Salt-Baked Whole Fish (p. 364) with Sauce Verte (p. 270)

This was a fun dish to prepare because it's so different from any of the other recipes. It requires a lot of salt that the fish is baked in which creates a crust around it.

Mix the salt with egg whites to create a fairly thick paste.

Layer about a third of this into the bottom of the baking dish.

Next up is the fish -- I used a whole red snapper from the Asian Market.

Cover the entire fish with the rest of the salt, making sure everything is covered and packed in. Cook for 20 to 30 minutes, depending on the size of the fish.

When done, you kind of have to crack the salt crust away from the fish. As it comes up, it takes with it most of the skin, leaving an amazingly moist and tasty meat behind. (Note: mine did not come off neatly at all -- it looked a fright.)

With this, I prepared Sauce Verte, a French green sauce for fish. Basically, it's just a bunch of ingredients processed together -- watercress, spinach leaves, bread that has been soaked in water and drained, capers, anchovies, shallot, parsley, olive oil, and lemon juice.

Process until its a sauce-like consistency and then serve with a little salt and pepper mixed in.

This whole meal was really delicious. I loved the flavor and juiciness of the fish, and the sauce almost tasted like guacamole. I salted mine a little too much, but it was still tasty, and I enjoyed sopping up the remaining sauce with crusty bread.

salt -- $4.47

fish -- $7.69

Total Cost of Salt-Baked Whole Fish: $12.16

($6.08 per serving)

watercress -- $.99

bread -- $1.69

spinach -- $3.69 (plenty left for salads this week)

lemon -- $.69

shallot -- $.40

Total Cost of Sauce Verte: $7.46

($1.24 per serving)

Salsa Romesco (continued)

So, Salsa Romesco wasn't a perfect match for the poached fish the other night, but I found out what it is perfect with; grilled cheese sandwiches.

Poached Whole Fish (p. 351) with Salsa Romesco (p. 277)

I've been holding off on this poached fish recipe because I don't get to an area with a fish market very often, and Fresh Market doesn't sell whole fish. I finally got a chance to swing by Earps, a long-standing fish market in Raleigh, and it was everything I had hoped it would be. Fresh fish comes in from the coast each morning, and you kind of feel like you're in a little hut at the beach when you're in there.

My recipe calls for a pretty large fish -- a 6 pound salmon or sea bass -- but not only would that be way more fish that we could ever eat, I also don't have the type of pot that I could cook a fish that big in. Instead I chose a white bass that looked like it would feed two nicely.

This preparation would definitely have been easier with the proper pan; a long fish kettle with a removable rack. Instead, I simmered vegetable stock and some water along with dill and parsley and a chopped onion in my regular stock pot and then tossed the fish in whole.

Covered, mine only took about 10 minutes to cook, and then I carefully lifted the fish out (though it still lost its head -- whoops!) and put it on my pretty fish plate. For a little flavor, and to keep the fish from drying out, I spooned a mixture of olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, salt, pepper, dil, and parsley over the fish.

Since the fish is pretty simply prepared, I made Salsa Romesco to jazz things up a bit. It's a Catalan sauce that is supposed to be muy piquante.

It's also easy to toss together -- I made mine earlier in the day and it only took as long as needed to brown each of the ingredients (dried chilies, garlic cloves, almonds, and bread crusts) in some olive oil. These all go into a food processor along with a seeded tomato and some vinegar. Process everything down together into a sort of grainy paste, then serve.

I was surprised that Matt thinks this is a definite candidate for making in the future. I thought it was good, but whole fish is always kind of a pain, what with the bones and all. Still, the fish was really flavorful and we loved the olive oil mixture. Even after the fish was long gone we did a lot of bread dipping in the extra sauce.

