Ceviche

The last couple of times I've been to Isaacson & Stein, they've had some nice looking corvina, a white fish that is commonly used to make ceviche. So, of course, Abby and I had to try our hand. This picture comes from our second batch of ceviche. The first time around, we just used the corvina, but we added shrimp and scallops to this batch.

RECIPE:

-1/2 lb corvina

-1/4 lb shrimp

-1/4 lb scallops

-1 serrano pepper (minced)

-6 limes

-1 lemon

-2 shallots

-1/8 cup chopped cilantro

-1 Tbsp basil (chiffonade)

-2 shinly sliced radishes

-1 green onion, thinly sliced

-salt, pepper

-olive oil

Cut the fish, shrimp, and scallops in cubes (about 1cm). Season with a pinch of salt and pepper. Cut the shallots in half, lengthwise, and then cut into long strips. Toss together the seafood, shallots, serrano pepper, radishes, and green onion. Reserve the zest from one lime and one lemon, squeeze the juice from the lemons and limes and add to the fish mixture along with the zest. Mix together, cover, and refrigerate for 3 hours. Make sure there is enough liquid to cover most of the fish, and check in on the ceviche occasionally to give it a stir. Keep tasting the fish until it has "cooked" to your liking. When it is ready, stir in the basil and cilantro. Season with more salt if necessary, and garnish with olive oil. Serve with corn chips to add some texture.

Fattoush

Fattoush is basically Lebanese panzanella. Rather than using an old baguette, fattoush is built around fried pieces of pita. I think the traditional ingredients include cucumber and tomato, but you can really add just about any vegetable you want. Abby and I had an amazing version of this salad at Oleana that included roasted eggplant, romanesco, pomegranate, and a bunch of other good stuff. For this version, I used a bunch of ingredients from this week's Boston Organics delivery. I also use pita chips instead of frying the pita myself.

INGREDIENTS
Dressing

• olive oil
• lemon juice (1/2 lemon)
• lemon zest
  
• mustard (1-2 tsp)
  
• salt, pepper

Base

• tahini
• Greek yogurt
• lemon juice (1/2 lemon)
  
• salt, pepper

Salad

• pea shoots
• 1/4-1/2 cup diced, roasted beets
• 1 green bell pepper,
• 1 apple
• 1-2 tomatoes, seeded and diced
• 1/4-1/3 cup carrots, diced
• 1/4 cup onion, diced
• 1/4 cup radish, diced
• 1 blood orange, cut into supremes
• parsley
• mint
• 1/8-1/4 cup olives, chopped
  
• feta
• salt, pepper
• sumac
• pita chips

Dice all of the vegetables into small, even pieces. Toss the veggies together, but leave the beets and the blood oranges separate. Tossing these together with everything else will just turn the whole thing pink. You also want to leave the pea shoots separate.

Mix up the lemon juice, zest, and mustard for the vinaigrette and add oil, stirring, until you get the taste you want. Season with salt and pepper.

Mix together the tahini and greek yogurt in a 1 to 4 ratio. For 1 T tahini and 4 T yogurt, add the juice of 1/4 to 1/2 lemon. Stir together, season with salt and pepper, and set aside.

Chop of parsley and mint and add to the vegetables. Toss the herbs and vegetables together with the vinnaigrette (reserve 1 T), and add some of the smaller pita chips. Season with salt, pepper, and sumac.

To plate, spread some of the yogurt mix around the bottom of the plate. You can sort of see this in the picture below.
Arrange a bed of larger pita chips on top of this base, and spoon some of the salad mix on top of this. As you are plating the salad, add the beets and blood oranges. Dress the pea shoots with the remaining vinaigrette and top the salad with the pea sheets and crumbled feta.

Seared tuna, crispy rice cakes, and sesame spinach

INGREDIENTS
Tuna

• 2 servings tuna
• sesame seeds

Spinach

• Baby spinach (enough for 2 servings)
• 1 carrot
• 1 Tbsp toasted sesame seeds
• 1 Tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tsp rice vinegar
• 1/2 tsp dashi
  
• 1 clove minced garlic
  

Rice cakes

• 1.5 cups sushi rice
• 1-2 Tbsp rice vinegar
• Rice seasoning (Furikake), to taste

Cook the rice. Let it cool to and add vinegar as if you are making sushi rice. Mix in furikake to taste. Form the rice into patties and cook until crispy and golden brown on each side.

