Maple Horseradish Glazed Salmon

For 4-6 servings salmon, combine 2 t prepared horseradish, 1 t Penzey's Trinidad Style Lemon-Garlic Marinade, 2 t maple syrup, 1 t soy sauce, 1 t olive oil Pour over salmon fillets and bake or pan sear and spread over top of fillets and run under broiler to finish. If grilling, apply to top of fillets after searing both sides.

Dinners Week of 02/08

This week was dominated by Mexican and Southwestern flavors given food on hand. We broke it up with Asian food and no one seems to mind.


o Sunday: Korean Fish Cakes, Bok Choy and Soba Noodles with Ponzu Sauce, Gomasio & Green Onions (fish from leftover miso-marinated tilapia, based on a recipe in Growing Up in a Korean Kitchen)

o Monday: Leftovers: Chicken Enchiladas from the freezer, Chicken Mole Tamales from All Star Tamales, served with Carribbean Beans & Rice, Green Salad with Pomegranate and Pepitos
The pomegranate seeds in the salad were not a hit.

o Tuesday: Out

o Wednesday: Turkey and Pumpkin Soup
What a grerat recipe! I used sliced turkey cutlets and butternut squash. Easy and delicious.

o Thursday: "Pulled Pork Tenderloin" with Mexican Coleslaw on Whole-Wheat Buns
This is a family favorite, one of the few recipes I don't adjust at all, and that everyone loves. The coleslaw is from The Chronicle Cookbook 2, another Jaquelyn Higuera McMahan recipe.

o Friday: Out at Friends' House

o Saturday: Date Night out

Steamed Tilapia with Cabbage and Shiitakes

After our Ono Mix Plate fest, something light was needed, and something that would use the odds and ends in our fridge. We always have udon noodles on hand, I buy three-packs of the individual fresh udon without the sauce base whenever I do a Nijiya shop. I also had shiitakes that had dried in the fridge, a few teaspoon-fulls of tobiko left over from Robert's birthday poke, and a quarter cabbage. We picked up a handful of snow peas and some tilapia and I threw this together. It came together quickly, and was satisfying, tasty and healthful.

It was gorgeous topped with the tobiko, pretty enough for a dinner party. We used the shimchimi pepper mixture to give some heat to ours, but just garnished Miriam's with gomasio and gave her some "tiny orange balls" on the side. I would also serve this on soba, top with cilantro if I had it on hand, or replace the cabbage with Napa cabbage. Julienned carrots would be pretty, too, but at that point it stops being a quick/easy recipe.

1 lb. tilapia

6-10 dried shiitakes

2 c. coarsely shredded cabbage

1 handful snow peas, sliced on the diagonal to 1" pieces

2 green onions, thinly sliced on the diagonal

1 garlic clove, finely minced

1 t. minced ginger

1/4 c mirin

1/4 c soy sauce

2 T ponzu

1 t sesame oil

Gomasio (store-bought or home-made)

Shichimi Togarishi

Tobiko (optional)

Soak the shiitakes in hot tap water till soft, about 15 minutes. Lay the tilapia filets out on a plate. Bring a medium pot of water to boil.

Slice the veggies: cabbage, snow peas, green onions, garlic and ginger. Combine the garlic, ginger, mirin, soy and ponzu in a small bowl.

Drain the mushrooms (save the mushroom water for another use if so inclined), rinse any grit off, squeeze out moisture. Remove stems and slice caps thinly.

Set up a steamer, bringing water to boil. In a pie plate, place cabbage, then snow peas, then mushrooms and 1/2 green onions. Pour 1-2 T sauce over, and steam five minutes.

Meanwhile, blot any moisture from fish, with a paper towel, then liberally salt and pepper; prepare udon noodles. Place fish over veggie mixture, sprinkling remaining sauce and green onions on top. Steam 10 minutes.

Drain udon noodles and distribute in ramen or pasta bowls. Check fish for doneness. When just cooked, distribute veggies, then fish fillets on noodles, ladle sauce over fish and sprinkle with gomasio and shichimi togarishi, adding a dollop of tobiko if available.

Serves three adults or two adults, one kid with leftovers for one lunch. Delicious with a glass of chilled Gewurtztraminer.

Petrale Sole again, with Indian Spices

Petrale sole is cheap and good right now. Halibut? $17.99/lb. Wild King Salmon? $19.99/lb. Sustainably fished Chilean Seabass? A whopping $24.99/lb. But fresh, wild Petrale sole is a mere $12.99/lb. And it is much tastier, in my opinion, than tilapia, The Other Cheap White Fish.

So we had it again tonight, this time I added 2 t. of curry poweder to the dredging mix of matzo meal and flour. Unable to look at any more potatoes or rice, I made whole wheat orzo, then McGiver'd a bechamel out of the dredging flour and the reserved pasta water, in the pan in which I'd cooked the fish. It came out surprisingly well!

The veg was charred cauliflower with chiles, onions, cumin, coriander and turmeric, finished with some yogurt and lime juice. Wow, I actually found hot serrano chiles, this was no dish for MZ. Good thing she likes salad now, her veg was the juice from chewed dressed lettuce (she spits out the mangled leaves), as well as tomatoes, cukes and shredded carrots from the salad.

Petrale Sole with Cumin Tomato Sauce

It's hard to come up with stuff to cook all the time, so I'm starting a log here of what we eat in the hopes I can bring more favorites into regular rotation and learn from what didn't work as well. Logs won't include recipes, but those will still appear when I make something up that I want to cook again.

