Lovely, lovely laksa

I apologize for the smartphone photo. I had not planned on blogging this,
but it just came out so tasty, I could not help myself.

Red curry laksa with shrimp

(Malaysian-style rice noodle soup)

This is a dinner that was planned for another day. But with a head cold setting in, I needed something with spice and flavor, but not a lot of heat.

This soup, a Malaysian style dish, has plenty of aromatics in the lemongrass, garlic and ginger. There is turmeric, which adds flavor and gives it a lovely golden-orange color.

And, one of my favorites is in here: red curry paste.

There is so much going on here, yet it all works perfectly together. And perfectly with the base of broth and coconut milk.

Thinly sliced onion and red pepper swirl around the bowl with light, thin rice noodles, and shrimp add some meatiness.

To finish the soup, I wanted more fragrant goodies, so I topped it all with little tears of fresh mint and basil.

The smartphone picture does not do justice to the beauty of the dish, but it was getting late. And I really just wanted to eat.

But first, to give it a sniff. It was all there. Fragrant perfection.

And the more I ate of it, the more my head cleared. At least for the moment.

I can only that if it smelled and tasted this good with my impaired senses, it would really sing when things are firing on all cylinders.

Ingredients

1 tablespoon canola oil

1 large yellow onion, peeled, quartered and thinly sliced

3-4 cloves garlic, chopped

1 stalk lemongrass, cut into 4-inch lengths then split

1 14-ounce can coconut milk

4 cups low-sodium chicken or vegetable broth

3 tablespoons fish sauce

1-2 tablespoons red curry paste (add 1 tablespoon first, then adjust to taste)

1 tablespoon honey

1 teaspoon ground coriander

1/2 teaspoon turmeric

1 tablespoon fresh ginger, grated finely with a microplane or chopped as fine as possible

 1 large red bell pepper, quartered, seeded and thinly sliced

3/4 pound peeled and deveined shrimp

3-4 ounces thin rice noodles (called rice vermicelli or rice sticks)

fresh mint and/or basil for garnish

Directions

Heat canola oil in a large pot over medium-high heat.

Add onion, garlic and lemongrass. Cook, stirring often, about 5 minutes or until the onion is soft, but not browned.

Add the coconut milk, broth, fish sauce, red curry paste, honey, coriander, turmeric and ginger. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes.

Add red bell peppers and cook until softened, about 5 minutes.

Use tongs to carefully remove lemongrass pieces, or, if you leave them in, be careful when serving to leave them out of the bowl.

Add shrimp and rice noodles and continue to simmer about 3-4 minutes, until shrimp are cooked and noodles are soft.

Serve immediately. Sprinkle with fresh mint and/or basil.

Citrus and beer steamed tilapia - on the grill

Well, I am not sure where the warm weather went, but there for a few days we had a hot spell and I was determined to cook everything on the grill that I could.
One of my favorite things to do is to cook using foil packets, and one of the best things to do in those packets is fish. In this case I went for tilapia because it was cheap, it looked nice and fresh and it just sounded good.
This was an easy prep and a short cooking time on the grill, which was really just a bonus to how good it tasted.
This is from an Epicurious recipe that I modified. They called for flounder. I called for tilapia.

Before cooking.

Citrus and beer steamed tilapia - on the grill
(two servings)

2 small shallot bulbs, peeled and sliced
2 cloves garlic, chopped
4 thin slices of lime
2 thin slices of orange
2 tablespoons butter
2 tilapia fillets
4 sprigs fresh thyme
cayenne or black pepper
salt
6 tablespoons beer (I used Sam Adams, because that is what I had - white wine works, too)

two pieces of aluminum foil, each twice as long as the pieces of fish (maybe 14-inches long)

Arrange foil pieces over a shallow baking dish or pie pan, sort of lining the pan to create a bowl-like space for your ingredients, leaving an overhang that will be sealed up to create your packet.

Divide shallots and garlic equally and sprinkle into the foil "bowl."
Put two slices of lime and one slice of orange into each packet.
Put 1 tablespoon of butter into each packet.
Set a piece of tilapia on top of this and season lightly with pepper and salt.
Arrange thyme sprigs on top of fish.
Pour 3 tablespoons of beer into each packet.

