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Category Archives: Seafood

A Shrimp Dinner to End the Week

For the last meal of the week, we turn to our seafood meal. I decided to try something a little different this week; it’s always risky to be different with a seafood meal when cooking for a pre-teen, but I thought I would give it a shot anyway. Sean likes shrimp, but he’s never had artichokes and is not a big fan of olives, so we’ll have to see how this one goes. Tonight I am making Artichokes with Potatoes, Garlic, Olives and Shrimp. It’s a hearty, one pot meal, something we have made a lot of lately, but it struck me as something that looked good to try. If you can’t find fresh artichokes, you can use artichokes hearts instead.

Artichokes with Potatoes, Garlic, Olives and Shrimp

1 to 1/2 pounds fresh artichokes

5 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 pound waxy potatoes, peeled and cut, if necessary, into 1-inch chunks

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 tablespoon fresh thyme

1/2 cup dry white wine, stock, or water

1 cup small black olives, pitted

1 pound shrimp, peeled and deveined

1 tablespoon minced garlic

Chopped fresh parsley leaves for garnish

Prepare the artichokes by trimming the stem, cutting off the pointed tips, removing the tough leaves and cutting in half; remove the choke if necessary. As each is finished, drop it into a bowl of cold water with about 10 percent vinegar or lemon juice.

Put 4 tablespoons of olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Drain the artichokes and add them to the skillet, along with the potatoes. Cook until they’re glossy and beginning to soften; do not brown. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, then add the thyme and the liquid. Bring to a boil, cover and adjust the heat so the mixture just simmers. Cook just until the potatoes are tender, about 15 minutes, then uncover and raise the heat again. Stir in the remaining olive oil, olives, shrimp and garlic and cook, stirring occasionally, until the shrimp are pink, about 3 to 5 minutes. Taste and adjust the seasoning, then garnish with the parsley and serve hot or warm.

If you have never prepared whole artichokes before, it can be a little tricky at first, but once you get the hang of it it’s pretty easy. It’s really just a matter of getting rid any spiky tips and outer leaves and removing the furry, needlelike choke. You can steam the artichokes whole and eat the leaves one by one, scraping off the meat of each leaf using your front teeth. The closer you get to the center, the more tender the leaves, and the soft, inner leaves can be eaten whole. Just make sure to spoon out the choke before you eat the heart. Fresh tastes a lot better than canned or jarred, in my opinion, but if you are using the artichokes in a recipe, you can get away with using canned or jarred artichoke hearts.

Tomorrow is, of course, St. Patrick’s Day, and I have a great feast scheduled to cook. I’ll be posting my recipes for Corned Beef and Cabbage (I’ll be cooking it two ways),Boiled Potatoes, Colcannon, Grasshopper Pie, and of course, some Irish Coffee and Black and Tans. Check in tomorrow to check out the feast. Until then, enjoy your evening and enjoy your meal!

Making Monkfish on a Friday

09 Mar

Well it’s Friday and time for the seafood meal of the week, although the trout I had last night was delicious while Michelle and Sean had fettuccine. Monkfish was on sale so that’s what I decided to cook with tonight. Monkfish is pretty creepy looking if you saw one in the ocean, an aquarium or even a whole one at a fish market:

Not the prettiest one in the ocean, but it tastes great. It’s sometimes referred to as “the poor man’s lobster” because the tail meat is very similar in texture to a lobster, although with seafood costs the way they are, it’s not really a poor man’s fish. Anyway, I really enjoy the flavor of it and found this recipe for a Bacon Wrapped Monkfish with Beurre Rouge (basically a red butter sauce)

Bacon-Wrapped Monkfish with Beurre Rouge

1/2 cup red wine vinegar

1 cup dry red wine

1/2 cup minced shallots

1/2 teaspoon black peppercorns

4 (6-ounce) monkfish fillets

Salt and pepper

8 thin bacon slices

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 stick butter, cut into 10 pieces

2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley

In a small, heavy saucepan, combine the vinegar, wine, shallots and peppercorns. Bring to a boil over high heat, and cook until it is reduced to about 1/2 cup in volume, about 10 to 15 minutes. Strain into a clean saucepan. Season the monkfish lightly on both sides with the salt and pepper. Place 2 slices of bacon on a flat surface. Lay 1 fillet on top, skin-side down, and wrap the bacon completely around the fish. Secure with toothpicks, and repeat with the remaining fish and bacon. In a large, heavy skillet, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the fillets, skin-side down, and cook for 5 minutes on the first side. Turn the fillets and cook for an additional 5 minutes on the second side. Remove the fish to a platter and tent with aluminum foil to keep warm. Bring the wine reduction to a simmer over medium-low heat. Whisk in the butter, one piece at a time, allowing each piece to become completely incorporated before adding the next piece. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Spoon 1 tablespoon of sauce on the bottom of 4 serving plates, and place 1 bacon-wrapped monkfish fillet on top. Spoon the remaining sauce over the fish, and garnish with chopped parsley. Serve immediately.

It’s not a difficult dish to make and doesn’t take long at all. I’ll be serving this dish with some white rice and green beans, but a green salad would go nicely with this dish as well, or this recipe I found, which is for Seared Baby Bok Choy with a Bacon Vinaigrette.

Seared Baby Bok Choy with Bacon Vinaigrette

1 1/2 to 2 pounds baby Bok choy, parboiled and shocked

4 slices of bacon, finely chopped

3 tablespoons sherry vinegar or white wine vinegar

Salt and pepper

5 tablespoons vegetable or corn oil

Cut the bok choy in half lengthwise and put the cut side down on paper towels to drain. Meanwhile. put the bacon in a small pan over medium-high heat. When it starts to sizzle, reduce the heat to medium and cook until crisp and the fat is rendered, about 10 minutes. Turn off the heat, add the vinegar, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and then whisk in 3 tablespoons of the oil. Set aside.

