Terrible Fish

At the farmer's market today, cute Taylor Fujita was working for Alicia and Ric.  She was obviously briefed to try to move the Orka or something like that.  I had never had the fish and she is so darn sweet, I took her recommendation for the fun of it.

I baked it with some herbs and spices and oils.

  

UGH!  Tough and chewy and dry, we opened up some A1 and treated it like pork.

Thank goodness the potatoes and greens with shallots, tomatoes and garlic and almonds and balsamic vinegar were delicious.

Halibut Tacos with Cilantro Chutney and Feta

Made up how to do this tonight.

Needs Refinement, but tasted good.

1. Set Oven to 400 degrees

2. Rub Halibut with olive oil.  Fresh ground pepper and crumbled Mexican Oregano.

Place on baking sheet and cover with foil.

Stick in oven and set timer for 10 minutes.

3. Meanwhile, in a blender

Mix up:

1 small container of Brown Cow Creme Top Whole Yogurt

About 7 or so Raw Cashews

One smashed clove of garlic

Handful of Fresh Cilantro Leaves

1/2 a handful of Lemon Basil

1/4 a handful of Fresh Mint Leaves

Juice of a Lemon

Blend and salt to taste.

4. Mince up some of B.D.'s mini green onions and crumble a bit of fresh feta.

5. At 10 minutes, check fish.  I put it back in for 3 more minutes.  Then I removed fish from oven and turned on the broiler.  I put the fish under there for 3 minutes.

6. Meanwhile, heat some olive oil in a pan and fry up some of those delicious sprouted corn tortillas.

7. To serve, put a tortilla on a plate. Place some fish on top.  Pour some cilantro chutney and sprinkle with scallions and feta.  (Toasted almonds would have been perfect here too).

Ginger Steamed Golden Sea Bass with Greens; Side of Roasted Lemon Verbena Potatoes

I have not had meat for about 4 weeks.  Fish seemed a reasonable route to see if I wanted it again and notice how I felt.

My little brother moved in from across the country yesterday and I have found myself in the position of "head chef" of my new 3 person household and this is what we made tonight.  

The men in my life love carbs. You could serve this dish with rice, but both Eric and Geordie love potatoes. Also, since this was an experiment, I knew that if it failed, at least they would be happy with the potatoes.   (If Marty Nation was cooking we could have had that amazing potato puree he used to make at the IRON PAN...oh! I miss those!)

Roasted Potatoes

1. Heat Oven to 400.
2. Scrub Little Red Potatoes (from Farmer's Market)
3. Thinly Slice
4. Toss with Favorite Olive Oil, crumbled Dried Lemon Verbena (from BD) and Freshly ground Pepper
5. Lay out on Baking Sheet in Single Layer
6. Bake for about 30 to 40 minutes until desired crispiness is achieved.

The Fish

1. Mince too much ginger.  Mince or smash 3 cloves or more if you prefer of garlic.  Wash and thinly slice 1/2 bunch of scallions all the way into the deep greens.
2. Wash greens.  Tonight we used a combo of dandelion greens and baby bok choy.  I was looking for mustard greens, but to no avail.  I left the stems whole.  (I might at some mustard seed to the dish to get this...but the wasabi served at the end pulled it together).
3. In a large Pan (I used a Crueset Enameled Cast Iron) heat toasted sesame oil.  When hot, add garlic and ginger and some red pepper flakes if desired.  Saute briefly until fragrant.  Add the greens, tamari soy sauce (or other favorite), rice wine vinegar and toss.  Cook until they start to wilt, about 3 minutes.  Lay fillets of Golden Sea Bass on top.  (I split the fillets into half pieces so they were smaller).  Shake a little extra soy sauce onto fish and rub in.  Sprinkle scallions on top.  Cover.  Set timer to 10 minutes.
4. Meanwhile, mix the wasabi powder with water as directed and let sit for 5 minutes to make Wasabi.
5. Meanwhile, pan toast whole slice almonds in a little olive oil.
6. When potatoes are done, remove.
7. Check Fish at 10 minutes.  Tonight I set the timer for 3 more minutes and that was PERFECT.  Moist, flaky and infused with the ginger flavor.
8. To serve, arrange potatoes on plate.  Scoop fish and greens next to potatoes.  Sprinkle with  little lemon zest.  (My brother does not like lemon zest and went for the juice instead).  Sprinkle with the roasted almonds.  Serve with wasabi and soy sauce.  
9. I think it would have been better to make a "sauce" of the wasabi and soy to dip the fish into....Next iteration to be revealed soon, I suppose.