The Salsa Romesco was good, but not great. I liked the flavor of almond and the sort of subtle spice, but it was lacking a strong kick that I wanted. We've got a ton left and might try it with eggs for Sunday breakfast.

fish -- $4.87

dill -- $1.99

garlic -- $.59

vegetable stock -- $1.78

Total Cost of Poached Whole Fish: $9.23

($4.62 per serving)

tomato -- $1.70

bread -- $1.99

Total Cost of Salsa Romesco: $3.69

($.46 per serving)

Oven-Roasted Fish with Vegetables (p. 380) with Turkish Walnut Sauce (p. 272) and Leblebi (p. 143)

This fish recipe is one from Spain and is known for its simplicity and no-fuss preparation. And that's pretty much true. In an oven-safe dish, layer sauteed onion and lightly fried potato slices before adding your fish -- a whole one, and preferably red snapper -- with slashes cut into each side.

Luckily, my asian market had just the thing.

Apologies for my photos this post, they're not super lovely.

On top of the fish, strew strips of pepper (softened in olive oil on the stove top) and slices of tomato. Pour a mixture of saffron, olive oil, and white wine over the fish and top with salt and bread crumbs. Then just bake.

This was pretty good, though the red snapper was a bit of a bear to parse out. The meat basically falls of the bones, but the bones fall of the bones, too. So we had a lot of those on our plate. Still, the flavor was nice and the saffron really shone through.

The winner of the fish course, though, was the sauce I decided to make at the last minute. I slapped Turkish Walnut Sauce for Fish or Vegetables together in about 5 minutes while the fish was resting. You can make the whole thing in the food processor -- it's just fresh bread crumbs, garlic, salt, walnuts, olive oil, white wine vinegar, and water. 

This was super delicious. I'd smother it all over my fish and vegetables every day. And I will, since we have a ton leftover. 

Most of the soups I have left are either bean or chickpea variations, and I'm trying to work through a couple each week. This week's soup, Leblebi, is Tunisian Chickpea Soup, so it's obviously of the chickpea sort, but made exciting by the mere fact that it contains harissa, which I adore. I've made my own before, but finally tracked down some commercially made harissa last week, and was excited to try it. There's a note in my cookbook about using a little less of the commercial type than you would home made because it's much spicier, but I sort of forgot about that.

The soup is super simple; just soften chickpeas (soaked overnight and then drained) in chicken stock, season with cumin, salt, garlic, and harissa, and eventually add in some thinly sliced sauteed onion. I added the amount of harissa that the recipe called for, which was of course too much for the commercial kind.

Luckily, Matt and I love us some spicy food, and thought this soup was a rock star. Mine could actually barely be considered soup since most of the broth was absorbed or cooked off by the time I served it. Soups almost never work out quite right when you halve the recipes. We didn't even care, though, and garnished the chickpeas with crumbled boiled eggs. We loved this, and will totally make it again some day.

green pepper -- $1.69

red snapper -- ARGHhhh. I threw my receipt away. I have no clue how much this cost.

potatoes -- $2.37

onion -- $1.02

Total Cost of Oven-Roasted Fish with Vegetables: $5.08, plus the price of the fish.

Total Cost of Turkish Walnut Sauce for Fish or Vegetables: Free 

I love having all the ingredients I need!

harissa -- $1.39

Total Cost of Leblebi: $1.39

($.46 per serving)

Herb-Crusted Fish Fillets (p. 375) in Greek Domata Saltsa (p. 267)

I didn't think I'd have time to do any cooking before heading to Asheville for Christmas festivities with my dad, but we ran out of food at the house last night so I searched through my cookbook to find a recipe that wouldn't leave me with left over ingredients that would go bad while we're out of town.

I decided to cut down this fish recipe so that it would just make enough for the two of us to eat for one night, and I already had a bunch of herbs that needed to be finished up anyway, so this recipe was ideal. 

The fish calls for a basic marinara sauce, but the recipe for Greek Domata Saltsa says that it can be used "in any Greek preparation for tomato sauce." I wasn't sure if my fish recipe was Greek but decided to give it a go anyway.

The sauce came together pretty quickly; I put chopped tomatoes through the food mill and then sauteed the pulpy liquid with olive oil and chopped onion, sugar, a cinnamon stick, and a bay leaf. 

After it had simmered for a bit, I poured in red wine along with salt and black pepper and kept it over the heat until it came together in a chunky sauce.

