Cod Piece

Around the end of the year, I scored some affordable cod fillets at HEB. I'd been on the lookout for that particular fish, even though I'd only eaten it once: It was the fish in the fish and chips my sisters and I shared at The Gage in Chicago. I had no aspirations of recreating that tasty meal, but I did want to enjoy this particular white fish again, so imagine my delight in finding some that didn't cost an arm and a leg.

Of course, once I had the fish, what was I to do with it? Outside of breaded or battered processed fish or "tuna" from a can, Mum never prepared much fish when I was a kid. I grew up with the impression that fresh fish was a hassle because it was delicate and it stunk up the house. How very wrong I was about that, I've since learned. However, that has not exactly sent me headlong into many culinary misadventures with fish. The stuff is relatively expensive, so I don't like to waste it on bummer recipes. Since this cod was a special treat, I sure as hell didn't want to muck it up using a recipe that was a total bummer.

Luckily, the one I found was a winner.

Crispy Baked Cod2 T unsalted butter
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 C panko or regular bread crumbs
2 T minced fresh parsley
1 t finely grated lemon zest
1 T Dijon mustard
1 T reduced-fat mayonnaise
4 skinless 1 1/2" thick cod fillets, about 6 oz. each
Salt

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
   
2. In a small skillet over medium-low heat, melt the butter.
   
3. Add the garlic and cook, stirring, until fragrant (30 sec.)
   
4. Add the bread crumbs, stir to coat with butter and then cook, stirring frequently, until light golden brown (about 5 min.).
   
5. Remove the crumbs from the heat, stir in the parsley and lemon zest and then let the coating cool.
   
6. Combine the mustard and mayonnaise in a small bowl.
   
7. Rinse the fish and pat it dry.
   
8. Sprinkle each fillet lightly with salt, then place them on a rimmed, foil-lined baking sheet
   
9. Brush the fillets with the mustard mixture.
   
10. Press a fourth of the crumbs onto each fillet.
    
11. Bake the fish until it is no longer translucent (cut to test) and flakes easily (10 to 15 min.).
    
12. If the crumbs aren't sufficiently browned, broil the fish 2" from the heating element until the crumbs are crisp and dark golden brown, watching carefully to prevent burning, 2 min. longer.

Yield: 4 servings

Nutritional Info
Calories: 233
Fat: 8 g
Sat fat: 4 g
Protein: 31 g
Carbs: 7 g
Cholesterol: 90 mg
Sodium: 511 mg

The Faudie's Futzings
I apologize to you, Gentle Reader, for I cannot fully remember how much I futzed with this recipe the first time I made it. That's what I get for letting my depression get the better of me and prevent me from keeping this blog up to date.

That said, I have recently made this recipe using tilapia, and I suspect I futzed the same way the second time around: I used cilantro in lieu of parsley, and I only had two fillets of each type of fish.

Yep, that's it. I didn't use fat-free Miracle Whip because I no longer buy that stuff, having realized it has far more sugar and salt than the reduced-fat Miracle Whip. I did sprinkle a wee bit of light salt on the fillets (cod and tilapia) to help differentiate flavors and draw out moisture (if that's possible).

There is one point of the recipe I can't recall how I futzed with the first time: that butter for toasting the panko. With the tilapia, I used a small bit--not the full two tablespoons--of Blue Bonnet Light, but I can honestly say I don't remember using that product when I first made this recipe. Maybe I used a bit of the hormone-free Challenge butter we use for making bread, or maybe I used a bit of olive oil instead. I doubt I used the Promise fat-free butter, for it has too much water in it to be useful in this capacity.

Speaking of the toasted crumbs, here's a tip: Instead of adding the zest and parsley to the crumbs in the skillet, put the crumbs in a shallow bowl or pie pan in which you've already placed the other two ingredients. Removing the crumbs from the warm skillet will help them cool faster, plus you won't have to worry about that warm skillet doing untoward things to your zest and parsley. Plus the wide diameter of the pie pan makes it easier to coat the fillets, if you plan to coat both sides. Which I did, seeing as how I didn't have four fillets and a lot of crumbs, which I couldn't stand letting go to waste.

I also recommend broiling the fish just as the recipe recommends. Both times, the crumbs on the baked fish weren't terribly crispy. Oh, here's another tip about those crumbs: Spray the tops of them lightly with cooking spray before popping the fillets in the oven to help them retain their crispness. That's a tip I learned from America's Test Kitchen, and I find it works quite well.

If you're a bit leery of the Dijon-mayo combo, you're not the only one. I was very uncertain about slathering it on my precious cod for fear it would totally ruin the fish. However, the stuff worked really well. In fact, it gave the fish more companionable flavor than the toasted panko. I had a bit of the schmear left over and saved it with the idea of using it on chicken. While I haven't yet done that, I do look forward to giving it a shot. I think the schmear would make a nice flavor companion to a chicken breast.

On the Side
So nervous was I about mucking up the cod that I didn't put a whole lot of effort into a side dish: I prepared some frozen broccoli pieces. Whoop-dee-friggin'-woo, I know. The green made for a nice presentation alongside the brown of the fish, but the brocc didn't exactly make one's taste buds sing.

The second time around, I wasn't so nervous because I had some experience and I was just working with serviceable 'ol tilapia. That meant I had a little freedom to whip up a side dish that required a little more effort.

The Very Best Confetti Rice2 C uncooked jasmine rice
4 C water
1 T orange zest
1/2 C dried cranberries
1/2 C slivered almonds
1/2 C sliced green onions

1. Place the rice and water in a saucepan, and then bring the water to a boil over medium-high heat.
   
2. Reduce the heat, cover then pan and let the rice simmer until it's tender (about 20 min.).
   
3. Remove the rice from heat, and let sit about 5 min.
   
4. Stir the orange zest, cranberries, almonds and green onions into the rice until blended.

Yield: 8 servings of unknown size

Nutritional Info
This recipe, from some contributor to AllRecipes.com, claims to be free of fat, which I find very unlikely. Hello, it has almonds in it. Almonds have fat. Yes, that fat is the "good" kind, but it's still fat. Even if the almonds are slivered, some amount of fat should be present in each serving.

Now, Gentle Reader, do you understand why I put little trust in the nutritional info from this Web site?

Calories: 198
Protein: 3.3 g
Carbs: 45.3 g
Fiber: 1.2 g
Sodium: 5 mg

The Faudie's Futzings
I'd never heard of confetti rice, so I have no way of knowing if this recipe indeed yields the very best confetti rice ever. I can't imagine it would if you follow it as written. Wanting at the very least a decent confetti rice, I futzed:

• I reduced the amount of water to about 2 1/2 cups. My ideal water-to-rice ratio is one and a quarter cups of water to every cup of rice. Screw that 2:1 ratio, unless you like soggy rice.
• My almonds weren't exactly slivered. I tried to sliver the whole, raw almonds I have on hand, but that didn't work so well. I ended up with some slivers...along with a lot of chunks and crumbles and tidbits of almonds. Eh, they work.
  
• I used orange-flavored dried cranberries in hopes of augmenting the orange flavor from the zest. That didn't quite work so well.
  
• I didn't use a half-cup of sliced green onions for fear the boy would reject the dish. I sliced up three green onions, which looked to be maybe a third of a cup, if that. The boy's not a fan of green onions, nor does he much like it when anyone messes with a decent pot of jasmine rice. He likes his jasmine rice plain, thank you very much.

Surprisingly enough, the boy voraciously ate the confetti rice. Unlike his father and me, he claimed to be able to taste the orange flavor on the cranberries. Maybe he was just being contrarian. I dunno. Should I make this recipe again, I'd probably not waste my orange-flavored cranberries on it and perhaps add a wee bit of orange juice along with the zest so as to make that flavor, well, noticeable to the rest of us.

If you opt to make this recipe, go with your own rice-making experience to determine cooking time and water:rice ratio. The recipe as written is, in my opinion, a loose guideline for preparing the rice. Also, I recommend fluffing the rice a wee bit before adding the other ingredients, but fluffing and stirring in the other ingredients might be too much for rice that's slightly sticky or mushy, yielding disintegrating grains, which are no fun to see or eat.

A Big Catch-up Post

The last week of October was an...interesting one for me. A death in the family on Sunday meant I was on the road and out of the state for 36 hours or so in the middle of the week, which really threw off my normal weekly routine. And save your breath, Gentle Reader, and don't make that crack about being inflexible for all that yoga I do.

