Pre-Thanksgiving Week Meal Plan

Here's the plan on this last full week before Turkey Day Travel!

Sunday: salmon curry, oven fries
Monday: steeeeaaaaaak, cauliflower salad
Tuesday: crepes with roasted butternut squash, fontina cheese, and arugula
Wednesday: miso polenta kale soup
Thursday: beans from the crockpot
Friday: TBD, maybe takeout from Tasty Momo because all my neighbors have been ordering it and it looks freaking delicious. Hooray for dumplings!



Last night I made a simple salmon curry following this recipe, more or less. It's... fine. I mean, it's tasty, and I love the salmon pieces from the farmer's market because they're SO CHEAP: $4/8oz. But I wish I knew a little more about Indian cooking so I could improvise. After polling my mama friends, I learned that this is a very basic North Indian curry, but I'll increase the spices and play around a little more next time. I also didn't have any curry  leaves, but I threw in some curry powder, which I know isn't even remotely the same thing.



HOWEVER. I also made these oven "fries" and holy hot damn they are so delicious. It is a very very good thing that they take 45 mins to make, because otherwise I would want them all the time. Next time I will cut them a little thinner.

Here's the whole plate, with a side of yogurt. We enjoyed the Citizen Cider (hopped!) Full Nelson along side.

Sardine RIllettes

I resolved to cook and eat more fish this year, and when Adam realized that included sardines he was pretty excited. The guy can bring a can of sardines and some crackers to work and happily call it lunch. I am not quite so good at the oily little fishes. I know, I know, but they're so little! And oily! Here's the thing, though: they're also delicious and sustainable.

You can buy fresh sardines if you want (and you should, then you should butterfly them and pan fry them and serve them with orange beurre blanc), but since sardines are more or less shelf stable when canned, they make a great pantry item. Super fast dinner: cook them with boatloads of garlic and red pepper flake and toss it all with pasta. Nice and easy lunch: smash them up with cream cheese and a few other bits and bobs, then eat the mess on crackers next to a salad.

Sardine Rillettes
serves 2 as a light lunch or more as part of a larger spread, doubles easily

This is adapted like crazy from Dorie Greenspan's Around My French Table; I didn't have the herbs her recipe called for, and I had an odd size can of sardines, so I just mashed and smashed until it tasted good. I am confident that you could take this in a whole bunch of directions, so trust your instincts and embrace the little fishes. 

2 oz cream cheese
1 4.5 can sardines in oil, spines and viscera removed (see below)
1 small shallot, minced
juice of half a lemon
1 tsp capers, rinsed, chopped
1/4 tsp marjoram, finely chopped
lots of black pepper

To remove the spines and icky bits of the sardines, use a small knife to slit open the bellies and open up the fishes. The spines are soft, so be gentle, but you should be able to just pick them up and remove them quite easily. The icky bits will be obvious, darker and sometimes green. Just scrape them out. You should also remove any residual fins by cutting them away, but the skins are ok to leave on.

Put the cream cheese in a bowl and bang it around with a fork, smush it all up. This is easier if it's at room temperature, but no big deal. Add several grinds of black pepper, the shallot, marjoram, and capers. Continue mashing and smushing. Add the sardines and the lemon juice. Continue mashing and smushing. Give it a taste to see if you need salt; you might not  since the capers and sardines and cream cheese bring plenty to the table.  Now, cover the rillettes with plastic wrap and stick the bowl in the fridge for at least an hour or two. Taste it again before serving and adjust the seasoning if necessary.

Serve with crackers or sliced baguette.

Tilapia with Endive, Pears and Meyer Lemon

Fish with pears? Fish with pears. But more on that in a second - first, let's recap New Year's Day Epic Brunch 2012. Citrus salad, to make you feel virtuous. I put it on the meat table (bacon, corned beef hash, sausage rolls) because I thought it was funny.