While the sauce was simmering, I started working on the salmon, which was surprisingly simple. Cut the fish into serving size pieces and dip the pieces in flour, then beaten egg, and then a blend of chopped parsley, dill, and basil mixed with bread crumbs. 

(Side note: my coworker Cynthia's chickens starting laying eggs a few weeks back, and I got my first dozen this morning. They're beautiful, and the egg yolk is a really vibrant color that made my end product here look really pretty.)

Once the fillets were completely coated, I sauteed them in a little olive oil for about 4 minutes per side.

Then I just ladled a little of the sauce onto each fillet and served!

We both really enjoyed this and I would totally make it again, or at least the fish part. I liked the lightly fried texture and the flavors of all the herbs. Next time I might serve it with a little green sauce on the side instead.  Or I might even just serve the fish on top of some mixed greens and have a light but filling meal!

canned tomatoes -- $.95

wine -- $2.99 (a small container, with enough left for two glasses of wine -- perfect!)

onion -- $.28

salmon -- 6.08

Total Cost of Herb-Crusted Fish Fillets in Greek Domata Saltsa: $10.30

($5.15 per serving)

Greek Seafood Stew with Vegetables (p. 114) with Aioli (p. 274)

Okay, it's starting to warm up a little bit here, but I still have soup on the brain. Matt had to work late last night so I was flying solo for dinner -- the perfect chance to make a seafood stew that I knew Matt wouldn't love. (I quartered the recipe so that I wouldn't have leftovers forever.)

Full disclosure: I did leave a couple of potentially "key" ingredients out. Saffron, because it's ridiculously expensive, and anise-flavored liqueur because I've always disliked the flavor of licorice.

Sauté onion in olive oil until soft and then add in carrots, celery, garlic, dried red chili pepper, dried thyme, and a bay leaf.

Throw in a peeled chopped tomato and let everything cook for about 10 more minutes.

Add in water and orange zest and simmer for 20 minutes before adding the fish pieces. I used haddock cut into four nice-sized chunks as well as shrimp. Put in the white fish first and allow it to cook for about 5 minutes. Then add the shrimp and cook until it has become pink and is fully cooked.

Remove the seafood from the dish and pour a mixture or orange and lemon juice into the liquid base of the stew. Simmer briefly before pouring back over the seafood.

The recipe recommended serving this stew with aioli, which is just garlic mayonnaise. It's also a super quick and easy recipe; just blend together one whole egg, an egg white, and salt. Slowly add olive oil and lemon juice to the mix.

Combine garlic and salt into a paste.

Gently stir the garlic mixture into the mayonnaise until it is well combined.

Then just spoon some on to your stew!

Yum. This stew was lovely. I really enjoyed the large chunks of fish and the delicious shrimp, which made it feel very hearty and filling. There is just a hint of citrus from the zest and juices, and the dollop of aioli gave a tiny bit of creaminess to the dish. I'm glad Matt wasn't here because I didn't have to share.

onion -- $1.29

orange -- $.60

lemon -- $.69

haddock -- $4.14

shrimp -- $3.77

tomato -- $1.17

Total Cost of Greek Seafood Stew with Vegetables: $11.66

($5.83 per serving)

Total Cost of Aioli: Free

(I had everything I needed at home.)

Coulis de Tomates (p. 269)

Have you ever made your own ketchup? That's basically what this is, and it's a little bit amazing.

And easy, to boot. You basically just sauté tomatoes down into a jammy sauce and then run them through the food mill. Put your leftovers in a pan with sauteed onions (very finely chopped), whole garlic cloves, salt, pepper, and whatever herbs you want (I used rosemary sprigs, a bay leaf, and dried thyme.) Let this simmer for about an hour.

Then just run it through the food processor and use it anywhere you'd use ketchup!

We ate this with french fries and it was amazing. Who doesn't love fancy condiments? We'll definitely make this again.

CSA tomatoes -- $3.67

rosemary -- $2.99 (plenty left)

Total Cost of Coulis de Tomates: $6.66

Provencal Sauce de Tomates (p. 268)

This is a super basic tomato sauce. You might have everything you need in your kitchen right now (I did.) Also, Simone Beck (Julia Child's writing parter) used to make this sauce, so you know it's going to be good.

