mexican fish stew

Adapted from Food Network Magazine

Ingredients:

1 pound tilapia fillets, cut into four pieces
Salt and pepper
2 limes, juiced
1/2 pound new potatoes, cut into 1/4 inch coins
1 cup frozen corn
2 tablespoons olive oil
11/4 cups white onion
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 tablespoons chili powder
1 bunch of cilantro leaves and soft stems, chopped, divided
15 oz can fire roasted tomatoes
Salt and pepper, to taste

Directions:

1. In a shallow dish, season fish with salt and pepper, add juice of limes, combine, set aside
2. Meanwhile, place potatoes in a medium sauce pan on high heat, cover with water and season with 1 teaspoon salt
3. Bring water to a boil, once boiling add corn, cook for 8 minutes
4. Reserve 1 cup of water, drain the remaining, set water, corn, and potatoes aside
5. Meanwhile, in a large skillet, over medium-high heat, add 2 tablespoons olive oil, add 1/2 cup onion and dried thyme, cook for 2 minutes
6. Add garlic, chili powder and half of the cilantro, cook for 2 minutes
7. Add the tomatoes, cook for 2 minutes
8. Add potatoes, corn and reserved liquid, stir to combine
9. Add fish and and lime marinade, spoon liquid over fish until cooked through, about 5 minutes
10. Add remaining onion, cilantro, and sugar
11. Season with salt, if necessary

brown butter, toasted pine nut, and date couscous

More couscous recipes? This guy is loco. I forgot to take a picture, this is what was left on my son’s plate.

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons pine nuts
1/3 cup dates, cut into 1/4 inch pieces
1 cup uncooked couscous
1/4 cup dry white wine
1 1/2 cups chicken stock
1 tablespoon lemon juice
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. In a small sauce pan, heat butter over medium-low heat until lightly browned
2. Add pine nuts, cook until golden and butter has darkened
3. Stir in dates and couscous, cook for one minute
4. Add white wine and chicken stock, stir and bring to a boil
5. Remove from heat and cover for 5 minutes
6. Fluff with a fork and add lemon juice
7. Season with salt and pepper to taste

crispy flounder with roasted tomato caper relish

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons capers
1 tablespoon plus 2 tablespoons olive oil
1 pint cherry tomatoes
1/4 basil, thinly sliced
1 cup panko bread crumbs, on a plate
1 cup flour, on a plate
2 eggs beaten, in a shallow dish
4 flounder fillets
Salt and pepper

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 F
2. In a small baking dish, combine capers, olive oil, and tomatoes
3. Sprinkle with salt and pepper
4. Bake for 20 minutes, remove from oven and add basil
5. Meanwhile, season fish liberally with salt and pepper
6. Place fish in flour, pat off excess
7. Place in floured fish in beaten egg
8. Finally, coat fish in panko
9. Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large nonstick skillet, fry fish 3 minutes per side
10. Season fish with salt and add tomato relish

shrimp week

Come away with me, my little delta boy

I wanna be your delta momma for a while

And if you stay you’ll see

That I bring you lots of joy

I turn those little teardrops to a smile

“Delta Momma Blues” by Townes Van Zandt

I have a bunch of shrimp recipes I would like to share this week.  Admittedly, none of the pictures this week are that spectacular (I guess my shrimp were repeatedly camera shy).  All of the recipes this week are simple and quite good.

lemon, dill, and caper cream cheese

He ended up like so many of ‘em do

Back in the streets of New York City

In a soup queue, a dope fiend, a slave

Then prison, then the mad house

Then the grave, oh, poor Larry

But what do we really know of the dead

And who actually cares?

“Dig, Lazarus, Dig!” by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds

This compound cream cheese recipe is really meant for the gravlax that I made earlier this week. I thought it would be good to create a recipe that would incorporate all of the traditional lox breakfast accoutrements inside of the cream cheese. I don’t know about you, but it really pisses me off when I bite into my lox and have capers rolling all over my plate and onto the floor. Have I mentioned that I am not that graceful?

Now that we have the cream cheese taken care of, what the hell are we going to spread this stuff on? Don’t worry, the bagel recipe will be coming up in a few days…

Ingredients:

8 oz brick of cream cheese
2 tablespoons fresh dill, minced
1 lemon, zested
¼ cup of capers chopped
¼ teaspoons black pepper

Directions:

1.    Soften the cream cheese with a fork
2.    Add all of the ingredients
3.    Serve on a bagel with those tasty gravlax

cornmeal blinis with gravlax and chive lemon crème fraîche

He’s a man obsessed

He couldn’t be a lover so now he’s a pest

He played the game but he failed the test

He’s a man obsessed

He’s a pest

“Man Obsessed” by Daniel Johnston

Another recipe from the CIA…

Can’t find crème fraîche? Make your own! Just combine two cups of milk with two tablespoons of buttermilk. Cover with plastic wrap and leave it sit out over night, this mixture will last a couple of weeks in the fridge.  The blinis can be frozen on parchment, in a freezer bag, they last about six months.

