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Nice! I've been trying to get my girlfriend to eat fish, but she can't get past the texture. I even did a nice broiled teriyaki salmon a while back, liked the flavor, but the not the texture.
The sushi making class we did this past weekend was really funny watching her struggle with the raw salmon.
i do salmon the same way for almost every dish. Throw it in a pan to crisp the skin - maybe 5min. Toss it in a 450°F for 8 minutes. pull it out, cover, let it sit for 10min. perfectly cooked through.
the above was topped with tomatoes, jalapeno, scallion, cooked then reduced in sherry and mixed with green olives.
pro tip:
if you add chives and cheddar to quinoa it doesn't taste like ***. chicken had a bbq rub and topped with garlic butter.
@Braineack for salmon you can also just broil it skin up for 3-4 mins then flip and broil another 2-3. You'll get great crispy skin. Or grill. Same method, highest heat you can get out of your grill (450-500). A light coating of oil and it wont stick to the grill.
^Yeah, that's why I broil. I like there to be some texture on it vs just baking or baking covered in sauce. That barefootcontessa recipe sounds good, but my girlfriend is also a phillstine when it comes to certain foods.......she doesn't like capers either.
I approve of all of these lovely-looking fish dishes.
Originally Posted by Braineack
bake fish, it's better.
I do it both ways, depending on the application. When the fish is going to be topped with a liquid, I find that the crisp finish imparted by pan-searing more than outweighs the loss of internal moisture. So much so that I recently purchased a small pan for the specific purpose of searing a single portion of fish in a small amount of whatever reduction I wish to pour over it at the end.
Sounds a lot like a Baja fish taco. I think I shall do that next. Will probably sub orange or strawberry in place of the grapefruit, as I'm not a big grapefruit fan. Probably also a light crema as well, like they do in SoCal.
And, yeah, also a big Tilapia fan for things that that.
Nice! I've been trying to get my girlfriend to eat fish, but she can't get past the texture. I even did a nice broiled teriyaki salmon a while back, liked the flavor, but the not the texture.
I can understand this. There are a couple of specific foods which I dislike owing to the texture, rather than the taste. Bananas are one. And, by extension, pan cooked plantains, which is a tragedy. I love tostones (which are plaintains fried, smashed, and then fried again), and Mofongo is pretty good, depending on how the plantains are prepared.
The sushi making class we did this past weekend was really funny watching her struggle with the raw salmon.
That surprises me, given that the texture of sushi-grade salmon is nothing at all like cooked salmon.
1. Tostones are amazing. There used to be a really great Caribbean restaurant in Tulsa......I haven't found any in OKC with good enough reviews to even bother trying. Interesting side note: On the days I go into the office, I drive past the Guatemalan Embassy. Apparently, OKC has a large enough Guatemalan population they determined they needed an embassy here.
2. I don't think she has. Perhaps I can get here to try either one of these days. As you can imagine, I'm hesitant now to buy stuff to make more than 1 serving of fish in the event she doesn't like it.
Sounds like you'll just have to plan on two dinners.
For you, Sole Meunière or Swordfish À La Niçoise, and for her, a microwaved hot dog, served on a slice of wonder bread, with an apple, and a little plastic packet of mustard.
Sounds like you'll just have to plan on two dinners.
For you, Sole Meunière or Swordfish À La Niçoise, and for her, a microwaved hot dog, served on a slice of wonder bread, with an apple, and a little plastic packet of mustard.
Too lazy for that. I'd be more likely to do what I did last Saturday.
Whole Foods, nice, thick, dry-aged NY Strip. Heavy on the S&P, reverse-sear to a perfect medium-rare. With some roasted new potatoes, carrots, and parsnips (tossed in olive oil, S&P, fresh thyme and rosemary, and a splash of balsamic when they come out).
In the past, I used to go on cuisine binges. I'd get into a Japanese mood, or a French mood, or an Italian mood, or what have you.
Of late, I seem to be going on ingredient binges. About a year ago, it was nothing but steak. Then there was a bean phase, a chicken phase, a pepper phase, and right at the moment I'm very much enamored with fish.
Also, upon re-reading my post from yesterday, it occurs to me that I have intuitively internalized a lesson which Julia Child taught us. Do not crowd the vegetables in the pan, or else they will not brown properly. This means working in shifts, with the output of each shift going into a larger pot for finishing.
This realization gives me satisfaction. I feel as though am growing from a cook into a chef.
Don't crowd anything in the pan if you want it to brown / sear / malliard. Usually this is because whatever you toss in has mositure (water) in it. When you crowd, you end up heating the water and steaming the food because the heat is busy trying to evaporate rather than increase temperature at the pan interface. sometimes you can get away with it if you're doing something dry or oily but non-watery, but it's often better to either use a bigger pan or cook in batches.
nothing sucks worse than trying to get a nice sautee on and ending up with soggy overcooked junk.
I don't often have a problem sauteeing, because it's just the two of us.
But my stew/chili game elevated massively once i started browning the meats in much smaller batches. It's annoying and a time sink, but so much worth it.