Anywho, because that last week of October was a small bit of chaos, I didn't get to post about some things as soon as I'd planned. So that means I'm just going to get it all out of the way with one big, ugly, lumpy, lengthy post. Take a deep breath, Gentle Reader, and dive on in!

Cookies!
I stupidly made another batch of those molasses-spice cookies I made for Diwali on the last Sunday of October, the day the chaos really kind of started. In fact, that act set a trend: I kept trying to cram in one more thing into each day's already crammed full schedule. But at the time, making cookies seemed like a brilliant idea.

Molasses-spice Crackles1 1/3 C all-purpose flour
1 t baking soda
1/2 t ground cinnamon
1/2 t ground ginger
1/4 t ground cloves
1/4 t salt
1/2 C firmly packed brown sugar
1/4 C stick margarine, softened
2 T molasses
1 large egg white
1/4 C granulated sugar

1. Combine the flour, soda, cinnamon, ginger, cloves and salt in a bowl, stir well then set aside.
   
2. Place the brown sugar, margarine, molasses and egg white in a food processor, then process until blended.
   
3. Add the dry ingredients to the food processor, then process until blended, scraping the sides of the processor bowl once.
   
4. Gently press the dough into a ball, wrap in plastic wrap and let chill for 2 hours.
   
5. Preheat oven to 375°.
   
6. Shape the dough into 40 balls roughly 3/4" in size.
   
7. Place the sugar in a small bowl, then pour cold water into a second small bowl.
   
8. Dip each dough ball in cold water, shake to remove excess moisture, then roll it in sugar.
   
9. Place each dough ball 3" apart on a baking sheet.
   
10. Bake for 10 minutes, remove from pan and let cool on a wire rack.

Yield: 40 cookies

Nutritional Info
Calories: 40
Fat: 1.2 g
Sat fat: 0.2 g
Protein: 0.5 g
Carbs: 6.9 g
Fiber: 0.1 g
Sodium: 62 mg

The Faudie's Futzings
I'll try to be brief with the ingredient substitutions:

• Splenda brown sugar blend for the regular brown sugar
  
• Blue Bonnet Light for the butter
  
• Morton's Lite salt for the regular salt
  
• Three tablespoons of liquid egg white for the egg white from a large shelled egg

Perhaps using food processors for everything was all the rage back in 1996, when Cooking Light published this recipe. And while it's been some time since I used my little three-cup food processor, there was no way in hell I was using it to make cookie dough. Instead, I combined the dry ingredients in a medium-size bowl, creamed the butter and brown sugar and other ingredients in a larger bowl, added the dry ingredients to it and then covered and let the dough chill.

I suspect this second time around, I should have either let the dough chill longer or not tried to make cookies while preparing supper on a fairly warm day because the dough was not as easy to scoop and shape as it was the first time. In fact, with this second batch, more of the dough stuck to my palms as I tried to roll the balls, which I also made a tad larger because I was tired and didn't want to roll out 40 frickin' balls of dough.

Oh, just a tip, Gentle Reader: Consider skipping the water bath. When the boy and I made these cookies the first time, we dipped about half of them in water and found it wasn't really needed for the sugar to stick. The second time around, I didn't even bother setting out a bowl of water. I just rolled the dough into a ball, rolled it in sugar and then set it on the cookie sheet. Badda-bing badda-boom and done.

Here's another tip: If you use dark nonstick cookie sheets, reduce the baking time by two minutes. I found when I baked the cookies on the darkest of my nonstick sheets for the full 10 minutes, the bottoms got darker and crisper than I like. I like chewy cookies. If you like crisper, crunchier cookies, then go for the full 10 minutes.

Whilst Making the Cookies....
I still had to tackle the supper issue. Luckily, I'd already planned what to have. I'd written down the recipe and had it ready in the kitchen. I'd checked the reviews to see what changes I might want to consider and jotted down some notes. Too bad I didn't check that I had enough of the ingredients.

Balsamic Glazed Salmon8 3-oz. fillets salmon, about 3/4" thick
Freshly ground black pepper
3 T olive oil
4 1/2 t cornstarch
1 3/4 C chicken broth
3 T balsamic vinegar
1 T brown sugar
1 T orange juice
1 t grated orange peel
Orange slices for garnish

1. Place the salmon in an 11" x 8" (2-qt.) shallow baking dish.
   
2. Sprinkle the salmon with black pepper and drizzle with oil.
   
3. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 min. or until the fish flakes easily when tested with a fork.
   
4. Stir the cornstarch, broth, vinegar, brown sugar, orange juice and orange peel in a 2-qt. saucepan over high heat to a boil.
   
5. Cook and stir the sauce until it boils and thickens.
   
6. Place the salmon on a serving platter and serve with the sauce. Garnish with the orange slices.

Yield: 8 servings

Nutritional Info
Calories: 196
Fat: 10.2 g
Fiber: 0.6 g
Protein: 18.6 g
Carbs: 6.9 g
Sodium: 247 mg
Cholesterol: 39 mg

The Faudie's Futzings
This recipe comes from the fine kitchens of Cambell's, makers of Swanson's chicken broth products. Imagine a chicken broth maker wanting you to use so much broth! So in addition to halving the amount of chicken broth, here are the other ways I changed this recipe:

• Screw baking the salmon. I made it in a skillet then poured the sauce over it when the fish was just about ready.
  
• I only had two tablespoons of balsalmic vinegar. Sure, I probably could have put in some red wine vinegar and sugar as a substitute, but I was too tired and frazzled to bother.
  
• Screw the cornstarch.
  
• I used Splenda brown sugar replacer instead of regular brown sugar.
  
• Screw the olive oil. I prepped my skillet with nonstick cooking spray. Not exactly great for the pan, but it works.
  
• Screw the orange wedge garnish. I just ate the orange I'd zested.

I was a bit skeptical about this recipe from the outset: I just couldn't imagine balsamic and salmon blending well. I figured the salmon flavor would massively overpower the balsamic vinegar--and in a way, I was right, but only because I didn't have the full amount of vinegar needed.

Would I try again with the full amount of vinegar? Doubtful. Highly doubtful. The sauce was just all right--not a lot of flavor, so ingredients and effort that go in to making the sauce are wasted. What flavor there was reminded me of the sweet orange salmon I've made before, which had flavor power. If I wanted to combine a bit of sweet and some orange to salmon, I'd make that recipe instead of this blandness from Campbell's.

Kash and Carry
The last meal I made before the week really got nutty was a new recipe I found in Fit Austin, the creepier of the two freebie fitness monthlies I pick up, for it's stuffed full of ads for plastic surgeons, laser hair removal providers, boot camp operators, personal trainers, day spas and questionable massage providers (whenever you look like you'd give a client a happy ending for five bucks, you really shouldn't include a photo in your ad). That said, each issue has a recipe from one of the Central Markup nutritionists, and they're usually pretty nutritious recipes. This particular recipe claimed to have "middle eastern flavors," and yes, Gentle Reader, I was highly skeptical of that claim when the editor couldn't be bothered to capitalize Middle East.

Kam Kash2 2/3 C reduced-sodium vegetable broth
1 1/3 C long-grain brown rice
1 large white onion, diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
15.5-oz. can garbanzo beans, drained
16 oz. frozen cut spinach, drained
2 T extra virgin olive oil
1 lb. 96% lean ground beef
1 t chili powder
Lemon or red wine vinegar to taste

1. Bring the vegetable broth to a boil in a 4-qt. stock pot over high heat.
   
2. Stir in the rice, cover, reduce heat and then simmer for 45-50 min. or until the broth is absorbed.
   
3. Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in large non-stick skillet.
   
4. Add the ground beef, onion and garlic, then cook on medium until meat is browned.
   
5. Stir in the garbanzo beans, spinach and chili powder, then continue cooking 3-5 more min.
   
6. Cover, reduce heat and keep warm until ready to serve.

Yield: 7 servings (1 cup rice and 1 cup beef-spinach mixture)

Nutritional Info
Calories: 383
Fat: 10 g
Sat. fat: 3 g
Protein: 26 g
Sodium: 334 mg
Carbs: 47g
Fiber: 7 g

The Faudie's Futzings
This one I futzed with a fair bit:

• Screw cooking the rice in the veggie broth. Water is fine and doesn't mess with the wonderfully nutty flavor of the brown rice.
  
• Beef is not what's for dinner at Chez Boeckman-Walker. I used 99% lean ground turkey instead.
  
• I sauteed the onions in maybe a teaspoon of olive oil, then added the garlic and then added the turkey.
  
