A Craving For Fish

When Certain Someone is away, as he is now,I tend to eat things that I don’t when he’s home.For a man who spent some major time in Sweden , he doesn’t care for fish. He does like shellfish however.Anyway I haven’t been eating as much fish as I would like while shacking up with him.That could explain the enormous weight gain. Today I craved fish. The weather was spectacular,and as I drove home,with the roof open, from a meeting in the suburb,I decided to get some fish from store I like. This supermarket caters to Mexican, Asian, and Arab communities . I love their meats, produce, and seafood.If I wasn’t concerned about time and traffic on the highway, I would have stayed a long time. I picked a whole Red Snapper. I love Red Snapper and remembered the many ways I had it in Costa Rica a few summers back.
My Aussie friend Gabi had given me some Donna Hay cookbooks, and I decided to use them to find a way to cook up fish. Donna uses a lot of Asian influences in the The Instant Cook. I had purchased some Key Limes, Habeneros, and cilantro as well. So with that in mind I chose her Crispy Fried Fish with Soy and Ginger. She calls dredging the snapper in rice flour(which I had on hand) and frying it up. Then topped off with a soy and ginger sauce. I decided to forgo the fried route , took her ingredients, added leeks for scallions, a diced Habenero, and roasted the snapper.

Sorry for the bad picture, but Certain Someone took his camera which I use for the blog. He needs to photograph some future real estate he’s trying to acquire in Sweden. I don’t complain because I can’t wait to spend my summer vacations there.So I make due with my old HP digital demom camera.
The sauce caramelized and leeks were crispy. It was good balanced with rice.However next time I will cook the sauce on the side and then add to roasted fish and leeks. But the flavor came through the fish well.
Coco’s Red Snapper (influenced by Donna Hays Crispy Fried Fish with Soy and Ginger)
1/2 oz grated ginger
2/3 cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons lime juice
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 whole Red Snapper( gutted and scaled)
vegetable oil
1 whole leek cleaned and sliced
1 Habenero pepper diced
fresh cilantro sprigs
Put cleaned fish in a slightly oiled baking dish . Place sliced leeks over or inside the fish. Mix all the remaining ingredients together and pour over the fish. Bake on higher temp ( around 400 degrees ) for 20-30 minutes depending on the size of the fish. Serve with rice and fresh cilantro sprigs.

Matcha Mochi

I had no intention of staying home all day today. I planned to go into work after lunch after the cable guy came to fix our HD receiver. Well you know how those things go, and he came after the 12:00 deadline and stayed until 2:30 . Messed up my whole day. The productive person I am decided to run some errands,pay some bills, etc.While on the way home I stopped off at my favorite new neighborhood grocery for some fruit and things. I love this place because they have all sorts of International goodies to add to your pantry. I picked up some pomegranate molasses, Sharon fruit(a type of persimmon),Sweet Rice Flour,(Mochiko)coconut milk and such. All stuff to play with. I was intrigued by a recipe on the back of the Rice Flour Box.It was for a cocoa mochi. I have had Mochi before and found it odd. I have also seen some bloggers blog about it. My mind went racing and I figured I give it a go with some Matcha powder. I have been meaning to make something sweet with the Matcha other than ice cream I see popping up all over. Reading up on Mochi I found it can be very fun and innovative. Kind of like cookie making. I chose the non traditional way to make it and chose a microwavable version. I figured I could knead and shape it like fondant. Not! Nevertheless I was pleased with my results. I didn’t have potato starch to dust it with , so I used confectioners sugar. I probably could have used the Sweet Rice Flour as well.I also used Cane sugar rather than white sugar, and more than the recipe called for( about 3/4 of a cup).The result at first looked like green gelatinous slime.As it cooled down it became a little more opaque. I dusted the bites with confectioners sugar and shredded coconut. And the taste? Yummy. I could munch on these sweet starchy nibbles a lot. Maybe next time I might add the bits to a ice cream. Cheap , fun, playing around on my unexpected day off.

