Braised Halibut Steaks Mediterranean Style

While I am a tenative fish eater, halibut is one species that I find quite predictable....aside from that one time I ordered it at a restaurant and it was "poached". In my kitchen, I leave the poaching for the pears and the eggs. As far as fish goes, I like warm water fish that is white, flakey, and flavorless (until prepared of course!). The preparation is essential, it must be pan seared, grilled, or blackened to create that perfect crust.

Cooking fish at home is a new thing for me, and supposedly a healthy one too. Although the world is changing and I hear things about mercury levels and the oil spills are so destructive. Fish is hard to find local when you are landlocked in Colorado. But I take a trip down to our local shop, The Seafood Landing and manage to purchase some pretty tasty fillets.

For a couple years, I have exclusively cajun blackened fish at home in my cast iron pan. For me, it was a safe and predictable way to make tasty flavorful fish. This recipe is a new one from Nancy Harmon Jenkin's Mediterranean Diet Cookbook. Let's be clear on the use of the word "diet" right away, this is not a weightloss book. It is a luxurious collection of recipes that follow the Mediterranean way of eating but certainly do not spare the calories or flavor! Thank goodness it is the "good fat", because the recipes I have tried are all delicious!





Braised Halibut Steaks Mediterranean Style

First I dredged the fish steaks in flour, and then pan fried in a small amount of olive oil.

I cleaned, chopped, and prepared all ingredients

Next I cooked down the onions in the same pan, with garlic, bay leaves, and salt.

And lastly I placed the fish in an oven proof pan and to be baked in the oven for 20-25 minutes until it bubbled and the fish steaks were cooked through. Finally, I am cooking with fish!

Hello again, hello!

While I have been distant from you for nearly a calender year, I think about you all the time. I have missed writing about cooking which may explain why I am frequently talking to myself while cooking. My husband would laugh if he read this and make fun of me, stating that it is proof I talk all the time!
Many things have changed since last October, and the kitchen remodel put a serious kink in my cooking and eating for a while. For those closer to this endeavor, you know it was quite an undertaking! Finally life has fallen back into a comfortable balance. While the major construction has been complete for months, I am just now getting back to my baseline level of slightly obsessive compulsive organization. Remodeling two large rooms in a 1000 square foot home will really derail things. As for my cooking, I feel more inspired then ever. I am brimming with pent up cooking energy! The new space is super efficient, with updated appliances, and more importantly a relaxing and beautiful place to work. Although the remodel was certainly painful at times, the results have been well worth it. Knocking out a wall and creating a small bar has made cooking even more pleasurable. I love nothing more then sitting a guest or Chad down at the bar and "serving it up"! Stay tuned for some new recipes, more on clean eating, my new status as a shrimpetarian, and my recent quest to make excellent homemade bread!

Squash Soup Phone In

Often times Mom will instruct me how to make something over the phone, as she did one day with this here soup. You will notice no measurements for the spices, you will also notice no butter, we tend to use olive oil for almost everything... You can add whatever flavors you want, try orange juice or buttermilk (not together) for a twist!

Add the following to a large soup pot:
Olive Oil
1 onion chopped
1 sweet large apple, peeled and rough chopped
1 butternut squash, peeled and chopped into 1x1 inch blocks
sea salt
pepper
cumin!!!
2 cups of broth
cinnamon
nutmeg
Cayenne pepper

Saute the onions in olive oil until translucent. Add the apple, butternut, add about 2 cups of broth of your choice (I use vege!). Boil/Cook with lid on until softened (20-30 minutes). Stir occassionally and avoid burning things to the bottom of your pot. I then puree with my immersion blender (an awesome gift from my Aunt Pam). Add spices, tasting as you go to acheive desired balance.

I served it with a whole grain english muffin, sliced, brushed with a combination of soy margarine, cinnamon, sea salt and nutmeg. Topped with fresh cut fried sage and drizzled with the remaining soy butter/cinnamon mix.

One of my favorite things about food is how certain flavors, herbs, and items carry a seasonality to them. Fall is a time for hot mulled cider, roasted butternut squash, blue cheese, roasted beets, nutmeg and cloves, tart fruit pies, and my trademark pumpkin cookies. Fall foods carry me into the holiday season and closer to winter, my favorite time of year. All the root vegetables and cinnamon spice also carries me back to my homeland in New England.

Fall is one of the most brilliant times in New Hampshire. Trees are aflame with color, the air is crisp and musty, and the days are comfortably chilly. The foods of fall are also some of my absolute favorites. Things are a bit more savory and wholesome then summertime. Butternut squash is a family tradition on my Steele side of the family. Gram Steele used to make it as smooth and rich as cream. I imagine she boiled it, then pureed it with ample butter and a dash of maple syrup. She would probably dislike my version loaded with cumin, cinnamon, nutmeg, and heated with just enough cayenne pepper. I can thank my husband Chad, hailing from the South and parts of Texas for teaching me how much I love spice!