Gather excess foil and roll to seal the edges.

When your grill is heated on medium-high heat, put the packets (seam side up) on the rack and cook 10 minutes.

After cooking.

I think if you don't like beer, you can definitely use white wine.
If beer or wine is not an option, a little broth of some type probably would work. Or maybe clam juice. I figured there is so little alcohol in the beer and what is there cooks off anyway.

The beer and butter make for a nice little sauce that steams the fish beautifully.
The cayenne adds just a touch of heat. And the citrus is, well, citrusy and lovely.

I served this with grilled white corn and red potatoes that I also had roasted on the grill.
My only regret was that I did not have a lovely, crusty piece of bread to sop up that extra cooking sauce.

Seared scallops in lemon-shallot sauce

Cravings are funny things. Where do they come from? Why one thing and not another?
I get cravings a lot. Popcorn, chocolate, steak, cheese.
They just pop up for no particular reason.
But my recent craving for scallops... That I can blame on "Top Chef."
They have been cooking a lot of scallops on that show this season.
"It'sa notta 'Toppa Scallopsa!' It'sa 'Toppa Chefa!" according to contestant Fabio.

So when I was planning dinner yesterday, I decided to give in to the craving and make a scallop appetizer.

Seared scallops in lemon-shallot sauce

Makes 4 appetizer servings

1 tablespoon olive oil
8 large scallops
sea salt
pepper
1 tablespoon butter
3 tablespoons minced shallots
2 teaspoons minced garlic
1/3 cup dry white wine (I used chardonnay)
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon finely chopped Italian parsley
about 4 small handfuls of baby arugula

Heat oil in a large nonstick saute pan over medium-high heat.
Lightly salt and pepper the scallops on both sides.
Add scallops to pan. To get a good sear and good color on them, do not move the scallops.
After about 2 minutes, turn the scallops over and let the other side sear about 2 minutes.
Remove scallops from pan and place in a covered bowl to keep them warm.
Turn heat down to medium and add butter to melt.
Add shallots and garlic; saute 1 minute.
Add wine and lemon juice, cooking 1-2 minutes until liquid reduces by about half.
Stir in parsley.
Return the scallops to the pan and turn to coat with the sauce.

To serve:
Divide arugula among four plates.
Put two scallops on each plate.
Drizzle sauce over scallops and arugula.
Serve immediately.

This was perfect.
The flavors were all perfectly balanced: just enough lemon, just enough garlic. And the shallots were sweet and not too strong of an onion flavor.

I thought about using mixed baby salad greens, but went with baby arugula for its slight peppery flavor and the fact that it does well when wilted a bit by the warm sauce.

I could eat this all the time.

It probably would also make a very nice main dish to make extra sauce and a couple more scallops each and serve it all, including the arugula, over a bed of angel hair pasta.

I have made scallops before, but this is the best preparation I have tried as far as ease and taste go.

Tilapia wth tarragon butter and Swiss chard

I have this little addiction to cooking magazines.

It's been a problem for years.

What I do is I look through them, tearing out recipes that look interesting to me.

I have accumulated quite a collection of torn out magazine pages over the years.

To organize these, I have several three-ring binders for various categories: appetizers, side dishes, entrees, pastas, desserts... just to name a few.

Then I put the magazine page into a clear page protector and put it in the binder.

Basically, my own customized cookbooks.

The problem is sometimes I forget about these binders for months at a time.

Then I go back to them and pull out a few things I want to finally give a try.

I did this recently, and this is one of the recipes that sounded good to try.

I served this with a simple rice pilaf on the side.

I am not sure when or where I found this recipe originally. But it has tilapia, which is an easy fish to cook, and chard. I like chard. It's a little bolder than sauteed spinach. It's got a little more flavor and bulk to it. If you don't like chard, spinach would work, too.

Plus with a sauce that includes tarragon and shallots and lemon juice...? Yeah. Sold!

