Cod in Parchment Paper

I think the name for cooking in parchment paper is cooking "en papillote," but you know, it's my mom and my brother that speaks the French, murky bo cups. I based this dish on one I saw Rachael Ray do, which of course, she calls "Spanish Fish in a Sack." (Okay, maybe you CAN dumb something down a bit too much.)

I just love cod, and olives too, so this looked mighty fine to me. I didn't check Rachael's recipe for anything but the cooking time (400 degrees for 20 minutes). I put cod, grape tomatoes, green and black Greek olives, onions, garlic, thin lemon slices and parsley in mine. Then I seasoned the stack and drizzled it all with extra virgin olive oil. I think fennel would have also been good... But I put the fish on the veggies so that it would cook down over those, and the lemon on top of that so it would go down into the fish.



Oh, and I put them all on parchment paper. Then I folded them over on the top seam, and up at the ends. I put them all in a glass baking dish.



I opened the bags, and drizzled each with more lemon juice. Delicious.



I made extras for leftovers, as I usually do, but I wouldn't recommend it. Just buy what you are going to eat that night... The leftovers were not as tasty as they were fresh from the bag. I served them with a little pasta, and I would definitely do it again, especially when I'd like to be "faux fancy" for company.

Steaks, plus Grilled Salmon with Dill Sauce

Ah, summer, we hardly knew ye. Between morning sickness, and later on, simple intolerance of the summer heat in my huge-anic condition, I didn't get outside much this past summer. But we did manage to purchase a nice Weber gas grill. We spent a little extra just to get the Weber, and boy do we loves it.



The first thing we grilled were some simple steaks. I marinated some strip steaks in a plastic bag with soy sauce, olive oil, and some herbs from our garden. (And by garden, I mean two herb pots.) I salted and peppered them, and cooked them to a perfect medium as per the Weber instructions. I even let Chris turn them once. For the photo, of course.



They came out perfectly done, and with lots of flavor. Lets grill some more stuff, I shouted!



Over the summer we grilled chicken (several times), tri-color turkey burgers, and bratwurst. Every single one came out wonderfully well. But I think the salmon we grilled was my favorite.



I seasoned the fish very simply with olive oil, garlic powder, salt and pepper. Then I made an easy dill sauce that I sort of just made up on the fly. I squeezed the juice of two lemons into a Pyrex glass cup, and put a half-stick of butter into that, and melted it in the microwave in less than a minute. I added chopped dill, a smidge of sugar, and about two heaping tablespoons of sour cream and whisked it all together right in the Pyrex. I served the fish with cooked grains and steamed broccoli, and poured that sauce over everything.



Now that there is snow on the ground, I think we'll keep bundling up and going outside to grill. For four to eight minutes of freezing half to death, it's totally worth it!

Salad Week: Chop Salad

Some folks call this one "garbage salad," but... ucchh. I can't cope with that. Let's never speak of the un-tasty name again. It's too pretty!



The great thing about a chop salad is that you can alter the ingredients easily according to what you have. Change the type of berry, add some cold pasta (like rotini or farfalle) to stretch your lettuce out (seriously), add croutons, use any kind of cheese, switch to beef, whatever. Check out the good stuff in this guy:

chopped Romaine
chopped turkey bacon
green onions
diced breaded chicken
diced avocado
pecans
strawberries
feta cheese

I just whisked up some balsamic vinaigrette (1 part vinegar to four parts olive oil) with lemon juice, Italian seasoning, pinch of salt & pepper and a little sugar to taste, but this would go with lots of different kinds of dressing.

Chop your heart out! (Eyw, that's worse than the other phrase...)

Fish Tacos

Chris and I both love fish tacos, so I tried making them at home for the first time. I had some frozen cod, courtesy of Market Day, and I decided to use that.

First I thawed out the fish. The Market Day cod kind of comes in these little log shapes, so while they were defrosted and still wet, I rolled them in seasoned flour. Then I browned them in just a couple of tablespoons of olive oil, not messing with them at all until they were ready to turn. I browned them on four sides. They fell apart a little bit even with the minimal turning, but that was part of my master plan: to just scoop out the crunchy bits and the fish all together and drain them on paper towels. My plan worked.



