Pan Fried Almond Crusted Fish with Lemon Butter Sauce

This is a recipe sent to me by the wife of a friend in the Navy.  Haven't tried it yet, but it sounds really good!  He is in Iraq right now ( go figure, submariner in the desert.... only in America....)  Say a prayer for him to stay safe!  I think he has about 6 months to go till he can come home to his family...

Enjoy!

Ingredients:

2 lbs. of white fish (flounder, cod, tilapia, etc.)

Lemon Butter Sauce

1 cup dry white wine

½ cup lemon juice

2 T. minced garlic

1 T. minced shallot

1 t. salt

¼ t. black pepper

1 dash Worcestershire sauce

1 dash hot pepper sauce

½ cup heavy cream

6 T. butter, room temperature

Fish Spice Blend

½ tsp. paprika

½ tsp. salt

½ tsp. garlic powder

¼ tsp. black pepper

¼ tsp. onion powder

¼ tsp. cayenne pepper

¼ tsp. dried oregano

¼ tsp. dried thyme

¼ cup almonds or pecans (finely ground in blender or processor)

¾ cup breadcrumbs

¼ cup buttermilk

Method:

Heat a large skillet over high heat.  Add the wine lemon juice, garlic and shallots; cook for 3 minutes.  Stir in the salt, pepper, Worcestershire and hot sauce; simmer until the mixture is somewhat syrupy, about 3 minutes.  Stir in the cream and cook for 1 minute.  Over low heat, whisk in the butter, a few pats at a time and continue whisking until all butter is incorporated.  Mix fish spice blend together except for the buttermilk.  Rinse fish and place in a shallow dish; pour buttermilk over fish.  Remove fillets from the buttermilk and dredge in the fish spice blend, coating all sides.  In a large sauté pan, heat olive oil and pan-fry for about 4 minutes on each side.  Drizzle lemon butter sauce over the fish and garnish with fresh parsley.  Serve with steamed vegetables and a glass of white wine.

Rigatoni Vodka - super simple - restaurant quality!

Rigatoni Vodka

Rigatoni Vodka- simply awesome!

We have a local restaurant that does probably the best Rigatoni Vodka I have ever had!  All of the ingredients are minced so fine, they almost render down in the cooking.  This is my version of the sauce – my son, who is a HUGE fan of the restaurant , says it is just as good – I guess I will have to go with his opinion!  This is a fairly simple sauce to make – again, the trick is to mince up everything as small as possible.  This is a great meal when you don’t feel like cooking – a little dicing, and simmer it for a bit – you are good to go!

Well, enough said, here is the recipe:

For the sauce:

1 tbs regular olive oil, NOT extra virgin

3 spicy Italian turkey sausages, de cased ( kind of a pain, but really necessary – usually you can just squeeze the meat out like toothpaste…. Sausage toothpaste…yummm)

1 jar tomato basil sauce

1 small onion, diced fine

½ cup red wine

1 cup (a handful) frozen tri color peppers, diced fine

1 14.5 oz can diced tomato’s, with the water

1 tbs tomato paste

5 large cloves garlic, diced fine

1 tbs fresh basil, (2 tsp dried)

2 tsp dried oregano

¼ tsp red pepper flakes

½ cup vodka

1 cup ½ and ½

3 cups Rigatoni

Directions:

In a large sauté pan, sauté onion and garlic in olive oil until translucent. ( this is the first recipe where I don’t use a shallot – it’s actually a regular onion…lol)  Add sausage, mincing with a spatula as it cooks.  I use a really nifty tool by Pampered Chef – it has about 6 fins, and chops stuff up in a pan really well!  But a regular spatula will work fine.  Saute sausage until brown, then deglaze the pan with the red wine, stir until absorbed.

Add sauce, tomatoes, paste, basil, oregano and red pepper flakes.  Simmer on med low, stirring frequently.

In a medium sauce pan, bring about 4 or 5 cups water, seasoned with a tbs each of salt, basil and garlic powder to a rolling boil.  Add the pasta, and cook till al dente – about 7 or 8 minutes.

