A Birthday Celebration

James turned 61 last week - a cause for celebration! He always likes to have a cake made with lemon so I found a recipe for Lemon Ginger Bundt Cake online. I think our baking powder may be past its prime because the cake didn't rise as much as I would expect. It was still good. No one complained.

For the birthday dinner I prepared Creamy Fish with Mushrooms and Bacon from the New York Times cooking pages. We picked up some Halibut from our favorite fishmonger Kyler's Catch in New Bedford. I substituted sour cream for the heavy cream but otherwise followed the recipe. The meal was served with Kyler's fresh baguette (a must whenever we go). It was enjoyed by all.

Maple-Baked Salmon

A most appetizing dish (mine looks even better than the NYT photo!) pictured here with Greek Lemon Potatoes

Living as close as we do to the Atlantic Ocean, seafood is a perennial favorite of ours. Living in New England also makes us big fans of maple syrup. What choice did I have than to make this? From the New York Times Cooking pages Maple-Baked Salmon was a crowd-pleaser (the crowd in this case being me and James). We also are big fans of cilantro (which I know for some is a non-starter). We loved all the flavors and will definitely make again.

Lobstah Mac

Brazenly stolen logo in lieu of a photo of this meal, another that tasted
far better than it looked.

 As we enjoyed this meal (spoiler alert -- this was fantastic), our son asked why I had decided to make it. I did not have a specific inspiration, but it seemed like a special meal that I could pull together with modest effort -- fancy comfort food, if you will.

It was expensive, of course, but I kept reminding myself of the cost and portion size if three of this were to have this in a sit-down restaurant. My only hesitation was that I have tried non-from-a-box mac & cheese before with fairly poor results. A prudent chef would try some plain mac & cheese before involving an expensive add-in, but I decided to trust my instincts. And the internet.

Searching for mac & cheese recipes, I found several options, including one that referenced the plethora of existing options, almost apologizing for adding to the pile. I checked a few different recipes as I prepared this, but that humble poster was my main inspiration. Here is how it played out:

1. Procured lobster from the incomparable Kyler's Catch. I got 2/3 of a pound of mostly tail meat with some claw mixed in for $40. I cut this into 1/2-inch chunks. I told the dog she was not getting any at these prices, but she talked me out of the rubbery tips of a couple claw pieces. She did not seem to be insulted by receiving the less desirable cuts.
2. I heated the oven to 325F and lightly oiled a lasagna pan.
3. I shredded a close to one pound of three cheeses: Monterrey jack, Colby, and sharp cheddar. 
4. I cooked one pound of penne, al dente. A little less cooking is fine -- overcooking is to be avoided. I tossed the pasta with a bit of olive oil and let it rest in the colander while I prepared the sauce.
5. To economize just a bit on dishes, I returned the pasta pot to the stove and using the very lowest heat, melted one stick of butter.
6. Once the butter was melted, I gradually mixed in 1/2 cup of flour. I would normally have used a whisk, but this worked very well with a silicone spatula -- the real hero of this operation.
7. Again keeping the heat very low, I mixed the butter and flour until it was thick and bubbly. I then slowly poured in about 2 cups of milk. Most recipes call for a combination of half-and-half and whole milk. I found that 2% worked fine. Setting some milk aside on the counter early would have been a good move, because this had to heat from a relatively low temperature. 
8. It was only a few minutes, though, before I had a nice, thick sauce. I added black pepper and dry basil. With lobster as with scallops, I like minimal seasonings. But this would be the time to add Old Bay or any other desired spices.
9. I then stirred in about 3/4 of the shredded cheese, with heat still very low. I adjusted it by adding just a bit of milk until the consistency seemed right in my completely amateur opinion.
10. I then stirred in the reserved pasta until coated thoroughly. 
11. I folded in the lobster gently and then transferred the entire contents to the casserole dish. I sprinkled the remaining cheese evenly over the whole dish. 
12. I baked for 25 minutes and rested it in a warm area for 10 more.
13. While the lobstah-mac rested, I cooked some peas for nutritional balance.

This was both delicious and filling -- a great platform for Tabasco and accompaniment to some nice white wines. And I should not have worrried so much about portions. This made dinner for three, and we are about to sit down to lunch with the rest. 

Creamy Tuscan Salmon

A rather delicious-looking photo and recipe showed up recently on my Facebook feed from a sponsored site. When I clicked on it I got a message that the information was for "members only" with an invitation to sign up.

Nope. 

Something I know to be true is that recipes are not copyrighted so I figured there was probably a similar recipe (in fact more that one) available on the interwebs.

Yep.

A simple google search brought me to eatwell101 for their Creamy Tuscan Salmon recipe. The site says that it comes together in 20 minutes or less. I'd say it took about 25 minutes, but still a rather quick meal.