Coco’s Matcha Mochi

1 cup mochiko sweet rice flour(glutinous rice flour)
1 cup water
3/4 cup cane sugar
confectioners sugar or katakuriko, for dusting(potato starch)

1-2 teaspoons of matcha powder

sweetned shredded coconut

Directions

1)Mix mochiko, matcha, and sugar in a bowl. 2)Add water and mix thoroughly. 3)Put in a microwaveable dish. Cover with plastic wrap. 4)Microwave on high for 4 minutes. Remove plastic wrap. Cool until it gets to a workable temp.
5) Shape, roll, or cut into desired shapes.Mochi will be very sticky so dust with katakuriko or confectioners sugar to prevent mochi from sticking everywhere. I used a pastry scraper to cut it cleanly.Roll around when cooled in coconut and more sugar.

Check out the Update for the Tamale Open. Prize now available.

Ben and I Are Spicing Up the Pot!

Ben and I have come up with this great prize for the winner of our Tamale Open. We have decided to let you vote for the winner after the roundup is published on May 5,Cinco de Mayo. You will up until May 10 to vote, and then we announce the winner. The winner will recieve this great Indian Soft Hammered Spice Box and 8 spice blends(Tandoori,dried Thai Chilies,Sansho seven spice blend,Himalayan Pink Salt,Quatre Epices,Ras-El Hanout,Chipolte Chili Powder, and Panch Phoran). All can be used or stored in this nifty spice box which can also serve as your Mise en place when cooking. So dont forget to enter.

*If the winner is outside of the US, we will replace the spice element of the prize with another item if shipping has restrictions.

Hey, Ben And I Are Hosting An Event…Tamale Open!

A Cinco de Mayo event: Tamale Open


I have mentioned before that I love history. That’s why the celebration of Cinco de Mayo in the U.S. intrigues me. In Mexico it is not a big deal (only in the state of Puebla where the battle was fought) Cinco de Mayo is not even an official holiday. Maybe it was a big celebration in Texas because Ignacio Zaragoza, the general that defeated the French army, was born there when that state was still part of Mexico. Or maybe the fact that Napoleon III’s imperial forces lost for the first time was the biggest world news at the time (however, the French came back with more forces, took over the country and replaced the president Benito Juarez with an emperor) Whatever the reason Cinco de Mayo is a big deal in the U.S. we join the celebration, not with more history lessons, but with a food event. After all, food is what this blog is about.

My good friend Courtney from Coco Cooks made mole and tamales a couple of weeks ago. And that gave her a great idea, to celebrate the upcoming Cinco de Mayo with a Mexican food event, more specifically tamales.

She asked me if I’d like to co-host the event and I had to say yes. How could I say no to a brilliant idea like that? After several emails and idea exchanges we came up with the name (actually her Certain Someone did) the date and the rules for the event. If you are interested in participating in this event, this is what you have to do:

Make a dish using tamale dough. It doesn’t have to be just tamales. Tamales (like most Mexican dishes) are made and wrapped in many different ways and the dough is also used for casseroles, stews, and other kinds of dishes. So be creative when making your dish. Just remember that it has to be done with a corn-based dough.
For more information about tamales and tamales recipes visit these links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamales
http://www.gourmetsleuth.com/tamales.htm

Please include somewhere in your entry a link to Courtney’s blog and Ben’s blog and mention the event so we can get more people to participate.
Feel free to use the badge in your entry or sidebar of your blog with a link back to this post.
Send your entry to cococooks(AT)hotmail(DOT)com or ben.herrera(AT)whatscooking(DOT)com before April 30 including:

Your name
The name of your blog
Your blog URL
Your entry permalink

The roundup will be published on May 5,2008.
Update: Prize offering

After the roundup on May 5, vote for your favorite until May 10. Winner announced May 11.If winner resides outside the US , and there are shipping restrictions for the spice element of the prize, we will replace with another piece to go with the Indian Spice Box. See prize below.

