Ginger-Rubbed Salmon with Mustard Seeds and Sorrel

Quick, easy, and stupendously delicious...hello, salmon season. I've missed you.

Serve this over jasmine rice or jade pearl rice, with sauteed greens on the side.

Ingredients
12 oz wild salmon
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
2 tsp grated fresh ginger
1 small clove garlic, pressed
Mustard seeds
Onion blossoms
(or sub 1 scallion, thinly sliced)
Olive oil
1 cup chopped sorrel leaves
(about one third to half a bunch)


Sprinkle salmon generously with salt on both sides, and a little ground pepper on the non-skin side. Mash the garlic and ginger together, and then rub onto the fish (mostly on the non-skin side, and a little on the skin if you plan to eat it, which you should, because it will be amazing. Trust me). Sprinkle the non-skin side lightly with mustard seeds and the onion blossoms or scallion.

Heat a nonstick pan over medium heat. When the pan is hot, add a glug of olive oil and swirl to spread in the pan. Place the fish in the pan skin-side down, wait a moment, then shake to make sure it's not sticking.

Cook for several minutes, until the skin is golden-brown, then flip and cook for a minute until the fish has just a hint of gold to it (if it's a thick piece of salmon, you may have to cook it for a couple minutes on the non-skin side...or, keep it skin side down, and put a lid on the pan for a minute to help it cook through).

When the fish is medium-rare (still that darker shade of pink in the middle), serve onto a bed of rice. The trick is to catch it just before it's as cooked as you want it, since it will keep cooking a bit over the hot rice. The other trick is to eat it medium-rare, because medium-rare salmon is amazing.

Drizzle a little more olive oil in the pan, add the sorrel, sprinkle with a pinch of salt, and toss to coat. Turn off the heat. Saute the sorrel, stirring, for about 20-30 seconds till it just starts to change color from a vibrant green to a darker olive tone. Pour over the salmon, and serve immediately.

Serves 2.

Moonfish with Coconut Milk, Zucchini, and Chard

Coconut milk, ginger, and basil give this dish a Thai flair. You can use any fatty, mild white fish, or substitute chicken or tofu if you prefer. Serve over steamed rice cooked with a little sauteed shallot, and pair with a glass of Torrontes or Viognier.

Ingredients
Olive oil
8-10 oz moonfish (opah) or another fatty, mild white fish
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 small zucchini, sliced lengthwise into thirds and then cut crosswise into strips
1 tbsp grated fresh ginger
1 clove garlic, sliced
15  fresh basil leaves
2 handfuls young chard, beet greens, or spinach, sliced crosswise into ribbons
5-6 oz light coconut milk
1 tsp onion blossoms or one scallion, white and light green parts, thinly sliced

Rub each side of the fish with a pinch of ginger, and sprinkle both sides with salt and pepper. (You can cut it into cubes or leave it as a whole steak—whichever you prefer. Cubes will cook much more quickly, and will retain less of their own moisture but absorb more of the sauce. We left ours whole, just because it's easier.)

Heat a glug of olive oil in a large nonstick frying pan over medium heat. When hot, add the zucchini and stir a few times, then saute, stirring once or twice a minute, until it starts to turn golden brown in a few places. Add the garlic and a pinch of ginger and saute for a minute more, then add the basil leaves and saute for 10 seconds or until they have just wilted. Decant into a bowl and set aside.

Replace the pan over the heat and add another glug of olive oil. Add the fish and cook, shaking the pan occasionally, until golden brown on the bottom, then flip and cook the other side until golden as well (if your fish is cubed, just brown one side and then skip to the next step).

Add the greens to the pan, sprinkle them with salt, and pour the coconut milk over the top of everything. Cover immediately, turn the heat down to medium-low, and steam for a minute or so until the greens start to wilt.

Uncover the pan, scatter the ginger over the greens, and stir to combine. Replace the cover and simmer until the fish is very nearly cooked through. (I can't tell with moonfish unless I cut it in half at some point to see how pink it still is in the middle, which is the other reason I like leaving it as one whole piece to start with...I end up cutting it in half or quarters by the time I'm done checking it.)

