Pasta and Seafood and Wine. Oh. My.

NOTE: My camera is being pissy, so there are no pics for this post. But PLEASE believe me: any pics I took would not do it Justice, because: It. Is. Awesome.

I’ve been working hard on a mushroom recipe that’s giving me absolute fits, and sometime around a month ago I decided that it was going to be the next recipe I posted.

And then it started giving me even more fits, and being the stubborn person I am, I posted nothing.

So, no mushrooms today, because I finally said “forget the ‘shrooms” when a pile of shrimp and mussels crossed my path singing a song of “Eat me NOW”.

Isn’t that how everyone gets their seafood?

This dinner was AMAZING. The Professor wants to eat it every day for the next month, but perhaps the best description of just how good it was is this: I took MULTIPLE bites of food between sips of wine. And to get that kind of attention from me, you pretty much have to be George Clooney.

A big hunk of a crusty bread is an absolute must to catch all the garlicy-lemony-additcive-y juices. And best of all, it’s really fast – it almost came together in the time it took my angel hair to cook. And...did I mention there’s wine?

[insert picture of linguini with a steaming pile of shrimp & mussels covered in an incredibly fragrant tomato sauce. Thank you.]

• ~ 6 ½ ounces of whole wheat linguini
  
• 1 tsp extra virgin olive oil
  
• ½ large yellow onion, diced
  
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
  
• 15 oz can diced tomatoes
  
• 1 tsp dried thyme
  
• 1 tsp dried oregano
  
• ¼-ish cup red wine
  
• 1 lb mussels
  
• 1 lb uncooked shrimp, peeled (I used 31-35, which is somewhere between medium and large)
  
• Juice of half a lemon
  
• Salt and pepper to taste

Start the pasta cooking in lightly salted water.

Heat olive oil in a deep skillet over medium heat. Add onion and cook until it’s softened. Add the garlic and cook until the smell of onions and garlic makes you want to weep with happiness (a couple of minutes).

Add the can of tomatoes, thyme, oregano, a dash or so of salt & a few twists of fresh cracked black pepper to the pan and simmer for about 10 minutes.

Add mussels , shrimp and lemon juice; stir, cover and cook on medium high until the shrimp are pink and the mussels have opened (do NOT eat the mussels that remain closed).

Serve over drained pasta, with a hunk of bread.

Note: I completely forgot that I had saffron in my spice cabinet, but a pinch of that would make an amazing addition.

Zanzibar Mahi, An Adventure

Remember That Cookbook Thing? It was a couple of years ago, but some bloggers around these here 'nets got together and we reviewed an awesome cookbook called "Where Flavor was Born" by Andreas Viestad.* Well, I hadn't pulled it out in a while, and today I was in the mood for fish so I dug it out of a box and flipped through to see what wonders the people around the Indian Ocean can do with a fish fillet.

I had gone to the store for swordfish, but my choices were Mahi Mahi or Tilapia. Which is the same thing as having no choice, because The Professor hates Tilapia to the very marrow of his bones. Since this recipe is basically just some cooked fish with a delectible relish** on top, I figured Mahi would work. The original recipe called for Kingfish, so the author needs to be glad I even stayed with the correct protein at this point.

Hmm. I wonder how this sauce would be in a baked chicken recipe...

*Hey, I think I'm supposed to make sure you know that I was given this cookbook (back in 2008) by the publisher to review it. I finished my part of that deal almost 2 years ago, but the last thing I need is some anti-blogger fed blowing up my blog. So yeah. It was free. I kinda liked that part.

**I don't know what this substance actually was. I was expecting a sauce, but I must have cooked it down too much. Doesn't matter, it was awesomely awesome.

***Oh, also, the name of this in the cookbook is "Kingfish with Oranges, Cloves & Ginger", but that just gives too much away, and you wouldn't even need to read the recipe if I named it that. And the book names from where the recipe hails. Thus, Zanzibar Mahi.



