Over Labor Day Weekend, jwa and I headed to the coast to celebrate his birthday. We had a really nice time and a dinner that was so good I’m pretty positive that I’ll be making it again soon. It’s always a little challenging working in an unfamiliar kitchen but this worked out pretty well.

I put the marinade together at home and brought it to the beach in a cooler and we picked up some halibut in Cannon Beach at the Ecola Fish Market. The original recipe was for tuna (on epicurious.com) but it was great with the halibut. Plus my new favorite thing to do is toss avocado with fish (salmon, tuna, halibut, etc…) and this fit that bill perfectly.

Marinade:
3 tbsp unseasoned rice vinegar
2 tbsp finely grated peeled fresh ginger
2 tbsp peanut oil
2 tbsp toasted sesame oil
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp honey
2 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro
1 serrano chile, seeded, minced (or a pinch red pepper flakes or a few dashes chili oil)

Along with…
halibut (about a pound for two)
Pasta (linguine, fettucine, etc…)
1 avocado
1 lime
sesame seeds
more cilantro
1 tbsp olive oil
2 medium carrots
1 medium zucchini
red pepper flakes
salt

Mix the marinade ingredients together and marinate the halibut for about an hour. Meanwhile, clean the carrots and use a vegetable peeler to make very thin strips.

Do the same with the zucchini. Add a little olive oil to a pan and saute the vegetables with a little salt until tender and starting to get a little color.

When the fish is ready, heat a little olive oil in a pan and grill on the stove top for a few minutes on each side until done to your liking. You can bring the marinade to a boil and then simmer for a few minutes to mix in with the pasta and serve with the fish. You can also double the marinade recipe and use half for the fish and half for the pasta/serving.

Dice the avocado and toss with the juice of a lime, chili flakes, salt, sesame seeds and extra cilantro.

To serve, pile the pasta in a big bowl and top with the halibut and avocado.

The Lighthhouse
Manzanita, OR

As if the meal wasn’t enough, we also found a pretty nice place to stay in Manzanita. It’s a 1/4 of a block off the ocean and has a balcony with a great view. It’s also cheaper than Coast Cabins, has a nice kitchen and (imho) is in a better location.

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View of the couch, kitchen and dining area

Sleeping alcove

“living room” area and balcony

View from the balcony

Pros: nice atmosphere/interior, great location, full kitchen (microwave, stove/oven, fridge, sink), balcony with ocean view, cozy, good comparative price

Cons: couch smelled a little like dog (pets are allowed), have to light burners with a match, uh, that’s all I can think of!

Well, one of the best, anyway. We were going to grill this outside but it was all cold and rainy so we opted for the grill pan. The marinade gives it such a good flavor. And I think one of my favorite elements of it was the accumulated juices after letting the pork rest — so excellent poured back over the sliced tenderloin.

Grilled Pork Tenderloin with Molasses and Mustard
From Bon Appétit magazine
1/4 cup mild-flavored (light) molasses
3 tbsp apple cider vinegar, divided
2 tbsp Dijon mustard
2 tbsp coarse-grained mustard
1 3/4-pound pork tenderloin

Whisk molasses, 2 tablespoons vinegar, and both mustards in small bowl to blend. Place pork in heavy-duty resealable plastic bag. Pour marinade over. Seal tightly and refrigerate 4 hours.

Prepare barbecue (medium-high heat). Drain marinade into heavy small saucepan. Sprinkle pork with salt and pepper. Grill pork until thermometer inserted into center registers 145 degrees F, turning occasionally with tongs, about 20 minutes. Transfer pork to serving platter; let rest 5 - 10 minutes.

As mentioned in the intro, you can also very easily do this indoors on a grill pan. Just preheat the oven to 375 degrees, while you sear the pork on all sides, stovetop, in a grill pan (about 5-6 minutes).

Then, finish it off in the oven, roasting until the pork reaches 145 degrees — about 10-15 minutes. Let it rest about 10 minutes before serving. Pour any accumulated juices onto the pork before drizzling with the reduced marinade sauce. It’ll make extra-extra moist and tasty!

Speaking of the sauce…
Meanwhile, (as in while you rest the pork), add tablespoon of remaining vinegar to pan with marinade and boil until thickened to sauce consistency, about 5 minutes.

Cut pork crosswise on slight diagonal into 1/2-inch-thick slices. Arrange pork slices on platter; drizzle the thickened sauce over. We had this with some sautéed green beans & mushrooms and smashed goat cheese potatoes. Cool weather breaks in the Summer can be fun!

