We have never made baby octopus at home before, but since we have had positive experiences cooking squid at home, we decided to try cooking some octopus. You can find frozen packs of baby octopus at most Asian stores and they are really cheap: I paid $3.50 for a pound pack of frozen octopus at my local ethnic food store.

I like my baby octopus quickly grilled or sauteed so they get a nice crunchy char on them, especially on the tentacles. This recipe is a classic Spanish seafood treatment and can be used on baby squid too if you are a bit too freaked out to cook baby octopus at home. This recipe makes enough for 4 people as a starter at $1.06 per serving.

Baby Octopus with Garlic and Parsley, adapted from Jose Andres’ Tapas: A Taste of Spain in America
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 pound baby octopus, defrosted if frozen
2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
juice of 1/2 lemon
2 tablespoons finely chopped flat leaf parsley
salt to taste

In a griddle, heat 1 1/2 tablespoons of olive oil over a medium heat. Place the baby octopuses in the pan and sear them, without moving them for 3 minutes, then turn them over and cook for another couple of minutes until they are a bit crispy and charred. If a lot of water starts coming out of the octopuses, just remove them and pour out the water and restart the process until the octopuses are cooked. Remove the octopuses from the pan and place them on a large serving dish.

Add the remaining 1 1/2 tablespoons of olive oil and the garlic to a small frying pan and saute for 20 seconds. Remove the garlic from the heat and squeeze the lemon juice over it and stir together. Add the parsley to the mixture, then pour it over the octopus and add salt to taste. Serve the dish immediately.

Whisk together the lemon juice, garlic, and honey in a small bowl. Season the dressing with salt and lots of freshly ground black pepper, and then slowly whisk in the olive oil until well combined.

Place half of lettuce on each plate, and arrange the chickpeas, bell pepper, tomatoes, cucumber, onion, olives, and feta on top in sections. Sprinkle the mint leaves over the salad and then drizzle the dressing over everything.

I was definitely Team Rick Bayless last season, who proved to be one of the smartest and most thoughtful chefs that I’ve had the privilege to watch on TV. Perhaps the art history dork in me loves that he was an anthropology PhD student studying in Mexico City who realized that he was more interested in the street food, and then used his academic background to delve into the history and culture of regional Mexican cuisine. While I long to visit Chicago and eat at all of Rick Bayless’ restaurants, I’ll settle on snacking on some of this incredible Crunchy Tomatillo-Avocado Salsa with tortilla chips while watching tonight’s Top Chef Masters. This recipe makes 2 1/2 cups of salsa which can feed 4 people as a snack at 53 cents per serving.

Crunchy Tomatillo-Avocado Salsa, from Rick Bayless
8 ounces (about 4 medium) tomatillos, husked and rinsed
1/2 cup loosely packed coarsely chopped cilantro
1 small jalape?±o, stemmed and roughly chopped
1 ripe avocado, pitted, and flesh scooped from the skin
1 small onion, cut into 1/4-inch pieces
salt

Roughly chop half of the tomatillos, and put them into a food processor with the cilantro and jalape?±o. Measure in 1/4 cup water and whiz everything to a slushy, coarse puree. Roughly chop half the avocado, add it to the processor and pulse until it is incorporated into the salsa.

Place the salsa into a serving dish and add the finely chopped onions. Finally chop the remaining tomatillos and avocado and stir them into the salsa. Taste and season with salt as needed.

Brussels Sprouts and Smoky Onions on Cheddar Toast, from Food and Wine, January 2010
1 pound brussels sprouts, thinly sliced lengthwise
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 large onion, finely diced
salt and freshly ground pepper
1 teaspoon sweet smoked paprika
4 slices of good bread, toasted
4 ounces extra-sharp cheddar cheese, thinly sliced

Preheat the oven to 350¬?. In a saucepan of boiling salted water, cook the brussels sprouts until they are just tender, about 5 minutes, then drain and pat them dry.

Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a large skillet. Add the onion, season with salt and pepper and cook over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until just softened, about 5 minutes. Add the paprika, cover and cook over low heat, stirring frequently, until the onion is tender, about 10 minutes. If the onion starts to dry out, add a little bit of water to the pan. Add the brussels sprouts to the skillet and cook until they are tender throughout, about 5 minutes. Season the vegetables with salt and pepper to taste.

Arrange the toasts on a baking sheet and top with the slices of  cheddar. Bake them for 2 minutes, or until the cheese is melted to your liking. Serve the dish by mounding the brussels sprouts and onions on top of the cheesy toast.

Pancake Day reminds me of the powerful traditions that food can play in your upbringing. It was always one of my favourite holidays, and I loved how my mum always made pancakes for me, even though my sister and brother never really liked them that much. I’m pretty sure that I’m the only one who is continuing the Pancake Day tradition now in my family and I know that I will make sure that any children we might have will obsess about pancakes as much as I do!