As we almost always do for seafood we started with a visit to Kyler's Catch for some fresh salmon. I followed the directions to pan-cook the fish, and  then remove from the indispensable cast-iron skillet. I  then melted butter and added the diced garlic, and then onions to sauteé. Next went in some vegetable broth and sun-dried tomatoes. The sauce cooked down a bit and then I added heavy cream and baby spinach leaves and cooked until the spinach was wilted, and then added some shredded parmesan cheese. The fish went back into the skillet with the sauce and I let it heat for about a minute more before serving. There was some leftover mashed potatoes in the refrigerator which we heated and served as a side dish. 

So creamy and tasty (and pretty). Three people sat down for the meal and three clean-plate rangers left the table.

Salmon Family Effort

 This week on Nueva Receta ... a meal involving the whole family. We checked the fridge before sending our son out to our favorite fishmonger (our only monger, actually -- we almost never buy seafood elsewhere). We noticed some mushrooms, and he was convinced that we could do something good with them and salmon. 

He picked up some Canadian wild-caught salmon, and at a nearby seafood restaurant later that day he noticed plenty of dishes using that combination. Knowing we had excellent salmon waiting for our use the next day, we all had other-than-salmon deliciousness at Turks (highly recommend). 

The next day came, and Pam took a turn, moving us from general concept to specific recipe, care of New York Times Cooking. Salmon With Sautéed Mushrooms, Shallots and Fresh Herbs called for a few things we did not have, but for which she could verify we had ready substitutes. (Good: no need to tangle with the robot at Stop & Shop again).

I then did the easy part: making these dreams a reality. Cooking is often easier for me than figuring out what to cook. The link above might be pointing to a subscriber-only page; in case it is, I'll describe this in a bit more detail, with the modifications I made (or would make next time). 

First, I started cooking rice as a side dish, later sprinkling some dried thyme into it.

Then, I put the huge fillet, skin down, in a casserole dish, with just a bit of olive oil in the bottom. I brushed a bit more oil on top and sprinkled with salt and fresh-ground black pepper. 

Next I heated oil and butter in our indispensable cast-iron skillet at medium high, adding most of a package of white mushrooms, quartered. I stirred these until they were softening and -- as the recipe says -- sweating a little. Then I reduced heat to medium and added minced onion (in lieu of shallots) and garlic, and finally salt, pepper, and dried thyme. Some combination of fresh or dried thyme and rosemary was called for. The combination would be nice, I'm sure!

Image: Johnny Miller & Susan Spungen

Finally, I added just a couple ounces dryish red wine (again, substituting for the dry white in the recipe) and cooked, stirring, constantly, until it had mostly evaporated. I spooned this sauce on top of the salmon as it was just cooked (opaque. to the top of the thickest part). This was delicious with the rice and the same wine I had used in the sauce.

All three of us declared this a success and we will have it -- with variations -- again. We do not, however, agree with the NYT assertion that we will never want salmon any other way after having this. Regular readers (or quick searchers) of this blog know that we know a lot of good ways to prepare salmon.

Cod Almondine Meunière

Faithful readers of this blog might recall that it was in the spring of 2016 that I learned the word meunière, courtesy of a Vincent Price scallops recipe. (Less faithful readers be assured that this is neither a typo nor a hallucination. Go read that post and come back a happier gormand.) Today's dinner took the meunière to a whole 'nother level for us.

Following my recent Amazon adventures, we have had a bit of a staycation, which of course includes finding some food we can enjoy together. As we started to make menu plans, Pam mentioned several NYT recipes she had been saving. Many involved asparagus, but the season for that is both intense and very brief around here. So she scrolled down to Roasted White Fish With Lemony Almondine. I love all things lemon, and we keep slivered almonds in our fridges just because we so often find good uses for them. Note: as far as I can tell "almondine" does not differ in any meaningful way from "with almonds."

I followed this recipe almost to the letter. "Almost" because I used scallions instead of chives and I used proportionally more lemon that kitchen math would indicate, since I bought only 3/4 of a pound of cod for the two of us. The cod was an exceptionally thick cut from our friends at Kyler's (also exceptional quality, of course)  so at the end of the 7-11 minute time frame mentioned in the recipe, it was not quite done. I reduced the oven to 425F and roasted another 5 minutes. 

Otherwise, I did everything as called for. Past experience had told me that a meunière seems simple but things move quickly. So I had prepped EVERYTHING ahead of time in order to concentrate on the timing of the butter browning. When I turned the heat off, I actually moved the indispensable cast-iron skillet to a cool part of the stove as I put the almond slivers in. I paid stirred often until the sauce and the cod were both complete. The result: sort of amazing. 