Tyler (he of the family smoke house) brought oatmeal, there were two quiches (mushroom and goat cheese, poblano and monterey jack), homemade danishes, Cara's cranberry muffins, spinach and gruyere strata, Glen's famous kugel, and a roasted sweet potato thing I put together with some pecans and pomegranate seeds and mint because of course I thought EEK! There's not going to be enough FOOD! Clearly I am a crazy person.



Also decorating the house this holiday season is my new friend Salty the Snowman, who I think is completely hilarious, so thanks, Santa. Seasonings Greetings to you, too!



But now let's get back to the fish at the top of this post. I didn't really make any resolutions per se this year, but I did decide I should try to cook and eat more fish. So good for you! So tasty! So many different fish to try!

Since this brand new year began just 12 days ago, we've had fish for dinner twice! Already an improvement over last year. I made this salmon last week, and last night we had this oddly delicious thing from the most recent issue of Fine Cooking. I say odd because fish and fruit struck me as bizarre, but not too bizarre to try. As it turns out, pears love salt! And I love pears and salt.

Tilapia with Endive, Pears and Meyer Lemon
Serves 2-3

I usually halve recipes that "serve four" when it seems like it will be too much food, but this time I just bought three small tilapia filets (the extra one is for Adam's lunch the next day) but left the veg amounts the same as the original recipe. I'm glad I did, I don't know if this would have been enough for four people, but then you could always make some rice and call it a day, eh? 

1 meyer lemon (2 if they're very tiny)
5 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 belgian endives, trimmed, quartered lengthwise
3 medium firm (but ripe) pears
1 tablespoon chopped chives plus more for garnish
1/4 cup AP flour
1/4 cup cornmeal
2 or 3 filets of tilapia or flounder, depending if someone needs lunch for the next day
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup dry white wine
salt and pepper

Zest the Meyer lemon with a microplane; you should end up with almost two teaspoons. Also your hands will smell AWESOME. Slice the lemon in half and juice one half to yield about 1 1/2 tablespoons of juice. Thinly slice the other half, then cut the slices in quarters. You may ned to pick out some seeds.

Heat a medium saute pan (one with a lid) over medium heat. Melt 3 tablespoons of butter, then add the endive, pears, lemon juice and zest, and season the whole thing with a good pinch of salt. Stir to combine, then cover and reduce the heat to medium-low. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 20-25 minutes or until the endive is tender throughout. Remove the cover and continue cooking until there is some browning on the pears and endive, another 5 minutes or so.

While the endive and pears cook, combine the flour and cornmeal in a shallow dish along with a big pinch of salt and pepper. Heat another saute pan over medium high heat and add the olive oil. Season the fish on both sides with salt and pepper and dredge in the flour mixture. Make sure the pan is pretty hot before you add the fish or it won't brown, but cook the fish about 3 minutes per side until it's just cooked through. Remove the fish from the pan, wipe out any residual cornmeal with a towel and add the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter. Once the butter melts, add the quartered lemon slices and cook for about a minute, then add the wine and a pinch of salt. Let the wine reduce by half, then spoon it over the fish and endive. Meyer lemons are pretty sweet and if you slice them thinly and cook them through you can eat them. If you used a regular lemon, you may not want to eat the pieces.

Lentil Salad with Smoked Bluefish and Quick Pickled Shallots

Saturdays at work are crazy busy this time of year. Usually there's someone representing one of our favorite producers tasting wine or ice cream or something delicious, and this week was no exception. Dave's Cape Cod Smokehouse was there this weekend selling EXTREMELY DELICIOUS smoked fish. I was particularly fond of the smoked bluefish (and the bluefish spread, yum) so I brought home a big fillet. The smoky flavor played well against the peppery bite of arugula and earthiness from the lentils, and the pickled shallots are a great high note. Go find yourself some delicious smoked fish and try it!

