I bought Ina Garten's new cookbook the day it came out. While I frequently buy used cookbooks for pennies on the dollar, I'm fine with buying Ina's cookbooks new. Why? They're so well done. She obviously tests and retests her recipes because they just work. And, they're so often relatively quick and easy. Perfect for work nights. That's how I felt about her Flounder Milanese. After reading the book cover to cover and making a list of recipes to try, this one came to the top of the list. I stopped at our favorite fishmongers and picked up some cod instead of the flounder.
We left the office about 7:00 and headed home. I still needed a salad. My idea was celery. A great recipe from the New York Times was on my radar. But, it required a two hour marination. Not happening at 7:00 in the evening! So, on to eatyourbooks.com. I typed in celery, pine nuts, feta, thinking I'd get a bunch of salad ideas. Nope. Just one, from Food 52. So, I used the basic ingredients and made up my own salad dressing.
What did we think? Both recipes were fives. They were SO easy to make. And, SO very good. This is exactly what we like on a late evening. Quick, flavorful and pretty darned good for us.
Cod Milanese
Ingredients:
1 pound cod fillet
1 c all purpose flour
salt and pepper
1 extra large egg
1 c seasoned dry bread crumbs
unsalted butter
good olive oil
1 T drained capers
lime juice
Directions:
Put the flour in a shallow bowl. Beat the egg with a tablespoon of water in another shallow bowl. And, the seasoned bread crumbs in another. Since I didn't have seasoned bread crumbs, I put in a good bit of Italian seasoning. Cut the fish into pieces. I cut it based on the thickness of the fish. Pat the fish pieces dry. Melt a tablespoon of butter in a large skillet. Add a tablespoon of olive oil. Dip the fillets first in flour, then the egg, then the bread crumbs. When the butter is sizzling, put the thicker fillets in. When they are brown on the first side, flip them and add the balance of the fillets to the skillet. You may need to add more butter and/or oil. The thick fillets (1") took about 8 minutes and the thinner ones took about 4 minutes. Serve topped with capers and a squeeze of lime or lemon. Ina also added salad greens with a lemon vinaigrette.
adapted from Cook Like a Pro by Ina Garten
Celery, Artichoke and Chickpea Salad
Ingredients:
3 celery ribs with leaves, finely diced
1 can artichoke hearts, drained and diced
1 jar hearts of palm, drained and sliced thinly
1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1/4 c crumbled feta cheese
2 T toasted pine nuts
mustard vinaigrette
Directions:
Mix the celery, artichoke hearts, hearts of palm, chickpeas and vinaigrette together and allow them to marinate while you prep the fish. For the vinaigrette, I had about 3 T of Dijon mustard left in a jar. I added some red wine vinegar, a pinch of sugar, about 2 t of Italian seasoning and then a good bit of EVOO. Serve the salad topped with crumbled feta and toasted pine nuts.
adapted from Food 52
My goal is to clean out the OLD small freezer and get rid of it. It's an energy hog and we really don't need the extra freezer. Of course, if you looked at what we have frozen, you'd say we do. An entire shelf of stock. Chicken, turkey, shrimp, lobster and corn. An entire shelf of soups. And, the list goes on... I've been reaching my hand into the freezer and grabbing different proteins. Then, I design the week's menus around them. Some time ago I grabbed the bag of cod. Fish and chips went on the menu. And, got moved from week to week. Finally I'd had enough of the moving it and declared it was time to have fish and chips for dinner. Except that Connie didn't want potatoes. And, he's not fond of corn meal. Really, he's not terribly picky. Except of course when it comes to soup, fruit and potatoes. LOL. He eats them because I fix them and that's what's for dinner. He does like a lot of the weird stuff I like. Anchovies, escargot, oysters, smoked oysters, capers...
I headed to the computer to look at recipes for beer batter. That'd make him happy. No corn meal. Now, when it comes to catfish he's not going to have a choice. That's a corn meal kinda fish! But, cod we could beer batter. As I looked at Epicurious I saw an onion ring recipe. It was a beer tempura batter. Sounded fabulous. Then and there I decided to do onion rings and beer battered fish. And, a raw cauliflower salad with anchovies, capers, parsley, red wine vinegar and EVOO. Gotta have something healthy with the fried food!