• Screw canned chickpeas. I prepared my own.
  
• One of this days, I guess I'll have to get around to buying some chili powder. Until then, I'll keep using the ground red chili powder I have.

Kam kash may not look like much when it's finished, but it's really quite tasty. I don't think there's any better pairing than chickpeas and brown rice--nuttiness a go-go right there--and the spinach and turkey bring a softness to the crunchier texture of the dish.

As for those promised "middle eastern flavors," I'd hardly say they were present. Ground red chili powder tends to have a pretty good kick, but such a small amount in such a large dish hardly did anything. That said, I suspect a person could very easily play with her or his favorite spices to bring some authentic flavor to this thing called kam kash.

Okay, Gentle Reader, you made it to the end. Congrats! Now I'm going to go try to sleep and recover from that crazy-ass week.

The Trouble With Tilapia

Tilapia tends to be on sale somewhat frequently at the local HEB, and when the price is good, it's hard to pass up picking up a few fillets. They're great for making fish tacos, and that's an easy, quick meal.

However, a person tires of fish tacos after a time, leaving said person with a few fillets of tilapia in the freezer in need of eating. And while tilapia is a pretty versatile fish, many of the recipes I've encountered for it just don't, well, do it for me.

Until I got the latest weekly email from Whole Paycheck, with its gaggle of recipes meant to peddle Whole Paycheck products. My track record with these recipes isn't great: The cherry-orange oatmeal bars seemed promising but were a totally tasteless dud, but the cranberry quinoa salad was tasty. That said, I was willing to give another one a shot if it helped me serve some tilapia in a new way.

Baked Southwest Tilapia1 t garlic powder
1 t chili powder
1 t salt
1/2 t black pepper
1/4 t cayenne pepper
4 6-oz. tilapia fillets
2 T extra virgin olive oil, divided
1 lime, cut into wedges

1. Preheat the oven to 450° F.
   
2. In a small bowl, combine the garlic powder, chili powder, salt, black pepper and cayenne.
   
3. Sprinkle the spice mixture evenly over both sides of the tilapia.
   
4. Coat a baking sheet with 1 tablespoon of oil.
   
5. Arrange the tilapia in a single layer on the baking sheet.
   
6. Drizzle the tilapia with the remaining tablespoon of oil.
   
7. Bake until the tilapia is golden brown and the flesh begins to flake (7 to 9 min.).
   
8. Serve with lime wedges on the side.

Yield: 4 servings

Nutritional Info
Calories: 230
Fat: 10 g
Sat fat: 2 g
Protein: 34 g
Carbs: 1 g
Cholesterol: 85 mg
Sodium: 680 mg

The Faudie's Futzings
You're wondering, Gentle Reader, how I could possibly futz with this incredibly simple recipe, right? Ahh, ye have little faith.

• I used less than a teaspoon of kosher salt instead of table salt, which I presume the recipe intends for use.
  
• I used some red pepper powder for the chili powder. I think I've mentioned before that I have the stuff out the wazoo since I bought a big bag of it at a Korean grocery some years ago to make a few Korean dishes.
  
• I only used two fillets. They're pretty big fillets and figured they'd be about equal to the overpriced, dinky fillets sold at Whole Paycheck.
  
• Instead of coating a baking pan with a tablespoon of olive oil, I lined the brownie pan I used with some aluminum foil, which I then coated with nonstick cooking spray. I did drizzle some olive oil atop the fillets, but only about half a teaspoon.

I probably should have halved the amount of spices since I was only using half the called-for fillets, but I didn't. So often I've combined spices for some recipe and wound up barely having enough to rub or sprinkle onto whatever meat it's used on. Wanting to be sure the fillets would have some flavor, I used the full amount.
Let me assure you, Gentle Reader, those two fillets had a good coat of spice on both sides.

When I popped the pair in the oven, I was a bit concerned that such high heat would badly roast the poor things. I'm really not accustomed to such high temperatures, but then I don't use my oven much for baking main courses. (Upon review of previous posts, I see that I did set Lumpy to 450 degrees for the religious red snapper I made a few months back. But that's just one time.) Of course, the tablespoon of olive oil is surely meant to protect the fish from drying out, or at least that's what I suspect. What do I know, really? I'm just The Faudie.

Eight minutes of baking was all the tilapia twosome needed to reach flakiness. They were wonderfully aromatic as they baked, although I have to admit the garlic was a tad too powerful. Garlic to me isn't a terribly Southwest/Tex-Mex flavor in my book; no, it's more Italian and Indian to me.

I'm not sure if it was the strong garlic scent or if the heat emanating from the oven did it, but I was tearing up as I served the fish. One bite later, my sinus were clearing (even though to my taste buds, the salt was a bit too strong). The boys' sinuses were also opening and clearing, so supper was accompanied by a soundtrack of sniffles and calls for more water. While the husband devoured a whole fillet, I wound up eating three-fourths of the other one because the boy-o decided after a handful of bites that his fish was too spicy for him. Ahh well. He filled up on black beans, so I'm not going to complain.

What's the lesson learned here? Whole Paycheck might have more to offer me from its recipes. I should reduce the amount of spices next time, especially the salt. And given how quick and easy this fish was to make, I will be making it again.

What to Do With Old Fish

I think, Gentle Reader, that I might have prepared last night the last of the giant slab of mahimahi I bought back in April. That was a helluva lotta fish, and it was all delish...but after a while, a person hankers for a new delish fish dish.

So what's a Faudie to do if she finds herself without a ready recipe to try out? She calls upon her trusty assistant Google to search out something new to try.

This time around, Google helped me find a sweet and spicy glazed mahimahi recipe on Recipezaar that's highly reminiscent of the rosemary chicken with orange-maple glaze and another salmon-maple combo we here at Chez Boeckman-Walker love much. I had the ingredients needed for the recipe--including the maple syrup!--so why not take a chance?

Steamed Cajun Maple Mahimahi2 T maple syrup
1 t Cajun seasoning
1/2 t garlic powder
2 mahimahi filets

1. Combine the syrup, seasoning and garlic powder in a small bowl, stirring well.
   
2. Lightly sprinkle the filets, skin removed, with salt and pepper.
   
3. Start the filets steaming in a food steamer appliance or stovetop steaming setup.
   
4. Halfway through the steaming time (depends on method used), lightly brush Cajun glaze atop filets.
   
5. If preferred, serve filets with additional glaze brushed on top or on the side.

Yield: 2 to 4 servings, depending on filet size and appetites of diners

Nutritional Info
Here's the nutritional info of the original recipe:
Calories: 228
Fat: 1.5 g
Sat fat: 0.4 g
Protein: 37.9 g
Carbs: 14 g
Fiber: 0.1 g
Cholesterol: 148 mg
Sodium: 181 mg

The Faudie's Futzings
Other than reducing the amount of Cajun seasoning originally called for, my version doesn't differ dramatically from its source.

Given how little maple syrup is in the recipe, it certainly doesn't get lost. Perhaps if you used more Cajun seasoning--say, closer to the three-quarters of a tablespoon called for originally--that sweetness might be entirely overwhelmed. Then again, Gentle Reader, the ratio of sweet and spicy might also depend on how strong your Cajun seasoning is. The bulk stuff I got at Central Markup or Whole Paycheck (can't remember which) isn't overwhelming, but it does have a nice kick.

As you can see from the photo, I served the fish along with some jasmine rice (to satisfy the boy) and some steamed carrots, which did not get into the photo. I drizzled some of the glaze onto my rice just to give it a bit of kick because, well, I'm not as nuts about plain jasmine rice as the boy is. Eh, to each his own.

If you're out of fish of any kind, you could probably pair this simple glaze with chicken, pork and maybe even a beef cut of some sort. It would probably work even better if applied to your meat of choice while it's being sauteed. In fact, I can't wait to try the glaze out atop some browning chicken breasts. Yum!

Lemony Fresh

Last week as well as this week, the boy's attending afternoon art classes at the Austin Museum of Art-Laguna Gloria in west-central Austin. That gave me the opportunity on Thursday to swing by Central Markup and have a little fun shopping solo. I was delighted on my recent trip to find Hatch chiles are again in season, a reminder that yes, we are indeed getting that late into the year already. While I passed on a few of those luscious peppers, but I couldn't pass up the salmon on sale for $8.99 a pound. I bought a big fillet and had the fish monger on duty skin the thing, which allowed me to ask him a few questions about good technique for accomplishing that feat at home.

