thing that kinda bugs with cookbooks is when timings and amounts are just plain inaccurate. Whilst I completely love Jamie Oliver’s cookbooks, a few recipes in those fall foul to this. If you have been cooking a while, it is obviously no problem - you just make the required adjustments, but that isn’t good if you are learning.

 I had seen this recipe in there, and thought about cooking it a few times. For some reason I never did, until yesterday that was. It was one of those “doh, I should have done this earlier” moments for sure. A really flavorful dish, that uses a ton of veggies, and is dead quick to cook. Cannot argue with that really. And to top it off, it uses scallops, one of my favorite critters from the sea. Because of copyright reasons, I cannot talk about how the dish is made.. but I can give you a lowdown on what is in it.

(more…)

I am certainly a big fan of a good steak. I am picky though. A food snob some might say. Well, tough, that is me, and I like quality. I also want a steak that isn’t from a cow that is clinically obese (USDA “prime”) and fed a ton of hormones and other dodgy chemicals. Too much to ask? Not if you ask me. I would also like a steak from a happy cow. Ohh, now that is the hippie in me. I don’t want a cow to have to go through being confined so it cannot move (and thus get bigger quicker), just so I can sink my teeth into some red meat.

 Too much to ask? Nope. Not if you get a steak from Skagit Valley Ranch. Happy cows that live in fields. Cows that are fed grass. Crazy theory.. a ruminant cow that eats grass. Cow’s that aren’t fed antibiotics or hormones. Organic.

(more…)

Blimey. A crazy few weeks. We just got back from a great trip to Holland, to make sure my baby brother (younger by five minutes.. yes, I am a twin) did what he promised - that is to marry his girl. Needless to say it all went off without a hitch, and the bloke is now married. Quite what Marieke (his wife) see’s in him I don’t know! Just kidding.

 Anyhow, it was our first long flight with Drake (now 9months old). He did amazing I have to say. 10 hours on a plane is enough for anyone, and heck I think I was getting more touchy than he was. The trip in the end was fun. It was go go go for a week, as most weddings are. A lot of late nights, that quite honestly didn’t sit well with Drake, but he survived, as did we. He also learnt a new skill whilst we were away - waving. He first waved at the end of a family meal, as everyone was waving at him. Then, walking back to the hotel, a couple of drunk dutch birds called him cute, and he waved at them too. I think we might have a ladies man on our hands!

(more…)