Julienne the carrot and cook until soft with a little oil. Add minced garlic and spinach. Cook until wilted. In a bowl, grind up the sesame seeds and mix in the soy sauce, vinegar, and dashi. Add this to the spinach and toss together.

Season the tuna with salt and pepper and coat one side with sesame seeds. Sear over high heat for one minute on each side.

(Pictured with a sauce made of miso, soy, dashi, ponzu, sake, and mirin)

Steamed Red Snapper with Chiles & Ginger, Braised Baby Bok Choy

This is one of my favorite recipes - it's so quick, easy, and healthy, with lots of delicious yet playful flavors. I love how the snapper delicately absorbs all the spicy chile and ginger juices without any effort on my part at all. In general, the recipes that I (Abby) put up here will require a lot less culinary acumen than Sam's dishes, so you can rely on my posts for our more remedial meals. ;)

The ingredients aren't fancy:

• 1 (1-pound) red snapper fillet with skin (3/4 inch thick)
• 1 tablespoon medium-dry Sherry
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 (3-inch) piece fresh ginger, peeled and cut into 1/16-inch-thick matchsticks (1 1/2 inches long)
• 1 scallion, cut lengthwise into 1 1/2-inch-long very thin strips (1/3 cup)
• 2 fresh serrano chiles, seeded and cut lengthwise into very thin strips
• 1/2 teaspoon Asian sesame oil

All you have to do is score the skin of the snapper several times, rub both sides of the fish with a mixture of the sherry and salt, and place it skin side up on an oiled plate (or parchment paper) that can fit in your bamboo steamer. Meanwhile, bring the water in your wok to a boil.

Now, in a small skillet, heat the oil and saute the ginger, scallion, and chiles for about 30 seconds, until fragrant but not browned. Spoon all this over the fish, letting the oil seep into the scored parts. Then, all you have to do is place the plate of fish in your steamer, put the steamer over the boiling water in your wok, and cover it tightly. Steam the fish until it's cooked through, about 7-8 minutes. When you serve the fish over rice, make sure to transfer as much of the yummy juice as possible.

Sam and I like to add some cilantro (here added to the ginger/chile mix) and a squeeze of lime to the dish to top it off. You end up with a lovely mix of well-balanced, subtle flavors - with a bit of a spicy kick! You can check out the original recipe and other peoples' ideas at epicurious.com.

Braising the baby bok choy is also very simple. First, mix a teaspoon each of minced garlic and ginger. Then, saute it in a pan big enough to braise the bok choy in. Add enough water to fill the pan about a quarter of the way; a dash of soy sauce and mirin (about two teaspoons each); a quarter teaspon of dashi (which is a kind of japanese fish bullion that's good for soup bases like miso); and 2-3 tablespoons of sake. Leave it on medium-high heat and let the liquid reduce by about half. Reduce the heat to about medium and put the baby bok choy in (we used four small bunches for two people, cut in half). Cover the pan and cook for 6-8 minutes. You can use the braising liquid as a sauce after further reducing it - just remember to strain out the garlic and ginger before serving. That's it! Enjoy!

Beet soup

Wrap beets in foil and roast at 350F for 1 hour. Let cool, then peel and cut into chunks.
While the beets are cooling, cook roughly chopped red onion and ginger with butter and salt in a medium pan. I used 1 half of an onion and 1/2" of ginger for 8 small beets (about the size of a new potato). When the onions have softened (5 minutes), add the beets and enough chicken or vegetable stock to cover everything by almost an inch. Add part of an orange peel to the mixture and let simmer for about 30 minutes. Remove the orange peel and puree the mixture. Season to taste with coriander, orange juice and lemon juice. For the garnish, mix together soft goat cheese with a bit of sour cream in a food processor. For a more refined version of this soup, pass the pureed soup through a strainer a couple times. This will make the finished product thinner and smoother.

Tuna burgers

I used the same recipe that I used to make the tuna meatballs here. If I make these again, I would use about half the amount of bread crumbs in the recipe. Serve on brioche with arugula that has been tossed in a very small amount of olive oil, lemon juice, and kosher salt.

Ma Po Tofu

This is a dish that Abby and I make fairly often. Quick. Easy. Tasty. It's comfort food at its best.