Put a large skillet over high heat. When it’s very hot, add the remaining oil and put a few pieces of bok choy, cut side down, in the pan (it will spatter, so be careful!). Do not overcrowd the pan; you want at least one inch on all sides between the pieces. Cook the bok choy without moving it until the cut side is dark brown and slightly charred. Continue cooking the bok choy in batches. Pile the seared bok choy on a platter in a serving bowl; give the bacon vinaigrette a stir and drizzle it over the bok choy. Serve warm or at room temperature.

You could substitute Napa cabbage, endive or radicchio for the bok choy if it’s easier to get one of those vegetables. As far as the “shocking” that is mentioned in the recipe, it’s quite a simple process and produces, nice, vibrant vegetables. Bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil and salt it well. Set up a large bowl of water with lots of ice cubes. Drop the vegetables into the boiling water. After about 30 seconds, start testing – you can poke with a thin-bladed knife or taste; you’re looking for the vegetable to be just about tender, but not quite. When that happens, take the vegetables out with a strainer, tongs or slotted spoon and put them in the bowl of ice water for a minute or two. When they’ve cooled down, remove them from the ice bath and drain in a colander. Squeeze the drained greens tightly to remove as much water as possible then chop, slice or cook the vegetables according to the recipe you are using.

That’s all there is for tonight. We didn’t really get to talk about next week’s menu yet, other than the St. Patrick’s Day meal for next Saturday, but hopefully I will have everything to post for tomorrow’s blog entry. As always, all questions and comments are welcome. If you are looking for a recipe for something, let me know, I may be able to find one for you. Until tomorrow, enjoy your meal!

1 Comment

Posted by MikeG on March 9, 2012 in Cooking, Dinner, Seafood, Vegetables

Tags: bacon vinaigrette, bacon-wrapped monkfish, beurre rouge, bok choy, monkfish, red wine vinegar, seafood meal

Flipping Over Some Fettuccine Alfredo (Or Some Crab-Stuffed Trout)

08 Mar

Today’s dinner is the meat free meal of the week. Sean Michelle are going totally meat free by having Fettuccine Alfredo. I, on the other hand, not being a fan of pasta or cheese, am making a Crab-Stuffed Trout for myself for dinner with some white rice and cauliflower. First, the fettuccine. If I had the space to do it, I would like to make my own pasta.Unfortunately, our kitchen is the size of a closet and we only have 1 counter to do any work on, so I can’t do it. I did buy some fresh pasta from the store though, so it should taste better than the stuff in a box.

Fettuccine Alfredo

2 cups heavy cream

Salt

1 pound fettuccine

2 tablespoons butter

2 ounces Parmesan cheese, grated (1 cup)

Pinch nutmeg

Pepper

Bring 4 quarts of water to a boil in a large pot for the fettuccine. Meanwhile, simmer the cream in a large skillet over medium heat until it has thickened slightly and measures roughly 1 1/2 cups, about 8 minutes. Cover and keep warm off the heat.

When the water is boiling, stir in 1 tablespoon of salt and the fettuccine. Cook, stirring often, until the pasta is almost tender but still a little firm to the bite. Reserve 1/2 cup of the pasta cooking water, then drain the fettuccine and return it to the pot.

Whisk the butter, Parmesan, and nutmeg into the cream and season with salt and pepper to taste. Add the sauce to the pasta and toss to coat. Add the reserved cooking water as needed to loosen the sauce before serving.

Michelle and Sean will be having some crunchy bread with their pasta and some of the cauliflower as well. It’s a simple dinner and only takes 20 minutes to make.

For the trout, I’ll be using a whole trout, with the head and tail cut off. If you’re stuffing the trout yourself, make sure you check the trout for any pin bones on the flesh before you stuff and cook it. I scaled this recipe back since I am only making 1 trout, so adjust it accordingly for your own use.

Crab-Stuffed Trout

1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons butter

1/2 cup celery, diced

1/4 cup onion, diced

1/4 cup mushrooms, diced

1/2 cup lump crabmeat

1/4 cup breadcrumbs

1/2 teaspoon pepper

4 fresh trout, cleaned and de-boned

1 lemon, cut in wedges

Parsley, for garnish

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Melt 1/4 cup of the butter in a heavy, non-stick skillet over
medium heat. Sauté celery and onions about 5 minutes or until celery the is soft. Add mushrooms and cook another 5 minutes. Stir in the crabmeat and breadcrumbs. Mix thoroughly. Season with salt and pepper to taste.Remove the mixture from the heat. Using a spoon, fill each trout with the mixture so that both sides of the trout almost come together. Place the trout on a buttered cookie sheet. Dot the top of each trout with the remaining butter. Bake about 20 minutes or until the fish flakes easily with a fork. Serve with lemon wedges and garnish with the parsley.

As I said before, I am serving this white rice and cauliflower, but this would also go nicely with some wild rice. For tomorrow, it will be fish for all of us for dinner on our fish Friday. I’ll have to check out what looks good at Adam’s Farms to determine what the fish will be, so check back tomorrow to see what I’ll be cooking. Also, I hope to have next week’s menu in place so I can share it on here tomorrow. Until then, enjoy this beautiful, warm day if you are here in New York and for everyone else, just enjoy your day!

