Je Mange la Ville » Fish & Seafood

Mediterranean Tuna Melt

mlb — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 15:02:31 +0000

While growing up, a tuna melt was one of my go-to, out to eat meals. Through the years, I’ve been guilty of mixing up some tuna salad, slathering it on an English muffin and melting copious amounts of cheddar cheese on it and calling it dinner. Bonus: A pretty quick dinner at that! Now, while that version is still pretty tasty, it’s not the healthiest dinner (hence the guilty).

Lately, I’ve tried to stick to my tuna melt roots but I’ve also tried to lighten it up a bit. It started by adding greens and just a touch of mayo. Now, I’ve come across this recipe that actually convinced me to give up the melted cheddar. I know! Crazy talk!

But, this version was really very good. So maybe give it a try next time you have a hankerin’ for a tuna melt. You can always add more feta…I won’t tell anyone.

Also, just as a note: without the mayo and the cheese, there’s not a lot of “glue” here to hold all of the toppings on the bread. So, don’t be surprised if it gets a tad messy.

Mediterranean Tuna Melt
Adapted from a recipe in Everyday Food; makes 2 servings, so find a friend.
1 can (6 oz) tuna packed in oil, drained*
1/2 cup canned garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed (save the rest of the can for another use)
2 tbsp minced red onion
2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1/4 tsp dried oregano
1 tbsp chopped green olives
1 tbsp capers, rinsed
1 garlic clove, minced
1/2 tbsp Dijon mustard
Salt and pepper
2 sliced Whole Wheat (or other) bread, toasted
1/2 cup baby spinach or arugula
1/4 cup crumbled feta cheese (you could also use provolone or mozzarella here, if you wanted that more “melted” experience)
Optional: Balsamic Vinegar for drizzlin’ over the top

Heat broiler. In a bowl, combine first nine ingredients (tuna through mustard); season with salt and pepper to taste.

Lay toasted bread slices on a broiler-proof baking sheet; top with spinach or arugula, then divide the tuna mixture between the two pieces of bread. Sprinkle with the feta. Broil until golden and delicious looking, 2 to 4 minutes. Drizzle a little balsamic vinegar over the top if you’d like a little extra something and then eat.

* If you want to use tuna in water, just drain and add about 1 tablespoon of olive oil to the tuna mixture.

Thai Hot & Sour Soup with Shrimp Toast

mlb — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 05:26:20 +0000

I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas, if that is the holiday you celebrate this time of year. If not, happy Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Solstice, Festivus, what have you. Maybe you just like to sit around in December eating a lot of appetizers and cookies for no real holiday-affiliated reason. If so, hope you had a nice time doing that!

This was our dinner on December 26th, a day known far and wide for its sensible eating. Because of this, I chose to bake the shrimp toasts in the oven (originally, they were deep fried). This is actually a very nice change from the creamy-cheesey-red-meat-dips-crackers type of eating a person might tend to do around this time of year. This soup is light and full of spinach and mushrooms. It’s also vinegary and a little spicy.

Sure, the shrimp toast isn’t entirely necessarily, but it’s pretty good. It did seem a little bland at first but I think that’s just because the flavors in the soup are so strong. But then, I dipped the shrimp toast into the soup and really liked it! So, why not give the shrimp toast a try too? You know, because it’s sensible.

Thai Hot & Sour Soup with Shrimp Toast
Adapted from a recipe by Ming Tsai
1 tsp canola oil
1/4 cup peeled ginger julienned
1 sliced onion
2 cloves garlic, minced
2-4 dried Thai chiles
3 stalks lemon grass, sliced
1/4 cup fish sauce
6 cups chicken stock
6 kaffir lime leaves (I subbed a long strip of lime zest and about 1 tsp lime juice)
1/2 cup rice wine vinegar
1/2 cup Thai basil leaves
1 tsp ground pepper
2 cups sliced shiitake mushrooms, sauteed
1/2 cup spinach leaves, chopped
1/4 cup sliced scallion
Optional: 1 egg, beaten

Before you start the soup (or while it is reducing) saute up the shiitakes in about a tsp of canola oil. When they’re done, just set aside until it’s time to add them to the soup.

Saute ginger, onion, garlic, chiles and lemon grass in the canola oil until soft. Deglaze pan with fish sauce.

Add chicken stock and lime leaves. Simmer and reduce for about 15-20 minutes over low heat. Add vinegar, basil and pepper.