INGREDIENTS

Mix together 3/4 cup of water
1 Tbsp of Chinese cooking wine
2 Tbsp of soy sauce and 1 tsp salt.
In a separate cup, mix together 2 tsp corn starch and about a Tbsp of water.

Mince 2 cloves of garlic, an equivalent amount of ginger, and two scallions. Reserve about 1/4 of the scallions for garnish.
Mince the pork. It helps to stick it in the freezer for about 15 to 30 minutes first. This allows you to cut the pork into very thin slices. After doing this, just run your knife across the slices a few times.

Cut the block of extra firm tofu into 1 cm squares.Once these ingredients are prepped, you can start cooking. First, stir fry the pork in 2 Tbsp oil. When using a wok, you should always have the heat up as high as possible. It helps to use an oil that can stand up to high heat such as sunflower oil.
Once the pork is done, set it aside in a separate bowl, but keep as much oil in the wok as possible. Stir fry the garlic, ginger, and scallions for a minute or so, then add a tablespoon of hot black bean sauce for another minute.

Add the liquid, bring to a bowl, and then add the pork and tofu.Let everything simmer for a couple minutes and then add the corn starch/water mixture. If there is too much liquid, you can turn up the heat to reduce the sauce or you can add more corn starch to thicken the sauce more. Finish with a bit of white pepper, sesame oil, and the remaining chopped scallion and serve over rice.

Grilled swordfish

Earlier in the summer Abby and I ate at this great restaurant in New York called Esca. We both love seafood and the food at the restaurant was really good, so we decided to get the cookbook. This week I've been going through the cookbook and making some of the recipes. This one is really simple. Its just a swordfish steak that's breaded and grilled. You can make breadcrumbs by running some stale bread through a food processor and seasoning with various herbs, or you can just buy some italian style bread crumbs from the store. Start by trimming the skin off of the sword fish steaks. Then season with salt and pepper and dredge in bread crumbs. If you have a charcoal grill, use that. If not, you can do what I did and use a grill pan. Cooking time depends on the thickness of the steak. I cooked it between 4-5 minutes on each side. The cookbook suggested serving this with a blood orange salad. I didn't have any blood oranges, and I usually stick with a protein/starch/veg. combo for my dinners, so I made brocolli with lemon, garlic, and red pepper, and a brown rice pilaf for the side dishes.

Crispy Arctic Char with pan roasted potatoes and arugula

INGREDIENTS
Arctic char (1/3 lb per serving)
flour
salt and pepper
yukon gold potatoes (about 3 small potatoes per serving)
arugula
basil
orange-champagne vinegar
high quality olive oil

Bring a pot of water to boil.
Skin the potatoes and cut them in half.
When the water is boiling, add a lot of salt and then add the potatoes. Cook until nearly done.
When you can insert a knife into the potatoes with minimal resistance, drain the potatoes and let them dry.
Add a generous amount of olive oil to a non-stick pan and add the potatoes. Toss occassionally to avoid burning. The potatoes are done when they are golden brown on all sides.

To prepar the char, cut slits into the skin side of the char, cover both sides with salt and pepper, and dredge in flour. Cook in olive oil over high heat, starting with the skin side down. It should take about 2 minutes on each side to cook.

Top the fish with a quick basil vinaigrette. In a mini food processor, add a couple basil leaves, orange-champagne vinegar, and a pinch of salt. Blend everything together, add olive oil, and blend again until emulsified. The vinegar to oil ratio should be about 1 to 2. You don't need to make that much for this dish. Maybe a tablespoon per serving.

Serve with arugula dressed with olive oil, lemon juice, a pinch of kosher salt, and shaved Parmessan cheese.

Penne with rapini, anchovies, and bread crumbs

I was working late at the library tonight. Usually I would just get a burrito for dinner, but I had one for lunch and didn't feel like having a second one for dinner. I didn't have too much at home, but I figured I could, at the very least, whip up some sort of pasta dish. After a bit of foraging, I settled on rapini, a stale baguette, and anchovies as the main components for the dish.

