Gone Fishing

And like many a devoted fisherman, I will cook a whole fish over and over again. What an amazing way to cook fish. Seriously, why anyone eats fish sticks is beyond me...now anyway. So about the meal. I cooked a striped bass on our kamado smoker. I put onions, and fennel inside the cavity, garlic cloves under the skin on both sides and salted him everywhere.Here is the before and after.

While that was outside cooking, I made an appetizer. Sticking with the "whole fish" theme, I got some fresh smelts from the fish market and fried them up (just egg, flour and hot oil).

I served it along side one of my favorite appetizers, fried sage leaves with provolone cheese. It is a really tasty combination, try it sometime. I made a spicy aioli for dipping the fried smelts (mayo, paprika, lemon juice, cayanne and garlic). Easy as could be to make -- and really worked with the fish.

And then the whole fish. I was hunkering for something warm and a little spicy, so I recreated the fish soup. Wasn't exactly the same and frankly didn't have the warm, spiciness from the night before. It was still good and included mussels, clams, shrimp and scallops. To serve, I placed a piece of the striped bass atop a piece of toast with garlic, and then spooned over the soup and seafood. The presentation was great to look at. But better yet was how "active" the dish was. Lots to explore in the bowl, and all the different flavors of the fish really made for fun eating and talking around the table. The recipe is not exact, but here are the ingredients. Just put them all together basically and then when the taste is right, start throwing in the shellfish.

Ingredients: Olive oil Leeks (white part only) Onion Garlic crushed Peeled and seeded tomatoes ( I used canned, the big one) Serano pepper, chopped Fresh flat leaf parsley Fennel fronds Pinch of saffron salt/pepper Water (about 6 cups for 6 people) Oh and a hardy splash of white wine

And here it is (my pic is a little blurry), must have been the white wine...

Dinner with Judy

Yes.  I named her.  In honor of my sister who names everyone Judy.  This Judy was good company ... for such a short time. 

I dragged all three kids, my youngest in a cast, to Wholefoods in order to fulfill what my son calls, Battle Adult vs Adult.  When I say tonight is my Iron Chef night, he likes to point out that I am not a chef but merely an adult.  Point taken.

But tonight, VICTORY.  I just made my first whole fish and it was delicious.  The boys had a good time with this battle, seeing as this is the closest they have ever come to having a pet.  I even thought Adam would actually try it.  But he didn't.  They basically spent the entire night talking about what we could use to poke Judy's eye out.

Anyway, I roasted her with lemons, garlic and an herb bundle inserted inside the cavity.  Then she set on a bed of the same and like any good host, I offered her a glass of wine.  She graciously accepted.  It was cooked perfectly and was completely infused with the herb flavors.  I served it alongside a mystery wilted bitter green salad.  We got the baby arugala and raddichio right, but missed the endive.  Chris picked up what was under the 'endive' sign at the grocery store, but it clearly wasn't.  I wilted it, and we ate it and still don't know what it was.  The salad was topped with pecan-crusted goat cheese disks that were fried and fabulous.

I needed this win.  Not from the judges (there weren't any), not from my kids (again they wouldn't try it), not from Judy herself (I think she is pretty mad at me).  But from me.  I completely enjoyed it from start to finish.  Although I feel like I've lost a friend.  Goodbye Judy.  Thanks for the memories.

Clammoring for a recipe

In the meantime, I bought a few of these today...they are a razor clams.



I have really been struggling with what to do with my whole fish. My friend Jamie is coming to dinner tomorrow night. So today I decided I would go with some kind of soup or stew, add in my whole fish and whatever tasty treats I could find at the fish market. That lead me to these razor clams -- which I cooked tonight in my last practice attempt.

I am happy to say that the soup tasted great -- flavorful and a little spice. The razor clams definitely added to the beauty of the dish, but must admit, the texture was a little weird.

Truth is, I am not sure exactly how I made the dish, but I think I can recreate it mostly. Until tomorrow night...

