Curried Fish with Zucchini

I think I'm reaching the point where I might just need to have a "Bittman" category to my blog. Here I was, thinking the man had given up the food blogging lifestyle, and he goes and releases not just one but a number of different recipe-themed posts. And he just happened to write an entire entry on fish just when I was looking for a way to use up all the frozen fish in my freezer.
Thanks, Bitty. Thanks.
But still, I can't fault him for his ridiculously easy preparations. This fish dish took me all of 5 minutes. Well, ok 8 1/2, but who's counting?
Even though he mentions nothing about what to serve it with, I do recommend putting this one on top of rice. The coconut milk and water combine to make a rather soupy consistency and to mop up all that flavor, you need some starch.
The recipe (if it can even be called that) is fairly basic and doesn't really feature any of the heat that is de rigueur in my household. So, if you dare, ante up the heat and throw some cayenne or red pepper flakes in with the curry. The coconut milk will really reduce the straight-up heat but it will make for a nice inherent smokiness to the dish which made it all the better. 

Ingredients
2 tbsp olive oil 
1 onion, chopped
2 zucchini, cut into large pieces or rounds
1 1/2 lbs white fillet of fish (whichever you please)
2 tbsp curry powder
2 tbsp minced ginger
1 tbsp cayenne (optional)
1 tbsp red pepper flakes (optional)
1 1/2 cups coconut milk
1/2 cup water
cilantro  (for garnish)

Method

Sauté 1 chopped onion and 2 chunked zucchini in oil for 5 minutes.

Add 1 tablespoon ginger and 1 tablespoon curry powder (or to taste, if you are using the cayenne or red pepper flakes, add them here). Cook for a minute, then add fish.

Add coconut milk and water.

Cook for 5 minutes to allow flavors to blend.

Serve on top of rice. Garnish with cilantro.

Beet and Fennel Salad

Mmmm beets.
Better yet: beets and fennel.
Better even still: beets, fennel, and vermouth.
Oh yes.
I have recently subscribed to the big daddy of online food forums: chow.com. And now I receive daily emails with suggested recipes. Like salads that include beets, fennel, and vermouth. Which confirmed my suspicions that I had indeed made the right choice in joining the millions on the site.
To be honest, I had no idea how this recipe would turn out. I rarely cook beets (due to their rather unfortunate tendency of staining your hands for days), but I thought, "What the heck?", live dangerously and make a beet salad.
And it was worth it. Absolutely. I know the picture may look a tad odd, but I guarantee the flavors will make up for the slightly ostentatious redness of the dish.
I cooked the beets myself but almost every grocery store now sells those of the pre-cooked variety, taking your cooking time down from 45 minutes to about 15. The dish which results from those 15 minutes looks so elegant and out of the ordinary, well, you'll find yourself claiming that you really did slave for hours to create the perfect side dish for your meal. We all know better but go ahead, take the credit.
You deserve it.

Ingredients
6 medium red or Chioggia beets
2 large fennel bulbs
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons unsalted butter (1/4 stick)
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper"
1/3 cup dry vermouth
2 tablespoons whole-grain Dijon mustard
Juice of 1 medium lemon
1/2 bunch chives, finely chopped
1/2 bunch tarragon, leaves picked, finely chopped

Method
1.  Place the beets in a large pot, cover with cold water, and bring to a boil over high heat. Once
boiling, reduce the heat to medium and simmer until the beets are fork tender, about 30 minutes.
Drain, then peel under cold running water. Set the beets aside to cool.

2.  Trim any green tops off the fennel and slice the bulbs in half lengthwise. Remove the core from
each half and slice the bulbs lengthwise in 1/4-inch-thick strips.

3.  Return the large pot to the stove, add the olive oil and butter, and heat over medium heat. When
the butter foams, add the fennel, season well with salt and pepper, and cook, stirring
occasionally, until just tender, about 5 minutes.

4.  Add the vermouth, mustard, and lemon juice and bring to a simmer. Meanwhile, slice the peeled beets
into 1/4-inch-thick rounds. Add the beets to the pot and cook until warmed through, about 5 minutes
more. Stir in the herbs, taste, and adjust the seasoning as desired.

