Flounder With a Crunch

Anyone who’s been following this blog over the last couple of years, knows that until three years ago I never tasted fish during the first 6 decades of my life, however, when I finally was trapped into tasting them… I found it a great culinary experience.  It showed me what I’ve been, unnecessarily, depriving myself of!

The following easy to make recipe appeared in a book published in 2004 by the Arie Crown Hebrew Day School in Skokie, IL. From Crowning Elegance, a cookbook that combines superb recipes with an elegant flair:

Photo from: Crowning Elegance, page 210

Dairy or Parve — Serves 4

Crushed prestzels are a welcoming change from the basic breadcrumb topping. They add a nice cruch and a salty flvor, balancing the simplistic flavor of flounder.

Ingredients

• 1 pound flounder fillets
• 1 egg beaten
• 3 tablespoons Dijon Mustard
• 1 tablespoon milk or non-dairy creamer
• 1/4 tablespoon black pepper
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1 cup coarsely crushed prestzels
• 2 tablespoons canola oil
• 1 lemon sliced, optional garnish

Directions

1. In a shallow bowl, using a fork, combine egg, mustard, milk and pepper.
2. on a large piece of plastic wrap separately place flour and pretzels .
3. Coat fish with flour, dip fish into mustard mixture. Dredge fish in crushed pretzels to coat both sides well.
4. In a large skillet, over medium high flame, heat oi. Cook fish in batches for 3 to 4 minuteson each side or until golden brownand fish flakes easily with a fork.
5. Serve hot and garnish with lemon slices.

Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cook time: 15 minutes

Enjoy, gentle reader, enjoy!

CS

Cioppino

This past Monday eve, SYR and I attended Lévana‘s Dinner and a Show: Light Italian Feast. As usual it was enjoyable, educational and absolutely DELICIOUS! Certainly one of the best cooking classes I’ve ever attended.

We especially liked the Cioppino and Lévana graciously allowed us to post her recipe:

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 6 cloves garlic
• 4 ribs celery, peeled
• 2 red peppers
• 1 large onion, quartered
• 1 fennel bulb, quartered, centers removed, sliced-thin
• 3 leeks, darkest parts removed
• 1 large can (28 oz.) crushed tomatoes
• 2 cups dry white wine
• 6 cups water
• 6 bay leaves, or 1 teaspoon ground
• 2 good pinches saffron
• 2 tablespoons paprika
• 1 tablespoon anise and fennel seeds
• Good pinch cloves
• Good pinch red pepper flakes
• 2 2-ounce can anchovies, drained and rinsed

• 1 side salmon (about 3 pounds), cut in large cubes
• 1 pound flaked mock crab
• 1 large bunch flat parsley, minced

Directions

Heat the oil in a heavy wide bottom pot. In a food processor coarsely grind the garlic, celery, pepper and onion. Add the ground mixture to the pot, with the leeks, and sautè until translucent. Reduce to medium and cook for 30 minutes. Add the fish and parsley and cook just 5 more minutes. Ladle into soup bowls, and serve with good toasted bread or croutons.

Though it took me more 60 years to even taste fish, I can assure you (as does, SYR) that these was an incredibly tasty soup with a rich array of subtle flavors. Considering the ingredients… I can actually say…. it’s good for you, as well!

Enjoy, gentle reader, enjoy!

CS

Salmon in Lemon Sauce

It’s hard to believe that until about 21 months ago I had never eaten fish, other than a small piece of gefilte on Friday evenings (and even then, none too willingly!). Having learned how to enjoy them, thanks to Orchideä and the defunct Avenue Plaza Dining (both in Boro Park), I now savor the taste and appreciate the nutritional value of that which for decades I’d considered untouchable, inedible, food.

Since, I’ve made this recipe a few times because it tastes great and it’s easy:

Photo from: http://moderndayozzieandharriet.blogspot.com

Ingredients

• 4 tbsp. margarine
• 1 lb. salmon filets
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1/2 tsp tarragon
• 1 clove minced garlic
• 1 tsp. fresh chopped parsley
• 1 pinch oregano
• 3 oz. dry white wine
• 2 oz. fresh lemon juice
• 2 tsp. capers
• 1 tbsp. cornstarch
• 1/2 cup cream
• 1/2 cup milk

Directions

1. Melt 2 tbsp butter in a skillet. Lightly salt and pepper the fish. Cook the fish over medium-high heat for about 4 to 5 minutes on each side.
2. Add the tarragon, garlic, parsley, oregano. When garlic browns add capers, white wine and lemon juice. Add salt and pepper to taste.
3. Remove fish from fire to a plate keeping it warm as you make the sauce. Melt the remaining butter in the same skillet. Whisk in the cornstarch; when smooth, add the cream and milk, whisking until smooth, cook until it thickens.
4. Simmer for one minute, return the fish to the pan, and reheat for another minute. Top fish with sauce and serve with rice.