Speaking of family food traditions that only me and one parent enjoyed when I grew up reminds me of my dad’s Bubble and Squeak. Bubble and Squeak is a traditional English dish made of leftover potatoes and cabbage, or in our house brussels sprouts, that you mash together and then cook in a frying pan until it bubbles and then squeaks (hence the name). I grew up with my dad making this for breakfast after every Christmas, and later when we moved to America, after every Thanksgiving. It is one of the few dishes that my dad makes, but it is my favourite. He always adds any other leftover vegetables from the holiday meal like carrot and turnip mash, and the bubble and squeak then gets served with a fried egg, brown sauce, and baked beans to make a mean English breakfast. This breakfast was only ever enjoyed by me, my dad, and occasionally my mum. My little brother would always reserve his leftover roast potatoes so they wouldn’t get used in the bubble and squeak. Although Carlo thinks that the name bubble and squeak is ridiculously English and silly, he always slides up to the dinner table the morning after the holidays for some of my dad’s breakfast goodness.

This Bubble and Squeak Soup gets its name from the combination of brussels sprouts and potatoes, and tastes like a grown up twist on cheese and broccoli soup for any non-English people who have never heard of bubble and squeak! This recipe makes enough for 6 bowls of soup at 91 cents per serving.

Bubble and Squeak Soup with Aged Cheddar, adapted from Riverford Farm Cookbook
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, chopped
4 bacon slices, chopped
1 pound potatoes, peeled and diced
1/2 pound turnips, peeled and diced
1 quart chicken or vegetable stock
1 pound brussels sprouts
2 ounces aged cheddar cheese, grated
sea salt and black pepper

Heat the oil in a large pan, add the onion and cook it for 5 minutes, until softened. Add the bacon and cook for a further 5 minutes. Then add the potatoes and turnip, and cook over a low heat for 10 minutes.

Pour in enough stock so that all of the potatoes are covered by an inch or so. Let the soup simmer for 10 minutes. Add the chopped brussels sprouts, and cook for 10 more minutes. Use an immersion blend to puree the soup. You can take out and reserve a couple cups of vegetables and return them to the puree for a more rustic soup. Season the soup with salt and pepper, and serve topped with grated aged cheddar.

You need Mexican cheese for this recipe, which you can find at some good grocery stores, or you can do what we did and hit up the local Mexican grocery store since it is cheap and plentiful there. This recipe makes enough to feed 6 people as an appetizer at 95 cents per serving.

Queso con Rajas, adapted from Mark Miller’s Tacos
1 1/2 large sweet bell peppers, roasted, peeled, cored and seeded
2 large poblano chiles, roasted, peeled, cored and seeded
3 jalapenos, roasted and seeded
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1/2 small onion, diced
2 teaspoons chopped fresh cilantro
1/4 teaspoon Mexican oregano
pinch of salt
3/4 cup Mexican crema, or sour cream
8 ounces grated queso Oaxaca or Chihuahua cheese
1 1 /2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese

We roasted all of the peppers on the bbq until they were nice and charred on the outside and then peeled and deseeded them. Cut the roasted peppers into 1/4-inch thick strips (rajas) and set them aside.

In a large nonstick skillet, heat the oil over medium heat and saute the onion until translucent, around 3 minutes. Decrease the heat to low, add the bell pepper and chile strips, then stir in the cilantro, oregano, salt, crema, queso, and grated Parmesan. Cook everything over a low heat, stirring continuously until the queso melts, about 5 minutes. Don’t let the mixture brown or scorch. If the queso is a bit too thick, add some more crema until you get the desired texture and thickness.

Remove the queso from the heat and serve immediately with warm tortillas or chips.

Jose Andres, a Spanish chef with outposts in DC and LA, has offered what he calls “the modern way” to make pan con tomate. Instead of rubbing the tomato directly on the bread, you pass it through a grater, then mix the resulting liquid with salt, pepper and some olive oil, and spoon it onto the toast. I think one really great aspect of this method is that it’s not totally dependent on having the most perfectly ripe tomatoes. Because you’re pushing them through the grater, they liquefy a bit and deliver quite a bit more taste than if you rubbed an out of season Roma tomato on toast. Still, it’s worth finding some decent tomatoes so you get a good flavor. This recipe makes enough tapas for 4 people at 37 cents per serving.

Pan Con Tomate, The Modern Way, from Jose Andres’ Tapas: A Taste of Spain in America
2 large ripe tomatoes
4 slices rustic sourdough bread, toasted
extra virgin olive oil to taste
salt to taste

Cut the tomatoes in half. Place a fine grater over a large mixing bowl and rub the open face of the tomatoes onto the grater until all the flesh is grated. Discard the tomato skins. Add a liberal amount of olive oil to the grated tomatoes and season with salt to taste. Mix everything together.

Spoon the tomato-olive oil mixture over the toast to serve. This tomato bread goes really well with a few slices of Manchego cheese.

Throw in some freshly roasted garlic and chiles with a bit of onion and cilantro to make a salsa that is so fresh tasting that it will make you wonder why you even bother to make salsa from raw tomatoes, or even bother to buy salsa in a jar. This salsa recipe is incredibly easy to make and costs around $1.59 for 1 1/2 cups of salsa.