Pam had prepared a fruit salad earlier in the day, giving it time to meld in the fridge. This included local peaches with cherries and banana tossed with a mango balsamic. The rest of the meal was a baguette from Kyler's and our favorite Grüner Veltliner (link is to the same varietal from the same producer; Löss and Lehm seems to be out of production now.)

Final verdict: we will definitely be having this again, and I will be experimenting with this method of toasting almonds and other nuts.

Relishing Swordfish

 As is our wont since we began spending weekends by the sea -- and by one of North America's most important seafood ports -- we pondered what seafood we would like. I had noticed we've had a fairly tight rotation of fried cod, scallops meunière, and salmon. Not that any of this is a bad thing, but I decided to check the social media of our local fishmonger for ideas. Kyler's was featuring swordfish, with which we have apparently had only one noteworthy experience since beginning this blog.

I began a lazy search for recipes, which is to say I checked the Big Green Egg web site --  too lazy even to fetch the Big Green Egg Cookbook from our kitchen. My minimal effort was rewarded with just one result to choose from on the site: Grilled Swordfish with Corn-Avocado Relish -- one of those recipes whose title provides the bulk of the instructions.

On Friday we picked up some ingredients for the relish -- drawing on Pam's expertise in avocado selection  -- and then selected two swordfish steaks with the help of one of Kyler's most expert mongers.  We got them into the fridge right away, and then prepared the relish at midday Saturday, so that it would have time to chill and meld. 

Small deviations from the relish recipe: I sautéed the corn in chipotle-infused olive oil, I used dry cilantro because we did not have any fresh, I used jalapeño instead of Serrano (because this is New England and most stores have few pepper varieties), and I added just a touch of thyme-infused white balsamic vinegar because, well, just because. 

I had trouble with the Egg so its temperature was a bit low, and this might have worked in our favor. I grilled for about 10 minutes on one side and 8 on the other. We were generous with the relish because it won't last very long. We also reserved one of the steaks to be reheated tomorrow in a cast-iron skillet for what we know will be great leftovers.  

This was, as Pam commented, Yum. In addition to a very nice relish (which we called salsa because we really don't know the difference), this was delicious because I managed to get the fish cooked but not overcooked. 

Lagniappe

This did indeed work as leftovers -- we had it the very next day because of the avocado. Returning the grilled fish to a well-oiled and seasoned, hot cast-iron skillet, I seared it for about one minute on each side. I then lowered the heat and covered the pan, so that the interior of the fish could be gently warmed without drying out. 

Meanwhile, I cooked some local fresh corn-on-the-cob, so we had corn ON the fish and WITH the fish. Pam declared leftover "shark bake" (though no shark was involved) a success.

And regarding that Big Green Egg issue: it is amazing that it had been working at all recently. I had been occasionally clearing it of ash that I could reach, but it was totally clogged with ash I could not reach. It got a thorough cleaning today -- its first in the six years we have had it.

Sweet & Sour Scallops

Frequent readers of this space may recall that we were introduced to the world of infused olive oils and vinegars in essentially the same way we were introduced to each other. That is, our UMBC alumni magazine introduced us to Lebherz Oil & Vinegar Emporium in Frederick, Maryland shortly after it was opened by a fellow graduate, and shortly after we launched this blog. A quick keyword search reveals that we frequently turn to L.O.V.E. for inspiration.

While we still visit that original shop whenever we are in the area, we were pleased to see a similar purveyor open much closer to home Ripe from the Vine in Marion, Massachusetts. When visiting this weekend, Pam bought two large bottles of chipotle olive oil, leading the proprietor to ask if we had tried this in combination with pineapple -- on scallops!

An unexpected combination that we will
be trying in other dishes.

We were on the way to Kyler's Catch at the time, with the intention of making Vincent Price's scallops Sauté Meunière to share with Pam's visiting sister. During the car ride, we figured out that I could cook the dish in exactly the same manner, but using chipotle-infused oil and butter for the sauté stage and the pineapple-infused vinegar with white wine in the deglazing stage (instead of lemon juice). We picked up that white wine on the way to the fish monger -- Löss & Lehm Grüner Veltliner from our friends at Stevie's in Fairhaven.

The result: scrumptious, even decadent, and pairing well with the wine I used in the deglazing.

I confess to taking a big shortcut on sides, in part because I am trying to baby an injured left knee. So those are just what they look like: canned cranberries from our local growers cooperative (aka Ocean Spray) and slightly enhanced Annie's mac & cheese. 

Lagniappe

Lebherz introduced us to the idea of flavored vinegars as a topping for ice cream. I fully intend to try this one on a coconut dessert this summer!

