fish – Page 3 – The Kitchen Illiterate

An Improvised Paella with Sausage and Shrimp

Paella

It must be all the talk of Spain that’s been circulating around our house lately, what with the wifey expatriating herself to the land of pork, but I was struck last week with a very strong desire to make paella. I’d never even tasted paella, much less made it before last night, but according to those who’ve actually travelled out of the country (i.e. people who are not me) this is a very excellent version and I managed to do justice to the classic Valencian dish. We even made it on Sunday, the day on which paella is traditionally eaten Spain, so I feel assured that I am properly preparing Crystal for her Spanish sojourn.

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Chili Cornmeal Crusted Mahi Mahi and Fried Okra

Fish and Okra

It was a happy day in my life the first time I tasted fried okra. It was back in the college days, when Crystal was still living at the Market Street house, and she fried up the biggest batch of fried okra I’d ever seen. Well, it was the only batch of fried okra I’d ever seen, but I instantly wanted to see more. She sent me home that night with a quart-sized zip lock bag full of the stuff, which I stuck in the refrigerator and ate cold all week. You might think that sounds terrible, but it was an awesome snack when I was studying and writing papers and drinking beer. I’ve wanted more ever since, so I have no idea why it took nearly seven years before Crystal and I thought of frying up another batch.

When I saw fresh okra at the market last weekend, my excitement knew no bounds. I instantly snatched up handfuls and brought it home to the lady. Of course, she had only ever made fried okra with the frozen stuff before, so this was an experiment for both of us. A tasty experiment.

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Angel Hair with Scallops and Arugula

What do I do after a week of bad kitchen experiments? Cook something I’ve never made before, preferably something with a high chance of failure! Because I’m crazy like that. Not only had I never cooked scallops before, I’d never even eaten them, and thus had no idea what they were supposed to be like. Miraculously, they turned out, according to Mr. X, “perfectly.” Maybe I’m not such a kitchen klutz after all.

I’d been wanting to try scallops for awhile, in my eternal quest to always be cooking things i’ve never had before. I saw this recipe in the Williams-Sonoma Pasta cookbook and I thought the blend of ingredients sounded interesting–pine nuts, capers, arugula, lemon. It looked relatively easy, but still elegant and impressive. Which is exactly what it is. This would be an awesome first date dinner, and would guarantee at least some smooches.

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Buying fish the totally easy way: Swordfish Kebabs

Swordfish is delicious

When Crystal and I were at the Roche buying taco supplies, we saw the most glorious looking swordfish kebabs at the fish counter, and we had to have them. It seems a little silly posting about about this, because I kind of feel like there wasn’t too much cooking involved, but it was so delicious I have to.

I’m still teaching myself to like fish, and the more steaky things like tuna and swordfish are big favorites. Too bad they are so expensive (four of these kebabs cost us $20!). I will have to give up delicious things like this when I’m a poor student. I was also completely drawn in by skewered meat: We ate a ton of kebabs when I was growing up, but it’s something I never make anymore. That might have to change this summer.

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Lemon Spaghetti with Tuna

This is yet another Giada pasta dinner. My affection for Everyday Italian has been increasing lately, and I suspect tonight’s dinner will be pulled from its pages as well. The only change I made, to make it seem just a little more substantial, was adding tuna (well, and forgetting the basil) but even with tuna this was an simple, quick, light, summery dinner, perfect for these early days of spring. Also, the tuna steak I bought at the hippy mart was the biggest danged tuna steak I’ve ever seen.

I often worry that these pasta recipes with all of, like, two ingredients are going to be boring, but they never are. I was worried that this pasta would be overwhelmingly lemony, but it wasn’t. Its only drawback is that it looks boring, and it wouldn’t even look boring if I hadn’t forgotten the basil. Besides which, the only people who care if food looks boring are chefs and food bloggers, and I’m starting to get so obsessive about it that I often let food get cold while I’m taking pictures and arranging prettiness. I should just accept the fact that the food I’m actually planning to eat probably won’t ever look as nice as the food in the pages of Bon Appetit and just enjoy my meals already.

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Pepper Crusted Salmon with Creamy Chickpea Vinaigrette

Pepper Crusted Salmon and Chickpeas

I still have a lot to learn about how to properly cook fish. The thing is, I like fish to be pretty well done, which I know is not the way it’s supposed to be eaten. I just feel squeamish about the mushy texture of some raw fish. Tuna fillets? It’s ok if they’re a bit pink in the middle. Salmon and other flaky fish? No mush, thanks.

These salmon fillets were even harder to cook properly, because they were very thin on one side and very thick on the other, which is actually pretty normal, but hey. What do I know about fish? I was so afraid of burning it (and I did end up with a very smoky kitchen) that, sadly, the inside of the salmon was a little too pink for my taste. However, that could have been just perfect for someone else.

