Steamed White Fish

 Some friends came over for dinner one evening and we co-cooked. He taught me a technique that I have since tried on my own - and I love it. It's a simple one pot dish using your choice of hrbs/spices and a firm non-oily white fish. I used red snapper for this version.

In the original dish we used Asian spicing - fenugreek seed, coriander, cumin, and turmeric. For this version, I used a fennel bulb, garlic, ginger, and aleppo pepper. So this is more about technique than recipe. I used the same technique both times.

Ingredients

1 inch of ginger, peeled and grated

3 cloves of garlic, made into a paste (using a garlic press would be fine)

3 medium shallots, minced very finely

1 fennel bulb diced finely - pieces should be the same size as the shallot

2 T olive oil

1 1/2 lbs plum tomatoes, cored, halced and sliced into strips

1 1/2 lbs white fish, boned and skinned

1 handful of fresh tarragon (divided use)

Salt and pepper, to taste

Mix together the ginger, garlic, aleppo pepper and a little salt. Rub half of this mixture onto the fish and leave for about 15 minutes.

In a 10" skillet, heat the olive oil, and when hot add the remaining ginger/garlic paste and stir for a minute or so. Add the shallot/fennel and soften for about 5 minutes. Do not allow to brown.

Add the tomatoes  and most of the tarragon to the pan, cover and allow to soften for 10 minutes over low heat. Layer the fish on top of the aromatics. Cover again, and steam on low heat for 8-10 minutes - depending on the size of the fish. 

Serve over rice with tarragon leaves as a garnish, making sure that you scoop up some of the juice from the pan and drizzle over the fish.

Chicken with grapes, garlic, vermouth and tarragon

I have stolen this shamelessly from Jamie Oliver. It is such a good dish that I have now made it 4 or 5 times. It gets better with each showing. Big advantages are:

• Small number of ingredients
• 1 pot
• oven does most of the work so no need to monitor closely

For 4 people I cook 6 chicken pieces. The downside os that you need a very large saute pan or skillet. And the pan must be ovenproof.

Ingredients

2 T Olive oil (divided use)

6 Whole chicken legs (Thigh and drumstick together)

1 garlic bulb, cloves individually split out, squashed but not peeled

1 lb mixed grapes

1 1/2 cups sweet vermouth (red, Italian)

1/4 cup loosely packed tarragon leaves

Salt/pepper

Method

Preheat the oven to 350F. One shelf upper middle rack

In a large saute pan over medium heat, heat the oil until it is shimmering. Meanwhile lightly oil the chicken pieces all over. Sprinkle salt and pepper over the chicken pieces and rub them in with the oil.

Place the chicken pieces, skin side down, into the skillet. Make sure that the is plenty of separation of the pieces. Turn the heat up a little, and cook the chicken skin side down  until the skin has taken on a golden brown color. Turn the chicken over and continue to cook for a few (3-5) minutes, Add the garlic cloves, making sure that each one is in contact with the bottom of the pan - i.e. between the chicken pieces. This is critical. If you don't the garlic will be raw tasting and bitter at the end.

Cook the garlic and chicken for a minute or 2 longer. Add the grapes to the pan, followed by the vermouth.

Coarsely chop the tarragon leaves.

Place the uncovered saute pan into the preheated oven. Cook for about 30-45 minutes. Being dark meat, they don't dry out quickly, so if they go a little long it doesn't matter. Once it is cooked, sprinkle the coarsely chopped tarragon over the dish, and stir so that it is mostly mixed in. You could add a few drops of sherry vinegar if you wanted some extra acidity.

We served it with salt baked potatoes. The chicken on the plate, crispy skin up, potatoes on the side with sauce poured over the chicken and potatoes. Garnish with the remaining tarragon.

Pinot noir wines are the best choice here.

Devilled eggs - but the technique is important

I saw this video a couple of days ago, so immediately had to find an excuse to try it. It works as advertised (much to Madame's surprise).

Ingredients

4 large eggs

1 T mayonnaise

1t habanero vodka

1t sweet pickle juice

1T tarragon mustard

salt/pepper to taste

Method

Using this approach , cook the eggs for 10 minutes. Immediately plunge into iced water. Use the technique from the video to peel the eggs (and it works flawlessly). Scoop out the cooked yolks, mix with the remaining ingredients and reintroduce to the whites. Serve cold with some grilled bread.

You can, of course, add any flavorings to the egg mixture

Kitchen Trick - Woody Herbs

How much of a pain is it to get the leaves off tarragon, rosemary, etc. In my world it is a huge PITA. So I cast around thinking about how to do it. I came up with this when making tarragon mustrd this morning.

I wanted something like the pile on the right while starting with the things on the left

Step 1 - remove the leafy top bits. The stems there won't hurt.

Step 2 Poke the woody bit from the top through a hole in a colander.

 Step 3 Pull the stem through from the outside of the colander leaving the leaves in the colander

The leaves stay in the bowl, and the woody stem comes out cleanly.

Tarragon mustard

This little jewel came to mind when we were polishing off the last of the tarragon mustard from Provence. Madame wanted tarragon mustard. Madame shall have tarragon mustard. However the second half - can we please go to Provence to pick it up? was not about to happen for a variety of reasons. The main one being summer school.
So the experiment began. It also turned out to be really quick, easy and cheap. Win all around.

Ingredients

1/2 Cup coarse Dijon-style mustard. We used the generic supermarket brand

1t Coleman's dry English mustard powder

1T Apple cider vinegar

1/4 cup loosely packed tarragon leaves (whole for measurement purposes)

Method

Make a thin paste with the dry mustard and vinegar. Chop the tarragon leaves - make them uneven in size. Some quite small, some almost whole. Do make sure you don't use the stalks though. Combine the coarse mustard, the mustard paste and the chopped tarragon. Put in a noon-reactive, covered bowl for 24hrs to allow the flavors to blend. Transfer to an airtight pot. Use in any way you can imagine.

No trip to Provence required. :-(