^Yeah, that's why I broil. I like there to be some texture on it vs just baking or baking covered in sauce. That barefootcontessa recipe sounds good, but my girlfriend is also a phillstine when it comes to certain foods.......she doesn't like capers either.
The Food Network cooked up a show pairing famous chefs with musicians and these two were an obvious match…Ina has all Taylor’s CD’s and Taylor has all Ina’s cook books! Taylor came to Ina’s kitchen to cook some of her favorite Ina recipes, and when I read that this was one of them I knew I had to try it.
I don't often have a problem sauteeing, because it's just the two of us.
But my stew/chili game elevated massively once i started browning the meats in much smaller batches. It's annoying and a time sink, but so much worth it.
You could try filetting your meat in to flat steaks and browning those before cubing. I do that sometimes. Sure you only get two sides of a cube browned, but it's easier and easier is easier.
This is shaping up to be a weekend of excellent fish.
Did Tilapia-ala-Bráinëack tonight. Basically followed the Ina Garten recipe, using fresh Tilapia purchased from the Korean fishmonger located behind the Home Depot on Kedzie Ave, and subbing garlic for shallot, as I forgot to buy shallots this evening.
The side is crispy Brussels sprouts, split, and then baked at 425°, cut side down. No oil, no prep, just slice-n-bake. After 30 minutes, I added a handful of chopped walnuts, and cooked for about 4 more minutes. Then toss with balsamic (I'm using a bottle of twelve year oak-aged Grand Traditional given to me about 1.5 years ago by a lovely woman who shared my passion for both food and cooking), and top with smoked blue cheese.
The fish did 10 minutes in the same oven, then went under the broiler while the sprouts were being tossed and plated.
The result was highly acceptable. I'd not be displeased to be served this dish at an upscale restaurant for $25. (Granted, they'd do a cleaner plating than I did.)
For tomorrow, I've been working on a recipe which is a modification of Brainey's post of Martha Stewart's ***-raping of a proper Baja fish taco. It finally hit me yesterday afternoon, that the missing ingredient is pickled onions (in lieu of grapefruit, which I detest.) So I started a batch of pickled red onion yesterday, and shall decant it tomorrow.
Also the white sauce.As someone who has lived in both SoCal and NYC, I recognize that "white sauce" can have at least three distinct meanings, depending upon the context of the venue. (Baja / Italian / Halal.) The former meaning is in play here.
That was the problem. I thought that I still had one or two shallots left on the produce rack at home, and thus did not purchase more. Turns out that I'd used the last of them during the previous week, and failed to note this in the to-do list.
Anyway, lunch:
Baja fish tacos, inspired by Brainey's Martha Stewart recipe, but heavily modified based on my experience living in SoCal. (Seriously, Martha Stewart? Wasn't she sent to prison for being too white and not having good taste in Tijuana cuisine?) So, basically, very little of the original recipe made it through.
First deviation, the shredded cabbage was tossed with a mix of the customary white sauce which you find at Baja-style taquerias. It's a mix of yogurt, lime juice, salt, cumin, dill, and black pepper. Mix all of that together in a small bowl, then spoon over the cabbage and massage sensuously to combine.
Second deviation, I nixed the fruit, and instead used pickled onion, which I prepared on Thursday. One red onion, halved and then thinly sliced. 1/4 cup cider vinegar, 1/4 cup white vinegar, 1/2 cup water, a dash of salt, and a generous spoon of sugar. Heat everything but the onion in a small pan, stirring until the solids dissolve (not necessary to boil.) Let cool, then pour over the sliced onion in a glass container with a lid, with two garlic cloves, thinly sliced. (Exclude the garlic when plating- it's just there for a flavor infusion.)
Third deviation, you gotta cilantro the **** outta the guacamole. 2 tbs? Please, bitch. Take 1/3 of a bunch that you get in the fresh produce aisle, separate the larger of the stems, and toss it all into the Cuisinart. Puree to a fine consistency. Also, you gotta put garlic in that! I typically use dried, powdered garlic when making guac. Can't quite describe the difference, but it's... different from fresh garlic. Less pungent, more savory, which is what we want in this application.
Also, this is a rare case of my using bread. For the most part, I've been avoiding it, as refined carbohydrates tend to be calorically dense, nutritionally poor, and not all that satiating. "Wraps" have been in vogue of late, as a healthful thing. But that damn wrapper is a sneaky bastard. As a point of reference, did you know that just the burrito wrapper at Chipotle contains 320 calories all by itself? That's equivalent to two and a half 12 oz cans of Coca Cola.
I've been doing a lot of lettuce wraps of late, but for this one, I wanted the tortilla experience.
Turns out that if you shop around, you can find tortillas which are low in calories, high in fiber, low in refined carbohydrates, and actually taste pretty good. These were 60 calories, 4g carbohydrate, 6g protein, and if you toast them in a dry skillet for about two minutes (flipping halfway), every bit as satisfying as the ones with 2-3x the calories. Tumaro's brand. Compare to 130-180 calories each for similarly sized tortillas from Misson or other mainstream suppliers.
Here's the pre-plating step, showing all the goodness:
Got enough of the prep-heavy ingredients left for at least 2 more batches.
03-28-2019, 08:28 AM
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