Day 284: Tuna Tuesday

According to Anthony Bourdain, Tuesday is one of the best days to buy fish so off I went to the market today to see what looked fresh.  I walked out with a couple of pieces of great looking ahi, two nice sized bok choys, and some prepared "Greek style roasted tomatoes".

I sliced the bok choy crosswise, thinly at the end where it's thicker and wider through the leafy part, since those thinner pieces would cook more quickly.  Then I was sure to clean the pieces thoroughly.  Bok choy is like celery - it collects lots of dirt between the layers, so you really need to clean it carefully.

I took the tuna, cut it into 1 inch cubes, and tossed it in a Ziploc bag with the juice of a lemon, 2 T olive oil, and a good dose of S&P.  

After heating up some olive oil, I added 3 cloves of minced garlic and a thinly sliced shallot to the pan and sauteed them over low heat until they were softened up (but not browned).  Then I added the bok choy and 2 T white wine, turned up the heat to medium high, and covered the pot.  After about 5 minutes, the bok choy was softened but still had a little crunch.

I removed the bok choy from the pan and set it aside in a large bowl.  After pouring the liquid from the pan into the sink, I drizzled some olive oil into the pan and heated it on medium-high heat.  Once hot, I added the tuna and sauteed for about 4-55 minutes, stirring the cubes every minute or two.  Once cooked, I tossed the tuna into the bowl with the bok choy and some of the diced Greek style roasted tomatoes.

Assuming I can find those tomatoes again, I will definitely make this meal again.  They added a really nice salty, acidic note to the dish.  And as Anthony said, buying seafood on Tuesday almost always assures the freshest most flavorful fish.

Day 201: Celebrating the Return of LOST!!

Oh, how I have been awaiting this day.  Finally!!  Lost has returned!!

In celebration, I made a Lost inspired dinner:  grilled shrimp skewers with pineapple salsa, sauteed bok choy, and a side of seaweed salad.  I thought this reflected Lost quite nicely - people stranded on a tropical island and the show is filmed in Hawaii.

I marinated peeled and deveined shrimp for 10 minutes in the following mixture:

Juice of 1 large lemon

2 large garlic cloves, smashed

1 T olive oil

1/8 tsp salt

Cracked black pepper to taste

Once marinated, I threaded the shrimp on skewers and my husband grilled them up.

To accompany the shrimp, I made a pineapple salsa:

1 cup chopped fresh pineapple

1/2 jalepeno, seeded, pulp removed, and finely minced

1 shallot, minced

Juice of 1 lime

I also sauteed some bok choy.  First, I heated up some olive oil on low heat.  Once hot, I added 2 minced cloves of garlic and sauteed that for a few minutes.  Then I trimmed the bottom off of 3 heads of baby bok choy, sliced them in half lengthwise, and tossed them in the pan with 2 T of white wine and a generous dose of salt.  I jacked up the heat to medium-high, stirred everything together, and threw a lid on the pan.  Make sure you check it frequently and give it a stir.  If it seems to need more liquid, throw in another splash of wine.  After 5-7 minutes, the leaves should be wilted and the stems should be softened and the bok choy is ready!

The final touch was just a bit of store-bought seaweed salad.  We're still picking it out of our teeth, but it was damn tasty.

Oh yea - and I crushed up some roasted cashews in the food processor and sprinkled them over the whole plate.  They added some more protein and a nice crunch to a plate of otherwise soft food.

This was a very good meal and of course, Lost was awesome.  Maybe I need to be inspired by TV more often!

Day 185: An Old Dog Learns New Tricks!

If you're a regular reader of this blog, you know that I absolutely suck at plating.  It's a bummer because normally my food is quite good but you'd never know it by looking at it.

Last week I went through my blog photo album with a friend, who offered up some keen observations about the differences between my plates from the ones eaten at restaurants:

1.  Restaurants often slice the protein into large chunks, which they then stack

2.  Sauces or other ingredients are offered drizzled or sprinkled about the plate

Tonight I incorporated both strategies into my dish and voila!  One of my best plated dishes yet!!

