Coconut Curry Fish with Rice Noodles over Lettuce

In the summer of 2011, my family and I went down to Emerald Isle, NC for a family vacation. On that trip, I had my first hush puppies and enjoyed some truly tasty fresh fish dishes. I had key lime pie that was to die for, and I made a long list of restaurants to visit next time we go. Well, the time is coming up soon when we  will be returning back to the beach and the biggest food item I am looking forward to most is having the opportunity to enjoy another taste of a dish I have been trying to recreate for the last year. I don't remember what the dish is actually called and I can't find the dish on their website (Oh, I sure hope it is still there!), but the name of the restaurant is California Roll Cafe. I have tried many variations of the dish, but I am getting to the point where I'm not sure what the original tasted like. Anyway, I will get it again and I will ask for tips. In the meantime, I think this version was one of the best I've made yet, so I will put it all out here now and I will make a second post that is more accurate to the actual recipe later on.


Coconut Curry Fish with Rice Noodles over Lettuce

Open a can of reduced fat coconut milk and soak a large piece of fish (hallibut works great, but so does any other white fish) for about 4-6 hours in the coconut milk. When you are ready to cook the fish, take it out of the fridge and add some fresh ground ginger, curry powder, salt & pepper and let simmer with the lid on for about 5 minutes. While it is cooking, julienne 1-2 carrots and add them to the fish, cover and simmer for about 5 more minutes. With one minute to go, add some chopped green onion so they just get soft. While all of this is happening, bring water with chicken broth (I use Osem Chicken Consomme) to a boil and add a package of rice noodles.

Take fresh lettuce, I prefer bibb because of the hearty texture and soft flavor, and create a bed with it. Place a nest of rice noodles on top of the lettuce. Place a piece of fish on top of the noodles and generously cover the dish with the coconut curry sauce used to cook the fish. I have tried it with sprouts as well, but I find it difficult to eat the whole package of sprouts before it goes bad.

Coconut Curry Fish with Rice Noodles over Lettuce ~209 calories per serving, recipe makes 4 servings.

Friday Night Dinner in March

Shabbat dinner was at our house this weekend and I wanted to make something seasonal and special. I made Moroccan-Style Tilapia with Cumin, Mango and Cilantro, Marinated Heirloom Tomato Salad with Herbs, Fall Vegetable and Orzo Casserole, and Brussels Sprout Gratin. I was in such a rush after school on Friday to get it all done that I didn't get to take any pictures. However, it was all so delicious that the next time I make it all, which I will, I can take pictures then.

Brussels Sprout Gratin
2 pints (1.5 lbs) Brussels sprouts, trimmed and halved
2 tbsp butter
3 tbsp flour
2 cups skim milk
salt and pepper
5 oz Gruyere cheese, grated (about 1 cup grated)

Preheat oven to 350*, boil sprouts in water until soft (7 minutes) and strain. While the sprouts are boiling, begin making the sauce. Melt butter and flour together in saucepan over medium heat. Cook, stir until smooth and bubbly (1 minute), slowly whisk in milk and cook until thick and creamy (3 minutes) and season with salt and pepper. Lay sprouts in a baking dish and pour the sauce over the sprouts, sprinkle with cheese, and bake for 15-20 minutes until top is golden brown and bubbly. Brussels Sprout Gratin ~125 calories per serving, recipe makes 6 servings.

This little dish was so delicious! It was my very first roux and I can't believe that it was so simple and that it turned out so well. It really did taste like potatoes gratin, but better because it was made with soft green Brussels sprouts. Also in the use of the Gruyere, it is a very smelly cheese when being freshly grated, but once it is in the mix, the sharp taste gets softens out and it really does add a little umph to the dish.

Moroccan-Style Tilapia with Cumin, Mango and Cilantro
4 tilapia filets
salt and pepper
2 tsp cumin
2 tsp coriander
1tsp olive oil
2 ripe mangoes
1/4 cup chopped cilantro

This recipe calls for a pan fry, but I popped it into the oven at 350* for about 15 minutes. Before I did that, I oiled the pan. To prepare the fish, I gave it a quick rinse with water, patted it down, and rubbed it with a salt/pepper/cumin/coriander mixture. I placed the fish on the pan and put it in the oven. While it cooked, I diced the mangoes and cilantro, mixed them together, and placed it in the fridge to chill. Top the tilapia with the mango salsa just before serving. ~200 calories per serving, recipe makes 4 servings.

