Erin's Easy Eats

Southeast Asian Fish Rolls with Fragrant Jasmine Rice

June 30th, 2008 by Erin

This food is not much to look at - baked fish and rice means white food.  They are tasty though!  These recipes are another attempt at some healthy cooking.  Both recipes come from the Low Fat Moosewoods cookbook, a relic from my vegetarian days.  I should get back into that a little more often, only I can’t remember what I ate all of the time.  I suspect that I had a lot of pasta, which isn’t particularly a great idea.  And cheese.  I know I ate a lot of cheese.  Plus, I find it very difficult to find tofu recipes I like.  Anyway…

The rice smelled fantastic while it was cooking (jasmine rice will do that) but didn’t have enough flavor at the end, and I needed some soy sauce to perk it up.  If I make it again, I’ll halve the water and rice, effectively doubling the amount of flavorings/seasonings within the rice, to make it more interesting.  Fresh lemongrass was certainly an experience, though!  The first time I made the fish rolls, I was worried they’d fall apart, so I skewered them with toothpicks to hold them together, and then they fell apart as I pulled out the toothpicks.  This time, I couldn’t find the toothpicks, so I just placed them seam side down in the baking dish and they held together perfectly.

For the fish:

• 8 2-4oz. thin fish fillets, such as sole or flounder
• 1/4 c. fresh lime juice (3 limes)
• 2 Tbs soy sauce
• 4 garlic cloves, pressed
• 1/4 c. chopped basil
• 1 tsp freshly grated ginger
• 3 Tbs chopped cilantro
• 1/2 tsp. freshly grated lime peel
• panko bread crumbs

Mix together all ingredients except for fish.  Lay fillets on a cutting board or counter and spoon 1/8 of the filling onto each piece.  Roll up and place seam side down in a baking dish.  Spray lightly with cooking spray and dust with panko crumbs.  Cover lightly and bake a 375 for 20-25 minutes.

For the rice:

• 2 c. jasmine rice
• 2 Tbs mined lemongrass or 2 tsp freshly grated lemon peel
• 4 garlic cloves, pressed or minced
• 1 small green chile, seeded and minced
• 1 c. undrained crushed pineapple
• 2 Tbs chopped fresh basil
• 2 1/2 c. boiling water

Place rice in colander or sieve, and rinse with cool water.  Set aside.

In a large nonstick saucepan, heat a little oil over medium (about a teaspoon, really) and add lemongrass or peel, garlic, chile, and a little salt.  Cook for 2-3 minutes, stirring frequently.  Add pineapple with its juice, basil, rice, and boiling water.  Cover and bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer for 15 minutes.  Let sit 5 minutes before serving.

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Catfish Po’Boys

April 30th, 2008 by Erin

Now, I’ve seen lots of recipes for these, but I just couldn’t be bothered with following one, so today you get a recipe of my own creation. A lot of my recipes are simply muddled through versions of someone’s real recipe, but… well, if you cook enough, you’ll understand.  I am tired of being plagued by Popeye’s commercials and seeing catfish for dirt cheap in the grocery store, so I stood up and took action.  Plus, everyone loves a good sandwhich.  Overall, this meal took about 20 minutes to make (as long as it took me to bake the fries that went with it.)

Ingredients:

• 1 lb catfish nuggets
• 1/2 c. milk
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1/2 c. yellow cornmeal
• 1/2 Tbs Cajun seasoning and 1/4 tsp (divided)
• (a shake or twelve of Old Bay, if you live around my parts)
• 1/4 c. mayo
• 2 Tbs relish
• 1 Tbs grainy Dijon
• hot sauce to taste
• Sub rolls
• Fixin’s (I had lettuce and tomato with mine)

Combine relish, mayo, hot sauce, mustard, and 1/4 tsp. cajun seasoning in small bowl. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Combine milk and egg. Soak catfish in mixture. Combine rest of Cajun seasoning (and Old Bay if you’re using it) with cornmeal. Doing just a few pieces at a time, dredge catfish through cornmeal.

Here, you have 3 options to cook your catfish:

1. Deep fry it. I don’t know how to do this even though we have a fryer. It scares me
2. Start your fish in a little bit of oil in an oven-safe frying pan, to get it browned up, and then put it in the oven
3. Omit all the frying nonsense, and put it in the oven at 425 for 15 minutes

Split your sub rolls and broil them inside up for just a minute or two until they get crunchy. Slather with your hoppin’ mayo, top with fixings, and consume heartily. (Arr, matey.)