The winner will recieve this great Indian Soft Hammered Spice Box and 8 spice blends(Tandoori,dried Thai Chilies,Sansho seven spice blend,Himalayan Pink Salt,Quatre Epices,Ras-El Hanout,Chipolte Chili Powder, and Panch Phoran). All can be used or stored in this nifty spice box which can also serve as your Mise en place when cooking.

Sartu …Festa Italiana

When Maryann and Marie announced their event I was so excited. I really respect and love these bloggers, and look forward to seeing their great Italian cuisine each week.I felt intimidated by the event as they really know they stuff . However I reached for one of my favorite cookbooks The Silver Spoon, and decided on a dish that was new to me , and sounded great,Sartu. This recipe attracted me for many reasons. 1)Certain Someone would love it.2) The use of chicken livers and other sorts of meat and sausage.3) It reminded me of a alternative version of a dish Marie presented on her blog called a Timpano from the movie Big Night.

Certain Someone is heading out for Germany this weekend and I wanted a special hearty dinner before he goes home to his Mama CS( I love her dearly,she’s a amazing cook). But I don’t want him telling her I haven’t been cooking good things for him lately due to our schedules. Plus with him gone , who’s going to eat all the leftovers? So timing was important. This dish is pretty simple , just requires some time and prep. If I do it again I will make the risotto before , etc,and just assemble. I also took the liberty of adding green peas.If your not a fan of chicken livers( like Certain Someone) just add more meat. This dish can be so versatile.He said next time skip the livers. I don’t eat a lot of chicken liver , but make a mean chopped liver with black truffle oil that my family and friends love.But I digress. Final verdict was he had two servings and said it was OK. By the fact he ate two helpings was a good enough sign to me. We served it accompanied with tomato sauce.

Timbale Sartu from The Silver Spoon,Phaidon

Serves 6

7 tablespoons butter, plus extra for greasing

1 1/2 cups bread crumbs

1/3 cup dried mushrooms

1 thick bread slice, crusts removed

¾ cup milk Scant 1 cup ground beef All-purpose flour, for coating

3 tablespoons olive oil

3 1/2 ounces chicken livers, thawed if frozen, trimmed and chopped

2 ounces Italian sausage, peeled and crumbled

2 1/2 ounces mozzarella cheese, diced

3 cups Meat Stock

1/2 onion, chopped

1/4 cup bottled strained tomatoes

Scant 2 cups risotto rice

2 eggs, lightly beaten

Salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 3500F. Grease an ovenproof dish with butter and sprinkle with the bread crumbs, turning to coat. Tip out any excess.

Put the mushrooms in a bowl, add hot water to cover and let soak for 20 minutes, then drain, squeeze and chop coarsely. Tear the bread into pieces, place in a bowl, add the milk and a pinch of salt and let soak for 10 minutes, then squeeze out.

Combine the ground beef and soaked bread, then roll the mixture into hazelnut-size balls and coat with flour.

Heat 2 tablespoons of the butter with the oil in a skillet, add the meatballs and cook until golden brown all over. Remove with a slotted spoon, drain on paper towels and set aside.

Heat 2 tablespoons of the remaining butter in another pan, add the mushrooms and a pinch of salt, cover and cook over low heat for 20 minutes.

Melt 2 tablespoons of the remaining butter in another skillet. Add the chicken livers and cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, for about 5 minutes until lightly browned. Remove from the heat and season with salt.

Heat the sausage and mozzarella in a small pan until the cheese has melted.

Bring the stock to a boil.

Meanwhile, melt the remaining butter in another pan, add the onion and cook over low heat, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes, then add the strained tomatoes and stir in the rice. Add a Ladleful of the hot stock and cook, stirring, until it has been absorbed. Continue adding the stock, a ladleful at a time, and stirring until each addition has been absorbed. This will take 18—20 minutes.

Cover the base and sides of the prepared dish with a layer of risotto. Combine all the filling ingredients and spoon them into the dish, pour the eggs over the filling and cover with the remaining risotto. Bake for about 45 minutes. Remove from the oven, let stand for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a serving dish and serve.