Fish for breakfast

Fish for breakfast is hardly a new concept. People all over the planet have been doing it since time immemorial, though unless you count lox on bagels, it has never been a regular thing for me.

My first exposure to the concept was from my father, who occasionally liked to fish. He would sometimes zap some smelt in a pan to have along with his fried eggs and toast. I didn't care for smelt when I was a rugrat. 

Now, older and wiser, I do try new things here and there. I also consume a lot of British media, so I suppose it was only a matter of time before I tried kedgeree, if only out of curiosity. I mentioned I was thinking of trying it, and my friend Marybeth provided this recipe from the BBC. 

• 475g/1lb 1oz undyed smoked haddock fillet, cut in half  (I didn't have access to haddock, the grocery said they had trout, but ended up substituting salmon, so see the additional instructions below for that).
• 2 bay leaves
• 200g/7oz basmati rice, rinsed in cold water and drained
• 4 free-range eggs
• 100g/3½oz frozen peas (optional) (I plan to us a bit more next time. I adore curry and peas together)
• 40g/1½oz butter
• 1 tbsp sunflower oil (there's a history of sunflower allergy in my family, so I used safflower. Avocado would also do. Light and neutral is whats needed)
• 1 onion, finely chopped (as with the peas, there will be more next time)
• 1 heaped tbsp medium curry powder
• 3 tbsp double cream
• 3 tbsp chopped fresh flatleaf parsley
• ½ lemon, juice only
• freshly ground black pepper

Place the haddock in a large frying pan, skin-side up. Pour over 500ml/18fl oz water, add the bay leaves and bring the water to a gentle simmer. Cook the fish for 8–10 minutes until it is just done and flakes easily. Drain in a colander set over a bowl, reserving the cooking liquor, and discard the bay leaves.

Pour the cooking liquor into a saucepan and stir in the rice. Cover with a lid and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer the rice very gently for 10 minutes. Turn off the heat and leave the rice covered for 3–5 minutes more. By this time it should have absorbed all the fish liquor.

While the rice is cooking, bring some water to the boil in a saucepan. Add the eggs and cook for 8 minutes. Drain them in a sieve under cold running water and when cool enough to handle, peel them carefully and set aside. Cook the peas, if using, in a small saucepan of boiling water and drain.

Melt the butter with the oil in a large frying pan and cook the onion over a low heat for 5 minutes until well softened, stirring occasionally. Add the curry powder and cook for another 3 minutes, stirring constantly. 

A word about the curry powder. I am quite fond of spicy heat, but I have to say that the extra-hot curry powder I had in the house was a bit much. I will be getting a milder one for the next batch. If you want an assortment to choose from, I am happy to recommend Auntie Arwen's (this is not a paid endorsement, but I'll happily take money for it).

Place the cooked rice into the pan and stir into the onions. Add the peas, cream, parsley and a few twists of ground black pepper.

Flake the fish into chunky pieces and add these to the pan. Gently stir in the lemon juice and cook for 1–2 minutes. Cut the eggs into quarters and place them on top of the rice. Cover the pan with a lid and heat through for 2–3 minutes or until the eggs are warm, then serve.

If not serving immediately, tip the kedgeree into a warm dish and dot with a few cubes of butter. Cover with kitchen foil and keep warm in a low oven for up to 20 minutes before serving.

The instructions I followed at the first step:  To make this dish using hot smoked salmon, swap in 500ml/18fl oz light chicken stock in place of the cooking liquor from the fish. Stir in the hot smoked salmon with the peas.

Raiding the Freezer

I blame the friends who brought carnitas to New Year's Eve. Tender and juicy and then I remembered I had a pork loin in the freezer. I had also made huevos rancheros this week so I had tacos to use up.

So I went poking around the internet, like one does, and found a recipe that intrigued me.  I scaled everything down because my pork loin was much smaller, but kept the proportions the same:

• 2 Tbsp. olive oil
• 3 lb. pork loin
• 1 cup chicken stock (I had low-sodium in the pantry, so I went with that)
• 1 orange, juiced
• 1 lime, juiced
• 7 oz. can chipotle peppers in adobo sauce
• Salt and pepper to taste 

There are very few recipes where I feel the need to change something. Ask anyone I've ever lived with and they'll tell you I put salt on my salt. I thought I'd be adding some garlic salt to this after it came out of the oven, but nope, nothing needed.

