Guinness Battered Basa with Oven Roasted Rosemary Chips and Escarole Apple Salad

I was in the mood for Fish and Chips today. This is a variation that suited my mood. Instead of ale, I used Guinness for a deeper, earthier flavor, and instead of frying the chips, I baked them in the oven with rosemary. Any substantial white fish will do here, but I am partial to basa, which is similar to catfish but with a much cleaner flavor. Sweet enterprise apples accompanied the fish and chips very well!



Guinness Battered Basa
Serves 4

2 cups flour
12 oz bottle Guinness
Canola oil
Salt and pepper
Lemon wedges

The fish is very simple. Heat 1/2 inch oil in a skillet over medium high heat until hot.

In a bowl, sift 1 1/2 cups flour and whisk in beer. Let sit for 15 minutes to relax the gluten in the flour.

Rinse and pat dry the basa and cut into 2 inch pieces. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Dredge the fish pieces in 1/2 cup of the flour and set aside on a dish. Do not dredge in the batter until you are ready to fry the fish.

When ready to fry fish, dredge the pieces in the beer batter and slide the pieces into the skillet. Fry for about 5 minutes, flipping, until golden brown. Transfer to a plate with paper towels until ready to serve. Serve warm with lemon wedges.



Oven Roasted Rosemary Chips
Serves 2 (Double to serve 4)

2 baking potatoes
olive oil
rosemary
salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Peel potatoes and cut into 1/2 inch fries, lengthwise. Place in a non-stick baking dish with enough olive oil to coat and salt and pepper. Place in oven for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, stir the potatoes and sprinkle desired amount of rosemary. The potatoes may seem to be sticking to the pan at this point. This is ok. After the chips are done cooking and when the pan cools, the bits on the pan will come off easily. Place the potatoes back in the oven for another 15 minutes. Serve hot.

Apple and Escarole Salad
Serves 2
6 leaves curly escarole
1 enterprise apple
Muscat orange vinegar

Wash escarole leaves and chop by hand. Evenly distribute on plates. Cut apple in quarters and remove cores with a paring knife. Chop into small pieces and distribute over escarole. Top with a drizzle of the vinegar.

Baked Halibut, Brazilian style

We're finally back from Brazil (I didn't want to leave!), and now I have a cold. Nothing will stop me from cooking, though! My Nonna (grandma) cooked us wonderful lunches, and I'm trying to replicate these before I forget them! Most of the food down there is not vegetarian, but there are a few pescetarian recipes. Nonna is Catholic, and eats fish on Fridays, so this was our Friday lunch. Lunch in Brazil is a much bigger affair than dinner, and it makes sense. Eat most when your belly's fire burns and when your metabolism is at its peak! Most of our lunches started with a pasta dish and was followed by meat, a cooked vegetable, and a raw vegetable. Every meal ended with dessert consisting of fruit. I felt so good eating these satisfying midday meals that I want to continue it here in the US, but it's so hard to make yourself such a lunch when you work all day! I can try to continue the tradition at dinner, but in smaller quantities.

This dish was a creation by Nonna based on a Portuguese dish where white fish (salted cod) is baked on top of potatoes so that the potatoes can absorb the fish's liquids and salts. She used raw tomatoes and a thin, delicate white fish and layered everything in a casserole dish, topping it with cheese. She used olives to replace the salt not found in her fresh fish. My version is a little different, because I'm not fond of white fish and because I happened to make some fresh marinara today. I used Halibut instead of white fish (such as tilapia) and marinara instead of tomatoes, onions, and garlic. My husband thinks it turned out better than Nonna's, but it's really just different :-)



Baked Halibut with Potatoes, Red Peppers, and Marinara
Serves 3 or 4

olive oil
1 1/2 cups fresh, homemade marinara (I used a recent recipe from Cooking Light and substituted canned tomatoes with 5 pounds of fresh, peeled tomatoes and chicken broth with veggie broth. I am using the rest of the marinara for other dishes)
3 small potatoes, peeled, boiled, and sliced into 1/4 inch slices
1 red pepper, cored and sliced
green olives
1 pound halibut fillet
Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. In an 8 inch square baking dish, coat the bottom with olive oil. Place a small amount of marinara to cover bottom. Top with a layer of potatoes (using all the potatoes). Then layer 3/4 of the red pepper, olives, and more marinara. Settle fish fillet in the dish and top with remaining red pepper, olives, and marinara. Top with cheese. Bake for about 20 minutes, or until cheese has browned and fish is cooked through.

Teriyaki Sea Scallops and Chili-Rubbed Sweet Corn

It's been quite a while since I posted a recipe here. I've been in the process of building a new PC for fun, and also so that I can do these kinds of activities more quickly. I now have a media card reader for all of my digital photos, and upload/download speeds are so fast! Thanks for being patient.