As I've done in the past when buying larger pieces of fish, I planned to put some of the salmon away for later meals and prepare a hunk of it for a yummy summer feast. But what recipe to use? We have a few we've enjoyed previously, such as salmon with sweet chile sauce and sweet orange salmon, among others, but I couldn't decide on one. So I let the husband choose, and he, naturally, chose a recipe I hadn't put in my own top contenders. Not that there was anything wrong with the maple grilled salmon recipe he selected. It just...well, it wasn't one of my top contenders.

Since my own evening scheduled did not permit me to prepare the salmon for a few days, I took a moment to peruse my to-make-eventually collection of recipe bookmarks. Therein I discovered one from an old issue of Cooking Light that I thought would satisfy my unacknowledged craving for something a bit more savory to accompany the salmon flavor while also satisfying my husband's craving (as I perceived it) for a sweeter flavor to accompany the salmon.

(No, Gentle Reader, the boy didn't get a say. The FSM knows that if we asked his opinion, we'd only get complaints about having salmon. The boy's a born contrarian, so if you're ever excited about something, he'll naturally bitch about it.)

Salmon With Maple-Lemon Glaze2 T fresh lemon uice
2 T maple syrup
1 T cider vinegar
1 T canola oil
4 6-oz. skinless salmon fillets
1/2 t salt
1/4 t freshly ground black pepper

1. Preheat the broiler.
   
2. Combine the lemon juice, syrup, vinegar and oil in a large zip-top plastic bag.
3. Add the fish to the bag, seal and refrigerate 10 min., turning the bag once.
   
4. Remove the fish from bag, and pour the marinade in a microwave-safe bowl.
5. Microwave the marinade on high for 1 min.
   
6. Heat a large, ovenproof, nonstick skillet over medium-high heat.
   
7. Sprinkle the fish evenly with salt and pepper.
   
8. Coat the pan with cooking spray.
   
9. Add the fish to the pan, cook for 3 min., turn the fish over and brush it evenly with the marinade.
   
10. Broil the fish 3 min. or until it flakes easily when tested with a fork.

Yield: 4 servings

Nutritional Info
Calories: 287
Fat: 14 g
Sat fat: 2.7 g
Protein: 31 g
Carbs: 7.5 g
Fiber: 0.1 g
Cholesterol: 80 mg
Sodium: 363 mg

The Faudie's Futzings
Only a few deviations and notes to report with this recipe:

• I've yet to get around to buying authentic maple syrup, so I whipped out the Griffin's maple-flavored pancake syrup. Hey, it's what I grew up on, it tastes better than what the husband grew up on (so he's told me) and it's a helluva lot cheaper than real maple syrup.
  
• I juiced an entire large lemon right into the bag. Based on past experience and observation, that gets me about 2 tablespoons of juice.
  
• I didn't have four 6-ounce salmon fillets. I had one portion of a large fillet, and it might have been about 10 ounces. I didn't weigh it to find out. Not having four fillets meant that I probably had too much marinade, so instead of brushing it onto the one fillet I had, I poured it into the square baking pan I broiled my fish in. (I don't have an ovenproof, nonstick skillet either.)
  
• After three minutes of broiling, my salmon wasn't flaking, so it went back under the broiler for another three to five minutes. I can't tell you for sure since I was busy making the orange couscous salad to accompany the fish and had put the husband in charge of the broiling fish.

Chez Boeckman-Walker gives this recipe three thumbs and one paw up. (Muffin's a fish fiend and perched herself on the table, vulture-like, until she successfully guilted one of us into giving her a piece. Strangely enough, the boy was one who caved first to her guilt-inducing stare.) The lemon flavor wasn't lost, the salmon flavor wasn't overpowering, and the maple flavor was present but not overly sweet. The three blended well together, making for some very tasty fish.

Speaking of that maple flavor, the husband and I found that if we poured a little of the marinade over the fish once plated, it came through a tad stronger. In fact, when I first put the fillet in the skillet for the initial three minutes of cooking, the maple in the marinade clinging to the fillet immediately started to congeal and release a saliva-inspiring fragrance, which had the husband and I both expecting a more syrupy coating after broiling.

However, that didn't happen. The sugars in the syrup didn't continue to congeal under the heat of the broiler as they had in the skillet (perhaps due to the presence of the lemon juice?) Based on what happened in the skillet and under the broiler, I plan next time to just complete the cooking in the skillet to see if I can't get a more syrup-like consistency for the marinade. Plus that change would mean I don't have to turn on the oven, which always makes me happy.

Religious Red Snapper

Last Friday, the husband and I were in the neighborhood of a Central Markup and couldn't resist stopping by. The trip wasn't entirely a whim: I had a list of spices and other ingredients I needed to replenish that I figured I'd get eventually at the flagship Whole Paycheck downtown--once it had bulk agave nectar back in stock. But, hey, since I knew I didn't need the agave immediately and since Whole Paycheck can sometimes take a while to get its stock replenished, why not take advantage of a situation when it presents itself?

Lucky for us, we visited during Central Markup's seafood extravaganza. I'll admit that I'm not entirely sure why the store was doing this themed event since it didn't have a lot of relevant products on sale. That said, though, the store was offering to prepare a whole fish a customer purchased any way she or he wanted. Since we've yearned to buy a whole Gulf red snapper, since they're cheaper that way, but haven't a clue how to properly make use of it, the husband and I decided we'd splurge and get some fresh fish.

The size of the two fillets we ended up with were a bit disappointing, but watching the fish market attendant scale our fish (watch those flying scales!) then slice and dice the poor thing was quite enthralling. He even offered us the remains, but I turned him down. Sure, I could have given the head, tail and other parts to the feline children outside, but then I'd have to clean up after them. The idea of gathering up and disposing of fish remains after Momma and her ravenous kids had had their fun (not to mention the flies and other insects) was not terribly appealing to me, Gentle Reader. I just have to live with my wasteful decision, which weighs on me surprisingly.

Now what to do with those fillets! One I knew for sure was destined for the freezer to be enjoyed later. The other I'd already decided I'd prepare for supper over the weekend. I even held out some hope I'd be able to halve it, with one portion also destined for the freezer. Alas, that did not happen.

I've never prepared Gulf red snapper, and I was agog at the possibilities. Did I try something new? Did I try something simple so the husband and I could savor the wonderful flavor of the fish au naturel? Did I try to adapt one of our favorite fish recipes and hope the ingredients worked well with the snapper? Or did I collapse under the weight of my indecision (and my wastefulness at having turned down the opportunity to take home the rest of the fish that we'd paid for) and freezer both fillets?

In times like these, I turned to this very blog for help.

I revisited the post from our trip last year to Galveston, which stirred memories of that pepper-and-potato-encrusted snapper at Gaido's I'd damn near had an orgasm over while eating. But...did I dare try to recreate that fish at home? Could I live with myself for setting up such an expectation that would surely be met with bitter disappointment (and self-loathing for having wasted a pricier ingredient)?

I dared.

I knew I wouldn't do the potato part of the crust, so I had to find a substitute. One ingredient immediately came to mind: panko. I'd bought a sizable bag of the stuff on our last trip to Whole Paycheck, knowing how well those Japanese crumbs work for various dishes. Additionally, panko happens to be key to a chicken Parmesan recipe the fine folks at America's Test Kitchen made over for its book The Best Light Recipe. And since I had a red bell pepper in the 'fridge and could either thaw or acquire a new green bell, I started to think I just might be able to pull this off--with a little skill and a lot of praying (hence the name of the dish).

Religious Red Snapper1 red snapper fillet
1 red bell pepper
1 green bell pepper
1 1/2 C panko
1/4 C unbleached all-purpose flour
3 large egg whites
1 T water
1/8-1/4 t freshly ground black pepper
Spices of your choice for seasoning in the quantity of your choice

1. Halve and remove the ribs and seeds from the bell peppers. Find another purpose (freezing is good) for one-half of each pepper. For the remaining halves, slice and dice them into small pieces--but don't mince.
   
2. In one shallow bowl, combine the egg whites and water, then whisk together.
   
3. In a second shallow bowl, combine the panko and diced bell peppers.
   
4. In a third shallow bowl, combine the flour, ground black pepper and the spices of your choice. (I used a half-teaspoon of a salmon rub blend we'd bought at Williams-Sonoma years ago. It has paprika, crushed red pepper, chili pepper, oregano and other herbs.)
   
5. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.
   