We loved this meal so much that the next evening I did it again - more or less. This time I cut the fish into pieces and tucked them into toasted hot dog buns. The sandwiches were topped with shredded lettuce that'd been drizzled with some malt vinegar. We used Stonewall Kitchen Down East Tartar Sauce because I'd bought a jar on sale and wanted to use it up. It was very good but not very economical.
I've got to say these were about the best onion rings I've ever had. They were crispy and crunchy. They shattered as a good tempura batter should. I sliced the sweet onions about a quarter of an inch thick.
With thanks to Epicurious, here's the recipe I adapted from their site:
Tempura Batter for Onion Rings and Fish
Ingredients:
2 c all purpose flour
1 c cornstarch
1 1/2 t garlic powder
1 1/2 t onion powder
1 t cayenne
1 1/2 t sugar
1 T kosher salt
12 oz beer (I used Heineken)
5 oz club soda
Directions:
Mix the batter ingredients. Heat your oil in a wide skillet to 350. Dredge the onion rings in the batter and put them in the hot oil. Do not crowd them or they will stick together. Fry on both sides until golden brown. Remove them from the skillet to a half sheet covered with paper towels. Dust with salt. Add the fish to the hot oil. Again, cook until it's golden brown. Remove to the half sheet. Serve with tartar sauce. Either plain or in a sandwich...
I don't very often get an opportunity to watch tv. One, I work way to many hours. And, two, when I'm not working there are way too many other things to do like clean the house, garden, sleep (yeah, I know, slacker for sleeping - lol.) So, a couple of weeks ago when I sprained my ankle and couldn't head to the office, I worked from home - and had foodtv on in the background. Most of the time I was very well behaved and focused on the work. But,when Rachael Ray came on and was making her Spanish dinner, I kept cheating and turning around and watching. The Spanish fish in a sack sounded wonderful. And, pretty darned healthy. A combination I love.
A couple of weeks ago after driving back from Cinti, neither of us wanted to go to the grocery. For the pork kebabs, I needed pork tenderloin. For the cabbage rolls, I needed ground pork and ground beef. For the potato torte, I needed the bag from the CSA - which was happily camping in the office fridge. Fine, then, I had everything we needed for the fish packets. Time to make those.
What did we think? These were really good. I was suprised at how well the green beans cooked. And, how wonderfully the flavors blended. I've never cooked in parchment before but will certainly do so again!!
Rach's Spanish Fish in a Sack
Serves 4
Ingredients:
1 lb, trimmed green beans
1 roasted red pepper, sliced in 1/4" slices
8 anchovy fillets
4 large garlic cloves, finely minced
1/2 c chopped kalamata olives
2 lbs cod, cut into four portions
lemon zest from one lemon
4 scallions, chopped
1/4 c flat leaf parsley, chopped
juice of one lemon
olive oil, to drizzle
Directions:
Cut four pieces of parchment paper at least 12" each. Lay them out on the counter. Put a quarter of the ingredients on each piece of paper in the order listed above.
Finish by drizzling the fish with the olive oil and lemon juice. Wrap the packets up so they're well sealed.
Bake at 400 for 20 minutes. Be very careful when you open the packets because there's a LOT of hot steam in there. Reminds me of some people I know :-)
As those of you who've been reading my blog for a while know, we rank our dishes. Five is OMG, that's good, you can make it again tomorrow. Four is that's really good. Three is it's ok but needs some serious tweaking. Two is throw the recipe away. One's don't exist - at least in our house they don't! I can't say I've ever fixed a solid FIVE meal. Must've happened along the way somewhere but I don't remember it. Now, I'm memorializing one so if I forget about it later, you all can remind me...
One evening last week, I sat down at the table with all the recipes from The Dish that I'd printed out and all of the pages I'd torn from the October, 2010 issue of Food and Wine. Over the next three weeks we'd be eating at home together a maximum of 15 times. At that point, I had 22 entrees on my list to try. And, we're only required to submit four posts a week that are inspired by Food and Wine. Now, inspired is a big word. Pretty much anything can be inspired by something else in a magazine that covers as much territory as Food and Wine does. I've chosen to focus on Food and Wine recipes for the month. Almost all of the recipes we'll try over the next few weeks will be directly from Food and Wine. That's the only way we'll all get an idea of what the magazine has to offer.
