Lemon and Tarragon Poached Halibut with Blood Orange Sauce (and Seriously Awesome Potatoes)

I enjoyed the saffron-scented halibut that I made a few months ago.  But it needed a sauce.  So I decided to try and make my own sous vide halibut with a fun sauce.  I will admit, this halibut was not as firm as I would like.  I think I'd try a firmer fish next time.  Despite the years I've been cooking, I'm still not that great at picking what types of fish work with what sauces or methods of cooking.  That said, the flavors of the fish and sauce worked well together.  I'd make the sauce for a breaded fish too. I thought blood orange on its own was a bit sweet so I added some lemon juice to tie it in with the poaching liquid and the citrus salt in the potatoes and I think it worked pretty well.  The sauce was kind of sweet and sour, but in a mild way; it didn't overpower the fish.

The potatoes were the star of the dish.  I liked them even more than the jalapeno poached potatoes that are the usual roasted potato staple in my house.  They have two kinds of salt in them.  Why?  Because I have a vast army of nice salts that were given to me as gifts and I want to find more ways to use them.  I've got some citrus salt that is pretty strong and some very nice salt with roasted spices.  I put some citrus salt and pepper on the potatoes and added a little thyme. Before I neglected it this winter and then let my dog run around on it, I grew some lemon thyme in my herb garden.  I figured citrus salt and thyme would work pretty well together since lemon thyme is so good.  I wanted to make sure there was enough salt on the potatoes but I didn't want the citrus to be overpowering, so I added a little of the roasted spice salt as well.  If you don't have any, regular salt would work fine.  The potatoes were perfect.  Just the right amount of crunch and flavor.  They were tangy, but not overly much.  The thyme made them smell fantastic.

I have descended into full blown cooking nerd mode. (Saffron-Scented Halibut)

I spent most of high school and college avoiding chemistry.  Then I got into cooking.  My husband bought me an immersion circulator for Christmas!  I didn't know that there was a model that could hook on to an ordinary large pot instead of a giant plastic tub.  It looks more like lab equipment than a cooking tool. I've always been curious about cooking with one because I watch way too much Iron Chef America.  The Anovo immersion circulator is very easy to use.  I'm using it here with a pasta pot and some tin foil. One of the first things I wanted to try out was fish.  This is saffron-scented halibut with tomato compute and zucchini.  It was fantastic!  The zucchini was cooked through, yet still crunchy instead of mushy and gross.  The tomatoes had the right amount of softness.  The fish was perfectly cooked.  It was moist, flaky, and evenly cooked.  The saffron sauce had the right amount of zing from the oranges but it didn't overpower the flavor of the fish.  This dish did involve a good bit of prep work but total cooking time for everything was 17 minutes.

To make the meal, I attached the immersion circulator to my pasta pot, set it for 140 degrees F through its very simple touch screen interface, and covered the pot with tin foil.  The instruction manual emphasized that covering the pot is necessary and suggested tin foil if a special lid wasn't available.

I feel a bit like a mad scientist.  

"Pesto" Crusted Mahi Mahi with Asparagus

I've become a little obsessed with coating fish with panko.  It's easy, relatively quick, and there are tons of variations!  This picture is terrible, but my camera was telling me it had .0001 seconds of battery life left and so I didn't get a chance to redo it. The crust looks burned, but it really wasn't that bad.  That said, I don't recommend the power burner for heating oil  Just sayin'.

The sauce from the asparagus goes well with the fish, too!

Success! Mushroom Crusted Rockfish with Asian Coleslaw

A local restaurant that I really love makes amazing mushroom crusted fish.  I finally decided to try to make my own without a recipe!  I worked off my basic panko crusted fish recipe, but added some shiitake mushrooms to the panko mix.  Instead of using a lemon and caper sauce, I sauteed a random shallot I had sitting around and put it on top of the fish.  I made some Asian coleslaw with miso dressing to go with it. The slaw has a tasty dressing and a second sauce would have ruined the it.  The panko mushroom mixture browned nicely and the panko stayed crunchy even with the addition of mushrooms. It was the best of both worlds, a nice shiitake flavor but still crispy.

If you have a partner who is not a fan of mushrooms, this dish might be a good way to sneak some in because the flavor isn't overwhelmingly mushroomy. ;)

The Asian coleslaw was fantastic and went really well with the fish.  The dressing was tangy but not overpowering. There also wasn't a ton of it so it didn't make the bottom of the fish too soggy.With only one tablespoon of mayo for 6-8 servings, this salad is pretty healthy!  If you make extra dressing, maybe don't put the fish on top of the slaw.  If you're making both dishes, make the coleslaw first, the fish doesn't take very long.

The Asian Coleslaw is also quite pretty. 

Panko Crusted Fish with Quick Caper and Lemon Sauce

Here's a quick fish dinner!  Searing fish with a panko crust is a pretty quick way to cook fish. The crunchy panko crust is quite tasty. I've been making a sauce with shallots, garlic, lemon, capers, wine and butter and it's really good!  I also season the flour with some salt, pepper, and garlic or shallot salt.  I buy mahi mahi, rockfish, or halibut, depending on what I can get.  This picture is of mahi mahi.  I served it with some spinach sauteed with garlic, but any green vegetable will do. I've paired breaded fish with broccoli and asparagus and sometimes I add a small salad.

