Pasta with Mushrooms, Fried Eggs, and Herbs

New York Times Cooking doesn't generally fool around with clever names for its recipes. The name of the dish typically accounts for most of the main ingredients. And so it is for Pasta with Mushrooms, Fried Eggs, and Herbs (although it also has some cheese, not accounted for in the name).This was a bit more complicated than I expected. It required two skillets, as well as a pan to cook the pasta, so there were a lot of dishes to wash afterwards as well. I was amused by the recipe's admonishment "red wine not optional" as James and I so often enjoy a Malbec with our meal. This time though we paired the food with a red blend that had a bit of a kick, and frankly weren't thrilled with it. Perhaps if we had just stuck with our old favorite we would have enjoyed it more. The dish wasn't bad, but it is unlikely we will have it again. Too much work for the a dish we didn't really love.

Braised Salmon

Last Christmas our wonderful child gave us this cookbook as a gift.

We've used it once before with good success and last weekend we pulled it out again in an effort to get back to the original purpose of this blog. We had already bought some salmon from our local fishmonger so we selected the recipe based on the type of fish we had.

We immediately noticed that the recipe called for salmon steaks, and we'd bought a fillet, but just decided to go for it anyway. The braising actually worked to our advantage as it served as a quick way to remove the skin. 

I was pleased that the recipe called for moving the fish to a platter once it was braised because it provided me with the opportunity to make good use of this special "fish dish" which we got at a yard sale when we bought our beach house. The fish was seasoned with salt and pepper while it "waited."

Once the fish was removed from the pan the aromatics (rosemary, thyme, garlic, and lemon peel) were cooked and simmered with a bit of butter, olive oil, soup stock and white wine (we used a dry Riesling).

Then the fish was placed back into the pan and covered to finish cooking.

 An eye-pleasing as well as palate-pleasing meal!