A face only a mother could LOVE

Today's catch -- a Striped Bass. This time instead of baking it in the oven we put it outside on our Kamado. The Kamado, a ceramic smoker, was my husband's first child. It was delivered to our house just after we moved in and over the years we have made lots of great creations -- primarily pork -- ribs, pulled pork that kind of thing. But tonight we put the Stiped Bass on the Kamado and smoked her up.



I first made slits in the skin of the fish and inserted garlic cloves. I put onions and garlic inside and then sprinkled it EVERYWHERE with salt and pepper. We then put it in the Kamado for about 30 minutes.












It was super tasty!

Consider yourself Lucky...

...that is what I said to the family when I saw that last week in the Chicago Reader the ingredient challenge was FISH EYES. A whole fish is nuttin' compared to that. And when he described that he used them in a soup and squeezed the juice out of them for "texture" even my stomach turned a little.

I think I will blindfold my next victim..

Getting Schooled by Snapper

It was a lovely meeting. Brady and the red snapper.

We watched the fish monger remove the guts and gills, wash him up, and then toss him overboard...over counter, really.

This was a little bit of a spontaneous effort. But given it was the first Friday of Lent I figured I'd get off to a good "no meat on Friday" start. The guy at the fish market gave me an easy receipe, which is what I needed. Truthfully it isn't the cooking of the fish that has me a little unnerved, it is the serving of it. Getting it from fish to plate without bones and in reasonably sized pieces.

I salted it head to tail and threw it in the oven. It cooked for 25 minutes (could have been a little bit less), but mostly it was perfect. The fish was tender, moist, mild, and delicious. The process of "fish to table" needs work. And seriously, I am not serving a salt crusted red snapper -- tasty but BORING.

Looks like my family will have to suffer through a few more fish eyeballs so that I can practice my serving...and find a recipe worth serving to my judges.

Sugar Plums...not just for Fairies!

I am going to have to admit my stupidity here. I WAS SHOCKED when I walked into the grocery store today and saw this sign. Sugar Plums? I thought those were some kind of candy, or used to distinguish Christmas fairies from all other kinds of fairies (tooth, godmothers, etc).


WRONG! You can get yourself some Sugar Plums right at the grocery store. And so I did.

Reasonably the next question is "are they magical"? Will they turn my children sweet, cheerful, and all things wonderful? This I do not know -- YET. But I will soon enough. School is out in just a few hours and the kids will be greated by this beautiful bowl of magical wonderfulness! Stay tuned...

Very late papaya update

I did the papaya challenge.  It's true.  The funny thing is that I made a salsa to put over fish ... salsa good, fish bad.  Which lead to the whole, whole fish thing.  It seems like something I should be better at.

Anyway, as for my papaya battle, the photos of my meal just left on a plane with my husband for nine days to Santa Fe.  So I can't show you my creations.  But I made the papaya avocado salad I made earlier.  It was really really good and I will make it again.  It was the dressing with lime and cayenne pepper that really made it.  Then I did a salsa - papaya, cucumber, jalapeno, red onion, cilantro, lime and lime-infused olive oil - to go over my completely under-seasoned, over-cooked fish.  I had asparagus on the side dressed with the same lime-infused olive oil.  And then the meal ended with Papaya sorbet floating in a bath of Prosecco and topped with mint.  I had seconds of that.  Very refreshing.

I am excited for the whole fish challenge.  I've already talked to Eric at the fish counter.  I'm just not so sure which one to pick.

I am determined to get better at not only the cooking, but also the posting ...  I will steer clear of puns though.  That is a battle I would for sure lose to my sister.

Pick your Poisson

A new battle has begun-- we will be cooking and serving a whole fish this month. It is Lent after all, which gives me a perfect excuse to force my family into making sacrifices, right? There will be lots of complaining of course... the smell of the kitchen, the taste of fish in general...and those beady eyes staring off the platter. Yipee! This will be fun.

So what to choose...I don't know. I have never had the guts to go whole hog (fish). I have already consulted my recipe bible -- Silver Spoon -- and have a few ideas. But the weeks of practice will tell.

So, let's get started...just for the "Halibut"! I couldn't help myself.