eat fish and be merry

Last night I wasn't in the mood to cook. It's been a busy week catching up on all the work that had piled up since I went back to Ontario and I had inadvertently skipped lunch which left me at dinner time feeling all woozy and tired. Just thinking about dinner — let alone getting up the energy to make it happen seemed like too damn much. But being the frugal girl that I am, I didn't want to order in take-out since we're in "Get-Ready-Set-Europe!" savings mode. Instead, I did what most modern cooks do. I went online to epicurious and typed in a couple things I had in my fridge and out popped a couple super simple recipes.

The fish recipe seemed too simple to be good, but I read all the comments and decided to give it a go and I'm glad I did. How can you go wrong with crispy roasted rosemary scented potatoes and fish? I added parsley in addition to the rosemary since my balcony garden has been brimming with these 2 herbs and I just used cod since that's what I had on hand. The original recipe called for bread crumbs so I subbed in panko crumbs instead, but next time, I'll skip the breadcrumbs altogether (and I've omitted them from the recipe below). Trust me they added nothing. But what to do with the super fresh local wax beans I had just purchased? I could have just steamed them, but instead I decided to tamper with another epicurious recipe, using limes instead of lemons and adding the juice for extra zest. Yum!

This entire meal was so fresh tasting and simple to prepare. Add a pint or two of ice cold beers and it's pretty easy to forget that I was on the brink of calling for take-out. These recipes saved my day. Really.


baked fish with potatoes & rosemary
1 lb new baby potatoes, halved if needed
3 T olive oil
1 handful of fresh rosemary
1 handful of fresh parsley
4 whole garlic cloves, peeled
Fleur de sel
Black pepper
4 white fish fillets

1. Preheat to 400°F. Place the potatos in large baking dish, pour 2 tablespoons of the olive oil over them, add most of the rosemary & parsley (saving some for later), all the garlic cloves, and salt, and pepper. Toss thoroughly. Put the dish in the preheated oven. After 20 minutes, turn the potatoes over and put back in the oven. Cook until the potatoes feel tender when tested with a fork, another 15 minutes or so.

2. Remove the dish from the oven. Push the potatoes to the sides, making room in the center for the fish fillets to lie flat.

3. Rinse and pat dry the fish fillets, laying them flat in the dish. Scatter the remaining parlsey & rosemary over the fish, add salt and pepper, and the remaining 1 tablespoon of olive oil over the fillet. Return the dish to the oven and bake for 10-15 minutes, depending on how thick your fillets are. Plate and serve with Lime & Honey Wax Beans and a couple of cold ones.

lime & honey wax beans
1 lb wax (yellow) beans, trimmed
1 T honey
zest and juice from 1 lime
salt

Cook beans in a pot of boiling salted water until just tender, 6 to 8 minutes. Drain in a colander and rinse under cold water to prevent further cooking. Immediately toss with honey, zest and juice, and salt in a large bowl.

i love the beets & the beets love me

I've always been a fan of the beet. I love their sugary sweet flavour after they've been roasted in the oven and I love how they turn everything on your plate a deep shade of pink. I've turned a simple ho-hum hummous into an electric shade of fuchsia just by pureeing a small roasted beet into the chickpea-tahini mix. Even my colourful lunch (leftovers from last night's meal) turned into a veritable rainbow with the addition of a few baby beets.

For the longest time, I used only the beets but had no idea what to do with the leaves...so into the compost bucket they went. However, emboldened by an article about eating what I was throwing away, I steamed them up and served them with a bit of butter. Amazing! Tangier and bolder than spinach, they were much more "meatier" than I expected and a hundred times more delicious. Similar in taste to kale, I quickly became a beet green convert and tried to get others into the fold. However, when it comes to beets and their greens, there aren't very many willing converts. When I'd wax poetically about the red root, people wouldn't hear it. Instead, they'd tell me all kinds of horror stories about how their mothers would force feed them beets until all their bodily fluids would turn red from the trauma. Hmph! Sometimes you just don't know what you're missing.

sauteed beet greens with lime and garlic
1 bunch of beet greens & stems, rinsed and torn into bite-sized pieces
1 T olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
juice of half a lime

1. Heat olive oil and garlic in a large pan. When garlic becomes fragrant, add in the beet greens. They might splatter a bit, but it will all simmer down shortly. Turn down the heat and squeeze some lime juice into the mix and let the leaves and stem wilt for a few minutes until tender.