6. Line a cake pan or other suitable rimmed bakeware piece with foil, then place a wire rack on top.
   
7. Lightly dredge the fillet in the four-spice combo, shaking off the excess.
   
8. Dip the fillet in the egg whites.
   
9. Coat the fillet in panko, place the fillet on the wire rack, obsessively pick out the remaining diced bell pepper pieces from the shallow bowl of panko and place atop the fillet.
   
10. Spray the top of the fillet with vegetable oil cooking spray.
    
11. Bake the fillet for 15 to 20 minutes, depending on the thickness of the fillet, or until the fish flakes easily with a fork.

Nutritional Info
I have none to provide, Gentle Reader. Red snapper is pretty healthful fish, and the panko is pretty low in calories and carbs. Use your best guess.

The Faudie's Futzings
I really can't say I futzed with the recipe since the entire thing is a futzing. Allow me, though, to justify a few of my choices:

• I only used a half-teaspoon of the salmon rub because I was afraid I'd overwhelm the taste of the fish if I used more. Unfortunately, the result was that I couldn't taste the spices at all, so that half-teaspoon was a bit of a waste.
  
• I only used a quarter-cup of flour because the fillet wasn't very big, and I didn't want to wind up with a lot of wasted flour.
  
• I sprayed the top of the fillet with cooking spray because that's the trick to getting a crispy crust without frying, or so sayeth the fine folks at America's Test Kitchen. Also, using the wire rack is essential for the crispy crust because air needs to be able to flow all around the breading to eliminate soggy bottoms.

Speaking of tip and tricks from the fine folks at AKT, the book from which I took the original recipe advises that spraying the tops of the panko with cooking spray adds a "small amount of oil that "adds that 'fried' flavor to the crumbs, giving your food the illusion of being truly fried without making it greasy or adding too much fat, and ensures that it will emerge from the oven gorgeously golden."

You tell me, Gentle Reader--does the fillet look gorgeously golden?

We paired the fish with a pilaf mix we'd also bought that day at Central Markup. It combines some dal (my favorite!) with basmati and wild rice. While the mix is wonderfully colorful in the tradition of Persian pilafs, the cooked mix is dull and bland--both in its color and in its flavor. Strike that--the cooked mix has no flavor to speak of. The husband and I were very disappointed with it but aren't ready to give up on it. Next time, perhaps we'll throw in some curry powder or use chicken broth instead of water when preparing it.

Getting Sloshed on a Saturday Night

Summer brings an onslaught of grilling recipes, and I've already discussed our lack of a grill here at Chez Boeckman-Walker. Most of these grilling recipes I pass over, not even giving them the time of day, but when I'm searching for a recipe to use a particular ingredient I have on hand, I'll glance over the ingredients so I can decide if the flavor of the final product would hit the spot and if I can adapt the recipe for more conventional indoor cooking.

So was the case a few days ago. I'd determined we'd have more of the mahimahi from the giant piece I bought back in April, but I wanted to do something different with it instead of the usual ginger-lime bake. A search of MyRecipes.com yielded what I thought had tasty potential, if I could manage to convert it from an outdoor grilling recipe to an indoor...something recipe.

Grilled MahiMahi Skewers With Pineapple-Mandarin Sauce1/2 C chopped onion
1/3 C honey
1/2 C dry red wine
2 T balsamic vinegar
2 T pineapple juice
1 T low-sodium soy sauce
1 T mirin or slightly sweet white wine (such as Riesling)
2 C diced fresh pineapple
1 1/2 lb. mahimahi steaks, cut into 24 1" pieces
24 1" fresh pineapple cubes
24 1" green bell pepper pieces
1 T chopped fresh OR 1 t dried rubbed sage
1/4 t salt
1/4 t black pepper
Chopped fresh chives (optional)

1. Combine the onions and honey in a medium nonstick skillet, place over medium heat and cook 12 min. or until golden brown, stirring occasionally.
   
2. Add red wine, balsamic vinegar, pineapple juice, soy sauce and mirin, then cook 10 min.
   
3. Stir in diced pineapple, cook 5 min., then keep warm.
   
4. Prepare the grill.
   
5. Thread three mahimahi pieces, three pineapple cubes and three bell pepper pieces alternately onto each of eight 12" skewers.
   
6. Sprinkle the kebabs with sage, salt and black pepper.
   
7. Place the kebabs on a grill rack coated with cooking spray and grill 15 min. or until fish is done, turning every 5 min.
   
8. Serve with pineapple sauce and sprinkle with chives, if desired.

Yield: 4 servings (serving size: two kebabs and 1/2 C pineapple sauce)

Nutritional Info
Calories: 392
Fat: 7.8 g
Sat fat: 2 g
Protein: 35.1 g
Carbs: 47.7 g
Fiber: 2.7 g
Cholesterol: 66 mg
Sodium: 427 mg

The Faudie's Futzings
I know, Gentle Reader, you're asking right now, "So how did you convert this recipe for indoor cooking?" Well, here's how: I wound up making a stir fry. I didn't set out to make a stir fry, and I've never made a fish stir fry before, although I've encountered my fair share of recipes for them. I had originally decided I'd make the sauce in one pan and then saute the mahimahi, green peppers and pineapple in a little bit of olive oil.

But then as I was cooking the wine (I had to break down and show my face in a liquor store and ask the clerk for the cheapest bottle of dry red wine it had in stock because you can't tell these things by just looking at the label, dammit all) and the mirin (another special purchase, although I'm sure it'll get more use than the red wine) and balsamic vinegar (which put me in the mood for balsamic vinegar-glazed chicken and red peppers) and the soy sauce and the pineapple juice with the honeyed onions (thus making them drunk since mirin is sweeted sake), I realized how very similar this concoction (minus the drunken onions) was to stir-fry sauces I've made in the past. That's when inspiration struck: Why not drown my cubed fish in the drunken onion sauce to let it cook that way, then throw in the green pepper strips and pineapple chunks to lightly braise (don't know if that's the right culinary verb here)?

Speaking of those drunken onions, that pineapple-mandarin sauce is damn tasty, Gentle Reader. While the husband and I were waiting for the side dish (more on that in a moment), we were sopping up some of the sauce with some sweeter bread I'd bought on the discount rack at Wally World earlier in the week. I think we both could have dined on that alone.

The fish, in case you're wondering, Gentle Reader, absorbed a good amount of the savory sweetness of the sauce without losing its mild mahimahi flavor.

Drowning Fish in Drunken Onions--Somebody Call PETA

I was really pleasantly surprised the fish turned out as well as it did, and stewing it in the drunken onions was far easier and less messy than if I'd sauted it in its own pan. Perhaps if I were a more skilled saute chef, I could cook the fish without a messy pan that requires lots of scrubbing and without a lingering odor of fish in the kitchen. But I'm not and doubt I ever will be. Oh well.

Here are some other futzings:

• I don't have any honey, so I used agave nectar instead. I wondered as I was chowing down if using honey might have given the onions--and the completed dish--a slightly sweeter flavor since I find that agave and honey do have noticeably different sweetness profiles. Guess I'll just have to make the dish with honey to find out.
  
• I combined the dried sage, salt and pepper in a small bowl then sprinkled it over the bowl of cubed mahimahi shortly before adding it to the drunken onions.
  
• I just used a can of chunk pineapple, not 2 cups of diced pineapple and 24 cubes of the stuff. The pineapple juice came from the same can (and I drank what was left after the required 2 tablespoons).

Combined with the tender peppers and pineapple, the completed dish was, in my opinion, very successful.

Colorful, isn't it!

I'm thinking of making the drunken onion sauce--er, the pineapple-Mandarin sauce--again but with chicken. I'd imagine that's another tasty combo.

Quasi-Chinese for the Main, Quasi-Caribbean on the Side
Back when I was having my jerk cravings, I'd bookmarked a recipe for an interesting rice dish. Maybe it even qualifies as a pilaf or pulao in their traditional sense, but it's not like the pilafs and pulaos I've found in Indian and Persian cooking resources. You can decide for yourself, Gentle Reader.

Jamaican Rice1 T vegetable oil
1/2 large onion, sliced
1/2 red apple, cored and sliced
1 pinch curry powder
1 C water
2/3 C brown rice
1 t dark molasses or treacle
1 small banana, sliced
1 T unsweetened flaked coconut

1. Heat the oil in a saucepan over medium heat.
   
2. Add the onion and red apple and cook until the onion is transparent.
   
3. Season with curry powder, thend stir in the water.
   
4. Add the rice and molasses, cover and cook over low heat until the rice is tender and all the water has been absorbed (about 30 min.).
   