Fish Poached in Wine Sauce

 As James mentioned in his recent post on Herb-Crusted Salmon we each selected a seafood recipe from our cooking-with-wine cookbooks. I used the index-card-sized Cooking Seafood and Poultry with Wine by Bruce Carlson to prepare white fish poached in white wine (in this case Chablis). One of the earliest recipes I posted on this blog was for Fish in a Packet: this recipe is not unlike that one, except that it used wine, and it also included a cream sauce. 

The fish fillet was placed in a foil packet along with 2/3 c. of wine, a bit of minced onion, some fresh parsley, and a tablespoon of butter, and some salt and pepper. I put the packet onto a baking sheet and baked at 375 for 20 minutes. Meanwhile I prepared the sauce in my indispensable cast-iron skillet. I melted 3 T. butter and blended with 3 T flour and stirred until smooth. I added 1/2 of heavy cream and when the fish was done in the oven poured some of the liquid from the packet into the sauce, and stirred. I moved the fish to a platter and poured the sauce over it, then sprinkled with fresh parmesan cheese and placed under the broiler for about a minute to brown.

This was quite delicious. Of course we paired it with the same wine we used in cooking.

Herb-Crusted Salmon

Sometimes I know a dish is going to taste better than it looks, and I take a photo of some of the ingredients at a photogenic moment in the preparations. I failed to do that in the case of this salmon dish -- and I'm not quite certain there was such a moment -- but I a leading with this record shot in hopes that some will find it inspiring.

The full title of this recipe if Herb-Crusted Salmon with Sun-Dried Tomato Sauce, which I made with fairly close to the directions found under that title in Bonnie Jesseph's W.I.N.O.S.: Cook with Wine, a 2006 spiral-bound volume whose acronymic name refers to Women In Need Of Sanity. The book has a bit of a silly presentation, but at heart is rather a comprehensive collection of ways to use wine in the preparation of many kinds of dishes.

In this case, we had decided to do something new with seafood for the weekend, so before I headed to our favorite fishmonger (Kyler's Catch in New Bedford), Pam and I each thumbed through a different wine-themed cookbook. (She poached cod in chablis a couple days later.) I had been thinking recently about sun-dried tomatoes, so this title caught my eye immediately. It took me as long to find those (not packed in oil) hidden in our local grocer's produce aisle as it did for me ultimately to cook the fish!

This is a fairly simple dish with just a few components. Because I knew each part of it would be needed quickly, I took the instructions somewhat out of order. 

I turned the oven on to 400F, convection. Then I started on the crustiness: I blended panko and cornmeal with dried basil, oregano, and rosemary -- just a small amount on a plate. Then I removed the skin from a perfect salmon fillet -- this was fairly easy, though I know the folks at Kyler's have the skills and knives to do this almost effortlessly. I usually just cook salmon with skin-side down, but breading this would make that weird, I supposed.

I then minced both a shallot and the equivalent of five sun-dried tomatoes (actually dried, not in oil). In a. small, indispensable cast-iron skillet, I sautéed the shallot for just a minute or two and then added the tomato, some lemon juice, and just 1/4 cup dry white wine all at once. I stirred this until reduced, and then left it warming on the lowest possible heat. (The recipe suggests reducing, allowing to cool, and then reheating; this made no sense to me.) 

Meanwhile, I sprayed Pam (the spray, not my spouse) in a casserole dish; I probably should have just used a little oil. I then dredged the salmon in the crumb/herb mix and simply placed it in the pan. This recipe would easily work for up to 4 smaller fillets; I had a single one-pounder. The crumb adhered better than I expected after pressing it a bit on both sides.

Side note: I had boiled a pan of water previously and now returned it to heat so that I could make some simple Aunt Annie's mac & cheese. Sometimes even a foodie wants a simple side of comfort food. I prepared it in my usual way, which is to add a generous shredding of cheddar to the mix-made cheddar it comes with. 

Back to the fish -- at 10 minutes, I noticed it was a bit dry, so I decided to spoon the sauce (which was rather thickened at this point) onto the fish for the final minutes of baking. Cutting the fillet in half a couple minutes later, I noticed it was not quite flaky in the middle, so I did give it another 1 minute.

The result: savory, sweet, delicious. As is our wont, I cooked it with good wine, which we paired with the meal, rather than using purpose-bought "cooking" wine. In this case, it is was Löss & Lehm, an Austrian Grüner Veltliner that I first bought because the name is perfect for a soils nerd who has also studied German. But it turned out to be such good wine that we do pick it up frequently at our local purveyor.

Pineapple Salmon

A Tale of Double Leftovers

After enjoying a bounteous Easter dinner with friends last week, we left them with some lemony cake and they sent us off with a lot of delicious, spiral-cut ham. Neither of these are included in this recipe, but they are what got us here. 

