Salmon "Fish" Tacos

By now you have probably realized we eat a lot of salmon. In fact, we have been eating so much salmon I have a backlog of recipes and pictures that I am trying to roll out in between other recipes to disguise what actually might be a salmon rut. You may have also noticed the marked slowdown of posts, is it a declining interest in our second month of blogging? Perhaps. Not eating in as much due to kitchen remodeling? Likely. Lack of inspiration due to what feels like a shitty-weather-you-call-this-Spring rut? That too. Will we try to make month three more frequent? Yes.

I wasn't complaining about the frequency of salmon, although the AlphaChef will likely read this and take it that way. I actually love salmon. But as the UltimateBeta, I do feel an obligation to protect my chef from ruts, to stoke his creativity, which can cause hurt feelings, but I do believe the ends justify the means. I mean, if your Beta won't do it, who will? Which brings us to the focus of this post.

It was a Monday night, the first week of AlphaChef's new job, a week that started at home and ended in Tucson by Thursday. Trip anticipation equals an extra-effort to use up fresh produce and other leftovers in the refrigerator. AlphaChef went to Byerly's and brought home, yes, salmon. In a voice that AlphaChef most likely perceived as whiny and ungrateful (see the "Chicken Again?" post, it's not pretty, but it works) I asked, "we're having salmon AGAIN?" I quickly recovered and started thinking about how to make this different from the grilled piece of salmon, cured pork, vegetable rut we were in. (Again, not complaining, okay, well not too much). I landed on fish tacos. I spoke up and the Alpha creative juices were stoked. "Fish tacos?...with salmon? Okay, yeah, we have tortillas, cilantro..." He is so easy, I love my life.

So, pay attention and see if you can see the leftover ingredients from the other salmon posts. We started with a slaw made with the following ingredients:

• 1 c fennel bulb finely sliced
• 2 oz. soppresatta, also sliced finely (yes, we kept the theme)
• 1 medium shallot, finely sliced lengthwise

Place the above into a hot frying pan with a bit of peanut or vegetable oil, fry until crisp, remove from pan, add about 3-4 diced sundried tomatoes and add salt to taste. Set aside.

Using the hot pan and the method detailed in our first salmon post, remove the salmon skin and cut into bite-sized pieces. The following spices are toasted in a dry pan (can do this prior to making the slaw if you're into one-pot cooking) and ground and then rubbed into the salmon pieces:

• 1/8 tsp anise seed 
• 1/4-1/2 tsp cumin (depending on your preference)
• 1/4 tsp coriander seed

Rub the above into the salmon pieces, add salt and pepper and 1/4 tsp of cinnamon (very important), 1/2 tsp ground chipotle powder and 1/2 tsp oregano. Stir fry the spiced salmon, put into soft corn tortilla shells, garnish with cilantro and limes. Place a selection of favorite hot sauces on the table and eat. YUM! Rut busted!

Esteban's Espaghetti

Hola. Yeah, not much is sacred in the AlphaChef's world of food. A few years back, I made a twisted version of Mexican Chorizo Noodles and now its one of UB's favorite comfort foods.  I love it because its even easier to cook than getting a Republican to explode "That's not American!". Of course its American. We live in a melting pot of cultures and cuisine. I bang a Mexican dish against Italian, add a 'titch' of Thai and we get American Food. So there. If you don't like it go back to your walled compound.

Doing my patriotic duty, I first take one can of diced tomatoes and plop it, without draining, into a blender. I also add 1/2 chopped white onion, 2 chopped cloves of garlic, black pepper to taste, 1 tsp of fish sauce, 1/2 tsp of roasted ground coriander seed, 1/4 tsp of roasted ground anise and 1/4 tsp of roasted ground cumin.  Sometimes I also add handful of fresh parsley. Sometimes I add 2 chipotle peppers and other times I add couple of Thai chiles. I blend the cultural mish-mash into a puree. We'll deal with the stuff later.