This dish, much like most of my other dishes, was a little under-seasoned. I am still afraid, after all this cooking, to add more spices just because I don't know how they are going to turn out! However, even with that, the cool mango salsa on top was so refreshing against the spices of the fish, that it was a spot on recipe. I think the only thing that might have made it a little more delightful would be a little splash of fresh lime in the salsa.

Marinated Heirloom Salad with Herbs
5-6 Heirloom tomatoes, of varying colors
1/2 red onion, finely chopped
3 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp Due Vittorie Famiglia, balsamic vinegar (thanks Josh!!)
fresh ground salt and pepper
handful fresh parsley, chopped
10 large basil leaves, chopped

Largely dice the tomatoes, chop the onions, mix together in a large bowl. In another bowl, mix together the olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper. Fold in the parsley and basil, chill until ready to serve. ~70 calories per serving, recipe makes 6 servings.

I do know that most people don't use heirloom tomatoes because they are more expensive, but they are very flavorful and don't have so many seeds inside to make the salad very soft. Heirloom also comes in red, orange, yellow, and green which makes the salad very colorful if you get a mixture of it all. I was so enjoying the fantastic taste of it all, but especially the vinegar. The Due Vittorie Famiglia website says about this vinegar: "In an elegant spherical cruet, it consists of a condiment with a round flavour, a velvety consistency and a unique clarity." Whatever that means, it is a sweet and savory flavor, thick and delicious!

Martha's Fall Vegetable and Orzo Casserole
I made Martha Stewart's recipe, just the way it was written. I decided not to copy the entire recipe here since it is fairly lengthy. ~226 calories per serving, makes about 12 servings as a side dish.

This recipe was so delicious, and it made a great side dish. I am sure that I would be able to make seasonal orzo casseroles that are based on this recipe an I am excited to try! This was even delicious as leftovers, topped with My Most Delicious Meatball ~200 calories per serving, recipe makes 4 servings. ~426 when served as a main dish together with one serving of the orzo and one serving of the turkey meatballs.

I enjoyed this recipe so much and it's a good thing because I have had at least one serving each day since Friday when I made it. The sage made me excited for my herb garden to start up this summer because I always have sage growing on the balcony!

Dill Salmon, Potatoes, & Wine Brussels Sprouts

A Dilly Dinner

Feeling the cold of winter can sometimes make me feel lonesome for the summertime. In the summer, my Yaya (grandmother) makes her famous potato salad with dill, onions, and capers. My summer is literally not complete if I don't get my potatoes. Sometimes I try to replicate her recipes, but they are never the same, naturally. For dinner on Thursday, I got some fabulous looking salmon and decided to give a simple dill salmon a try. I cooked the salmon very simply with salt, pepper, olive oil, and fresh dill (I put the dill on after it had been in a 350* oven long enough to not be entirely raw). Once I was sure that the fish was just right, I took it out to serve.

Brussels Sprouts Cooking in Wine

Dill Potatoes

Side dish #1 was dill potato salad. I used white fingerling potatoes and I boiled them until fork tender. I tossed them with olive oil, sea salt, dill, and some pepper. Side dish #2 was Brussels sprouts with wine. I sauteed them with olive oil until slightly browned and then added Riesling and reduced the wine quite a bit. I added the Melting Pot Wine Seasoning. As a whole dish, I found it all to be quite delicious. My favorite part was definitely the potatoes. I know they will be just as awesome reheated, or even cold.

Playing with Poached Eggs

Cheesy Grits with Poached Eggs

I was watching one of my favorite cooking shows, 5 Ingredient Fix with Claire Robinson. She has brunch episodes sometimes and I watched a recorded episode where she made deep fried poached eggs over heirloom tomatoes. They were breaded and then rolled in panko before being lightly deep fried and they looked so good. I will try them another day, but yesterday morning I went for a slight variation of one of our favorite weekend breakfasts. I made cheesy grits with a soft poached egg on top. It was quite the treat. Even though I don't know how to poach eggs in water and I use silicone poaching pods that you put in boiling water because I'm a cheater.

