Ah, a challenge that involves math. How fun. The theme was supplied by Cady at $40 a Week, which as you might see coming, was to spend $40 a week on groceries (per person) and come up with a meal based on those constraints.

Here, I will admit my laziness at not entirely sticking to the challenge as written. Although our grocery budget (for 2) is about $80/week, I didn’t specifically track that and actually, this week, I think we were a tad over since we decided to stock up on some wine.

But, through the magic of calculations, I deduced that if the budget was $40/week, that would work out to $5.72/day. Times two that’s $11.44 per day for two. And sure, that would mean that fish tacos are the only meal of the day but I am assuming that eating out doesn’t count. Right?

Plus, if I don’t see what jwa eats during the day and he doesn’t actually see what I eat — well, then that too doesn’t count. For the record, I had a cereal bar for breakfast and a turkey and cheese sandwich (and cup of lentil soup) for lunch. And I uh, found them. Yeah. I found them so they were free. So, I get the whole $11 amount for the dinner. Hooray!

fish: $4.50
4 corn tortillas: $1
romaine lettuce: $1
1 can beans: .99
1 cup shredded cheese: $1
tomatoes: $1
lime: .33
jalapeno: .20
cilantro: .79
assorted spices: free (’cuz I already had them)
oil: free (see assorted spices)

Total: $10.81 Woo!

This recipe is based on one from Bobby Flay which I’m sure is in one of his cookbooks. And yeah, I still am not a fan but whatever. I’ll use his recipe as long as I don’t have to interact with him or anything. ‘Cause that would be annoying.

Fish Tacos
(Feeds 2)
1/2 pound white flaky fish, such as mahi mahi, tilapia or turbot, which is what I used
1/4 cup canola oil
1 lime, juiced
1 tbsp chili powder
1 jalapeno, coarsely chopped
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves
4 flour tortillas

Garnish:
Shredded romaine lettuce
Hot sauce
Shredded cheddar cheese
Chopped cilantro leaves
Chopped cherry tomatoes

Place fish in a medium size dish. Whisk together the oil, lime juice, chili powder and jalapeno and pour over the fish. Let marinate for 15 to 20 minutes.

Preheat a pan over medium heat. Remove the fish from the marinade place into the hot pan. Grill the fish for 4 minutes on the first side and then flip for 30 seconds and remove. Let rest for 5 minutes then flake the fish with a fork.

Wipe the pan out and return it to the heat. Place a tortilla in the pan and heat for about 30 seconds per side. Divide the fish among the tortillas and garnish with any or all of the garnishes.

Thanks again to $40 a Week for a great and challenging theme!

Ah, the wonders of the Trader Joe’s frozen fish section. I give you turbot — $3.90 worth of turbot. Woo! That’s two meal-sized fillets for under $4. Now that’s cheap…er economical. What’s turbot? Yeah, I didn’t know either. Thank you, wikipedia! And it even gets a good rating from the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Excellent.

Now, the frozen turbot from TJ’s comes with some paprika already sprinkled on it. So, I decided to work with that and have the fish with a tomato-olive-caper salsa. Brown rice (with diced roasted carrots and garlic) and braised Brussels sprouts round out the meal.

If you can’t find turbot, tilipia would probably work just fine!

Turbot with Tomato-Olive-Caper Salsa
2 turbot fillets
2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup flour
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
2 vine-ripened tomatos, diced
4-5 cherry tomatoes, quartered (You can also use fancy tomatoes — I found some green, purple and yellow cherry tomatoes and I used those, plain old red cherry tomatoes will work fine too)
1 tbsp finely diced red onion
1 tbsp capers
1 tbsp chopped kalamata olives
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp fresh orange juice
1 tbsp olive oil
a couple of basil leaves, torn
salt and pepper to taste

Mix up your salsa — that’s the tomatoes, onion, capers, olives, orange juice, garlic, and olive oil. Taste and adjust the salt and pepper to your liking. Maybe add more garlic — it’s up to you. Add the torn basil leaves and let it hang about the kitchen while you continue on with your business.

In a bowl, combine the flour, paprika, oregano, salt and pepper. Lightly salt and pepper the defrosted fillets and dredge in the flour mixture.

Heat a pan. Add the two tablespoons of oil over medium heat, until pretty hot. Add the fish and cook for about 2-3 minutes per side. Depending on the thickness. It should develop a nice, golden color. Adjust your pan heat as necessary.

Serve the fish with the salsa.

This meal also marks the return of the braised Brussels sprouts — oh! How we’ve missed you!