For the next step, I use a large skillet that I can put a top on. Its about 14 inches across and 4-5 inches deep. I take 1/2 pound of fresh ground chorizo and massage it into a 1/2 pound of fresh ground hot Italian sausage. In the fifties, this would have gotten you lynched in NYC. We have come a long way baby.  And no, I have never been a member of the Communist party unless they cooked really great food.  Heat a skillet on medium to medium high, add enough oil to coat and then cook the mixed-background sausage through. Make sure it doesn't burn and chop it up so it stays in little pieces of loose meat. After it's thoroughly cooked, remove the meat and try to keep all that good, flavorful oil in the pan. Now, brown 1/2 pound of dry fettuccine or linguine pasta in the oil. I usually need to break the pasta in half to get it to fit into the pan. I typically do this in two batches. Once complete, remove the pasta.

Pour the pureed tomatoes and goodness into the pan. Keep stirring for the next couple of minutes until you think its cooked through. When you hit that point, and if you don't have a good vent, you've had a good cry from the onions and chiles, pour in about 16oz of chicken stock and about 8 oz of cheap Italian, French, Australian, Californian, or Chilean white wine. It can be a blend for all it matters. But no. I repeat, but no. Never sweet white wine. Yuck. Bring it to a boil. Once its boiling, add the pasta. Make sure you have enough liquid to easily cover all the pasta. Cover it for about 5 minutes and turn the flame down just enough so it doesn't boil over. Don't ask me how low. I don't know your stove. Just enough to keep boiling without boiling over. If you can't figure that out, run for Congress and call yourself Michele Bachmann. Maybe I shouldn't make that joke. I am losing my appetite.

After the 5 minutes have passed, take the lid off and add the meat and perhaps 1/2 of a finely sliced red bell pepper if its laying around and about to go bad. Mix it all in. Turn the heat down a bit more.  You want the liquid to boil off without causing everything to stick to the bottom of the dish.  If I didn't do it already, I sometimes add a 1/2 cup of chopped cilantro or parsley too. You want to cook this until it's almost dry. This means for the last few minutes you gotta keep moving it around. Also known as stirring or playing with your food.

Once cooked to the point its almost dry, plate it up.  I typically garnish with a bit of chopped cilantro or parsley, crumbled queso fresco, feta or chevre, sliced avocado and a squeeze of lime.

Eat. Feel good about yourself. And don't elect selfish, xenophobic idiots into office.

I'll take your cod and raise you a salmon

It can be really enjoyable and sometimes really challenging to eat out.  Going out for a dish or style of cooking that I can't or don't want to cook at home is an easy decision.  Too lazy to cook tonight, done. Want to hang out with good friends at a nice restaurant? That's a pickle.

A few weeks ago, The UB and I went out to have dinner on Saint Patties day with some good foodie buddies. And no I didn't misspell the name of the holiday. Its not about a saint anymore. Its about drinking and eating. Patties not Patty's. Our friends suggested a restaurant we had never been to before called The Inn in downtown Minneapolis. It has gotten good reviews for both their drinks and food. A good combo platter for Saint Patties. The reviews weren't lying about the drinks. Which is the most important part of eating and drinking when its Patties day. I ordered a Captain Wentworth. I can understand why Annie Elliot fell in love but there was nothing poor about the Captain Wentworth. And if you are feeling poor, after drinking this bad boy down you'll greatly improve your situation. Now away from the literary allegory and back to alcohol. The drink is made with bourbon (maybe he wasn't really a British navel officer?), Fernet Branca, Berenjager Honey liqueur, and Black Walnut bitters.

The trouble began with the food. No. Don't get me wrong. The food is fine. The trouble was I had read gushing reviews of the cod, and white beans with herbs and garlic. I ate the dish and it was good. But those damn reviewers threw down the gauntlet.  You want fish? I'll give you fish. You want beans? I'll give you beans. Even if the fish and beans aren't of the same species or genus as yours. I don't got no cod but I got a salmon with fins. I'll take your challenge you hacks with taste buds. Actually, I generally like professional food critics but it was too good a line to edit out.

