Spork or Foon?

Top Chef Season 1, Episode 4: Mirin Glazed Mahi-Mahi

This week was super simple and for that, I thank Top Chef and the episode winner, Tiffani Faison.  I have had a hard time doing this Top Chef challenge on a weekly basis, as I have been traveling to NY from DC every weekend since the beginning of June (and I have 2 more weeks of traveling), so it has been hard for me to cook on the weekends.  But I am not traveling anymore after the weekend of the 10th until I move back home to NY on August 13 (I'm not counting down the days or anything).

For this week's challenge, the cheftestants were assigned the task of creating a gourmet meal that could be reheated in the microwave.  Now, if I am not mistaken, this was before the blatent GE/Glad Bag/Dr. Pepper/Etc/Etc/Etc product placement, so this may have been a geniune challenge idea by the producers.  But I could be wrong.

The cheftestants were given a budge of $50 and then had 90 minutes to cook, package, and refrigerate their dishes.  The next day, they have 10 minutes to prepare and plate their dishes to serve to the Oakland East Bay Junior League.  Tiffani's simple dish of Mirin Glazed Escobar (Seabass) won the ladies and the judges over.

It won me over, too.

I cannot believe how simple this dish is.  It called for some exotic ingredients such as Shaoxing Wine (huh?) and purple shisho sprigs (oh, I'm fresh out of my batch of purple shisho sprigs...), so I improvised. None of the fishmongers (favorite. word. ever.) were selling sea bass or any fish remotely like it, so I just got mahi mahi.  

10 minutes people.  A delicious dish in ten. minutes.  And suprisingly, even though I'm sure the sea bass was fantastic in the microwave as well, this fish held up very well to being reheated.  Tasty, tasty, tasty. 

Top Chef, I love you.  And next week's dish scares me. I don't think it will take 10 minutes. It has about 30 ingredients, 1 of which is date syrup. Where do I get date syrup???  

Next Week:  Moroccan Cubano Pork Sandwich

Mirin Glazed Escobar adapted from Top Chef

6 tbsp mirin

1/4 cup white miso paste

1/4 cup teriyaki sauce

1/4 cup sherry 

Two 6 oz pieces mahi mahi

1 tbsp vegetable oil

2 fresh parsley

In a cointainer large enough to hold the fish, combine the mirin, miso paste, teriyaki sauce, and shaxing. Put the fish in the marinade and refrigerate, covered, overnight.

In a medium saute` pan or skillet, heat the oil over medium high heat.  Remove the fish from the marinade, scraping off the excess, and pat dry. Put the fish in the pan and cook, without turning, for three minutes until well browned on the bottom.  Turn and cook the other side for about 3 minutes until well browned and just cooked through (the fish will flake easily when prodded with a knife).  Turn the heat down to medium if the fish is browning too quickly.

Place the fish on serving plates and garnish with purpole shiso and salad burnet sprigs.  Serve immediately.

Mussels in White Wine and Garlic and Living the Life

This past weekend, Jack and I enjoyed an extended weekend at his family's beach house in Long Beach Island, NJ, or LBI for short.  LBI is a fantastic island off of the southern coast of NJ and is part of the famed (or infamous, depending on which reputation you are familiar with) Jersey Shore.  However, this is not the Jersey Shore that you may know of from such programs as "True Life: I Have a Summer Share" (Parts 1 and 2) with orange twenty-somethings who have invested stock in hair gel and wifebeater t-shirts partying at clubs and cursing each other out.  LBI is a family place filled with mini-golf, amusement parks, ice cream shoppes (with an "e"), breakfast places such as Uncle Will's and The Chicken and The Egg, and plenty of fried fish.  When I am in LBI, I have a daily ritual of going running at 8 am sharp while listening to Bob Marley and smiling at every person who passes by (and they smile back! which is an odd experience for a New Yorker). 

We invited two friends to join us and spent a lot of time just relaxing at the house, which is on a pier and has the most spectacular views of the ocean and the boats.  We all joked that the house makes us "old" because we all needed to take naps in the middle of the day to stay up past 11 pm, but the truth of the matter is that this may be the most relaxing place I know.