***

And then there were shoes…

My cute green and brown mules hurt. Also, size 9.5 mules are not as cute as the previous picture — scroll down — would lead you to believe. They have been returned. And so, here are the new awesome wedding shoes (I think).

The new contenders are –

They are by Tsubo and they are so-so-so comfy. Plus, I can wear them more than once, not just at the wedding. I already have the brown ones at home and they passed the tried-them-on-and-they-don’t-hurt test. I also ordered a pair in off-white that were on sale. The “off-white” ones looked more tan and seemed a bit tight. I returned them. It looks like suede chocolate pumps win! Hooray! So, I am still pleased.

I have been wanting to make this recipe for the longest time — Ina Garten’s Asian Marinated Salmon. I made it as written, except I added 1 tablespoon of honey to the marinade. And okay, I used a grill pan.

Fine, I also only used 1 pound of salmon instead of a whole side of salmon. But c’mon, that would have been super-duper expensive and a lot of fish for two people.

You might notice that there aren’t any prep pictures here. Well…jwa brought the camera to work and I didn’t have it to take pictures while making dinner. So sad.

Asian Marinated Salmon
1 lb wild salmon (the marinade below will accommodate up to 3 pounds)
For the marinade:
2 tbsp Dijon mustard
3 tbsp soy sauce
6 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp honey
1/2 tsp minced garlic
Garnishes: chopped green onions and lemon or lime wedges

Whisk together the mustard, soy sauce, olive oil, honey and garlic in a small bowl. Drizzle half of the marinade onto the salmon and allow it to sit for 10 minutes.

Heat up a grill pan and brush lightly with oil. Alternately, you can light charcoal briquettes in a grill and brush the grilling rack with oil to keep the salmon from sticking.

Place the salmon skin side down on the hot grill surface; discard the marinade the fish was sitting in. Grill for 4 to 5 minutes, depending on the thickness of the fish. Turn carefully with a wide spatula and grill for another 4 to 5 minutes. The salmon will be slightly raw in the center, but don’t worry; it will keep cooking as it sits.

Transfer the fish to a flat plate, skin side down, and spoon the reserved marinade on top. Allow the fish to rest for 10 minutes. Remove the skin and serve with the extra unused marinade.

So, I was watching TV a couple of weekends ago and saw some of this show on the Food Network that I don’t like that much — Simply Delicioso. Simply Annnoying-o, imho. But she made these potato balls with cheese in the middle which sort of intrigued me. So I built on that concept and created — wasabi potato balls! Woo! What? Cream cheese isn’t uh, Asianesque?

Yeah, I know. I know. But I will not let authenticity stand in the way of my love of all things cheese. Besides, Dijon mustard isn’t an authentic pan-Asian ingredient either. See, the meal all fits together perfectly!

Wasabi Potato Balls
2 medium russet potatoes, peeled
1 tbsp salt
2 cloves garlic (or 1 huge clove)
1 tbsp prepared wasabi
1 oz cream cheese
1/2 cup panko bread crumbs
Optional: 1/2 tsp Asian seasoning (I have this Oxo grind it Asian blend with lemongrass and ginger and other stuff that I couldn’t resist adding to the breadcrumbs)
Salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Put potatoes in a large pot and fill with water until potatoes are just covered. Add the 1 tablespoon salt. Bring to a boil and cook until potatoes are very soft, about 30 minutes. Test with a fork after 20.

Press potatoes through a potato ricer and blend until mashed. Add the garlic, wasabi and salt and pepper to taste. Get the potatoes to where you like them seasoning-wise. Then, let them sit for a few minutes until just cool enough to handle.

Slice up 8 small little cubes of your cream cheese. Add the extra seasoning to the bread crumbs if you are using it and set aside in a small bowl. Prepare a baking sheet with foil wrap and coat with vegetable spray or rub with oil.

Okay. While mashed potatoes are still warm, form them into 2-inch balls. You should have eight. Make an indentation with you finger and insert 1 cheese cube in the center of a ball, then roll it into bread crumbs and place on cookie sheet. Repeat with the 7 remaining balls, rinsing your hands as needed so the potatoes form evenly and don’t stick to the bread crumbs in your hand.

Give the tops a spray with canola or olive oil and bake for 20 to 25 minutes. Halfway through the baking time, flip them over. Serve immediately. They are mighty tasty.

Economical fish be damned, I made this recently much to jwa’s (and my) delight. Oh. So good. Who knew Dick Clark made killer pizza at home and then gave the recipe to Bon Appétit?