1 Comment

Posted by MikeG on March 8, 2012 in Cooking, Dinner, Pasta, Seafood, Vegetarian

Tags: crab-stuffed trout, fettuccine, fettuccine alfredo, pasta, stuffed trout, trout

It’s a Calamari Friday

02 Mar

Okay, admittedly, a lot of people don’t care for calamari. I think the biggest problem is that in a lot places, it’s not cooked correctly. If you’re served overcooked calamari, you may as well eat a plate of pencil erasers, because the taste is just about the same. So many places give you rubbery pieces that I can understand why people don’t like it. However, if you cook it correctly, it is incredibly tasty and a great treat. Heck, if my 11-year-old likes it, anybody will eat it. Here’s the rule I learned about squid – you either cook it for 2 minutes or 2 hours. Squid has to be cooked really quickly (it’s nearly impossible to undercook it) or it needs to braised for a longer period of time to make it tender.This is a great recipe that I came across in the New York Times yesterday that will make a great meal, and it doesn’t take long to cook at all. The polenta actually takes longer than the rest of the meal, but you can also use the quick-cook polenta, and that can be done is a little as 5 minutes.

Calamari With Herbs And Polenta

FOR THE POLENTA:

Salt to taste

1 cup cornmeal

2 tablespoons butter, optional

Freshly ground black pepper

FOR THE CALAMARI:

1 1/2 pounds cleaned squid

Salt and pepper

4 tablespoons olive oil

3 to 4 garlic cloves, minced

1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes, or more to taste

1/2 teaspoon grated lemon zest

1 tablespoon chopped marjoram

2 tablespoons chopped mint

A splash of white wine, about 2 tablespoons

1/2 cup chopped parsley

3 tablespoons chopped scallions

Lemon wedges, optional

Cook the polenta. Bring 5 cups salted water to a boil in a small pot. Pour in the cornmeal, stirring with a whisk or wooden spoon until it thickens, about 2 minutes. Turn the flame to low and cook for 40 to 45 minutes, stirring frequently. Stir in 2 tablespoons butter, if using, and a little freshly ground pepper. Serve warm from the pot, or pour into a pan, allow to firm up and cut into wedges(this is what I am doing). Re-heat for 10 minutes in a 400 degree oven.

Cut the squid bodies into 1/2-inch rings. Cut the tentacles in pieces or leave whole if small. Rinse, pat dry and season with salt and pepper. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over high heat until the oil looks wavy. Carefully add the squid (it will spatter) and stir to coat. Add the garlic, red pepper flakes, lemon zest, marjoram and mint and cook, stirring all the while, for 1 minute, until the squid rings have puffed up and look opaque. Add the wine and cook for 1 minute more. Turn off the heat. Add the parsley and scallions and serve immediately with the accumulated pan juices and lemon wedges if desired.

If you don’t want to serve this with polenta, pasta or rice will go just as well with this dish. I would also serve this with some garlic bread and perhaps some sautéed spinach to round out the meal.

I had hoped to have next week’s meal plan in place already to post, but we’re still trying to decide on meals for a couple of the days, so I should have that tomorrow to post along with tomorrow’s dinner. I am planning to make a roast chicken, but I will vary the recipe a little from the one I have posted previously. If you would like to see the previous recipe for roast chicken, you can find it here. Also, if you would to make your own meal plan you can use this file:family_meal_planner. As always, if you have any questions, comments or recipes you would like to see, just let me know. Until tomorrow, enjoy your meal!

3 Comments

Posted by MikeG on March 2, 2012 in Cooking, Dinner, Seafood

Tags: calamari, new york times recipes, polenta, squid

Feasting on Fish Tacos

27 Feb

I took the weekend off from blogging and the computer to spend some time on other things, but now I am back this morning to write about our dinner last night, which was a very good one. Last night I made Fish Tacos, Pineapple Mango Salsa, Black Beans and Rice, Cabbage Slaw and Guacamole. It sounds like a lot, but it was all very easy to make and a lot of it could be done ahead of time, cutting back on what needed to be done right at meal time. There are a lot of choices when it comes to the fish you want to use for the tacos. I chose grouper, mainly because it looked good at the fish market on Saturday and it was on sale. you could really use any firm-fleshed fish for this dish, like halibut, cod or Mahi Mahi and it would be fine. There’s not much of a recipe when it comes to just doing the fish; most of the work lies in what you make with it.

Fish Tacos with Cabbage Slaw

2 cups shredded green cabbage

1/2 cup diced English cucumber

1/2 cup diced red bell pepper

2 tablespoons fresh lime juice

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1 Serrano chili, seeded and minced (optional)

3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro

2 tablespoons minced red onion

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

1 pound grouper or other firm-fleshed white fish fillet, skin removed

Freshly ground pepper, to taste

8 flour tortillas

In a large bowl, combine the cabbage, cucumber, bell pepper, lime juice, 1 tablespoon of the olive oil, the chili, cilantro, onion, cumin and salt. Stir to mix well. Cover the slaw and refrigerate for 1 to 6 hours.

In a large skillet over medium high heat, heat 1/2 tablespoon of the olive oil until shimmering. Place the fish on a plate and coat lightly with the remaining 1/2 tablespoon of olive oil. Season lightly on both sides with salt and pepper. Saute the fish, carefully turning it over once with a wide spatula, until opaque in the center, 6 to 8 minutes total. Transfer the fish to a platter, break into 8 pieces and cover loosely with aluminum foil. Warm the tortillas in a warm skillet for 10 to 15 seconds each tortilla, or place 4 tortillas between 2 damp paper towels and heat in the microwave for 30 to 45 seconds or until heated through and repeat with the remaining 4. Serve with the cabbage slaw and pineapple salsa (recipe to follow).

To go along with the fish tacos, I made a very tasty Pineapple-Mango Salsa. It was quick and easy to make and tastes really refreshing and delicious with the tacos or just by itself.