I can sit in these chairs and stare out at the views for hours.  Tell me they are not calling your name right now.

Views from the balconies.

I was so excited to put the kitchen to good use. The house has the most glorious kitchen that only lives in my dreams, so I am always excited to cook when I get to LBI.

Can't you just picture yourself with your own cooking show in this kitchen? I always do. It is a little weird because I talk to a camera that isn't there.  

Jack, helping me prep.

It's nice to just relax, take in the scenery, and take a dip in the pool every now and then.

Remy jumping in the pool.

Remy desperately trying to get out of the pool.

Remy trying to get back into the pool.

Remy aggressively trying to dry herself off.

And, finally, enjoy a nice, relaxing dinner filled with food, friends, and laughs.

It is always nice to get some really fresh seafood, and these mussels were no exception.  The best part about mussels is that they are a snap to make, which is great when all you want to do is head back outside and enjoy the good life.

Mussels in White Wine and Garlic

2 lbs mussels, scrubbed and de-bearded

2 tbsp olive oil

4 garlic cloves, minced

1/4 cup parsley, minced

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup dry white wine

2 1/4" slices lemon

Discard any mussels that are open and/or broken.  

Heat olive oil over medium-high heat until shimmering.  Add garlic and cook, stirring constantly, until golden brown and fragrant, about 2 minutes.  Add wine, lemon, salt, and parsley and bring to a boil.  Add mussels and cover, cooking for 6 minutes.  Using a slotted spoon, remove mussels from broth and place in a separate bowl. Discard any unopened shells. Adjust sauce for seasoning and pour over mussels. Serve immediately.

This is definitely a place where, once you are here, you never want to leave.  Jack, for example, decided to stay the entire week with Remy to relax a bit (he has been a bit stressed in his post-MBA grad life) while I returned to Washington, DC to work.

Booooooo to Jack.

But I guess I can't blame him.

Could you?

Cassoulet de Poissons - Fish and White Bean Stew

"Your boyfriend is a great cook, DiMicco."

Those words came straight from the mouth of my boyfriend, Jack.  This dish was so good, it allowed him to speak in third person.  

Jack is still cooking through the Le Cordon Bleu at Home cookbook, and I will say, he is kicking culinary a** and taking names.

I just wish he wouldn't speak in third person while doing it.  

I will say, though, that it was a great, great dinner.  Healthy and fresh.  There is something to be said about the beautiful simplicity in French food.  The flavors of the ingredients truly stand out and are not bogged down with spices or seasonings.  With french cooking, if you want a fish, you are going to taste a fish.  

The cassoulet is filled with white beans, onions, carrots, tomatoes, garlic, scallops, and my favorite and yours, monkfish.  It is topped with bread crumbs that results in a deliciously crisp surface that lends a nice contrast to the creamy beans and succulent fish.  

For those who fear the monk (fish, that is), any firm white fish can be substituted.  But don't fear the fish. 

Cassoulet de Poissons adapted from Le Cordon Bleu at Home

 3/4 lb Dried white beans (such as Great northern)
 1 Medium onion
 1 Clove
 1 Bouquet garni
 Salt
 2 Carrots, sliced thin
 6 tb Vegetable oil
 6 tb Unsalted butter
 2 Medium onions, chopped fine
 2 Cloves garlic, chopped fine
 3/4 lb Tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped
 Freshly ground pepper
 2 Trout (about 1 lb each) or
 1 1/2 lb Monkfish fillets
 6 Sea scallops
 3/4 c Dried bread crumbs
 

Soak the beans overnight in cold water to cover. Drain and rinse. Transfer to a large saucepan and cover with 4 to 5
inches of fresh cold water. Peel the whole onion and stud with the clove and add to the pan along with the bouquet garni. Bring to a
boil and skim the froth that rises to the surface. Reduce the heat and simmer for 1 1/2 hours. Season to taste with salt. Add the carrots
and continue simmering until the carrots and beans are tender, about 30 minutes. Drain; discard the bouquet garni and the onion.

While the beans are cooking, heat 3 tablespoons oil and 2 tablespoons butter in a frying pan over low heat. Add the
chopped onions and cook slowly, stirring occasionally, until tender but not colored. Add garlic and cook one minute. Add tomatoes, season
with salt and pepper, and simmer for 15 minutes.

