Mix & Match Foil-Packet Fish

There are around 3 more than Tim picked from The Food Network Cookbook.  After that, I will probably make some from the new one I got for my birthday plus after that I have two or more on my Christmas Wishlist.

This one is a quick, easy one with very few rules.  Fish and vegetables and a sauce, in foil, in the oven.  Steams everything and voila. 

Start by picking out four 6-ounce skinless salmon fillets, striped bass, halibut, or cod.  Or, you could go with 1/1/2 lbs. large shrimp, peeled and deveined or 3 pounds cleaned mussels.  We went with the......uh, oh.....it was either the halibut or cod.  I forgot to take pictures of this along the way, so the first thing you see are my vegetable selections.  Choose 2 vegetables (1/2 cup of each) per packet.  You can choose boiled potato chunks, fresh corn kernels, thawed frozen lima beans, halved cherry tomatoes, 1 inch scallion pieces, thinly sliced yellow squash, thinly sliced red onion, thinly sliced mushrooms, thinly sliced celery, thinly sliced leeks or shaved carrots.  We went with the boiled potatoes first.

We also chose the thinly sliced mushrooms.  I tried out the new chopping thing I got from As Seen on TV but it pretty much butchered the mushrooms.  They still tasted good.  The picture is sideways because this website doesn't rotate.  I'll try and fix it later.

 Preheat the oven to 450.  Lay out a large sheet of heavy-duty foil for each packet.  Mound 1 cup vegetables in the center of each, season with salt and pepper and top with a sprig of parley or basil.  I forgot the sprig. Put a fish fillet or portion of seafood on top of the vegetables, season with salt and pepper and drizzle with olive oil.  Add a splash of water or white wine (I used water but should have used the wine for more flavor).  Fold up the ends of the foil and seal into packets, leaving room for steam.  Put the packets on a baking sheet and bake until just cooked through, about 12 minutes for the fillets and shrimp and 15 for mussels.  Let sit about 5 minutes and then carefully open the packets and add your topping.

That is what the foil packets looked like.  Now, for the topping.  You have three choices:  citrus-basil oil, fennel spice blend, or spicy chipotle butter.  We chose the first. 

 Cook 10 basil leaves in salted boiling water, about 10 seconds, drain and run under cold water, then squeeze dry.  Puree the basil with 1/2 cup olive oil, 1 tablespoon orange juice and a pinch each of sugar and salt in a blender.

This is my basil plant.  It has seen better days, but we have had it for years (it was like 3.50 at the grocery store) and I use the leaves allll the time.  Such a deal. 

This is what it looked like.  It was good, but....and here is my rant about salt.  Salt is pretty bad for you but we all eat a LOT of it.  Chefs LOVE it.  My feeling is that food should be given a lot of flavor with spices and herbs and that chefs use waaaay too much salt.  But, things tend to taste flavorless to us without it, unless you get used to it.  This recipe definately needed something because I went so light on the salt.  We sprinkled some lemon pepper on at the end, but it still needed more pizzazz (although we did like it).  Here is the way you make the spicy chipotle butter-  Pulse 1/2 stick softened butter, 1 minced chipotle pepper in adobo sauce, the juice of 1/2 line, 1/2 teaspoon grated lime zest and 1/4 teaspoon salt in a food processor, or mash with a wooden spoon.  Also, a different choice of vegetables might be good. 

Homemade Pizza

Finally, something that is not from the Food Network Cookbook.  We decided to make homemade pizza.  And by we, I mean me.  This turned out really well and the best part is you can do whatever toppings you feel like.  Mushrooms, chicken, green peppers, carmalized onions, whatever.  For this one I decided to do sause and carmelized onions.  I know...you are thinking that I don't like onions.  Well, I don't like them when they are raw, but cooked is OK.  For starters, I went to Sur La Table and got some King Arthur's Pizza flour.  If you aren't going to do that (and you probably aren't) then just google a pizza yeast crust.  It is pretty easy- just flour, yeast, water,  pretty much.  Anyway, for this crust you need the perfect pizza flour, olive oil, salt, warm water, and I used the rapid rise yeast.  The directions are on the back of the flour package.

Put the flour, yeast, salt in the big mixer with the dough hook, or you can mix it up by hand and knead it.  This is actually the first time I used the dough hook.  The water should be warm enough to activate the yeast but not hot or you will kill it.  I just go by feel and it works.  I would call it "very warm."

Dump the mixed dough onto a big surface.  Mush it together until it forms a ball.  I actually forgot at first, but you should put a little olive oil on the ball all over so it won't stick when you take it back out of the bowl.

I let it sit for awhile- maybe 1/2 hour and look how big it got!  I had to move it to a bigger bowl because I wasn't ready to make the pizza yet and it kept getting bigger!