Enjoy, gentle reader, enjoy!

CS

Jeff Nathan’s Rosemary Potato Latkes with Honey Drizzle

Hanukkah at Abigael’s on Broadway

Gift Giving Special ~ Buy One, Get One
All gift cards ordered now through December 31st, 2010
will receive a 10 % additional card.

$ 100 gift card gets you a $ 10 gift card
$ 200 gift card gets you a $ 20 gift card

Each day of Hanukkah will feature three latke selections
~Savory or sweet, each one will be a treat!

407 Broadway – at 39th Street, New York, NY; Tel: 212.575.1407

—)x0x0x(—

Chef Jeff Nathan, from Abigael’s, has graciously agreed to share this delicious latke recipe.

Pareve
Makes about 20 latkes, 5 to 6 servings

Ingredients

• 4 large russet potatoes (2 pounds)
• 1 pound yellow onions (1 pound)
• 2 large eggs, beaten
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
• 4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 1 teaspoon fresh rosemary, rough chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon fresh mint
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• olive oil, for fryinghoney, (use varying flavors of honey for added taste, ie: clover, lavender, pine, blueberry)

Directions

1. Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 200°F. Line a baking sheet with papertowels.
2. Using the large holes of a box grater or the grating disk of a food processor, alternately grate thepotatoes and onions into a work bowl (this provides better distribution of the onions). Using your hands,squeeze out as much moisture as you can from the potato mixture. Add the eggs, flour, parsley, garlic,rosemary and mint. Add in the salt and pepper, and mix well.
3. Add enough oil to a large, deep skillet to come 1/2-inch up the sides. Do not skimp! Heat over medium-high heat until very hot but not smoking. In batches without crowding, using about 1/4 cup of the potatomixture for each pancake, carefully add the mixture to the oil, spreading it with a spoon to make 3-inchpancakes. Fry, turning once, until deep golden brown on both sides. Use a slotted spatula to transfer tothe baking sheet. Serve immediately or keep warm in the oven while making the remaining pancakes.Drain off any excess liquid that forms in the bowl as you make subsequent batches.
4. Serve hot drizzled with honey.

Enjoy, gentle reader, enjoy. I can’t wait to try it!

CS

Getting Hooked on Fish

Look, I’m not a big fish lover, though I’ve got to tell you some of the fine fish dishes we’ve been served up have radically changed my gut reaction to those scaly creatures. We’ve had great sushi, fish that didn’t taste like fish, fish that didn’t look nor taste like fish and fish that tasted like fish but was so well prepared, we didn’t seem to mind; in fact we kept being surprised. Would I go out and buy them, during the Nine Days? Maybe, but otherwise, not so much; even if the stats on fish being a heart healthy, stroke and Alzheimer’s  preventative food, are definitely very convincing.

So, in keeping with with the season (and in lieu of meat), I thought I’d share a few tips learned along the way about preparing a good fish entrée.

Buying Fish

When you’re at the store pick a fish that’s firm doesn’t smell fishy, but fresh like it just came out of the sea; not that I’ve had first encounters with what that smells like. If you’re buying a whole fish, the color should still be vibrant, the eyes not dulled nor opaqued. Cook it right away or freeze it, but don’t fridge it for more than a day. When preparing a milchige meal, my mother always soaked the fish in milk for a while; she claimed it  got rid of any fishy taste.

From: Exile Kiss blog

Preparing Fish

• Marinades are wonderful; just don’t leave the fish in an acidic based marinades for more than 30-60 minutes.  Simple marinades work great!
• Try olive oil mixed with fresh lemon juice, add a little pepper, some fresh parsley or dill, thyme or basil and voilà, fantastic!
• Add a teriyaki sauce or mix a small finely chopped  onion, 1 minced garlic clove, 1/2 cup light soy sauce, 1/4 cup water, 2 tablespoons brown sugar, 1/4 teaspoon black pepper, 1 tbsp fresh ginger, zest of a lemon or lime, add some Tabasco or crushed hot pepper if you like it hot, (works great on salmon, but then practically everything does!).
• If you like a cooler taste, try poached salmon with cucumber dill sauce.  1 c. chopped or shredded peeled and seeded cucumber, 1/2 c. yogurt or sour cream,1/2 c. mayonnaise (low fat mayo works), 1 tbsp vinegar or lemon juice,1 tbsp. minced parsley,1 tbsp. dill, salt and pepper to taste. (covers 4-5 medium fish filets).
• For easy mayonnaise based sauces guaranteed to make you fatter- here are three favorites:
  1. ½ c. mayo, 2 tbsp. Dijon or honey mustard, 1 tbsp. honey, pinch of salt, pepper and garlic powder, ¼ tsp apple cider vinegar
  2. Mayo-ketchup – 1 part ketchup to two parts mayo, garlic powder to taste.
  3. Tartar mayo – 1/2 cup Mayonnaise,2 tbsp sweet pickle relish, 1 tablespoon lemon juice, 1/2 teaspoon chopped parsley, 1 tbsp chopped chives.

