Dover Sole with Sauteed Carrot, Leek, and Fennel

Happy New Year, Fellow Foodies! I seem to have recipes stuffed everywhere...scrawled on a pad of crumpled and coffee-stained paper, typed and saved somewhere in the depths of my computer, even lurking in the drafts folder of this blog. Like this one. Which was apparently waiting for a picture that I never took.

So screw it—this one is photo-less. Here's to a new year full of delicious food, messy kitchens, and human imperfections!

[now please imagine a photo of a beautiful fish.]

Serve this alongside orzo or Israeli couscous mixed with a little butter and lemon zest or chopped sorrel. Pairs wonderfully with a lemony Sauvignon Blanc.

Ingredients
Olive oil
1-2 leeks, white and light green parts, halved lengthwise, rinsed well, and sliced
3-4 carrots, halved crosswise and julienned
Salt
1 cup diced fennel bulb
1 lb dover sole
Slosh white wine
1 tbsp butter
Few handfuls cress or baby arugula
Zest of 1/2 lemon
Freshly ground black pepper

Heat a saucepan over medium heat. Add the olive oil, then the leek. Sprinkle with salt and sauté for about 7 minutes, turning the heat down to medium-low to avoid browning. Add the carrot and continue to cook about 3 minutes more. Decant the mixture into a bowl and set aside.

Return the pan to the stove and set over medium heat. Add a glug of olive and then the fennel. Sauté, stirring occasionally, for about 7 minutes or until tender, allowing it to brown.

Turn the heat down to medium-low. Give the fennel a stir and space it out in an even layer across the pan. Lay the dover sole down across it, first in one layer, and then in a second overlapping layer if needed. Sprinkle each layer with salt. Drizzle a little olive oil over the top, add a slosh of wine and the butter cut into small pieces, and cover.

Cook 5-7 minutes or until the fish is almost done (no longer pink but not yet flaking). Sprinkle generously with cress or arugula and the lemon zest, then cover the pan for another minute to let the greens wilt. Serve hot, with freshly ground black pepper over the top.

Halibut with French Herbs

Tarragon, it turns out, is a game changer. Apparently you can chop it up with some parsley and chives and use it to make light-yet-buttery, simple-yet-flavorful, swooningly delicious french fare. Who knew? (Probably the French. But I didn't. You would think, in a fair world, that some people would get life-altering croissants and others would get tarragon, but no, the French got both. Until now. Or maybe it was years ago, when non-French people noticed tarragon but didn't tell me. Regardless, if you need me, I'll be over here, gazing adoringly at my new leafy green obsession.)

Ingredients

½ - ¾ lbs wild halibut (enough for two)

Kosher salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Stone ground whole wheat flour

2 tbsp Meyer lemon juice

1 tsp olive oil

1 tbsp white wine

1 ½ tbsp butter

1 tbsp capers, rinsed and drained

1 tbsp coarsely chopped fresh tarragon

2 tbsp chopped chives

2 tbsp chopped flat leaf parsley

(Goes well over black Forbidden rice—sauté a little chopped shallot until soft, then add the rice and water and cook according to package directions.)

Sprinkle the halibut on both sides with kosher salt and a little freshly ground black pepper, then lightly flour on both sides. Combine the lemon juice, olive oil, and white wine in a small dish.

Heat a nonstick or ceramic pan over medium heat. Drizzle lightly with olive oil, then add the fish to the pan and fry for a few minutes on each side, until just before the inside is cooked through (I always cut into the middle after it's lightly browned on both sides to get a sense of how much longer it has to cook...nobody will ever know if you serve it with the cut face down or with sauce over the top.) 

When the fish is almost but not quite cooked through, serve immediately over rice (it will keep cooking on the plate from the heat of the rice).

Immediately after serving the fish, replace the pan over medium-low heat. Add the butter, let it melt, then add the lemon-wine mixture. Wait 10 seconds for the alcohol to steam off, then add the capers and a pinch of salt, and turn off the heat. Add the herbs, stir a couple times, then spoon over the fish.