As you can see, our meal featured seared tuna.  All I did was pat it dry, season it on both sides with S&P, and lay it down in hot olive oil in a stainless steel pan.  After a few minutes, I used tongs to pick the steaks up and turn them over.  Remember - proteins like tuna, chicken, and pork chops will always let you know when they are ready for flipping.  They should lift easily from the pan.  If they don't they aren't ready and you shouldn't force them.  If you do, you risk losing a good chunk of them as part stays with the pan when the rest gets forced out.

Once the tuna was ready, you can see that I followed the first part of my friend's advice and cut it into two pieces, which I stacked.  Beautiful.

The bok choy side dish I prepared was based on a Gourmet recipe that I tweaked:

1 lb. bok choy, trimmed and cut horizontally into 1/2 inch slices

1 orange (or red or yellow) bell pepper, cut into 1 inch pieces

1 T low sodium soy sauce

1 T fish sauce

2 T water

1 T unsalted butter

2 T canola oil

Heat canola oil on medium-high flame until hot.  Add bok choy and pepper and saute for 3 minutes.

Mix soy sauce, fish sauce, and water in a small bowl.  Add the mixture and the butter to the vegetables and saute for another 5 minutes.

Using a slotted spoon, remove the veggies and continue to fast simmer the sauce until reduced to half.  Pour sauce over veggies when it's at the desired consistency.

I'll be honest - my husband did not care for the sauce at all.  So, he doused it in hot sauce and then everything seemed to be okay.  I, on the other hand, quite liked it.  Try it and decide for yourself.

Once the side was done and plated, I followed my friend's second piece of advice and scattered toasted sesame seeds about the food and the plate.  They added some visual pizzazz and tasted great, too.  Sesame seeds are good but are even better once toasted - just sprinkle them into a pan, place over medium-low heat, and watch carefully and toss often.

As you can see, I am open to advice and can learn from my mistakes so please feel free to leave any plating or other related topics as a comment!

Day 138: Withdrawal Symptom?

The headache I was suffering from yesterday hung on throughout the day today.  I started thinking that perhaps it was a withdrawal symptom caused by lack of seafood in my diet.  Perhaps my body got used to a daily dose of fish during my Florida vacation.  Hey - I know it's a long shot - but after 37 hours of headache, I was willing to try anything.

I bought a beautiful swordfish steak and prepared it as I always do - simply.  I patted the fish dry with a paper towel, and then sprinkled both sides with salt & pepper, and squeezed about a teaspoon of fresh lemon juice and drizzled a little olive oil on each side.  Then, my husband grilled it - feel free to leave a comment regarding the gorgeous grill marks he created.  

To go with the fish, I sauteed bok choy and shitake mushrooms in lemon juice and garlic.  I made this recipe up:

I trimmed the bottom off of 3 bok choys and then sliced them across at approximately 1/2 inch intervals.  Once I got to the leafy part, I just cut the leaves in half and then I submerged all of it in some cold water and swished it around to make sure it all got clean.  Bok choy hides a lot of dirt inside, so you have to really give it a good rinse.

I cut the stems off of about a dozen shitake mushrooms, and then cut the caps into quarters.

I heated some olive oil & a couple of shakes of red pepper flakes in a large saute pan on medium-low heat and then sauteed three cloves of chopped garlic for a couple of minutes until they were soft.  I added the mushrooms, which of course sucked up all of the moisture that was in the pan.  To make sure nothing burned, I added a couple of tablespoons of chicken broth to the pan.  Once the mushrooms had softened up, I added the drained bok choy and cranked the temperature up on the burner to medium-high.  I added the juice of a small lemon, some S&P, mixed everything together, and mixed frequently for the next 10 minutes or so.

For a hot dish, this side was pretty refreshing because of the lemon juice and really complemented the fish.  I drizzled some of the liquid from the pan over the fish and sprinkled lemon zest over the whole dish.  Yum!

Whether or not this is a secret headache cure is yet to be determined.  Tune in tomorrow to find out!