Fire Roasted Tomato Salsa, adapted from Rick Bayless
1 to 2 fresh jalape?±o chiles
3 garlic cloves, unpeeled
1 15-ounce can diced fire roasted tomatoes in juice
1/4 cup (loosely packed) chopped fresh cilantro
1/2 onion, or more to taste
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice, or more to taste
salt

Roast the chiles and garlic in a small ungreased skilled over medium heat. Turn the spices every so often until they are soft and charred on the outside, about 10 minutes or so. Let them cool and then peel the garlic, remove the stem from the chiles, and coarsely chop them up.

Put the roasted garlic and chiles in a food processor and whiz them up. Add the fire roasted tomatoes with their juices, chopped onion, and cilantro to the food processor and pulse until you have a nice coarse puree. Squeeze in enough lime juice to taste and season with a bit of salt.

Whenever we go back to Texas, we always get queso wherever we go because you simply just can’t find it anywhere else in the country or world, or at least anything that tastes remotely similar. Even my sister Alison who left Texas for Europe seven years ago can’t resist the siren call of queso, even though she says that she has learned to live without Tex-Mex in Scotland.

Vegas is a queso wasteland. We’ve got some good queso fundidos here, but it just isn’t the same. Whole Foods used to carry a fresh queso made in Austin that was pretty satisfying, but unfortunately they stopped carrying it. Now that the college football season is in full swing, there is nothing more satisfying than sitting down to cheer on the Longhorns with a ton of queso, salsa, and chips accompanied by a frosty Shiner Bock.

Last weekend, I made this incredibly simple Hatch Green Chile Con Queso for the Texas game. Carlo and I devoured the entire batch in the first quarter, I think. I’m not promising Magnolia Mud ecstasy with this recipe, but for any displaced Texan out there looking for a little taste of home, make the queso. I don’t think you will regret. This recipe serves 2 queso fiends (more if you aren’t pigs like me and Carlo) and is priceless for anyone missing Texas.

Hatch Green Chile Con Queso, from Central Market
1 medium tomato, seeded and chopped
2 Hatch green chiles, roasted, peeled, deseeded, and chopped, or one small can of roasted Hatch green chiles
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
1 1/2 cups grated sharp cheddar cheese
1/4 cup sour cream, plus more to thin out the queso as needed

In a saucepan, melt the cheese over a low heat. Add the sour cream and stir the queso continuously to prevent it from scorching. Stir in the tomato, chiles, and garlic powder. Keep on a low heat until everything becomes gooey and is well combined. If you need to thin out the queso, add some extra sour cream until you find the perfect consistency. I just kept on adding in some extra cheese and sour cream until the queso was how I like it.

Sadly there is no Soup Peddler-equivalent in Vegas, but I did make a HUGE pot of soup last week that was just as delicious as anything that we ordered from him. This Soupe Au Pistou, or Provencal Vegetable Soup, is crammed full of veggies and has a mellow depth to it from the added saffron. But what really makes the soup is the pistou, a twist on pesto but with the addition of tomato paste. It adds a nice freshness and brightness to the soup so the soup doesn’t taste like just any old veggie soup from a can. Also the soup really fills you up and feels like a real meal so you aren’t starving a couple of hours later.

When I make soup, I normally make a large vat so we can have lunch for a few days and then I also put the soup in individual serving sized containers and freeze them for a later date. This soup freezes really well, which is good since the recipe makes enough for 8 large bowls of soup at $1.71 per serving.

Soupe Au Pistou
Soup:
2 tablespoons good olive oil
2 chopped onions
3 chopped leeks, white and light green parts
1 pound 1/2-inch-diced unpeeled boiling potatoes
1 pound 1/2-inch-diced carrots
1 1/2 tablespoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
3 quarts homemade chicken stock or canned broth
1/2 teaspoon saffron threads
1/2 pound green beans, ends removed and cut in half
4 ounces spaghetti, broken in pieces

Pistou:
4 large garlic cloves
1/4 cup tomato paste
24 large basil leaves
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan
1/2 cup good olive oil

Heat the olive oil in a large stockpot, and add the onions. Saute them over a low heat for around 10 minutes, or until the onions are translucent. Add the leeks, potatoes, carrots, salt, and pepper to the pot and saute them over medium heat for another 5 minutes.

Add the chicken stock and saffron to the mix. Bring everything to a boil, then let it simmer uncovered for about 20-25 minutes, or until all of the veggies are tender. Add the green beans and spaghetti to the pot, bring to a simmer, and cook for 10 more minutes.

To make the pistou, whiz together the garlic, tomato paste, basil, Parmesan, and olive oil in a food processor until everything is mixed to create a paste. To keep its colour when you put the pistou in the fridge, place it into a container and pour a light film of olive oil on top and cover the container with a lid.

Finish off the soup by stirring 1/4 cup of the pistou into the hot soup, then season to taste with salt and pepper.

Serve the soup by topping each bowl with a big dollop of pistou to complete the dish.