Ingredients:

½ cup crème fraîche
1 tablespoon lemon zest
2 tablespoons chives, minced
1.5 oz. flour
2 tablespoons fine-ground yellow corn meal
½ cup milk
1 large egg yolk
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1 large egg white
4 oz. gravlax, thinly sliced

Directions:

1.    Combine chives, crème fraîche, and lemon zest in a small bowl, season with salt and pepper, cover and refrigerate
2.    Combine the cornmeal and the flour in a bowl, mix well
3.    Add milk and egg yolk to the flour/cornmeal until combined, season with salt and pepper
4.    Beat egg white until it reaches soft peaks
5.    Gently fold the egg whites into the corn meal mixture
6.    Heat a large sauté pan over medium high heat, coat with olive oil and heat until hot
7.    Spoon about 1 tablespoon of batter into the pan and cook until the edges set
8.    Flip and cook for about one more minute and transfer to a paper towel to cool
9.    Top blini with crème fraîche mixture and a rolled up slice of gravlax, garnish with two small sticks of chives

gravlax

Well, that’ll be the day, when you say goodbye

Yes, that’ll be the day, when you make me cry

You say you’re gonna leave, you know it’s a lie

Cause that’ll be the day when I die

“That’ll Be The Day” by Buddy Holly

Gravlax is a cured salmon dish that is most commonly found in the Scandinavian countries of Northern Europe.  While recipes differ, they usually have some combination of salmon, salt, sugar, and dill.  I got the inspiration for creating gravlax (and the recipe) from my February trip to the Culinary Institute of America.  The biggest obstacle for not creating this sooner was getting my hands on the Aquavit.  Aquavit is a Scandinavian liquor made from potatoes and seasoned with caraway, anise, dill, and coriander.  Be brave and try this recipe, most of the challenge is the waiting.  When you get to the flipping stage, I would suggest flipping in the morning after breakfast and the evening before bed time, which is roughly 12 hours, that way there will be no neglected salmon in your life.

Ingredients:

Cheesecloth
1 whole salmon fillet, pin bones removed (usually about 30 per large fillet)
¾ cup brown sugar
1 cup kosher salt
4 tablespoons Aquavit
Dill fronds as needed
2 lemons, zested
1 orange, zested
2 tablespoons caraway seeds, toasted and cracked

Directions:

1.    Lightly score skin of the fish about one inch apart
2.    Place a wire cooling rack inside a 9×13 pan, line the rack with enough cheesecloth that can be wrapped around the salmon
3.    Mix sugar, salt, caraway seeds, Aquavit, orange and lemon zest, place half of the mixture evenly on the cheesecloth into a shape just larger than the salmon
4.    Lay dill fronds on top of the salt mixture
5.    Place the salmon on top, flesh side down
6.    Cover the skin and exposed sides with the remaining salt mixture and more dill
7.    Fold the cheesecloth over the top to form a tight package, cover with plastic wrap
8.    Place at least 15 pounds of weights (large canned goods work well), refrigerate for 24 hours
9.    Unwrap the salmon from the cheesecloth, remove the wire rack and scrape any leftover salt mix/dill into the brine and rewrap the salmon into the cheesecloth
10.    Lay the wrapped salmon into the brine in the pan flesh side down, cover with plastic wrap and re-weight
11.    Refrigerate for three more days, flipping the fish every 12 hours
12.    Remove the salmon from the brine and rinse off any residual dill or brine with cool water
13.    Wrap the salmon tightly and refrigerate until ready to serve
14.    Salmon lasts up to a month or can be frozen

house vinaigrette

My mom would give me twenty and say “stay out till dawn”

When her boyfriend was over and they wanted me gone

I would walk through the woods to the old graveyard

And roll my own Tops and think two kinds of thoughts

Are we high enough to clear these trees

I don’t know

“Pittsburgh” by Mason Jennings

This is my final recipe for chopped salad week…

When I chop up my salad on Sunday afternoon I also prepare a nice big jar of vinaigrette.  I love making my own salad dressing for a number of reasons.  First, it’s cheap, making a big jar of your own vinaigrette probably costs about seventy percent less than buying something from your local megamart.  Second, it’s better, you will never find a vinaigrette from the grocery store that tastes better than your own. Last, it can be as simple or complex as you want it to be, sometimes my vinaigrette may have four ingredients (including salt), sometimes it may have over ten (fresh or dried herbs, spices, champagne vinegar, molasses, Worcestershire, etc.), it all depends what you feel like doing.