I had asked Chris to try and get the cole slaw mix to use in place of the traditional shredded cabbage, but he came home with a head of cabbage saying he couldn't find any mix. So I shredded it in my food processor, but the shredding blade I used was the one that chops very fine. I decided to mix in the lowfat, spicy ranch sauce I was going to put on the tacos and just have a sort of coleslaw. Not traditional, really, but at least we could eat the leftovers as cole slaw the next day (I mean, it's easier to use than leftover shredded cabbage). And they were both going on the tacos, anyway.



I used some buttermilk, some ranch and mexican seasoning , and some lowfat mayo, salt, and sugar. It took quite a bit of sugar to taste the way I wanted it, which to be honest, was something like KFC's cole slaw with some spiciness to it.

We used corn tortillas, and topped the fish with salsa, some cheddar, and the cabbage/cole slaw. We doused them in fresh lime juice, too. They were crunchy, spicy, cool, hearty and refreshing. (That's lots of things for one dish to be, but they were!)

Manzanita Seafood and Chowder House

When Katie was off work on Saturday, she was good enough to take me on the long, winding road out to the coast so I could see the ocean, and soak up some sun. And see some surfers.



We arrived in what she calls "the Four-Door Sports Car," her well-used vehicle that has an exhaust leak too costly to bother fixing. It gives a satisfying roar as you cruise along, getting a lot of surprised looks from the hippies -- but hey -- it still passes the emissions tests. Katie has done some surfing herself, and she knew just where to stop the car to follow a beautiful trail that led out to the beach. To me, it was like a fairy tale.



The beach itself was magnificent! Perfect, warm weather (but not too hot), and the soft, smooth sand was like walking around in your own living room. If it was wetter on your toes.



After strolling up and down the beach a bit, we decided to move on up the road. Twiddling your toes in the sand can make you really hungry. That's a bit of a joke... But seriously folks, any contact with water makes me ravenous. Always has. It doesn't matter if I've been strenuously swimming or skiing in the waves, or if I just got out of the bath for a soak. (Cue Seinfeld: "What... Is the deal... With THAT?")

We pulled off the road just about ten minutes later in the little town of Manzanita. Katie said, "Let's eat somewhere by the water," but as soon as we passed the Manzanita Seafood and Chowder House, I knew I wanted to park and give it a shot. You gotta have seafood on the coast!



As soon as we went in, I thought of an adaptation of the Visa commercial: "But if you're going to this little coastal restaurant in the town of Manzanita, bring your appetite. And bring your CASH, because they don't take American Express. They don't take Visa, either!" Luckily, there was an ATM across the street. I was back in a flash.



All of the seafood looked good. I felt that I should get crab, at first, but none of the offerings were really calling out to me. Katie wanted fried fish, and I decided to join her. Why not see if it was better along the coast, eh? Truth be told, that's what I really wanted anyway. I got the cod (I was hoping it would be a Pacific cod, and therefore would be really fresh), and Katie got the halibut. Excellent.

My first shock came as I ordered, of course, an iced tea and took it back to the table to drink it. It was the foulest liquid I have ever had the misfortune to drink. Either something had gone wrong with the batch (very, very wrong), or these people just don't know how to make iced tea. I usually say you can judge a place by their iced tea, and so this did not bode well at all. In addition, because I always save a few calories by not getting the fries, I had ordered the lightly dressed pasta salad, and they were all out. I ended up with a double order of cole slaw. Lastly, there was no malt vinegar on the tables, and someone had to get a few bottles from the back. That's no problem, but I think it shows a bit of carelessness. Needless, bro, I was not stoked.

My misgivings were pushed aside, however, when my meal arrived. What a beautiful platter of fried fish, alongside a mountain of cole slaw. It truly was the best fried cod I have ever had. The fish had such a firm texture, I really want to compare it to the food that one is never to compare food to (like chicken, there, I spelled it out). It had NO fish taste at all, just clean and lovely.



Katie was equally pleased with her halibut. I gave her my tartar sauce, and soaked mine in malt vinegar.



We then scooted out to the beach, where Katie lay down to sunbathe, and I braved the excruciating cold on my feet to gawk more in the surf (the day was warm, the water was not). I've been in the ocean on either coast several times, but this one was crazy cold. Katie said the warning was generally that hypothermia sets in after about 30 seconds. I'm surprised it was that long.

After lying about in the sun for awhile (and yes, I always wear a strong sunscreen), we drove back, showered (no Chris, not together) and went out for... what else? More eating! And for that, I'll see you next time.