Fish - - Page 16

by BS

Pine Nut Finalist Number Two

We’re rolling through the best of the best recipes submitted in our Pine Nut Cook-Off this week, and starting Friday, you the readers will crown a pine nut prince or princess.

Lisa kicked it off yesterday with her devilishly rich bacon-wrapped pine nut goodness. Our second finalist is Natalie, who blogs (and puts pine nuts on everything) over at Hot off the Garlic Press. (Great pun name = points in our book).

So…did you know you can include pine nuts in a fish dish? Of course you did! Because pine nuts go with everything! Natalie’s delectable recipe for Herb Grilled Salmon with Seared Heirloom Tomatoes and Toasted Pine Nuts cleverly pairs the big PNs with some grated parm and lemon, to bring out its toasty flavors around a beautiful slab of grilled fish. Full recipe is after the jump.

by gansie

Ask Tom, Answer Gansie

Washington, D.C.: I know you’ve mentioned your dislike of waiters “auctioning plates,” but I’d like to raise the issue again — with a twist.My boyfriend and I eat at restaurants pretty regularly — 2-3 times a week, at a mix of price points. But one thing that’s become pretty constant lately is waiters delivering our food and automatically assuming the salad or the fish goes to me — when 9 times out of 10, it’s what my boyfriend has ordered.

He’s the health nut. I’m more apt to order something involving pork belly or red meat.

It would be funny if it wasn’t happening so often.

Tom Sietsema: Restaurant Rule No. 234:

in Fish / Personal / Trends 5 comments

by BS

Will the Real Sarah Palin Recipe Please Stand Up?

Earlier this week, Republican VP candidate Sarah Palin was forced to deny a vicious family rumor by admitting another, slightly less vicious rumor. But we here at ES could care less how many babies and/or grandbabies the guv did or didn’t have; we’re more concerned with a much more dangerous rumor. So let’s clear the air Mama Palin, what exactly are you putting in those hockey mom lunch boxes?

By now, everyone with half an Internet connection is aware that Sarah Palin hunts moose, spears catfish, and can strangle a polar bear with her own hands. But for some reason (possible Cindy McCain’s cookie fiasco), the McCain-Palin campaign has yet to release a single Sarah Palin recipe! And now the hungry hungry internets are filling up with creative recipes that claim to be from Sarah Palin, but there’s no way to know for sure. So it’s up to you readers: Which purported Sarah Palin recipe is the real deal?

– Sarah’s Reindeer Cupcake recipe has been making the rounds on the web quicker than Barack Obama can drown a newborn baby in a bizarre Muslim rite overseen by his crazy Christian pastor. According to the recipe, SP takes 1 pound of fresh ground caribou meat, mixes it up with flour, salt, sugar & egg to a doughy consistency and bakes at 375 for 45 minutes or 25 minutes if you like ’em rare. Then they’re topped with crunchy sprinkles: “Cut the antler and hooves into chunks and then put in blender and grind until it looks like ground walnuts…Coat each cupcake with the frosting and then decorate with the crunchy sprinkles…Serves 12.”

– Over at Yahoo Answers, one writer is claiming that Palin is more partial to the Northern delicacy of Fried Polar Bear Liver, seasoned with onions and buffalo chips. This one veers more than a little over the deep end, but hey, it could be the new foie gras.

– On the slightly more believable front, Cakespace is running with “Sarah Palin’s Alaskan Crab Wrap,” which I must declare sounds delicious, but then again, so do most things that combine crab and bacon. But ripe, diced brie? Could this red-blooded conservative really be a lover of such a lefty, Francophile, elitist ingredient? Now I don’t know what to believe.

– Meanwhile, everyone is all up on the reports that Sarah loves the Moose Burgers. Moose meat is illegal to sell so, it’s assumed, she kills and prepares her own moose. Supposedly. But we have yet to see a convincing burger recipe from Gov. Palin. Ireport has one recipe that calls for Walla Walla onions and fat from 3 Alaskan legislators or 1 Washington insider. But seriously, Sarah, if this moose burger thing is real, I wanna see some photos. You know the burger porn drill. Slice in half and get me a shot of it all red and runny with the cheese dripping over the top. Mmm….moose meat.

Remember, Sarah: this can all stop if you just tell the truth and give us one, certifiably real recipe. But for now, we’ll let you readers determine the truth:

[Poll id=”22″]

Photos: Alaska Seafood, via So Good, Guylaine2007, longhorndave, Ian Ransley, Vigour

in Bacon / Fish / Food Travel / Politics / Red Meat 10 comments

by gansie

A Quark In The Road

After all of the yolk craziness (check almost any post I’ve written in the past few weeks) I decided to try my hand at an omelet. I know that it has an art of its own and that the way I beat my eggs, swirl them around the pan and dollop ingredients on the egg, is probably all wrong. But I find them delicious nonetheless.

Besides egg dishes being totally luscious, I think they’re great fridge-cleansers as well. 80P and I are away this weekend for yet another wedding (love you Jules!) so I needed to use up some bits and pieces from around the apartment. Of course eggs were to be found, as well as a few other key ingredients, most importantly – Quark.

I bought Quark from the same dairy producer, Keswick Creamery, where I bought the yogurt for the smoothie:

Quark: German – style cream cheese. Smooth and tangy. Products are made with fresh, pasteurized Jersey milk.

