recipe: porchini mushroom salmon

I don’t really know what inspired this meal, it just kind of came together by accident. I was lucky to find fresh caught salmon for this, as opposed to the usual farm raised fish. Combine that with fresh spinach and mushrooms and it really did come together nicely. I realized after I finished eating it, it was one of those meals I really should have taken notes on what I was doing. A really good sized fry pan will allow you to actually cook the whole thing in one pace rather than having to dirty a bunch of dishes. Don’t feel obligated to follow the directions exactly though, because it would be equally as well to serve the elements separate too.

Salmon fillet
porchini mushrooms
spinach
shallot
garlic
black pepper
large skillet

Dice the mushrooms, garlic and shallot and cut the spinach
Place the salmon fillet skin down in the skillet and begin to cook it over medium heat
Season the top of the fish with black pepper
Once the fish begins to cook place the veggies on either side of the fish in the skillet and season the veggies with black pepper
Allow the spinach to wilt and the mushrooms to reduce in size (right to the point of browning)
If necessary, cover the frying pan to help combine flavors and speed cooking, also (such as using a non-stick pan) add a little bit of oil to prevent sticking
Once the veggies are reduced and the fish is cooked through and its skin crispy, remove from heat.

I served by plating the fish and then topping the fillet with the veggies, the favors came together surprisingly well and offered different mouth textures during each bite rather than eating the veggies and fish separately. As stated earlier though, they can easily be done separately.

recipe: garlic-tarragon flounder

Fancy this, back-to-back recipe posts. After returning from a long, exhausting hike up north, there wasn’t much energy left to cook and this is a super easy, super quick meal. Any white fish will work with this, flounder was just how I came up with the basic recipe and it is still my preference for cooking it. It is important when working with a delicate tasting fish like flounder not to go too heavy on the complimenting flavors, however, feel free to get a little more potent with it if you opt for cod or other more bold white fish. As for the peas, I highly suggest the frozen ones over canned, or even really, fresh. Believe it or not, they seem to keep that sweet flavor much better when flash frozen than when sent to the market “fresh” – if you have to use canned, be forewarned, there’s no cooking, just re-heating so be careful timing things.

flounder fillets
butter
garlic
shallot
tarragon
white wine
black pepper
skillet
peas (frozen)
small pot
metal collenar or steamer insert

Finely chop the garlic and most of the shallot cloves, coarser chop and reserve the rest of the shallot
Begin boiling water in the small pot
Place the finely chopped in a skillet with a small pad of butter and melt over low heat allowing butter to melt and the flavors of the garlic and shallot to combine
Place the peas and the shallot in the collenar
Pepper one side of the fillet, place in the skillet, pepper the other side of the fillet
Place the collenar over the boiling water and begin to steam the peans and shallot
Turn the fillet only once during the cooking to cook through, do not allow the garlic / shallots to burn!
Remove the fillet from skillet and set aside
Deglaze the skillet with white wine
Add the chopped fresh tarragon to the skillet
Add additional butter as necessary to achieve consistency while reducing the liquid by at least half
Remove the peas and shallots from the steamer when the peas are warmed / cooked through and the shallots are soft
Serve the fillets with the sauce over the top, peas on the side… I found it a nice touch of flavor to include few tarragon leaves with the peas

recipe: chipotle queso pollo y tequila camarón aguacate

The last few years, my sister and treat our mommy to dinner and desert that we prepare for her. More times than not, we let her go shopping and whatever she picks up fresh is what we craft together into a meal. There seems to be a southwestern / Mexican flare running as yearly theme at this point, so, when my sister suggested this chipotle dish, I just couldn’t refuse. After all, the smoked halipeno is a personal favorite and since she just discovered it’s beauty she was all too eager to test it out. This is a slight variation on the recipe itself which includes the hor’dourves and the meal itself. My sister’s mastery of both art and baking produced a wonderful cake in the shape of a half a wine barrel sprouting with roses. Stunning, to say the least.