Quarter tomatoes and put them in a sauce pan along with olive oil.

Let these cook for about 15 minutes, until they have released a lot of their juices and are nice and soft. Then spoon them into a food mill (this was my first use of mine!) and mill them. Obviously that's not the right verb, but I think you get what I mean.

Meanwhile, sauté onion (I used a combination of yellow and red, because that's what was in my fridge) and garlic in olive oil until soft.

Put this sauce back into the cleaned out sauce pan and add in the onion/garlic mixture. Stir in thyme (it calls for fresh, but I only had dried), oregano, and crushed fennel seed. The recipe also called for a piece of dried orange peel but I didn't have any, and also that sounds weird. So, no orange peel, and also no bay leaves.

Let this simmer for 20 to 30 minutes and then add salt and pepper as needed.

This is good, but not really anything super special. It's just a tomato sauce.

tomatoes -- $5.50

Total Cost of Provencal Sauce de Tomates: $5.50

Sicilian Tomato Bruschette (p. 71) and Linguine al Pesto (p. 206) with Mixed Greens in a Vinaigrette (p. 263)

We had a fancy little dinner party last night (well, not really fancy, but a dinner party nonetheless.) I had three delicious CSA tomatoes waiting to be consumed, so I decided to whip them up into a delicious bruschetta to serve before dinner. The recipe really calls for the tomatoes to be cooked over a charcoal fire but gives alternate directions for cooking them in an oven, which is what I did.

Put the tomatoes into a gratin dish with olive oil at the bottom, and turn the tomatoes so they are completely covered in the oil. Cook these in a very hot oven for about 20 minutes, or until they are soft and the skins are splitting.

Once they're done, place the tomatoes in a bowl and, using a fork, mash them all up. In a separate bowl, combine garlic, basil and salt along with dried oregano and dried red pepper. Make a paste from these and then stir well with olive oil. This sauce can now be mixed in with the pulpy tomatoes.

The topping is then poured on toasted bread slices (I used ciabatta.) 

This was delicious! I originally only made about 6 of them, figuring no one would want a lot, but I had to make up some more pretty quickly. We all really enjoyed this.
This was my first time making pesto, and it turns out to be incredibly easy! Put basil, pine nuts, and salt in a food processor and slowly add olive oil until it has reached a grainy consistency. Add in some garlic and process a tiny bit more, and then fold in grated parmesan.

Separately, bring a stock pot of lightly salted water to a boil and add slices of peeled potatoes that are no more than 1/4 inch thick.

Boil these for five minutes and then add linguine. Once the water is boiling again, cook the potatoes and pasta for 10-12 minutes, until both are done to taste.

When the pasta is done, drain it and combine it with the pesto.

This was absolutely delicious, and one that we will definitely try again. Both of us were a little wary about the potatoes (potatoes with pasta?! weird!) but it was pretty awesome. The pesto was light, a tiny bit salty, and very flavorful. We mopped it up with pieces of bread leftover from the bruschetta.

I served a salad of mixed greens on the side of the pasta dish, and made a Vinaigrette to go with it. It's basically just mustard, red wine vinegar, olive oil, salt, and pepper all mixed together. Very tasty!

tomatoes -- $2.20

bread -- $2.99

Total Cost of Sicilian Tomato Bruschette: $5.19

basil -- $5.98 (I actually bought two basil plants instead)

parmesan -- $2.50

potatoes -- $1.90

linguine -- $1.29

Total Cost of Linguine al Pesto: $11.67

Total Cost of Vinaigrette: Free

Pasta al Pomodoro (p. 195) with Gratin of Purple-Topped Turnips (p. 340)

Tonight was the night that Matt and I found out that we don't like turnips. But first, Pasta al Pomodoro!

This is pretty similar to the other pasta dishes that have tomato-based sauces that I've created -- in this case the sauce is made by sautéing onion (I used red, because that's what I had on hand), garlic, and minced parsley in olive oil. Once the veggies have softened, add canned whole tomatoes that have been chopped up as well as dried oregano. Raise the heat and continue cooking the sauce for about 20 minutes until its consistency is jammy. Add salt and pepper to taste.