Honeyed Prawns, Sausage and Polenta (Faux Shrimp and Grits)

If you've ever been to the South (yes, with a capital S), then more likely than not you've heard of the wonder that is shrimp n' grits. Like most of their cuisine, it's based on simple hearty flavors....with lots of butter. No no, that's not doing it justice (not being from the South myself). There's such a richness of tradition in southern cooking that it's hard for a poor non-southerner like myself to describe it accurately. Many of its iconic dishes are based on what used to be the food of the poor- what was left over or what could be acquired cheaply. Grits, rice and beans, ham, collard greens, all these things started out as what you could make easily and cheaply. No longer. Give those people a few hundred years and you get one of the best (and perhaps most definitive) cuisines of the US.

For me, nothing represents the best of Southern cooking like shrimp and grits. Ostensibly simple, it involves a base of grits (for an explanation on this, see earlier posts lamenting its absence in England), topped with a hearty portion of shrimp/prawns and sausage cooked in a special blend of seasonings. The dish is one of my all time favorites. But alas, re-creating it authentically over in England is a bit far-fetched. So I resorted to the usual grits substitute: polenta and worked with what I had in terms of sausage (hunter's sausage in this case) and shrimp (all I could find were the tiniest little things I had ever seen). If I ever make this recipe again (more than likely), I would search high and low to find sizable prawns, the tiny things I could find did not do the trick. Regardless though, it was absolutely delicious and still had a tinge of the authentic to it. The sweet currants in the polenta with the spicy/savory sauce for the protein were a great combination. A great twist on the old Southern standby.

Ingredients
For the prawn/sausage marinade:
4 tablespoons tomato paste
3 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons hot sauce
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
Sea salt
1 pound large, peeled, and deveined prawns
2 links, hunter's sausage, sliced thinly

For the polenta:
1 cup polenta
1 1/4 cups (10 ounces) corn kernels, fresh or frozen
1/4 cup currants
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon fresh thyme, or 1/2 teaspoon dried
Sea salt
Black pepper

For the topping:
1/3 cup feta cheese, crumbled
2 to 3 tablespoons fresh parsley, finely chopped
2 tablespoons capers
Hot sauce (optional)

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (204°C). Butter an 8 x 10-inch (20.3 x 25.4 cm) baking dish. Oil a rimmed baking sheet with olive oil. Set the pans aside.

2. To make the marinade: Combine the tomato paste, honey, lemon juice, olive oil, hot sauce, garlic powder, and a pinch or two of salt in a medium bowl. Toss the prawns and sausage with the marinade. Set the bowl aside, giving it a stir every few minutes.

3. For the polenta: Bring 3 cups cold water to a boil in a medium stainless-steel pot. Add the polenta. Cook seven minutes, stirring often. Remove the pot from the heat, cover, and let sit for 10 minutes.
4. In a large bowl, mix the corn (completely thawed if frozen), currants, honey, butter, and thyme. Stir in the polenta, and season with salt and pepper to taste.

5. Add polenta mixture to the buttered baking dish. Spread evenly with a spatula, and place in the oven to bake for 35 minutes.

6. Spread the prawn/sausage mixture evenly onto the oiled baking sheet. After the polenta has baked for 25 minutes, add the prawns to the oven, alongside the polenta. Place both pans on same rack if possible; otherwise, place the baking sheet on the lower rack.

7. Bake the prawns for five minutes. Remove the baking sheet from the oven, and flip all of the prawns over. Return to the oven and bake an additional five minutes, until the polenta is slightly browned and the prawns are pink and firm.

8. Remove the prawns and the polenta from the oven. To serve, scoop individual servings of the polenta onto plates. Lay a few prawns over each serving, then top with crumbled feta, fresh parsley, and capers. Drizzle with a few lashings of hot sauce, if desired.

Sautéed Shredded Brussels Sprouts with Bacon and Toasted Pecans

Brussels sprouts. I think everyone can agree this is a love/hate relationship vegetable. When I was young (and wonderfully foolish), I used to think they were mini-cabbages or heads of lettuce. Not that I wanted to eat them, mind you, but I found it amusing that these things seemed fit for a gnome's table.