Add the zucchini back into the pan, sprinkle with the onion blossoms or scallion, and cook for about 30 seconds to reheat, stirring occasionally. Remove from the heat, and serve immediately over rice.

Serves 2.

Carrots and Snap Peas with Ginger and Fried Basil

Remember that good old food pyramid from the USDA, stolidly pointing skyward from its foundation of pasta and white bread? Well, it's gone. In its place—a new icon and new recommendations. The upshot? 50% of your plate should be fruits and vegetables.

What a good excuse to cook more of our favorite things.

Ingredients
3-4 carrots, sliced at a diagonal and then halved
1 tsp julienned fresh ginger
10-12 smallish basil leaves
Handful sugar snap peas, ends snapped, strings unstrung, and sliced at a diagonal
Olive oil
Salt

Heat a wide nonstick pan over medium heat. When hot, add a generous glug of olive oil. Scatter the ginger into the pan, stir a few times, then sprinkle in the basil leaves and stir once again. Let fry about 10 seconds, then add the carrots and stir to combine. Let cook for 4-5 minutes, stirring every minute or two (you want the bottom of the carrots to start to turn a little golden in a few places, but you don't want to wait so long before stirring that they stick to the pan). Cover for a minute if the pan if it starts to get dry.

When the carrots are just starting to get tender, add the snow peas and a pinch or two of salt and saute, stirring, for another minute or so. When carrots are desired tenderness (we like them and the snow peas still slightly crunchy), turn off the heat and serve.

Serves 2, and works very well as a quick-and-easy veggie complement to take-out sushi or Thai.

Halibut with Ginger and Shiitake Mushrooms

There may be a glitch in the matrix.

The thing is, after repeatedly sampling this halibut recipe, I can say in no uncertain terms that it's the best halibut ever (on dramatic days, I have been known to generalize beyond halibut to all fish, hot foods, or objects in the solar system). But then last night, for inexplicable reasons, I made this new recipe instead. And it...here's where the glitch comes in...it also seems to be the best halibut ever.

Obviously, a philosophical conundrum such as this can only be resolved through tireless and repeated empirical investigation. I'll get back to you when I've gotten to the bottom of it (or to the bottom of the Co-op's fish supply, whichever comes first). In the meantime, feel free to engage in your own scientific tests -- for the benefit of humankind, of course, and for the benefit of dinner.

Serve over brown or black rice, and pair with some sort of vegetable. This recipe is fairly simple and quick, as long as you remember to start the rice ahead of time.


Ingredients
1/2 - 2/3 lbs halibut (enough for two)
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 scallions, white and light green parts, sliced
2 medium cloves garlic, chopped
Several thin slices ginger, julienned (nearly twice as much ginger as garlic, volume-wise)
12-15 shiitake mushrooms, brushed clean, stems removed, and cut in half
(or sliced in thirds, if especially large)
3 oz sake (rice wine)
Lemon wedges or halves

Sprinkle the fish with salt and black pepper, then dredge in the flour.

Heat a nonstick pan over medium heat. When hot, drizzle the bottom lightly with olive oil, then add the fish. Pan fry for several minutes until golden brown on the bottom, then flip. (If you've cut the piece of fish in half already and it's fairly thick, you may be able to brown all four sides. If not, turn the heat down a bit so that the fish can cook through before the bottom gets too dark.)

After you've flipped the fish, heat a glug of olive oil in another pan over medium heat (or, if you're lazy like me and have a big enough pan, push the fish to the side of the first pan and do this on the other side while it cooks). Add the ginger and scallions, stir a few times, then add the garlic and turn the heat down just a bit. Saute for 15-20 seconds, then add the mushrooms and stir to coat. Continue cooking the mushrooms, stirring occasionally and without crowding them, until they start to lightly brown.

Just before the fish is cooked through, remove it from the pan and set aside.

Sprinkle the mushrooms with a pinch of salt, stir, then add the sake and turn off the heat. Stir a few times as the sake simmers. Serve the fish over rice, and spoon the sauce over the top. Garnish with a generous wedge of lemon, and serve hot.

Serves 2.

