Maui, Day 3: Blue Marlin with Ginger and Coconut

Found at the Maui Costco: Fresh, local blue marlin.
Found at Mana Foods: Curry leaves, red mustard frisee, ginger, and cilantro.

The result: A new take on an old favorite. Serve this over jungle rice.

Ingredients
2 thick blue marlin fillets (or one that you cut in half later; we used one .7 lb fillet for two hungry people)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 curry leaves (optional)
Olive oil
1 1/4 tsp minced ginger
Small handful cilantro, chopped
1/3 can coconut milk
1 bunch red mustard frisee, coarsely chopped (or sub spinach or another green*)
1/2 large papaya, diced

Sprinkle the fish on both sides with salt and pepper, and press a couple curry leaves into each side. Heat a nonstick pan over medium heat. When hot, add a little olive oil and swirl to coat. Add the fish, shake the pan to prevent it from sticking, and then pan fry until golden on both sides.

Add the mustard frisee and sauté around the fish, stirring a few times, for about a minute until it begins to wilt. Stir in the coconut milk, the ginger, a pinch of salt, and the cilantro. Turn the heat down a bit to simmer gently until the fish is just barely cooked through (if you use one fillet for two people: it gives you an excuse to cut the fish in half at this point and check whether it's almost done). Turn off the heat about a minute before the fish is cooked to your liking, because it will keep cooking a little once served over the rice.

Serve over jungle rice—fish, then greens and sauce over the top, then scatter papaya over everything.

Serves 2.

*If it's a veggie that takes a little while to cook, like bok choy or asparagus, sauté separately until almost tender first and then add back in with the fish at the end.

Wilted Greens Salad with Tuna

The problem with brunch -- and I must admit I feel slightly sacrilegious uttering those words, so allow me to rephrase -- one tiny, insignificant, easily airbrushed imperfection on the face of the deeply beloved meal of brunch (ah, much better) is that it's one meal instead of two.

I bemoan this fact not because of my intrinsically greedy, supersized-endless-refill-loving American ways, but because as someone who eats like a hummingbird (that's the polite term my husband has developed to mean "constantly"), having one big meal all at once can't quite take the place of smaller portions spread out over the day. Now if it's a late brunch, this is easily remedied by a surreptitious cup of coffee and handful of fruit while, for example, your house guests slumber away unknowingly upstairs. But if it's an earlyish brunch, you're left with this awkwardly-sized stretch between french toast and dinnertime that's too small for lunch but too big for nothing.

Enter the Goldilocks Brinner. Large enough to feel like a meal, and light enough not to interfere with dinnertime appetites: just right for any fellow foodie hummingbirds out there.

Ingredients
1 can albacore tuna, drained
Medium, good quality curry powder
Handful flat leaf parsley, chopped
Salt & black pepper
Small handful sliced almonds
Olive oil
Yellow and/or black mustard seeds
Several large handfuls of spicy greens (e.g., half baby arugula and half mustard frisee -- something with a bit of a kick), very coarsely chopped/sliced

Combine the tuna with a bit of olive oil in a small bowl, then stir in half a spoonful or so of curry powder, the parsley, a pinch of salt, and ground black pepper to taste. Mix well, then add the almonds and stir gently a couple times to combine.

Meanwhile, heat a bit of olive oil in a wide saute pan over medium heat. When hot, add the mustard seeds and stir once or twice. After about 20 seconds, add the greens and toss to combine with the mustard seeds. Saute for a minute or two until they just begin to wilt, then cover the pan, turn off the heat, and let steam for a minute more until just wilted.

Arrange a bed of the greens on plates (don't preheat the plates -- you want the greens to go ahead and cool to room temperature), sprinkle with just a little olive oil, and top with tuna.

Serves 2 for a very light, halfway-between-brunch-and-an-early-dinner sort of meal.

Sauteed Broccolini and Wilted Red Mustard Frisee

Our CSA box has been sending big bags of red frisee mustard that has the color of red mustard, the shape of frisee, and an aroma reminiscent of a baked potato. I suspect they're supposed to be salad greens, but they taste incredible when quickly sauteed in a little bit of olive oil. Meanwhile, we got a bouquet of blossoming broccolini this week, which involves excessive amounts of alliteration (there was no way around it -- the only other option was to call it a big bunch of blooming broccolini, and that's even worse), but it was also excessively pretty and excessively tasty, so I decided to forgive it.

You can turn this into a quick and easy dinner by pairing it with some good bread and cheese. (For a quick picnic in front of my laptop one night last week, I layered avocado, sharp white cheddar, and chopped arugula on slices of walnut levain* from Village Bakery and sprinkled with a little black pepper...who says fast food can't be gourmet?)

*If you live in the Sacramento/Davis area, I suggest finding Village Bakery bread (Taylor's and the Co-op both carry it), buying the walnut levain and/or the seeded batard, going home, grabbing a knife out of the kitchen, locking yourself in a room after reassuring anyone present that you are not about to do anything drastic, and eating it. Seriously. Because you have not really had bread until you have had this bread.

Ingredients
Olive oil
Several big handfuls of red frisee mustard (or sub arugula)
1 bunch broccolini, stems sliced into 1 inch pieces and tops separated
1 clove garlic, pressed
Splash chicken or veggie broth
Squeeze Meyer lemon juice

Heat a little olive oil in a wide pan over medium heat. Add the mustard and saute for a minute, pressing the leaves gently against the pan and then turning them. Cover the pan and cook for a minute or until just wilted (arugula will cook even faster, so saute only until it just begins to wilt and remove from heat). Decant into a bowl and set near the stove to keep warm.

Add a little more olive oil to the pan, then toss in the broccolini stems and stir a few times. Push them to the side of the pan and add the garlic and a little more olive oil, so the garlic can simmer in the oil for a few moments. After about 10 seconds and before it browns, stir it in with the broccolini. Sprinkle with a little salt, saute for a minute or so more, then add the chicken broth and cover the pan, turning the heat to medium-low. Simmer for about 2 minutes, then uncover, turn the heat back to medium, and add the broccolini tops. Saute for a minute more, then turn off the heat, sprinkle with lemon juice and pepper, and serve next to or over the red mustard frisee.




Serves 2 as a side dish.