Leftover Halibut Tacos

We had some fish left over from last night's Halibut cooked in Coconut meal.  So we made it into tacos.

1. In a blender, blend 1 inch or so of roughly chopped ginger, 1 clove garlic, 5 or so cashews, an entire bunch of cilantro, several sprigs of mint, a small container of plain Brown Cow yogurt, juice of 2 small limes and salt to create a green chutney.

2. Pull out Halibut from fridge and break up into pieces.

3. Fry up one side of those Delicious sprouted corn tortillas from Rainbow Bridge in a little olive oil.  (Fry on at a time to serve and eat).

4. To serve, break fish up onto tortilla scooping some remaining sauce on top and pour desired amount of cilantro chutney on top.

YUM! Thank you John and Shani for the Halibut!!!

Halibut Baked in Coconut Milk Curry

We defrosted the second piece of Halibut from Shani and John.  I came home thinking that a Lemon Grass Jalapeno Shallot kind of thing baked in coconut milk would be good, but after cruising around on line and looking up recipes,  ended up doing this:

1. Heat Oven 350 degrees.  Use a  Oven Proof Creuset flat bottomed saute pan for this.

2. 1/4 sliver and saute a yellow onion.  Once browned, add some minced garlic, 1/2 a seeded (or not) jalapeno, and minced ginger.  Saute for 2 more minutes.  Add Spice Mixture.

3. Spice Mixture

4tbl or so of coriander

1/2 tbl of cumin

ground together in spice grinder

mixed with:

1 tsp of smashed (loosely ground) fennel

1/4 tsp of Cayenne

1/4 tsp of tumeric

1/4 tsp of freshly ground pepper

1 tsp of salt

4. Stir and add a chopped perfectly rip heirloom and some halved orange cherry tomatoes from Tutti Frutti.  Allow to cook until tomatoes break down and sauce becomes "lumpy" as one recipe called it.

5. Meanwhile, Cut the giant fillet that Shani's husband John caught into four 2"+ pieces. Rub with oil and squeeze a little lemon on it.  Place on a baking sheet and bake in oven from 8 to 10 minutes.

6. Once tomatoes sauce has gotten "lumpy", add 1/2 can of coconut milk and simmer for another 5 minutes or so.

7. When fish is 1/2 baked, remove and add to pan with sauce.  Cover and put in oven for 10 minutes.  (Longer if fish is not cooked when you check).

8. Serve with Lemongrass Rice.  Cilantro would be the obvious herb to sprinkle on top, but we have a lot of Steve's amazing basil, so we used that and it was Delicious.

the white and green meal

i was in FnC yesterday thinking about getting fish and Shani and I got into a conversation about Pismo Beach and the Crab Shack.  She mentioned that her husband John had just come back from a fishing trip and she had too much halibut.  Score!  

So tonight we cooked it.

1. Set Oven to 400 degrees.

2. Mush mashed Garlic from Steve;s Farm and Good Salt with smashed cardamon pods, dried curry leaves, Mexican oregano,  freshly ground pepper and olive oil.  

3. Slather fish in mixture.

4. Place fish on shallow cookie sheet and cover with foil.

5. Place in oven. Set timer for 8 minutes.

6. Meanwhile, grind cardamon seeds with some allspice seeds and a few dashes of ground canela (Mexican Cinnamon).

7. Heat Olive Oil in a saute pan.  When Hot, throw in Romano Beans fresh from Steve's Farm.  Cover.  Pay attention to beans, turning as necessary.  When Browned, sprinkle and toss with Spice mixture and pour a liquid of choice into pan and cover to steam.  Tonight all I had was beef broth.  But water, fish broth, veg broth, chicken broth all would have worked.

8. Meanwhile, dice up Cucumber and half of a jalapeno (seed removed if you like) from Steve's Farm, Radishes from B.D, an onion from Dennis. Squeeze lemon or lime on it.  Add some rice wine vinegar.  Add some olive oil, salt and freshly ground peeper and toss.  This is the "condiment or "relish" or "salsa" for the fish.  This was hot and peppery and strong.  Only for a particular palate.