Check for seasoning. If it is too vinegar-y, you can always add a little more stock. Strain the soup and either return it to the pot or absentmindedly put it in a new pot, like I did. Return to a low simmer.

Add sauteed shiitakes and spinach. If you have a few extra Thai basil leaves, you can tear them up and add them to the soup along with the spinach. If you are using the egg, stir it into the soup now.

Ladle soup into bowls. Garnish with scallions.

Shrimp Toast
Adapted from a recipe by Ming Tsai
1 cup shrimp, chopped
1/2 cup napa cabbage
1/2 tbsp minced ginger
1/2 tbsp sesame oil
1 egg white
2 tbsp chopped scallions
2 tbsp chopped cilantro
Salt and pepper
3 slices of dried bread with the crust removed, cut diagonally
1/4 cup sesame seeds
Canola oil

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. In a food processor, puree first 5 ingredients. Fold in the scallions and cilantro and give it a little salt and pepper.

Spread the mixture on the bread halves and sprinkle with sesame seeds.

Place on a baking sheet and bake for about 10 minutes, turn on the broiler and toast the tops (careful! the tips of the toasts may burn, if they do, just cut them off). Serve with soup.

You can see above where I clipped off the toast ends. I think next time, I’m going to add a little garlic and maybe a dash of soy sauce to the shrimp mixture.

Here’s our Christmas tree this year. It is delightfully spindly! Yes, that is the Sriracha Cookbook on the ottoman…

FFwD: Just Wheat Blini with Smoked Salmon

mlb — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 04:37:34 +0000

Time for another French Fridays with Dorie? Yep, it sure is! This week: Buckwheat Blini with Smoked Salmon but even though I work at a place that uh, actually mills flours and I have access to all kinds of flours I don’t even know what to do with, I didn’t manage to get some buckwheat flour in time before I needed it for this recipe. Doh!

I had to use regular whole wheat flour for the buckwheat flour. Even so, these were really delicious!

Notes:
1. I let my batter sit in the fridge overnight, it got all bubbly.
2. I used a scalloped biscuit cutter to give the blini pretty edges. Plus, this way I also got to snack on the trimmings while waiting for jwa to get home!
3. I didn’t have dill on hand, so I garnished each with a cilantro leaf and also some finely diced red onion.
4. I held mine in a 200 degree F oven for about 30 minutes, I think it made them firmer. They were no problem to pick up and eat like a cracker.
5. I think these will definitely be an appetizer at Thanksgiving!

You can see everyone’s posts here! Okay, photo time:

The batter the next day, all bubbly and ready to add the eggs.

Post flip, nice and golden brown.

I made a half recipe and still ended up with more blini than jwa and I needed for a first course. So, someone is getting a stack of mini-pancakes tomorrow!

making the edges nice and scalloped with a handy biscuit cutter.

Salmon in place, creme fraiche and herbs to come.

Delicious!

Completely unrelated, but here is my awesome Halloween score this week! Life-size! He’s sitting at the dining room table right now…

When Life Gives You Crab, Make Crab Cakes

mlb — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 03:56:54 +0000

Recently, a coworker (thanks, Kevin!) gave jwa a cooler full of cleaned crab from a crabbing expedition in Tillamook. He then sent me an email during the day warning me of the impending crab that he would be bringing home, which gave me a little bit of notice to come up with something tasty to do with it. This is what I found and yes, it was quite tasty. I really liked the mango sauce. In fact, I have some leftover that I have to figure out what to do with. I don’t think it will be a problem.

After pulling all the crabmeat off, we ended up with a half a pound. I halved the original recipe, which gave us two crabcakes each — perfect. If you want more than 4 crab cakes, double what I have written below and that will give you the amount of the original recipe and 8 crab cakes.

I added the lime and cilantro to the sauce — I think it really brightened that up. I also swapped green onions for chives and added garlic. I used a light hand with the siracha, but that’s just me.

Spicy Crab Cakes with Mango Puree
Adapted from a recipe by Ming Tsai in Food & Wine Magazine
1/2 lb lump crabmeat, well drained and picked over
2 tbsp mayonnaise
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp fresh lime juice (plus a squeeze more)
1/4 tsp honey
2 tsp + 1 tsp (or more) Sirachi or other Asian red chili sauce
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1 ripe mango, peeled and cut into chunks
1 Tbsp + 2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 small handful cilantro, roughly chopped
All purpose flour, for dredging
1 large egg, beaten
1/2 cup panko (Japanese bread crumbs) or other dry bread crumbs

In a large bowl, combine the crabmeat with the mayonnaise, green onion, garlic, lime juice, honey and 2 teaspoons of the chili sauce; season with salt and pepper. Stir well to break up some of the crabmeat.