Ingredients:

3/4 cup cider vinegar
3/4 cup olive oil
2 medium shallots, minced
1/4 cup Dijon mustard
1/4 cup honey

Directions:

1. Place all of the ingredients in a large mason jar
2. Shake
3. Season with salt and pepper

talapia with pasta and tomato cream sauce

Fast cars, fine ass, these things will pass

And it won’t get more profound

Time is a game, only children play well

How can I love you

If you won’t lie down

“How Can I Love You (If You Won’t Lie Down)” by The Silver Jews

It should be really titled tomato cream sauce with noodles and some random seafood, this all about the tomato sauce. The recipe is adapted from the Girl and The Fig cookbook.   The Girl and the Fig is a wonderful little establishment headed by Sondra Bernstein in Sonoma. The restaurant is famous for creating wonderful French country culinary treasures.  I received the cookbook from my in-laws, signed by Bernstein (signed cookbooks are my annual Christmas gift, which I love!). If you have a couple of spare bucks, buy the cookbook it has some great recipes that most anyone could master.

Ingredients:

For Sauce:

4 extremely ripe tomatoes, cut in half
3 cloves of garlic smashed
1 tablespoon plus 2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1/3 cup heavy cream
Salt and pepper

For fish and pasta:

4 talapia filets
Salt and pepper
¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
Olive oil
12 oz. fettucini (I made my own, we’ll talk about that later)

Directions:

For sauce:

1.    Preheat oven to 375° F
2.    In a large bowl, combine tomatoes, garlic, 1 tablespoon of olive oil, and vinegar, mix until everything is evenly coated
3.    Spread tomato mixture onto a baking sheet, cook for 35 minutes
4.    Let the mixture cool, add to a food processor, also add 2 tablespoons of olive oil, heavy cream, and salt and pepper
5.    Pulse mixture until thoroughly combined
6.    Strain mixture, season with salt and pepper if necessary
7.    Set aside

For fish and noodles:

1.    Boil noodles in a large pot with salted water
2.    Coat a medium sauté pan with olive oil, heat over medium-high heat
3.    Season fish with salt, pepper, and pepper flakes
4.    Add fish, cook for about three minutes per side, reserve
5.    Drain noodles, add back to pot, add all but ¼ cup of the tomato cream sauce
6.    Heat noodles and cream sauce over high heat until it thickens
7.    Remove from heat and top with fish, pour remaining tomato cream sauce over fish

baby octopus salad with jalapeno lime vinaigrette

We hear them… sayin’

How you get a rude and a-reckless?

Don’t you be so crude and a feckless

You been drinking brew for breakfast

Rudie can’t fail, no, nooo

“Rudie Can’t Fail” by The Clash

My second informative video!  I went to my fish monger looking for calmari to make a grilled salad.  The fish man told me they were sold out of calamari but he did have some baby octopus.  He showed me how to clean them out and ensured me the flavor was similar.  He was right, the salad was great and the baby octopus were not very hard to clean.  Humor me by checking out round two of my low budget seafood cleaning movies.

Ingredients:

1 lb baby octopus, cleaned and split into head and tentacle (see below for my informative video)
1/4 cup olive oil plus 1/2 cup of olive oil
1 clove of garlic, minced
1/2 red onion, chopped and soaked in ice water for 30 minutes (removes the bite)
1/2 of cucumber, chopped
1/2 container cherry tomatoes, halved
1 jalapeno, minced
4 limes, juiced
2 tablespoons brown sugar
Salt and pepper

Directions:

1. Marinate octopus with olive oil,  garlic, and 1 teaspoon salt and pepper to taste, let sit in fridge for 1 hour
2. Meanwhile, make the vinaigrette in a small bowl whisk jalapeno, lime juice, brown sugar, salt and pepper to taste
3. Slowly drizzle and whisk ½ cup olive oil into the jalapeno lime mixture, set vinaigrette aside
4.Preheat grill or grill pan
5. Remove octopus from the fridge and grill for no more than five minutes, place immediately in the fridge to cool down
6. Combine cooled octopus, onion, cucumber, and tomato
7. Slowly add the vinaigrette to the salad, you probably won’t use all of it