5. Stir in the banana, then sprinkle the coconut on top.
   
6. Heat through for a moment over low heat before serving.

Yield: 2 servings

Nutritional Info
Calories: 400
Fat: 10.9 g
Protein: 6 g
Carbs: 71.9 g
Fiber: 5.6g
Sodium: 10 mg

The Faudie's Futzings
I didn't mess with this one much, and maybe I should have:

• I used maybe a teaspoon of olive oil instead of a tablespoon (yikes!) of veggie oil.
  
• I used regular 'ol unsulphured molasses--Grandma's, in fact (not as in Graga's, coming from the kitchen of my maternal grandmother, bless her narcissistic, sedentary soul) because that's all I have.
  
• I didn't add in flaked coconut. Between the macaroons Mum made and the jerk chicken pasta-cum-curry I made recently, I've had my fill of coconut for the decade, thank you.

This side dish was a bit of a disaster. I knew the rice would need more than 30 minutes to cook, and it still wasn't ready after 45 minutes. Despite the grains being a bit...well, chewy would be the best way to describe the rice's need for a tad extra mastication, I stirred in the sliced banana and served it up.

Half-cooked mush in a pot. Yum.

Despite my failure to cook the rice thoroughly and the somewhat stomach-turning image above, the dish was pretty tasty, a little on the sweet side and a nice departure from the more earthy and occasionally savory rice flavors we're used to here at Chez Boeckman-Walker. (Trust me when I write that we do eat a lot of rice here at Chez Boeckman-Walker, and most of it isn't just plain Jane stuff either.) I don't think it was diminished by the lack of coconut because that mere teaspoon of molasses was adequate sweetener.

Perhaps it wasn't intended to be as sweet as my dish turned out. Perhaps a dark molasses (which I admit I don't know what precisely that is--perhaps blackstrap molasses?) would have given it a different flavor. As I made it, the sweetness of the molasses and fruit slices completely overwhelmed the curry powder. In fact, if I were to make this dish again--which is highly improbable--I might use jerk seasoning instead of curry powder. After all, this is Jamaican rice and jerk seasoning strikes me as somehow more apropos.

Considering the sad state of the side dish, I found myself wishing I'd just whipped up a batch of plain 'ol Jasmine rice to go with the fish, especially since it's sweeter sauce was not of the same sweet flavor profile as the Jamaican rice. Ah well. Live and learn.

More Like Salmon-Cilantro Crumbles

Over the past year, practically everyone here at Chez Boeckman-Walker--humans and felines alike--has come to love salmon patties, or salmon cakes (call 'em what you will, Gentle Reader). I have a curried salmon cake recipe that I like to whip up when I can score pouches of salmon on the cheap (double the called-for amount of curry if you want to taste it, by the by), and the husband and I love the salmon and Hatch chile patties I find every now and then at Central Markup and HEB.

It's that latter love that had me excited to receive a recipe for salmon-cilantro burgers from MyRecipes.com shortly before Memorial Day. Since we're not a family that does the typical holiday things, I thought trying out these burgers might be a fun thing for the three-day weekend.

Fresh Salmon-Cilantro Burgers1/4 C reduced-fat mayonnaise
1 T chopped fresh cilantro
1 T fresh lime juice
1/8 t salt
1/8 t freshly ground black pepper
1-lb. salmon fillet, skinned and cut into 1" pieces
1/4 C dry breadcrumbs
2 T cilantro leaves
2 T chopped green onions
1 T chopped seeded jalapeño pepper
2 T fresh lime juice
1/2 t salt
1/4 t freshly ground black pepper
4 1.5-oz. hamburger buns with sesame seeds, toasted
12 1/4"-thick slices English cucumber
4 leaf lettuce leaves

1. Combine the mayo, lime juice, chopped cilantro, salt and pepper in a small bowl, cover and chill.
   
2. Place the salmon in a food processor, then pulse until coarsely chopped.
   
3. Add the breadcrumbs, cilantro leaves, chopped green onions, chopped jalapeño, lime juice, salt and black pepper to the pulsed salmon, then pulse four times to combine or until well blended.
   
4. Divide the salmon mixture into four equal portions, shaping each into a 3/4"-thick patty.
   
5. Heat a grill pan over medium-high heat.
   
6. Cook the patties 2 min., carefully turn, then cook 2 more min. or until done.
   
7. Spread about 1 tablespoon of the chilled mayonnaise mixture over the bottom half of each hamburger bun, then top with a salmon patty, three cucumber slices, a lettuce leaf and finally the top half of bun.

Yield: 4 (1 burger is one serving, obviously)

Nutritional Info
Calories: 341
Fat: 11.5g
Sat fat: 2 g
Protein: 31.6 g
Carbs: 30.9 g
Fiber: 1.8 g
Cholesterol: 66 mg
Sodium: 816 mg

The Faudie's Futzings
I should have paid closer attention to the recipe when I first followed the link to it. Instead, I glanced merely at the list of ingredients and formed a certain impression of the final product. Only when I jotted it down before preparing it did I realize that the recipe is for the entire burger, not just the patties. Needless to say, I was a little disappointed and futzed accordingly.

• I totally skipped the special mayo, even though I'd bought a new jar of fat-free Miracle Whip just to ensure I had enough, not realizing at the time of purchase that I didn't actually need it for the patties but as a garnish. Bully!
  
• While I do still have some salmon in the freezer from the big slab we bought a few months back at Central Markup, I used pink salmon from a can that I'd bought on sale a few weeks ago. Once I'd sworn never to use canned salmon again because it's just...incredibly unappetizing right out of the can, but, hey, beggars can't be choosers, y'know? Plus the kitties outside loved chowing down on the bits and pieces from the can I refused to use in the patties.
  
• Instead of regular dried breadcrumbs, I used panko. I've yet to find breadcrumbs that have as little fat and as much protein (even thought the amounts or negligible) as panko.
  
• The jalapeño pieces came from a can of diced ones. The can was cheaper than buying fresh ones, and right now I'm more about saving money where I can so long as I'm not sacrificing much for nutritional content.
  
• Forget the English cucumber slices (I don't do cucumber slices unless they've been transformed into bread and butter pickles, and I didn't even bother to discover what might set an English cucumber apart from the ones grown locally, which look just like the ones Dad grew and Mum pickled when I was a kid), forget the leaf lettuce (I only buy iceberg in all its tasteless, watery goodness, thank you very much) and forget the toasted, sesame seed-covered buns. I'd found some whole wheat buns on the discounted bakery rack at Wally World, so that's what I used.

As I was mushing together by hand the salmon, lime juice, cilantro leaves, jalapeño chunks and pepper (I skipped the salt since the canned jalapeño pieces had a small amount of added salt), my faudie senses were telling me that I was setting myself up for disappointment. Something's missing, my faudie senses, sharpened by many a culinary misadventure, told me. This isn't going to work,, those senses told me as I was attempting to shape the patties, which just didn't want to stick together.

Sure enough, when I started cooking the patties on my Circulon grill pan, the damn things started crumbling at the edges. When I tried to flip them, the patties lost their cohesion big time. And don't even get me started on the fiasco that was attempting to serve the cooked patties. All I can say is this: Thank the FSM I had the boys' burger buns slices and open and ready to receive their protein patty because those salmon patties would not have survived any further movement from one surface to another.

I really, really don't think the ingredients combined with the salmon are sufficient enough to get the mixture to hold a patty shape for any length of time. Perhaps the folks who put this recipe together used really fatty salmon, but I think if I were to try this one again, I'd add a bit of egg to it as a quasi-adhesive, just as the curried salmon cakes recipe calls for two large eggs.

As for the taste of the finished patties.... Well, I honestly didn't get much flavor aside from salmon as I was eating. Let's face it: Salmon has a very prominent flavor, and you really have to have an additional ingredient or combo of other ingredients that have a strong presence and that don't clash with the flavor of salmon to overcome that fish's very prominent flavor. Perhaps I'd have a different opinion if I'd whipped up that cilantro-lime mayo and put some of it on my patty. Maybe not.

This Fish Is Also Delish!

While I don't think anything can compete with Gulf red snapper served Gulfside at Gaido's, the adult human residents of Chez Boeckman-Walker enjoyed a new salmon recipe that's pretty damn good.

Wanna know more, Gentle Reader? Of course you do!

