In which Kate Halves a Protein

So it's still summer, even if it is after Labor Day for the last few months that's often meant cool or cold meals, partly because who wants to heat up the kitchen and run up the air conditioning bill?

I forget how I came across this recipe, but I've been eating olives a lot and this recipe didn't have leafy greens. It's not that I don't like leafy greens, It's that I had braces from 2011 to 2013 and I didn't eat them for two years because I didn't want to pick them out from under the wires and brackets. This means now I only have them occasionally becaues I don't digest them light I used to. Arugula and spinach seem to be okay, at least.

I figured this would be good for light dinners, since during the week my biggest meal of the day is lunch, but then I looked at the recipe. Take a look:

• 2 (5-ounce) cans oil-packed tuna, drained (or use tuna in water and 1-2 Tablespoons of olive oil
• 1/2 cup halved cherry or grape tomatoes
• 1/2 cup peeled, diced cucumbers
• 1/4 cup pitted, chopped kalamata olives
• 2 tablespoons coarsely chopped fresh oregano leaves
• 2 tablespoons coarsely chopped fresh parsley leaves
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
• Kosher salt
• Freshly ground black pepper

Toss all ingredients into a large bowl until well mixed

T

This seemed to me to be not enough vegetables to tuna. You'd barely get enough to flavor the fish. I love briny things, so I wanted the olives pretty strong. I also love lemon. So I cut the tuna in half but left the vegetables and spices as listed. 

I'm really happy with it. I think I can boost the flavors with more lemon juice (or maybe some lemon zest), and I may up the vegetables and the spices by 50%. Capers have also crossed my mind.

I got three main dish servings out of the salad; I ate them with pita chips to throw in some more variety to the textures. If you're looking for adding other vegetables, putting this on a bed of shredded romaine would likely serve you very well. 

If you try it, let me know how you like it!

Too hungry to take pictures

Hello friends! I am pleased to bring you a meal that is both easy and tasty.

While I got a raise with last year's new job, a lot of it does get eaten up by the commute, so I shop the sales and try to eat seasonal.

This week, I was lucky enough to get a couple of tuna steaks for about 40% off their usual price. Once I found those, I started wracking my brains. I've done sesame tuna, and while it's delicious, it wasn't what I was in the mood for. It is trying to be spring outside, dammit, and I wanted a citrusy freshness, so to Google, I went.

I hit what I call paydirt here. Conveniently, I had both Old Bay and dried cilantro in the house though it wasn't the brand listed. I don't think I'm subject to a lawsuit.

Anyway, very easy to make and not a lot of time. The ingredients are simple too (serves 2):

• 1/4 cup of olive oil
• 4 teaspoons Old Bay seasoning
• 2 limes, juiced
• 2 teaspoons dried cilantro leaves.
• 1 pound tuna steaks (this was two hefty ones, a little over an inch thick).

Blend the first four ingredients in a bowl. Put the tuna steaks in a zipper back and pour marinade over, making sure everything is covered. Put in fridge.

The recipe said a minimum of fifteen minutes, more for more flavor, once I put the steaks in the fridge, I did the following.

Preheat oven to 425 F.

Chop about 2/3 a cup of red onions to a small dice and place in a small bowl. cover with white vinegar, add a pinch of salt and about 1/2 teaspoon of sugar, set aside.

Scrub a pound of fingerling potatoes with a vegetable brush and rinse well, let dry on paper towels, cut into approximately equally-sized pieces. With most of the fingerlings, I could cut them in half. The smaller ones, I put small cuts in for ventilation. Put the potatoes in the large bowl.

Grab 6-8 large bay leaves. Take the leafy part off the main rib and pulverise the leaves with the violent method of your choice until you have a fine powder. Add a touch of salt, and some black pepper. (I actually used 4, and I definitely needed more bay leaves).

Pour 1/4 cup of olive oil over the potatoes and stir until the potatoes are coated well. Sprinkle half the spice mixture over, stir again. Repeat. Spread evenly on a cookie sheet covered with foil and stick in oven. Set timer for 15 minutes.

Put some fresh lettuce leaves on your plates (either a corner of the dinner plate or its own, but don't use a salad bowl, it won't be as pretty). I used butter lettuce because I love the texture.

Halve, pit, and peel a fresh avocado. Rub lime juice on your cutting board before putting the avocados down and slicing them. This will keep them from getting brown after plating. Slice the avocado and arrange the slices over the lettuce leaves.

At about this time, the timer will be going off. Stir the potatoes and return them to the oven.

Slice a jalapeno into rings, then gently remove the seeds and ribs. Place 5-7 jalapeno rings in a line on top of the avocado. Top with pickled onions.

Set the table, pour a glass of wine, run out the time until the timer goes off. Stir the potatoes again.

Put 2 Tablespoons of olive oil in a pan (because we're not allowed grills on our balconies and the public ones haven't been cleaned since the Clinton administration) and turn the heat up to medium high. Remove tuna from the fridge and sear for no more than two minutes a side. Transfer tuna to plates. Turn off the oven.

Add potatoes to plates. Pour more wine and serve.

We need a candy thermometer

A few weeks ago, Nexx made a chocolate mousse and topped it with candied orange peel. It was quite delicious, and I topped mine with just a touch of cream.

This weekend, we were invited to a dinner party and we were asked to make a salad. In my staunch refusal to be boring, I went digging and found this recipe. A bit more about that in a moment.