Personally, I like my fish baked or pan seared with a few drops of olive oil, a clove of garlic, and a couple good squeezes of fresh lemon.

Fish is versatile and porous so it doesn’t take much for it to absorb surrounding flavors. Poached, baked or fried, don’t overcook your fish. Take it off the flame or remove from the oven when it’s mostly done; it will continue to cook till it cools. What makes a fish kosher? Check it out here, or you can find a listing of kosher fish here. For those who suffer on these strictly milchig or pareve days… remember that is the point of the whole thing. Pray for Shabbos, join a siyum, but  mostly daven for a true yeshuah when we will be zocheh to flip me’evel l’yomtov, bimhera biyamenu, amen! .

SYR

Israeli Food Blogs – Part 3

Finally I found a recipe for a pareve potato bread. I always wanted to taste potato bread!

From Israeli Kitchen:

The recipe for this delicious, light bread came from  Elizabeth David’s English Bread and Yeast Cookery. Browsing through that book is a pleasure. I start reading for fun, absorbed in food history, almost hearing Ms. David’s distinctive, elegantly British voice, and then hit the recipes. Oh, those crumpets and muffins, those brioches and yeast buns!

Every time I go through it, another recipe catches my eye. This time, it was potato bread. Ms. David took old recipes and adjusted them to her modern English kitchen. Here in Israel, I took this recipe and did the same.

One of the adjustments I made was to keep this loaf pareve (containing neither meat nor milk). Ms. David suggests using a mixture of warm milk and water for the liquid. Note: there is no fat nor commercial sugar in this bread.

Potato Bread

1 large loaf

Ingredients

White flour: 450 grm or 3 1/2 cups

Salt: 20 grm. or 2 tsp.

Warm, dry, mashed and sieved potato: 120 grm or 1/2 cup, firmly packed. One medium-sized potato should do it.

Yeast from fresh cube: 15 grm. or 1 Tblsp.

Water, warm: 280 grm. or 1 cup plus a little less than 1/2 cup

Method:

1. Boil the potato, in its skin, till it’s quite soft, but not disintegrating.

2. While the potato is cooking, put the yeast in a small bowl with the warm water. Allow it to dissolve.

3. Measure 3 cups of flour into a bowl and add the salt to it.

4. When the potato is done, drain it and bring the cooking pot back to the stove, shaking it over the flame to dry it out well. Remove the potato to a dish and let it cool just enough to handle. I didn’t peel my potato, but if you want to, go ahead. Mash it and force it through a sieve to eliminate lumps in the dough.

5. Rub the sieved potato through the flour as if it were fat for a pie crust, till the potato is “thoroughly amalgamated.”

6. Make a well in the center of the potatoey flour and pour the yeasty water in. With a spoon, throw flour from the sides over the liquid and mix it in.

7. Keep stirring and mixing. You will get a loose, sloppy dough. Don’t let that worry you, just cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it rise. Between 2 and 3 hours later, it will look like this:

8. Knock it back and sprinkle in, a little at a time, another 1/2 cup of flour. Lightly knead, or fold and stretch the dough till it’s a cohesive mass. Cover the dough with a damp towel and let it rest for 15 minutes. Both of these parts are important: you let the dough rest to absorb the new quantity of flour, and the damp towel is there to keep the top crust a little moisturized lest you get a crust too hard to cut.

Preheat the oven to 425° F 225°  C.

9. While the oven is heating, shape the dough into a loaf. You can place it into a loaf tin or leave it free-form. What I did was shape the loaf on a floured sheet of baking paper and roll the paper back and forth a few times under it. The normally bottom, seam side stayed up on purpose to let the loaf open along the seam – instead of slashing the loaf on the top side.  Let the loaf rise till light – again, covered with a damp towel – another 20 minutes or so.

10. Spritz, or brush the loaf with water.

11. Bake it for 45 minutes.

Cool on a rack. Wait till the bread is entirely cool before slicing into it. In fact, it’s better the next day. Good to eat plain or toasted; good for sandwiches; good for croutons. Just darned good bread.

[Photo by Mimi from www.israelikitchen.com].

The taste was super delicious, the aroma as it was baking and as it come out of the oven… ahhh… The above quoted blog is further proof you need not be a professionally trained chef, with years of experience, to create delectable food!

CS