If you guessed that this is the shot with the Miller Lite, then you are correct.  It is sitting on my brand new pizza stone.  I was confused about this whole concept.  Do I need a pizza paddle?  A pan?  What?  It seems that you can free form make the dough, put it on the pizza stone with either cornmeal sprinkled under or parchment paper so it won't stick, and that's it.  My pizza stone has handles.  You preheat the oven to 500 degrees with the stone in there.  The stone makes the crust simulate the big pizza ovens at the pizza places. 

If you guessed that Scooter looks even more interested than usual, you would be right again.  Apparently he was willing the sausage to fly towards him. 

Oh, yes she did.  My daughter got the All-Clad Saucier for me for Christmas!!  It is one beautiful pan.  But of course, you can use any.  Put some butter and olive oil in on a very low heat.  The butter is nice for flavor but the olive oil stays around longer.  Apparently the two together are a dream team.

At the same time, start your sausage.  We don't generally eat a lot of real sausage so this is a roll of soy sausage.  We liked it.  My brother didn't.  You can use real sausage.

Slice some tomatoes very thin. 

This next shot shows the onions carmelizing.  I sliced some Bermuda onion because it is sweet.  Very thin.  I used the scary mandoline.  Cook them really slowly. It takes awhile.

After putting the dough into the larger bowl, it still kept growing.

I decided to use vodka sauce instead of marinara.  I love that stuff.  I could drink it.  I used to use Paul Sorvino which was really, really good, but I can't find it anymore.  This is a new one that I am trying. 

Put a couple of pieces of parchment paper on your work surface.  If it is too sticky, you can stick your hand in the flour mixture and dust some onto the dough.  Make it so you can work with it.  I tried using just my hands to shape it, but that didn't work for me.

Next, I tried the rolling pin.  I have a french one- fancy.  I like it because it doesn't have the handles on the ends.  Roll it out until it is the size of your pizza stone.  Then slide it onto the pizza stone and bake for around 8 minutes, until the crust is starting to look a little golden.

I didn't have quite enough mozzarella on hand, so I pulled out some Swiss-Gruyere blend that we needed to use up.

I have never actually carmelized onions before, but these looked done enough to me.

Take the crust out of the oven.  Make sure the pizza stone doesn't hit any cold surfaces or it will crack.  I just put it on the stovetop.  Put on the vodka sauce, then the cheese, then I did tomatoes, onions, sausage.  Bake around 10 minutes or until it looks melted and done. 

Bacon Tomato Cheese Toasts

These were really good.  Tim requested them twice in the same week.  The second time I did some modifications to make them just a little bit healthier.  This is what they are supposed to look like:

Here is the recipe, if you can read it.  As usual, I cut it in half, but I shouldn't have because Tim wanted twice what he usually does.

Preheat the oven to 400.  Core the tomatoes and thinly slice.  Place in a colander in the sink and sprinkle with 1/2 teaspoon salt, let drain for at least 15 minutes.  (this keeps your sandwich from getting soggy because it drains out the excess water).

As in every post, here is my biggest fan watching my every move.  Also, willing me to drop anything. At this point you are supposed to cook 8 strips of bacon in a large skillet over medium heat until crisp, about 10 minutes, then transfer to a paper towel-lined plate. I forgot to take a picture.  Pour off and reserve the drippings, leaving 1 tablespoon in the skillet.  Toast the 4 slices of Texas Toast on one side in the drippings until golden.  The second time I made this I just used some Canoleo butter that I get at Whole Foods because it is better for you than bacon drippings.  It tasted the same to me. Place the bread, toasted-side down, on a baking sheet.

Thinly slice 1/2 small zucchini.  Wasn't sure this would be good but it was delicious!  Really added something  As you know, I have to wear my metal glove when using the mandoline.

One Miller Lite, 3/4 cup grated cheddar cheese, 3/4 cup grated part-skim mozzarella cheese, 3/4 cup mayonaise (the 2nd time I made this I reduced the mayo a lot- I thought it was too much mayo taste plus who needs to eat that much mayo?).  5 scallions, finely chopped, which I left out because I don't like raw onion flavor.

I bought grated mozzarella from the store, but grated my own cheddar.  It is better to do that because there is some kind of coating on pre-grated to keep it from drying out.  Nasty.

Combine the cheeses with the mayonaise, scallions and parsley in a bowl.  You are supposed to use 1/3 cup chopped fresh parsley but we didn't have any left so I used the squirt parsley that I keep on hand in the refrigerator.  You can get it in the produce aisle of the grocery store.

This shows the toasting of the bread.  But in this blog if you get your pictures in the wrong order, it is murder to switch them around.