Sweet Orange Salmon2 T brown sugar
1 t chili powder
1/2 t grated orange rind
1/2 t ground cumin
1/2 t paprika
1/4 t salt
1/4 t ground coriander
1/8 t black pepper
4 6-oz. salmon fillets

1. Preheat the broiler.
   
2. Combine all the spices in a small bowl.
   
3. Rub the spice mixture over both sides of the salmon fillets.
   
4. Place the salmon on a broiler pan coated with cooking spray.
   
5. Broil the salmon for 8 minutes or until it flakes easily with a fork.

Nutritional Info
Calories: 303
Fat: 13.3 g
Sat fat: 3.1 g
Protein: 36.2 g
Carbs: 7.5 g
Fiber: 0.5g
Cholesterol: 87 mg
Sodium: 235 mg

The Faudie's Futzings
The husband actually put the rub together since I was busy doing a few other projects in the kitchen. When he read me the list of ingredients so I could retrieve them for him, I actually asked, "What kind of chili powder?" Am I crazy to think that a lot of different kinds of chili powder are available, Gentle Reader, and that the recipe, which came from Cooking Light, should have specified which kind? Then again, I vaguely remember Mum having a bottle or tin of McCormick-brand chili powder or some other brand of chili powder on her spinner rack in one of the kitchen cabinets, so I suppose in a way the magazine is being specific. (I'm not even sure if Whole Paycheck and Central Markup sells plain chili powder in their bulk foods playland. Guess I'll have to check.)

Anywho, since I don't have any regular chili powder, I gave the husband our big tub of ground red pepper that I bought at the Korean market ages ago. It's got a nice kick--probably moreso than any Midwestern meat-and-potatoes eater-friendly chili powder product that McCormick makes.

The only other futzing we did was to replace the 2 tablespoons of brown sugar with 1 tablespoon of Splenda brown sugar blend. I don't even have any regular brown sugar in my pantry these days. Oh well.

I whipped up some orange basmati rice to go along with the salmon. I'd intended to make the wonderful orange couscous from Trail of Crumbs, but I only had 1.75 ounces or so of couscous--not nearly enough for the husband and me. Once the basmati was ready, I threw in the zest of one medium-size orange, juiced roughly half of that orange into the rice then chopped up the other, slightly larger half and added it to the rice. For something I half-assed on the spot, I thought the rice turned out quite nicely, and it was a great accompaniment to the salmon.

By the way, does anyone else miss the days when The Simpsons was funny and watchable? Before Homer became a complete doofus and caricature of the bumbling father stereotype? I'd forgotten how fun that show was. "One Fish, Two Fish, Blowfish, Blue Fish"--from which I stole the title of this post and its predecessor--was really funny and very entertaining. If you want to watch it poorly dubbed in Russian, check it out here.

The Good, the Bad and the Absolutely Marvelous

Because it's listed first in the title of this post, I feel obligated to present the good of this triumvirate of topics. Predictable, I know, Gentle Reader, but we all have to make certain concessions for the sake of convention.

So here's the good: Sunday night we enjoyed a feast of salmon, stir-fried vegetables and brown rice. Doesn't sound terribly impressive, does it, Gentle Reader? Well, let me explain why it gets the good nod.

The salmon was a portion of a big slab o' salmon we bought at Central Markup. These fresh, giant fillets were on sale for $6.99 a pound, and the fillet we selected was just over two pounds and was just gorgeous. I'm going to get three meals out of this slab 'o salmon, which makes me quite happy.

This beautiful portion of this beautiful slab 'o salmon I decided to use to try a new recipe I found recently while culling the stack of Cooking Light issues on the coffee table. I don't recall now in which issue I found the salmon with sweet chile sauce recipe, but I knew I'd have to try it because it calls for Sriracha, a sweet heat Thai sauce that I could drink straight from the bottle. I've used it to much gustatory delight in a stir fry I whip up from time to time, so I was thrilled to find another recipe with it.

Salmon With Sweet Chile Sauce4 6-oz. salmon fillets, skinned
1 t ground coriander
1/2 t salt
2 T honey
1 T fresh lime juice
2 t low-sodium soy sauce
1/2 to 1 t Sriracha
4 t thinly sliced green onions

1. Sprinkle the fish evenly with coriander and salt.
   
2. Combine the honey, juice, soy sauce, and Sriracha in a small bowl.
   
3. Coat a large nonstick skillet with cooking spray, then heat it over medium-high heat.
   
4. Add the fish to pan and cook 4 min. on each side or until the fish flakes easily.
   
5. Drizzle the sauce over the fish.
   
6. Sprinkle with green onions.

Nutritional Info
Calories: 262
Fat: 10.5 g
Sat fat: 2.5 g
Protein: 31.2 g
Carbs: 9.5 g
Fiber: 0.1 g
Cholesterol: 80 mg
Sodium: 460 mg

The Faudie's Futzings
Do you notice, Gentle Reader, that the recipe doesn't give specific directions for removing the salmon from the pan? I did. The lack of that specific direction had me wondering if I was supposed to drizzle the sauce over the salmon while it's still in the pan, while still in the pan with the heat on or once it's plated. What's a faudie to do without precise directions?

My sauce was not very saucy. That is to say, it wasn't of a drizzling viscosity. Drizzle to me bespeaks a viscosity somewhere close to pancake syrup or thicker. No, my sauce was thinner and soupier. So I dumped it into the pan with the salmon in it with the heat seat to Lo. Naturally, because I was using my higher-quality saute pan that retains heat well (love those copper bottoms!), the sauce immediately set to sizzlin'. And the smell! Oh! the smell was heavenly! Honey and lime wafting up my nostrils put me and my stomach in a very, very happy place.

And me and my stomach were not disappointed by the flavor of the finished fish. Very, very tasty! But I will say this: Next time I won't use as much salt in the rub, and I'll probably use more than just one teaspoon of Sriracha. Maybe a tablespoon. But, hey, I likes me some Sriracha.

As for the veggies, the sauce I used in the stir fry is the same I use when I make the Thai chicken stir fry. The veggies we enjoyed were julienned carrots, lots of broccoli (because the boys likes them some broccoli) and slices of green bell pepper. Yummy tummy for our tummies!

"So if this recipe is so yummy, why does it only rate a good from you?" you ask, Gentle Reader?

Well, it rates a good because of what happened right before and right after supper. Right before: The boy was setting his father's glass of ice water on the table and, as he is wont to do from time to time, spilled it all over the place--"all over the place" being the table upon which our two laptops, including the husband's brand new, flamingo pink XPS m1530--sit. I couldn't stop keeping a close watch over the cooking salmon and the stir-frying veggies to help, but the husband assured me all was good.

And I believed him until he went to wake his laptop from its hibernation--and the damn thing told him it couldn't find its internal hard drive. Yeah, big oopsie there. I wound up calling the XPS tech support line (yeah, XPS buyers get their own tech support line, making XPS systems totally worth their slightly higher price, although the husband's system was a refurb and ridiculously cheap). While working with tech support, I quickly discovered the problem: water infiltration. I pulled out the battery and came away with droplets of water in my hand. I removed the hard drive and came away with a few tiny droplets of water in my hand. Every time I closed the display and turned the system over, a few droplets emerged from beneath the keyboard.

Let's just say nothing delights me more after a fabulous fish feast than spending time on the phone with tech support trying to repair a brand new computer that's moist and malfunctioning. The indigestion I suffered the rest of the evening and throughout the night is why I give this salmon with sweet chile sauce recipe a good.

The Bad
As I mentioned several paragraphs back, I culled my stack of recent Cooking Light issues and rediscovered some recipes I'd marked for future use but then put on the coffee table and promptly forgot. When I culled the stack, I made sure to find the recipes right away on MyRecipes.com and bookmark them into the appropriate folders on my laptop and make a list of them so I can actually get around to making them. Pretty smart, non?

When I came upon the recipe for cranberry-oatmeal bars, I realized how many of the ingredients I had on hand and how much unclaimed free time I had ahead of me that afternoon. So, hey, why not try this one out right away?

Upon closer inspection of the printed recipe, I found some options for variations on the cranberry-oatmeal theme, including one for--my favorite!--dates. I also liked that this variation removed some of the sugar and replaced it with maple syrup. Excited, I started making the bars.