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Moosewood’s Sunday Salmon

April 17th, 2008 by Erin

I love lox. I could eat it every day for breakfast with onions, and toast, and a little bit of creme fraiche. It is just that good. Forget breakfast - I would gladly eat it any time. This recipe always makes me think of Kenny, a co-worker of mine who has the same taste in salmon as well as the last name of the actual recipe, which is “Stein Sisters’ Sunday Salmon.” Kenny (Stein, not Salmon) is retiring this year, and perhaps I’ll manage to sneak him out a wedge of this stuff if it doesn’t disappear before tomorrow morning.

This recipe pulls double duty as a good brunch dish (with fresh fruit and bagels) or as dinner (with a greens salad with a tangy dressing.)

Ingredients:

• 4 medium potatoes (fist sized) sliced into thin half moons
• 2 medium onions, chopped
• 1 Tbs butter
• 1/4 lb. lox, cut into pieces
• 2 Tbs fresh minced dill (or about 3/4 Tbs dried)
• 1/2 lb fresh salmon steak (or go for those vacuum packed ones. Don’t get the cheap canned stuff, as I did this time, and have to spend 15 minutes picking tiny bones and scales out. Ew.)
• 8 oz. cream cheese, cubed
• 4 eggs
• 3/4 c. milk (the original recipe calls for 1 1/4 c. but I found that it NEVER set so I reduced it a bunch)
• sweet (not hot) paprika

Boil potato slices for about 7 minutes, or until just tender. Line the bottom of a oiled (or sprayed) casserole dish. Meanwhile, sauté onions in butter until just translucent. Add lox and dill and saute for a few minutes more. Season with salt and pepper.

If you’re using fresh salmon, boil an inch of water in the bottom of a saucepan. Place salmon in a steamer rack or metal colander, sprinkle with salt and pepper, cover, and steam 5-6 minutes. Flake into lox mixture. If you’re using vacuum packed (or, heaven forbid, canned) salmon, dump it out and break it up a bit. No need to steam. Add to lox mixture.

Distribute cubes of cream cheese evenly around the casserole dish (seriously, the cream cheese is the best part, so make sure everyone gets an equal chance to consume its delicious goodness), and then top with lox-onion-salmon mixture. Mix eggs with milk, and pour over entire thing. Sprinkle with paprika. Bake at 350 for 40 minutes or until set.

Posted in breakfast, dinner, fish, potatoes, recipes || 2 Comments

Potato Crusted Salmon with Cream Sauce

April 10th, 2008 by Erin

Another one of those fancy meals! I used to make this for St. Patrick’s day. I didn’t this year because we went to my parents’ house (where I ate chicken fingers and everyone else ate corned beef, ew.) I serve this fish with either “frizzy salad” (all those fancy leaves) or mixed veggies, for the uncultured. I imagine if you like carrots, this would be great with steamed carrots.  (I hate carrots, even though you see them on the plate below, they were quickly moved elsewhere.)

Fish:

• 2 large potatoes, peeled
• 4 4oz. salmon fillets or steaks (I personally think fillets work better, but with skin/scales removed)
• 4 tsp. country Dijon mustard
• 1 egg

Grate potatoes on large holes of grater. Mix grated potatoes with egg. Pat fish dry, and lightly season with salt and pepper. Rub one side of each fillet (use 1 tsp on each) with Dijon mustard. Cover the mustard with enough potatoes to coat entirely. Wrap in plastic wrap to firm and press excess water/space out. Preheat oven to 425. In an ovenproof nonstick pan, heat 2 Tbs olive oil. Place fish potato side down. When they have started to get golden, flip CAREFULLY (get the best flipper in your house - that’s the husband, not me) to flip it over. Pop into oven for 5-10 minutes, until fish is opaque in center.

Serve with Chive Cream Sauce…

• 1 Tbs olive oil
• 5 scallions, sliced as thin as you can, white part only
• 1 Tbs chopped garlic
• 3 Tbs white vinegar
• 3 Tbs water
• 1/2 c.chardonnay (or whatever white you have around)
• 1/2 c. evaporated skim milk
• 1 tsp. cornstarch mixed with 1 Tbs water
• 6 chives, chopped

Heat olive oil, and add scallions, sauté two minutes. Add garlic until fragrant. Add water and vinegar, let cook to almost dry. Add wine and reduce by half. Add evaporated milk and cornstarch mixture, remove from heat as soon as it boils and stir in chives, add salt and pepper to taste.

