Ah, winter. Sometimes, it seems like the only good thing about the season is blood oranges! Oh, I loves me some blood oranges. In fact, I think I’m going to go on a little lunch-time errand and get a big bag of them.

This is an awesome recipe. And really, it seems pretty healthy too. It’s so colorful and tasty. We had ours over some fettuccine with broccolini on the side. But really, I think it would be pretty good with some crusty bread to sop up all the tomatoey-orangey-winey liquid!

You can of course, substitute regular oranges if you can’t get your hands on blood oranges. Like, if I go to the store and buy them all and there’s none left for you…

Halibut Steamed with Blood Oranges, Tomatoes and Olives
Adapted from a recipe in Bon Appétit
2 blood oranges
2 tbsp olive oil
1 red onion, thinly sliced
2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
20 cherry tomatoes, halved
3/4 cup dry white wine
1/3 cup sliced, pitted, olives (I used a mix of feta stuffed green and Kalamata olives)
2 6-8 ounce halibut fillets
1/4 cup feta cheese, crumbled
3 tbsp chopped fresh chives

Cut off peel and white pith from oranges. Cut oranges between membranes to release segments. Collect any juice and set aside.

Heat oil in heavy very large skillet over medium-high heat. Add onions and garlic; sauté until tender and just beginning to brown, about 8 minutes.

Add tomatoes and wine. Bring to boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer 3 minutes. Gently stir in orange segments and olives. Season mixture to taste with salt and pepper.

Sprinkle halibut fillets with salt and pepper. Arrange halibut in single layer atop vegetable mixture in skillet. Cover and simmer gently until halibut is just opaque in center, about 12 minutes.

Alternately, you could lightly sear one side of the halibut first by heating a little olive oil in a second skillet and giving the fish about 2 minutes on one side and then transferring to the pan with the oranges and tomatoes to finish cooking. This is what I did. Just put it seared side up and only give it about 8-10 minutes to simmer in the sauce.

Spoon vegetable mixture onto plates. Top with halibut. Place feta cheese atop vegetable mixture and alongside halibut. Sprinkle with chives and serve.

Oh, so delicious! I think this is one of my most favorite fish recipes ever.

This is a recipe that we tried about a week ago and it was pretty good. That said, I am not 100% sold on Ellie Krieger yet. Like, I had to pop the broiler on for the last few minutes here to get any color on the salmon at all. It’s called roast salmon but it’s pretty much just baked salmon, imho. The broiler thing was a bit annoying as I had already put the salmon in a on-broiler-safe baking dish and had to switch this out for a baking sheet.

The sauce was quite good, though. Especially after I added an orange to the mix. Make sure you get ruby grapefruits or you will be sad and your mouth will pucker up.

So, while I love the idea of someone on Food Network cooking healthy and delicious food, I’ve not completely warmed up to her. I need to try a few more recipes before making a conclusion, I suppose.

Roasted Salmon with Shallot Grapefruit Sauce
Recipe adapted from Ellie Krieger
2 skinless salmon fillets, 7 to 8 ounces each
Salt & pepper
2 ruby red grapefruits
1 orange
2 tsp olive oil
1 tbsp minced shallot
1 tsp freshly grated ginger
2 1/2 tsp honey
Pinch cayenne pepper
2 tsp lemon juice
2 tbsp thinly sliced basil leaves

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Season the salmon with salt and pepper, place on a rimmed baking sheet and roast until almost done, about 13-14 minutes. Turn on the broiler and finish cooking salmon for about 2-3 minutes, until there is a little color on the top.

While the salmon is cooking prepare the sauce. Cut off the top and bottom of one of the grapefruits. Then standing it on end, cut down the skin to remove the pith and peel. Remove each segment of fruit from its casing and cut the segments in half. Set the segment pieces aside. Juice the other grapefruit and the orange and set the juice aside. It’s okay, you can co-mingle the juices.

In a skillet, heat the oil over a medium heat. Add the shallot and saute until softened, about 2 minutes. Add the ginger, juices, honey, and cayenne pepper and bring to simmer. Cook until sauce is reduced by about half about, 10 minutes. Add lemon juice and season with salt, to taste. Right before serving, toss the grapefruit pieces and basil into the sauce. Put the salmon onto a serving dish. Spoon sauce over the salmon and serve.

It looks quite pretty on the plate and it was tasty enough for a simple Friday night dinner. I also recently made a recipe with halibut that hopefully I’ll get up by Wednesday that I liked even more, though! Oh yeah and I made a fish chowder the other week. Hmmm, this may turn into a fish-only week of posts.

So, the other day I realize that I have a whole bunch of basil that I need to use, like yesterday. A quick survey of the fridge also shows some ground chicken and a small container of roasted chili pepper flakes from pokpok (the little container that comes with the curry-noodle-chicken soup). Hmmm, I think to myself, I know what I could do — I could go online and find a recipe for Thai Basil Chicken and make that. Do you see where this is going?

I ended up at Thai Table and basically sort of followed the recipe there…well, except for a few things. So, I am in no way claiming that my version is authentic Thai cooking, let’s get that straight right now. If you want that, definitely use the Thai Table recipe!

See, I just used normal basil, way less chili pepper spiciness than called for and I added a bunch of halved cherry tomatoes that, like the basil, were crying out to be used. The result? Very tasty!