Add the vodka to the sauce when you put the pasta in the water, turn heat up a bit to bring the sauce to a boil.  Simmer for about 4 minutes.  Add ½ and ½, and simmer for another 4 minutes until pasta is done.

Drain pasta, add about 1 tbs olive oil, about 10 twists of fresh ground pepper, and a couple of tablespoons of parmesan cheese – and mix well.

Plate about 1/3 of the pasta, cover with a few ladles of sauce, top with parmesan cheese, and enjoy!

There will be plenty of leftover sauce – it serves 6 sauce wise, 3 pasta wise.  The sauce freezes very well.

Enjoy!

Bon Appetit!

Orange-sake glazed salmon - super simple, super good!

Orange-Sake glazed salmon

Salmon – my wife loves it, I think it’s only ok – and that ok totally depends on the way it is prepared!  Most times, we oven roast it with herbs on top – which always tastes awesome.  Thought I would try a little something different.  I recently received a great fruit basket from work – had some amazing oranges in it.  Had some sake and rice vinegar kicking around, so I made a nice brown sugar glaze for the fish.  Really tasted great – the sweetness of the brown sugar and orange zest was balanced by the sharpness of the sake…. Really nice, and super easy!  I keep some sake in the cabinet to cook with - if you don't have it, just use the white wine, it will still taste great. Use white vinegar if you don't have the rice vinegar as well.

Here is the glaze recipe:

Zest and juice from one orange

3 tbs sake

1tbs white wine

1 tbs light brown sugar

1 tbs rice vinegar

1 tbs Dijon mustard

¾ tsp corn starch

pinch of cayenne pepper

In a small sauce pan, whisk ingredients over medium high heat till they come to a boil.  Lower heat to medium, whisking constantly, until the glaze thickens up to a thick syrupy consistency.

For the fish, I took a couple of tbs of vegetable oil in a 12 inch sauté pan, and heated till shimmering.  I put a salmon filet flesh side down in the oil, and browned for a minute or two, then flipped it to skin side down and did the same thing.  I poured off the extra oil, and spooned the glaze over the fish.  I took the whole frying pan, stuck it in the oven at 350 for about 15 minutes, until the fish was still a little rare in the middle.  I then put it under the boiler at low for about 2 minutes until the glaze…. Well… glazed….  Fish should flake with a fork when it is done.  Served it with some steamed mixed veggies (pretty cool – steam right in the bag you buy them in, and actually taste good!!  A little garlic powder, some lemon juice, and they are good to go! )

Easy, 20 minute meal, tasted great – the orange flavor of the glaze really complimented the fish.

No pics on this one!  Ate it too fast!

Enjoy!  Bon appetite!

Yummy Chicken Divan - easy comfort food out of leftovers!

 Chicken Divan

Had a bunch of leftover chicken meat from a huge chicken that Lynne roasted the night before – after looking around to see what we had in the house – decided on making Chicken Divan.  My mom used to make this all the time – and as a kid, I always thought it was pretty bland, and didn’t really care for the nutmeg she put in it….  So I thought I would ramp things up a bit.  I only used a pinch of nutmeg, and used some brandy, lemon juice and slivered almonds as well.  Came out awesome!  It is a super simple dish – it does require making a roux – which is butter and flour whisked into a thickened paste.  This is a great thing to know how to do – especially if you want to cook Cajun!

I had to use frozen broccoli – I would much prefer fresh in this dish, but hey, I was using what I had in the house.  Here is the recipe – I know it seems like a lot of ingredients…. But I was rummaging through cabinets at the time.  It really is super easy to make!

Yum, comfort food at its best!

2 cups rough chopped pre cooked chicken meat

1 package frozen broccoli – thawed in the microwave.