Seems like lately I have been very into things with sauces. The little pan sauces that are not difficult to make, but can make a dish taste so complete.

So...

Tilapia with tarragon butter and Swiss chard

Serves 2

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 pound Swiss chard

(cleaned, fibrous stems removed and ribs discarded, leaves coarsely torn or chopped, washed and dried. **See note below about cleaning greens like this**)

Sea salt and freshly ground pepper

5 tablespoons butter

2 tilapia fillets, about 6 ounces each

1 shallot, chopped

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

2 tablespoons fresh tarragon, chopped

Before you do anything else, make sure the chard is cleaned and dried and ready to go.

Also, once you start this, it all goes very fast. So you will want to have all the ingredients prepped and ready to go in the pan before you start cooking.

Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet on medium-high heat.

Add garlic and cook about 30-45 seconds, until fragrant, but not browned.

Add a large handful of chard and cook, tossing often.

Once this settles, add more chard and continue cooking and adding until it is all in the pan and cooked until tender, about 3-4 minutes.

Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Divide chard onto two dinner plates and cover with foil to keep warm. Set aside.

Wipe out the skillet to remove any excess liquid.

Add 2 tablespoons of the butter and let it melt over medium-high heat.

Season fish with salt and pepper, and place it in the skillet to cook.

Cook fish until golden brown and cooked through, turning once.

It will take about 4-6 minutes of total cooking time.

Remove fish from the pan, placing it on top of the chard. Cover to keep warm.

In the same skillet, add the shallot and cook about 30-60 seconds, stirring occasionally.

When shallots are just starting to brown and soften, add lemon juice.

It should evaporate pretty fast, if not cook until nearly evaporated, maybe 30 seconds.

Remove pan from heat and add the remaining butter and the tarragon.

Stir constantly until the butter melts and makes a sauce.

Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Pour sauce over the fish and chard and serve.

**I wash chard like I do spinach or pretty much any other greens... Oh yeah, works great for leeks, too.

Once you have it torn or cut into the pieces you want to cook, put the greens in a large bowl or basin, cover with cold water and let sit for at least 15 minutes.

Any sand or grit will settle to the bottom of the bowl and the greens will float to the top.

Use a slotted spoon or your hands to gently scoop the greens off the top of the water.

Place in a colander and rinse one more time.

To dry these, a salad spinner works great, or just let them air dry.**

Jerk-spiced grilled mahi mahi with avocado-melon salsa

Spicy, tangy, crispy, creamy and sweet.
These all describe the grilled fish I made last night.

After a four-store hunt for mahi mahi, it finally came together.
The result was a light and tasty fish dish that also was super, SUPER easy.

Jerk-spiced grilled mahi mahi
with avocado-melon salsa

salsa

1 small avocado, ripe but not mushy, peeled and diced
1 cup cantaloupe, diced
1/2 cup red onion, diced
1/3 cup fresh cilantro, minced
3 tbsp fresh lime juice
3/4 tsp lime zest

salt and pepper to taste

Gently toss all ingredients to blend. Season to taste.
Keep in fridge until ready to use.

Now for the fish...
You can use any jerk seasoning you like, whether you make it or buy it.

I made mine this way:

jerk seasoning

2 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano
2 teaspoons ground allspice
2 teaspoons ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons vegetable oil

4 6-ounce mahi mahi fillets

Heat grill on high.
I used a solid cast-iron grill pan on my gas grill for this. This way I could flip with no worry about the fish falling through the grill.

In a small bowl, stir together the oregano, allspice, ground black pepper, cinnamon, cayenne pepper, and salt. Add oil and mix to make paste then rub seasoning onto fish, coating completely.

Once grill is very hot, put fish on the grill.
Cook about 4 minutes and flip.
DO NOT mess with the fish until it is ready to flip. This will help reduce breakage.

Cook on the other side until fish is opaque in the middle, about 4 more minutes.

Serve with salsa.

The lime juice in the salsa is a good acid for this.
The fish is spicy and a little crisp.
The salsa adds sweet with the melon, creamy with the avocado.

