Category Archives: Fast & Easy

I bought some beautiful, super fresh, white True Cod at Central Market Saturday.  Looking for a bright, bold flavored dish, I created:

Lemon Butter Braised True Cod

The pieces you bring home from the Market, will be dense at the tail end, tapering to thin wider pieces over the area previously containing the fish’s rib bones.  You will need to cook the thicker pieces longer.  Be aware that the thin ones will be a bit tricky to handle, when cooked, being fairly delicate.  A ‘fish spatula’ is a most useful tool!

True Cod, cut into portion sized pieces
Gluten free flour.  I like to use Red Mill’s 1 to 1 baking blend.
Shallot
Garlic
Unsalted butter
Olive oil
Button mushrooms.  note: other mushrooms, if desired
Fresh lemon
Fresh rosemary, minced
Vegetable stock
Saffron
Coriander
Turmeric, ground
Salt and pepper

Prep shallot and garlic, set aside.  Season the fish portions with coriander, salt and pepper.  note:  I used Rosemary Sea Salt instead of regular salt, but either will work. Dredge in a small amount of the flour.

Melt butter in a good quality, thick bottom saute pan.  Add olive oil, as well.  This will make the butter much easier to work with.  Brown the fish, remove and set in a baking dish.  Place in a 250 degree oven to keep warm, and allow to finish cooking all the way through.  If you make the sauce quickly, the timing will be perfect.  If you work slowly, keep on eye on the fish, so it doesn’t over cook.

Scrape the bottom of the pan to dislodge any morsels of remaining fish.  Remove them.  Place the mushrooms in the pan and cook until they start softening.  You will probably need to add additional olive oil.  Now, add shallot. When shallots are about half done, add the garlic and rosemary.  When shallot is lightly browned, add vegetable stock, juice of fresh lemon, saffron and turmeric.  Reduce, season as needed, then mount with additional butter.  Pour over the fish and serve immediately.

Dreary weather take heed!  We culinary soldiers will win this battle!  Enjoy!  Chef Celinda

Beautiful, sweet Cara Cara oranges are in season right now!  Read more about this treat on Sunkist’s page.  I thought I’d include them to create a “side trip” to somewhere sunny on our “Arm Chair Vacation Tour”!

The sweet, yet tangy flavor of these oranges lend themselves beautifully to a warm radicchio salad.  Such beautiful colors!  Your guests will be excited to try this dish.  It is excellent as a side, with many different proteins, or it makes a memorable lunch entree with the addition of crumbled chevre and roasted pine nuts.

1 head radicchio, cored and thinly sliced across the grain

1/2 cup julienne red onion

Olive oil

Cardamom

1 Cara Cara orange

Italian flat leaf parsley

Salt and Pepper

Sherry Vinegar

Start the red onion and olive oil on a moderate temp.  While that’s cooking, you will want to use a micro-plane and zest about half of the orange.  Reserve this.  Now, using a very sharp pairing knife, cut away the rind and pith; then cut out the segments, between the membranes.  Keep a bowl below you, to catch the juices.  Place the pretty supremes in the juice.  When finished, wring any remaining juice from the membranes, then discard them.  Set your juice and supremes aside.

As the onion is nearly finishing, add the cardamom directly to the pan.  You want the heat to awaken the wonderful flavors of the spice.  Toss that around a bit.  Now add your radicchio.  Don’t worry that you have too much, it is going to wilt quite a lot.  Add salt, pepper and the orange zest.  Cook until the radicchio is soft, but still retaining it’s color. Now add the orange segments and parsley.  Cook just until the orange is warmed thru.  Cara Cara’s are less acidic, and your dish needs a touch to bring it to it’s full potential, so add about a half teaspoon of good quality sherry vinegar and toss thru.

If you are serving as a lunch entree, add the crumbled chevre and roasted pine nuts at the very end, as well.

Enjoy your trip!  Remember to take pictures!

 

It was probably a steer, but it didn’t seem overly important at the time.  Long story, short, I got a hella deal on a smallish whole New York.  Perfect for home!  I cleaned it up and cut ten beautiful thick steaks.  Ummmmmhmmmmmm!

As to the Toy Shop, I discovered a new, to me, spice shop at the entrance to Alderwood mall.  I’m not much of a mall shopper, but thought it might be amusing to wander amongst the suburban Christmas shoppers for an afternoon.  Yeah, I know I’m fairly strange… LOL

To a Chef, an unexplored spice shop is the ultimate ‘Toy’ experience!  “Savory Spice Shop” was all kinds of fun!  So many pretty jars of tantalizing smells, tastes and colors!!

My basket of goodies included some lovely fresh, moist, crushed Urfa peppers.  These delights hail from Turkey.  They are a beautiful nearly black color.  The heat isn’t massive; more the sneak up on you, variety.  A wonderful ingredient to cook with!  I simply rubbed a couple of steaks down with the Urfa and some salt.

To make the dish pictured, allow the steaks to come up to room temperature, then sear them in a hot cast iron skillet and place them in a 400 degree oven.  When they are close to the desired temp, remove them to a plate to rest.  Use the pan to make a beautiful mushroom sauce.

My steaks were fairly lean, so I added a touch more olive oil and sauteed minced onion and sliced crimini mushrooms.  Other mushrooms would be excellent, too.  When my mushrooms were close to done, I added some minced garlic, browned that a bit and deglazed with some red wine.  Once that reduced I added chicken stock, a teaspoon of organic tomato paste, fresh dried oregano and salt.  You can reduce this quickly, if you have time to watch it, or slowly, if you are busy with other tasks.  Once it has reduced down to a fairly thick consistency, remove from the heat and begin ‘mounting’ with unsalted butter, stirring in each pat before adding another, until you have a glossy sauce.  The butter, not only makes the sauce pretty, it is also mellowing the acid of the wine and heat from the peppers.  This allows the full flavor of the meat and peppers to balance.

Enjoy!