¼ cup chicken broth

4 tbs flour

6 tbs butter

1 small shallot

2 small cloves garlic, minced

½ sour cream

½ cup mayo

½ cup ½ and ½

1/8 tsp nutmeg

3 tbs brandy

¼ tsp thyme

1/8 stick cream cheese

1 tbs lemon juice

3 tbs parmesan cheese

½ cup shredded swiss cheese

¼ cup slivered blanched almonds

¼ cup Panko bread crumbs

Pre heat oven to 350 degrees

In a large saute pan, saute the garlic and shallots in 2 tbs butter, add chicken and thawed broccoli and about 2/3 of the chicken broth, cover and let steam for about 2 or 3 minutes to heat through.  Remove from heat and set aside.

For the sauce, make a roux by melting 4 tbs of butter over med/low heat in a small sauce pan.  Slowly whisk in the flour a little at a time, until a smooth thick sauce results.  (if you put too much flour in, and it turns into a cookie dough consistency, whisk in a little chicken broth to loosen it up)  Stir in cream, then add the mayo, sour cream and cream cheese.  Stir until thick and smooth.  Add the brandy, about ½ of the swiss, all of the parmesan cheese, the lemon juice, thyme and nutmeg.  Stir until smooth and well mixed – do NOT boil. 

Ready to Bake!

Spread chicken/broccoli evenly

In an 8x11 baking dish, evenly spread chicken and broccoli.  Sprinkle almonds evenly.  Pour sauce over everything, covering it all, and smooth out.  Sprinkle remaining swiss, and panko bread crumbs over the top.  Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes, or until breadcrumbs are crispy.  ( you can throw it under the broiler on low to speed that process up at the end)

This came out great – creamy, tasty – real comfort food!

Enjoy!

Bon Appetit!

Petit Sirloin with a home made demi glace, mushroom onion risotto - and an awesome ten buck Pinotage!

The road to a great demi-glace steak sauce!

I have always been a fan of a good demi-glace sauce for a beautiful steak.  A local restaurant, Franks Gourmet Grille, where I live on the East Coast, has a demi glace to kill for….. just a beautiful, silky, rich, fatty sauce that completely compliments the meat.  Restaurants generally simmer a base stock of veal bones, vegetables and wine for this sauce for a good 6 hours or more.

Petit Sirloin, Onion Mushroom Risotto

But really, who has time for that?  I recently came upon a recipe in Cooks Illustrated Magazine – (subscribe if you like to cook – this magazine is a definite keeper) that makes it fairly simple to do your own demi-glace in about 45 minutes.  It tasted great – not in Franks class, but definitely restaurant quality.  A few caveats – it ain’t cheap…..the ingredients cost about $8 bucks for about ¾  of a cup of finished product….and it’s a bit of a pain to make, but it is VERY good, and a little goes a LONG way.  It freezes well, and is simple to re-heat.  This is probably NOT a beginner recipe, but it really isn’t rocket science either.  Make sure you have a good fine mesh strainer for the end – I did not, and used coffee filters – which was fine, but messy.

Anyway, here is the recipe.  I served it over some petite sirloin steaks, with a simple mushroom/onion risotto, and an amazing South African Pinotage that I found for ten bucks – More on the wine:

A few years back, I exhibited my artwork at the Fort Lauderdale Boat Show.  That was an interesting story in and of itself, but while there, I met a guy repping South African wines… every night, when the show closed, all the vendors would gather around his booth and drain off all the open bottles.  This was some seriously good wine.  I ended up buying several cases over the years, and since then have always had an affinity for SA wines.  This one is no exception:

The Bean, Pinotage, 2009; Mooiplaas, Western Cape.  Pinotage is a cross between Pinot Noir and Cinsault (essentially Hermitage).  This wine was amazing – again for $9.99.  It was a dark purple color, with light manageable tannins, and an amazing aroma.  It tasted of herbs, cherry, blueberry, hard candy – was almost sweet in the finish, but very complex – just a riot of flavors.  After decanting, and with the steak, the taste firmed up to dark chocolate, coffee, some light oak – with an amazing berry finish.  This wine just explodes with flavor.  If you can find this – BUY it!!  A steal at ten bucks.

I grilled the steaks on the barby, and served them with a mushroom, green onion risotto.  Prior blogs cover the risotto – I added a handful or two of chopped baby bella mushrooms, and a couple of green onions  diced, with a bit of the green part left over for garnish.  Yum. 