Ingredients:

• 2 8oz Mahi fillets
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 1/8 tsp ground cloves
• 1 whole clove
• 1 1/2+ tsp grated orange zest
• 2 Tbsp canola oil, divided
• 1 small yellow onion, diced
• 1/2 cup orange juice (I juiced the orange I zested, and it was perfect)
• 1 tsp fresh ginger, chopped very fine
• 1 tbsp brown sugar, divided
• salt & pepper to taste

Directions:
In a small bowl, mix together the ground ginger, ground cloves and half of the orange zest.

They really need to find a way to add scent to blog posts

Heat 1 Tbsp oil in a small pot and saute onion until it has softened, about 2 minutes.

Add the orange juice, fresh ginger, whole clove, half of the brown sugar and the remaining zest. Bring to a boil, and boil until it has reduced to 1/3 of original liquid, about maybe 10 minutes. Remove the clove, reduce heat to low and let it simmer until the fish is ready.

It was almost sauce like when I started

Season the mahi with the salt, pepper and the remaining brown sugar.

Aside: how do you season something with brown sugar? It doesn't sprinkle lightly over the fish like salt or pepper. I tried to sprinkle it, got crumbs of sugar on it and then mashed it in.

Heat the remaining 1 Tbsp of oil in a skillet using medium high heat. Cook the fish until golden brown - about 5 minutes - and then flip and cook until it is done, about another 5 minutes.

When you flip the fish, turn the heat back up on the simmering sauce/relish/substance and return it to a boil. The author adds that if you like a thicker sauce, you can whisk in a half teaspoon of cornstarch and boil for 1 minute. If mine had gotten any thicker, it would have been an orange/onion cupcake, so I ignored the cornstarch. Another note says that you can add a Tbsp of butter to make it richer.

Here's the official Sauce/Relish/Substance

I served this with wilted spinach and Rice Pilau (recipe to come, I hope), then spooned the sauce/relish/substance over the top.


I loved everything about my plate. The Professor liked it fine, but finally decided the sauce/relish/substance was too "something" for him. I'm guessing the ginger was too concentrated for him, but I absolutely loved it.

Not Really Swordfish Spiedini : Grilled Swordfish & Zucchini

One of the deficiencies of living in My Little Corner of The South is that I'm too far from fresh seafood to buy it, unless I want to drive for 45 minutes up to The Big City and spend half of my weekly food budget on a couple of pounds of fish. So when Publix had a "sale"* on "fresh, never frozen" swordfish a couple of weeks ago, I had to jump on it. Kind of like how sales of porn go up in hotels during conservative conventions.

Maybe that was a bad comparison? Do you think I'm going to just leave that alone for the rest of this post?

*I say "sale" because it's still more than I like to spend on my proteins, but this was a bargain for seafood 'round these here parts.

But then life got in the way, so it ended up getting frozen after all - in my freezer. Simple grilled swordfish steaks weren't in my future after all.

But then I found a recipe from the Queen of Food Porn* for grilled swordfish, and decided that would do nicely for someone needing a quick fix. Except, buying pancetta in my corner of the world is - again - more than I want to spend, and Publix didn't have any obliging sales. So I just left it off, like a Porn Star might "forget" to wear underwear for a shoot.

*Giada De Laurentiis. Do I really need close-up shots of her taking a bite of a chocolate covered strawberry with cheesy music playing in the background? I get it, she's hot, but: Short answer: NO.

So this was our dinner this evening: Not Quite Swordfish Spiedini with Zucchini Thrown in Just Because.

And? It was spectacular. My only sorrow is that fish really doesn't reheat well at all, so we had to eat it all tonight - which isn't really a sorrow now that I come to think of it, more like how (apparently) a conservative convention would react to a free-porn-night in their hotel bedroom.

And I think I may have talked about porn enough to give my mother a headache. Sorry, Ma. The fish was just that awesome.