The nuts and tuna that the pork bumped, will be later in the week, I believe. Ina Garten’s Peanut Butter & Jelly bars may also make an appearance.

Oh and belated happy birthday to Je Mange la Ville! My blog turned two years old on July 14th. Terrible Twos! Yeah.

Today is mostly pictures. Okay, there is also a really good peach-tomato gazpacho recipe from Gourmet magazine. On the fourth, as mentioned yesterday, we grilled, ate and hung out in the backyard enjoying the cool breeze. It was a very nice time.

Getting the grill going

jwa tends to the burgers

The end result — cheeseburgers (Tillamook cheddar) and some last minute vegetable rosemary skewers — we have a huge rosemary bush out front that is very handy in situations like this…

jwa assembles his burger empire

Enough with the burgers, let’s get to the gazpacho!

Peach & Tomato Gazpacho
1 1/2 lb tomatoes, chopped (4 cups)
1 lb peaches, pitted and chopped (2 cups)
1/4 cup crushed ice
1 medium shallot, peeled & chopped
2 tbsp olive oil
1 1/2 tbsp white-wine vinegar
1 tbsp chopped fresh tarragon
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper

Purée two thirds of tomatoes and half of peaches with ice, shallot, 1 tablespoon oil, 1 tablespoon vinegar, 2 teaspoons tarragon, 3/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper in a blender until very smooth, about 1 minute.

If desired, force through a medium-mesh sieve into a large glass measure, discarding solids. If you like a chunkier gazpacho or you are lazy, you can skip this step.

Toss together remaining tomatoes and peaches with remaining tablespoon oil, remaining 1/2 tablespoon vinegar, remaining teaspoon tarragon, and remaining 1/4 teaspoon each of salt and pepper in a bowl. Serve soup in bowls topped with the tomato peach salsa. When I made this, I did not make the salsa but used everything in the gazpacho. If you too chose this route, it works fine!

The end result is a little sweet and has a really nice tarragon flavor. It’ll be cold because of the ice but you can also chill it further in the refrigerator. Now let’s return to the red meat. Grrrr.

My single, lonely hamburger

Vegetable skewer

The mighty IPA…

We are off to Astoria this weekend to meet with the caterer (hooray!) and to meet with an officiant (hooray, too!).

The other night we pulled the little Weber grill out of the garage again and grilled some chicken, caramelized some bell peppers and onions (inside, in a pan, with a little salt, cumin and chili powder), made some guacamole and to accompany it all there was a pitcher of tasty, tasty sangria.

The sangria recipe is from the old red and white checked Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. This is probably one of the only recipes I still use this cookbook for, but that alone makes it worth the shelf space, imho. I’m not sure how completely authentic it is, but it is dependably good.

Really Good Summer Sangria
1 bottle red wine (I used $4 barefoot merlot)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
1 lemon, sliced
1 orange, sliced
1 lime, sliced
1-2 cups sparkling water

Add the sugar, water and the end fruit slices (6 total from the ends of the lemon, lime and orange) to the pan and heat until boiling and all the sugar is dissolved. Remove from the heat and let cool.

Meanwhile, pour the wine into a big pitcher and add the uncooked fruit slices. After the syrup has cooled down add that too, reserving the cooked fruit slices. Squeeze as much juice out of those as you can into the pitcher and then discard. Stir.

I usually make this a couple of hours before serving, just storing it in the fridge. When you are ready to drink it, add a cup of the sparkling water. Taste. Add more sparkling water if desired and serve over ice.

Now, to go with your awesome sangria, you may just want to grill some chicken. If you do, first slather some boneless, skinless chicken breasts with a paste made of fresh cilantro leaves (2 big handfuls), garlic (1-2 cloves), lime juice (about 1 tbsp), jalapeno pepper (1/2 a pepper), salt, olive oil (1/4 cup or so) and green onion (2-3). You get this paste by adding all these items to a food processor and letting it go for a few minutes. *whir* *whir* *whir*

Slather. Then grill. Then eat.

We recently did a first grilling of the season test by making two huge, juicy cheeseburgers. There are no pictures of the cheeseburgers because I did not trust jwa with my plate so that I could go get the camera. Plus, it was so delicious I did not want to leave it. Sometimes, this is what happens when you have an awesome cheeseburger meal.

To accompany the cheeseburgers, I threw together some lemony and herby three bean salad. This recipe is based on one I found at Whole Foods Market.