Here is the recipe for the sauce:

The Beginning

1 small onion, peeled and chopped into ½ inch pieces

1 small carrot, peeled, and cut into ½ inch pieces

8 oz cremini or portabella mushrooms, cleaned and halved

2 medium garlic cloves peeled

1 tbs olive oil

8 oz 85% lean ground beef

1 tbs tomato paste

2 cups dry red wine

4 cups low sodium beef broth

4 sprigs fresh thyme

2 bay leaves

2 tsp whole peppercorns

2 pkg unflavored powdered gelatin

1. Process onion, carrot, mushrooms, and garlic in food processor till diced fine.  About 10 or 12 pulses
2. Heat oil in 3 qt sauce pot over med high heat till shimmering.  Add beef and tomato paste, and cook, stirring frequently until beef is well browned, and moisture is evaporated – about 8 minutes.  Add wine, and scrape bottom with spoon to remove brown bits.  Add beef broth, thyme, bay leaves, peppercorns, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and gently boil, scraping bottom regularly, and skimming fat from surface, until reduced to about 2 cups.  About 20 – 25 minutes.



Simmer down to about 2 cups

3. Strain mixture through a fine-mesh strainer over a sauce pan, pushing with a rubber spatula to remove as much liquid as possible.  Should be about a cup or a cup and a quarter of liquid.  Sprinkle in gelatin stock and stir till dissolved.  Gently boil, reducing to about 2/3 a cup – about 5 to 7 minutes.  Spoon over meat and serve.  Remaining sauce can be frozen for up to 3 months.  Reconstitute in a sauce pan over low heat.

This is a really good home made demi-glace for steak – I would definitively make it for company – ahead of time! 

Enjoy, and Bon Appetit!

Thinking outside the box - Frozen pizza done right!

Well, after a long, and extremely stressful day at work, sometimes – and I really hate to admit this – I just don’t feel like cooking.  About once a week or so, we get the urge for pizza.... the heck with the diets, comfort food is where it's at!  We have been trying to keep the eating out to a minimum – so instead of ordering pizza, we have been going with frozen.  Some are actually pretty good – but hey, EVERYTHING can be approved on. 

A good start!

So last week, we took a Freschetta California style, sun dried tomato and cheese pizza and put it on steroids.  Got to say – it was REALLY good with some improvements!  I added fresh mozzarella, fresh parmesan cheese, fresh baby spinach and some more sun dried tomatoes ( I mean really- there were about 6 little pieces on the whole pizza out of the box…)  Now THAT’S what I am talking about.  5 minutes of chopping, and 15 minutes in the oven, and – BAM! A frozen pizza as good as take out! ( Sorry Emeril!)

Another ten dollar awesome
wine from Korta - find it, BUY it!
Going to work on my wine
photography, I promise!

We enjoyed this delectable treat with a bottle of Korta Cab Franc – again, a ten dollar miracle wine! This vineyard is producing some amazing wines at a really reasonable price.  Cabernet Franc can be a little thin, but this baby was a power house!  Thick, jammy, fairly heavy tannins – but manageable – black cherry, herbal tobacco, some hard candy flavors, a hint of oak– Really enjoyed trying to figure out all the tastes happening here.  LONNNGGGG finish of vanilla, dark chocolate and cherry….Just a perfect wine with the pizza – and the food really made the wine stand out!

So we ended up with a great pizza, a great bottle of wine – all for about $20 bucks total!  Who needs take out? 

Here is what I added to the pizza:

1 small ball of fresh mozzarella, sliced thin

1 cup or so, chopped baby spinach

about ¼ cup fresh parmesan cheese (they have bags of this in the cheese section – VERY sharp cheese.  Much better than the stuff in the plastic shaker containter)

½ tsp dried basil

½ tsp dried oregano

5 or 6 sun dried tomatoes sliced (about 2 tbs)

Now THIS is a frozen pizza!