Cut the monkfish fillets into 1 inch thick slices. Cut the scallops in half cross-wise. Heat the remaining 3 tablespoons oil
and 2 tablespoons of the butter in a large frying pan over high heat. Saute the monkfish and sliced scallops until golden brown
on both sides; set aside.  

Preheat the oven to 450F. Combine the tomato mixture and drained beans in a
saucepan and simmer for 5 minutes. Taste and adjust seasonings.

Spread one-half of the mixture over the bottom of a 10x15″ gratin dish. Arrange the fish and scallops on top and cover with the remaining
bean mixture. Sprinkle with the bread crumbs and dot with the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter. Bake until the bread
crumbs are golden brown, 10-15 minutes.

Crepes au Saumon Fume` - Smoked Salmon Crepes

"Baby!" Jack shouted.  "I made my very first batter!"

And oh, how he did.

His batter was extremely successful, but he was getting frustrated on the "thickness" of the crepes.  As the batter lover that I am, I tried to give him tips on how to spread the batter properly by tilting the pan to swirl the batter in order to coat the bottom to get the right thickness (or thin-ness) of crepe, but Jack got mad at me. 

"Stop it!" he'd shout.  "I am teaching myself!"

There was a lot of shouting going on. 

Jack has kept up on his quest to cook through the Le Cordon Bleu at Home, and this dish of Smoked Salmon Crepes may be the best thing he has made yet.  Smoked salmon is wrapped in a blanket of light crepes and topped with creme fraiche (Jack's favorite thing to make/eat) and baked to perfection. 

Jack struggled a bit with flipping the crepe over in the saute pan, so, remembering his reaction to my previous attempt to help him, I nervously grabbed the pan and flicked my wrist to flip the crepe in the air. The crepe glided through the air like a professional olympic diver and slowly flipped onto its backside as it landed perfectly in the pan.  I paused, expecting him to be upset for trying to steal his thunder.

Instead, he ran around the kitchen like a 10 year old, shouting, "I can't believe you know how to do that! That is amazing!"  

Back to the good shouting.  

According to the book, these crepes are a "French variation on a Baltic theme:  blini with caviar and sour cream."  What we both love about this book, and French cooking in general, is that the food actually tastes like what it is.  This dish is elegant yet comforting and will surely be something that we make again and again. It was, in a word, outstanding.  

Just like my Jack.  I definitely have got a winner on my hands - in this dish and my boyfriend.  

Click here for the recipe or check page 22 in Le Cordon Bleu at Home for more specific directions, and definitely make this one.  Or call me and I'll send Jack over to whip them up.  He'd appreciate it, I'm sure.

Top Chef with Teanna - Season 1, Episode 3 - Monkfish Corndogs with Mango Ketchup

Monkfish.

Kind of like our friend, the Octopus.

Both invoke a slight gag effect when in their true form, but are actually pretty tasty when on my plate.

On this episode of Top Chef, the cheftestants had to make something tasty out of something that looks very unappetizing. 

Needless to say, our cheftestants were a bit nervous. 

Coincidentally (in my case, at least), the quickfire challenge involved cooking octopus.  The chefs had 60 minutes to take an entire octopus and make it a meal - a difficult task on any day, as octopus usually needs to boil for at least 45 minutes.  I would have squealed as I did when making octopus here in my place.  That, my friends, is why I am not on Top Chef.

In the elimination challenge, the chefs had the pleasure of making a tasty dish out of monkfish.  The people who would be judging this dish? 

40 ten year olds.

The chefs looked nervous.  Tiffani was upset that she was "lowering her standards" to cook for children and noted her disdain for their palates.  She then called certain dishes childish.  

Um.  Tiffani? That's the whole point.  

The group was split into two teams - Team Red and Team Blue.  Team Red - the winning Team - consisted of Candice, Cynthia, Miguel, Lisa, and my favorite and yours, Stephen the Sommelier.  They were lucky enough to have Cynthia, a mother with two children, on their team.  Her knowledge of what children like and don't like to eat won them this challenge.  Their menu of Monkfish Corn Dogs (called "Monkey Dogs") with a Mango Ketchup, Fruit Skewers with a vanilla honey dipping sauce, and criss-crossed potato chips was well received by the children.  And the children were thrilled to learn that their criss-crossed potato chips were actually called "gaufrettes" by our beloved Stephen (note the sarcasm).

