NYC Restaurants, Scrumptious Salmon, and Mmm Mmm Good Mango

Hey All,
Sharon here - the dark, sultry New York City sister. =P So I thought I'd start off my first post like any good city girl with two absolutely amazing NYC restaurants that everyone ought to try...
Number 1 - Pure Food and Wine
www.purefoodandwine.com
It's a raw food restaurant and it is incredible! It's a little bit on the pricey side but is so worth it. The menu has lots of fun intriguing dishes and the wine list features lots of organic and biodynamic wines. Do yourself a favor and try the Chocolate Mousse for dessert it will be the best foodgasm of your life!

Number 2 - Nanoosh
www.nanoosh.com
It's a Mediterranean hummus bar - so delish! Try their sauteed mushroom and hummus wrap with the quinoa salad it's incredibly satisfying. Then rejuvenate and revitalize with a nice warm cup of their mint infusion. The best part is it's also pretty afforable too!

Now even a city girl needs to stay in and cook sometimes. So thought I'd share this incredible recipe I made the other day. It's easy enough for everyday but also fancy enough you can make it for company. It's really fast too!

Mustard and Brown Sugar Rubbed Salmon
recipe found in Prevention Magazine

2 tbsp dark brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp mustard powder
4 salmon fillets (6oz each) skin removed
1 tsp olive oil

1. Stir together sugar, salt, pepper, cumin, and mustard in small bowl. unwrap fish and leave it on paper you bought it in, placing it so side that had skin is down. Press sugar mixture evenly onto fish.
2. Heat oil in large non-stick or cast iron skillet over medium heat. When hot, place fish rub-side down in pan. Cook until rub dissolves and darkens slightly (be careful not to burn), about 4 minutes. Flip fish and cook to medium doneness, about 1 minute.


It's so delicious! I recommend serving it with some quinoa or brown rice and a steamed veggie. The first time I made this I also made a mango salsa to go along which was quite tasty - here is the recipe for that as well...

Mango Avocado Salsa


1 ripe mango
1 avocad0
1/4 to 1/2 red onion
fresh lemon juice
1/8 tsp sea salt
just a dash of red pepper flakes

1. Dice mango, avocado, and red onion.
2. Toss together in a medium sized bowl squeeze lemon juice over mixture. (This adds a nice acidity to the dish as well as keeps the avocado from oxidizing too much)
3. add seasonings to taste.


The sweetness of the mango with the creaminess of the avocado is really nice. To make things even faster just toss all the ingredients in a tupperware dish and shake! shake! shake! Feel free to add anything else for some extra color - a little cilantro or parsley can be really nice to add a fresh bite.


That's all I have for now but stay tuned more fun and delicious recipes will come and until then Happy Cooking!

Creamy Spinach Bisque

Hiya - West Coast sister, Brenda, here. I figured I would get the ball rolling by posting a recipe that I recently made, which was oh-so-yummy and oh-so-healthy.

I found this one in "The Whole Foods Market Cookbook" by Steve Petusevsky and Whole Foods Market Team Members. If you haven't had a chance to look at this book, you really should - it is filled with fantastic healthy recipes. As with any recipes I post, I have modified it the way I modified it when cooking it (at the end I will give suggestions on other modifications).

Creamy Spinach Bisque

Ingredients:
4 tbs butter
1 red onion
2 large leeks (sliced and washed well)
1/4 unbleached all-purpose flour
4 cups vegetable stock
16 oz frozen spinach (thawed and squeezed of any excess water)
3 cups milk
1 pint half and half (or heavy cream)
salt and pepper to taste

Melt butter in a large pot over medium heat. Add onions and leeks. Saute the onions and leeks until soft (the recipe says it should take about 2 minutes - although, I swear it took longer than that).

Add flour and cook for about 2 minutes to form a roux (which I learned from Top Chef, the very night that I cooked this soup, roux is the stuff you get from browning the flour and butter and other ingredients. While the recipe says 2 minutes, I guarantee it will take longer than 2 minutes for any browning to occur).

Add the stock. Cook, stirring constantly, for about 5 minutes, until the mixture is smooth and thickened.

Add the spinach, mik and cream - bring to a simmer. Cook uncovered for about a 1/2 hour. Add salt/pepper to taste and cook for 5 more minutes.

According to Whole Foods, the nutritional info is as follows: 1 cup = 220 calories, 5g protein, 11 g carb and 18g fat.


The soup overall was fairly successful - though I did not watch Top Chef until AFTER I had made the soup and was sitting there, bowl in hand, when I thought "Oh, THAT'S what roux is!" Aaron made a suggestion that, I think I will follow next time, which would be to add potatoes. You could also use chicken stock instead of vegetable stock (the only downside being that it would make the recipe non-vegetarian friendly.)

First Blog to a new life

Hello,

This is the blog of the Stevens Sisters. We are two sisters, living on either side of the country, yet united in one common goal - to find delicious, healthy recipes, food, restaurants, etc wherever we are.

Her are our bios/character breakdowns:

Brenda Stevens - the perky, blonde, California Girl. A dancer/actor turned lawyer who likes to bike to work and go to the Santa Monica Farmer's Market on the weekend.

Sharon Stevens - the dark, sultry, New Yorker. A musical theatre major striving to make it in the cold, hard New York world while taking nutrition classes and better her life.

Here we go. Happy eating!