While the sauce is cooking, cook the pasta according to its directions. Once it is al dente, stir in parmigiano reggiano cheese, top with the sauce, and add more cheese. Tada!

This sauce was very tasty and a tiny bit spicy (probably due to the red onion.) We both quite enjoyed it.

What we did not enjoy, on the other hand, was the Gratin of Purple-Topped Turnips. They had so much promise, but alas.

In case you actually like turnips, here's how they were prepared -- scrub the turnips and cut them into thin slices. Put these in a pan of boiling water to cook for about 7 minutes, until tender. Remove the turnip slices from the water and place them in a lightly oiled gratin dish.

In a saucepan, cook finely chopped shallot and garlic in olive oil. When the veggies are cooked, add veggie stock and and parsley and bring the stock to a boil. Pour the contents of the pan over the turnip slices and sprinkle with parmesan cheese and black pepper.

Cover the gratin dish with aluminum foil and cook for about 25 minutes before basting the turnips with more of the liquid and cooking for five more minutes.

I suppose it's possible that if you like turnips you might enjoy this dish, but I can't really fathom it.

Luckily we filled up on pasta and then apple pie and vanilla ice cream, so we can't complain.

canned tomatoes -- $1.39

Total Cost of Pasta al Pomodoro: $1.39

turnips -- $.81

shallots -- $2.19

Total Cost of Gratin of Purple-Topped Turnips: $3.00

Chickpea Dip with a Lamb Garnish (p. 34) and Baked Chicken Breasts with a Pomegranate Glaze (p. 410)

I made hummus (chickpea dip) over the weekend, but we waited to dive into it until I had the chance to make the lamb garnish to go on it. This is the same hummus I've made before; using the lamb garnish is just another variation on it. And an easy one at that.

Toast pine nuts in a dry skillet until they are golden and then set aside. In the same pan, caramelize onions in olive oil by slowly cooking them until they are golden. Once the onions are fully cooked, add cinnamon and ground lamb and lots of salt and pepper. Cook until the lamb is completely done, breaking the meat apart while stirring.

Once the meat is done, pour the onion/lamb mixture over the hummus, top with the pine nuts, and sprinkle with chili powder.

I served the hummus well before dinner as a meze and we ate it with warmed tortillas. This was delicious. I didn't love the cinnamon but Matt really did, and the dish was flavorful and surprising. I'd definitely make it again for a party.

I've had some chicken breasts in my freezer for a month or so, waiting to be cooked and eaten and tonight was their special night. First, I made a marinade for the chicken using ground cumin, salt and pepper, olive oil, garlic, and unsweetened pomegranate juice concentrate. I brushed the breasts in this and let it sit in the fridge for about an hour.

Meanwhile, I boiled down more pomegranate juice along with sugar and mustard to make a syrup. The recipe said this would take about 10 minutes but mine was closer to 30. I might not have let it cook rapidly enough -- I was worried the juice on the bottom of the pan would burn.

Once the chicken was ready to be baked, I put it in an oven-proof dish. The recipe actually calls for a baking dish with a rack but the only one I have like that is for my Thanksgiving turkey and it's huge, so I just used a  glass dish. I added the juices that were left from the chicken breasts in with the syrupy liquid and heated them up, then brushed this mixture over the tops of the chicken.

The dish went into the oven for about 10 minutes, and then I re-basted and turned the heat down. After another 10 minutes of cooking I basted again and then popped the chicken back in for five more minutes. The chicken was then done, so I cut the breasts on a diagonal and poured some of the remaining sauce over the pieces.

I served this with corn on the cob, which was kind of a weird pairing but it came in my CSA box last week and I didn't want it to go to waste.

The chicken was very flavorful and juicy, though also a little sweet for my taste. Still, we both enjoyed the chicken a lot, and the fresh NC corn was divine.

onion -- $1.25

lamb -- $2.16

Total Cost of Chickpea Dip with a Lamb Garnish: $3.41

pomegranate juice -- $3.99

Total Cost of Baked Chicken Breasts with a Pomegranate Glaze: $3.99