Thee Bean Salad
1 can kidney beans, drained
1 can garbanzo beans, drained
1 big bunch of green beans, trimmed and steamed until tender
1 tbsp fresh thyme, chopped
1 tbsp fresh chives, chopped
Dressing
4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp white wine vinegar
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp sugar
salt & pepper to taste
pinch of crushed red pepper flakes

Mix all salad ingredients together.

In a separate bowl, whisk together all dressing ingredients. Toss over the salad beans. Adjust seasonings and oil-to-vinegar ratio to taste. Let it all meld in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours before serving.

Next, start the grill…

Friday’s post will involve a drink recipe. Woo!

I was recently looking at menus in Astoria at a bunch of different restaurants (I can’t remember which this was from — or even if I was still looking at Astoria restaurants) — it’s all a blur, really.

Anyway, I came across wasabi-maple grilled salmon on one of the menus. Hmmmm, I thought, that’s kind of intriguing. Later, when I tried to find a recipe for it, I found a blog talking about how McCormick was touting wasabi-maple as the hip, new combo for cooks in 2007. After I rolled my eyes and made a few snorting sounds, I decided to go ahead and try it anyway.

This is kind of based on the McCormick recipe I found online, but kind of changed a little because, although powdered ginger and powdered garlic have their place, a wet marinade is not one of those places, imho.

Also, if you are afraid of trying an experiment on a beautiful piece of salmon (I was — I had a big, awesome Chinook fillet), don’t be. The flavor imparted is really very mild and the fish still stands out, as it should.

Wasabi-Maple Grilled Salmon
2 tsp wasabi powder
1 tsp water
1/3 cup maple syrup
2 green onions, sliced
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 cloves garlic, smashed
1-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled
1 tbsp vegetable oil
salt & pepper
1 lb salmon fillet(s)

Mix the water into the wasabi to make a paste. Transfer to a ziplock bag or a big bowl and mix in the maple syrup through the ginger. Add the salmon and let marinade for about an hour or two.

I had a huge piece of salmon so I just marinated it whole, then removed and sliced into two pieces right before grilling. You can also grill the garlic pieces from the marinade.

I also put the leftover marinade in a pan and brought it to a boil, then simmered it and used it as a light glaze on the finished fish.

Heat up your grill pan and oil it liberally. Salt and pepper the salmon and grill until done to your liking. Let it sit for a minute or two on a plate while you finish getting whatever else ready for the meal. In my case, it was some sauteed asparagus in sesame oil with garlic.

Plate everything up and enjoy!

***

Anyone have a good Portland area wedding photographer to recommend? If so, leave a comment and let me know! We met with Urban Photography yesterday (might be a bit too pricey for our budget). Angela Snyder is our first choice so far and we’re meeting with Christina Gilchrist next week (I have a good feeling about her). If we can’t decide between Angela and Christina we have a meeting with Artful Images the following week. Agghhhh!!!

The theme for this Weekend Cookbook Challenge #9 was the opposite of last month’s Foreign food. This time it’s the food of your country/culture. I took this one set further by using the cookbook, Tastes of the Pacific Northwest and focused on the food of my region — namely salmon and hazelnuts, which are very Oregonish.

This is a very simple yet delicious thing to do with salmon. You basically just grill it with olive oil, salt and pepper and serve it with an herbed hazelnut butter. It was very good and the recipe yields leftover butter that you can do all kinds of decadent and crazy things with at a later date.

Grilled Salmon with Hazelnut-Lime Butter

For the Butter
1/4 pound unsalted butter, softened
1 tbsp fresh lime juice
small handful of fresh cilantro (6-7 sprigs), stemmed & chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
salt & pepper
1/4 cup minced and toasted hazelnuts (also known as filberts)

Combine butter, lime juice, cilantro, hazelnuts, garlic and a little salt & pepper and beat until silken in texture. Taste and adjust seasonings.

Allow flavors to meld for about an hour in the refrigerator before using. Save the leftovers in the fridge to use with chicken, potatoes, pasta or whatever else you can think of using this butter on (you will come up with a lot of ideas). If you don’t like cilantro, parsley, dill or even basil would probably work well too.

For the Salmon
1 lb salmon fillets (figure on using somewhere about 1/3 - 1/2 a pound fillet per person)
olive oil
salt & pepper

Heat up a grill pan or your outside grill. Rub fish with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.