Kind of Like Thai Basil Chicken — Except Less Spicy, with Normal Basil and Some Tomatoes Thrown in for Fun
Adapted from a recipe at Thai Table
2 tbsp peanut oil
1/2 tsp Thai red chili paste (roasted if you’ve got it, make it spicier if that’s what you’re into)
1 tbsp sugar
1 1/2 cups basil leaves, loosely packed (If you can get actual holy basil, use that), if your basil leaves are really big, give them a quick chop
3/4 lb ground chicken
3 cloves garlic, minced
3 tbsp fish sauce
10 cherry tomatoes, halved

Heat the oil in a big pan and add the minced garlic and chili paste. Cook for a few minutes until you can really smell the spiciness and everything looks a little golden, about 2-3 minutes or so.

Add the ground chicken and break up with a wooden spoon. Stir while the chicken cooks. This part will take a few minutes and the chicken will produce liquid.

Just keep cooking and stirring until most of that is reduced. Add the sugar and stir that in, cooking for about 30 seconds. Next, add the fish sauce. Stir. Finally add all of your basil leaves and the cherry tomato halves.

Stir until the basil wilts down a bit, a minute or so, and serve over rice.

***

Wow. Today is a bonus day. The other night I sauteed up some spinach to go with some fish and I started the same way I always do — a little olive oil, brown some garlic, red pepper flakes (just a pinch), a bunch of spinach and some salt.

Then, I got the idea to add about a 1/2 teaspoon of Dijon mustard right as the spinach was getting wilty. Oh my god, so good! Dijon spinach with toasted garlic is the best. Seriously.

PS: It’s frickin’ cold in here, Mr. Bigglesworth.

This is the second recipe that I’ve made out of Nigella Express and I have to admit, for a book I probably wouldn’t have just gotten on my own, it’s track record is pretty good.

I changed recipe a bit using 2% milk instead of full-fat milk and also adding some leftover, sauteed spinach and tomato. The original recipe was just ham and cheese, which is good, but honestly, I really need some vegetables in my brunch meals. But, that just might be me.

I used sourdough instead of multi-grain bread and dill Harvarti instead of Gruyere cheese because that’s also how I roll. This will feed at least 4 people, maybe 6 if you add a fruit salad and other brunch items.

Croque Monsieur Bake
Recipe adapted from Nigella Lawson
6 slices sourdough or multi-grain bread
1/3 cup Dijon Mustard
3 thick slices dill Harvarti cheese (or 6 thin slices) alternately, use Gruyere cheese slices
3 slices ham
6 eggs
1 tsp kosher salt
1/3 cup 2% milk
4 tbsp grated Gruyere, Dill Havarti or Parmesan cheese
6 slices tomato
1/3 cup sauteed spinach
sprinkle of Worcestershire sauce

Spread the mustard on the bread slices and proceed to put together 3 sandwiches with the cheese slices, ham, spinach and tomato. Cut each sandwich in half, diagonally, so that you have 6 halves.

Squish the sandwiches into a baking dish that is approximately 10.5 X 8.25 inches and 2.25 inches deep. Next, beat together the eggs, salt and milk. I had about 2 tablespoons of cottage cheese in the fridge that I needed to use, so I threw that in here too. I also added the Worcestershire sauce to the egg mixture because I wasn’t really paying attention to the directions. Woo!

Pour the egg mixture over the sandwiches halves and cover with plastic wrap. Leave in the fridge overnight. It’ll soak up a lot of the liquid. The next morning, preheat the oven to 400 degrees and sprinkle the grated cheese over the bread.

Bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes, until the top is golden. I found that after 30 minutes, mine was mostly all done but still a little runny in the middle. I found that slicing and plating a piece and then popping it in the microwave for 1 minute, completely finished cooking any remaining egg and still kept the top all crunchy. Excellent!

I came across the Legume Love Affair event and well, I that sounded fun as I love beans too. Around the house, we sing a song called, “Beans, the Man they Call Beans”, to the tune of the Jayne’s folk hero song on Firefly (Jaynestown episode). There really aren’t any lyrics other than the “Beans, the man they call beans,” part, but trust me, it’s very amusing. Hmmm, perhaps I have said too much.

Anyway, I am a fan of the lima bean. I think it all started as a child — after being presented with a bowl of Campbell’s vegetable soup, I would begin my hunt of picking out all the lima beans and eating those first. When they were gone, I was less enthused about the soup.

So really, it is my destiny to create a recipe for a soup with just lima beans.

Creamy Lima Bean & Tarragon Soup
2 1/4 cups frozen lima beans — don’t bother defrosting
1 tsp dried tarragon
1 small onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp olive oil
2 1/4 cups chicken stock to cover
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
1/2 cup milk
salt & pepper to taste
Optional: a few sprigs of fresh tarragon

In a soup pot, heat the oil and saute the onion and garlic until soft. Add the dried tarragon and mix to combine.

Next, add the frozen beans and the chicken stock. Bring to a boil and simmer about 20 minutes. Add the parmesan cheese and milk. Stir and remove from the heat. Let cool briefly to blend safely.

In batches, puree until smooth. Return to the pot and salt and pepper to taste and rewarm as needed.

Thanks again to the well seasoned cook for hosting a fun event!