Speaking of that, let's talk for a minute about Food and Wine the magazine. Some may be put off by their focus on the coasts. They believe most good restaurants are on the East coast or West coast. Goodness knows, Indianapolis doesn't exist as far as they're concerned. I agree totally with that criticism. But, the other one that I hear a lot is that the recipes are way too far out is somewhat misplaced. There are some recipes that I'd never in a million years make. Many, however, are very approachable. They don't require odd ingredients or cooking techniques. I would say, most of the recipes are more suited to adults than kids. I think if the grandkids came to visit for the weekend, I'd be pulling out some other recipes! At any rate, please stop click on the link at the end of this post and leave a comment so you'll be entered to win a one year subscription to Food and Wine. If you win, I hope you'll enjoy the magazine as much as we do!
On to the perfect five. I'd pulled out a couple of recipes to try for dinner then saw Alison's post on maple balsamic vinaigrette and the lovely salad she made with it. That'd be perfect with the cod and potato salad. A couple of notes on the recipes. The original cod recipe called for crisping the olives in olive oil in the microwave. I don't know about you but I'm not fond of the idea of heating olive oil in my microwave until it's hot enough to crisp olives... That'd scare the heck out of me. So, in the instructions below I show how I did them. Also, once I made the spinach and chive puree, I felt it had too much oil - even at 1/4 cup. So, I added more spinach. Since dinner was almost ready I didn't take the time to blanch it and was thrilled when it turned out just fine. Actually, because I didn't blanch it, there were lovely flecks of spinach in the puree - bonus! As usual, I replaced the maple syrup with shagbark hickory syrup in the dressing recipe. For the salad, I used what we had on hand - spinach and strawberries. The recipe didn't call for putting soy sauce in with the nuts but I thought it'd be a good addition. The sugar syrup bubbled and rolled when I added it.
Connie and I were both intrigued by the crispy olives. So, that's the dish we both started with. YUMMY! Then, on to the potato salad. Yummy again. Then, the spinach salad. Again. He looked up and said, "You know this dinner is a solid five." It was indeed. Enjoy!
Mustard Glazed Cod with Chive and Spinach Puree
Ingredients:
1 cup snipped chives
1 cup baby spinach
1/4 c extra virgin olive oil
1/4 c coarsely chopped green olives
1-2 T olive oil
4 - 6 oz cod fillets
3 T dijon mustard
Directions:
Blanch the spinach and chives in boiling water for no more than 30 seconds. Drain them well, then squeeze to remove as much moisture as possible. Put the spinach and chives in a blender with 1/2 cup olive oil. (I used closer to 1/4 cup.) Blend until it's pureed. You still want some flecks of the spinach and chives for appearance.
Coarsely chop the green olives.
Brown them in a small skillet in about a tablespoon of olive oil. They'll get very crunchy.
Slater the dijon on the cod
Broil it until it flakes easily.
Serve with the olives sprinkled over the cod and the puree drizzled around it.
adapted from Food and Wine
Potato Salad with Champagne Vinaigrette
Ingredients:
1 lb fingerling potatoes
2 T champagne or chardonnay vinegar
2 t dijon mustard
1/4 c olive oil
2 scallions, thinly sliced
1 shallot, minced
salt and freshly ground pepper
Directions:
Cook the potatoes in boiling salted water for about 10 minutes or until they're done. Mix the rest of the ingredients for the dressing.
Drain the potatoes and immediately cut them into coins and toss them with the dressing while they're still very warm.
adapted from Food and Wine
Spinach Salad with Alison's Balsamic Maple Dressing
Ingredients:
fresh spinach
strawberries, cored and quartered
pecans
balsamic maple dressing
for the dressing:
3 T olive oil
2 T balsamic vinegar
1 T red wine vinegar
3 T shagbark hickory syrup or maple syrup
1 T chopped fresh thyme
1 t chopped parsley
1/2 t salt
1/2 t freshly ground pepper
Whisk all dressing ingredients together.
for the pecans:
1/2 c pecan halves
1 t sesame oil
1 T sugar
1/4 t soy sauce
Toast the pecans in a small skillet. Add the sesame oil, then the sugar. Allow to caramelize a bit. Add the soy sauce. Remove from the heat and pour onto a piece of aluminum foil. Allow to cool before sprinkling on the salad
To put together the salad, put the spinach in bowls, top with the strawberries then the dressing then the pecans.
Thank you to Alison for yet another fantastic recipe!!
adapted from Prairie Story
FOOD and WINE is giving away a year-long subscription to a lucky reader from Kate's Kitchen. Click here to enter and read official rules here.