Shrimp
Shrimp
Olive Oil
Tequila
cilantro
cayenne pepper
shallot
avocado
lime
yogurt (Greek preferably, something thick, hearty and plain)

Combine equal parts olive oil and tequila
Zest the lime into the liquids
Shred the cilantro into the liquids
Add the shrimp and allow to marinade for 10-20 minutes (don’t go too long or it will begin to cook in the alcohol)
Very finely dice the shallot
Skin and de-pit the avocado and then mash
Combine the mashed avocado and shallt with the yogurt (about a 2:1 or 1.5:1 ratio would be good depending on your preference) and add a splash of tequila and the line juice
Season with cayenne pepper and fresh shredded cilantro
One a wooden skewer soaked in water, shift 4-5 shrimp separated by 1/8th’ed lime wedges (the ones you’ve already “zested and juiced”
Grill the shrimp, use the marinade to help keep the shrimp moist and from sticking, they will cook fast on a hot grill, do NOT overcook. Shrimp come with a “built in” thermometer – as they change color they are ready to turn, when they go to reddish-orange they are done!

To serve, take the avocado mixture and place it in a bowl in the center of a large platter, line the platter with chips, then place the skewers of shrimp along the edge of the platter over the chips with a few fresh sprigs of cilantro. People can dip the shrimp into the avocado, they can use the grilled lime if they’d like to drench the shrimp with an extra flavor level (esp. because once grilled they take on an extra flavor level) and of course the chips will finish up the dip.

Chicken
Chicken – thighs are better but breasts will work just fine*
Tequila
Lime (both zest and juice)
onion
garlic
montery jack cheese (shredded)
heavy cream
cilantro
chipotle peppers (they usually come packaged in an adobo sauce, which is tomato paste, onion and the pepper’s natural juices)
butter
flour

Marinade the chicken in the tequila and the zest and juice of the lime, you can shred a little fresh cilantro. Anywhere from 30 minutes to 3 hours would be a good start.
* Thighs come with a darker meat, usually a little bit more fat content and will grill much more evenly on the grill, but breasts will work just fine too. I would suggest, with thighs a bit lower heat and a longer more generous cook that includes a good hot burn right at the end to give texture, with the breasts, thttp://en-us.www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/central/he fatter the breast the more I’d probably cook it like a thigh, but the smaller ones, super high heat on the first sear and then put them on the top rack and let them cook through. If you can get with skin, I would because it will protect the flesh, but you don’t need to eat it or serve it if you don’t want.

The topping you are creating is a derivative of the Béchamel mother sauce, which is a light roux combined with a dairy. In this case, you are augmenting the mother sauce with a few southwestern concepts to bring it together as a sauce, but it follows a very basic principle

Very finely dice the onion, garlic
Combine equal parts lipid and starch (oil and flour) in the pan over low heat and keep them moving until they combine and become a rich yellow color
Add the veggies to the mixture and continue to keep the mixture moving until the roux begins to turn a light brown and the veggies themselves go to browning
Add the finely diced chipolte and a adobo sauce (1 tbsp per pepper used, to taste)
Add the tequila and allow it to thin out the mixture
Add the heavy cream and allow to combine into the mixture
Bring up to a low boil and immediately back down to a simmer to allow the roux to take shape
Beginning mixing in slowly the shredded montery jack cheese to combine completely
Do not allow anything to burn and continue combining adding the lime as desired
Finish the sauce with the fresh cilantro

Remove the thighs to cooking preference
Serve with the sauce in a bowl or gravy boat that is warmed (with a tea candle or other small candle would be typical but any heater would work)
Allow guests to select their meat and drench in sauce as desired

A nice side is to include an additional lighter version, or as an undergarment to the original recipe is to take the flour and butter and put it in a fry pan and allow it to come to a blond roux, add the tequila and finely chopped garlic and onion and bring to a boil and reduce immediately add the lime juice and zest and some water or stock and reduce by half, add the cilantro bring back to a boil and then back to warm and serve

Veggies
Vidalia Onion
Multi-colored bell peppers, poblano pepper, anaheim pepper
Tomatoes
Squash (summer yellow, zucchini, etc)
olive oil
lime
black pepper
cayenne pepper
wood dowels

combine the olive oil, lime and both ground pepper into a vinaigrette
soak wood dowels in water min of 20 minutes
allow the veggies to soak in the vinaigrette for between 20 min and 2 hours
skewer the veggies on the dowels
sear over high heat on the grill until each veggie reaches desired tenderness

note the higher the heat the greater the char but the less done the veggies and this is a quick cook, the lower the heat the less carmalization but the more tender the veggies will be on a longer cook. use the vinaigrette / oil to keep the veggies from sticking and burning.

recipe: Tuna ai linguine

I recently returned from Firenze, Tuscana, Italia. As you may know, I am very partial to Delta (Cajun, Creole), Iberian (Portuguese, Spanish) and Southwestern (Texas, Arizona, New Mexico) styles of cooking, but I must admit, my culinary heart is still with the true heirs in France and Italy. I do carry a bit of disdain for Italian-American cooking and as flawed as it may be loving other recreations of recipes in the Americas to dislike the bastardization that occurred with Italy’s beautiful simplicity upon being rendered to the American palette. It is a shame because the recipes were, just, so clean and fresh and even when there were spices the natural flavors of the root ingredients takes hold.

