Coriander & Black Pepper Halibut Cheeks

Dinner tonight was Halibut Cheeks. I love cheeks...so good, like the flank steak of the sea, and surprisingly hard to overcook for seafood. I think most people who like scallops would love halibut cheeks. I coated these in a simple mix of cracked black pepper and cracked coriander seed, then pan seared them in a tiny bit of olive oil.

While the cheeks were cooking, I sauteed up a huge batch of warm Asain slaw. Basically this is a saute of shredded green cabbage and fine julienne carrots, tossed in a hot wok with a bit of olive oil. I cooked the cabbage and carrots until just crisp-tender and finished with a handful of cilantro and sliced green onions. I splashed in some fish sauce for salt and honestly that was all it needed. The cabbage was sweet and crunchy. I went back for thirds and so did Nick. So good.

I plated my just mounding the cabbage on a plate and arranging 4 or 5 cheeks on top of the cabbage. I drizzled mine all over with Siracha, but that's because I put Siracha on almost everything. Nice went sans-spicy and that was great too...the cheeks had plenty of flavor from the spice rub.

Simple, delicious and ready in less than 12 minutes.

Moroccan Veggie Stew

So I've been reading Clean Eating Magazine, the sister publication to Oxygen magazine. Clean Eating has some yummy stuff. Usually I modify to reduce the land-based-animal protein component, but the recipes are a great source of inspiration.

Tonight I made this Moroccan Veggie stew from the most recent issue....the picture in the magazine showed all these gorgeous vegetables, snuggled up in an almost clear broth that was highlighted with brilliant green cilantro. Yeah, mine didn't turn out like that.

The sweet potato dissolved by the time the carrot and onion were nice and tender, so I had a thick stew with barely discernible chunks of veggies. There was no broth to speak of. There was also no cilantro, and hence no gorgeous green highlights. But you know what? It didn't matter. This was good! Like, one-week-out-from-pictures-be-damned-I'm-having-more good.



To be fair to the Clean Eating people, I didn't exactly follow the recipe in a strict scene, so perhaps if you do your stew will be more visually appealing. I added the veggies I had in amounts that seemed reasonable: fennel, sweet potato, onion, kohlrabi, garlic carrot and zucchini, and added both prunes and raisins into the mix. I skipped the puree step because I didn't have any liquid to speak of; I just had the sweet potato mash. I also skipped the fish, because today wasn't a training day and I just didn't feel the need to thaw fish.

Instead of the recommended couscous, I served mine on brown rice (which I had already made), and topped it with a dollop of sambal for heat and a wedge of lime. The acid from the lime elevated the whole thing, although it may have taken the flavor profile in a vaguely Thai-ish direction. If I were to leave out the dried fruit and chickpeas, and add in some coconut milk and fish sauce, this stew would be very similar to a Thai Root Veg Stew I have made many times.

Clean Eating May/June 2009:
Couscous with Seven Vegetables

1 tablespoon olive oil
3 cloves garlic
1 tbsp Moroccan spice blend (or combine cinnamon, ginger, tumeric, black pepper, allspice, cuman and coriander)
1 large sweet potato, peeled and large-diced
2 small turnips, peeled and large-diced
1 medium zucchini, large diced
2 carrots, large diced
1/4 head cabbage, cut into 1-inch pieces
1/2 red bell pepper, cut into 1-inch pieces
1/2 cup green beans, cut in thirds
1/2 to 1 tsp. Harissa or chili sauce
1/2 tsp. sea salt
1/4 cup raisins
3/4 cup chickpeas, pre-cooked or canned, rinsed and drained
16 oz. white fish (tilapia, haddock or sole), cut into chunks*
1 1/2 cup whole wheat couscous
1/2 cup cilantro, chopped

Heat oil in large stockpot over medium heat. Cook garlic and spice mix until brown, then add next five ingredients. Add enough water to just cover vegetables. Cover and cook 25-30 minutes, until vegetables are soft but not fully cooked. Add pepper, beans, Harissa and salt. Cook another 10 to 15 minutes, until tender.

Ladle out 3 cups of broth and vegetables (1 1/2 cups of each). Puree in blender until thick. Add back to stew.

Mix in raisins (prunes were awesome) and chickpeas. Bring to a simmer over medium heat and place fish on top of mixture (don't mix in, because fish will beak up.) Cook, covered, for 10 to 15 minutes or until fish flakes easilly with a fork. Fish will steam on top.

While fish is cooking, boil 1 1/2 cup water. Remove from heat, add couscous and cover. Set aside for 5 minutes. Fluff with fork. To serve, place 1/2 cup couscous in bowl. Pour 1 cup vegetable-fish mixture over top and sprinkle with 1 tbsp. cilantro.

Per 1/2 cup couscous and 1 cup stew, including 2 oz fish:
Calories: 260
Fat: 3.5 g
Carbs: 40 g
Fiber: 8 g
Sugars: 10 g
Protein: 19 g
Sodium: 310 mg
Cholesterol: 35 mg

* I love almost all seafood, even crazy stuff like pickled herring and eel (unagi...yummmm) but to me tilapia is the least pleasant fish around. Every instance I've eaten tilapia it's tasted like dirt, literally. I know it's the "loaves and fishes" fish, I know it's a relatively responsible seafood choice (apparently growing tilapia is much less harmful than farmed salmon aquaculture) but to me it's the boneless, skinless chicken breast of the sea (and sadly that's not a complement).