Maple-Date-Oatmeal BarsCrust
4.5 oz. (about 1 C) all-purpose flour
1 C quick-cooking oats
1/4 t salt
1/4 t baking soda
1/4 t ground cinnamon
6 T butter, melted
3 T orange juice

Filling
1 1/3 C (about 6 oz.) chopped pitted dates
3/4 C sour cream
2 T maple syrup
2 T brown sugar
2 T all-purpose flour
1 t vanilla extract
1/2 t orange zest
1 large egg white, lightly beaten

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Prep an 11 x 7–inch baking dish with cooking spray
   
2. To prepare the crust, combine the flour, oats, salt, soda and cinnamon in a medium bowl, stirring well with a whisk.
   
3. Drizzle the butter and juice over the flour mixture, stirring until moistened (mixture will be crumbly). Reserve 1/2 cup oat mixture.
   
4. Press the remaining oat mixture into the bottom of the baking dish.
   
5. To prepare filling, combine all its ingredients in another medium bowl, stirring well.
   
6. Spread the filling over the crust, then sprinkle the reserved oat mixture evenly over the filling.
   
7. Bake for 40 min. or until the edges are golden.
   
8. Let the bars cool completely in the pan on a wire rack.

Yield: 24 servings (serving size is one square)

Nutritional Info
Calories: 124
Fat: 4.6 g
Sat fat: 2.6 g
Protein: 1.7 g
Carbs: 19.8 g
Fiber: 1.1 g
Cholesterol: 13 mg
Na: 68 mg

The Faudie's Futzings
Just a tip, Gentle Reader: Never discover you only have a fraction of the sour cream you need in the middle of the process for which you need it. Got that?

All right, onto my futzings!

• I used fat-free sour cream. I thought it interesting that Cooking Light didn't call for reduced-fat or fat-free sour cream in the first place. Perhaps readers are just supposed to assume such information, but then again, the magazine's recipes are usually very specific about what type of ingredients to use.
  
• I used Splenda brown sugar blend in lieu of regular brown sugar.
  
• I don't own any maple syrup. That stuff's expensive! So I used my beloved Griffin's waffle syrup, which is one of the better things about having grown up in Okiemolah.
  
• As I have many times before to much success, I used an equal combination of white wheat flour and whole wheat flour.
  
• As I have many times before to much frustration, I used Promise fat-free butter. Yes, I know, Gentle Reader, the lack of fat screws me over every time, but...I'm pathological in my obsession with using this stuff. Maybe in my next incarnation I won't be so neurotic about these things. Maybe.
  
• Because I needed so little orange zest, I didn't zest one of the three giant oranges I have sitting on my counter. I was lazy and substituted a quarter-teaspoon of orange extract. Or was it a full half-teaspoon? Hell, I don't remember at this point.
  
• As I was pouring the filling onto the crust, I remembered that I hadn't add the two tablespoons of flour to it. D'oh!

Needless to say, Gentle Reader, I had issues pressing the crust into the pan. The stuff wasn't crumbly--it was gooey, thus it stuck to my hands despite them being coated in nonstick cooking spray. This problem was nothing new.

And perhaps I used the wrong pan since I wasn't sure if the recipe wanted me to use a Pyrex baking dish (which I thought was still dirty at the time) instead of an aluminum cake pan. I know a glass pan will not yield as good of browning as a metal pan will (something handy I learned while reviewing--and erasing--some old episodes of America's Test Kitchen recently), plus I have a new aluminum pan with a plastic snap-on cover (thanks, Erin, for the Williams-Sonoma gift card birthday gift!), which I figured would be really handy for keeping the bars fresh and moist as we ate them slowly.

I also found it odd that the recipe didn't have me bake the crust, even just for a few minutes, before putting the filing atop it. I have several oatmeal crust bar cookie recipes that require me to do just that. So I wasn't terribly surprised that the crust in places was still gooey after the 40 minutes of baking. Thank the FSM I coated the pan in baking nonstick cooking spray or else some of the bars never would have released from the pan!

Overall, I wasn't terribly impressed with the recipe. Don't get me wrong: The bars had a good flavor. But the sour cream-based filling was just...in the husband's words, had an odd mouth feel. Maybe if I'd used full-fat sour cream, the mouth feel wouldn't have been so...off. Would I try the recipe again with full-fat sour cream? Not on your life.

The Absolutely Marvelous
The husband and I celebrated 11 years of marriage last Saturday. We actually celebrated a day early by going to Rangoli together for lunch sans boy. Rangoli, as always, was delightful, but it especially was last Friday, for nothing beats a belly full of warm, wonderful Indian food on a cold, overcast day.

We decided to continue our Indian anniversary feast on the big day itself by preparing a murgh makhani (cashew chicken) recipe my sister-in-law had kindly shared with me and highly recommended--and one I'd actually marked in an older issue of Cooking Light that I'd been neglecting. While I'll admit right away I wasn't terribly keen on blendering up the marinade paste, I was anxious to taste the final result, so I sucked it up and got the job done.

Speaking of that marinade paste, that stuff was damn delicious right out of the blender.

Yeah, I know--looks kinda disgusting before blending.

And it doesn't look appetizing afterwards, but it's delish!

I probably could have eaten it cold (well, cool) as a chutney to accompany some idlis, medu vada or even some papadum. Because it was so tasty, I was a little nervous about finishing the recipe and adding more ingredients to the pot when it came time to cook the chicken and finish the dish. But I needn't have worried!

Indian Cashew Chicken2/3 C cashews, toasted
2/3 C fat-free Greek-style yogurt
1/4 C tomato paste
2 T white vinegar
1 1/4 t garam masala
1 t ground coriander
1 t grated peeled fresh ginger
1/4 t ground red pepper
2 garlic cloves, chopped
4 skinless, boneless chicken thighs, cut into bite-sized pieces (about 14 oz. total)
2 8-oz. skinless, boneless chicken breasts, cut into bite-sized pieces
2 3/4 C finely chopped onion (2 large)
2 green cardamom pods, lightly crushed
1 2" cinnamon stick
2 C fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
1 C tomato puree
1 t Hungarian sweet paprika
1/4 t salt
3 T half-and-half
Chopped fresh cilantro (optional)

1. Combine the first nine ingredients in a blender or food processor, then process until smooth.
   
2. Pour the nut mixture over the chicken in a large bowl, then cover and refrigerate 3 hours or overnight.
   
3. Coat a large Dutch oven with cooking spray and heat over medium-low heat.
   
4. Add the onion, cardamom and cinnamon stick to the pan, then cover and cook 10 min. or until the onion is golden, stirring often.
   
5. Add the chicken mixture to the pan and cook 10 min., stirring frequently.
   
6. Stir in the broth, tomato puree, paprika and salt, scraping the pan to loosen any browned bits.
   
7. Cook the curry 1 hour or until it's thick.
   
8. Stir in the half-and-half and cook 1 min., stirring occasionally.
   
9. Turn off the heat, then discard the cinnamon stick. Garnish with fresh cilantro, if desired.

Yield: 6 servings (one serving is about 1 cup)

Nutritional Info
Calories: 340
Fat: 13.6 g
Sat fat: 3.4 g
Protein: 36.7 g
Carbs: 18.7 g
Fiber: 3.8 g
Cholesterol: 91 mg
Sodium: 435 mg

The Faudie's Futzings
Not too many changes with this one--which is highly unusual, I know.

• I wasn't going to buy a big carton of fat-free half-and-half for this recipe, so I'd initially planned to omit it. Then I remembered that often half-and-half is used in place of heavy whipping cream, which I do have (even if it is a little old). But here's the funny thing, Gentle Reader: I forgot to add it after I was satisfied the curry was thick enough. I've done this before and found the flavor was not affected, and this time the same is true.
  
• For the boy's sake, I didn't put in any cilantro. I'm a good mom, aren't I? (Don't answer that. And don't die laughing either.)
  
• Central Markup was all out of Hungarian sweet paprika, so I used the regular paprika I had on hand. I doubt it made much of a difference.
  
• I didn't cover the onions to cook them for 10 minutes. I don't understand that step. Just cook the damn things until they're golden. Sheesh.
  
• I didn't cover and cook the curry for an hour. I'd say in 25 minutes, the curry was nice and thick and ready to be scooped up with a piece of naan.

This recipe is perfect if you've wanted to make your own Indian food but haven't been sure if you'll be able to replicate your favorite chicken tikka masala dish at your favorite Indian restaurant. Because here's the thing, Gentle Reader: I've found many restaurants do a makhani recipe as their tikka masala dish. The recipes are pretty similar, I've found.

So what are you waiting for, Gentle Reader? Get your butt and gear and get some yummy Indian food in your belly! Heaven to murgh-atroyd, it's absolutely marvelous!