Yeah, I really need to start using some smaller plates.  The fish and spinach look like they're having an armed standoff.  

Skate Wing with Lemon and Green Olives

Okay, so the original recipe called for preserved lemon.  But I don't have any, and the last time I bought a jar of preserved lemons they achieved consciousness in the back of the fridge because I rarely used them.  I could have made my own, but that was way too much forethought.  My grocery store only has skate wing intermittently; I had this recipe on standby in case it was available.  I served the skate with a side of steamed asparagus with lemon pepper and a small salad because both are simple. This dish has relatively little chopping and doesn't taste very long to make!  This dish is very doable on a work night.

Skate wing is pretty mild, so I was worried that the salty olives and sour lemon would overpower it.  It did, to an extent, but it was still very good.   It probably had something to do with the fact that I used extra olives because I love them.  If you don't want a slightly overwhelming sauce, stick to using 4 to 6 olives.

My skate wings didn't have bones in them.  Instead of cooking them for 4 minutes each side, I did 3 each side and that was plenty of time.  For thicker wings, 4 minutes each side or longer is probably necessary.  My skate wings were so thin that they were falling apart a little too much when I served them, next time I'll probably cook them for less time.

Skate Wing with Lemon and Green Olives
Slightly adapted from Arabesque
Serves 2

Ingredients
2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 small skate wings (about 1 lb)
salt to taste
juice of 1/2 to 1 lemon, to taste (but at least use 1/2)
zest from 1/2 lemon
4 to 6 large green olives, pitted and chopped (I used way more, probably about 12 olives)
1 Tbsp chopped parsley or cilantro (I used parsley because that's what I had sitting around)
lemon wedges for serving

Method
1) Heat the olive oil in a nonstick pan large enough to hold the skate wings without stacking them.  Add the skate wings, sprinkle with salt, and cook for about 3 to 4 minutes over low heat.
2) Flip the skate wings over and add the lemon juice.  Cook for 3 or 4 more minutes or until the flesh starts to come away from the bones if the skate has bones.  Otherwise be careful not to let them separate too much and fall apart.
3) Add the lemon zest, olives, and herbs and heat through in the oil and juices.
4) Put the skate wings on a plate, top with olive and lemon zest mixture.  Serve with lemon wedges.

Tuna with Tomatoes and Capers with Spinach, Beans, and Prunes

This tuna dish is simple and quick. It doesn't have many ingredients and if you like your tuna rare like me, there isn't a lot of cooking time. If you heave nice piece of fish, the sauce is tangy and flavorful but won't mask the taste of the meat.  I served it with a healthy side dish of spinach, kidney beans, and prunes.

I made the spinach dish because I wanted to use the rest of my prunes left over from my Cornish game hen meal.  I'd never used them before and I didn't want them to languish in my pantry until they fossilized.  My husband and I disagreed about how good the spinach dish was.   I loved it.  I would make it again. I love spinach!  I thought the sweet prunes were interesting and I thought they were a good addition to the earthiness of the spinach and beans.  My husband really hates fruit as part of dinner, so he was not a fan of the prunes at all. If you don't like sweetness in your veggies (or hate fruit in general), skip the prunes.  The side dish is vegetarian and I think that it's hearty enough for a main dish if you make extra. 

Sea Bass in Creamy Tomato Sauce with Tabbouleh

Sea bass is one of my favorite fish, I love its buttery texture.  I'm always looking for interesting recipes for sea bass, and this one for fish with creamy tomato sauce caught my eye.  The original recipe used swordfish, but it mentioned that sea bass, bluefish, or any meaty fish would do.  The sauce itself is quite flavorful, but it's not what I would describe as "creamy," as it only required 2 Tbsp of cream on top of 1/2 cup water and a can of diced tomatoes.  There was a hint of creaminess, but the dominant flavor was tomato.  I paired this with some homemade tabbouleh and store-bought dolmas.  The tabbouleh is labor intensive, but tasty.  It's also easily found in a lot of large grocery stores.  The fish dish itself doesn't require a ton of prep work, and to cook it you just throw it in the oven and ignore it except to turn the fish over.

Grilled Tuna with Tomato Caper Sauce, Leek Salad, and Dolmas

Since the point of this blog is for me to document my learning experiences, I promised myself that I would post the dishes that weren't completely successful as well as the ones that were fabulous.  :)  The tuna tasted great, so did the sauce.  It just looked...unattractive.  The sauce didn't have any extra water added, but the tomatoes released their juices and the end result was a watery sauce.  The leeks were supposed to just be on the plate next to the tuna.  Amusingly, I saw a picture of this dish on a different blog later, and the author smartly photographed it from the side instead of from the top.  The sauce was intended to be a fancy version of the traditional Middle Eastern lemon and oil sauce.  There was a lot of oil in it, and I don't know if adding corn starch (my cheat to thicken sauce if I don't have a ton of time to reduce it) would have been appropriate.  The leek salad was quite good.  It's from The New Book of Middle Eastern Food.  The recipe noted that leeks are very popular in Egypt, something I didn't know.  It was very easy to make and required very little active time. The dolmas are from Wegmans.  ;)