Serve immediately.

Serves 2. Pairs very well with sautéed leeks and baby kale and a French white.

Fancy Fish Tacos with Cilantro Yogurt Sauce

There are only so many times you can present me with fancy tacos from trendy food trucks before I decide it's high time I make my own.

Three, it turns out, is the number. In case you were wondering. Feel free to try it. (Presenting me with tacos, I mean.)

After that, these happen. And then everyone is happy. Because tacos.

Ingredients
1/2 lb white fish (Petrale sole or black drum are particularly good; cod is fine as a backup)
Whole wheat flour
9 oz Greek yogurt (Voskos or Fage are particularly good)
1/2-2/3 bunch cilantro
1 lime, halved
2-3 handfuls Serrano or Padron peppers (or sub a couple Anaheims and a jalapeno)
Fresh whole wheat or multigrain tortillas (it's worth investing in particularly delicious tortillas. Look for local ones that are softer and fluffier than your garden variety dry disc).
1/2 cup grated Pepperjack cheese (optional)
Diced avocado (optional)

Combine the yogurt, cilantro, and juice of 1/2 the lime in a blender or small Cuisinart and blend until smooth.

For Serrano or Padron peppers: Heat a nonstick pan over medium heat. Drizzle with olive oil, add the peppers, and sauté, shaking the pan occasionally, for a few minutes until peppers blister and soften slightly. Remove from heat and let cool, then slice crosswise into rings. (You can eat the seeds, so don't worry if a few get into the rings.)

For other peppers: Dice or slice into strips, and sauté in olive oil until they soften, 5-7 minutes.

Salt and pepper the fish, then dredge in the flour. Heat a nonstick pan over medium heat. Drizzle liberally with olive oil. Add the fish and shake the pan to prevent sticking. Cook until the fish is browned on the bottom, then flip and cook until just before the fish is done (it will finish cooking from its own heat). Remove from the pan and set on a cutting board for a minute to cool slightly, then cut crosswise into strips.

Meanwhile, toss your tortillas in the microwave between a couple damp paper towels for a few seconds to warm them.

Take each tortilla and sprinkle lightly with a little cheese. Pile in the fish, drizzle generously with cilantro-yogurt sauce, top liberally with peppers and a couple slices of avocado if desired, and garnish with lime wedges. Serve warm.

Serves 2.

Moonfish with Curry Leaves, Ginger, and Asparagus

Spring is here, and with it comes green garlic, red spring onions, asparagus, and memories of our trip to Maui. Throw those together in a pan over medium heat, and you get this.

Ingredients
Olive oil
1 tsp chopped red spring onion or shallot
1 tbsp chopped green garlic
1 bunch asparagus, sliced at an angle into 1 inch pieces
1/2 lb moonfish (opah)
8-10 fresh curry leaves
1 tbsp julienned fresh ginger (slice thinly, then slice crosswise)
Salt
1/4 cup coconut milk

Heat a pan over medium heat. When hot, add a glug of olive oil. Add the asparagus, onion, and a bit of the green garlic, and saute, stirring, for 2-3 minutes. Cover, turn down the heat, and let cook for 1-5 minutes longer (depending on how thick the stalks are) until al dente, stirring occasionally. Sprinkle with salt, then transfer into a bowl and set aside.

Add another glug of olive oil to the pan, and return the heat to medium. Press a few curry leaves onto
one side of the fish, and then flip leaf-side down into the pan. Press curry leaves onto the upward side of the fish as well, and sprinkle with a little salt. Cook until the bottom of the fish is golden brown, then flip, and cook the other side till golden brown as well.

Add a little more olive oil, the rest of the green garlic, curry leaves, and ginger to the side of the pan and saute, stirring, for about a minute or until the garlic softens but before it browns. Add the coconut milk and a splash of water, stir to combine with the garlic ginger mixture, and then add the asparagus back to the pan. Cover and cook over medium-low heat until the fish is almost but not quite cooked through, then immediately turn off the heat.