Form the mixture into 4 crab cakes, packing them firmly. They will still be a little loose, but that’s okay. Put the crab cakes on a plate and refrigerate until firm, about 25 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a food processor, puree the mango with 1 tablespoon of the oil, the cilantro, a squeeze of lime juice, and the remaining 1 teaspoon of chili sauce until smooth. Scrape the mango puree into a small bowl and season with salt and pepper.

How to easily dice up a mango — score the flesh side of each cheek and scrape out with a spoon. Easy!

Put a handful of flour into a bowl. Put the egg in another bowl and the panko in a third bowl. Take a crab cake in your hand and carefully dust it all over with flour, shaking off any excess. Dip the crab cake in the beaten egg and then coat it well with the panko. Repeat with the remaining crab cakes. If you are like me you will end up with panko mittens when you are done. That’s okay, it washes off.

In a medium skillet, heat 2 tablespoons of the vegetable oil until shimmering. Add the crab cakes to the skillet and cook them over moderately high heat until they are browned and crisp, about 3 minutes per side.

Serve the crab cakes with a drizzle of mango sauce, with the rest of the sauce on the side. Some more chopped green onions are also a nice garnish. We made a quick meal out of this with some lemongrass rice and sauteed green beans on the side.

***

I think the next post will be a bunch of photos. I have a lot from the harvest dinner at Red Ridge Farms that we went to a couple of weeks ago and some from Astoria from this weekend.

Chile Grilled Shrimp with Corn, Avocado & Quinoa Salad

mlb — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 03:11:47 +0000

This is a delicious Summer meal in that it is relatively quick and can be served room temperature (or even chilled). We had it recently and there was not a leftover to be had. It was originally a shrimp & salsa-type recipe but I turned the salsa into a salad by adding quinoa, beans, and feta cheese. It was great with some hot sauce on the side and a bottle of cold Sauvignon Blanc.

Okay, I think that’s all I got. I haven’t gotten too much sleep the last two nights and it appears that’s my limit. Bedtime at 8pm? For me, ‘fraid so.

Chile Grilled Shrimp with Corn, Avocado & Quinoa Salad
Adapted from a recipe in Steven Raichlen’s Indoor! Grilling
1lb large shrimp, peeled and de-veined
1 tbsp chile powder
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp Kosher or Sea Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
2 Tbsp olive oil + a little extra for drizzling on the salad
1/2 cup Quinoa
1 ripe avocado, pitted and diced
2 to 3 tbsp fresh lime juice (plus lime wedges for serving)
1 red bell pepper, cored, seeded and diced
1 ear sweet corn, shucked
3 tbsp diced red onion
1 jalapeño pepper, seeded and minced
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1 can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
1/4 cup crumbled feta cheese
Coarse salt (kosher or sea) and freshly ground black pepper

For the Shrimp:
Place the chile powder, garlic powder, oregano, cumin, salt pepper and olive oil in a mixing bowl and whisk to mix. Add the shrimp and toss to coat. Let the shrimp marinate in the refrigerator, covered, for 30 minutes to 1 hour.

I used a grill pan but you could also grill outdoors. For a grill pan, preheat it over medium heat. And when it’s really hot, lightly oil the ridges of the grill pan.

Cook the marinated shrimp 1 to 3 minutes per side. They’ll turn pink and hopefully get a little bit of char from the marinade.

For the Salad:
Cook quinoa according to package instructions (usually, it’d be 1/2 cup quinoa and 1 cup water, salt, boil, then simmer for 15-20 minutes). Set aside to cool.

Cut the kernels off the corn. I usually do this just standing the corn up in a very large bowl and slicing down the sides. This way, I also get any liquid or flying corn kernels in the bowl (instead of on the floor, wall, counter, etc…). Place the avocado in the bowl and gently toss it and the corn with 2 tablespoons of the lime juice. Add the diced bell pepper, jalapeño, cooked and cooled quinoa, garbanzo beans, feta and cilantro to the mixing bowl and gently toss it all to mix. Drizzle with a little olive oil.

Taste for seasoning, adding more lime juice as necessary and season with salt and pepper to taste. Add shrimp to the top of the salad.

Serve at room temperature or chilled and with lime wedges.