With a little help from some pepper

Today my fishmonger said, "Well, if you've had the bass, it's been a while, so why don't you have that this week?" Sure. I bought both the fillets she had left and cooked one with a little butter in the skillet, with olive oil, black pepper, and salt on the fish itself on both sides. Maybe I'm just hungry, or maybe it's just tasty: either way, I'm contemplating getting the other fillet out of the fridge and cooking it too.

It's no longer heirloom tomato season :( but I have sugar snap peas I bought at the supermarket a few days ago. I tossed those in the oil-pepper mixture remaining in the skillet after the fish. I added a little ground ancho to add another dimension to the vegetables, which was absolutely the right choice. So good. Read More......

I think we have a winner

"What's good this week?"
"We don't usually have the mahi mahi and you haven't had that one yet."

The fishmonger remembered me! And she was right, I hadn't had the mahi mahi and according to Seafood Watch, it's a good fish to eat.

It also tastes good. I pan fried it with a little pepper and olive oil, just a few minutes on each side. It went perfectly with the tabbouleh my mother left behind yesterday. The combination of flavors reminded me of fish tacos, which are one of my favorite foods, except healthier and more interesting. I think this will have to go into the rotation. Read More......

Orzo with barbecue chicken

I love living next door to Dallas BBQ. My Texan friend tells me it's not real bbq, but that's ok - why learn to roast chicken when I can have one at my door in <15 mins, for <$10?

Instead of using the last breast as a topping for a romaine and tomato salad as I usually do, this morning I ate it with orzo. I fried some onions and in the same pot, boiled water for whole wheat orzo. I bought the orzo once upon a time, thinking I'd replicate my favorite dish from Aux Delice, an orzo salad, but apparently cooking orzo is not as simple as I thought. I once tried it in a rice cooker - terrible idea, it turned into a tan sludge. This morning I followed the directions on the jar, cooking it like a pasta; the only difference was that there was a little olive oil and onions in the pan already. Unfortunately, the orzo turned out to be a little wetter than I wanted. On the other hand, the onions perfectly set off the chicken (and leftover barbecue sauce) to make a flavorful repast. Read More......

Hapless Cake Attempt #1

I feel compelled to bake a cake because I bought adorable little cake pans from Michael's. I also had an excess of blueberries in the house, so I thought I'd modify a "Berry Good Shortcake" recipe from the manufacturer and make a chunky blueberry syrup and call them Inaugural Cakes and bring them to work tomorrow.

It was a disaster from the beginning. My food processor couldn't accomodate all the ingredients, so I had to cut the butter by hand and my arm got tired long before the mixture resembled "coarse breadcrumbs." I over-Pam-ed the pans. I ran out of milk and used yogurt as a substitute. I still don't know which of the above caused the cakes to overflow - I would love it if my muffins rose that high out of the pan - and the butter? Pam? to ooze onto the floor of the oven, causing smoke to come billowing out of my oven and filling my apt.

Believe it or not, the cakes taste fine, or rather they taste as they should. It didn't dawn on me until I put the first bit in my mouth, that people make shortcake with biscuits. They're decent semi-sweet biscuits, but so not worth the calories. Or the mess. eek! Read More......

Cast Iron Seared Tuna

Happy belated New Year to all my loyal readers! I won't say my New Year's resolution is to update more often, but given that one of my resolutions does involve staying home and studying, it's inevitable there'll more cooking in there too.

I had an errand to run on the east side last evening and on my way home, I walked through 41st between Madison and Fifth. For those of you who don't know, there's a whole block of stores catering to Japanese expat office workers, including a sushi restaurant, a bookstore, a bakery, and a grocery. The last carries sushi-grade fish, labeled in Japanese and with the recent cold-snap, I wasn't particularly worried about it going bad before I got home.

I had a bag of snap peas from FreshDirect packaged so cooking is as simple as making popcorn - 2:30-3:00 in the microwave and voila! While that was nuking, I set my new cast iron skillet on the stove with a little olive oil. I rubbed the maguro (tuna) with a little olive oil and sprinkled some salt and pepper. I couldn't find my sesame seeds, so I'd have to do without. By then, the skillet was hot, so I added the fish, 1-2 mins on each side. I poured the snap peas in a bowl and added the tuna on top. I added some leftover aromatic white wine to the skillet to clean up the last bits of pepper and fish, reduced it slightly, and poured it over the lot. Breakfast! Read More......

Weird Food Ideas

I often get notions of foods I'd like to combine - and Pinch & S'mac lets me indulge them. It's a very clever little semi-fast food restaurant, combining a pizza by the inch concept with custom mac & cheese. I enjoy their preset combinations - my friend ordered "parisienne" mac & cheese with brie, figs, shiitakes, and rosemary, while I had the "cajun" with cheddar, pepperjack, andouille sausage, green pepper, onions, celery, and garlic. Mmm...


My friend looked a little dubious when I suggested a pizza with hot dog and either chilis or broccoli, but she indulged me and even offered that it was pretty good afterwards. I thought the crispiness and slight bitterness of broccoli would be a nice foil to the roundness of the hot dog flavor. Next time though, I'm definitely trying the hot dog with chili. Read More......