Sea Bass! Spinach! Potato Crisps!

I have been on a big fish kick lately. I went to New Deal fish market in East Cambridge and sea bass was on sale, so I bought two pieces.

The fish was really easy to cook. I lightly oiled and generously seasoned each side with salt and pepper. Then I seared both sides in a hot skillet, and lowered the heat to cook through the fish. It was thick, so I quickly seared the "side" edges, too.

While the fish was cooking, I made seared spinach. So easy and delicious! Just pop a lot of spinach (this stems removed) into an almost smoking hot pan with a small dab of oil and toss. Add a little salt and pepper, and you can finish with vinegar, lemon juice, or butter if desired (I like just s and p myself). This is really fast and easy. Stop and transfer to a plate when the spinach is bright green and almost all wilted, it will keep cooking a little.

Finally I made little oven potato chips. well, actually this is the part to start first. I sliced the potatoes in rounds with a mandolin into a bowl of salt water to leach out a lot of the starch. Let soak for about 15 minutes, then pat dry with a kitchen towel and arrange on a lightly oiled pan (it is important to dry them well). Sprinkle with salt and pepper and bake at about 375 until lightly browned and crisp and pretty.

Enjoy!!

kasha varnishkes

Delicious bowties with buckwheat! I had this dish for the first time a couple of weekends ago. Maybe you were lucky enough to have a Jewish grandma that made kasha varnishkes for you all the time? Not me, so this was my introduction. Literally, it means buckwheat and bowties. I have no idea if this is a traditional recipe or alteration, but it was the closest I could find to recreate what I ate.

I used this recipe from the internet after a lot of searching for one that includes red bell peppers. Be forewarned - If you click "printer friendly recipe" you will end up with a different recipe.

A few changes I recommend:

- use twice as many peppers and onions as called for

- after sauteeing the onion and peppers, remove from heat and set aside to toss in at the end instead of cooking them with the buckwheat. This keeps the veggies tasty with a little crunch

- serve hot with a good dollop of sour cream or yogurt to mix in

I found Arrowhead Mills buckwheat groats at Whole Foods. This picture looks a little rough, but it was the last of my leftovers on day three. Still delicious!

Salmonerrific !

Fish time! I have been eating lots of fish lately, especially salmon. My favorite dinner these past couple of weeks has been pan-seared salmon, pasta with garlic, scallions, and butter, and some sort of vegetable, like seared bok choi or lemon broccoli. Yum!

Carla told me she makes her salmon in the toaster oven, for 12 minutes at 325. She lightly oils and seasons both sides. Carla was kind enough to send in a photo:

Squash soup and Scallion Biscuits

Does that sound delicious, or what? Lucky me, Connie made this dinner Wednesday night when she hosted us for a regular Wednesday night date.

The biscuits were pure genius: the New Basics biscuit recipe with a handful or two of coarsely chopped scallion thrown in. I really like the way Connie cut them - she patted the dough into a rough square, and cut the square like tic-tac-toe into smaller squareish shapes.

And the soup! Roasted acorn squash scooped out into a pot that had some sauteed garlic and ginger and veggie broth. Connie added a can of coconut milk and fresh squeezed lime juice and whirred the pot with the immersion blender (I really need one). Then we topped off the soup with chopped cilantro. Matt snapped a picture with his phone.

Connie, will you be so kind as to comment with the soup recipe?

Also, Kit, we will miss you. Should have been Rami.

Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams

Hello! Happy New Year! Right after the holidays, I drove from Arizona to Boston. We were on a mission to get to Boston, and it is winter, so we just drove, drove, drove and didn't really make any fun stops on the way.

Except for in Ohio. OHIO! We stayed with our friends (and the crazy kitten Mali) on their farm in western Ohio and had the best Ohio breakfast in Dayton the next morning. As luck would have it, in Columbus we needed to switch from I-70 to I-71. And in Grandview Heights, right between these two giant interstates, there is a small ice cream shop with the best ice cream in the whole entire world, Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams. We told the woman working about our trip, and how this was our one very exciting stop. She was incredibly nice and we both tasted nearly every flavor in the store. Like 20 tastes each.

We each got a trio, three scoops in a bowl with a wedge of waffle cone. I had gravel road, belgian chocolate, an butterscotch with cocoa nibs. Palo had the amazing Queen City Cayanne, bush berry, and pear-reisling sorbet. Other favorites included lemon whole milk yogurt, and creme fraiche with cherries.

I can't wait to order a batch for my house. A chocolate and ice cream lover kept my dog Henry while we were away, and I sent her 6 pints as a thank you. All arrived in perfectly delicious condition.

Thanks, Carla, for the directions and idea and talking about Jeni's for the last few years. You were so right!

Meat epiphany! Steak and potatoes = delicious

I know, I know! Steak and potatoes is about the oldest combination ever. But I never really made the connection that it really is the best combination ever. I also never really fully knew how incredibly easy and rewarding it is to make a steak. I saw these potatoes on a blog, somewhere, while I was following all kinds of clicks that can never be recreated, so I can't find the original post for you. But that is ok, because I don't really recommend cooking potatoes this way, they were only so-so. I think a basic bake or mash would have been way better than slicing them, stuffing them with herbs, and roasting. Although they are pretty.

Anyhow, I am really more interested in the steak. I bought a piece of sirloin, cut it into two smaller-but-still-huge steaks at home, oiled both sides of the meat, and generously salted and peppered both sides. That's it! Then I seared them on medium to hight heat, let them rest, and obtained the medium rare that I was going for.

I am by no means an expert and am just getting started with meat, but here are some tips I have to share:

- Lightly oil both sides of the meat with vegetable oil that is suitable for high heat. I like safflower.

- Salt the meat with your fingers, using salt from a bowl. I always beep a little bowl of salt by the stove and this is how I salt everything. I use the big box of Kosher salt that is red, black, and white. It is not too coarse. Sprinkle the salt evenly over the whole surface.

- Use pepper fresh ground from a pepper grounder directly onto the meat. Evenly, over the whole surface

- Get the pan almost smoking before laying the steaks on. You probably want just a dab of oil in your pan. Add the oil first to the cold pan, and swirl it around as it heats up. The oil will get less and less viscous as it heats and can coat the whole pan.

- Sear each side to a nice crusty caramel. Don't smoosh your steak down with a spatula

- Let the steak rest! Take the steak off the heat, and transfer to a plate to rest. This is really interesting and important. They steak needs to rest not only to keep cooking and evenly distribute the heat, but to allow the cells to retain moisture. If a steak gets cut right off the fire, tons of juice will squirt out. This is juice that could have been reabsorbed and make every bite juicer and more succulent. About 5 minutes should be good.

- I think the medium rare is the best thing ever.

Biscotti, really easy

I came across this recipe for biscotti randomly, about 9 years ago. It is very easy to make, and tasty to boot. You can probably find all of the ingredients in your kitchen right now. This is the perfect time of year to make a huge batch, so you have an excuse to make coffee all the time. But who needs an excuse to make coffee all the time?

The round pictured was an experimental batch. I added pepitas and dried cherries to the whole recipe, and cocoa powder to half.

I recommend adding about 7 or 8 Tbs of cocoa powder, I only added 2 or 3 and it was not nearly enough. Also, this recipe is crying out for chocolate chips, a lot of chocolate chips.

Next time I think pistachios, cocoa powder, and chocolate chips will be the way to go.