Okay, this is where I try to reverse-engineer a meal from out at a restaurant. How did I do? Pretty well! This is from wonderful meal that we had at the Aquarius restaurant in Santa Cruz last month, with jwa’s parents.

That amazingly tasty dish: California white bass with udon noodles, lychee glaze and miso-truffle broth. So, yeah, mine was similiar, but a little different. Swapped bass for halibut, guava for lychee, no truffles in broth and added veggies! I basically used the flavorings for the broth that I’ve used before making a miso soup (ginger, garlic, soy sauce, mirin). It worked well here.

Oh, I loved this. I want to make it again. I’d say the glaze is probably optional, and when I make it again, I might just skip it, but it was fun to try and come up with a replacement for the lychee glaze. Doesn’t even need it though, imho.

There are a lot of steps, but stuff is do-able ahead of time. You could easily make the glaze and the miso broth earlier in the day or even a day before.

Halibut with Carrot-Shiitake-Miso Broth & Udon Noodles
1/2 cup guava juice
1 tbsp jalapeno jello ha! jelly
10-12 shiitake mushrooms, stem removed & sliced
2 tbsp olive or peanut oil
3 cups chicken broth
2.5 tbsp white miso
1 tbsp grated ginger
1 garlic clove, minced
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp mirin
2 green onions, chopped
1/4 cup finely grated carrot (I used a micro plane grater)
3/4 pound halibut halibut, cut into 2 pieces (two 6 oz pieces)
salt & pepper
cooked udon noodles (enough for 2 servings)
toasted sesame oil
chopped, fresh cilantro, sesame seeds for garish

Make the glaze - combine the guava juice and jalapeno jelly in a small pan and bring to a boil. Reduce until you have about 2 -3 tablespoons of glaze and it is all thick and syrupy. Remove from heat and cool.

Heat a pan over medium heat and add 1 tbsp of the oil. Add the mushrooms and saute until soft and getting a little color, 7-9 minutes. Set aside.

In a sauce pan, add the broth, miso, mirin, garlic, ginger and soy sauce. Whisk to combine and simmer until the miso dissolves and flavors start to meld, 10 or so minutes. Add the cooked mushrooms, grated carrots and green onions. Keep warm.

Cook the udon noodles in boiling, salted water. When done, drain and toss with a little sesame oil. Keep warm. I had mine in a bowl and covered with foil. I used frozen udon noodles, but you could also used dried.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Salt and pepper the halibut and then slather the glaze on the flesh side. Heat a pan over medium-high heat and add the remaining tablespoon of oil. Add the fish, skin side down, glaze-side up.

Cook for about 4-5 minutes, getting the skin nicely crisp. Then, move to the oven and roast for 5-7 minutes, until the fish is cooked through. While the fish is in the oven, rewarm the miso broth of needed.

Put it all together:

Divide the udon noodles between two bowls. Ladle in the broth and top with a piece of the halibut. Garnish with some sesame seeds and chopped cilantro leaves.

So good! I always forget how much I love miso in things! Must use more miso…

Mostly pictures of our vacation to California last week. Very good as I am way tired. Goodnight. *snore*

Places mentioned –

Benbow Inn
Monterey Bay Aquarium
Boathouse Vacation Rental
Sea Ranch
Trinks
Redwood Grill

Mussels with chorizo, tomato and tarragon at the Benbow Inn.

Benbow Bridge over the Elk River

More Elk River

Benbow Inn

View from our room

Approaching the Golden Gate Bridge from the North

On the bridge

Sea horses at the Monterey Bay Aquarium

Sea dragons at the Monterey Bay Aquarium

Deck at the Monterey Bay Aquarium

Assorted sea creatures at the Monterey Bay Aquarium

Near the aquarium

Willow Glen (San Jose) Starbucks at night

Deck of our vacation rental in Anchor Bay (The Boat House)

The front of the Boat House

More front

More deck (looking out over redwoods and the ocean)

Trinks Coffeehouse in Gualala, CA

Sea Ranch coast

More Sea Ranch

Stairs on the beach

Tide pool

Hanging out on Walk On Beach

Starfish

jwa & I

Thistles and the beach

Sea Ranch trails

Pinot noir, wifi & views in the lodge

Crab eggs benedict at the Redwood Grill in Anchor Bay

I came across a recipe by Michael Chiarello for white bean waffles a while ago and was very intrigued. So much so that I completely changed the recipe to be black bean waffles. Recently I had some time, a can of black beans and a waffle maker. Here’s what happened…

Black Bean Waffles
For the beans:
1 (15-ounce) can black beans, drained and rinsed
1/2 cup chicken stock
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp cumin
1 dash tabasco
1 handful fresh cilantro
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the waffles:
1 1/2 cups AP flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp kosher salt
2 eggs
1 cups milk
3 tbsp olive oil

Preheat your waffle device of choice. In a small pot combine the beans, chili powder, cumin, tabasco, and chicken stock. Season with salt and pepper and bring to a simmer for about 5 minutes over medium-high heat. Remove from the heat and allow to cool to room temperature. Meanwhile in a large mixing bowl combine the flour, baking powder, and teaspoon salt.