First the fish.

I decided that the cod, albeit nicely but plainly rendered, needed something more. No cod in the fridge and the salmon was on sale at Byerly's. First decision made. The rest of my ingredients were already in the bag. I mean my larder. Alright, I'll be honest, the ingredients were in the fridge as leftovers that needed to be used up.

I removed the salmon skin using a technique I already explained in a previous blog. if you don't remember it, go read the other salmon post. Or maybe just reread everything again. You got the time. Go do it. Cut the fish into two servings. If you haven't noticed almost all the measurements in this blog are for two servings and for my recipes all the measurements are approximate.  I don't measure anything. That's why I don't bake. I coated the salmon with Indian style black sesame seeds. I seared the salmon on both sides for about 30 seconds -1 min in a pan that was on medium high heat. I dropped the flame to medium and poured in enough cheap dry vermouth to roughly come up to about 1/2 of the salmon's side. We're sorta poaching now. Cover the pan for about 3 minutes. Remove the lid and poach it until it cooks to a nice medium well. If you have salt water based salmon you can cook it to just medium rare. Remove the fish and place it on a lascivious slaw who's recipe lays below in the gutter. Or next, if you will.  Salt to taste. I then lightly drizzled some blood orange olive on the
fish. Finally, I seeded a half of lemon, diced up the flesh and then dropped a dollop on each portion of fish.

I decided to lay the fish down in a matrimonial bed of slaw. I finely sliced about 1 1/2 cups worth of fennel bulb. Finely sliced lengthwise 1 large shallot. Two red chilies finely sliced lengthwise. 1 oz or so of prosciutto sliced into 1/8 strips. For this dish use cheap prosciutto, like the puttanesca it is. Bring a frying pan up to medium high heat. Add peanut oil or any non-smoking oil. Throw all the finely sliced leftovers, I mean veggies, into the pan and fry until crisp. Salt and pepper to taste.

Beans.


I used a similar white bean as The Inn did. I didn't take the trouble to cook them from dry. And I doubt The Inn did either. Their beans didn't have any 'pop' to them. I added olive oil to coat into a pot heated to medium. Then I sauteed 1/4 -1/2 tsp of smoked Spanish paprika and one clove of garlic until fragrant. I added one 8 oz w/o salt chicken stock. I recommend Kitchen Basic's brand. 1/4-1/2 tsp of fresh ground black pepper and brought the stock up to a boil. I reduced the broth until it as just enough to coat the beans, about 1/4 cup or less of liquid. I reduced the pot to medium low and added a can of drained cannellini beans, 2 tsp of fish sauce, 1 tbsp of fresh minced rosemary and 1/4 cup of diced sun dried tomatoes. If it still needs salt, add it. But canned beans often are pretty salty.

A bit of garnish.

I quartered some artichoke hearts and then liberally sprinkled oregano onto one side, salted to taste and lightly drizzled lemon oil oil and white balsamic vinegar. Toss and serve.

Leftovers have never looked this good

We're getting new counter tops, which has been a long time coming. Having owned our 1950's style rambler for over 10 years we've been strategic about the changes we've made, responsibly factoring our home value against improvements we'd like to make. There's the value of making our home the way we want it to be versus the realistic strategy of not wanting to put more money in than we'll recoup in any future sale. We've made a fair amount of changes in the time since we bought this place, including new windows (always a good investment) and a fabulously indulgent bathroom (more because we wanted it). As for the kitchen, we've always assumed we'd put on an addition, break down a wall or move our basement staircase to get the kitchen of our dreams. Because of this, the changes we've made have been fairly malleable. New appliances, a floating laminate floor, multiple color schemes, but nothing that can't be moved or changed (no ceramic tile). Finally, we were going to do it, take out a loan and get the kitchen we've always wanted. We had an architect friend over for dinner (as we do best) and started to dream. We got really excited, showing the plans to multiple friends and family, mulling over the options, and then we involved our contractor. After waiting a couple weeks his bid came in, and we could tell right away that he didn't think he'd ever do this job. It quickly and painfully became apparent that building our dream kitchen would not be prudent. You never want to have the nicest house in the neighborhood and the cost of this remodeling alone would price us out. We first went through denial ( He must have misunderstood, did he price out high-end materials?), then bargaining (another bid?) and then began the process of acceptance, otherwise known in my industry as radical acceptance, the time to stop fighting reality and to take stock of our options. Basically, in order to have the kitchen we really want, we'd have to move. We don't want to move.