Here is a dinner we had about a week ago. The sea scallops looked fabulous at the market, and we couldn't resist. I concocted a "teriyaki" marinade for them and quickly pan-seared them so they cooked and didn't dry out. A person can really only eat a maximum of three of these because they're so rich!

For the one of the sides, we blanched some sweet corn from our Eatwell box and used a dry rub from Cooking Light after the cobs were cooked. While still hot, we dolloped some creme fraiche, which made this a real treat.



Teriyaki Sea Scallops
Serves 2

6 sea scallops
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 tablespoon chili paste
1 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
1 tablespoon rice wine

Place all marinade ingredients in a small bowl and whisk. NOTE that the amounts in the marinade are approximate. Adjust to suit your taste and smell! Place scallops in a shallow baking dish and cover with marinade. Leave at room temperature for at least 10 minutes.

Heat non-stick skillet at medium-high or high heat. Be sure to turn on the exhaust fan if you have one! Add scallops to the hot skillet and cook until browned on both sides, a couple minutes each side. Serve warm.

Escolar Steaks with Soy-Green Garlic Marinade

While this dish was very yummy, I do have to warn you against eating escolar. My husband had no adverse reactions, but I did, for about 24 hours. If you're interested to know more about what can happen, read here. I'd rather not get into further detail here.

This is a marinade that will work well on any steaky type of fish, including sea bass, tuna, swordfish, or salmon. With the escolar, the meat was tender and white, and the green garlic gathered the pungent flavors, which combined beautifully with the fish. The picture below is of the fish before baking. We baked the fish because we didn't have a grill handy, but I think this marinade would lend itself nicely to grilling.



Soy Sauce and Green Garlic Marinade
For 2 small fish steaks

1/4 cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons rice wine
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
1 teaspoon sugar
2 tablespoons sesame seeds
1 stalk green garlic, thinly sliced

Whisk all ingredients in a small bowl and pour over fish steaks. Be sure to coat the steaks on all sides. Marinade for at least 10 minutes. Bake at 375 degrees for 15 or 20 minutes, depending on the type and size of the fish steaks.

Salmon, Asparagus, and Dill Potato Crepes with Sauce Mornay

While walking through the farmer's market this weekend, we saw a new stand, which was preparing fresh crepes. I'm always astounded by the amount of money vendors can charge for crepes since they are so easy to make and with very cheap ingredients. My practical and cheap side immediately turned to the idea of making them myself. My husband then mentioned that he had a craving for smoked salmon. The ingredients started to fall in place in my mind and became a whole new craving. I hope you have a chance to try these. They were great!



Salmon, Asparagus, and Dill Potato Crepes with Sauce Mornay
Makes 6 or 7 crepes

Filling:
1/3 pound smoked salmon
Dill Potatoes
asparagus, cut diagonally and steamed

Crepes:
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup low fat milk
1/4 cup lukewarm water
2 large eggs
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1/2 teaspoon salt (I actually omitted this and it tasted fine)

Sauce Mornay

Combine crepe ingredients in a food processor and process until smooth. Let batter site for at least 30 minutes while preparing filling and sauce. The batter may be refrigerated for up to 2 days.

When ready to cook crepes, heat a crepe pan on medium heat until water droplets flicked onto the pan bubble and evaporate. Add 2 tablespoons of the batter to the pan and swirl quickly to coat the pan in an even and thin layer. I don't actually coat the pan with any butter because I use a non-stick Calphalon pan which handles the crepe batter just fine.Cook until lightly browned on the underside and until the edges of the crepe begin to pull away from the pan. Flip the crepe with a spatula or your fingers and cook until the other side is also browned. Stack crepes on a plate until ready to use. These crepes may be frozen if layered with wax paper between them and tightly sealed.

To fill crepes, place potatoes down the middle of the crepe, topped with asparagus and salmon. Roll the crepe, seam-side down and top with Sauce Mornay and fresh dill.

Saffron Yellowtail with Spinach and Red Potatoes

This recipe comes from Cooking Light, and we couldn't find the monkfish called for in the original recipe, so we tried out yellowtail for the first time. While it does look nice, I think monkfish would have worked better. You really want to use a delicately flavored fish here.

A slice of Salmon en Croute

This is a very delicious recipe which serves many people at a holiday gathering. The recipe can be found here

Herbed Salmon with Garlic Broccoli and Pilaf

We bought Steelhead Salmon from a local fish market. This fish is smaller than other commerical salmon you may find and is not as steaky. We pan-fried it in olive oil with an assortment of Italian herbs. The sides are broccoli sauteed in olive oil and garlic and a pilaf. For the pilaf, we cooked onion in a couple of tablespoons of butter until translucent. We then added the rice and cooked until the rice turned a lighter shade of white. Then we added two parts of veggie broth and cooked the rice for 15 minutes.