And yes, it’s very tangy, and yes, it’s creamy and thick just like cream cheese. Do I think it’s much better than regular cream cheese, eh, not that different. Is their yogurt that much better than the high fructose corn syrup, artificially flavored supermarket yogurt – yes. But I digress.

Post jump – my fridge clearing omelet and some hidden agendas.

in Breakfast / Cheese / Eggs / Fish / Personal / Politics / Recipe 11 comments

by gansie

La Comida Mas Fresca

(Crabs scuttle in the sand)

Editors Note: Maybe it’s not so bad going back to school. As a teacher that is. ES friend jakeSG teaches DC youth from September to June and then takes a rock star trip in the summer. I’d KILL for a summer vaca. Regardless, jakeSG went back to Costa Rica this year (here’s his take on last year) to lead teens through the hills and farms and lakes of this gorgeous land. You can see the rest of his beautiful pics here and below jakeSG details his fresh from the farm meal.

by: jakeSG

I eat well in Costa Rica, but nothing prepared me for the cooking of Ana Cerdas Rodriguez. The thirty-five year old mother of three spends days jotting down recipes in a handwritten cookbook, some of which she learns from the occasional cooking show on one of the three channels the family gets in Guadalupe de Rivas. Most of the food I get in these homes is terrific, but they all lack the presentation that Anaisa labors to achieve.

She outdoes even the nicest Tico restaurant I’ve been to, framing her gallo pinto (beans and rice for breakfast) in a glass to achieve that perfect shape. Her maduros (slowly sauteed green bananas) are delicate and sweet, never burned.

The Fresh Meal took place on Dia de la Madre, a day in which she shouldn’t have been cooking, but she still intended to show us what it meant to use what you have around. I’ve been reading a lot about food lately (Michael Pollan and Russ Parsons) and the underlying, constant theme is: fresh food is better. Period.

The Meal

The trout was bred by Miguel in his man-made backyard pond; there are over 30 fish swimming there. The twins went about to take out 13 of the biggest fish (I succeeded in catching one puny one), although I did manage to stay dry — something that can’t be said for a cousin of theirs who got a much closer look after slipping on a wet rock.

in Desserts / Fish / Food Travel / Photos 6 comments

by BS

Who Cooked It Better? National Goat Cheese Month

First of all, many apologies for slacking on the Who Cooked It Better front. I was off eating in the Holy Land for awhile (much more on that to come), and was then distracted by Olympic foods, and I let our weekly feature fall by the wayside. Well, August is National Goat Cheese Month, as I’m sure you all knew. So what better time to celebrate one of the best ingredients there is?

Unfortunately, goat cheese tends to get an un-versatile rap. Sure, we all know by now that it goes great with fig jam, can be mixed in with pasta, or baked in a tart with onions. But as the most malleable type of cheese, we sometimes forget that goat cheese can do anything! Seriously people, name something I wouldn’t put goat cheese on/in – I challenge you.

So in honor of National Goat Cheese Month, I scoured the Internet for the most creative uses of goat cheese – recipes that really push the boundaries. Now it’s up to you all to pick the best of the best.

The goat cheese salad on the top left is from Chriesi at Almond Corner. Now, I know what you’re thinking: goat cheese in a salad is hardly original. But wait ’til you hear the total mockery AC makes of salad. It’s goat cheese, wrapped in prosciutto, fried, and then served in a salad. Full details and more pictures over at Almond Corner.

Next up is a video recipe from Chris at realmeals.tv, who adopts a similar wrapped-in-pig motif but ditches the green stuff. Chris first covers his goat cheese in bread crumbs that are cut with — be still my heart — pine nuts, then rolls the whole thing up in bacon and deep fries it. He looses a point for calling the dish bacon goat cheese nuggets (nuggets is on my bottom five least appetizing menu words list), but other than that, these babies are pretty close to heaven. Full recipe and video instructions at realmeals.tv.

Plenty of people have discovered the art of stuffing chicken with goat cheese, but I’ve got to hand it to the Beantown Baker for having the guts to stuff it in fish. Her goat cheese stuffed salmon steaks are on the bottom left, and while I never would have thought of this, how could it go wrong? Goat cheese strikes again. Recipe at Beantown Baker.

Lastly, here’s one for you veggie goat cheese lovers. Joe at foodie nyc offers up this fresh and original appetizer. Joe juices some fennel fronds (woooah, wha?!?), then whips it up with lemon juice and extra virgin to create the sauce the goat cheese is wading in. The goat cheese is then topped with fried leeks for an extra onion-y bite. Directions: “Simply slice off a bit of your goat cheese, bath it gently in the fennel juice vinaigrette, and smear it onto a cracker or piece of toasted crostini.” The “simply” part is a lie, but way to go, Joe. Full instructions at foodie nyc.

Your votes, por favor.

[poll id=”20″]

in Bacon / Cheese / Fish / Veggie 2 comments

by 80 Proof

The Answer Key

When I tell my ES readers that all will be revealed Monday, I generally mean it, just not this time. So I got a little lazy, sue me. It’s the summer anyways.

Ok, I admit this wasn’t the most revealing mystery food ever. The picture was taken close enough so as to resemble either cat food or wet peanut brittle. The reality? When 80p is cooking, think fish. In this case, salmon.

in Fish / Recipe 5 comments