We now realize we'll have to make do with what we have, make smaller, less expensive changes that will have impact so we will both enjoy our time here and potentially add value for potential future buyers. So tomorrow we are replacing our counter tops, currently a dark brown laminate mimicking butcher block, with a lighter colored corian. Along with the new counter will be a new sink, so we needed to be able to disconnect all the plumbing prior to installation. Enter the Chateaubriand (read about it a couple posts ago). If you cook something really good, they will come. In this case, a close friend of ours who has plumbing talents. Tempted by the smell of charred beef, he was here, ready to put in cut-off valves so we can disconnect the plumbing with ease. This post is the follow-up, the leftovers. Our plumber talented friend actually indulged in this as well, as he busted a valve the night before...

This time the leftovers were made into a fabulous...look at the picture and read...fabulous, sandwich. Alphachef stopped at our local Byerly's on the way home from work and bought some pretzel rolls, fresh tomatoes (unbelievably good when considering it's still winter) and horseradish. He cut the rolls and layered red lettuce, tomato, slices of the beef tenderloin aka Chateaubriand, the herbed butter from the night before, some red onions, leftover soft brie (see the Antipasto post), topped with a spicy horseradish. So it is just a sandwich, but the motive of this post is tempting you into revisiting the beef tenderloin you wanted to make after reading the post but haven't gotten around to just so you can make this sandwich. There. The sandwich was almost better than the original dish- how often does that happen? Still not planning on the tenderloin? Then let this post inspire you to rethink leftovers and how good they can be with a bit of creativity. How often do you simply throw the leftovers in the microwave to heat up, while contemplating just tossing them and ordering a pizza? Generally guilt kicks in and you eat the "good enough" food. So get out of that rut and start thinking about what else the dish could be. Have some chicken? Add pasta or make a soup (just add it to canned soup- now even you can do that). That burrito/enchilada dish thing? Add an egg for a breakfast dish. Salads are also a nice options, anything can be placed over lettuce as are sandwiches. To kick your day after sandwich up a notch, buy a nice roll and some new condiments. Rainbow and Cub sell "bolero" rolls for less than a dollar each, and make a sandwich feel like something you stopped for on the way home. The point is, it just takes a little imagination and re-thinking the dish to go from uggg, leftovers, to ohhh, an opportunity.

There's no place like home, new family and Grand Forks?

Proscuitto Salad, Pasta Negra and Foie Gras Tortelini, photo by Vita.mn

This week was busy, frantic and amazing. On the home front, AlphaChef spent less time cooking at home, busy with work- which in his industry equates to schmoozing over fancy meals. This schmoozing led to an awesome opportunity which culminated in a celebration dinner at Bar la Grassa. The Pasta Negra made with sea urchin, mussels and tomatoes is our favorite. It's a fresh pasta dish with squid ink spaghetti, tossed in garlic and sea urchin with fresh grape tomatoes and diced, somewhat spicy, green chiles just cooked enough to maintain a fresh crunch. Both the tomatoes and chilies give the dish a fresh taste, the pasta, perfectly al dente while the sauce is decadent. Topped with mussels, it's perfection. We also tried their Foie Gras Tortellini, which was truly fabulous. The server brought this out as our last course, this was a very good call, as it was both rich and sweet and just the right amount to finish the experience. They offer half portions of all their pasta dishes, so we can sample multiple dishes. Check out their menu- it's impossible to pick just two dishes. 