Anyway, enough foolishness. I was in search of a vegetable side dish for dinner a few days back and I thought of the lowly sprout, so ignored by me in cooking. Well, those days are at an end. This was (believe it or not) one of the first times I had actually cooked the things raw (rather than frozen and re-heated in a microwave). And what better way to mask a vegetable than by putting bacon with it? Always guaranteed to please. The nuts were also an inspiration, giving just enough of a crunch and texture to the dish that made it all the better. The only time-intensive part of the dish was the endless shredding of sprouts. Unless you're handy with a mandolin (and even I won't dare to use one on these little mini-cabbages), you're setting yourself up for a lot of knife work. But worth it for the sprouts!!

Ingredients
2 pounds brussels sprouts
2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) butter
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 1/4-inch-thick slices bacon (about 6 ounces), coarsely chopped
1 large garlic clove, minced
2/3 cup low-salt chicken broth
Coarse kosher salt
1/2 cup pecans, toasted, chopped

Method 

Trim root ends from brussels sprouts. Using sharp knife or processor fitted with coarse shredding disk, thinly slice brussels sprouts into shreds. 
Melt butter with olive oil in large deep skillet over medium heat. Add bacon; sauté until golden, about 3 minutes.
Add garlic; stir 30 seconds. Add brussels sprouts and broth; sauté until crisp-tender but still bright green, 3 to 5 minutes. Season with coarse salt and black pepper. Transfer to serving bowl. Sprinkle with pecans.

Tortellini Gratinata with Mushrooms and Parsnip "Bechamel"

Baked pasta. Pasta casserole. Hot dish. All things I associate inherently with America. I swear, within each American there's some pale distant memory of a potluck at which either your mother or your neighbor's mother insisted on bringing her "world famous" tuna noodle casserole. Or baked pasta. Or...well, you get the idea. I'm fairly sure this memory never took place in reality; however, the fact that I spent my formative years in the MidWest makes the likelihood of the above even more plausible. Nothing says comfort food like some baked pasta.

Which is why, when my mother smuggled me an American copy of this month's "Bon Appetit" magazine and I saw they were doing an entire feature on the glorious American dish, I had to dust off my Midwestern genes (and jeans) and get to cooking. The promise of a faux parsnip "bechamel" sauce got me on this one. I had no idea what they were talking about but it turned out that the parsnips replaced the flour in the bechamel, keeping the thick consistency of the sauce but giving it an earthier if still starchy flavor. It was a win all around.

I also recommend getting bold with your tortellini in this recipe. The magazine called for either plain or cheese tortellini. Bah! I went with some sort of wild mushroom and stuffed sausage tortellini and in my opinion (humble as it may be), it made what can be a very bland dish (hey, we are talking about baked pasta here) into something with a little more subtlety. 

Ingredients
2 large parsnips, peeled, cut into 1/2-inch-thick rounds
2 1/2 cups whole milk, divided
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese, divided
large pinch of grated nutmeg
4 1/2 tbsp butter, divided
1 1/2 lbs baby portobello mushrooms, or chestnut mushrooms, thinly sliced
2 large garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 tsp. minced fresh rosemary
2 packages tortellini (of whatever kind, should be around 18-24 oz.)
6 oz. creamy Gorgonzola cheese, cut into small pieces
1 cup chorizo sausage, cut into small pieces

Method
Cook parsnips in a medium saucepan of boiling salted water until very tender, about 20 minutes. Drain. Place parsnips in same saucepan along with 1 1/2 cups of milk. With an immersion blender, blend until smooth. Add 1 cup of milk, 3/4 cup Parmesan cheese, and nutmeg to saucepan. Blend again.

Place saucepan over heat again and simmer until reduced to about 3 cups, whisking often, about every 5 minutes. Season bechamel sauce to taste with salt and black pepper.

Melt 2 1/2 tbsp. butter in heavy large skillet over medium-high heat. Add mushrooms, garlic, and rosemary. Saute until mushrooms are brown and tender, 6-7 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Preheat oven to 400F. Butter a 12-cup capacity baking dish. Cook pasta in large pot of boiling salted water until just tender but still firm to bite. Drain pasta, return to pot. Add remaining 2 tbsp of butter and toss to coat.

Stir in mushroom mixture and cut chorizo. Transfer pasta to prepared baking dish. Spread bechamel sauce over; sprinkle with Gorgonzola, then remaining 1/4 cup Parmesan.

Bake pasta until heated through and sauce is bubbling, 18-20 minutes. Let stand 10 minutes and serve.