That is to say, the availability of ham led us to make a wonderful, deep-dish ham-and-pineapple pizza in our indispensable cast-iron skillet. For that, I purchased a whole pineapple for the first time in a hound's age, but we only used half of it.

So off I went to Kyler's Catch for a wonderful fillet of salmon -- in this case, organically farmed Canadian. I have had some misgivings about farmed fish, but this is one I have started to embrace. 

I prepared it according to the simple Baked Pineapple Salmon recipe from Chef Jar, a site that was new to me -- with one important digression. I made rings (actually half-rings) from the half-pineapple (I always cut them lengthwise first) and thereby had almost no pineapple juice for the sauce.

The editing and formatting over at Chef Jar is pretty terrible; I realized after the fact that its "Jump to Recipe" link would have been preferable to navigating the three different ingredient lists and the random advice that is scattered throughout the main body of the article. 

The result was delicious and beautiful, paired nicely with rice and Löss & Lehm organic Grüner Veltliner from Stevie's.

Lagniappe: The Next Days

For those still wondering about our leftovers, we can report that Pamela found the perfect way to use the rest of the ham; Sunday was National Eggs Benedict Day

And because I can only make rice with one cup of rice and two+ cups of water, there is always leftover rice. Hence Monday's rice and beans -- and a caught-up kitchen! 

Cod Almondine

A visit from our Chicago-dwelling adult child always necessitates a fresh-seafood dish. We selected the Roasted White Fish with Lemony Almondine from the New York Times cooking pages for his most recent return. This was simple to prepare, and packed a lot of flavor. Cod filets were placed in a 450 degree oven with a bit of butter for about 10 minutes. While the fish cooked 6 T of butter were browned on the stovetop, and then almonds were added along with lemon juice, lemon zest, and chives along with some salt and pepper. The almond sauce was poured over the cooked fish and served. Roasted potatoes, carrots, and mushrooms were served on the side.

CodFish ChowderSoup

Thanks to our resident librarian, we knew that yesterday was National Homemade Soup Day -- which was perfect for the record-setting cold we were expecting (and received). In preparing this blog post, I noticed that it has also been Ice Cream for Breakfast Day, but the aforementioned conditions made my usual Saturday gingerberry waffles a better choice.

In addition to finding the holiday, Pamela found just the right resource -- the Soup Cookbook from the Jean Childress Country Kitchen collection. More a pamphlet than a book, this publication is 32 pages (that is, eight sheets folded and stapled) and is apparently difficult to find even on sites that carry other works by this New England writer.

Having already intended to pick up some seafood for the day's main meal, we quickly settled on the recipe entitled "Oven Baked Fish Chowder" even though I usually prefer shellfish chowders to fishy fish chowders.

Preparation was simple. I preheated the oven to 375F and arranged the racks so that a Dutch oven (that is, a large, oven-safe covered pot) would fit. 

I then set the pot on the counter and added most of the items from the ingredient list (my choices and variations in parenthesis):

• 2 pounds cod or haddock, cut into bite-sized pieces (I chose 1 pound cod and applied kitchen math to all other ingredients; original quantities are shown below, so cooks should do their own math)
• 12-ounce can evaporated milk
• 4 potatoes, unpeeled and cut into chunks (as I usually do, I partly peeled some Yukon golds)
• 1/4 cup celery leaves (we opted to exclude this, given the tiny quantity would use)
• 1 bay leaf (I used a small one)
• 4 whole cloves 
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/4 tsp dried dill (I used a bunch of fresh dill, chopped)
• 1/4 tsp black pepper (I used more than this)
• 2-1/2 tsp salt (I used less than this)
• 1/2 cup dry white wine (see below)
• 2 cups boiling water (I set this on the kettle while chopping and measuring the rest)

I simply placed stirred all this together gently and placed the covered pot in the oven for one hour at 375F.  After about half an hour, the aromas began wafting into the rest of the house, reminding us that this meal was now preparing itself.

Meanwhile, I gently heated light cream (recipe calls for 2 cups, so I heated 1 cup) on the warming zone of the stove top. Any way of getting the temperature close to that of the soup without scalding it would do. 

After an hour, I stirred in the warmed cream and chopped some parsley for a garnish. I added Tabasco to my serving (this is chowder, after all) and served it with some buttered crusty baguette from our favorite fishmonger. Kyler's Catch is of course the only place I would go to for cod, and they usually have some yummy bread to go with whatever seafood we are having. 

This was both tastier and more photogenic than I expected.

The recipe purports to serve 8, which seems correct. Divided in half, we had plenty for the two of us, and enough leftover for a lunch. I used only 2 ounces of white wine in the soup, so the rest of the bottle served as our beverage. Langhe Doc Bianco Dragon was both a good ingredient and a perfect pairing. 