Serve over jungle rice. (The heat of the rice will finish cooking the fish on the way to the table).



Serves 2.

Jungle Rice

If you think of rice as a plain old staple—something to plop down on your plate as a generic staging ground for a hunk of chicken or slab of fish—think again. Or better yet, stop thinking and just make this.

Pairs wonderfully with seared fish, sauteed bok choy, grilled garlic shrimp, avocado tossed with cilantro, ripe mango, and probably anything else you might find yourself cooking with Hawaiianesque ingredients (we named it "Jungle Rice" in honor of the little patch of Maui jungle in which we were staying when we first cooked it). And it's flexible—if you're missing something like pistachios, you can substitute cashews (or just leave the nuts out). If you don't have curry leaves or coconut milk, it will still turn out quite well (though make sure you add enough water to replace the liquid from the coconut milk). And you can make it with other kinds of rice as well (we just discovered that Madagascar pink rice is particularly delicious in this recipe...just make sure to adjust the water and cooking time for the type of rice you use).

Ingredients
Olive oil
1 shallot, chopped
4 fresh curry leaves
2 tbsp shelled pistachios (roasted is even better)
1 scant cup black Forbidden rice, rinsed and drained
1 cup water
1/4 cup coconut milk, plus a couple spoonfuls to drizzle over the top if desired

Heat a glug of olive oil in a smallish pot over medium heat. Add the shallot, curry leaves, and pistachios and saute, stirring occasionally, for 2-3 minutes or until the shallot softens. Add the rice and saute for 1-2 minutes more. Stir in the water and coconut milk, cover, and bring to a simmer, then turn the heat down to low and simmer for 23 minutes or until the liquid is all absorbed and the rice is tender.

Serve hot, with a little coconut milk drizzled over the top.

Serves 2-3.

Wordless Wednesday: Kauai Edition

 

 

 

  

Black Cod in a White Wine Butter Sauce

Don't judge. Just listen.

There's this whole world out there. We talk of Aztec spinach and dandelion greens, investigate the optimal roasting conditions for kale, rehabilitate beets, but what's a paltry reconnaissance of a single vegetable compared to this? The ocean covers 71% of the earth's surface, and it turns out its inhabitants are delicious.

Here's a very simple spin-off of the previous halibut recipe, which worked perfectly for the sustainably fished, wild Alaskan black cod that we found at our co-op tonight.

Serve this with sauteed greens and black Forbidden rice cooked with sauteed shallot, or basmati rice with a little butter and ginger (simmer 1 cup basmati rice in 1 1/4 cups water for 15 minutes, then melt about a tablespoon of pastured butter in a small pan, add a pinch or two grated fresh ginger, saute for 15-20 seconds, and fold into the cooked rice).

Ingredients
2 fillets of a fresh mild fish, like black cod (sablefish) or halibut, preferably wild and sustainable
Olive oil
1/4 cup chickpea flour
1/4 cup stone ground whole wheat flour
1/4 tsp kosher salt plus extra for sprinkling
Freshly ground black pepper
1 tbsp pastured butter
1/4 cup white wine
Juice of 1/2 Meyer lemon
2 tbsp chopped flat leaf parsley

Combine the flours, salt, and pepper, and dredge the fish to cover lightly on all sides. Melt the butter in a small pot over medium-low heat, add the wine, and let simmer while you cook the fish.

Heat a nonstick pan over medium heat. When hot, add a glug of olive oil and swirl to coat, then add the fish. Sprinkle with a little extra salt and pepper. Cook until the bottom is golden brown (the black cod signaled this by curling its sides slightly away from the pan), then flip. Serve just before the fish cooks through (again, the cod made this easy: at the perfect time, it pulled apart a bit of its own accord to show that its center was just moments away from cooking through).


Serve the fish over the rice, then decant the reduced wine and butter mixture into the pan and stir in the lemon and parsley. Simmer for 10-20 seconds, turn off the heat, and use a spoon to drizzle sauce over the fish and rice. Pairs well with baby greens sauteed with a little olive oil and garlic.

Serves 2.