This post is part of a series featuring recipes from the FOOD and WINE archive. As a FOOD and WINE Blogger Correspondent, I was chosen to do four recipes a week from FOOD and WINE. I received a subscription to FOOD and WINE for my participation.
My goal for the fall and winter is to get all of my freezers cleaned out. To cook the various and sundry frozen goodies that have languished in there for far too long. The extra refrigerator in the basement is where we store big stuff. It's freezer is packed. The big freezer in the garage is full of cat food and homemade chicken stock and freezer packs and nuts and meats with a shelf of assorted sauces and soups. Then, there's the "freezer" that's part of my refrigerator in the kitchen. Roasted garlic, frozen chopped spinach and broccoli, frozen blueberries and peaches and strawberries and cherries and who knows what else.
On our way to the office from the farmer's market I made a list of what I need to use up: apples, pears, peaches, cherry tomatoes, regular tomatoes, cantaloupe, spinach, eggplant, tomatillos, jalapenos and pepperocini (by the dozen from our garden,) lamb burgers, chicken breasts, cod, catfish, most of a can of pumpkin, mascarpone cheese, pastrami.
The apples are destined for Mrs. Huber's apple butter. It's the best we've ever had - bar none. The pears will become pear ketchup - What She's Having has what looks like a great recipe on her blog. Just a side note - who doesn't giggle at one of the funniest lines EVER from a movie. The jalapenos and pepperocini are going to be pickled. The peaches will be peach vanilla bourbon jam from Blondie's Cakes.
I bought some extra tomatoes to make gazpacho. I've already got the cucumbers and onions at the ready. The cherry tomatoes with go into a quinoa salad and also into a pasta sauce. We'll be home for dinner on Saturday, Sunday and Thursday this week. Monday, I've got a Kappa fall kickoff dinner. Tuesday, I've got a Financial Planning Association meeting and Wednesday Connie plays bridge. So, I'll want to fix plenty of leftovers for the one left at home alone to eat. Friday the Girls Night Out crew is coming over for a pitch-in cookout. Three dinners and about 150 ideas. I guess it's a good thing that we eat lunch at the office every day so I can use up some of this produce!!
Tentatively then, our menu for dinners this week is:
Chicken with brie and pear ketchup, greek salad
Cod piccata, ratatouille
Ravioli stuffed with mushroom pesto with cherry tomato mushroom sauce - Ok, it WAS going to be mushroom pesto but someone finished it for lunch today. He was so excited when he saw it in the refrigerator at the office that I didn't have the heart to say that was for the ravioli... Not to worry, I'll come up with another filling.
Last week we had a wonderful meal with cod that I'm having leftover for lunch today. The cod piccata will finish up a bag of cod - yesss!
So, you're probably wondering if I'm ever going to get around to the cod recipe. Yup, right now. We'd gotten home late (no surprise there, eh?) and I didn't have time to fix any of the ideas I'd jotted down for the week. Hmm, what's first to get used up? Cod. What area of the country is famous for cod? Cape Cod, of course. And, since we go visit Auntie Barbara's house there, I've naturally picked up a couple of Cape Cod cookbooks. Score in the first one -The Cape Cod Cookbook by Jerome Rubin. Easy, very healthy, flavorful. This recipe is a keeper. I made it almost exactly as the recipe was written and can't think of a single change I'd make. Reheated for lunch it was equally good. It's very pretty and would undoubtedly make a lovely company dish also. I'm certain canned tomatoes wouldn't be as good as the fresh ones were but we'll be using those during the winter because this will be a regular - or as regular as any dish is in our home!!
Cod Espana
Ingredients:
1 pound cod (I used it frozen but thawed is ok)
olive oil
salt
shallot pepper
2 large tomatoes, sliced into 4-6 slices each
1 green pepper, sliced into VERY thin rings
dried oregano
1 lemon sliced into 6 slices
Directions:
Heat the olive oil until it's shimmering. Add the cod and saute for a couple of minutes per side.
Sprinkle with the salt and shallot pepper. Or, you can use plain pepper and add a bit of garlic powder. Cover the cod with the green pepper rings.
Then, cover those with the tomatoes.
Dust with the dried oregano. Place the lemon slices around the pan.
Cover and cook on medium heat for about 12 minutes or until the fish flakes easily.
Adapted from The Cape Cod Cookbook by Jerome Rubin