Some folks use only cheap or leftover wine for cooking, and sometimes we do that. But more often we use what we are drinking in what we are cooking, and we never regret this. I had selected this wine for the label when browsing our new favorite wine store, not realizing until later that the Luigi Baudana vineyard had named the wine in honor of its label, which had been the last work of their beloved designer Gianni Gallo. This is a white wine from Barolo, a region I had associated only with exquisite reds.

Roasted Salmon with Miso Cream

While our adult child was visiting last month he wanted to have a lot of seafood. He currently lives in Illinois, not especially well known for it's fruits de mer. He specifically asked for salmon (among other things) so we chose the Salmon with Miso Cream from the New York Times Cooking page for our final family meal before he left.

Wow! Was this good! Lots of texture and flavor, and roasted to perfection. I used the advice offered on the recipe to test for done-ness by putting a knife into the thickest portion of the fish and to see if it comes out warm. I had not seen this suggestion before, but it turned out to be sound advice. Everyone liked this and we will for sure make it again. As a side dish we adapted another recipe from the New York Times Cooking - Spinach Salad with Persimmon. Astute readers will notice that the recipe is actually for Spinach Salad with Prosciutto and Persimmon but I don't especially like Prosciutto, and we otherwise chose the recipe because we already had spinach and persimmon on hand. I also noticed that the first part of the recipe was for making croutons, another thing I don't like, so that whole piece was left out. James does like croutons so he simply used the store-bought ones we already had on hand. After thinly slicing the persimmon and tossing it with the spinach leaves I added some shredded parmesan, salt, pepper, lemon olive oil, and pomegranate vinegar. Pleasing to the eye as well as the palate. 

Crab-stuffed flounder

Well, it's already been a week since National Crab-Stuffed Flounder Day. It was fortuitous that it fell on a day we were already planning on going to Kyler's Catch to fetch some seafood for dinner. We were aware that crab meat these days is crazy expensive and so we were in fact prepared to pay the $17 for 8 ounces. Nevertheless, this of course put a bit of pressure on the chef-of-the-day (Pam) to get preparing the meal right. 

I used this recipe from The Nibble with the following adjustments

• We used sole which is not exactly the same as flounder, but it was recommended by the folks at Kyler's, whose advice we heed.
• I did not use celery (we didn't have any).
  
• I used dry parsley.
• I absolutely did not use plain breadcrumbs. I only use panko.
• The filets weren't big enough to roll with the crabmeat inside, so I made fish sandwiches instead.

Ready for the oven

We very much enjoyed this meal. And it really wasn't difficult. Looking forward to enjoying this again when the price of crab is more reasonable. 

Dinner by the sea

Yummy Haddock

James was scheduled to row with his rowing club on Thursday night, so we drove down to the sea together with the intention of picking up some fresh fish at Kyler's Catch for Pam to prepare at our beach house while James got his exercise. Little did we know that the row had been canceled earlier in the day. While James was disappointed when he arrived at the marina, we did not despair. We still had fish to enjoy, plus which it was also National Cream Cheese Brownie Day!

We went to our classic 1980s era Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook for a fish recipe and selected Baked Fish with Mushrooms (because we had mushrooms). The recipe also called for bacon (which was also on hand). We decided to substitute the shallot we had for the green onions. 

The first step involved cooking the bacon - a rather straightforward instruction. Unfortunately, our electric stove has three different sized burners nested in concentric circles, with each having settings from Low to High which are all part of a single dial. The "low" setting on the smallest burner (which I did not intend to set) is next to the "high" setting for the middle burner (which I did intend to set). I put the bacon in the skillet, turned the dial, and waited wondering why the two slices wouldn't cook at all. I eventually discovered the problem and reset the dial, but what I didn't realize was that the middle sections (the only part getting any heat) of each slice had in fact started to cook, so that when the rest of the bacon was heated it heated unevenly. By the time the ends were cooked the middle sections were burned. They looked like long figure 8s. I threw out the burned parts and used only the ends.

After removing the bacon I sautéed the chopped shallot and the chopped mushrooms in the bacon fat and added 3 T. butter and some dried oregano. The fish (Haddock) was placed in a baking dish, topped with the mushrooms, shallot, butter and oregano and baked at 350 for 15 minutes. The bacon was crumbled and added to the top. We served with a spinach salad and paired with a buttery Chardonnay.