To be honest, I was going to skip this week.  I did not know how I was going to make monkfish corndogs, nor did I want to eat them.  But then I decided that I took on this challenge for a reason - to challenge myself.  So I sighed, headed to the fishmonger (I will use that word whenever I get the chance) and got my monkfish. 

I didn't have a meat grinder, so I grated the monkfish with a cheese grater, formed the grated monkfish into quenelles, froze them, coated them in batter, and fried away.  I have never eaten, nor seen in person, a corn dog, so I wasn't sure if I did it right, but it looked pretty good to me. 

The taste?  Actually... it wasn't bad.  It was actually pretty good, if I do say so myself. The mango ketchup was a nice accompaniment.  The crisp skin of the corn dog gave way to the soft, creamy fish and went very well with the sweet and spicy ketchup.  

This reminded me of that "Deceptively Delicious" book, where you hide good ingredients in foods kids would like.  So this would be like, hiding scary fish in deep fried batter.  Hey, your arteries will clog, but at least you are getting your vitamins! 

Next Week: The Microwave Challenge - Mirin Glazed Escolar 

Monkfish Corn Dogs

2 cups Flour

1 cups cornmeal (fine ground)

1 1/2 Tablespoons baking soda

1 1/2 Tablespoons baking powder

1/4 cup sugar

 3 eggs (separated)
1 1/2 cups milk
3 lbs monkfish

Sift first five ingredients in one bowl, in a separate bowl, mix yolks and milk, in another bowl, whip whites to stiff peaks. Mix wet with dry and fold egg whites in mix.  Let it sit for 30 minutes in refrigerator.

Clean and ground fish, then make quenelles and freeze for at least 2 hours.

Coat in batter and fry at 350° until golden brown.

Mango Ketchup - Adapted from Bobby Flay

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 small onion, coarsely chopped
2 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon allspice
Pinch cloves
Pinch Cayenne pepper, seeded and finely chopped
1 large mango, peeled, pit removed and coarsely chopped
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
Salt and freshly ground pepper

Directions

Heat olive oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the onions and garlic and cook until soft. Add the cinnamon, allspice, cloves and habanero and cook an additional 1 minute. Add the mango and continue cooking until softened, about 5 to 7 minutes. Place the mango mixture into the bowl of a food processor, add the vinegar and process until smooth. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve at room temperature.  

Alice Waters - Baked Orange Roughy with Salsa Verde and Breaded Eggplant with Garlic Aioli

When the cold winter weather has warmed and the spring showers have subsided, I, like many people, start to crave lighter dishes that get flavor not from heavy, complicated sauces, but from the main ingredients themselves.  Lemony parsley, flavorful garlic, succulent fish, and zesty lemon are a few of my favorite standout flavors of the season.  

Since it has basically be raining nonstop since 1998, I haven't been in the mood to cook much.  But this weekend we had a bit of sun, so I was a cooking machine.

Ironic, isn't it?  When it is raining, I don't feel like cooking, but when it is finally nice out, I lock myself in my windowless kitchen and cook all day.  The heart wants what it wants, I guess.

Alice Waters's book, The Art of Simple Food is the perfect place to find inspiration for such dishes.  I am cooking my way through the book and decided to take on aioli and salsa verde.  The funny thing is, I did the salsa verde by accident. I read in another book, The Flavor Bible, that anchovies, parsley, garlic, and lemon go well with white fish, so I decided to make a sauce out of them.  After I made the sauce, I said, "Holy crap, this is salsa verde!"

I'm a secret genius and I didn't even know it. 

Aioli is very easy to whip up. I made a homemade mayonnaise and added smashed garlic and lemon. I then made some homemade breadcrumbs to coat the sliced eggplant.  The use of homemade breadcrumbs made an enormous difference to the flavor and texture of the breaded eggplant.  The eggplant was lighter and crunchier.  It was a world of a difference from using store-bought breadcrumbs. 