Lentil Salad with Smoked Bluefish and Quick Pickled Shallots
serves 3-4

1 cup Le Puy lentils
1/2 pound smoked bluefish, flaked
2-3 stalks celery, thinly sliced
a handful of arugula per person (6 ounces or so)
1 large shallot, minced
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1 scant tablespoon dijon mustard
extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper

Bring two cups of water to boil in a medium saucepan, add lentils, reduce to a simmer and cover. Cook, covered, 20 minutes or until lentils are tender, then season with salt. If the lentils are tender before all the water is absorbed, drain the excess water out.

While the lentils are cooking, slice the celery and pickle the shallots - just pour the red wine vinegar on them. If you need a little more vinegar to get all the shallots covered, add it. Add a bit of salt and pepper, then let them sit for 20 minutes. Drain the vinegar off, but save it! Add the dijon mustard and whisk in enough extra virgin olive oil to make a tasty vinaigrette. You might need to add a bit of salt and pepper to the vinaigrette - taste it with a leaf of arugula and a slice of celery to make sure it works together, and adjust the seasoning as necessary.

Once the lentils are cooked through, drain any extra water, then add the bluefish and let it warm up in the heat of the lentils. Dress the lentils with some of the vinaigrette, then add the celery to the arugula and dress that, too. Divide the arugula among the plates and top with the lentils, then sprinkle the pickled shallots on top.

Matcha and Pistachio Crusted Fish

I get quite a few food magazines, and even though sometimes it's kind of overwhelming I really do try to cook out of each of them at least once every month. Occasionally Adam will pick up a Fine Cooking or Food & Wine off the coffee table and mention that something looks good, and the man has a good eye. So when he perked up over this recipe in October's Bon Appetit, I put it on the list of "things I want to cook, eventually". I really shouldn't have waited so long. Delicious, easy, fast - what more could you ask for?



Matcha & Pistachio Crusted Fish
serves 4

The recipe calls for halibut, but I used cod, because it looked better than the halibut when i went to buy fish. Any white fish would work, but the portions I ended up with were quite thick, so the cooking time was way more than the recipe said. Whatever fish you end up with, just make sure you cook it until it's just opaque in the center. Oh, and I found matcha pretty easily at my local Japanese market

1/2 cup shelled pistachios
1 1/2 teaspoons matcha (green tea powder)
1/2 teaspoon sugar
2 tablespoons panko breadcrumbs
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted, plus more for the pan
grated zest of 1/2 a lemon
4 5-ounce skinless filets of halibut, cod, or other white fish
salt and pepper
lemon wedges for serving (optional)

If you bought pistachios that are already roasted and salted, skip this step. If you bought raw pistachios, heat the oven to 400 and spread the pistachios out on a baking sheet; toast for 3 minutes or until just browned in spots. Let cool. Even if you're not roasting the pistachios, heat the oven to 400.

Combine the pistachios, sugar and matcha in a food processor (a mini chopper thingy or the processor attachment to an immersion blender is perfect for this) and process until the pistachios are roughly chopped. Add the breadcrumbs, butter and lemon zest and process again, but not too long! You don't want it to be too pasty. Taste the topping and adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper and lemon if necessary (I used roasted, salted pistachios so it was plenty salty and I only needed to add a little pepper).

Line the sheet pan with parchment and butter the parchment. Season both sides of the fish filets with salt and pepper, then top each filet with 1/4 of the pistachio mixture. Bake for 8-10 minutes for thin filets or 16-20 minutes for thicker pieces. No matter the thickness of your fish, bake until opaque and set in the center. Serve with lemon wedges, if you like.

The Grill Option: Fish

I've mentioned previously how owning a grill has already drastically improved our summer dining experience; it's great to have an option for dinner that doesn't require turning on the oven in our already stifling kitchen. However, one thing I haven't discussed here is the learning curve. Not everything we grill turns out perfect, in fact, we scorched a spatchcocked chicken pretty bad a couple of weeks ago (we ate it anyway, picking off the burnt skin bits, and it was still juicy and good).