Cream Cheese Brownies: The secret is to 'spray with spray'

I don't always celebrate the food holidays I learn about on National Day Calendar. I imagine I would "fall away to a ton" (as my grandmother used to say) if I did, but I could not resist National Cream Cheese Brownie Day. I started with a recipe I found on spendwithpennies.com, but had to make a few substitutions, so my revised recipe follows:

For the Brownies:

12 T unsalted butter

1/2 c. semisweet chocolate chips

1/2 c. cocoa powder

1 1/4 c. sugar

2 eggs

a dash of vanilla extract

1/2 t. salt

1 c. flour

For the Cheesecake Swirl

1 8 oz. package cream cheese

1/4 c. sugar (I had used up all the granulated sugar we had in the brownie mix, so I had to crush up a bunch of sugar cubes)

1 egg

a dash of vanilla extract

The instructions specifically said to "spray a 7x11 pan with baking spray". I ended up using a 9x13 pan because I didn't have the size recommended. Fortunately I did have plenty of my eponymous baking spray.

I melted the chocolate chips and butter together in the microwave (stopping every 30 seconds to stir). Cocoa powder, sugar, eggs, salt, vanilla, and flour were added and mixed together to form a batter which was poured into the well-sprayed dish. I also saved out 1 dollop of the batter as indicated in the recipe.

The cheesecake topping was made by mixing the cream cheese with the sugar and mixing by hand. The recipe says to use an electric mixer, but we don't own one. Next I added the egg and the vanilla extract and stirred until well mixed. I poured the smooth cheesecake batter on top of the brownie batter already in the pan, then plopped the reserved brownie batter on top of that and used a knife to swirl everything together. This baked at 350 for 25 minutes. It cooled a bit before we sliced it, but it was still warm and creamy when we ate it. So good. Not too sweet with a wonderful mouth feel, warm and chocolatey.

Pre-Fried Shrimp

 Let's not think of this as a calendar malfunction, but rather as a public service. 

Followers of this blog (and we think there are some) will know that we are suckers for "National Day" entries as an excuse to try new things. We usually find these because Pamela remembers to check -- again, regular readers will know that this is often a "day of" realization, and that we sometimes impress ourselves with the alacrity of our mid-day pivots.

So today was not entirely unusual -- early in the day I heard that today was National Fried Shrimp Day. I mentioned this to Pam and we decided we should mark the day. We already had plans for black bean quesadillas (I'm realizing that this Hayes-Boh standard is not yet on this blog) and I also have never fried shrimp before. So when Pam sent me a couple of recipe links, I decided right away that I would try the simpler of the two, and that I would make a small amount as an appetizer. I was in Fairhaven for the day, so I would be able to pick up some shrimp at Kyler's (the only place we buy seafood) on the way back to Bridgewater. 

And then I remembered that this is Monday. Because it is so busy on weekends, Kyler's closes its retail store on Mondays -- this has caught me flat-footed (or flat-finned) a couple of times in the past. I had already committed, so I set my coastal snobbery aside and made the shrimp purchase at our local grocer. I also picked up some peanut oil and some cocktail sauce.

I followed the simply titled recipe Fried Shrimp by Jonathan Reynolds on New York Times Cooking. Although the title is simple and the directions are both brief and very clear, I have to admit I was a little nervous about this -- and not just because of that one time a friend started a small kitchen fire while trying to fry shrimp. I was more afraid of a breading failure than of a conflagration.

I did make two kinds of modifications to the the instructions Reynolds provides. The first kind was kitchen math. Because I was using a half pound of shrimp instead of two pounds, I used a saucepan instead of a Dutch oven. This allowed me to us a small bottle of peanut oil.  Similarly, I reduced the egg/milk mixture to a single egg and half the milk. The second kind of mod was for flavor. As I often do with any kind of breading, I added Tabasco to the wet ingredients and Old Bay to the dry. Plenty of each.

Only when the shrimps were sitting in a bowl coated with panko (in lieu of cracker crumbs) did I venture to begin heating the oil. I applied medium-high heat and checked the temperature frequently. When it was close to 365F, I added the shrimps one by one.

As they simmered, I could see the breading going from skimpy to skimpier, and I realized I had no easy way to test for doneness. After a couple minutes, though, I skimmed a couple of them and realized the color was not yet uniform, so I let them go about a half minute more. I quickly removed them all to a paper towel, using a bagel skimmer. 

We let them cool long enough to open a bottle of coastal-grown dry Riesling from Westport Rivers. During this time, I nearly convinced myself that this was to be a one-off project. The results were not photo-worthy and this was clearly a dish that would be cheaper to buy than to make. But the proof of te pudding (or shrimp) is in the tasting. These were quite delicious -- and also filling. We decided that what we prepared as an appetizer would serve as our entire meal.

And being somewhat agog at the unit cost of high-temperature peanut oil, I sieved and bottled it for my next frying project. 

That Calendar Malfunction 

And now for the calendar PSA. In the midst of my cooking, Pamela checked the National Day Calendar and reported that it did not list today as shrimp day. We joked about having an unofficial celebration, as if there were anything official about the many other National Day celebrations we have had. After the fact, though, I noticed that tomorrow is indeed National French Fried Shrimp Day. If you are reading this in time, you can honor the day as you honor the solstice -- on December 21.