Mango-Pineapple Salsa

1 large mango, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch dice

1 1/2 cups peeled, cored and diced fresh pineapple (1/2-inch dice)

1 tablespoon diced red onion

Juice of 1/2 lime

1 teaspoon minced fresh mint

1 teaspoon chopped fresh cilantro

1/2 to 1 jalapeno, seeded and minced

In a bowl, stir together the mango, pineapple, onion, lime juice, mint, cilantro and jalapeno. Cover the salsa and refrigerate until ready to serve.

I made some guacamole to go along with the tacos as well. I’ve posted my guacamole recipe before, but if you would like to check it out, you can just click here for it.

The final recipe as part of the meal is a simple Black Beans and Rice. This makes a lot, so we have leftovers to use for Tuesday’s quesadilla dinner, and this could easily be a meal on its own if you are looking for a meat-free meal to make.

Black Beans and Rice

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 medium onion, finely chopped

1 red or yellow pepper, cored, seeded, and chopped

1 tablespoon minced garlic

3/4 cup dried black beans, washed, picked over and soaked if you have time

1 1/2 cups long-grain rice

1 cup chopped tomato (canned is fine; include the juices)

Salt and pepper

1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley

put the oil in a large ovenproof pot over medium heat. When hot, add the onion, bell pepper, and garlic and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion is soft, about 5 minutes. Add the beans and cover with water. Bring to a boil, then turn the heat down to low so that the mixture bubbles gently. Cover loosely and cook, stirring occasionally and adding water if necessary, until the beans are about half-done – softening but still tough in the middle, about 40 minutes (an hour or more if you didn’t soak the beans at all). Heat the oven to 350 degrees.

Use an immersion blender or potato masher to semi-puree the beans in the pot (leave at last half unpureed). Stir in the rice, tomato, and a good amount of salt and pepper. (If you don’t want a crust to develop, cover the pot.) Bake in the oven until the rice and beans are tender, about an hour, adding a little water if needed, Taste and season with salt and pepper. Sprinkle with parsley and serve.

Pureeing the beans and then adding the rice allows the bean flavor to really penetrate the rice. If you would like a method for soaking the beans ahead of time, here is my method.

That covers Sunday’s meal. It was delicious and not a lot of work. Everyone seemed to enjoy it and the only things leftover are some salsa and beans and rice. We’ll be able to use both again with Tuesday’s dinner, so that works out great. Later on today I will post my recipe for Monday’s dinner, a Beef Stew in the slow cooker. Check back later to check it out!

7 Comments

Posted by MikeG on February 27, 2012 in Cooking, Dinner, Rice, Seafood

Tags: beans and rice, black beans, black beans and rice, cabbage slaw, fish tacos, grouper, guacamole, mango, mango pineapple salsa, pineapple mango, tacos

Jumpin’ Jambalaya

23 Feb

Jambalaya and gumbo are two of my favorite dishes. This week I decided to make Jambalaya as our seafood meal, even though it does have some sausage in it as well, so it’s not strictly seafood. While there aren’t the 23 different ingredients I mentioned yesterday (a slight exaggeration on my part) there are quiet a few ingredients, so there is some prep work involved in this recipe. It’s also a great one pot meal with seafood, sausage, rice and vegetables all in one.

Jambalaya

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

8 ounces andouille sausage, sliced 1/4 inch thick

1 onion, chopped fine

1 rib celery, chopped fine

1 red bell pepper, stemmed, seeded and chopped fine

1 yellow bell pepper, stemmed, seeded and chopped fine

5 garlic cloves, minced

1 1/2 cups long-grain white rice

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon minced fresh thyme or 1/8 teaspoon dried

1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes, drained with 1/4 cup juice reserved

1 (8 ounce) bottle clam juice

1 1/2 cups chicken broth

1 pound shrimp, peeled and deveined

2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley

Heat the oil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat until shimmering. Add the andouille and cook until lightly browned, about 3 minutes. Transfer the sausage to a paper-towel-lined plate, leaving the fat in the pot. Add the onion, celery, and peppers to the fat in the pot and return to medium heat. Cook, scraping up any browned bits, until the vegetables are softened, about 5 minutes. Stir in the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 15 seconds.

Stir in the rice, salt, and thyme and cook for 1 minute. Stir in the tomatoes, 1/4 cup reserved tomato juice, clam juice, broth and browned sausage. Bring to a boil, scraping up any browned bits. Reduce the heat to low, cover, and cook for 25 minutes. stirring occasionally.

Scatter the shrimp over the rice and continue to cook, covered, until the rice is tender and the shrimp have cooked through, about 5 minutes longer. Stir in the parsley before serving.

That’s all there is to it. There are some recipes that use different types of sausage or kielbasa or even ham; use whatever your preference is for you and your family. Also, some recipes call to add some chicken to the pot as well. I have used it before but opted not to put any in this time around. Finally, a lot of recipes call for jalapeno, cayenne or Tabasco sauce right near the end of cooking, which I also do sometimes, but Sean does really like the hot and spicy so this time I am serving the Tabasco separately so you can just add some to your own plate if you wish. Any leftovers I will be sure to have for lunch tomorrow as I love the leftovers from this meal.

Another quick, one pot meal in the books for the day. I was planning to make beef stew tomorrow, but Michelle has to go away on business for a couple of days, so I have bumped it into next week’s meal plan instead. Tomorrow I will write about what is in the plan for next week and maybe find an interesting recipe or two to put up as well just to add to the post. If you have any suggestions of recipes you would like to see, please feel free to comment or drop me a not at IguanaFlats@msn.com. As always, thanks for checking out my blog. I noticed I have had over 500 views of the blog so far, which I think is great and I thank everyone for reading along. Enjoy the rest of your day and your meal this evening!