Not Really Swordfish Spiedini with Zucchini

1 lb swordfish steaks, cut into 1 inch cubes
2 large zucchini, cut in 1-ish inch slices
3 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
3/4 tsp dried basil
3/4 tsp dried savory
3/4 tsp dried thyme
3/4 tsp dried oregano
Fresh ground pepper, to taste
dash of salt

If you happen to have NOT left your metal skewers at your best friends house 8 months ago and forgotten to retrieve them since, then use them. Otherwise: Set 3 wooden skewers to soak in water for 30 minutes.

Cut up your swordfish and Zucchini.



Mix the olive oil, herbs and seasonings in a bowl.



Add the swordfish and zucchini and marinate for the remainder of the 30 minutes.



Alternating swordfish with zucchini, skewer the suckers and reserve the marinade.



Heat a gas grill (or broiler).

Grill (or broil) skewers for about 8-10 minutes, turning every couple of minutes and basting with reserved marinade. Make sure to cook for a couple of minutes after you baste them the last time.

I had more fish than would fit on the skewers, so I just grilled them separately - because who's gonna complain about extra fish?

You could serve this over rice if you feel the need. Or maybe toss them with some pasta, butter and parmesan...that sound great now that I think about it. Since The Professor had a quarter of a watermelon waiting for dessert, he didn't want to get too full.

These things were AWESOME. I cooked them on high, and the swordfish and zucchini got a slight char that was delicious, while the fish remained wonderfully moist inside. This may be the first time I haven't dried out any fish but salmon on a grill. Marinades are the key, I've found.

Garlic-Lemon-Butter Shrimp & Mushrooms

I think that the title of this post might just be enough of a recipe that I could leave now. But then what would be the point of having a blog?

Well, the point of this blog has been kinda absent the past couple of months. Not because I stopped eating (ha!), but because I stopped cooking and started grilling. And I haven't been able to stop. Chicken and zucchini, pork chops and mushrooms, Salmon and asparagus...if it's been in my kitchen lately, it went outside to the grill and came back already eaten.

But shrimp were on sale this week, and I have a hard time NOT burning the ever-loving shrimpiness out of shrimp when I grill them. So it was back to the kitchen for this one.

I was out of real butter, fresh garlic and lemons. So I used fake butter, garlic powder and some bottled juice. And it was SPECTACULAR. So, food snobs be damned, I made heaven in a bowl with "fake" ingredients.



And it was only when I got to the end of my bowl and slurped up the last of the buttery-lemony-garlicy sauce that I realized...this dish needs bread. A good chunk of it to soak up all those juices. The Professor was eating his over rice and when I mentioned that, he stopped cold, pointed a finger towards the kitchen and said "Go! Do it NOW!"

Since I was out of lemony-garlicy-buttery juice, I'll let you ponder if you think I went and did that.

But if I'm back in the kitchen in an hour, making a batch of Garlic-Lemon-Butter sauce...well, it's no one's fault but my own, because I think I may have a new addiction.

Garlic-Lemon-Butter Shrimp & Mushrooms

• 1 lb 31-35 (or any large-ish) shrimp, peeled and de-veined
• 8 oz button mushrooms, quartered (of just halved if they're small)
• A bunch of globs of butter or a buttery-type substance (I used Country Crock)
• Many, Many dashes of Garlic Powder
• about 2 Tbsp of lemon juice
• about 1 Tbsp dried basil

Glob a bunch of butter in a skillet over medium heat, and when it's about half melted, add the mushrooms. Shake about 1 tsp of garlic powder over the whole thing and stir it. Let the mushrooms cook for about 10 minutes - you want them to release their liquid, but not dry out.

In a small bowl, mix a couple more tablespoons (or just globs - there was no measuring tonight) of Buttery Stuff with another teaspoon or so of garlic powder and the dried basil.

Turn the heat up to medium-high.

Add the Buttery Stuff Mixture and the lemon juice to the skillet, then dump in the shrimp. I used my tongs to make sure they were all at the bottom of the skillet, and then turned them over when they started to turn pink.