I cooked with Baked Orange Roughy because Harris Teeter was out of halibut and the fish monger (isn't that the coolest job title ever? I want to be a fish monger. Monger.) said it was the closest thing.  The texture was a bit heavier than halibut, but it was absolutely delicious.

The funny thing is, I didn't use one recipe.  That is the beauty of this book. It gets you out of your comfort zone and helps you realize the wonders of the flavors behind simple foods.

Baked Orange Roughy

Two 6 oz. filets white fish such as Orange Roughy or Halibut

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Season filets with salt and pepper.  If you are making Orange Roughy, cook at 450 degrees for 10 minutes, or until the fish flakes with a fork.  If you are making Halibut, cook at 375 for 10 to 12 minutes, or until the fish flakes with a fork.

 

Salsa Verde

1/3 cup parsley, roughly chopped

1/3 cup olive oil

1 garlic clove

5 anchovy fillets

Kosher salt

1/4 teaspoon fresh squeezed lemon juice

Using a mortar and pestle, smash garlic clove and anchovies until smooth.  Using a food processor or blender, add parsley, garlic and anchovy mixture, and lemon juice.  Pulse to blend.  With the mixer running, slowly pour in the olive oil.  Season to taste with salt and pepper.  Let the mixture sit so the flavors can marry.

Breaded Eggplant

1 medium Italian Eggplant, sliced into 1/4" rounds

1 loaf country or white bread, ends removed and cubed

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp dried oregano

2 eggs, lightly beaten

Olive oil, for frying

Preheat oven to 350 F.  Pulse bread in a food processor until it is finely crumbled. Bake in oven for 10 minutes, or until bread is golden brown.  Add oregano and salt.  Set aside.

Coat eggplant rounds lightly in egg mixture and dip in breadcrumbs so both sides are covered well.

Heat enough olive oil in a large frying pan so that it comes 1/4" up the sides on high heat.  When the oil is very hot, add eggplants (do not crowd the pan) and cook 2 minutes on each side (or until the breadcrumbs are golden brown) and place on a plate lined with a paper towel.  Repeat with remaining eggplants.

Garlic Aioli

1 garlic clove, smashed

1 egg yolk

1 cup olive oil

Freshly squeezed lemon juice

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Mix garlic clove and egg yolk in a bowl.  Whisking all the while, slowly drizzle in olive oil and beat until the mixture emulsifies.  Season to taste with lemon juice, salt and pepper.

Top Chef with Teanna- Steamed Red Snapper with Chanterelles and Rock Shrimp over a Butternut Squash Sauce

Jack and I have decided to do a fun project:  Each week, we will cook a winning dish from Top Chef.

Oh yes, my friends.  We will.

Although we don't have the culinary background to hack it on the line with the likes of Fabio, Stefan, Harold, Hong, Marcel, Tiffani, or Dave (I'm not your bitch, bitch!), I do have the chops to follow a recipe word for word and make something quite tasty!

So we'll pack up our knives and head over to our Top Chef Kitchen, which is NOT furnished by the makers of Glad® and does NOT have glowing appliances by the makers of GE™.

So I guess you don't have to worry about endless product placements. 

We will cook through the winning dishes from Seasons 1-5, with a brief pause when Season 6 comes back on air.  When that happens, we will follow the season, and then resume the remaining recipes when the season is over.

Unfortunately, you will not be able to gaze into Tom's gorgeous blue eyes or stare longingly at Padma's glowing skin.  Gail's effusive smile will not light up our kitchens and guest judges such as Anthony Bourdain cannot provide us with constructive criticism such as "that dish was so ugly, it doesn't even deserve to be prison food".

You will instead receive my witty (I hope) commentary providing a bit of background about the episode and our trials and tribulations about cooking each dish.

Like take this dish, for example.  Jack said he would cook it so that I could photograph it as soon as I got home from work so that I could get a good picture of it in the sunlight. 

Instead, Jack cut off the tip of his finger while making it.