Fryin’ Up a Mess O’ Catfish (Well, Oven-Fried Anyway)

16 Feb

I made it over to Adams Fairacre Farms in Newburgh today (if you live in this area, go there, it’s worth the trip) and they did have the catfish I wanted today, and at a very reasonable price I might add. I also ended up picking up a whole cut-up fryer chicken for $3.00 (which could be great for stock, or a few meals, I haven’t decided yet) and some slab bacon that they make themselves that I can cut and freeze and will probably last a long time in this house, and only cost $6.00 for a 2 1/2 pound slab, so it’s worth the effort to cut it yourself at that price. Anyway, now I can make the recipe I wanted to, which is Oven-Fried Catfish.

Oven-Fried Catfish

3/4 cup dried breadcrumbs

1/4 cup vegetable oil

2 large eggs

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

1 teaspoon dried thyme

1 teaspoon dried basil

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper

4 skinless catfish fillets (6 to 8 ounces each)

Salt and pepper

Lemon wedges (for serving)

Adjust an oven rack to the upper-middle position and heat the oven to 450 degrees. Spread the bread crumbs in a shallow dish. Mix the eggs, mustard, thyme, basil, garlic powder and cayenne together in a separate shallow dish. Pat the catfish dry with paper towels then season with salt and pepper. Working with one piece of fish at a time, dip it into the egg mixture, then coat with the bread crumbs. Press on the crumbs to make sure they adhere to the fish. Lay the coated fish on a wire rack set over a foil lined baking sheet.

Bake the fish on the wire rack until the coating is golden and the fish flakes apart when gently prodded with a paring knife, about 12 to 15 minutes. Serve with the lemon wedges.

A couple of keys when oven frying not just fish, but poultry as well. Using a dried breadcrumbs does seem to help over the traditional flour, egg and fresh bread crumbs. The dried bread crumbs make it a little crisper and since they are pre-cooked it helps ensure that you won’t overcook the fish to get a crunchy coating. Second, using the wire rack in the baking sheet is important with oven frying. You want to be sure that air can circulate all the way around so you get crisp on all sides and not just crisp on top and soggy on the bottom.

I was going to make just plain white rice tonight, which is fine, but I thought I would mix things up a bit and mae a simple Rice Pilaf instead. This is an easy version, with few ingredients to it, but just as tasty.

Rice Pilaf

3 tablespoons butter

1/2 onion, minced

Salt

1 1/2 cups long-grain white rice, rinsed and drained

2 1/4 cups water

Pepper

Rinse the rice in a colander under cold running water until the water runs clear. Melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and 1 teaspoon of salt and cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Stir in the drained rice. Saute until the edges if the rice begin to turn translucent, about 3 minutes. Stir in the water and bring to a boil. Cover and reduce the heat to low. Cook until the rice is tender and the liquid is absorbed, about 17 minutes. Transfer the pot to a cold burner or trivet and let the rice stand for 10 minutes. Fluff the rice with a fork. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Rinsing the rice before cooking it removes some of the excess starch to help make the rice a little fluffier, and toasting it for the 3 minutes helps to bring out some of the nuttiness of the rice, which is great for a pilaf. This recipe also uses a little less water than the standard 2:1 ratio usually called for when making rice, but this also helps to make the rice fluffier, more tender and not mushy and sticky.

Tonight’s vegetable dish is a Green Herb Salad with Champagne Vinaigrette. It’s something different and refreshing, and only has a few ingredients to it, but the taste and smell of the fresh herbs is wonderful. This would be great in the spring and summer if you grow your own herbs and can use them, but I think it will work just as well now. If you can’t find Champagne vinegar, (and I had trouble finding it around here) you can always use rice vinegar instead.

Green Herb Salad with Champagne Vinaigrette

1/4 cup olive oil

1 tablespoon minced shallot

2 tablespoons Champagne vinegar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon ground pepper

1 head butter lettuce, leaves separated and torn into bite-size pieces (you could really use whatever type of lettuce you like here)

1 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves

1/2 cup fresh cilantro leaves

1/2 cup fresh chervil sprigs

In the bottom of a salad bowl, combine the olive oil and shallot. Add the vinegar, salt and pepper and mix well with a fork. Top with the lettuce, parsley, cilantro and chervil. When ready to serve, toss well.

You could use arugula, spinach or romaine in this salad, or add other green herbs like mint, or in smaller quantities oregano or thyme or maybe add a cheese like Gorgonzola or Stilton or blue cheese.

That covers tonight’s meal. We didn’t get go over next week’s meal plan yet, but I hope to do that tonight so I can get started on that. I am thinking of adding a slow cooker meal to our routine so we could have at least one of those meals each week. This would allow me to set things up in the slow cooker and just let it go for the day. What do you think? I know lots of people use slow cookers pretty regularly. Is there a slow cooker recipe you would like to see or one that you use that would be good? Just let me know. Tomorrow night is Pot Roast, Mashed Potatoes and Carrots for dinner, so tune in for that recipe (which I have done in the slow cooker before, and it comes out nice). Until then, enjoy your day!

2 Comments

Posted by MikeG on February 16, 2012 in Cooking, Dinner, Rice, Salad, Seafood

Tags: adams fairacre farms, bread crumbs, catfish, champagne vinaigrette, fried catfish, green herb salad, oven-fried catfish, rice pilaf

Serving Up Some Shrimp Stir Fry

09 Feb

Today will be the last meal of the Sean choices for the week. I was a little surprised he opted to go for this one, but he knows that one meal has to be a seafood meal, and he likes shrimp, so he opted to go for this one. Today’s dinner will be Shrimp with Hoisin Sauce and we’ll be having Fried Rice again, but will just be using the leftovers from last night’s stir fry dinner (which was delicious by the way, not much left in the way of leftovers for Michelle’s lunch today. I try to use fresh shrimp as often as I can. You can usually find a sale on it somewhere during the week, so buy it the day of cooking or the day before at the most. If you want to buy frozen, which I do on occasion, buy shrimp that are already deveined and shell split, it will make your life a lot easier as far as cleaning.