Then there was this halibut. I knew we would need a grill basket if we wanted to grill seafood or other delicate things. What I forgot was that the grill basket would get hot and the fish would stick to it. I marinated the fish in lemon thyme and olive oil, but I didn't oil the basket. When we tried to turn the fish out onto a platter it came off in big chunks, bits of skin clinging to the hot metal and generally looking quite sloppy.


It still tasted good, and the grilled scallions were a nice smoky counterpoint to the fish. We ate it with some grilled zucchini and grilled lemon wedges (thanks for the tip, Mr. Bittman) and a piece of toasty bread piled high with Foxboro Cheese Company's fromage blanc.

So tell me, oh ye grillmasters, other than oiling the basket better, what can I do to improve my grilled fish? Should I use a firmer fleshed fish? Or a whole fish? Or do I just need to practice more? I await your guidance.

Fish with Sage Crumbs

Do you keep fresh breadcrumbs in your freezer? I do. When I know we won't finish a loaf of bread before it goes stale or if all that's left is the last two inches of a baguette, I rip it into crumbs and stash it in a freezer bag. You can also use a food processor, whizzing chunks of stale bread to create fine crumbs, but I like the larger pieces that come from doing it by hand, and it's sort of meditative to sit at the table with a piece of bread tearing it into eensy weensy pieces.

I'm almost embarrassed to blog this because it is so simple, but the crumbs you see on top of that fish absolutely transformed our dinner. I could have just cooked the sage in a little oil and used fried sage on top of the fish, and I'm sure it would have been delightful. Instead, inspired by this recipe in the January issue of Bon Appetit, I sauteed fresh bread crumbs with the sage and made sage crumbs, also known as the worlds tiniest croutons.

Oh, and we had some leftover that I used at breakfast the next morning: leftover spinach and beans and a fried egg, topped with the crumbs. Do this. You can thank me later.

The side dishes were pretty straightforward, too. The sweet potatoes (four small ones, probably just over a pound total) were stabbed all over with a fork, cooked in the microwave on high for about 10 minutes until cooked through (flip them over once), and mashed with a tablespoon of butter, some salt and a teaspoon of the chopped fresh sage. The spinach was cooked in just a bit of olive oil over medium high heat until it started to wilt. Then I added a can of black beans, rinsed and drained, and a couple of teaspoons of adobo sauce from a can of chipotle chiles.

Simple Sauteed Fish with Sage Crumbs
I had less than a cup of breadcrumbs in the freezer, but you could certainly scale this up if you were serving more than two people. I used cod, because it was the only thing they had at the fish counter, but it flakes very, very easily, which I find a little frustrating for this sort of preparation. I'd recommend tilapia or haddock, something a little firmer that will hold together when flipped and removed from the pan.

2 white fish filets, such as tilapia or haddock (if filets are very small, use two per person)
a small knob of butter
salt and pepper

about 3/4 cup fresh bread crumbs
2-3 teaspoons olive oil
2 teaspoons chopped fresh sage
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

Toast the bread crumbs in the toaster oven or under the broiler, watching to make sure they don't burn. You may have to stir them or rotate the pan if your broiler/toaster oven doesn't heat evenly.  Heat the olive oil in a large nonstick* skillet over medium high heat, then add the sage, breadcrumbs, and kosher salt, stirring to coat the crumbs in oil. Saute until golden and crunchy, then remove.

Wipe skillet clean with a towel, or just make sure there are no huge crumbs left. Pat the fish filets dry with a paper towel, then season with salt and pepper. Melt the butter over medium heat, and when the foam subsides, add the fish. Cook 2-3 minutes, then carefully flip the fish over and cook the other side for another 2 minutes; you may have to increase cooking time if you filets are very thick, just cook until the fish is opaque all the way through.

Serve fish sprinkled with sage crumbs.

*I use nonstick when cooking fish, but if you have a pan you trust not to hold your fish hostage, by all means use that.