Sesame Crusted Albacore with Asparagus and Ginger

It's 8pm. A well-intentioned husband goes hunting at the local co-op and brings back sustainably fished albacore tuna, which you are pretty sure you don't like, but have resolved not to mention aloud. You have on hand some rice, assorted condiments, a head of garlic. And asparagus, because apparently Sacramento is convinced that it's spring. Really, life could be worse. But what do you do with the tuna?

Answer: This.*

*This, it turns out, is DELICIOUS.**
**Which means I was completely wrong about not liking tuna.***
***Unless you consider the fact that no restaurant at which I had tried tuna (and I had tried it numerous times) ever did anything like this to it.****
****But then you have to wonder: Why wouldn't you do this to tuna?*****
*****Have I mentioned before my inordinate fondness for footnotes?


Ingredients
Black Forbidden rice, cooked with a little sauteed onion (or sub brown rice)
10-11 oz. (about .6 lbs) thick-cut, sushi-grade albacore tuna
Olive oil
1/2 bunch thin asparagus or a little more, tough ends trimmed, cut at a diagonal into 1" pieces (or sub young green beans)
1 tbsp rice vinegar
2 tsp soy sauce
1/2 tsp toasted sesame oil
Black sesame seeds
Kosher salt
Freshy ground black pepper
1 clove garlic, smashed
1 tsp julienned fresh ginger

Take the tuna out of the fridge to temper. Sprinkle with salt, grind black pepper liberally over the top, and cover densely with sesame seeds.

Combine the soy sauce, rice vinegar, and sesame oil in a small dish. Heat a glug of olive oil in a nonstick pan over medium to medium-high heat. When hot, add the asparagus and toss to coat lightly with the oil. Cook for several minutes, tossing or stirring every 2 minutes or so, until lightly browned on at least one side and al dente (a fork should insert smoothly, without it feeling either crunchy and raw or mushy and overly soft). Add the soy sauce mixture, stir immediately, and then turn the heat off as it simmers and begins to evaporate. Let simmer for another 10 seconds or so, then decant the asparagus and sauce into a bowl and set aside. Wipe the pan out lightly (and carefully) with a paper towel if there are drops of soy sauce remaining.

Add a glug of olive oil to the pan and turn the heat back on to medium. Add the smashed garlic clove and cook for a minute or so, pressing it into the pan, until it just begins to soften. Add the ginger, stir once or twice, then add the tuna. Cook for a couple minutes per side or until it browns, then flip. As the ginger begins to turn golden, you can fish it out of the pan and either put it on top of the fish or add it to the bowl of asparagus.

When the tuna is browned on the outside but still completely rare in the middle (or about two minutes away from being however cooked you want it), remove from the pan and place on a cutting board. Let sit for a minute. Meanwhile, add the asparagus to the pan to reheat for a minute, stirring, then turn the heat off.

Slice the albacore into half-inch pieces. Serve over a bed of rice (it will warm through from the heat of the rice, which is why you want to stop cooking it a bit early) and spoon the asparagus and sauce over the top. Serve immediately.

Serves 2. Pairs well with an ice cold cup of Onigoroshi sake, available at the Tokyo Fish Market in Berkeley, among other places.

Ginger Tea with Lemon Verbena and Honey

We're pretty sure this tea is magic. It keeps colds at bay if you're well and calms even the most tenacious lingering cough if you're not, resets a lost voice after a long first week of lecturing, helps hangovers, warms thoughts and fingertips, and cures winter blues in a heartbeat.

Plus, it's delicious.

Ingredients
A few slices fresh ginger
10-15 dried lemon verbena leaves (or sub about twice as many fresh)
1 2-inch sprig fresh thyme
1 tsp honey


Add about 4 cups boiling water, brew for at least 8 minutes, and enjoy. (You can try a sip after about 5, if you'd like, and adjust any and all ingredients to taste. I didn't quite get the point of homemade tea until we started blending things like this. Even tea skeptics seem to like it.)

Sauteed Tatsoi with Ginger and Coconut

I never knew what to do with bok choy or tatsoi (a similar, slightly spicier and more tender leafy vegetable) except stir-fry them, until we came up with this. As far as I can tell, it's an addictive side dish by day, and a caped crusader that banishes any incoming colds by night (something about the ginger-garlic-leafy-green combination?). It's also the winner, in my book, for how to prepare roasted breadfruit, although if for some reason you don't happen to have a breadfruit on hand—perhaps because you've been forced back to the mainland by a return plane ticket that refuses to listen to what strike you as exceedingly compelling arguments about the fact that you have sand on your toes and clearly can't leave just yet—just make this without. It will still be delicious.