Shrimp With Hoisin Sauce

1 pound medium-sized fresh shrimp, shelled and deveined

1/2 cup water

1 tablespoon cornstarch

2 tablespoons soy sauce

1/2 cup hoisin sauce

1/4 cup vegetable oil

2 thin slices of fresh ginger root, peeled and minced

1 clove garlic, crushed 3 scallions,

cut into 1-inch pieces

Mix the water, cornstarch, soy sauce, and hoisin sauce in a bowl and set aside. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the ginger root and garlic and stir continuously until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Turn the heat up to high, add the shrimp and stir-fry until they turn pink, about 5 minutes. Add the scallions and stir-fry for 1 minute. Add the sauce mixture and coat the shrimp, stirring and mixing; cook for about 2 minutes and serve over rice.

The cooking time for this meal is only about 10 minutes. Remember, don’t cook the shrimp too long (or any fish for that matter) or they will get tough and rubbery. if you’ve never deveined a shrimp before, take the time to do it. Starting at the head of the shrimp, make a shallow cut with a knife all the way down the middle of the back. Hold the shrimp under cold running water to rinse out the dark vein, or just pull it out yourself and rinse the shrimp off when you are all done. if you don’t want to use shrimp, you could scallops or another fleshy fish, or I think chicken would work nicely in this dish as well.

We’ll be using the same fried rice as we had last night, so if you want to check yesterday’s blog recipe for it, please do so, or you can use plain white rice instead. I think either will work well here. While I won’t be making these tonight, Sean came across a recipe for Fortune Cookies that we are going to try one night when we have a group over for dinner. It will be more fun to do the fortunes with other people around, but here is the recipe if anyone wants to try it out.

Fortune Cookies

1 cup margarine, softened

1/2 cup sugar

1 egg

2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

3 1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Combine margarine, sugar, egg and vanilla and mix until smooth. Add the flour and baking powder and stir everything together to form a ball of dough. Lightly flour a wooden cutting board or flat counter surface. With a rolling pin, roll half of the dough very thin. Use a circle-shaped cookie cutter or the top of a large glass (about 2 1/2 inches wide) to cut circles in the dough. Put a fortune in each circle, off to one side. Fold the circle in half, and then in half again. Pinch the edges to seal the dough. Re-roll leftover scraps of dough to make more cookies out of them. Then roll and make cookies from the other half of the dough. Bake the cookies for about 10 minutes on a baking sheet in the oven until they are lightly browned. Allow to cool for 10 minutes before serving.

Part of the fun of this, of course, is being creative in making up the fortunes for each cookie. They can be predictions, lottery numbers, old sayings, or just fun, goofy things. You can print out 25 or so fortunes on a piece of printer paper and cut them into strips to use for the cookies. i would suggest about 2 inches long, at the most, so they fit nicely in the cookie.

More easy recipes for the day and that wraps up Sean’s week of dinners. We had a lot fun choosing and cooking everything and they were all quick, easy and tasty meals with little clean up. We haven’t picked next week’s meal plan yet, but that will be tonight’s chore after dinner, so I will post it tomorrow. If you want to print your own meal planner, here’s the document:family_meal_planner We are off to Saranac Lake tomorrow for Winter Carnival, so I won’t be cooking for Friday and Saturday, and most likely Sunday as well since we’ll be getting home Sunday, but i do plan to post some things. I’ll be bringing Chicken Corn Chowder up to Saranac Lake with us, so I will post that recipe on Saturday. if you have any questions, comments or just want to say hello, feel free to leave a comment and I will reply as soon as I can. Enjoy your day today (it actually feels like winter here in New York for a change today) and enjoy your dinner!

Fantastic Friday Fish & Chips

03 Feb

It’s Friday, the weekend is upon us, and so is February for that matter. Spring is not too far off now, even if the weather here has made it seem like spring already. Today’s dinner was picked by Sean, which surprised me and made me glad. Since we started the meal plan, he has been very open to trying new things and picking out some things we have never made before, including today’s dinner. I have had fish and chips and various places, and have been disappointed many times by it. A lot of the time there is too much breading or the fish tastes too much like the oil it was cooked in and the fries are underwhelming. This recipe, from America’s Test Kitchen’s website, seems like it will be a good balance. It doesn’t have a lot of ingredients to it and seems easy to make. I’ll be using the deep fryer again for this one, but a large Dutch oven and a candy thermometer will serve you just as well.

Fish and Chips

3 pounds russet potatoes (about 4 large potatoes) peeled, ends and sides squared off, and cut lengthwise into 1/2 inch by 1/2 inch fries

3 quarts canola oil, plus 1/4 additional cup

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup cornstarch

1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1/2 teaspoon paprika

1/8 teaspoon black pepper

Table salt

1 teaspoon baking powder 1 1/2 pounds 1-inch thick cod fillet (or other thick white fish, like haddock) cut into 8 pieces

1 1/2 cups beer (12 ounces), cold (you can use any beer here, with the exception of dark stouts and ales)

Place cut fries in a large microwaveable bowl, toss with 1/4 cup oil and cover with plastic wrap. Microwave on high power until the potatoes are partially translucent and pliable but still offer some resistance when pierced with the tip of a paring knife, 6 to 8 minutes, tossing them with a rubber spatula halfway through the cooking time. Carefully pull back the plastic wrap from the side farthest from you and drain the potatoes into a large mesh strainer over the sink. Rinse well under cold running water. Spread the potatoes on kitchen towels and pat dry. Let rest until room temperature, at least 10 minutes and up to 1 hour.

