Did a Pig Just Fly by My Window???

Or did 80 Proof cook an entire meal and is now writing a post about it?

It’s true folks, just this past Monday night, I spent over an hour in the kitchen, dicing, searing, and serving a meal for two. I will fully admit that I did not make this recipe up, in fact I downloaded it from epicurious. (BTW, you might notice a new tag called, follow the leader, which in the future will detail our attempts at cooking other people’s recipes.)

We love eating fish, but our local stores, Giant included, have just a woeful selection. If you are in the mood for sea creatures your choices revolve around 8 kinds of shrimp or crabs, salmon, or tilapia. Freaking tilapia. It tastes fine and is easy to season and cook, but 12 times in row gets a little stagnant. Since Gansie was already planning on shopping at Whole Paycheck, she picked up some catfish. Truth be told, it ain’t that different from tilapia, but enough to make us happy.

Looking for a way to cook this wonderful new fish, we stumbled upon a recipe that involved tahini sauce. Normally something you would see in hummus, I’ve never had tahini with fish before.

Since I linked to the recipe in epicurious earlier, I won’t get into too much detail, I basically followed it exactly (much to Gansie’s dismay). But one thing did seem excessive. You cook crushed coriander seeds in the oil (along side the catfish) for a couple of minutes. Then the recipe calls for pouring the oil and seeds over the plated fish, which seemed sort of gross. So I didn’t do it. There is plenty of sauce already and no need for 2 ounces of straight oil…

To top off the meal, I steamed some broccoli, and ok I lied earlier, Gansie did help, she made some bulgar wheat. Here’s a pic of the final product and recipe:

From Epicurious:

Catfish fillets with Egyptian tahini sauce

Ingredients:

1 garlic clove
1/4 cup well-stirred tahini
1/3 cup water
1 1/2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons coriander seeds
two 6-ounce catfish fillets
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons coarsely chopped fresh flat-leafed parsley leaves

Prep:

Coarsely chop garlic and in a blender purée with tahini, water, lemon juice, cumin, and salt until smooth.

Using the flat side of a large knife coarsely crush coriander seeds. Pat catfish dry and season with salt and pepper. In a 10-inch nonstick skillet heat oil over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking and sauté fish 2 minutes. Turn fish over, sprinkling crushed coriander around it, and sauté 2 minutes more, or until just cooked through. Divide tahini sauce between 2 plates and top with fish, crushed coriander and oil from skillet, and parsley.