Chowdah de Crab

Our weekend house is only beach-proximate, but it is close enough that careful readers of this space will know we have added The Beach House Cookbook by Mary Kay Andrews to the small collection of cookbooks in the galley at Whaling House. It is full of fun, flexible recipes -- some of them involving seafood.

We turned to this volume when we finally got around to inviting some friends over who live full-time near the same waterfront. Pamela found a suitably maritime recipe: crab chowder.

Followers of this space may also have noticed that we are somewhat finicky about all things crab. Being from Maryland, we are cautious when our national crustacean is prepared by non-Chesapeake folks, even if they are good with other seafood. But we would be in charge of this dish, and we would get our crab, if not from the Great Shellfish Bay itself, then at least from a trusted Maryland.

The location of the cookbook ends up being consequential -- we looked over the recipe and jotted down some ingredients but not others. The result was more than the usual number of substitutions. One of those was fortuitous -- I replaced all of the called-for chicken broth by doubling (OK, more than doubling) the half-and-half. And I don't regret that!

How I made this -- as executed, not exactly as written:

I heated some olive oil, and added some chopped up bacon. We had bacon ends rather than slices, so I coarsely chopped them. Once crisp -- after about eight minutes -- I added finely chopped onion, in lieu of shallots. I then added a bit more oil and a pound of tiny red potatoes, each quartered. I added a seafood seasoning mix and I sautéed these for about 5 more minutes before adding most of a bag of frozen corn (of course I would have used local corn a few weeks ago) and close to a quart of half-and-half.

I brought it to a simmer -- actually, I covered it and walked away at the wrong time. It boiled over. But it did not get overheated on the bottom, so I moved it to another burner and controlled the heat more carefully. I kept it on a low simmer for 30 minutes. 

Near the end, I added a full pound of Phillips lump crab meat (from Costco, rather than our local fish monger; again, it's a Maryland thing). I then added a tablespoon of flour I had whisked together with just a splash of reserved half-and-half. I also stirred in a glug of port (in lieu of sherry) and kept simmering until the crab was gently broken up and heated through, about 10 more minutes.

We served this with Pamela's famous skillet cornbread and a fruit salad. This all paired quite well with two different unoaked Chardonnays and was followed by a sweet, tannic punsch from Sweden.

This was not a meal made for photography; hence the iconic crab above rather than the chowder itself. 

Seedy Salmon

We've gotten a bit lax in our dinner planning the past few weeks. At the height of the pandemic we had all three daily meals planned for 7-10 days out. This week we've found ourselves asking "what's for dinner?" at least twice. Last night was one of those nights, but fortunately we had plans to be in Fairhaven for  Veteran's Day which meant that we could make a stop at our favorite fishmonger Kyler's Catch where we picked up some salmon to make Crispy Salmon with Mixed Seeds from the New York Times Cooking page. 

The unseasonably warm weather here in New England meant that we still had fresh mint growing on the side of our house, we also still had a bit of parsley growing on our back porch, which was good since this recipe called for fresh herbs. 

I chopped some of the herbs and mixed them with a cup of plain Greek yogurt, along with some lemon zest and salt. A small bit of this was placed in a separate dish and then mixed with 1 T. of sesame seeds, 1 t. cumin seeds, and 1/2 t. fennel. I spread this mix onto the flesh side of the fish and placed in our indispensable cast iron skillet with some lemon-infused olive oil, skin side down, over medium heat. It cooked for about 12 minutes, and then I flipped it, which caused the skin to peel off the bottom. It still took a few more minutes to cook through. Salmon often has a thick spot in the middle that takes longer to cook than the rest of it. I cut the fillet in half to help it cook a bit faster. 

This was served with brown rice, lemon wedges, and the rest of the herbs and yogurt on the side.

Salmon in cream sauce with tomatoes

We do love our fresh scallops from Kyler's Catch Seafood. Usually James is in charge of cooking them, but I gave it a try last week with this lovely recipe from the New York Times Cooking page. James demonstrated to me how to remove the "foot" (a chewy muscle) from each scallop before cleaning.

I started by sauteeing the onion in butter in our indispensable cast-iron skillet, and then added the seasonings. Fresh chopped tomatoes procured from the Fairhaven Farmer's Market were added. These cooked for about 8-9 more minutes. Next I added some white wine and cooked for about 5 more minutes then added Worcestershire sauce and heavy cream. I continued to cook until it thickened. Scallops were added last and cooked for about 5 more minutes.

This fairly easy, although it did require a bit of stirring and watching. Scallops can be easily overdone and then become too chewy.