While the fries cool, whisk flour, cornstarch, cayenne, paprika, pepper and 2 teaspoons of salt in a large mixing bowl; transfer 3.4 cup of mixture to a rimmed baking sheet. Add baking powder to the bowl and whisk to combine.

In a heavy-bottomed Dutch oven, heat 2 quarts of oil over medium heat to 350 degrees. Add the fries to the hot oil and increase the heat to high. Fry, stirring with a mesh spider or slotted metal spoon, until the potatoes turn light golden and just begin to brown at the corners, 6 to 8 minutes. Transfer the fries to a thick paper bag or paper towels to drain.

Reduce heat to medium-high, add the remaining quart of oil, and heat the oil to 375 degrees. Meanwhile, thoroughly dry the fish with paper towels and dredge each piece in the flour mixture on the baking sheet; transfer the pieces to a wire rack, shaking off the excess flour. Add 1 1/4 cups of the beer to the flour mixture in the mixing bowl and stir until the mixture is just combined (the batter will be lumpy). Add the remaining beer as needed, 1 tablespoon at a time, whisking after each addition, until the batter falls from the whisk in a thin, steady stream and leaves a faint trail across the surface of the batter. Using tongs, dip 1 piece of fish in the batter and let the excess run off, shaking gently. Place the battered fish back onto the baking sheet with the flour mixture and turn to coat both sides. Repeat with the remaining fish, keeping the pieces in a single layer on the baking sheet.

When the oil reaches 375 degrees, increase the heat to high and add the battered fish to the oil with tongs, gently shaking off any excess flour. Fry, stirring occasionally, until golden brown, 7 to 8 minutes. Transfer the fish to a thick paper bag or paper towels to drain. Allow the oil to return to 375 degrees.

Add all the fries back to the oil and fry until golden brown and crisp, 3 to 5 minutes. Transfer the fries to a fresh paper bag or paper towels to drain. Season the fries with salt to taste and serve immediately with the fish. Serve with your favorite malt vinegar and tartar sauce.

Granted, this is not the healthiest meal we have made, or the healthiest way to cook fish either, but once in a while as a treat it will be pretty good. There’s not much to cooking this one either once all the prep work is done. I think it will be a very tasty dish, just be careful deep-frying; you’ll want to use the largest Dutch oven you have for safety. Sean couldn’t really pick out a vegetable to go with this meal, but green beans were on sale at the store this morning, so that’s what were going with for tonight. I found a good recipe that braises them.

Skillet-Braised Green Beans

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 shallot, minced

1 pound green beans, ends trimmed

3/4 cup chicken broth (I am using homemade, but low sodium store-bought is good)

1/4 teaspoon minced fresh thyme, or 1/8 teaspoon dried

Salt and pepper

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat until shimmering. Add the shallot and cook until golden, about 5 minutes. Add the beans and broth. Cover, reduce the heat to low, and simmer,stirring occasionally, until the beans are tender but still offer some resistance to the bite, 15 to 20 minutes. Sprinkle with thyme and season with salt and pepper to taste.

A simple, easy and a little different way to cook up your green beans, and you’re all set with your meal for the night. I think it will go over very well.

We laid out the meal plan for next week last night, so here it is. If you want to use the same meal planner we are using, here is a link to the print out to use:family_meal_planner. I decided to let Sean pick the whole menu for next week. He had taken a couple of cookbooks out of the school library and picked some recipes that he wanted me to try. Since he picked them out, he’ll be participating in the cooking all week as well. He read through a Chinese food cookbook and an Italian food cookbook, so this is what we came up with:

Monday: Chicken Stir Fry with White Rice

Tuesday: Rustic Vegetable and Polenta Soup (this is our meat free meal of the week)

Wednesday: Pork with Peppers and Pineapple and Fried Rice

Thursday: Shrimp with Hoisin Sauce and Rice

Friday and Saturday next week we will be in Saranac Lake to celebrate Winter Carnival, so they’ll be no meals to cook on those days. However, we are bringing up a Chicken Corn Chowder with us, so I will post that recipe next week. I think Sean made some interesting choices and it will be fun to cook with him. Tomorrow’s meal is a simple Roast Chicken with Roasted Potatoes and Roasted Winter Vegetables so we can bake all in one pan and cut down on dishes for the day. Tune in tomorrow to check it out and I’ll let you know how the fish and chips went. As always, feel free to add a comment, recipe, question or just say hello! Have a great day and enjoy your Friday night.

2 Comments

Posted by MikeG on February 3, 2012 in Cooking, Dinner, Potatoes, Seafood, Vegetables

Tags: cod, cod fillet, family meal planner, fish and chips, french fries, green beans, meal plan, meal planner, potatoes

A Nice Sunday Dinner

29 Jan

It’s another nice day here in New York. So far I am loving this mild winter with warmer temperatures and no snow. I don’t get around too well in the snow and cold anymore, so this makes things a lot better for me as far as doing things outside and getting to go places. Since today is Sunday, we are relaxing at home, reading and listening to music, and it’s a great day to cook a nice family meal. While this meal is probably better in the summertime when you can grill outside, it’s still a good one and one of my favorites. Today we are making Pan Seared Steaks with a Red Wine Pan Sauce, Sautéed Mushrooms, Mashed Potatoes, Shrimp Scampi and Asparagus. It seems like a lot, but it really isn’t. You’ll probably spend more time peeling potatoes and shrimp than you will actually cooking, so if you can do some prep work ahead of time, your evening will go smoothly.