Spread the cheese mixture on the toasts, reserving about 1/3 cup.  Crumble the bacon on top.  Shake any excess liquid from the tomatoes.  Distribute the zucchini and tomatoes among the toasts.  Dot with the reserved cheese mixture and season with pepper.  Bake until golden brown, 15-20 minutes.  Serve warm.

This is how it turned out.  Yum!

Bacon and Egg Soup

Tim was very leary about this one, but it turned out that we did like it.  I cut the recipe in half because it is not the kind of meal that you can have leftovers from. 

This is also from the Food Network Cookbook.  So, I used:
1/4 lb. bacon- cut into 1/4 inch cubes (realistically mine were more like 1/2 inch)
2 slices Italian bread, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1 T olive oil
salt and pepper (as with most of the recipes I make, I think they wanted too much salting.  This recipe didn't need any extra salt in my opinion because the bacon was salty and so is the Parmesan Cheese.
1 clove garlic, smashed
1 1/2- 2 cups chicken broth
3/4 cup parmesan cheese, plus 1 small piece rind. I didn't have any rind.
2 T torn fresh parsley
2 eggs




This is what it looked like in the cookbook.



Ingredients 

Cook the bacon in a medium pot over medium heat until crisp, about 7 minutes.  Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate with a slotted spoon, then discard all but 2 T drippings from the pot.  While the bacon cooks, toss the bread cubes with the olive oil on a baking sheet and season with salt and pepper (I would just use pepper).  Bake until golden and crisp, about 8 minutes.

Add the garlic to the bacon drippings and cook until slightly golden, 1-2 minutes.  Add the broth, 3/4 cup water, the parmesan rind (which I didn't have) and 1 T parsley.  Season with salt and pepper.  (again I would just use pepper- it gets too salty).  Cover and bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and cook 10 minutes.

 

I like to fresh grate my Parmesan.  I just use a microplane grate it over a plate.  Only takes a little bit of time and is nice and fresh.

Adjust the heat so the broth is barely boiling.  One at a time, crack each egg into a small bowl and gently slip into the broth.  Poach until just set, about 2 minutes.  Transfer the eggs with a slotted spoon to individual soup bowls.  Stir 1/2 cup parmesan and the remaining 1 T parsley into the broth and season with salt and pepper.  Really?  More salt?  I don't think so. Ladle the broth into the bowls and top with the croutons, bacon and the remaining 1/8 cup parmesan. 

My own finished product- not bad if I do say so myself.

Turkey Picadillo Sandwiches



This is what the finished product is supposed to look like.




List of ingredients


 

I cut this recipe in half because it serves four and there are only two of us.  So we used olive oil, 1/2 onion, 4 garlic, I was out of bay leaves, 1/2 T cumin, 1/2 tsp. chili powder, 1/4 tsp. allspice, whatever turkey was in the package, around 3/4 to a pound, salt and pepper, around 3 oz. tomato paste, I don't like raisins so I left them out, about 1/4 cup sliced green olives with pimentos plus 1 T olive juice, 2 soft buns, and sliced avocado.





You see probably see Scooter watching me every time.  He is my biggest and possibly only fan.  Sometimes he likes to watch me do my own cooking show, although he generally looks perplexed the whole time.




Dice the onion.  Cook in a couple of T of olive oil for about 2 minutes, until slightly soft WITH the garlic listed next.





1/2 of the recipe would be four cloves of garlic but mine were pretty large so I used two.  Chop them up and add them to the onions to saute.



This is like Where's Waldo?  You should be able to find the Miller Lite with every recipe.  This is for the "Chef."

 

I used 1/2 T cumin, 1/2 tsp. chili powder, 1/4 tsp. allspice.  I was out of Bay Leaves but if you have them put one or two in.  Add this to the onions and garlic. Toast one or two minutes. It will look like the picture below.






Add the turkey, salt and pepper to taste, and cook about five minutes, breaking up the meat.



Add the tomato paste and stir until brick red, 3 to 4 minutes.  Add 1 cup water, the 1/6 cup raisins in you like them, the olives and olive juice.  Bring to a simmer, cover and cook over medium heat unti thickened, about 15 minutes.  Uncover and cook, sitring, 3 more minutes.  Season with salt and pepper  (there is too much seasoning with salt and pepper to suit me so I leave the salt out a lot of the time.



 

This is what it looked like so far.  It never got really red I don't think.  Maybe the water diluted it too much.  I think add more tomato paste or less water. 

Add caption



Drizzle the cut sides of the rolls with olive oil, place on a baking sheet and warm in the over on 350 for about five minutes. Fill the rolls with the turkey mixture, top with avocado. 



We liked it!