Fall in Colorado is not so bad either....

Chad mowed the lawn yesterday while I trimmed back our grape wines, the hibisucus, and a bunch of dying lily greens. This morning there was a thick sparkling silver matt of frost on the freshly cut lawn. It felt cold and humid. Today, I found myself putting away the fresh herb pots where mint and basil once thrived that sit on our back porch. I then made my annual exodus to the front yard, kitchen-scissors in hand. I pruned the soft leaves and got two large bunches for my cooking. I enjoy sage in many dishes and forms, especially fried (till it crisps up perfectly) atop butternut squash soup.

Sage becomes my new obsession, and the Fall season of cooking erupts. Picking herbs from the garden provides a brief the moment of self-sufficiency and I feel more connected to my urban plot. I hope to someday have more land to grow many vegetables and herbs. Or if I get really into it, as my parents and now inlaws have, I will have a greenhouse. There is nothing better then opening the glass door that leads to mother's greenhouse in the dead of a New Hampshire winter, breathing in the earthy humidity, and picking fresh lettuce for dinner!

Poppyseed Pan-fried Goat Cheese

I will make this short:

#10 Cut and freeze the cheese.








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#2
Create a unique dusting...almond flour, sea salt, poppy seeds, pepper, dried basil

#3) I had some onions caramelizing.....so I emptied the skillet and then used the pan again to saute the cheese.

#4) I dunked the frozen cheese in egg beaters, before rolling them in the dusting.

Now your salad is ready for a party! Frisee in all!

Jane's Krazy Mixed up Salt

Until I started blogging, I was unaware of how many items in my kitchen are tied so closely to my family. I can thank my Grandpa McKinstry for my name, and also for introducing me to one of my favorite seasonings. This salt is crazy with a k! A mysterious blend of medium sized salt flakes, pepper, and a bounty of other secret ingredients, it is wonderful for cooking. It can also add quite a bit of life to some hard boiled eggs. I myself am not much of a salter, which is why using a salt blend is actually beneficial....more flavor, less salt per teaspoon then plain sea salt!

My grandpa McKinstry was born in Belize about eighty-five years ago. Although he moved to England at the age of twelve for boarding school, I think living in Belize certainly influenced his taste for food. I can thank him for teaching me how to fry plantains until they are sweet and caramelized, as well as the joy of an afternoon cup of red rose tea.

26 Gallons of Grapes

Over a year ago, I met Jeff Gold at a poetry reading and had too much of his mango wine to drink. I told him about our own little backyard vineyard, which at the time was full of over-ripened Concord grapes. Each year in early October, the grapes ripen to such a point that they fall right off the vine, and plummet onto our stone patio leaving purple stains behind. The local birds peck at them, bees swarm about the sweet remains, and we enjoy the smell that permeates our backyard. Occasionally we catch Otis trotting around the yard with a triangular bunch of grapes dangling from his soft mouth. Grapes are allegedly poisenous to canines, so we are thankful that he doesn't eat them. I have always thought about making jelly, but never found the motivation. Jeff was excited, he wanted to make wine, but alas he would have to wait for next year's harvest.

On one of my day offs this week, I picked the grapes. Six hours later I had filled twenty-six 1 gallon freezer bags. After I filled up our freezer with ten gallons, I called Jeff to arrange for the pick-up. The grapes are frozen for the time being while Jeff gathers all that he needs to make the wine.

Concord grapes were developed in 1849 by Ephraim Wales Bull in Concord Mass, not far from where I was born. Bull evaluated over 22,000 seedlings before finding what he considered the perfect grape, the original vine of which still grows at his former home. The grapes are highly aromatic and are often used to make grape jelly, grape juice, grape-flavored sodas, and candy. As far as making wine, Concord grapes are not generally used due to the strong "foxy" (sometimes described as candied-strawberry/musky) flavor. Traditionally, most commercially produced Concord wines have been finished sweet, but dry versions are possible if adequate fruit ripeness is achieved. Stay tuned for updates on the process, and eventual tasting!

Frisee you say?

Chad returned home from work yesterday and stated he had something very important to talk about. Removing tuperwear from his lunch cooler, he opened one up and showed me two small pieces of frisee that inadvertently ended up in his salad. When I buy mixed greens, I actually go through the process of removing the pieces of frisee from Chad's salad, now that's devotion! That's also more frisee for me! Claiming it tastes like dirt, he refuses to eat the succulent green! Personally, I have yet to meet a green that I am not found of. Full of vitamin A,B,C, and E....I enjoy it with caramelized onions, crumbled blue cheese, toasted almonds, and a dash of lemon juice, olive oil, and sea salt.