Actually, he cut off a millimeter of skin from his thumb while slicing the butternut squash, called me at work freaking out, so I rushed home to take care of him to find him on the couch watching The Dark Knight with a piece of toilet paper wrapped around it as our dog lay on his lap.  I ran to the couch to see if he was ok, and the piece had magically healed itself. 

I cooked the rest of the dish. 

This amazing, delicious, healthy dish.  Harold Dieterle, the winner of Top Chef Season 1 (and the chef/owner of the restaurant Perilla in New York City) actually won the 1st Top Chef Challenge ever.  The challenge of the episode, titled "Who Deserves to Be Here", was to basically cook a fantastic meal to serve to your peers.  Harold won with this dish - a steamed Thai Snapper atop braised Brussel sprout leaves and a butternut squash puree topped with chanterelle mushrooms and rock shrimp.

Oh YES.  This is going to be fun.

Steamed Thai Snapper adapted from Top Chef Season 1: Episode One

Meat:
1 piece Red Snapper

Sauce:
1 butternut squash
1 cup chicken broth
2 piece garlic
2 shallots
2 oz. butter

Vegetables:
3 oz. brussel sprout leaves (about 1 cup)
1 oz. rock Shrimp
1 oz. chanterelles
1 teaspoon chives 
1 teaspoon parsley

Kosher Salt and Freshly Ground Black Pepper to taste.

Directions:

Skin and dice butternut squash for 15 minutes at 375°. 

Sweat garlic and shallots in 1 tbsp olive oil over medium-low heat while butternut squash is roasting. When squash is done, add squash meat. Cover with chicken stock and simmer 10 minutes. Blend and add butter.  Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Peel brussel sprout leaves (from fresh brussel sprouts) from bulbs. Sweat leaves in 1 tablespoon butter over medium low heat until golden brown, add shrimp and chanterelles. Cook 2 minutes. Add parsley and chives.  Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Season snapper with salt and pepper.  Steam snapper for 5 minutes. 

Grilled Octopus with Lemon Garlic Olive Oil and Fried Capers

What you see here is not how I started off my evening. 

This is how I started off my evening.

BLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH

Tell me that does not look like a creature from the movie Alien.  Or as my friend put it: "That looks like an alien autopsy."

I was convinced that this thing was going to come back alive and strangle me to death with its tentacles.

BLAAAAAAAAAARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Ok, I will grow up now.

I did keep running around my apartment screaming like a little girl and throwing up in my mouth a little as I unraveled each long, gangly tentacle. I had no idea what or how I was going to work with this animal.  All of my amazing friends on Twitter gave me suggestions on how to cook the octopus or get that smoky flavor that I love so much in octopus dishes that I order in restaurants.

I closed my eyes and said a little prayer before I lopped off each tentacle, one by one (by one, by one, by one...)

BLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGHHHHHHHHHHH

I swear, I'll stop soon.

After some research, I decided to cook the tentacles in simmering water for 45 minutes and then toss it on the grill and cross my fingers that I would be able to get a delicious grilled flavor on an indoor grill. I got some amazing suggestions from my Twitter buddies - indoor smokers, smoked rock salt from New Zealand, liquid smoke, Lapsang Souchong Tea - but unfortunately, I did not have the time to go to the store.  So I just tossed it on the grill and hoped for the best.

As a side note, if you are a big into cooking or food and your are not on Twitter, you are missing out! The community of food lovers is amazing - and if you are ever stumped or need advice on a recipe or a method, ask friends on Twitter and you will have more answers than you know what to do with!  It really is an amazing community.

Back to the grilled octopus.  I just have one word to describe the final results:

HOLLLLLLLLLAAAAAA!!!! 

This worked perfectly! The octopus was meaty and tender with a delicious charred flavor.  The suckers were even slightly crispy - absolute heaven.  Tossed in a flavorful sauce of lemon, garlic and olive oil and paired with succulent tomatoes and crispy, briny capers, the flavors of this dish are dynamic and pop right off of the plate. 

I will say that this dish does serve 2, but it depends on who you are asking.  What you see in the top picture is the whole dish.  The octopus is quite meaty and filling, so I was fine with eating half of that dish for my main. Jack, on the other hand, wanted to eat the entire thing. 