It was a fabulous combination.

I would try this seasoning and salsa on chicken and expect it to be good.
It even sounds like something that would be good on steak, especially a nice thin carne asada type.

red snapper Vera Cruz style

So it's not like I haven't cooked at all in the past month.

I just haven't cooked anything very interesting or blog worthy.

I've grilled some steaks.

I've made some pastas.

I've made various fish and chicken dishes.

All pretty routine.

But since yesterday was Cinco de Mayo,

I wanted to do Mexican food.

But something different than

tacos, enchiladas or burritos.

So I made red snapper Vera Cruz, green rice

and those pickled spicy carrots.

Here I will share the snapper recipe with you.

It's a simple preparation that probably would

work just as well with halibut or tilapia or some other similar white fish.

I think it would even be good with chicken.

Red Snapper Vera Cruz style

4 snapper fillets, 6 ounces each

2 tablespoons olive oil

Salt and freshly ground pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil

1 medium onion (I used a sweet variety), finely sliced

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1/4 cup dry white wine

2 large tomatoes or 4 small tomatoes, chopped

(I used 2 small red tomatoes and 2 small yellow tomatoes)

2 tablespoons capers, drained

1 serrano pepper, finely chopped

I skipped olives, which also go in this dish.

The manfriend is not a fan of olives.

But if you like them, throw in

1/4 cup green olives, pitted and chopped.

Salt and pepper the fish on both sides.

Heat olive oil in a non-corrosive saute pan over high heat,

add fish and cook a few minutes on each side.

I tried to build up a crunchiness to it, hence the high heat.

Once fish is done, remove from pan and cover.

Reduce heat on pan to medium-high

and add onions and garlic. Cook until soft.

Add the wine and cook until it is reduced.

Add the tomatoes, capers and pepper

(and olives if you like 'em) and bring to a boil.

Cook until reduced and it starts to thicken.

Reduce heat and add fish. Cook for 2 minutes.

Serve fish with the onion/tomato mixture on top.

Garnish with lemon or lime wedges.

This came out nice. It was pretty light.

The sauce is meant to be redder than mine was.

But I used red and yellow tomatoes.

It still tasted good and I wanted to experiment with the yellows.

For the green rice, just make your favorite type of white rice.

When it is done, add in some of your favorite green salsa.

I just do this to taste.

I will post the carrot recipe separately in the next day or so.

fish in garlic-herb sauce

I wanted to make this with halibut, but the market was out of halibut. So I tried cod. And while it tasted good, I did not like the texture of the cod.
So I will try it again another time using halibut. It probably would be good on salmon, too.
The key here is the sauce (sooooo easy to make).
The manfriend liked the sauce so much, he said he could pour it over just about anything and eat it.

So, here you go, easy baked fish in a simple garlic and herb sauce.

1/2 cup mayo
3 tablespoons olive oil
3 tablespoons white wine
juice of 1 lemon
1 tablespoon dried oregano
1 tablespoon dried dill
1 tablespoon dried tarragon
1 tablespoon salt-free seasoning mix of your choice
2 garlic cloves, minced
4 pieces pieces of fish such as halibut or salmon. I like the boneless, skinless filet pieces.

heat oven to 450
whisk together all ingredients except fish
place fish in a baking dish and pour the sauce over the top
bake 15-20 minutes or until fish is flaky in the middle (timing will vary based on thickness of fish, so keep an eye on it)

I served this some of the sauce poured over the fish and garnished it with lemon slices.
For sides, I made simple steamed broccolini and sauteed potatoes.
The sauce was great on the veggies, too.

It seems like pretty much any dried herbs or seasoning mixes will do. I tried to keep the salt down though. Fresh herbs probably would work, but obviously the dried are a bit easier and that is what I had on hand.

I may try making just that sauce to use as a simple alternative to hollandaise sauce over veggies.

Hmm... I just had another thought... maybe a sort of gratin of shredded carrots, zucchini and other squashes, a little red onion... pour the sauce over it and bake...
Great. I have barely finished my tea and I am already thinking about next week's dinner.