I did however, use a different pizza dough recipe — the one from my Farmer’s Market Pizza Experiment of last Spring. I also changed the wasabi sauce recipe a bit and added the shitakes, carrot, avocado and sesame seeds. But still, I’ll give him the credit.

(Kind of) Dick Clark’s Seared Tuna Pizza
Your favorite Pizza Dough recipe — here is mine (you can also use prepared dough, of course. There is also one listed with this recipe at epicurious.com)
1/4 cup shredded carrots
10-12 shitake mushrooms, cleaned, destemmed, sliced quickly sauteed in a little oil until soft
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tbsp honey
2 tbsp purchased prepared wasabi
2 tbsp minced peeled fresh ginger
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp sesame seeds
1 lb ahi tuna
olive oil

Garnishes:
Chopped green onions
1 avocado, peeled and diced, tossed with the juice of 1 lime and some chopped cilantro

Combine soy sauce, oil, honey and wasabi in medium bowl; whisk until blended. Whisk in ginger and garlic. Season sauce to taste with pepper.

Preheat your oven to the desired temperature for your dough. Mine was about 490 degrees. Prepare one large pizza or individual pizzas. Brush your pizza dough generously with the wasabi sauce and sprinkle with the carrots, sauteed shitakes and sesame seeds. Bake until crust is completely done and top is a bit golden — for me this was about 9-10 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat a pan until almost smoking. Brush a little of the wasabi sauce on the tuna along with just a little salt and sear on the first side for about 2 minutes. Brush sauce on the facing-up side and flip over, for about 1-2 minutes more.

Transfer tuna to a work surface. Slice thinly or moderately thinly. Hmmm, really, thinly is pretty subjective. Anyway, arrange 1/2 of the tuna slices on each pizza crust (if you are making individual pizzas). If you are making one big pizza? Well, I trust you can figure that one out.

Drizzle each pizza with some wasabi sauce and sprinkle with chopped green onions and the avocado-lime-cilantro mixture. Serve with the remaining wasabi sauce for further drizzling at your leisure.

Completely unrelated — oh, oh, oh do I love Pushing Daisies. And now I totally want to make an apple pie with grated gruyere on top — perhaps even with the mood-enhancing drugs inside. I guess it would depend on how I felt.

Next week: WCC round-up, Halloween green tea sugar cookies, some tasty-quick chicken and probably a shoe update.

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.

First off, goodbye Summer theme…hello again Autumn theme! I’ve missed you!

Now, this recipe is from my friend Vanessa. We met at DePaul freshman year of college and then both transferred to other places. We managed to stay in touch for a few years after school, then kind of went on with our lives for a few years after that and just recently got back in touch. Hooray!

She even gave me this awesome recipe for tuna and white beans as a great week night, comforting, quick dinner. It really is…and it fits right in with my (and jwa’s reluctant) goal to eat more economical fish. Frozen tuna is about $6.99/pound at Trader Joe’s. That’s vs. about $20/pound fresh. So, while I will always love the fresh, seared, rare ahi more than anything, it’s good to have a few tricks with frozen tuna. Add this to the list because it’s great!

I didn’t change much from the original, but I did add orange and olives. That’s what so great about this recipe — you can really alter it to fit what you have on hand or flavors that you are in the mood to eat.

Baked Tuna & White Beans from Vanessa
1 medium to large onion, roughly chopped
1 large carrot, chopped
4-5 medium garlic cloves - crushed and roughly chopped
2 cans Cannelloni beans, drained and rinsed
1 lb tuna (defrosted frozen is really good for this — albacore or ahi)
salt and pepper
Olive oil
2 sprigs fresh thyme
Optional: 1 orange, zested and juiced
1/4 cup green olives

Saute onion along with the carrots in olive oil until the onions are translucent. Add garlic and cook (but don’t brown).

Next, throw in drained beans just to get them fusing with onion/garlic/olive oil. Add the orange zest and juice. Salt & pepper to taste.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a casserole dish, add half of the bean mixture to bottom. Sprinkle the beans with half the thyme leaves. Cut tuna into 4-6 chunks so it cooks faster and put on top of beans.

Dump other half of bean mixture over top of tuna. Drizzle with little more olive oil and the feta cheese.

Bake (uncovered) for about 20 minutes or until tuna is cooked/flaky. Before serving, use a spoon to stir everything up so that tuna flakes and is distributed (in small flakes) through beans. Serve with more fresh thyme and green olives.