Despite my undercooked fish issues, this was a really unique and tasty dinner that left me feeling all healthy and nourished. And, yes, it was easy, though it did result in more dishes than I usually care to clean, including the difficult food processor. The chickpea side was also excellent the next day, sans fish, just tossed with some spinach and tomatoes. (Tomatoes which, by the way, seem to be coming back in season, at least if you get them imported from somewhere warmer than here.)

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Pipettes with Sauteed Shrimp and Peppers

Up on Shrimpy Mountain

More fun with alliteration! And a picture that obviously demonstrates Mr. X’s superiority at plating. This alliterative shrimp mountain was actually Saturday night’s dinner, which I’m only getting around to posting about now, despite the fact that it was totally easy and uncomplicated, because I am lazy. Actually, for once, I can claim busy-ness rather than laziness as the reason for my absence. I am currently in the midst of the one two-week period of each semester that I’m actually busy, but have decided today that I had to take my lunch break to satisfy my reading public. Ha. Aaaanyway.

Saturday night’s pasta dinner was awesome, and including prep took under half an hour. And I didn’t even buy my vegetables pre-sliced, a la Rachel Ray. The shrimp were a brilliant afterthought, too–we saw them at the market for less than the peppers cost, so in they went and I am glad they did. Not for the least reason that I got a great lesson in how to devein shrimp, way more efficiently than I did it last time I tried. Yay! Poop veins begone!

I’ll actually relay the recipe with all the prep steps included, so you can see that it really does take only about half an hour to do everything. Faster, even, if you’re a better chopper than me. I’m pretty slow with a knife, thus dooming any hopes I have of becoming a professional chef. Ah well.

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Super Spicy Shrimp and Red Onion Pasta

UPDATE: I re-made this dish in 2010, after I learned a few more things about cooking. Don’t forget to check out the much better version.

In my quest to eat more healthier things, I ran an epicurious search for foods not filled with butter. It didn’t come up with a lot, but a recipe for Spiced Shrimp and Red Onion Saute caught my eye. It looked fast, it didn’t require a ton of ingredients (other than spices, which I already have), and it looked relatively light. Plus, I love shrimp. I decided this would be an excellent Tuesday night meal, served over pasta, and with a little spinach thrown in, for greenery and extra vitamin purposes.

Well, it was very fast, and I’m assuming pretty healthy, but it was also so spicy I could hardly eat it. I also think I needed to add more shrimp, more spinach, and less onion, all of which alterations may happen in the future, because overall I think this was a pretty good dinner. Below, the recipe as followed, with my parenthetical alterations.

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Campanelle with Spicy Tomato Sauce, Trout, and Haricots Verts

It took me a long time to figure out what to call this particular pasta dish. I told Mr. X I was making trout pasta for dinner, and the look on his face made it very clear that “trout pasta” would not be an appropriate name. But if it were to appear on a restaurant menu, how could it be made clear that the trout is actually in the pasta sauce, not served on the side or anything? I’m not sure that my choice is perfect, but I guess the name of it isn’t that important, either. Because it was really super good! Way better than even I was expecting, and certainly better than “trout pasta” might connote.

I spent all day trying to think of what to do with the trout fillet I picked up at the hippy mart Monday. I’m not usually a big fan of just eating a piece of fish on its on, but I’m trying to get more of it into my diet, since it’s supposed to be healthy or something. I even thought for a minute about putting it on pizza, but I feel like I’ve been making lots of pizzas lately. Eventually, I figured it would just flake it into some pasta sauce and hope for the best.

But what kind of pasta sauce? I’ve seen recipes for trout topped with pesto, or salsa, and I’ve cooked other fish mixed into cream sauces, but none of that seemed right. Plus, I didn’t want to make a trip to the market again. So after rooting around in my larder (ha, I’ve always wanted to use that word) I came up with a hodge-podge of randomness, and crossed my fingers.

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Fish Tacos with Chipotle Tortillas

Fish Tacos

I first started making these fish tacos in college. I think I found the recipe in some local newspaper or something, I don’t remember where. Of course, there are more fish taco recipes in existence than I’m capable of counting, and people have strong preferences about whether the fish should be fried or sauteed, or topped with cabbage, or with white sauce or salsa or just lime juice and on and on and on. I like this recipe because it’s incredibly simple and light. Growing up in San Diego, I don’t recall eating fried fish tacos, but then again, I didn’t eat many fish tacos at all. I didn’t really cultivate a taste for fish until I was much older.

When I’ve made these in the past, I didn’t actually serve them topped with anything, but the white sauce recipe from The Paupered Chef sounded like an excellent addition. I also used their recipe for tortillas, the same recipe I used last time I made them, with a slight modification: I added some chipotles for some color and a little kick. This was a super excellent dinner.

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