Grill about 3-4 minutes per side or until done to your liking. You should have nice and crusty grill marks on the top. Delicious! Serve the salmon with a dollop of the butter on top. I found that a mini ice cream scoop worked perfectly for this task. It’ll melt down onto the salmon and whatever else you have on the side.

Speaking of Sides…
With the salmon, we had some sautéed green beans, garlic and cherry tomatoes.

Simply trim and wash the green beans and sauté in some olive oil with salt, pepper and about 5 halved garlic cloves for about 7-8 minutes, over medium-high heat. Adjust the heat as needed — you want color but no burning. When the green beans are about a minute from being done, add a nice handful of halved cherry tomatoes.

This goes well with a Pinot Noir — from Oregon of course — and some rice pilaf or couscous on the side. Thanks again to Sara at Weekend Cookbook Challenge!

I know! Blasphemy! Burgers without cheese is crazy talk. But these burgers don’t even need any cheese. Really. Besides, what kind of cheese would work here? The only kind I could think of was cream cheese. But again, no need. These burgers are great just like this.

I played with the herbs here — the original called for 1/4 cup mint, 1/4 cup basil and 1/4 cup cilantro. I used about 1 tbsp mint, 1/4 cup basil and 1/3 cup cilantro. I also add a few splashes of Worcestershire sauce. The original recipe is from Gourmet Magazine.

The burgers are garnished with a Asian cucumber slaw, just like the one I usually serve with Seared Tuna.

For pickled cucumbers
1/2 an English cucumber, peeled and diced
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp rice wine vinegar
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp pickled ginger (optional) — if you have a container of sushi lying about, use the ginger in there
A pinch of crushed red pepper flakes

Mix everything together. Taste and add more of any of the above if needed. Set aside (in the fridge) until ready to eat.

For burgers
1 large garlic clove, minced
2 slices firm white sandwich bread or two baguette slices or plain breadcrumbs
1 pound lean ground turkey
1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro sprigs
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil leaves
1 tbsp chopped fresh mint leaves
1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
2 tbsp fresh lime juice
2 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp Tabasco

For Grilling
salt & pepper
olive oil
1 tbsp chili garlic sauce
1 tsp honey
1 tsp vegetable oil
1 avocado, pitted and sliced
4 light hamburger buns

Prepare your grill or heat up your grill pan. Use a food processor to make the breadcrumbs — or just use store bought bread crumbs.

Use your hands to mix the garlic with bread crumbs and remaining burger ingredients until just combined (do not over mix) and form into four 1-inch-thick patties. edited to add Ah! I forgot to mention the Rachael Ray trick here — divide the meat in your bowl by scoring it into 4 sections. That way each burger is roughly the same size.

If you want to grill the buns, do it now. Spread a little may on the bottom buns and top with lettuce, tomato and some avocado slices. Set aside.

Mix chili garlic sauce, vegetable oil and honey. Brush lightly on the burgers. You can also use a bottled glaze or just olive oil. It’s pretty flexible and up to you, I was just playing around with the above ingredients and thought they worked pretty well. Season them also with salt and pepper and grill on a lightly oiled rack set 5 to 6 inches over glowing coals about 5 minutes on each side, or until just cooked through. If using a grill pan, liberally brush the pan with olive oil and grill each side for about 5-6 minutes or until done.

Transfer burgers to buns and top with drained cucumbers. Put the lid on.

Don’t worry, it flattens down a bit!

This was a meal that exceeded my expectations. I’m not sure why, because I typically love halibut but the salsa was surprisingly good as well. Very fresh and tropical tasting. I ended up using a whole pineapple, as I knew we’d eat the rest during the week but I think canned pineapple would work too. So, go ahead and use that if you have some.

For the glaze, I used my trusty bottle of Ginger People Chili-Ginger Sauce. Because I have some and because I like it a lot. You could certainly make your own chile-ginger glaze, I’m sure, so do that if you are so inclined. You could also use a different brand of bottled sauce or just use some olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic and a few red pepper flakes on the fish and grill it just like that! I’d even try rubbing it with a little fresh ginger before drizzling it with the oil. Really, the most important aspects of this meal are the halibut and the salsa.

Chili-Ginger Grilled Halibut with Fresh Pineapple Salsa
2 6-8 oz halibut fillets
1/3 cup chili-ginger sauce (or any of the above alternatives)
1 cup diced pineapple (if canned, drain well)
1 jalapeno pepper, diced finely
1/2 cup yellow pear tomatoes, halved (you could also use cherry tomatoes)
1/2 red onion, diced
1-2 garlic cloves, minced
juice of 1 lime
juice of 1/2 an orange
1 red bell pepper, diced finely
salt & pepper

Start with making the salsa. Combine the pineapple, tomatoes, jalapeno, onion, garlic, bell pepper and juices in a bowl. Taste and add salt and pepper as needed. Set aside.