You could also use fresh basil and Parmesan in place of the thyme and feta. Vanessa first described with with the parm and basil, which I would have done, except the garden thyme was much closer to the kitchen door and it was raining. So there. Also, if you use basil, just add that at the end, after it comes out of the oven.

Here the meal is with some tasty crostini slathered with arugula pesto. How did I make that? Well, a few very big (overflowing, really) handfuls of arugula leaves, about 1/4 cup toasted hazelnuts, 1/4 cup parmesan cheese, 2 garlic cloves salt and pepper. Add to a food processor and combine. Stream olive oil in until it’s smooth and looks like pesto. Get a big bowl of pasta, some crostini or a spoon. All done.

Okay, now off for a bike ride with jwa!

So, I was all set to do an Indian-inspired Mahi Mahi next when Guilty Carnivore sung the praises of Tilapia in a recent comment. I am very easily influenced by the things that I read so I decided to pick some tilapia up on the way home last week — $5.99/pound at the Whole Foods by work (if I remember correctly). The Mahi Mahi in the freezer will have to wait until next weekend. I’m sure the Mahi Mahi won’t mind — it’s hanging out by some vodka.

I wasn’t sure of what to do with the tilapia first. I saw a recipe where prosciutto is wrapped around it and the fish is grilled with sage. I even considered throwing some Parmesan into that equation, but after being mocked by jwa last week for cooking fish with bacon, I decided to try a different approach this time.

What I ended up with was actually pretty good — kind of like a fish lasagna. Both jwa and I agreed that we would definitely eat it again. And there was no bacon or pork products involved at all! Hooray! (or boo!) — I don’t know which one.

Baked Tilapia Layered with Ricotta and Vegetables
about 1 lb tilapia
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp dried basil
1 leek, washed well, trimmed and sliced (use a large leek or 2 small leeks)
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 medium zucchini, sliced into rounds
20 shitake mushrooms, stems removed and sliced
1 cup loosely packed baby spinach
3 tbsp (or so) white wine
1 cup low fat ricotta cheese
1/3 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
5 sprigs fresh thyme
salt & pepper

On the side
Cooked pasta (parpadelle works well) tossed with:
2 tomatoes, chopped
1/2 cup pitted green olives
olive oil
salt & pepper

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Heat a pan over medium heat and add the oil. Sauté the leek, garlic and mushrooms with the dried basil until the veggies are starting to get soft and they have a little bit of color — about 5-6 minutes.

Spread about 1/2 of the vegetable mixture in a casserole dish. It should just cover the bottom. My dish was about 8 inches by 6 inches. If you are using a bigger dish, you may want to sauté few more veggies. Salt and pepper the fish on both sides and lay that down on top of the veggies and sprinkle with the wine.

Next comes the spinach. Lay that down and spread the ricotta over it. Finish it off with the remaining vegetables and the Parmesan cheese. Drizzle with a little olive oil and lay the thyme sprigs on top.

Bake in the oven for about 40 minutes, until the spinach, veggies and wine have given off some liquid. My theory was that this would help the fish stay nice and moist while the top got a bit golden. I think it worked well.

So you see, I didn’t lie about the liquid in the pan after removing a piece. I chose to not cook the spinach first so it gave off some water. This didn’t bother me but if you want less liquid after baking, just sauté the spinach with the veggies and just add it that way. Anyway, after it comes out of the oven, let it all sit for a couple of minutes and serve with the pasta. In a surprising turn, I must say that the leftovers brought for lunch were even better a couple of days later!

Now, back to watching some more Burn Notice episodes! Maybe fish experiment number three will be prepared with only my cell phone, laptop and things I can get at the hardware store. Oh and there will be yogurt.

Wow! Two posts in two days! Amazing! Uh, anyway, lately, I have mentioned to jwa (threatened?) that we will be eating more fish — at least two times a week. The problem is, we have expensive, fancy-pants fish tastes. Mostly, we both like salmon, tuna and halibut and that’s pretty much our fish repertoire. Now, don’t get me wrong, I love salmon, tuna and halibut but, those fishes are kinda up there in price.

So, I am starting a new project to try different, more, shall we say, economical kinds of fish. First up? Some frozen “Wild Holland Sole Fillets” that I got at Trader Joe’s. Price: $6.99/pound. Not bad.

After some searching, I came across a recipe that was featured on Cooking Live with Sara Moulton a few years back, that incorporates butter, olives, capers and bacon. See — we are eating more fish because it is healthy. We are eating the butter and bacon to eat more fish. Excellent!