This afternoon as I was deciding what to make for dinner, I took out Rustica and started to make some decisions. One thing that I noticed is that Spanish home cooking is a slow process. Most recipes cook for 30 minutes to 90 minutes. I did let my short ingredient list rule fly out the window to try this recipe out. The recipe was called Sopa De Tomate Al Camino, Tomato and Cumin Soup. Here was the recipe (with my slight variations):

Spanish Tomato and Cumin Soup

Heat some olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add 1 red onion (diced) and a pinch of salt and cook until translucent. Add 1 chopped red pepper and 2 fine sliced garlic, turn heat to low, cover and cook for ~40 minutes. Stir in 2 lbs diced fresh tomatoes and 2 cups of water and simmer for 30 minutes. Add 2 tsp superfine sugar, 1/2 tsp of paprika and 1/2 tsp of cumin. The recipe called for smoked paprika and sea salt, but I could only find regular paprika so I used what I could and used my North Market Spices smoked salt instead. I think this gave me the desired flavor. I used about 1 tsp of the smoked salt. After the soup had cooked for a while, about 15 minutes, and ran the soup through a food processor. After returning the soup to the pan and heating to a simmer, I added the eggs. Crack the eggs in a bowl and slide them into the pan along the edges and the eggs poach in the soup, giving them a delicious consistency and flavor. Poach for about 3 minutes for runny eggs (just the way we like them!) and gently spoon the eggs into the bowls. Ladle in the soup and serve with toasted baguette slices. The whole thing was awesome, but breaking the poached eggs in the soup gave it such a fantastic eggy taste that just can't be beat! I also know that I need to get a hand immersion blender because pouring things into the food processor and then back into the pan is too much of a pain.

Spanish Inspired Broth

I know that the chefs all say not to be afraid of spices, but I am still a little afraid. Especially since I am still unfamiliar with most of the spices. The paprika was complete unfamiliar to me, never used it before in my life. The cumin is still slightly unfamiliar to me, I have only used it in one other recipe before and I under-spiced then too. One of these days I will be comfortable with spices and I won't under-spice. Cooking with salt is a new experience for me too since I don't tend to do it very much.

Spanish Inspired Tilapia

Also for dinner, I made a Spanish inspired tilapia. I took some flavors that I read about in my cookbook and made up this recipe:
Make a broth with 1/2 cup water, 2-3 bay leaves, 1/4 tsp paprika, 1/4 tsp smoked salt with garlic, sprinkle of garlic powder and onion powder. I cooked the tilapia in the broth for 5 or so minutes, until cooked through, flipping once.

Dinner was so good that Nathan couldn't stop telling me about it. He said I could charge for it ;)

Knife Skills

Knife skills on potato

I have been working on my knife skills lately. I have been trying to see how thin and evenly I can slice things. I have been paying close attention to the ways that various chefs cut on TV as well as listening to the advice they have when they give it. For dinner tonight, I worked my skills on potatoes. I sliced them super thin and laid them flat on a pan drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled them with my go-to seasoning (Melting Pot Garlic & Wine Seasoning) and baked them at 350* for a short while. These potatoes were so delicious! They were crispy and well seasoned and I was so happy with them.

I also have been experimenting with a new method of cooking broccoli. I have been peeling the stalk and slicing thin all the way up to and through the florets. I sauteed them on a pan with a little olive oil and fresh sliced garlic, salt and pepper. They cook quickly, have plenty of flavor, and then I don't waste the stalk.

Knife skills on potato

Lastly, we tried two new things today and I think if I enjoyed red wine, I would have enjoyed one of them more. We bought some dried trumpet and lobster mushrooms and reconstituted them in a pan with red wine and garlic. I could not get into the bitterness of them, but Nathan quite enjoyed them. We also cooked up some red trout and it was a nice tasting fish. It was soft like tilapia and tasted more like salmon. It went in the pan with a little olive oil and Melting Pot seasoning.

Overall, it was a good dinner and I am proud of my growing skills.