When the shrimp is thoroughly pink, your dish is Done.



Serve over rice, or - if you want heaven in a bowl - just pour it in a bowl and serve with some nice thick bread to soak up the juices.

Tonight's Dinner: Creamy Lemony Peppery Salmon and Aspargus. Or something.

So I seem to do better about posting recipes if I do it immediately upon finishing the dish. Actually, right now I'm typing as the salmon cooks, so who knows if I'll even hit publish? I guess you'll know that I did if I you're reading this.

Blech. Meta-blogging is so boring. But I'm too lazy to hit delete.

So, tonight's misadventures come to you via my leftover sour cream (doesn't that make your mouth water?) and salmon fillets (not left over, just bought them yesterday).

I had no idea if this would work or not, but I also had asparagus. And asparagus and a lemony cream sauce seemed like they would go together too. Best of all? They (the salmon and asparagus, keep up already) both cook pretty quickly. The longest cooking part of this meal was the rice (because I didn't use instant).

(I need a few more parentheticals).

There's a term for cooking meat like this - is it poaching? Braising? Am I supposed to know this, being the blogger and all?

There goes my street cred.

**My incredibly deep thoughts on the taste of this dish at the end.

Creamy Lemon Pepper Salmon
Ingredients:

1 tbsp olive oil
¼ cup (half stick) margarine
1 minced garlic clove
1 tsp lemon pepper
1 tsp lemon juice
1 cup sour cream
2 salmon fillets, about 1/2 lb each
1 lb asparagus
Salt and Pepper, to taste

Directions:

Heat oven to 400F.

Lightly spray 13"x9" pan* with nonstick spray. Rinse salmon filets, pat dry, and place in one half of the pan.

Heat olive oil and margarine in a skillet on low. Add garlic and cook on low for one minute. Stir in lemon pepper and lemon juice.

It'll look better in a few seconds. Promise.

Still on low, whisk in sour cream until it's smooth. Salt and pepper to taste.

That's better.

Pour sauce over salmon – is this called poaching or something? I’m sure there’s a technical cooking term for this that I’ve forgotten. A term besides “Make My Mouth Water”, that is.

Cook for 12-13 minutes, or until the salmon flakes in the middle. Yes, you'll have to move some sauce aside to check, but there's enough sauce to cover it up. You could also use a meat thermometer, but that's so HIGH TECH. (It's also something you have to clean by hand, and I mostly avoid that.)

While the salmon cooks, trim your asparagus and toss with the barest hint of olive oil and some salt and pepper.

Come to Mama, Green Goddess.

About 3 minutes before the salmon's done, put the asparagus on the other half of the pan and continue cooking.

Serve over rice.

It looks like The Blob turned white and smothered my dinner.

* I did mine in a 13x9 pan so that I could add asparagus in the other half of it for the last 3 minutes of cooking. You could do the salmon by itself in a square glass pan - you have my permission.

**Pretty good, but very ugly pictures. I could have used about 3x as much pepper (not the lemon pepper, the real pepper) in it, but The Professor is not a huge fan, so if I ever attempt something similar, I'll probably just roughly double how much I ground into the pan. Also, maybe a little more garlic?

The asparagus ROCKED in this sauce. And the remains of it are going to be my lunch tomorrow, over the leftover rice with the leftover sauce. Even if I did have to beat The Professor back with a cleaver to claim it. Lesson? He needs to be faster to the cleaver drawer.

Baked Perch...I swear!

Fish. I love it. I'm not that great at cooking it. Mostly because all I really know how to do is throw on some lemon pepper, pop it in the oven and call it a day. Ok, there was the dish I made in here. And then my Salmon Masterpiece. But salmon is really more like meat than fish. Is there anyway to really make salmon inedible? Cook it and it's yummy.

Perch, on the other hand...

I don't know what made me purchase the perch. (HA! That alliteration just made 1 semester of the English degree worth the pain). But it was there, and I thought: "I should eat more fish. Fish is healthy. I can cook that."