Spread the tomatoes, herbs, spinach evenly over the top of the frozen pizza.  Cover with fresh sliced mozzarella, and bake pizza to instructions on the box.  Serve with an amazing ten dollar bottle of wine, some good blues music ( or Van Morrison – or in our case, both )  a couple of candles and a VERY understanding spouse, who is willing to listen to you blather on about work for an hour or so until you wind down…… and you have a great end to a marginal day!

Bon Appetit!

Tilapia stuffed with fresh spinach, sun dried tomatoes and herbs, with a 2009 Korta Carmenere!

Well, I’m back.  It’s been a couple of weeks since I last posted any recipes  - I apologize for the silence! I still have been cooking though, and will be posting a bunch of great new concoctions over the next couple of days – as well as some amazing wines for around ten bucks! 

Came up with this recipe looking for something interesting to do with some Tilapia we had in the fridge.  It is easy, tasty, crunchy and definitely a keeper!  Matched it with what I think is the best find of the year so far, wine wise!

Let’s start with the wine.  I am a HUGE fan of Chilean wine, and boy is this one a keeper. 

Korta - find it, buy it!

KORTA vineyards, in the Lontue Valley was just stocked by a local wine shop.  Several varietals – all for $9.99.  I decided to start with the Carmenere – another favorite grape of mine from Chile. This was a 2009 Barrel Selection Reserve, estate bottled.  The label claimed 12 months in oak.  We popped this baby while making the fish – and YES it’s ok to have red wine with fish.  Carmenere is very similar to a merlot – it’s a nice food wine, and the fish, with the sun dried tomatoes had plenty of taste to stand up to the wine.

Anyway, back to the wine.  It was a nice deep purple/red color - with a great nose in the glass - very smooth, not too much alcohol. The taste was awesome: light tannins, vanilla, cherry, a little herbal tobacco, with a nice subtle oak in the background. It had a really long finish of cherry and vanilla.  This was easily one of the best ten dollar bottles of wine I have ever had – I would favorably compare it to many $25 and up wines we have enjoyed!  Decanted, with the food, the wine showed great complexity, and balance. 

We have since tried several of the other varietals.  I will be reviewing them as well – but I can say this – if you can find this wine -  BUY IT!!  It is a steal at ten bucks!

So, the fish.  This is a food blog after all….lol. This is a super simple recipe – definitely company quality, and done in 20 minutes.  I served it with broccoli and cauliflower (used frozen this time – not awful, but nowhere near as good as the fresh stuff.  It was in the house though….and I didn’t feel like running out to the market.) sautéed with shallots garlic and butter.  This meal was almost as fast as take out, and infinitely tastier!

So, Tilapia stuffed with herbs, spinach and sun dried tomatoes:

Ingredients:

4 Tilapia fillets (about a pound – this serves 4)

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 small shallot, minced

4 tbs butter

4 sun dried tomatoes, chopped fine

½ cup fresh spinach chopped fine

1 tbs fresh basil, diced

½ tsp dried oregano

½ tsp Old Bay seasoning

1 ½ tbs Parmesan cheese (the grated kind in the shaker)

1/2 cup Panko Bread crumbs

Pre heat oven to 400 degrees.

In a small sauté pan, melt 3 tbs butter, and sauté garlic and shallots till translucent – about 4 minutes or so. (one of my favorite smells on earth….) Remove from heat, and spoon out about ½ of the mixture into a small mixing bowl.  Leave the rest in the pan for the veggies.

Fillets ready to cook!

Mix the tomatoes, spinach, spices, cheese and breadcrumbs in with the garlic and shallots, mixing thoroughly.  Melt a tbs of butter and add only as much as you need to make the mixture moist enough to form. 

Cover a baking pan with foil, brush with some of the melted butter, and lay out the fish filets.  Cover each with ¼ of the stuffing mix.  Pour any remaining melted butter over each fillet.  Place in middle rack, bake for about 15 minutes, or until stuffing browns and fish flakes with a fork.

Yum - Enjoy!

While fish is baking, reheat garlic/shallots remaining in the sauté pan over medium high heat.  Sauté about two handfuls of the vegetables, until cooked through. 

Serve with the fish, and enjoy the wine!

Bon Apetit!