Ingredients
Olive oil
2-3 heads young tatsoi (or substitute baby bok choy)
1 clove garlic, slivered
1 tsp or so julienned fresh ginger
Pinch or two salt 
1/4 cup coconut milk (light or regular)
Optional: Some leftover roasted breadfruit, broken into smallish pieces (about 1/4 - 1/2 cup)

Heat a glug of olive oil in a pan over medium heat. Add the garlic and ginger and saute for 30-60 seconds or until the garlic just starts to soften, then add the breadfruit if you have it and saute for a couple of minutes, stirring to coat with the oil. Next, add the greens and a pinch or two of salt and toss to coat. Saute, stirring occasionally, until the greens are just wilted.

Stir in the coconut milk, cover the pan, and reduce heat to low. Simmer for just a couple of minutes, then uncover, season with salt to taste, and serve hot.

Serves 2.

Eggplant with Curry and Cilantro

I tend to be ambivalent about big purple eggplants -- on the one hand, they're so delightfully purple, and can sometimes taste wonderful grilled. On the other hand, I find it suspicious and worrying when vegetables bite back. Japanese eggplants and other smaller varieties lack the bitterness and tough skins of their fat purple cousins, and often seem more buttery and flavorful, and are especially addictive in curries or (in this case) recipes vaguely inspired by the notion of a curry.

Ingredients
Eggplant (We used three smallish purple-and-white ones, which may have been an Italian variety called Listada de Gandia, but Japanese eggplant would certainly work here and a regular eggplant might too)
Olive oil
A little chopped yellow onion
A scattering of black mustard seeds
Small spoonful of good-quality curry powder
A few thin slices of fresh ginger, julienned
Small handful of cilantro, chopped
Splash of cream (optional)

Cut the eggplants into pieces (if you're using a smaller variety, try cutting them in half lengthwise and then (still lengthwise) into half again or wedges, then turn 180 degrees and slice into one-inch pieces).

Heat the olive oil in a pot over medium heat, add the mustard seeds and then the onion, and saute until soft. Push to the side of the pan, add a little olive oil to the opposite side, and turn up the heat a bit. Add the curry powder to the olive oil and stir a few times to toast, then combine with the onion. Add the ginger and a pinch of salt, stir once or twice, then add the eggplant and a little more olive oil if the pot has gotten dry. Stir and saute for a minute or two, then add a little water (a quarter cup or less), stir, cover, and turn the heat down to medium or medium-low. Simmer for 3-8 minutes, stirring from time to time and adding a little more water if needed, until the eggplant is soft but not mushy. Add the cilantro when it's almost cooked through.

Turn off the heat, add just a small splash of cream if desired, and serve hot.

Serves 2.

Late Night Snack: Carmelized Ginger Carrots with Honey and Pastured Butter

Ingredients
Olive oil
6-7 fresh carrots, brushed clean and sliced at an angle*
A 1-inch piece of ginger, peeled and sliced into matchsticks
Pastured butter
Local wildflower honey

*fresh meaning the kind that taste like carrots, rather than the Safeway variety. We found rainbow carrots at a produce stand a few days ago, and still had some orange and yellow ones left.

Heat a little olive oil in a saute pan over medium-high heat. Add the carrots, stir once or twice, and sprinkle the ginger over (if it falls in clumps, try to break it up before it cooks together). Keep cooking, stirring from time to time, for a minute or two, then add about 2 tbsp of water, cover pan, and let steam for a couple minutes. Stir, add another couple of tablespoons of water, and cover again. (You want the carrots to brown, so it shouldn't be too wet, but the steam will help them cook through more quickly). When the carrots are a little browned and tender but not mushy, add a bit of butter (maybe a half tablespoon or so) to the pan and stir to coat the carrots as it melts. Turn off the heat, then add about 1/2 tbsp honey to the side of the pan. As soon as it begins to bubble, stir it through the carrots, and serve.