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Mahi Mahi with Couscous and Mango Salsa

March 16th, 2008 by Erin

I will admit that the first time I made this dish, it was anything but easy.  It took me forever because I had no idea how to go about attacking a mango and making it edible.  It turns out I was trying to use mangoes that were NOT ripe enough.  They were like cement and I would slice my finger while trying to cut the mango and curse and be unladylike.  That is all better now though.  This meal is quite pretty, and cooks up really fast once the prep work is done.   Make the salsa first, preferably earlier in the day so that it gets a chance to hang out and mingle in the bowl.  It’ll still be fine if you don’t, it’s just better that way.

Salsa:

• 1 mango, peeled and diced
• 1 small red pepper, chopped
• 1 jalepeno, seeded and finely chopped
• 1/2 cucumber, peeled and chopped
• 1 ” ginger, peeled and grated (hello, microplane!)
•  20ish blades chives, chopped
• 1/4 tsp. garlic powder (fresh garlic seems to strong here)
• salt to taste
• juice of one lime

 

Mix it all in a bowl and set it aside.

Couscous:

• 2 c. water
• 1 c. plain couscous
• 2 tsp. curry powder
• 1 handful raisins
• 1 carrot, shredded
• 10 chive blades, chopped
• 1 seedless orange, peeled and chopped

Bring water, curry powder, carrots, and raisins to a boil.  Add couscous, cover and let stand ten minutes.  Fluff with a fork, stir in chives and oranges.

I cook the mahi mahi in a pan with just salt, pepper, and lime juice until cooked through.

Posted in dinner, fish || 1 Comment

Sesame Crusted Tuna

March 3rd, 2008 by Erin

Crusted? Encrusted? Who knows. Anyway, a coworker passed along this recipe a few years ago and now it is our favorite way to make tuna. I leave my tuna nearly breathing in the middle, but the man likes his cooked all the way through. I normally serve this with some oriental noodles (today it was Lipton Teriyaki) and maybe a salad or veggie stir fry.  We had some veggie potstickers from Trader Joe’s so those went along side instead of official “veggies.”

 

• 1/4 cup mayo
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 4 Tbs sesame seeds
• 2 tuna steaks
• 1 clove garlic, crushed with press

Mix mayo, soy sauce, and garlic together in a zip lock bag. Add tuna, allow to marinate for 1 hour. Remove from bag. Press seeds into one side of tuna steak. Broil on each side until desired doneness. (Mine is about 2 minutes per side, the man’s more like 5 per side.) You can also cook them in a nonstick skillet over medium-high heat, sesame seed side first.

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Fish with SearedTomatoes and Brown Butter

January 13th, 2008 by Erin

I guess I’ve avoided posting a Rachael Ray recipe as long as I can muster. Normally, her recipes, although mostly delicious, are far from easy. Tonight’s was a different story. If I’d not decided to use Pillsbury-French-Loaf-in-a-can, this meal would have been done in 10 minutes. As it was, it only took half an hour, 20 of which consisted of driving to the 7-11 while the bread was in the oven.

The recipe calls for talapia, or any number of other fishes. We ended up using flounder, because it was at the grocery store and reasonably priced. A softer fish, rather than a firm one like swordfish or tuna, will work best for this recipe. (Also, ours cooked in about 3 minutes total because the fish was so thin.)

Ingredients:
1 pt. grape tomatoes
1/2 c. parsley, chopped
juice of one lemon (or a healthy squeeze from the squeezy lemon in the fridge)
2 fish fillets, about 4 oz. each
3 Tbs. cold, unsalted butter (although we used salted just fine)
Flour for dredging (about 1/4 cup)

Heat about a tablespoon of olive oil in a nonstick pan over high heat. Throw in the tomatoes and let sear for about 2 minutes, without stirring, until browned on one side. Stir, add salt and pepper to taste, and half of the parsley. Continue cooking for another 2 minutes, or until they start to pop. Remove from pan, set in serving dishes, and cover to keep warm.
Season fish with salt and pepper, and dredge in flour. Add another 2 Tbs of olive oil to the pan, and cook fish about 3 minutes on each side, or until browned and cooked through. Remove, and cover to keep warm. Wipe pan clean.
Return pan to stove and reduce heat to medium-high. Add butter, and brown (melt and then let continue cooking, without doing much except stirring until it is brown in color and smells slightly nutty.) Watch out, this happens fast and nothing tastes worse than burnt butter. (Mine took about 3 minutes to reach fully browned.) Add the rest of the parsley, and lemon juice. Stir to combine, pour over fish and tomatoes. Serve with crusty bread.
Tada!

Posted in fast, fish, recipes || 3 Comments