9. Check fish when buzzer goes and put back in or let rest accordingly.

10. Beans are probably done about now.

(thinly sliced fried potatoes would have been good right about now too, but lately i have not been in the mood to give much more than 15 minutes to cooking, so no potatoes)

To serve:

Place Romono Beans on plate.

Place fish kind of on top.

Place a scoop of radish cucumber salsa to side.

Slice of lemon or lime.

A sprinkle of good salt and grind of pepper

This was amazing.  Eric doesn' t like the beans, so those were rejected...but this dish is going to be iterated upon an refined for sure.

Everything expect the spices was LOCAL, organic and spontaneously found.

xo

k

Roasted Swordfish with Mustard Glaze and Herb Red Potatoes wit

Ric of What A Deal Seafood convinced me to try cooking the swordfish like this. On Sunday, he had these big huge cuts of swordfish like a pot roast. And when I asked him how to cook them, he said, "Like a Pot Roast".

Oven to 400.
Baking Sheet prepped with piece of Tinfoil and oiled.

1. Bog 2+ pound piece of swordfish cut like a pot roast.
2. Mix up country Dijon mustard, green peppercorn mustard, tamari soy sauce and olive oil.
3. Stick 3 or 4 Fresh Rosemary Sticks into and through fish. (I did not get them "all the way through")
4. Rub outside of Fish with a 1/2 clove of garlic.

5. Wash and slice up small red potatoes into small wedges. Toss with olive oil, pepper, salt, thyme and Mexican oregano. Scatter around the fish.

6. Pour mustard marinade all over fish.

7. Put fish and potatoes in Oven and set timer for 20 minutes. At 20 minutes, turn pan around and set timer for 10 more minutes. Check Fish. You will most likely need to cook it for at least 10 minutes more, but it depends on your oven. We took it out at about 35 minutes. It was 2 minutes to being cooked. We covered it with tinfoil while rest of food got cooked (10 minutes), and it cooked the rest of itself and mellowed perfectly.

8. Transfer potatoes and fish to a serving platter.
(I would put the bok choy under it next time, but it looked pretty and old skool tonight).

Seared Miso Ahi Tuna with Fennel, Daikon Salad and Leeks

1. Thinly slice one leek from Tutti Frutti.
2. Saute up leek on medium/low heat in olive oil. Set aside when done.
3. Thinly slice 2 fennel bulbs from BD and squeeze with lemon juice.
4. Thinly slice daikon radish from Rainbow and squeeze with lemon from Eric's tree. Create a "salad" with the fennel and the radish on the plates.
5. Grate zest from one or two lemons.
6. Finely chop super thin scallions from B.D.
7. Slice hunk of tuna from Alicia at GeeWhataDeal into four 1" steaks. Smear with Red Barley Miso from Farmer and the Cook. Heat olive oil and once hot, put steaks on. Sear on one side (about 2 minutes and then sear less on the other).
8. To serve, put pieces of fish on top of the radish fennel salad. Scatter leeks, lemon zest and scallions on top. Along side, serve Tamari soy sauce, wasabi, pumpkin seeds. The fish did not need the condiments, but Eric prefers it like that.

Seviche for Kim's Birthday

Kim turned 50 yesterday. She and Jake had been 2 of my primary food muses for the last several years. They went to Argentina for 6 months and came back divorced. Yesterday's gathering to celebrate her birthday was sweet, but I can still feel the mourning for the way it was.

Thank you to What a Deal Seafood, the tomato girl, and B.D for the ingredients.

This made enough Seviche as an appetizer for a group of about 30.

1. The freshest Fish you can get.
I used:
a shy pound of Bay Scallops
a shy pound of Escolar
a shy pound of Shrimps

2. Cut Fish up into 1/4 inch pieces.
Put in Bowl and Squeeze enough Lime Juice to cover.
(The limes I got were really dry and I ended up using 35!)

3. Put the Lime soaking Fish in the Fridge and allow to sit until "cooked". I let the fish sit for 3 hours. If you are used to sushi and trust your fish source, you do not need to let it sit for so long. Since I was bringing this to a party, i leaned on the side of caution. If you are squeamish about it, let it sit up to 6 hours.