This is a dish I will absolutely make over and over again for two reasons:  1.  It is delicious.  2.  Because it is so fun to run around my apartment swinging tentacles and screaming BLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

Grilled Octopus

 

Serves 2

(1) 5 lb. Octopus (ask your fishmonger to remove the eyes, ink sac, and beak)

Lemon and Garlic Oil

3 garlic cloves, minced

Juice of 1 lemon (about 2 tablespoons)

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

Fried Capers

2 tablespoons capers, drained

1 tablespoon flour

Olive Oil for Frying

1 vine-ripened tomato, diced large

2 tablespoons chopped parsley

To Prepare:

Boil enough water in a large Dutch Oven to cover tentacles. Cut off and discard head of octopus.  Place tentacles in boiling water, lower heat to medium low, and simmer for 45 minutes or until tender.  Drain and set aside.

Meanwhile, prepare the lemon and garlic olive oil.  Combine freshly squeezed lemon juice, olive oil, and minced garlic in a blender or whisk vigorously until the sauce has thickened (about 30 seconds).  Set aside.

Heat olive oil in a small frying pan over high heat. Toss capers with flour.  When heat is very hot (about 350 F, add capers and fry until golden brown, about 4 minutes.  Drain on a paper towel and set aside. 

Brush an indoor or outdoor (I used indoor) grill with olive oil and heat over high heat.  Place octopus on grill and grill for 7 minutes on each side.  

Remove octopus from grill and toss in a bowl with tomatoes and lemon and garlic olive oil.  Place in a bowl and top with parsley and capers. Serve warm.

Salmon En Papillote

Salmon En Papilotte makes me laugh. When you tell someone, "I think I'm going to make Salmon En Papilotte" tonight, you'll usually get in return a wide-eyed stare of wonderment and curiosity. That's right. You've just impressed someone by using a fancy way to say "I'm going to cook something in paper." 

I tested this theory by making this my status update on Facebook a few days ago. I received comments such as "Oooooh, what's that?" and "When is your cookbook coming out?"

It's kind of like saying, "Where is the bathroom?" in a foreign language.  In English, it's not that hot. But when you say "Dove il gabinetto?", it's like angels singing.

If you want this particular recipe, purchase The Gourmet Cookbook (a fantastic book with over 1,000 recipes!) I have to respect the book publishers and not publish this recipe online!

BUUUUUT you can check out other "Classy Stuff en Papillote" recipes from Gourmet at Epicurious.com, such as these:

Sea Bass en Papillote

Wild Mushrooms en Papillote

Salmon Papillotes with Fennel, Potatoes, and Olives

Spice Crusted Salmon with Cinnamon Sugar Sweet Potatoes and Sauteed Asparagus

You want a quick, filling and healthy dinner? Try this recipe out. It is so simple and fast, yet the variety of spices will really get your tastebuds working. I like to make this with sauteed asparagus and cinnamon-sugar sweet potatos, but you can make this with whatever side you prefer.

Serves 2

8 ounces salmon fillet
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon coriander
1/4 teaspoon paprika
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1/4 teaspoon onion powder

Asparagus

1 bunch asparagus
Sea salt and kosher salt to taste (or just kosher salt)
Water
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Sweet potato

2 sweet potatoes
Vegetable Oil
1/2 teaspoon brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon coarse sugar

Directions

Sweet Potato

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Farenheit. Coat a shallow baking dish with cooking spray.

Combine brown sugar, coarse sugar and cinnamon in a bowl. Slice sweet potato into 1/4" rounds. Place in a shallow baking dish and drizzle with vegetable oil. Sprinkle sugars evenly over potato slices, place in oven. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until sweet potatoes are tender.

Salmon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Farenheit. Spray a shallow baking dish with cooking spray.

Combine first six ingredients in a bowl. Rub mixture over salmon fillets. Bake salmon for 20-25 minutes (or until salmon flakes).

Asparagus

Heat olive oil in a saute` pan over medium heat. Add asparagus and a pinch of kosher salt. Saute` for three minutes. Lower heat to medium low and add enough water to just cover the bottom of the pan. Cover and cook for additional 5 minutes or until tender. Drain water, drizzle with olive oil and add coarse sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.