On my work front, we have been preparing for an important utilization review for the past month, which took place on Wednesday. Immediately after being grilled for an hour and a half by reviewers about the quality of my programming, I got a call at 10:30 am from my lovely sister. Through deep breathing brought on by contractions, she told me "I'm having a baby today". Awesome timing, since I would be able to leave to see her after the review. Choking back tears of both relief that I made it through the worst part of the review, excitement and nervousness for my sister and anticipation of meeting my new nephew, I left my office to continue my industry's brand of schmoozing, leading reviewers on a tour of our facility. We passed with flying colors- huge relief- and then I heard my nephew was born without a hitch. After more scrambling to cover Thursday work obligations, my brother and I took off the next day for Grand Forks at 5:30 am.

We stopped in Freeport, MN, which is just outside of Alexandria- the half way point- at Charlie's Cafe for breakfast. It is a fairly typical greasy spoon, until you look up and see their extraordinary good-looking lemon meringue pies. I have never seen such high, perfectly golden peaks of meringue. It was breakfast, so we made a promise to return for the pie on the way home and bought an apple turnover for the road. The turnover was a light, flaky pastry filled with apples and topped with a lovely cream cheese frosting. A bit rich after already eating breakfast, but what is a road trip without indulging in random foodie goodness along the way? 

At this point you may be wondering, why would a sister as lovely as mine be living in Grand Forks, North Dakota? If you're not wondering this, you've never been to Grand Forks. It's the military. My lovely sister's husband is in the Marines. Now, if you have been to Grand Forks, you may ask, what is a Marine family doing on an Air Force base? Good question- one they ask themselves on a daily basis. My brother-in-law, a gifted airplane mechanic also turns out to be a gifted, if not reluctant, recruiter for the Marines. Gifted enough to be granted the privilege of living in Grand Forks, where they needed a recruiter strong enough to lure those chair-force brats from North Dakota and Northern Minnesota into the elite Marine Corps. The upside is that they have been closer to us than they used to be (in North Carolina) so I have had the good fortune to bond with my nephew, and brave almost always treacherous roads to visit her. There is one good thing about Grand Forks, and it is most definitely not the weather. It is the Toasted Frog. By now you had to have known it was a restaurant. This little gem of a restaurant in located on 3rd Ave N in downtown Grand Forks. It's always packed. (Note to restaurant dreamers: Grand Forks NEEDS more good food options, it would be a goldmine). Their mostly Italian menu includes pasta, sandwiches and pizza. But the dish that makes the Toasted Frog a destination spot for me, that makes the five hour drive worth it, are the fried pickles. Erase any memory you have of fried pickles, I have never had them like this. They take whole pickle spears and wrap them in a wonton-like breading lined with havarti cheese. The pickles are fried and then cut on the bias and served with a sour cream, sriracha sauce. The result is a perfectly crisp, salty, chewy outside with a still cold, crisp dill pickle inside. This dish is so good, I'm debating whether I will have to go to Grand Forks every once in a while after my lovely sister moves back to her warm homeland. Okay, maybe not. But almost.  

The highlight of the visit was seeing my lovely sister, her precious new baby and ever growing family. Yes, I drove ten hours in one day to see them for five hours, but it was worth every minute. One of the most rewarding life experiences is forming relationships in which you will literally go through hell and high water to be with the object of your affection for even just a brief time. These are moments that we will always remember. I will be able to recount to both of my nephews the first moments of their lives, because I was there. I wouldn't give that up for anything.

So we trekked home, got caught in horizontally falling, blinding snow, faced bully semi-trucks going 90 miles per hour past us, almost ran out of gas just before getting to Alexandria (that would have been so stupid) and almost deliriously thinking I was in Elk River, when I was actually coming up to Maple Grove. I made it to good ol' Mpls, dropped off my equally deliriously tired brother and fell into bed. Just as I got home I realized we never made it back to Charlie's for the lemon meringue pie. Is it worth it to go back to try it? Maybe next time.