Tomorrow's lunch

When I spied the recipe for Linguine with Tofu and Coconut-Lime Sauce on Crystal's blog, I was instantly smitten. Coconut + Lime = Awesomeness. Plus, I had everything to make this amazing sounding dish on the spot! My friend Kristen was coming over for dinner and I figured this would make a quick and delicious vegan meal. Originally, I was going to use the magic loaf studio to concoct some kind of tasty magical loaf, but didn't want to risk turning on the oven, as it was already hot enough in the kitchen. So after studying Crystal's recipe, I made a few mental notes and got to cooking. When you have someone else in the kitchen it seems silly to keep running to the computer to check on a recipe, so I just started chopping and frying as Kristen, Cornelius and I laughed and talked and drank ice cold club soda to keep cool.

I wish I had the forethought to take some photos before we all dug in (and hey, each one of us went back for seconds), but it didn't even cross my mind. So unfortunately, you'll have to stare at my very unglamorous refrigerated leftovers tucked inside a Que Pasa salsa container. Someone is going to have a very lucky lunch tomorrow!

My notes: Although I did like the taste of using regular Italian fettucini here, next time I would use Asian rice noodles instead to keep things a bit more authentic. I also added in spinach and basil to the recipe since I had some on hand. This is a great recipe base to use up any vegetables in your fridge, so if you've got some celery, bok choy, carrots or broccoli on hand, throw it in!

Fettucini with Tofu and Coconut-Lime Sauce
(recipe adapted from poco-coco.com)
1 500 gr package of fettucini
1 package extra-firm tofu, patted dry and cut into 1/2-inch squares
1 tablespoon dark sesame oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoon peeled minced fresh ginger
1 c sugar snap peas, trimmed
1 red bell pepper, sliced into 2-inch strips
3 green onions, sliced
1 bunch spinach
1 small bunch basil
1/2 cup vegetable broth
1/2 t cornstarch
1 can light coconut milk, well-stirred
2 T soy sauce
juice of 1 lime + zest

1. Cook pasta according to package directions. Drain well.

2. Heat olive oil in a large wok over medium-high heat. Add garlic and ginger and heat for 1 minute. Add tofu and stir fry until golden. Remove tofu from pan. Add sesame oil to pan. Add peas, green onion and bell pepper; saute 3 minutes until softened. Add coconut milk, soy sauce, lime juice and zest. Add basil and spinach and let wilt in the liquid. Mix together the cornstarch and broth and add to pan, bringing mixture to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 5 minutes or until slightly thick. Add pasta and tofu; toss to coat.

give a little sweetness

My friend Mel makes pretty things and then sells them at her online shop demoderby. I recently bought a cute little onesie from her as a gift for some friends who just had a baby and was so pleased at how cute it was that I figured I'd bake her some cookies. I decided to make the mexican chocolate cookies that I had bookmarked for ages from Milk & Honey and they turned out wonderfully. As a contrast to the spicy chocolate, I figured something citrusy would go nicely too. I found a recipe for Lemon Cookies from the Moosewood Restaurant Celebrates cookbook and instead of lemons, I used limes to make these cookies. They were perfect....light, buttery and not to sweet and full of lime flavour! Perfect for spring time gift giving...or for just munching outside in the park.

lime cookies
Recipe from Moosewood Restaurant Celebrates

topping:
1 1/2 t freshly grated lime peel
1 1/2 T sugar

dough:
1 3/4 c flour
1/2 t salt
3/4 c sugar
1/2 c cold butter, cut into small pieces
1 T freshly grated lime peel
1 t vanilla
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 T fresh lime juice

1. Stir together the topping ingredients in a shallow bowl and set aside.

2. In a large bowl, combine the flour, salt and sugar and mix well to combine. Add the butter and lime peel and mix with your hands until you get the texture of coarse meal. Add the vanilla, egg and lime juice and blend with a wooden spoon until the dough comes together to form a ball. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.

3. Preheat the oven to 350. Divide the dough into 3 equal pieces. Working with 1 piece of dough at a time, roll the dough between your hands to make 12 small balls. Press each ball into the lime sugar topping, flattening into a 2 inch circle. Place on a cookie sheet, sugar side up. Bake until golden at the edges, about 7 to 8 minutes. Place on rack to cool.