fish in a package, fish en papillote

this is a snappy way to cook fish, veggies and grains all in one step. it's called en papillote, which is a French cooking method that means "in paper" and all you do is wrap your ingredients in parchment paper and cover with a little liquid: broth, wine, coconut milk or water and bake. the liquid in the package will slowly steam-cook all the veggies, couscous and fish.  I used a plain couscous, white wine, lemon juice, tomatoes, red onions, zucchini, carrots, red pepper, dill and halibut. but the combinations are endless and it's a good one to experiment with, because you really can't go wrong.

couscous, veggies and halibut.

couscous and veggies.

the finished product.  

FISH EN PAPILLOTE
2 tbsp. olive oil
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 red onion, halved and sliced
1 cup thinly sliced carrots
1 zucchini thinly sliced
1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
1 red pepper sliced
1/4 cup fresh dill
juice of one lemon
1/4 cup dry white wine
2 six-ounce halibut fillets


Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cut two large pieces of parchment (depending if you want 1 or 2 servings) - about 24 inches in length, fold in half and unfold. Stir couscous with liquid as recommended on box, and place on the bottom of the parchment, dividing evenly between packages.  Cover with veggies, cover the veggies with the fish fillet and dill, pour oil, lemon juice and wine over the top of the ingredients and season with salt and pepper.  Fold edges of paper over to create rim, and staple edges of parchment paper to seal.  Place packets on cookie sheets and bake for about 20 minutes, until packets have puffed up.

Keep Clam and Carry On

for a little Labor Day celebration we headed to Anacortes to relax with friends and keep up with the tradition of "living off the land". It was a great time, and we ate almost exclusively stuff that we foraged: crabs, clams, crawfish and berries (blackberry pie recipe to come), and it was fantastic. The first night we had a 15-crab feast, which we ate almost all of, we used the leftovers for crab dip the next day. The second night, after cleaning buckets and buckets of clams, we had a clam linguine with tomatoes, basil and lemon. Here are some labor of love recipes. 

crab feast and laughter.

cooking the crawfish.

linguine with clams and other goodness.

Crab Dip
5 garlic cloves chopped, and cooked in a little olive oil
1/2-1 cup crab
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1 cup cheese (we used Brie and mozzarella)
Paprika for sprinkling on top


Mix all ingredients, minus the paprika, in an oven-safe bowl or baking dish.  Bake for 25 minutes in a in a 350 degree oven. Serve with French bread or crackers.


Linguine with Clams, Lemon and Tomatoes
Salt
1 pound linguine (I used Trader Joes chive and another cracked pepper flavor)
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
8 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
2 lemons, zested and juiced
1/2 cup dry white wine
1-2 cups heirloom cherry tomatoes (halved or quartered)
1 cup grated Parmigiano Reggiano
1/4 cup flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
1/2 cup (10 or 12 leaves) fresh basil, very thinly sliced
1 cup of cleaned clams, cut into bite-sized pieces

Directions

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Salt the water and drop the pasta into the pot. Heat a large deep skillet over low heat. Add extra-virgin olive oil and garlic and crushed red pepper flakes.

When the pasta has been cooking about 5 minutes, add lemon juice, a ladle of the cooking water from the pasta and the wine to the garlic and oil. Raise heat a bit to bring sauce to a bubble, and cook until wine has reduced a bit.  Add clams.

Drain pasta when it still has a good bite to it, al dente. Add lemon zest and half of the cheese to the sauce. Season the sauce with salt, to taste. Add pasta to pan and turn off heat. Toss the pasta with sauce a minute or 2, allowing it time to soak up the sauce. Add the herbs and toss.

Top the plates of pasta or platter with remaining cheese.

grey gardens & green soba

i finished watching grey gardens and made this pasta dish for dinner.there's nothing like a little kale and soba noodles to help you stomach these ladies. wash down all of their outrageous cat talk and singing with a dish that is cleansing for the mind and body. better yet, just make this and skip the grey gardens part, you won't be disappointed. consider renting a different movie for your dinnertime entertainment. although grey gardens is said to be a classic, i discovered that it is extremely difficult to sustain any sort of an appetite while watching this documentary.

my favorite quote of the movie, "I'm not going to do anything for anybody anymore. Well, except for mother and the cats of course."

Buckwheat Pasta With Kale

1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil (or omit butter and use 2 tablespoons olive oil)
2 large leeks, white and light green parts only, cut in half lengthwise, then sliced and cleaned
10 fresh sage leaves, cut in thin slivers
6 cloves garlic, chopped
Salt, preferably kosher salt, to taste
3/4 pound kale, stemmed, washed thoroughly, and cut crosswise in strips
Freshly ground pepper
2 ounces Parmesan, grated (1/2 cup)
2 ounces fontina, Gruyère cheese or another stronger white cheese(I used Irish Kerrygold Swiss) cut in 1/4 inch dice
3/4 pound buckwheat pasta (pizzoccheri or soba) or whole wheat fettuccine

1. Begin heating a large pot of water. Meanwhile, heat the butter and oil in a large, heavy nonstick skillet over medium-low heat. Add the leeks, garlic and sage, and cook, stirring often, until the leeks begin to soften, about three minutes. Add 1/2 teaspoon salt, and continue to cook, stirring often, until the leeks are tender, about five minutes. Remove from the heat.