Pan-Seared Steaks with Red Wine Pan Sauce

Steaks

4 boneless beef steaks, 1 to 1 1/4 inches thick, trimmed (I am using boneless ribeyes, but you could easily use any type of boneless steak for this one, Check and see what’s on sale)

Salt and pepper

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

Red Wine Sauce

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1 shallot, minced

3/4 cup chicken broth (use your own or store-bought)

1/2 cup dry red wine

2 teaspoons brown sugar

3 tablespoons butter, cut into 3 pieces and chilled (it does make a difference if it’s chilled)

1 teaspoon minced fresh thyme, or 1/4 teaspoon dried

Salt and pepper

For the steaks: pat the steaks dry with paper towels, then season with salt and pepper. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat until just smoking. Brown the steaks on the first side, about 4 minutes. Flip the steaks over and continue to cook until the desired doneness (I prefer medium), another 4 to 6 minutes. Transfer the steaks to a clean plate, tent with foil, and let them rest for 5 minutes.

For the sauce, add oil to the skillet and return to medium-high heat until shimmering. Add the shallot and cook until softened, about 2 minutes. Stir in the broth, wine and brown sugar, scraping up any browned bits, and simmer until thickened, about 5 minutes. Stir in any accumulated meat juice. Turn the heat to low and whisk in the butter, one piece at a time. Off the heat, stir in the thyme and season with salt and pepper to taste. Spoon the sauce over the steaks before serving.

It’s a very easy recipe to use. A couple of notes about cooking the steak. If you’re using larger steak and have more than one, cook only one at a time. Crowding them into the pan won’t sear them, it will only boil them and you won’t get a nice crust on them. Make sure you get your pan REALLY hot before putting the steaks in. If the oil smokes when it’s in the pan, it’s hot enough. Also, make sure you pat the steaks dry before you put them in the pan. If the steaks have been sitting in their own liquid before they are cooked, their exterior won’t brown nicely; they are just going to steam. Finally, use a conventional surface skillet for this one to make sure you get the nice browned bits for the sauce.

Now that the steaks are done, let’s move on to the shrimp. I love shrimp, made just about any way, and scampi is one of my favorites. This is great as a meal on its own served over white rice, but today we are using it as an accompaniment to the steaks.

Shrimp Scampi

1 pound large shrimp, peeled and deveined

Salt and pepper

1/8 teaspoon sugar

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 tablespoons butter

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

1 tablespoon fresh minced parsley

1/2 tablespoon dry white wine or vermouth

Pinch of cayenne pepper

Pat the shrimp dry with paper towels, then season with 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1/8 teaspoon pepper and the sugar. Heat the olive oil in a nonstick skillet over high heat until smoking. Add half the shrimp to the pan in a single layer. Cook until the shrimp are curled and pink on both sides, about 2 minutes. Transfer the shrimp to a bowl and cover with foil. Repeat with the remaining shrimp.

Add 1 tablespoon of the butter to the skillet and melt over medium heat. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 15 seconds (garlic burns fast, you need to watch it!) Off the heat, stir in the lemon juice parsley, wine and cayenne. Whisk in the remaining butter. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Return the shrimp with any accumulated juice to the skillet. Toss the shrimp until they are well coated with the sauce.

The shrimp takes next to no time to cook, so you could do this while your steaks are resting. Don’t cook the shrimp too long, they will be rubbery and you’ll regret it. Also, I often buy shrimp in the shell and save the shells when you are peeling; they can be used to make some fish stock for future recipes.

Okay we have our steak and our shrimp. We have made mashed potatoes before, but if you missed them, here’s my technique for making them from a past blog. Now we can move on to our other sides for the day. The first is sautéed mushrooms. They aren’t hard to cook, but take a little longer than the steak or the shrimp, so you may want to start them earlier.

Sautéed Mushrooms with Shallot and Thyme

1 tablespoon butter

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 shallot, minced

1 pound white or cremini mushrooms, halved if small, quartered if large

1/2 teaspoon minced fresh thyme, or 1/8 teaspoon dried

Salt and pepper

Melt the butter in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add the oil and the shallot and cook until the shallot is soft, about 2 minutes. Add the mushrooms and thyme and cook, stirring occasionally, until the mushrooms have released their liquid and are lightly browned, about 12 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Leave the mushrooms in chunks instead of slicing them thin, They give you a more meaty, substantial texture this way and don’t dry out like the thinner slices can.

They are lots of ways to cook asparagus (steamed, sautéed, boiled) but I am going to broil them today. I like the way they taste, and frankly I don’t have room on the stove top today with all the other dishes going on, so it works out well. You can serve the asparagus fresh from the oven, room temperature, or even chilled if you prefer.

Broiled Asparagus

1 pound asparagus, tough ends trimmed off

1 tablespoon olive oil

Salt and pepper

Fresh lemon juice (optional)

Adjust an oven rack 6 inches from the broiler element and heat the broiler. Toss the asparagus with oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Lay the spears in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet. Broil the asparagus, shaking the pan occasionally, until they are tender and lightly browned, about 10 minutes. Sprinkle with lemon juice (if using) before serving.

You could dress these up if you want with some Balsamic Vinaigrette like we made in an earlier recipe or sprinkle on a little Parmesan cheese or fresh herbs instead of the lemon juice. Even just tossing with some sesame seeds and a little soy sauce would be good.

Wow, we made a lot of food today and none of the recipes were difficult. I don’t normally make dessert, and it is Sunday, when we usually have dessert, but Julie is bringing dessert over today and she is a much better baker than I am, so whatever she brings would be better than what I could put together. At some point I’ll post dessert recipes on here if anyone asks for one, but I know a lot of family members who are much better at baking, so maybe they would like to provide us with some good dessert recipes (subtle hint). Enjoy your Sunday dinner and relax before the rest of the week begins. Have a glass of wine or a martini and kick back, listen to some music and start thinking about all the snacks we’ll make for Super Bowl next week (I have some good recipes I will post on Thursday!) Have a great day!