mamadeb

We had fish. Now, I like my fish relatively plain. Sauces are nice and I like making them, but a lot of restaurants think that the purpose of sauces for fish is to hide the fact that it's fish. And I like fish and don't want to hide it.

jonbaker likes my fish just fine, but he also likes things a bit...dressier. And I have been learning this stuff.

So, tonight I made tilapia in a sort of veracruz (Mexican style) sauce.

I confess, I cheated - instead of peeling, seeding and chopping fresh tomatoes (which are pretty bad this time of year) and seeding and fine dicing jalape&ntilda;o peppers, I bought a can of diced tomatoes with mild green chiles. I minced half a white onion and two cloves of garlic and sautéed them in a little corn oil until soft, with some red pepper flakes. I drained the tomatoes and deglazed the pan with the juices, and then added the tomatoes. After it cooked a little, I added about a teaspoon of white wine vinegar.

To cook the fish, I added water and brought the mixture to a boil, then added the tilapia, covered the pan and turned it down to a simmer. 10-15 min later, it was cooked and I put the covered pan in the oven to stay warm.

I served it over brown rice with french cut green beans on the side. And it was bright and spicy and sharp, but I could still taste the fish. Perfect and so, so pretty.

Traditionally, Thursday night is dairy night. This is because Friday night is usually meat (in some households, always meat) and this will increase the appetite. I don't make a lot of dairy, so for us Thursday is fish night.

Last night, I wanted to make something other than my normal panfried file, veggie and starch.

I finely chopped two shallot onions, coined five carrots, chopped four stalks of celery coarsely, and sliced up three white potatoes. I was going to dice them, but I got lazy. Didn't actually matter in this case. I heated safflower oil in my wonderful large new saucier (a four-quart non-stick pot with rounded sides so food just glides around. I've used it thus far for spaghetti sauce, stir-fries and curries and it's been marvelous.), and tossed in the shallot onions. (These looked like tiny regular onions to me, as opposed to true shallots, but they smelled more garlicky.) When they just started to look a little brown, I added the rest of the vegetables and water to cover, plus a couple of bay leaves, a good grind of black pepper and a cup of Chardonnay. I actually measured the wine, but I also took a sip. Not the best, but not bad. I then cleaned and sliced 2/3 of a pound of white mushrooms and added them to the pot. I let it come to a boil and then reduced the flame to a simmer.

In about an hour, the carrots and potatoes were fully cooked. I crushed some potatoes to thicken the gravy and let it simmer some more. I added about 1/2 teaspoon good balsamic vinegar, some salt and a shake of white pepper, and then, just before serving, I put in 2/3 pound of salmon fillet, in one inch dice. When the fish was cooked, I served the stew in bowls, topped with snips of fresh dill.

Next time, I might add some peas and/or corn to add to the taste and color, but it was pretty and tasty the way it was, and I would have liked to have served it sooner, as the potatoes did collapse. Next time, I'll dice them properly, and maybe microwave them first.

It gave us seconds plus a little bit for Jonathan to nosh while he was washing up.

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Toight's dinner

Salmon stew

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February 2011

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