I came home to a somewhat empty fridge so a quick trip to the store and a few lucky finds later and I had a meal in mind, inspired by the food I am surely going to miss for the next several weeks until I re-adjust my tongue. I’ve actually done variants of this recipe using sun dried tomatoes and other fish and different herbal combination but this was the softest and simplest way I could prepare it with what I could find quick including fresh pasta (always nice to get and not have to make!).

tuna steak
olive oil
cherry tomato
shallot
basil
garlic
celery leaves
red pepper flakes
house seasoning

Split the garlic cloves and place them in the oil with the red pepper flakes and allow to set (for a few minutes to a few days depending on what you have)
Add the tuna steak to the oil in a holding pan so it covers no more than 1/3 of the tuna and allow to set (no less that a few minutes no more than 20 minutes) and be sure to flip it at least once at your half way mark
Roast the tomato in the broiler (or in a cast iron skillet) until the outsides begin to char evenly all the way around. Do the same with the shallot and garlic if you so choose as well.
Slice the tomato into halves or quarters, finely dice the shallot and garlic.
Combine the roasted tomato, shallot and garlic with olive oil to create a base with some red pepper flakes and allow to meld

Timing is key from here on out as the fish will take the same amount of time to sear rare to medium rare as the fresh linguine will take to boil. The fish will need the same time to set as the pasta will to drain and cool.

Salt the pasta water (if you are using dry, the pasta may be salted enough to not need this, and, they will require longer cooking) and bring to a boil.
Add the pasta
Set the tuna steak in the hot skillet and sear the first side
Dredge the pasta to ensure equal cooking and separate the strands
Flip the tuna as the sear moves up the side of the steak showing the level of cooked
Pull the pasta from the heat and drain
Add the chopped celery leaves and parsley leaves to the sauce of olive oil, garlic, shallot and cherry tomato
Add the drained pasta and toss with sauce described above.
Pull the tuna from the heat and allow to set

Serve one of two ways… either with the pasta on the plate and a tuna steak offset with it, or family style with the pasta in a deep large dish that is inset with the oil sauce soaking the pasta and a softly fork flaked version of a or several steaks over the dish.

Recipe: salmon with spicy brown sugar rub

Normally, my daily eating habits revolve around a well plotted routine. If I eat a weekday breakfast, it’s usually yogurt, followed by steamed mixed veggies for lunch, an afternoon snack of Cheerios and then, come home and make dinner. There’s usually a few cups of coffee in there and a lot of water. Hence, why almost all the meals I post are dinner meals. I don’t post most of my dinners though, just because fish and veggies are not necessarily the most exciting things to write about (or read for that matter). I always have a good stockpile of frozen fish and veggies in the house and once a week or so, I’ll get fresh of both and treat myself to something really special. Most of the dishes are very simple and I usually spicerub the fish or use light salad dressings to make a really simple sauce and match the fish and veggies and accouterments. Till now, I typically only write about good inventions or more thought provoking meals, which provoked a thought from a friend regarding some recent recipes: “yo, you’re one of the healthiest eaters I know, but I read your recipes and scratch my head, these are damned good but I wonder sometimes how good for me roux and sausage can be.” True, very true observation. So, I’ll jot down a few more that are maybe less exciting but a the other part of the representation of what I try to eat.

I use a pretty good variety of fish in my cooking but the defaults usually are salmon, flounder, cod, catfish and tuna (not from a can!). Tonight’s meal is with wild caught salmon. You can tell wild caught from the farm raised stuff pretty quick just on the color, with the pinkish color usually wild and the more orangery shade being the less flavorful farm version. The first time I made it it was with long line caught arctic char and absolutely beautiful piece of fish and every time I see it available I always take the opportunity to buy it. The next few times trying to perfect the recipe, I did it with salmon and it works with several other fish with a little imagination. By the way, in this case, leave the skin on, the skin is edible, if you do the recipe right, it’ll crisp up really nicely under the fillet as it chars off giving you a great contrast in textures and really in flavors too. The original version was with pure molasses and although I enjoyed it, people wanted a dry rub version or were to skeeved out with the hot/bitter or thought they didn’t like molasses and wanted a more bitter/sweet balance, so yes, this has sugar in it and that’s not tip top healthy, but there are so many variations in this idea that the fish, the type of “rub” etc with a little imagination does good things.