Add the beans, their cooking liquid and the cilantro to a food processor and pulse to puree. Add the eggs, milk, and olive oil to the bean mixture and puree until smooth. Whisk the wet mixture into the dry slowly to avoid any lumps. Let the batter rest briefly and griddle the waffles according manufacturer’s instructions.

Now, what can you do with these little snacks? Well, the first night we had a couple of wedges on the side with some grilled turkey breast tenders. Very good.

The next day (a Saturday), two waffle wedges each were re-toasted, stacked with spinach leaves, avocado, poached eggs, cheddar cheese and salsa and served as a kind of faux, mexican eggs benedict. I completely recommend this option.

To poach an egg quite easily –

1. Fill a large skillet with a few inches of water. Add about a teaspoon of vinegar and some salt. Put on a lid and bring to a boil.

2. Crack your eggs into ramekins.

3. When the water is boiling, gently pour each egg from the ramekin into the water.

4. Turn off the heat, replace the lid and poach for 2.5 - 4 minutes, depending if you like runny yolks or not. I did about 2.5 - 3 minutes for medium runny yolks.

5. Scoop eggs out with a slotted spoon, briefly draining on a towel-covered saucer if you want. This can get tricky, though, as you still have to lift the poached eggs from the towel to the plate.

Stack everything together and you have a wonderful morning treat. Top with chopped cilantro and green onions if you have any.

Keep the rest of the waffles in the fridge and heat up in a toaster for a quick snack.

At work last Friday, there was a stack of seaweed packages for people to take home if they wanted to and do something seaweed-y with. Grabbing a package, I thought it might be fun for jwa and I to attempt to make sushi. After some contemplation, we decided to start simply, with just rice, cucumber, avocado and crab — a little like California Rolls.

We already had a day planned — breakfast at the Detour Cafe, a walk to OMSI and then I figured we’d hit New Seasons on the walk back home for rice and crab. Everything went perfectly to plan, except New Seasons was out of crab and we had to get that at Zupans. Bastards!

jwa outside omsi

Once at home and rice, veggies and crab prepped, we timidly began. The sushi mats were a little challenging to get the hang of and these were not the most attractive sushi rolls ever but they were good. I think we will be practicing our mad sushi rolling skillz this Fall and Winter and will, come Spring, make beautiful and lovely sushi together. Oh, just you wait….

Avocado and Crab-meat Sushi (for the timid but hoppeful)
This recipe is from Epicurius.com.
For the rice:
1 cup white short-grain rice*
2 tbsp rice vinegar
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp dry Sherry
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 avocado
fresh lemon juice for rubbing the avocado
3 pieces of toasted nori
1/2 cucumber, peeled and cut lengthwise into 8- by 1/4-inch strips
1/4 pound fresh King crab meat picked over and drained well
wasabi paste to taste for the sushi plus additional as an accompaniment if desired
soy sauce as an accompaniment
pickled ginger as an accompaniment if desired

Rice:
In a large fine sieve rinse the rice under running cold water until the water runs clear with no milky residue and drain it well. In a large heavy saucepan combine the rice with 1 1/4 cups water, bring the water to a boil, and simmer the rice, covered tightly, for 15 minutes, or until the water is absorbed and the rice is tender.

Remove the pan from the heat, let the rice stand, covered tightly, for 10 minutes, and transfer it to a jelly-roll pan, spreading it in an even layer. Keep the rice warm, covered.

In a saucepan whisk together the vinegar, the sugar, the sherry, and the salt. Simmer the mixture until the sugar is dissolved, and let it cool. Sprinkle the rice with as much of the vinegar mixture as necessary to moisten it lightly, tossing it carefully, and cover it with a dampened cloth. (Do not chill the rice.) The rice may be made 3 hours in advance and kept, covered with the dampened cloth, at room temperature.

Now for the rest…
Peel and pit the avocado, rubbing it with the lemon juice, and cut it into 1/4-inch-thick strips.

Working with one sheet of nori at a time and with a long side facing you, spread about 3/4 cup of the rice in an even layer on each sheet, leaving a 1/2-inch border on the long sides. Arrange some of the avocado strips horizontally across the middle of the rice and arrange some of the cucumber strips and the crab meat on top of the avocado.

Dab the crab meat with the wasabi and beginning with a long side roll up the nori tightly jelly-roll fashion. This is a lot easier if you have a sushi rolling mat. Very inexpensive and a good kitchen investment.