Start by heating up a pot of water for the pasta, rinse the rapini and trim off the stems, mince two cloves of garlic, and chop up a few anchovies. To make bread crumbs, smash the stale bread into smaller pieces and transfer to a food processor to finish it off. Toast the bread crumbs in a pan with some olive oil and about 1/2 of the garlic.
When the water is boiling, salt the water and then drop the penne. Set a timer for 8 to 9 minutes. In a separate pan, cook the remaining garlic with the anchovies and some red pepper flakes in some olive oil.
Once the garlic gets to a golden brown color, add the rapini and toss. Add a splash of white wine to this mixture.
When the pasta is done, toss it in with the rapini mixture along with half of the bread crumbs and a grating of Parmessan or Pecorino.
Plate and top with more cheese, the remaining bread crumbs, a drizzle of high quality balsamic vinegar and olive oil (preferably Tuscan), and pepper. This all should take about 20 minutes max.

Sake & Miso Glazed Salmon with Lime & Scallion Sushi Rice

This is a fairly straightforward dish. I had a salad on the side, but if you want a well rounded plate with the typical protein/starch/veg trio, baby bok choy would make a great addition. The dish is finished off with a soy/ginger/ricewine vinegar reduction.

Sake & Miso Glazed Salmon (2 servings)
-Salmon (1/2 lb)
-Sake (1/4 cup)
-Miso paste (1/4 cup)
-Mirin (1 Tbsp)
-Soy (1 Tbsp)
-Ginger (1/2" root, grated)
-Sugar (2 Tbsp)

Combine all of the ingredients and marinate the salmon for a couple hours or overnight. Broil for about 10 minutes. Keep an eye on the salmon as it cooks. The glaze has sugar in it, so it will burn.

For the rice, use a short grain sushi rice. When you're using sushi rice, you want to thoroughly rinse the rise and let it sit for at least a half hour. This process gets ride of a lot of the starch on the surface and is the key to getting good sushi rice. Mix together the juice from 1/2 of a lime (for one cup of rice) and 1 tsp sugar. Let the rice cool slightly then mix the juice and 1-2 finely chopped scallions with the rice.

Miso-glazed perch in dashi soy broth with vegetables

This is a rare attempt at health cooking. We have broiled miso glazed perch over some baby bok choy that was braised in a dashi soy broth and soba noodles with carrots, red bell peppers, snow peas and ginger. Since everything was simmered or broiled, I didn't need to use a drop of oil for this dish.

Vegetable and pork stir fry

Next on the healthy food line up is some stir fry that uses a lot of the same vegetables from the previous dish (carrots/bell peppers/snow peas). I also added bean sprouts. All this was stir fried together with some pork and a broth of oyster sauce, chinese cooking wine, soy sauce, sesame oil, and corn starch. I wasn't able to forgo the oil altogether, but at about 2tsp for 3-4 portions, I didn't think this was too bad.

Tuna & cannellini bean salad

This is a fairly simple and inexpensive salad to make. It makes a great light dinner or lunch that is perfect for the summer. Start by cutting red onion in half and then slicing very thin half rounds. You will need a little more than 1/4 of an average sized onion. Place the onions in a bowl of cold water. As you are preparing the rest of the dish, go back to the onions every 10 minutes or so, squeeze them, and replace the water.

Next, prepare a vinaigrette. Add some olive oil, red wine or balsamic vinegar, a spoon full of dijon mustard, one minced clove of garlic, and some oregano to a bowl and whisk together to make an emulsion. I think a more acidic dressing is good for this salad, so make the ratio of oil to vinegar about 2 to 1 or 3 to 1 depending on your taste.

Drain and rinse two cans of cannellini beans, add to a large bowl, and toss with about half of the vinaigrette. Next, cut a Belgian endive in half, quarter a small head of radichio, and drizzle with olive oil. Sear for about 1 min at med-high on a grill pan (a normal pan will work fine). While the lettuces are cooking, cover a tuna steak with salt, pepper, and olive oil. Sear at high heat once the lettuces are done for about 1-1.5 minutes on each side. I use frozen tuna steaks for this, which you can get at some grocery stores (like Trader Joe's or Market Basket) for about $5/lb. Once the tuna is done, let it rest while you slice up the lettuces crosswise. Add the endive, radicchio, and onions to the bowl with the beans. Chop up the tuna steak into small pieces and add this as well. Toss everything together and add more of the vinaigrette. Finish the dish off with chopped parsley and crumbled feta (if you happen to have it lying around).

This whole dish should only take about 20-30 min from start to finish.