Lemony Sole with Green Olives, Bacon, and Capers
4 (6-ounce) sole fillets
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp unsalted butter
1/4 cup chopped green olives
3 tbsp drained capers
3 cloves garlic, chopped or minced
3 strips cooked bacon, crumbled
1 tbsp chopped flat-leaf parsley
Beurre Blanc (see below)

Beurre Blanc
1/4 cup white wine
1 shallot, finely chopped (I used extra — mm!! shallots)
4 tbsp unsalted butter, cut into cubes and chilled
1 tspn fresh lemon juice
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
Optional: 1 tbsp cream
Optional: 4 more tbsp butter

Combine the wine and shallot in a medium saucepan, bring to a boil, and cook until reduced by half. Now, if you are really crafty, before you even add the wine, you will use the pan you used to fry the bacon in. And you will sweat the onion for a few minutes first in residual, after-being-wiped-out, bacon grease. Next after reducing the wine-shallot mixture, add the cream (if using, I did not) and continue reducing until just thickened. Reduce the heat to low.

While whisking constantly, add the butter, little by little, waiting for each addition to be incorporated before adding more, to make a smooth sauce. Here, the original recipe called for 8 tablespoons butter — I reduced that by half. Whisk in the lemon juice and season with salt and pepper. Set aside in a warm area. (The sauce may break if it’s too hot or too cold.)

Dredge the fillets in the flour and season with salt and pepper. Preheat a large skillet over medium heat. Add the 2 tablespoons oil and 1 tablespoon butter and heat until hot.

Add the fillets and cook, turning once, until just cooked through, about 4 minutes. Remove to a plate and keep warm with foil.

Remove the skillet from the heat, add the olives, capers, and bacon, and stir, scraping up the browned bits from the bottom, until the mixture has warmed through. If you have a lot of brown bits to scrape up, I found that adding about a 1/4 cup of white wine worked well.

Add the beurre blanc and parsley and stir to combine. Spoon the sauce over the fillets and serve immediately with rice or orzo.

The verdict: Come on, it had butter and bacon. Of course it was really good! I tried to healthy it up just a little by using olive oil instead of vegetable oil, decreasing the pan-frying butter to just one tablespoon and reducing the sauce butter to 4 tablespoons. Eh, fine, it’s still not exactly a healthy meal but it was a wonderfully successful fish experiment. And the huge side of steamed broccoli counts towards the healthy. So there.

Next up in the new kinds of fish experiment? Mahi mahi — probably next week.

For Weekend Cookbook Challenge #19 the theme is dinner and a DVD and is being hosted by Chef Girl. For this WCC, I pulled out my brand new copy of The Joy of Cooking and thumbed through the seafood section as one of the movies we had at the house via netflix, was, “Lady in the Water.” It’s a little bit odd, unexpected, it makes you wonder if it’ll be any good or not. Then there’s the movie. Hahahahaha. Just kidding.

And, if I hadn’t just started a new job, I would have picked a well-loved and favorite movie for this and not just used the most recent netflix option but, hell, I am tired — Lady in the Water it is. Although, we are at some point planning a Rushmore / The Royal Tenenbaums dinner film festival soon. It just didn’t happen for this WCC event.

Anyway, vanilla bean in a coconut-y, somewhat Asian-inspired shrimp dish — could it work? Let’s find out!

Vanilla Coconut Shrimp
Based on a recipe in The Joy of Cooking, although, I added the garlic, shitake and red bell pepper
1/ 4 cup olive oil
2 shallots, finely chopped
12 shitake mushrooms, sliced, stems removed
1 red bell pepper, sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/2 cups dry white wine
1 vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped out
1 cup chicken or vegetable broth
1 14 1/2 oz coconut milk
2 tsp minced ginger
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 lb large shrimp, peeled and deveined (I had a bit under this amount — 10 large shrimp total — worked fine)
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
cooked rice or pasta

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add the shallots, garlic, mushrooms and belle pepper (it’s a lady pepper!). Cook about 5 minutes and then add the wine and vanilla bean. Bring to a simmer ad reduce the wine by half — about 7-8 minutes.

Next, add the broth, coconut milk, ginger, salt and pepper. Bring to a simmer again and reduce sauce by half — about 8-10 minutes.

Th shrimp goes in next. Turn it once while cooking, for a total of about 8 minutes.

Also, don’t forget to cook your pasta or rice. Hey — what’s this in my pasta water? Oh, it’s a Stash lemon & ginger herbal tea bag for a little extra flavor.

