Well, not really, but if we had Bento boxes it would have looked pretty close. Christine bought both salmon and shrimp today, because they were both great, so I did a multi-course meal but served them all at once. First, the salmon as sashimi, with garlic-infused sesame oil, tamari, lime juice and pink peppercorns, which was decadently creamy, rich, and elegant. Then, the shrimp, shelled- the shells became a broth with onion and carrot- rubbed…
Category: Seafood
Snapper and bell pepper, to be exact, both of which looked good at the store this afternoon. I juiced the peppers, reserved the foam, and reduced the juice with ginger, garlic, and a bit of agave syrup. The fish got a coating of fine and coarse cornmeal, spices, and salt, and cooked in some olive oil in the iron skillet. After the fish finished, I threw in some pak choi fresh from the garden and…
Chris came over, solo, bearing gifts of salad greens and nettles (he’s wearing gloves because he was pulling leaves off stems before we steamed them) and I had been to the fish market and bought scallops and halibut to play with. I marinated the scallops in olive oil, pink pepper, Celtic salt, and hebes de Provence that I mashed together in the suribachi, then seared them in the iron pan with a bit of butter,…
It was a perfect day, and they had Marlin at the market, so I made a version of the way I had done it in Costa Rica a couple of years ago. First, a pineapple salsa, with jalapeño, lime, scallion, cilantro, and salt, which sat and marinated while I did the rest. A light rub of cinnamon, chile, and pepper on the fish, and Japanese yams went into the steamer. When the yams were done,…
In Evanston, visiting Christine’s Mom, I wanted to give her a night off so I made dinner (having shopped earlier in the day.) Seared bluefin tuna, dressed with hot garlic-infused sesame oil, got two contrasting salads: a mango salsa with red onion, tomato, cucumber, and lime and radicchio chopped fine with salt and truffle oil. The sweet mango complemented the slightly bitter radicchio. I also cooked some burdock and a big bowl of chopped bok…
The warm weather and impending garden are inspiring so many culinary thoughts these days; when the plants wake up it seems crazy not to have every meal centered around them, with meat or fish as a garnish, or a rich side dish. So tonight, on the eve of the garden fence going in (and thus despite the lack of any actual vegetables) wild Alaskan salmon was an appetizer to a very simple plate of rice,…
The leftover oysters went in a pot with cubed new potato, the rest of the turnip/daikon mash, a bit of tomato paste, garlic, a squeeze of lemon, and water to cook into a chowder of sorts; in order to amplify the chowderness (chowderivity? chowdertude? chowderosity?) I whisked in a bit of yogurt and butter at the end, along with some halved grape tomatoes for color and contrast with the paste. The corn meal from the…
Christine bought some cod, and some mushroom fettucine, so I got to work. For the pasta, a simple idea ended up as a pretty complex sauce: turkey bacon, spicy green olives, dried tomatoes in oil, parsley, garlic, and pepper all cooked in a bit of butter and olive oil until lightly caramelized, at which point I added a pinch of flour to turn it into a roux. Then yogurt, parmesan, and white wine completed the…
This meal ended up as kind of a variation on the tuna/striped bass meal from last week, but it was all wild salmon. Another Nobu-style sashimi, this time with lime juice and zest, and black pepper added to finish. The rest of the fish got the simple pan treatment after a sprinkle of salt, pepper, and cinnamon. I steamed broccoli and cauliflower and brown rice was going in the cooker. For the sauce this time,…
I was in the city all day, and stuck in traffic for too much of the time, but I mustered the strength to pick up some fish for dinner. Unable to choose, I got wild sea bass and a small piece of beautiful tuna. Rubbed with black pepper, the tuna made a nice seared sashimi with hot garlic-infused sesame oil, then ponzu drizzled on it. The main course was pan-roasted sea bass over the cauliflower…