2. When the water comes to a boil, add a generous spoonful of salt and the kale. Boil for four minutes, until tender but still bright. Using a slotted spoon or a skimmer, transfer to the pan with the leeks and stir together. Keep warm over low heat.

3. Bring the water back to a boil, and add the pasta. Cook al dente (soba will cook quickly, usually in under five minutes, while pizzoccheri and whole wheat fettuccine will take longer). When the pasta is al dente, add 1/2 cup of the cooking water to the pan with the kale, garlic and leeks, then drain the pasta and toss in the pan or in a warm pasta bowl with the leeks, kale and the cheeses. Serve at once.

Yield: Serves four to six

The 7 Flavors of Highly Effective Beef

Really, seven flavors? Is the human brain even capable of processing seven flavors? Can you name seven flavors? Even if you subscribe to the Japanese belief in umami (meaning tasty, brothy, meaty or savory) and include fat in there as a flavor, that still only leaves six: sweet, salty, sour, bitter, umami and fat. Let's face it people, seven flavors is a lot of flavors.

I guess you won't know how advanced your own brain is and if it can defeat the laws of science to discover the seventh flavor until you eat this beef. Having eaten this beef myself, I've affirmed that the brain is amazing, that it can process seven flavors at once, and that it does all sorts of things I'll probably never understand.

This recipe for Seven Flavor Beef, adapted from the restaurant Wild Ginger, was passed on by a client and then through my office. If it's any testament to how easy and delicious it is, three of us made it within the last three days. We are all wild (ginger) about it.

The 7 Flavors of Highly Effective Beef

1½ hours 30 min prep SERVES 2 -4

INGREDIENTS

16 oz. flank steak, sliced on an angle

MARINADE

1 tbsp. minced lemongrass
1/2 tbsp. peeled and minced fresh ginger
1 tbsp. minced garlic
1/2 tbsp. fish sauce
1/2 tbsp. sesame oil
1 tbsp. honey
1 tbsp. dried red chili pepper flakes
1 tbsp. Chinese five spice powder
1 tbsp. kosher salt

FINISHING

2 tbsp. vegetable oil
1/4 cup thinly sliced red onion
1/2 bunch thinly sliced green onion
1 cup bean sprouts
4 tablespoons hoisin sauce
1 tbsp. ground peanuts
20 leaves Thai basil

DIRECTIONS

1. Combine all marinade ingredients in a nonreactive baking dish and marinate beef for 1 hour, turning frequently to distribute spices.

2. Heat oil in a wok and heat over high heat. When oil is hot, add red onion, green onion, and bean sprouts and sear for 1 minute, stirring. Set aside on serving dish.

3. Add beef to very hot wok and sear until rare. Add hoisin sauce and toss until coated. Add ground peanuts and basil and cook until meat is medium rare.

4. Serve meat over onions and bean sprouts.

Serve with rice and try to eat with cool people.

Amy Comes to Town...Pasta Comes to the Table

When Amy comes to visit, we make some delicious foods,and sometimes we even take requests for any family favorites she has(and let's be honest, we have)been craving. This visit the requests were at the mercy of the ingredients we had on hand: fresh peaches, bing cherries, heirloom tomatoes and fresh basil. There was also a little roll of mom's homemade galette crust in the fridge. She'd made it a few days earlier and decided it was too hot to take a stab at baking, and risk turning the whole house into an oven. It's hard to turn down the opportunity to cook with so much fresh produce on hand, and no one was complaining at the prospect of the meal we could prepare with these ingredients, so we got to work! And here is what we created...

Pasta alla Checca (a fresh and light family favorite, perfect for warm summer evenings). This is one of the first meals I learned to make myself, a recipe my mom learned while assisting chef Giuliano Hazan when he came to Seattle on his book tour for the Classic Pasta Cookbook. Over the years, the recipe has undergone many adaptations from its original form which included thyme, marjoram, and oregano,in addition to basil. A point of contention in the Massar Pfleiger household...Amy and I bet on this over dinner. We changed the recipe so long ago that I had absolutely no recognition of the dish ever including more than just the lone basil herb. She won the bet. But we all won dinner with happy bellies filled with tasty pastas.

PASTA ALLA CHECCA

1 lb. spaghetti or linguini

1/2 lb - 1 lb. heirloom or roma tomoatoes, cut into 1/4 inch pieces or cubes (we used mini heirlooms from Trader Joe's this time - fantastic!)

8 oz. fresh mozzarella, cut into 1/4 inch pieces or cubes

1 cup basil leaves, sliced into thin strands

2-3 tbsp. olive oil

6 cloves of garlic, chopped

3-4 tsp. red pepper flakes

Salt and pepper

Salt pasta water liberally and bring to a boil. While that's heating up, prepare tomatoes, basil and mozzarella. Pieces should be no larger than a dime, in order to be easily incorporated with the noodles. Mix chopped tomatoes, basil and mozzarella in a large bowl and set aside. Heat olive oil in a small skillet, adding garlic and the red pepper flakes. Once the garlic has started to sizzle and bubble around the sides, remove from heat and set aside for a minute or two. The garlic will continue to cook and the heat from the red pepper will continue to develop. Pour the heated oil, garlic and red pepper mixture over the tomatoes, basil and mozzarella, and toss to mix. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Cook noodles al dente, drain and pour over other ingredients, toss again and cover with a lid, plate or cookie sheet to help the cheese melt before serving. If you'd like, serve with freshly grated parmesan at the table.