When a super healthy food is so devoid of flavor (or worse, has a slight bottom-feeder flavor) that only wrapping it in bacon and sauteing the whole package in butter could possibly make it palatable, what is the point? But perhaps I am being too harsh on tilapia. Maybe the several times I've eaten the fish were not representative. Is anyone out there a tilapia fan? Or have other people noticed the muddy flavor thing too?

Shrimp with Tomato, Olive and Lentil

Mise en Place meal. Tossed together some frozen shrimp, the beluga lentils I cooked up yesterday (I have been craving lentils!), and some of the Tomato-Olive Salsa I've been enjoying for a while now. Splashed on some sherry vinegar to give it that French marinated lentil salad flavor I was looking for, and dug in. Easy post-workout lunch in about 6 minutes.

Chocolate Cherry Almond Energy Bites

In a food processor, blend the hell out of the following:

300 gm raw oats
200 gm dried cherries
100 gm raisins
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
200 gm almond butter (or raw almonds; if using raw almonds process first to a smooth consistency)

Add enough water to just moisten and bring the dough together in a ball...I used about 1/4 cup.

Portion into 50 gm disks, squares or bar shapes as desired. I got 17 disks.

Bake disks at 300 degrees on a parchment lined sheetpan for 20 minutes, until dry and firm but not biscotti hard. Store in airtight container.

Nutrition info per 50 gm Energy Bite
192 calories
7.6 gm fat
4.6 gm protein
30 gm carb
3.7 gm fiber

So yeah, these are Energy Bites, not Diet Bites. They are dense but therefore easily portable. As healthy, relatively yummy cookie analogs go, they will be great for situations like yesterday: post-bike ride/post-spin followed immediately by a weight workout/WOD. And I like that I know exactly what's in them.

Smoked Salmon Pasta with Red Peppers & Broccoli

Another Mise en Place meal: just threw the cooked whole wheat pasta and roasted broccoli in a skillet. Added in some of the store bought fire-roasted peppers I've been loving lately, and finished with a hunk of smoked salmon for some protein and salt and deliciousness. The whole thing reheated in maybe 5 minutes, and the addition of a little pepper brine and spicy red pepper flakes gave it an arrabiata feeling that totally worked for me.

Grill-Smoked Steelhead with Pineapple Salsa

This is one of those Mise en Place meals: the brown rice was cooked, the green beans were cooked, the pineapple salsa was made....so all I had to do when a nice day presented itself was throw the steelhead on the outdoor bbq. Spiced the fish up a bit by throwing several handfuls of alder chips right on the briquettes and covering for a hybrid-grill smoke effect that I love. Didn't bother to soak the chips or anything (that would require planning), and since this was a high-heat cook where the smoke was just a flavoring agent, not the primary method of heat transfer to the food, that worked just fine.

Yum!

Seared Halibut with Romesco Sauce

Yum! Yum! Yum! Dinner was so great tonight. Pan Seared Halibut with Romesco Sauce and Green Beans. Romesco is made with roasted peppers and tomatoes and almonds and olive oil and is simply divine. But all that roasting takes awhile, and I needed my sauce fast. Luckilly, I picked up an enormous jar of Greek fire roasted red peppers at Costco the other day, and I was able to whip up this sauce in less than 5 minutes. It turned out so great I could have eaten it up with a spoon. Okay, who am I kidding? I DID eat it up with a spoon.

Romesco Sauce in a Hurry:

This makes A LOT, like over 20 servings. Which is okay with me cause it'll last and I'm putting it on everything for the forseeable future. Feel free to halve or quarter the recipe.
Makes about 1100 grams. 1650 calories for the whole recipe. 75 calories per 50 gram serving.

3 cloves garlic
250 gm raw almonds
1/4 peeled red onion
800 gm roasted red pepper, drained
1-2 tablespoons smoked paprika, or to taste
1-4 tablespoons red wine vinegar, or to taste
salt, to taste

For peppers, I used one huge 36 oz jar I found at Costco...Tassos brand, roasted then lightly pickled. After draining, this jar yielded 800 grams of peppers, which is why this recipe is so huge. I was quite happy with the quality of this brand, which is more than I can say for most of the jarred or canned peppers I've tried. In fact, I liked this product and this recipe so much I went back and bought 2 more jars!



Combine garlic, almonds and onion in a food processor fitted with a metal blade. Pulse until everything is well chopped and the almonds are just starting to look slightly creamy. Add in the peppers and continue to pulse until the whole mixture is well combined and about the texture of hummus. Season to taste with smoked paprika (I used a lot), salt and vinegar, pulsing a few more times to combine. If your peppers were packed in vinegar, as mine were, you may not need any vinegar at all. If they were water packed, or you roasted them yourself (go, you!) then a few tablespoons ought to do ya'.

Here's your finished product:

Curried Ahi & Caramelized Pineapple Salad

There's not really a recipe for this meal...more like a concept.

Get a pan hot. Rub really good ahi with some curry spice mix. Sear ahi on all sides for about 2 minutes, until outside is crusty but inside is still raw and cool. Remove ahi and let rest. Add chunked fresh pineapple to hot pan...sear all over. While pineapple is in pan, slice ahi into 1/4" thick slices.

Toss salad greens with dressing of choice or olive oil and salt. Top greens with sliced ahi, caramelized pineapple and avocado.