Cut each roll with a sharp knife into 3/4-inch-thick slices and serve the rolls with the soy sauce, the additional wasabi, and the ginger.

Divy up, eat and enjoy!

A Few Unrelated Words on Shoes…
I have been thinking about shoes lately. Although I have a fond place in my heart for most footwear, I’ve been thinking about wedding shoes specifically. I called a bridal place by work to ask if they had shoes. The conversation went a little like this:

Me: Hi. I was wondering about your bridal shoe collection.

Her: Silence.

Me: Uh, I mean, you have shoes, right?

Her: Yes.

Me: Is there a large selection? Or at least, are there different sizes available?

Her: Well, we have sizes between 6-8 and then you have to special order everything.

Me: Huh. Um, how does that work if you don’t wear a 6, 7 or 8? How do I know if the shoe fits?

Her: Pause. Well, I guess you don’t for sure. You just have to order it.

Me: Okay. Thanks.

WTF? Seriously? A dress I understand. You try on what they have and then order one in the closest size based on your measurements and then you have alterations as needed. But hello? They don’t alter a shoe. Would it kill them to just have like a variety of sizes available to at least see how different brands fit?

I was so irritated that I decided to just order shoes online. Free shipping and I can return them for free if they don’t fit. Take that, bridal shop industry.

Possibility #1 — on sale for $49.00 — matches the wedding colors of green and brown — bonus points for not being white or ivory. Ha!

Possibility #2 — $54 — white but dyeable. I’ll probably dye it with green tea, going for an off-white, pale, pale green color.

We’ll see which fits best and which is the cutest. Hopefully it’ll be the same shoe. In either case, I have to guess at sizing but at least I get free shipping, better pricing, free returns and less stupidity.

Sugar High Friday, hosted by Cream Puffs in Venice is all about figs this month. Awesome. I really like figs. For this SHF I turned towards perhaps the perfect cookbook for this event — The Girl and the Fig cookbook, one that I really like. In fact, I’m trying to finagle my way into lunch or dinner there next time we’re near Sonoma. But, back to SHF, I’m going to guess I’m not the only one who makes something out of this book given the theme. We’ll see…

Anyway, this was wonderful! A lot of steps, but it makes a great Saturday afternoon project. I did halve the recipe (I used a square 8 inch X 8 inch baking pan) and still ended up freezing about half of it for later snacking — it’s very rich.

Warm Fig & Thyme Crisp with Fig Syrup
Pastry:
2 cups walnut halves
6 tbsp + 3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
4 1/2 cups AP flour
3/4 lb (3 sticks) unsalted butter, thinly sliced
3 tsp vanilla extract
3 egg yolks

Jam:
2 1/2 pounds dried figs (I used about half dried figs and half fresh figs, which, for my halved recipe turned out to be 1 8-oz bag of dried figs and 1 pint of fresh figs)
3/4 cup granulated sugar
zest of 3 lemons
1 bunch thyme, tied with twine
3 tbsp lemon juice

Port-Fig Syrup:
2 cups Port
5 dried Black Mission figs, sliced
1 cinnamon stick
1 clove
1/2 cup sugar

Pastry
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a food processor, grind the walnuts (until medium-fine) with the tablespoons of sugar and set aside. Don’t worry, you’ll come back to them, but not until you’re ready to assemble the crisp. Next, mix the 3/4 cup granulated sugar, the brown sugar, salt, baking powder and flour until well combined. Add the butter and mix until the mixture clumps, about 2 minutes.

Add the vanilla and egg yolks to the mixture and mix for 40 seconds. Pack two-thirds of the dough into the bottom of a 9 X 12 inch ungreased pan and bake until it’s lightly golden — about 25-30 minutes.

Jam
To make the Jam, combine the figs, sugar, lemon zest thyme and lemon juice and pour in enough water to cover. Bring to a boil and boil for 10 minutes. Don’t be shy with the water. I was kinda skimpy and had to add more water half way through cooking. Go ahead and really cover everything from the beginning.

Reduce the heat and simmer until the figs are tender, about 30 minutes. Remove the thyme. Puree the mixture in a food processor.

Syrup
Heat the figs, port, cinnamon and clove in a pan over medium heat and reduce to about 1/2 cup. Strain the sauce, pushing on the figs to get as much juice out as possible. Whisk in the sugar and serve.

Assembley
Spread the jam evenly over the baked dough.

In a bowl, crumble together the remaining third of the dough with the walnut and sugar mixture. Sprinkle this mixture over the jam and bake for about 50 minutes. (If you make a half recipe in a smaller pan, give it about 35 minutes).

Cut into pieces and serve warm with vanilla ice cream (or frozen yogurt) and drizzle with the port sauce. So amazingly decadent! And delicious!

Thanks again to Ivonne for hosting and coming up with a tasty theme! I can’t wait to see all of the fig recipes.