You can either grill the fish outside or use a grill pan. I used a grill pan, as that is my way. We also only have a little, short outdoor grill that you have to crouch down to cook anything on it.

But I am digressing. Prepare the fish by giving it a little salt and pepper and then slather it with a little chili-ginger sauce or whatever you are using. Mine had skin on one side, so I placed it on the pan skin side up and let the top get some nice grill marks, over medium-high heat for about 3-4 minutes.

Then I flipped it over, turned the heat down to medium and let it cook for about 10-12 minutes. I had a lid on my pan for a few of those minutes. I let it cook until it was just barely opaque. I would err on the side of pulling it out of the pan a minute or so before you think it’s done, as carry-over heat will finish it off.

Remove from the pan and let it sit for a couple of minutes, tented with foil. Use this time to open a bottle of wine or dress a nice spinach salad.

Serve the fish topped with the salsa.

***

Eeek! I start a new job tomorrow. I’ve worked there before, so it shouldn’t be that weird of a first day but it’s still a big change from what I have been doing. It’s also sort of a “settling” job — I now know that I will probably never work at a museum or in the Arts or Cultural fields.

On the other hand, it’s double the salary of my last job so I think I’m okay with everything. It’s also at a government agency (not NPS…booo!) and I’m pretty sure it’ll be interesting and maybe even a little fun. Sure, I’m cataloging engineering documents and reports rather than Megiddo Pottery but we’ll get the new kitchen floor and my savings account will grow.

I love lamb. During my years as a vegetarian (and I think I’ve mentioned this before), the only meat that I really missed was tasty, succulent lamb. It just has such a distinctive flavor. Add some grill marks and some olive oil, garlic and salt and you really can’t go wrong.

These lamb chops have a few more ingredients and they were delicious. I made them last weekend and jwa and I both thought they were so good. I highly recommend them. Instead of mincing the garlic, I just chopped each clove into two pieces and stuck that in my grill pan too, after the marinating time. Then, there was crispy, grilled garlic to top the lamb chops. Excellent.

Red Wine, Garlic & Honey Grilled Lamb Chops
From Bon Appétit magazine.
3/4 cup dry red wine
1/4 cup olive oil
3-4 sprigs fresh oregano
4-5 garlic cloves, chopped in half
2 tsp red wine vinegar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
8 1- to 1 1/4-inch-thick loin lamb chops (serve 2 per person)
2 tbsp honey

Mix the red wine, olive oil, oregano, vinegar and garlic in large glass baking dish or large zip lock bag. Pour yourself a glass of the leftover wine. Okay, continue. Add lamb chops and coat. Cover and refrigerate at least 2 hours to overnight, turning and basting often.

Transfer lamb to plate and whisk the honey into marinade. Grill lamb to desired doneness, turning once and basting with marinade often, about 10 minutes for medium-rare (145 degrees internally). You can either do this outside on the grill or inside on a grill pan. Discard the leftover marinade.

Pile on a plate and let rest (covered with foil) for about 5-10 minutes. When you put two lamb chops on each plate, divide the leftover lamb juices between the lamb chops.

We had these lamb chops with some Parmesan flatbread and a bunch of healthy, tasty side dishes. I chopped some tomatoes and tossed them with kalamata olives, fresh basil, salt, feta and garlic. I also peeled and diced a hothouse cucumber and tossed that with a little red wine vinegar, sugar, salt, pepper and fresh, chopped dill. That was great — I can’t believe just a little while ago I didn’t like cucumber.

The last side was a Greek lima bean dish, from Gourmet magazine. I added the lemon and a bit of dried oregano to make it extra Greeky.

Greek Lima Beans
1 (10-oz) package frozen baby lima beans
1 cup water
1/2 tsp dried oregano
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 lemon juiced and zested
1/2 teaspoon salt

Cook lima beans, water, oil, garlic, lemon juice and salt in a 2-quart heavy saucepan, tightly covered, over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until beans are tender, 17 to 20 minutes. Season with salt and pepper and transfer to a bowl. Serve sprinkled with the parsley and lemon zest.

Tomorrow: Happy Birthday to Je Mange la Ville. Grab a plate and let’s celebrate with both lemon and chocolate stout cupcakes!