main dish:
salmon fillet
brown sugar
minced garlic
black pepper
red pepper flakes
crushed rosemary
onion powder
celery powder
black pepper
skillet (cast iron)

Combine the brown sugar, minced garlic, black pepper, red pepper flakes , crushed rosemary, onion powder, celery powder, black pepper in a bowl. If the dry rub is too dry add a little bit of olive oil or molasses.
Take the fish fillet and rub the spice mixture into the flesh – if possible allow the mixture to meld with the fish 20-30 minutes
Set up the skillet over medium to medium high heat and add the fish to the skillet (if not using cast iron you may want a very very light coating of oil over the fish skin before hitting the pan, depends on the pan)
Allow the fish to cook with a cover for several minutes under a cover (depending on thickness of the fillet) until the thickest part of the fish is mostly cooked by the residual steam
Remove the top, increase the heat and allow the fish to finish searing
Once the fish is done (flakes easily with a fork or on a slight touch at the middle portion no longer feels squishy) remove from heat and allow to rest

The sides:
asparagus
shallots
butter
large fry pan or griddle

Rinse the asparagus and snap off the ends
Finely dice the shallots and place with butter in a saute pan over medium heat
Grill or pan fry the asparagus until cooked through, do not overcook
Lightly drizzle the butter and shallot mixture over the asparagus and serve

recipe: cold sesame noodes with ginger soy fish

I probably should be making a meal that will sustain the upcoming snow storm but I was thinking about this all day since today is part of the Chinese New Year celebration, so I decided to come home and just go with it. Who am I to argue with my stomach? I’m not terribly versed in the techniques of Asian cuisine so I’m fairly sure this recipe is about as far from authentic as you can get, but I find it very tasty and it seems to work and for now, so that’s what counts. I tried to break it up into parts to make it easier to follow, however, typically, as like tonight, I am doing most of the steps simultaneously… it is a super quick meal overall, which is a big part of the reason for enjoy it (although, I hate cleaning it up!).

Noodles portion
noodles (spaghetti works fine)
Black Tea bags
Bowl of chilled water
pot

Bring the pot of water to a boil
Steep the tea bag in the boiling water
Add the noodles and cook until al dente (according to package instructions)
Once cooked, drain and chill the ice water

Sesame Sauce portion
Sesame oil
Sesame seeds
creamy Peanut Butter
Black tea
Soy Sauce
Cilantro
sauce pan

Add about 1:1 mixture of Black tea and peanut butter in the sauce pan over low heat
Combine the tea and peanut butter slowly until they are creamy, do not let them boil or begin to burn to the sauce pan
Begin to add the Sesame oil and a bit of soy and a few red pepper flakes (to taste) to the mixture making sure to keep the constancy creamy and rich
Once you have the sauce together plate the noodles and drizzle the sauce over the noodles
Sprinkle some sesame seeds, cilantro and if desired red pepper flakes over the sauce

The fish portion
Typically, I’d use a nice white fish, but realistically, this could be easily made with almost anything that is fresh. Today, it was a nice piece of Mahi Mahi, but the first time I ever made this dish it was actually with line caught Salmon, it was nice. The ginger can be fresh (which, is always preferred) but if you have the dried kind, it will reconstitute in the same way you’d use onion flakes or dried rosemary, etc. in a liquid

Fish fillets
ginger
shallot
black pepper corns
soy sauce
cilantro
Black tea
water
medium skillet

Fill the skillet about 1/3 with tea and soy sauce (2:1 tea to soy), and add chopped ginger, chopped shallot, the black pepper corns and the dried cilantro and bring the boil the mixture
Continue the boil to reduce by about half and add the fish to the mixture
Poach the fish in the liquid until it is cooked through, do not let the liquid completely evaporate during cooking
Plate the fish and drizzle the liquid over the fillet for a light sauce

Cabbage Salad portion
cabbage
onion
olive oil
cider vinegar
soy sauce
sugar
2 mixing bowls

Shred the cabbage and slice the onion and combine in bowl
Whisk together 2:1 ratio of oil to vinegar, sugar and a dash of soy sauce
Add dressing to veggies, toss and serve
A nice touch to this is to add some toasted ramen and cashews too

One last note: a trick is to reuse the tea from the noodles in the other steps rather than steeping tea several times in the process.