The Petrale Sole was excellent, fresh tasting and not at all muddy. I cooked it per the Cook's Illustrated Best Recipe suggestions, but used some matzo meal and oregano in the flour, and topped with a tomato sauce simmered with sauteed shallots, toasted cumin seeds and smoked paprika. The sauce was tasty and lighter than the recommended brown butter, but the match was not perfect. However, the fish came out with a lovely golden crust, and not at all greasy. Next time go for a lemon caper sauce...

Steamed Broccoli was a nice accompaniment, whole wheat couscous was perfect with the sauce. Dinner came together in 30 minutes.

Happy Birthday, Baby!

For R's birthday, we generally have rack of lamb or Dungeness crab, depending on his mood, the crab season start, and the proximity of his birthday to Thanksgiving. This year was a crab year, and that meant all the trimmings, which in our house includes tuna poke. It's not as weird as you might think, cracked crab, sourdough bread and poki, since I used to get my crab at the recently sold Yum Yum fish out in the Sunset. Yum Yum was operated by two ecentrics, one French the other Japanese. They had a lovely fish case and I would often try one of their sushi-grade fish when I stopped by for my crab order.

This is my first year without Yum Yum. While I miss the quirkiness of my old friends, Swan Oyster Depot has personality to spare, and Nijiya does have a well-stocked sushi-grade case. I picked out lots of tuna, octopus and tobiko for our feast, and MZ loved the deer at Japantown, already in place for the winter holidays.

My poke isn't totally authentic, I've never added ogo or kikui nut, due to sourcing issues, and mine is shoyu-style, so no Hawaiian salt. But it took a lot of fiddling to arrive at this combination, we only taste the difference immediately upon arriving home from The Islands.

Ahi Tuna or Octopus Poke

The recipe is the same whichever seafood you choose to use, just give the octopus an extra 30 minutes for the flavors to permeate. The tobiko gives it a luscious look and an interesting mouthfeel. I made a shrimp version for MZ, with some ebi from the sushi case, and she loved it! That's my girl...

1/4 cup finely diced sweet onion
1/2 cup green onions, finely sliced on the diagonal
1/3 c soy sauce
2 T mirin
1 good shake togarishi shimichi, a pinch of crushed red pepper flakes or 1 seeded Thai bird chile, minced
1/2 t freshly grated ginger with juice
1 lb. sushi-grade ahi, cut to 1 cm dice
2 t toasted sesame seeds, halved (a combination of black and white looks lovely)
1 T toasted sesame oil
1/4 cup tobiko

Combine the sweet onion, the white part of the green onion and the soy, mirin, chile or pepper flakes, garlic and ginger while dicing the ahi. Add the ahi, one half of the sesame seeds and 1/2 of the tobiko. Stir gently to combine, add the sesame oil and stir again. Allow to sit for at least 30 minutes. Just before serving, stir in the green part of the green onions, and sprinkle with remaining sesame seeds and tobiko. Enjoy on fried wonton chips, cucumber slices or a fork.

Ceviche el Tigre

A recent trip to Sayulita in the State of Nayarit, Mexico yielded some of the best ceviche I've ever had. It was made with dorado, or mahi mahi, freshly caught by members of our party. We grilled it up the first night, and on the second night six adults and three toddlers descended on El Tigre, a local restaurant that speciliazes in all things fish. She made Dorado Two Ways for us, the first course this addicitive ceviche and the second grilled with a variety of sauces. My favorite was the Mojo de Ajo, right after the ceviche, of course.

The proprietress was kind enough to share her recipe, which we attempted to duplicate on the third day, to quite good results.

Certainly the freshest of fish has a lot to do with our success, but I do plan to try this at home with whatever appropriate sushi-grade fish I can get my hands on.

Ceviche El Tigre

2 lbs. impecably fresh dorado/mahi mahi or similar fish, cut into 1 cm cubes
1 small white onion, finely diced
1 t. ground black pepper
1/2 t. salt
1 cup lime juice
2-3 Roma tomatoes, diced
1/2-1 cup cilantro, chopped
1 avocado, diced (optional)
2-5 T ketchup, to taste
Mexican hot sauce, such as Huichol or Valentina, to taste

Good-quality tortilla chips, preferably round and about 5" in diameter.
More Mexican hot sauce, such as Huichol or Valentina

Combine the fish with the lime juice, black pepper and salt and allow to sit, refrigerated, for about 1.5 hours, or until the fish becomes firm. Add the rest of the ingrdients, tossing lightly to combine. Adjust flavors to taste and enjoy with tortilla chips and more hot sauce to taste.

The last of the green garlic

I have a few recipes I've been dying to post, and right now I'm procrastinating folding laundry, so why not?

This a salsa verde of sorts that's amazing served over grilled fish or chicken. The strong flavors make a simple dinner pop. Serve over salad or whole wheat couscous or orzo. As an aside, whole wheat orzo is my new favorite side dish, it's fast and toothsome, without the flavor and mouthfeel tradeoff of some whole wheat pastas.

Green Garlic Salsa Cruda

3 stems (?) of green garlic, from whites through light green, stopping wherever the stem becomes tough
One dozen green or oil-cured black olives
20 or so stems of Italian parsley
1/2 teaspoon lemon zest
1 tablespoon rinsed salted capers
1 t or more fresh lemon juice
Anchovy, mashed (optional)
EVOO or lemon EVOO
Salt and freshly ground peper to taste

Coarsely chop the first 4 ingredients. Add the capers and combine with your preferred EVOO to taste. Addictive served over grilled salmon or halibut, yummy on steamed vegetables.