Good Fish And Thoughts On A New Blog

Tonight was simple and quick.  I stopped by Findlay to pick up something to grill, knowing in the back of my mind that I was in the mood for fish.  I had left The Guide at home, so I didn't have a recipe in mind.  I remembered that I still had one or two swordfish recipes to go, and they looked tasty at Luken's Fish Market.  I picked up two "steaks" and headed home, looked at the guide, wrote down what I needed, headed to Meijer, and came home ready to make the Swordfish Kabobs With Pasta Provencal on page 289.

Following protocol, I doubled the marinade and put everything in a gallon-sized Ziploc bag.

I also got to use my kabob skewers again.

I started the sauce and the pasta.

It was here that Weber taught me something.  The directions called for adding the basil chiffonade to the pasta immediately after draining.

Then I was supposed to give them a gentle toss to incorporate the basil into the noodles.

I really dig this technique!  It is something that will stick with me for many years to come.  It is a simple and effective way to add amazing depth of flavor to the noodles.  As the noodles are still very hot after draining, the steam that they release cooks the herbs which releases their essential oils and coats the noodles with their flavor compounds (this is all my theory, based on previous knowledge).   I then pulled the kabobs from The Forge.

I plated and dinner was complete, and all in less than an hour!

This is a recipe to keep in mind if we need something quick.  I think that with a little experience I could trim the total cook time a little bit to make it even more of an efficient meal.  In the last couple of weeks I've cooked a fair amount of "Provencal" meals, enjoying every single one of them.  I dig this style of cooking quite a bit, and the wine from this region just as much (Corey LOVES Bandol wine...hint, hint).  I remember coming across a cookbook on Provencal cooking one time when The Bride and I were at Half-Price Books.  I think I'll pick it up sometime with the intention of making that the basis of my next blog (whenever I finish this one, that is, which based on the pace I am at will be in about two or three years).  I'll also add visiting this region of the world to my bucket list as well.  One of my favorite Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations is when he visited this part of France.  

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, this recipe was quite nice.  The swordfish cubes were cooked to perfection (The Bride used expletives to describe how much she enjoyed them), and the quick marinade helped tremendously, especially given the short length of time that was allowed.  The sauce was simple and delicious with just a hint of heat from the red pepper flakes, which is always welcome in the Bogdan household.  Still, my favorite part of it all was the basil-infused pasta noodles, all thanks to the new technique that I learned from Weber!

A Rare Monday Night Off

For the first time in many, many moons I have a Monday night off.  It's Steelers/Bengals, beautiful weather this week, and grad school isn't pressing down on my style, so I knew that I had better take advantage of this rare alignment of fortunes.  The Bride declared that we need to start eating better before the holidays take over, so I picked out the Three Lemon Chicken on page 233. 

The first step was to create the paste that would be rubbed both inside and outside the chicken.  I'd roasted garlic in a previous post, so I followed that procedure to achieve the same results.  

The paste came together well, and when I snuck a taste, it was surprisingly bitter and pungent, but promised to deliver a lot of flavor to the chicken.  

The paste needed to be rubbed inside the bird, just under the skin.  I won't lie, this always creeps me out.  The Bride likes to mess with me on Thanksgiving, knowing that I don't handle it well when she runs her hand under the turkey's skin and shows it to me.

Ew.  Once the paste was rubbed both inside and outside the chicken, I then followed the recipe by stuffing rosemary sprigs and white wine inside the cavity of the bird.

Calling on my experience with trussing a whole chicken, I was able to tie up the bird significantly faster (and better) than the previous attempt.

 The chicken went on the grill, and I went back to watching TV.  When the time to pull the chicken off the grill grew closer, I prepared the side for the evening, the Tomato, Cucumber, & Onion Salad on page 367.

I got to try a new toy!  For our Five Year Anniversary, The Bride gave me a mandolin!

Ooooh!  Aaaaah!  This thing is sweet!  My first food item to play with was the cucumber, which was supposed to be cut into one-eighth inch slices.  I set the mandolin to that measurement and started slicing.
 

Ridiculous!  There is no way I could have done this with my chef's knife.  I love the consistency and ease that the mandolin affords the preparation process.  It's hard to believe that this pile of slices all came from one medium-sized cucumber.  The tomatoes were next.

The onion went third and I then began plating the salad.

 I mixed up the dressing and went to retrieve the chicken.

Gorgeous!  I am starting to really dig grilling whole chickens.  It's very easy and the taste is a significant upgrade from grilling individual pieces.  While the chicken rested I chopped up the herbs to sprinkle on the salad, and informed The Bride that we were almost ready.

I plated our dinners and got ready to watch some Monday Night Football!

I really enjoyed the chicken recipe.  For not having any sort of marinade or brine there was a tremendous amount of flavor in this recipe.  It's quick and easy to prepare, and a great way to have a healthy meal that's tasty on a weekday night.  The salad is refreshing and the herbs play a large role in the flavor profile of the dish.  The Bride figured out that if you combined the chicken with the dressing for the salad that it would make a delicious chicken gyro.  Noted.  Otherwise, the onion needs to be cut back in the salad.  An hour later, I'm still tasting them.  The bitter paste that I was concerned about earlier completely mellowed and delivered as promised.  I'm actually looking forward to leftovers tomorrow for lunch!