The instructions:

• Preheat the oven to 350°F.
• Heat the olive oil in a large Dutch oven or skillet over a burner turned to medium-high heat.
• Sear the pork loin on each side, about 4 minutes per side, until a crust has formed. (I don't really care for my meat crunchy on the outside, so I seared for 3 minutes a aside to get it a brown shade. As you wish) 
• Turn the burner off and add the stock, orange juice, lime juice, and the can of chipotles to the Dutch oven, or transfer the seared loin to a casserole dish and top with the ingredients listed above. (I went for the casserole dish because I didn't have so much pork that I thought it warranted such a huge vessel #StudioLiving)
• Place the lid on the Dutch oven, or cover the casserole dish with foil, and place in the preheated oven for 2-3 hours. When you can pull apart the pork with a fork, it is done. (I went for the full three hours and flipped it halfway through, although keeping it covered kept it plenty moist)
• Taste and add salt and pepper if desired, but I often find that the canned chipotles add enough seasoning. None needed! How delightful!
• If a crispy carnita is desired, spread the pork out on to a sheet pan and turn the oven to high broil.
• Broil for 2-3 minutes, until a crust has formed on the meat. Watch carefully so the pork doesn’t burn.
• Serve in tacos, burritos, quesadillas, or on taco salad.

My carnitas went in a couple of tacos topped with black beans, a bit of salsa verde, sharp cheddar, green onions, and sour cream. I didn't have enough room for the avocados, so those got eaten at the end with everything that dripped out of the tacos. I call that a win. 

Prefolding pic because nobody was handy to hold a folded taco while I took the shot.

This is definitely being made again.

If you try these, let me know. It's rare I have so little commentary on a recipe. This just works!

Dessert for a change (a simple baked pear)

 This one is going to need a little tweaking, but I'm fairly happy with the results, especially considering I was winging it without a recipe.

I like the flavor of pears, but I'm not really fond of the texture. Mostly I use them in smoothies with a lot of chopped or grated ginger (there's usually some in the house, sometimes fresh, soemtimes from a jar), vanilla protein powder, almond milk, maybe some nutmeg, the last idea for which I thank my unofficially adopted little sister Fae.

I've tried a few different kinds and I usually come back to Bosc. I've had them grilled, poached in wine, these have gone over vanilla ice cream or gelato.

This week I figured, why not bake one? It's no secret I loathe the taste and texture of the traditional flour/sugar/salt/water/fat, but really, there's no rule all baked fruit needs to be in pie or tart or turnover. 

If I wanted crunch, I have raspberry granola, and that could be an option for the other pear in the fridge. I like the spices, though, so after some thought, I came up with this.

• One Bosc pear lazily peeled so there's a little left for texture,
• 3/4 Tablespoon of butter
• 1 teaspoon brown sugar (I had light in the pantry. Dark would work just fine)
• Ground nutmeg
• Ground ginger
• 2 Tablespoons cream for serving

I preheated the oven to 400 degrees F (244 C, 477 Kelvin) first thing. 

The pear was chopped into bits no bigger than a cubic inch. No, I didn't measure, this was purely eyeballed. I tried to keep them similar.

Next, I  used some of the butter to grease a small class baking dish, then put the rest in a ramekin in the microwave at level 5 for 30 seconds to melt it. Pears into the dish, stir with the butter.

From there, I sprinkled on the sugar and stirred again, then shook the nutmeg and ginger jars over the pears a few times. Again with the stirring.

This next bit is where I need to tweak some. I put the pears in the oven, uncovered, and stirred them every ten minutes or so. I think I need to do this at list every fifteen. I didn't really get some nice browning until about 45 minutes in and I ended up turning up the heat a touch towards the end. I will post an update when I do this again.

It also needs a bit more spice, maybe a touch of vanilla. 

They came out of the oven looking like this:

and it is definitely clear that I need some smaller bowls because the serving, which was perfect for one, looked a little lonely in the smallest of the bowls I have.

I finished it with 2 T of cream because I love fruit and cream and I didn't want the sweetness of ice cream to overwhelm the spices. It made for an excellent mouthfeel. 

Quite easy, overall. It could easily be made vegan with a butter substitute (I'm not up on my butter substitu5es), and finishing it with a coffee creamer. Trader Joe's has a vanilla one made with almond and coconut milk that could work, but I'd use only 1 T because it will have extra sugar. Not sure if almond milk by itself would work, but it's definitely worth investigating.

If you try this, please let me know!