Now, one can buy candied lemon peel, but somebody very cute frowned at that, so I went digging a bit and also talked to Nexx.

The recipe I found seemed pretty easy. Peel lemons, eschew pith, boil and strain a few times then cook in simple syrup until soft and tasty.

When I talked to Nexx, he mentioned that he didn't boil it as many times as Lynn Rosetto Kasper did in her recipe. I took that under advisement and started my first boil.

And when I saw how yellow the water had turned and how much lemony goodness was being thrown away, I decided to cut the peel into smaller pieces.

Then it was a question of making simple syrup, which is easy. 2:1 ratio. Sugar in the pot, then the water. I had the heat up too high (hence the title of today's post), so ended up making more, but in the end, I had delicious bits of candied goodness. 

Now for the rest of the recipe:

• 2 heads frisée (curly endive) (6 to 7 cups, washed, dried and torn into bite sized pieces). Frisée is out of season, so I went with a mix of arugula, radicchio and a bit of endive.
• 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon salt I eliminated, the cheese provides sufficient salt
• 1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 3 tablespoons good tasting extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar, or to taste
• About 3 ounces Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, shaved into long furls I used a cheese called grana padano here. It's much less expensive than imported parmesan and has a slightly softer texture, making it easy to shave with a vegetable peeler.
• 1/3 cup Candied Lemon Peel, homemade or store bought, cut into 1/2-inch sticks
• 1/3 cup toasted pine nuts
• 1/4 cup Balsamic Syrup (balsamic vinegar with a bit of brown sugar).

1. Place the frisée into a large bowl and have 4 to 6 individual salad plates at hand. Sprinkle the greens with the salt, pepper and the olive oil. Toss and then add the wine vinegar. Toss again and taste for oil-vinegar balance.

 

2. Heap greens on each plate, and tuck the cheese furls and lemon peel here and there into the greens. Scatter with the pine nuts and drizzle each pile with a few streaks of the balsamic syrup. Serve immediately.

We didn't quite get into the fancy plating as this was being driven about an hour away. So, tossed together, except for the balsamic, it was sent with Nexx to the dinner party, with a bowl reserved for me to eat later. To my extreme annoyance, I had been attacked by a cold this week and was not fit company for man nor beast. Which is a pity because the friend hosting the dinner party has bunnies and bunnies are one of my favorite beasts.

Nexx came home with an empty container and a little bit of balsamic syrup that had been funneled into a bottle for easy transport. The salad, I was told, was a hit. I had enjoyed it quite a bit, especially the different play of textures. The sharp saltiness of the cheese ad the richness of the pine nuts practically danced with the lemon peel.

And now I have about a pint of lemon syrup which is going into hot tea, because poor Nexx now has my cold.

Next time--either a lamb chili or a carrot ginger soup. Stay tuned!

In which Kate learns take better inventory of her wine

This week's entry should have been a resounding success, if it weren't for one thing: I grabbed the wrong bottle of wine. Let me begin at the beginning:

A while back, I found this recipe. Olive Oil Cured Swordfish. I loved it on sight. First off, I really enjoy the flavor and texture of swordfish. Second of all, a lot of the recipes I've seen for swordfish are heavy on the citrus, almost too much so. This one used it as an appetizer, and the orange and coriander made it very different from what I've seen. And it was pretty easy--my biggest challenge was finding a vessel big enough to lay out the fish slices:

Ingredients:

6 oz fresh swordfish

1/4 cup dry white wine. Dry. Note that, it's very important. 

1/4 cup lemon juice

1/4 t salt

1 orange

Sea Salt

Freshly ground black pepper.

What happened with the wine was this, I took inventory, found the wine I wanted to use (we only had two whites in the house), made a mental note and prepared my shopping list. When I grabbed the wine to make the marinade (see below), it was a sweet wine, not a dry one.  If I'd had more lemon juice to counter it, things might have turned out better.

As it was, I sliced the swordfish thinly, the hint in the recipe to lead with the heel of the knife was very useful. I ended up with pretty uniform slices. 

in a small bowl, whisk together the white wine, lemon juice and salt to combine. Pour this mixture over the raw fish slices and allow to rest for 1 hour at room temperature. I would recommend a little more than an hour if you have the time. My thicker slices didn't get "cooked" in the full hour.

Meanwhile, zest the orange, then segment (supreme) it, slicing the segments again in half lengthwise. Reserve both. Toast, then grind the whole coriander in a mortar & pestle. Here is a place where I need a lot of practice, my knife work is not, shall we say, supreme. Fortunately, my sweetie goes through satsumas in the winter the way I go through chocolate when I have PMS.  

Remove the fish slices from the marinade and set them atop a large piece of paper towel set on a plate. Top with another piece of paper towel to cover and gently press to dry.

Transfer the fish slices to a serving platter, arranging them in a single layer. Drizzle with olive oil to just cover. Scatter the orange segments, zest and ground coriander over them and sprinkle with a bit of sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.

I decided to serve this over an arugula salad as a main dish. It worked reasonably well, but it wasn't perfect. A day later, the marinade had done its job completely and the results was delicious. I plan to make this again, and when I have the money, serve it on a block of Himalayan salt like the one below


Happy eating everyone! As always, comments are encouraged.

Next week: something with sumac, and I don't mean the poison kind.