Then I got home and stared at it. For many minutes, before I realized that maybe? Fish shouldn't sit on the counter that long. So I put it in the fridge and did what I do best: I researched.

Somehow, this is what was created. I've given it the creative name of "Baked Perch topped with Sauteed Vegetables". Because I'm creative that way.

The picture looks like a vegetable stew over rice, with maybe a hint of cheese in there somewhere. But I swear there's fish under there. Somewhere. And who knew that cheese went with fish? Just typing that, I cringe. But the final dish was amazingly good.



Baked Perch topped with Sauteed Vegetables Ingredients

4	perch filets
2	cups fresh spinach, chopped
8	oz mushrooms, sliced
14	oz can diced tomatoes, Italian flavored, undrained
1	tbsp olive oil
1	garlic clove, minced
1	small yellow onion, thinly sliced
	rice

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
   
   
2. In a large skillet, heat olive oil. Add onions and cook over medium heat until deeply carmelized.
   
   
3. Add mushrooms and garlic, and cook until they have released their water and it has evaporated.
   
4. Spray glass baking dish with non-stick cooking spray and lay Perch filets skin side down.
   
   
5. Add tomatoes to the onions & mushrooms and heat until boiling. Season with salt and pepper.
   
   
6. Stir in Spinach leaves and stir until they are mostly wilted.
   
   
7. Spoon vegetables over Perch and Bake for 10 minutes or until the fish is almost done
8. Top with 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese and pop under broiler for a minute.
   
   
9. Serve over rice.

Asian Glazed Salmon

Remember the other day when I mentioned that I can't cook fish at all, ever, anyway, no way, no how, not ever except breaded? It seems that I have proven myself wrong. So anyone who's keeping a mental file on my cooking abilities, first of all - I can now cook fish, and second of all - um...why are you keeping track of this? Dude, you're freaking me out a little bit.

Ok, "I can now cook fish" may be overstating the issue a little. I followed a recipe a couple of weeks ago - but last night, I made up my own. Which means you might as well just go ahead and call me a poissonier.

What did I concoct that was so good? Something there's a million recipes already floating around for. But that's ok. I'm confident in my non-creativity. You know why? Because I'm eating some more of this salmon as we speak.





Asian Glazed Salmon

• 2 six ounce salmon fillets
• 3/4 cup soy sauce
• 1 Tbsp canola oil
• 1" piece of ginger, peeled and grated
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 Tbsp rice vinegar

Mix all of the ingredients except the salmon in a small saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, until sugar is dissolved and it is merrily simmering.

Remove from heat and cool for about 10 minutes.

Pour the marinade over the salmon fillets.

Marinade overnight in the fridge or for about an hour at room temperature.

Turn on your broiler.

Lightly grease a pan (I used a square pan, but a cookie sheet will work just as well - the marinade will just make a bigger burn spot you'll have to clean later).

Place salmon fillets (skin side down, if the skin's still on - mine had skin) in the pan.

Brush the fillets with some extra marinade (or be like me and decide that dirtying another utensil is too much work and just pour a little on each fillet).

Place pan in the oven, 6-7" from the broiler.

Cook for 15 minutes, or until the salmon easily flakes and is thoroughly cooked.

Boil the remaining marinade and serve on the side as a sauce.



Notes:
Last night, I just let it marinade for an hour on the counter while I went grocery shopping, then came home and popped it under the broiler. It was so good that I was glad I had only fixed half the salmon, because I used the leftover marinade/sauce to marinade the remaining salmon overnight. That extra time in the juices didn't really seem to change the flavor though.

Now that I'm looking at the recipe, that seems like a LOT of brown sugar to me. If I were just finding the recipe, I'd immediately plan on cutting that down. But it really wasn't overly sweet - although the fact that I used high-octane soy sauce (translation: I grabbed the wrong bottle and came home with the non-low-sodium version) may have helped to counter the sugar somewhat.