4. While fish is "cooking," make the tortilla chips. Cut up store bought flour tortillas into triangular chip shapes. Spread them out and allow them to dry for about 30 minutes. (Make too many chips). In your favorite frying pan, heat about 1/4 inch of oil to hot. You will fry the
tortilla pieces in batches, being attentive to not crowding the pan. Because the top side will be cooking simultaneously, once you flip the chips over (being mindful with the hot oil), they will not need to be fried as long on the second side. Drain on a paper towel and sprinkle some good quality salt on them while they are still hot.

5. While the fish is "cooking," make the salsa. Cut up 4 delicious ripe tomatoes into a dice that looks attractive with your fish and put in a bowl.

6. Mince up 3 Serranos and add to the tomatoes. I only left the seeds in one of them for a little kick, but not too much since it was for a party.

7. Mince up some cilantro, maybe about 3tbl., and add to tomato mixture.

8. Mince up 1/2 a big white onion. To reduce the "onion-i-ness" you can put the onion in cold water and put in the fridge until ready to use, or you can simply put in a strainer and rinse with cold water. Reducing the "onion" helps keep it from overpowering the rest of the flavor. Do not mix the onion into the tomatoes until you are ready to serve.

9. Once fish is done, drain the lime juice and press fish gently against the strainer to remove as much lime juice as you can. Toss the onions into the tomatoes and then gently toss in the fish. Add lots of salt and taste. Yesterday, by community vote, we decided to not add the avocado. The prevailing thought was that it would mellow the flavors too much.

10. I put it into a pretty blue bowl and stuck some of the chips around the sides. I served it with the bowl of chips next to it.

Golden Sea Bass, Venetian Style

The preparation of the fish in this manner is usually refereed to as "venetian style" so if below does not make sense, you can Google "venetian sole" and something similar should come up.

The dish is usually prepared with sole or anchovies.
Lately, I like to make it with golden sea bass from "What a Deal Seafood". Alicia will deliver fish right to your door. You can get on her daily fresh fish email by emailing her at Gwhatadeal@aol.com.

Essentially the sauce is pickled onions, or escehebe in Mexican cooking. The fish is breaded and pan fried and let to sit in the sauce for an hour or two.

1. A day ahead, thinly slice up some pane rustica or ciabatta bread and allow to dry on counter, or same day lightly toast it to create stale, hard pieces that can be ground up to make your own breadcrumbs. (or buy your favorite breadcrumbs)
2. Choose the smallest fillets you can at the market.
   
3. Half the fillets down their "seam" so you are working with smaller pieces of fish
4. Mix enough eggs and a little milk together to soak the fish fillets in. (Ratio might be 6 eggs to 1/2 cup milk). I usually do this first, so they have soaked about an hour by the time I am ready to use them.
5. Thinly slice 1 to 2 big white onions. I like the the look of the whole ring in tact.
6. Heat too much olive oil on low and add onions. (I use my All Clad stainless steal pan). Cook on a low heat for at least 30 minutes until onions are super soft. You do not want to brown and crisp them. I think i usually end up cooking them closer to 45 minutes.
7. Add about a cup of white wine vinegar or a combo of white vinegar and wine. (I have made the mistake of adding too much and it turns out awful, so be shy).
8. Add 2 bay leaves, between 6 and 10 whole black peppercorns, 1/2 cup of water and whatever else you think and allow it to simmer for about 30 minutes longer. You prob. can do this uncovered, but i usually partially cover it.
   
9. As Sauce is cooking, soak raisins in warm water, toast the pine nuts, mince the garlic and chop the parsley. I have no idea how much, i do it visually, but it's prob. about 1/2 cup of soaked raisins, 3/4 cup parsley, 5 cloves and 1 cup pine nuts. But then i always have leftovers of those prep ingredients cuz once I start to make it I hold back a bit.
   
10. Once sauce is done, keep it warm while you bread and pan fry the fish (I have used veggie oil, olive oil, and combo of olive oil and butter, all work) About a minute + on each side or until desired shade of golden brown. Put on the platter you are going to serve it on (no need to drain the oil). Scatter the garlic, most of the raisins, some of the parsley, some of the pine nuts on the fish and pour the onion sauce on top. Scatter the remaining raisins, pine nuts, parsley on top. Cover with tinfoil. Let sit for up to an hour. I have let it sit up to 2 hours and it has been great.

Last night, I messed up the proportions a little and I did not have enough sauce for the fish and it was too dry. So I advise erroring on making too much sauce and then you can hold back as desired.