Serve the shrimp and coconut-vanilla sauce over the pasta (or rice) and top with the basil. Pop your movie in and pour some wine.

We found that yelling out, “I’m not drinking any fucking merlot,” periodically throughout the movie (especially during suspenseful moments) is much fun — and we were drinking a sauvignon blanc so it was factual as well.

Both jwa and I were pleasantly surprised by how well the vanilla and coconut milk came together. This was a very good meal made even better by a simple yet delightful dessert of vanilla frozen yogurt, peaches and port. Did that have anything to do with the movie? Not really, it was just tasty.

As for the movie, I thought it was okay. It was definitely missing that creepy in the ordinary, atmospheric vibe that I expected but Paul Giamatti carried it the best he could.

Thanks again to Chef Girl for such a great theme!

I’m typically a pretty simple girl when it comes to tuna — a grill pan, some oil, salt & pepper and some soy sauce for dippin’ and I’m done. Okay, maybe a few more things but you know what I mean.

However, the other day, I had some cream left over from the basil ice cream, so I decided to go all out and make this cream sauce for our tuna. Damn! It was good.

Pan Seared Tuna with Ginger-Shitake Cream Sauce
Adapted from Bon Appétit magazine
2 6-ounce ahi tuna steaks, each about 1 inch thick
2 tbsp peanut oil
1 tbsp butter
4 thinly sliced green onions
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
1 tbsp finely chopped, peeled fresh ginger
2 garlic cloves, chopped
4 ounces fresh shiitake mushrooms, stemmed, caps sliced
3 tbsp low sodium soy sauce
1 cup whipping cream
2 tbsp fresh lime juice
Garnishes: Lime wedges & fresh cilantro sprigs

Sprinkle one side of tuna steaks with pepper and a little salt. Heat 2 tablespoons oil in heavy large skillet over high heat. Place tuna steaks, pepper side down, in hot oil and sear 2 minutes. Sprinkle side facing up with a little salt and pepper.

Turn tuna over and continue cooking to desired doneness, about 1-2 minutes for rare. Transfer tuna to a plate and cover with foil to keep warm.

Add butter, sliced green onions, cilantro, ginger and chopped garlic to same skillet and sauté until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Mix in mushrooms and soy sauce and simmer 30 seconds.

Add whipping cream and simmer until sauce lightly coats back of spoon, about 3 minutes. Stir in lime juice. Taste and add the remaining tablespoon of soy sauce if desired.

Spoon sauce onto plates; arrange tuna atop sauce. Garnish with lime wedges and cilantro sprigs, if desired.

On the side
We had some green tea brown basmati rice (throw a tea bag in the water right before it starts to boil, let it steep for a minute or two before you add the rice, then remove the tea bag and cook rice as usual). Rounding out the plate was some baby bok choy — Stir-Fried Shanghai Bok Choy with Ginger, that is.

Stir-Fried Shanghai Bok Choy with Ginger
Gourmet magazine
1 (2-inch) piece ginger, peeled
3/4 lb Shanghai bok choy or other baby bok choy (about 6 heads)
1/4 cup reduced-sodium chicken broth
1 tsp Chinese rice wine (preferably Shaoxing) or medium-dry Sherry
1 tsp low sodium soy sauce
1/2 tsp cornstarch
1/4 tsp sugar
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1/2 tsp toasted sesame oil

Cut half of ginger into very fine matchsticks (less than 1/8 inch thick; about 1 tablespoon) and reserve. Grate remaining ginger and squeeze pulp with your fingers to yield 1 teaspoon liquid, then discard pulp.

Remove any bruised or withered outer leaves from bok choy. Trim 1/8 inch from bottom of each bok choy, then cut each head into quarters. Wash bok choy in several changes of cold water and dry in a colander or salad spinner until dry to the touch.

Whisk together ginger juice, chicken broth, rice wine, soy sauce, cornstarch, salt, and sugar in a small bowl until cornstarch is dissolved.

Heat wok over high heat until a bead of water vaporizes within 1 to 2 seconds of contact. Pour oil down side of wok, then swirl oil, tilting wok to coat sides. Add ginger matchsticks and stir-fry 5 seconds. Add bok choy and stir-fry until leaves are bright green and just limp, 1 to 2 minutes. Stir broth mixture, then pour into wok and stir-fry until vegetables are crisp-tender and sauce is slightly thickened, about 1 minute. Remove from heat and drizzle with sesame oil, then stir to coat.

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In other news I start a new job soon — Internet Marketing Manager at Stash Tea. I am very, very excited and looking forward to this new position.