Damn Good Friday

Between Fridays in Lent and The Diet, all I freaking want is a cheeseburger or steak.  But that is what tomorrow is for.  In the meantime, I had to jockey for position with the rest of the Catholics at the fish market after school today.  Last night I had picked out the Rockfish With Roasted Red Pepper and Garlic Sauce on page 292.  The fishmonger at Hyde Park Fish Market stated that he had heard of Rockfish before, but since it was a Pacific Ocean fish, they didn't see too many here in eastern part of the Midwest.  In fact, we are only about 600 miles from the Atlantic Ocean, so a Pacific fish is pretty rare around here.  The Guide suggests both halibut and sea bass as alternates, and I inquired which he would recommend, as they were only one dollar a pound in difference.  He immediately suggested the sea bass, as halibut has just come into season, and just wasn't as nice as the sea bass.  I purchased three-quarters of a pound (which experience has taught me is a nice serving for The Bride and me) and went on my merry way.  

While waiting for the coals, I started the sauce.  The recipe calls for me to use a food processor, but there was so little (volume-wise) that I didn't think the food processor would do a good job.  Instead, I chose to use the immersion blender.  I began by putting in the easy ingredients.

Learning from an earlier entry, and following the same technique,  I placed the rub ingredients in a large mixing bowl.

I stirred the rub, and then oiled up this BEAUTIFUL piece of fish.

Using the oil as an adhesive, I dipped the fish into the rub.  Whatever would stick would be the right amount.

I then rotated to cover three out of the four sides.  The skin, as it would be removed later, would not need the rub.

Here is the fish, ready for the grill!

With the red pepper on The Forge, I brought together what I would need for the side this evening, the White Bean Bruschetta on page 80.

For this, I started by cutting up the bread.

The red bell pepper came off the grill, and as you may have seen me do a couple of times now, I covered the bowl in saran wrap in order to let the steam help remove the skin, which would not fare well in the sauce.

 

Another tip that I have learned: when toasting any kind of bread, offer up a "sacrificial lamb" to the Grill Gods to get your timing down.  Instead of foolishly placing all of the bread pieces willy-nilly on the grill, find the zone you wish to cook on, and only put one piece down that you aren't too concerned about, so that if it burns you don't freak out.  Weber suggests cooking the slices two to three minutes, flipping once.  According to my math, that is one to one-and-a-half minutes per side of toast.  In the picture below, the piece at the top-left is the piece that I followed these directions.  Clearly, this was way too long for what I was running The Forge at today.  Working clockwise, you can see the pieces as I adjusted the cooking time and found a sweet spot on the grill.

For the topping, you begin by warming up your oil and red pepper flakes.

Add in the onion and cook until soft.

Add the garlic and sage, and only cook for a minute.  Minced garlic burns super easily, and you just need to make it fragrant.

Finally, add in the beans and red wine vinegar.  Stir until awesome.

Meanwhile, the skin had loosened on the bell pepper, so I removed it.  It looked gorgeous.

I only applied a rough chop to the bell pepper, as the immersion blender would take it from there.

At this time, the fish was ready.  It came apart a little bit while pulling it from the grill, but hey, that is what the sauce is for.

After a brief whir, the sauce was ready!

Plate the fish, top the toast, sauce the fish, and you now have an amazing dinner.

It is official.  This is The Bride's second favorite fish dish, only finishing behind that Oak Grilled Salmon that we've had a number of times now.   I find it interesting that her two favorite fish dishes use fresh dill in the rub.  I'll admit, it was pretty darned good.  It tasted like melted butter, yet I never brought butter near the thing.  The sauce was perfect, and will be seen again.  There was texture, salt, seasoning, melt-in-your-mouth flakiness, etc.  This fish had it all.  If I owe somebody a nice dinner, this could be in the cards.  If I can't have steak, I may as well have this.  As for the bruschetta, it was good.  It wasn't terrific, but it was good.  I did find a way to make it better, but more on that later.  In summation, I may have a Top Ten of 2011 dish in the making with the fish.  Now if only I could find some Pacific Rockish so that I could try the real recipe...

Hey, ever sat there and wondered, "Gee, I want to shower my favorite Corey with some sort of gift, but I just don't know what to get him?  I know he likes wine, but what does he like?"  Well, in short, if it's French, I probably like it.  If you can find a Chapoutier, all the better.  It's easily recognizable by the Braille on the label.   I found this one for about twelve bucks (it doesn't have to be expensive at all), and it was perfect with tonight's dinner.  As I am on The Diet, I don't get wine with dinner as much, as I am limited to alcohol only once a week. 

Dinner was great, and I found a way to make the bruschetta better...put down a layer of the roasted bell pepper and garlic sauce.  "It really tied the room together."

Later, The Bride kicked it up a notch and added some feta and melted in the microwave.  As the Greeks say, "OPAH!" 

Dinner From The Subcontinent

The Bride enjoys Indian food.  That is a fact.  As for myself, I like it, but not nearly as much (nor do I desire it as much) as The Bride.  Since I am on The Diet we aren't eating out as much, which means that she can't have Indian food as much, so I thought I would try to appease her by picking out two recipes that have an Indian influence.  To start off, our main dish would be the Tandoori-Style Chicken on page 241.

I knew that this needed a lengthy marinade time, so I purchased what I needed yesterday.  I got home as quickly as I could today and began mixing the ingredients together.  I started by blending the spices in my spice grinder.

I dropped them into the yogurt, along with the other marinade items.

After a quick whisking I had a tasty and tangy marinade.

Many moons ago The Bride and I took a cooking class.  In one of the sessions I learned how to break down a chicken.  I don't use this all that often, but here it came in handy, as the recipe called for me to cut the chicken into eight pieces.

I didn't do too awesome of a job when it came to the skin, buy hey, I don't do this with any regular frequency.  All in all, I was pretty happy.

By 4:00, the chicken pieces were properly submerged in the marinade.  I then went about sitting on my porch for a while to enjoy the weather, which for right now is still a novelty.

The Bride called to inform me that she was on her way home.  It was time to make the side, the Cauliflower and Red Onion Curry on page 342.

I read the recipe a couple of times, just to make sure I had a good strategy.  In reviewing the steps, I noticed that this would come together quickly in the saucepan, so it was vital that I prepared my mise en place.

Although I had broken down whole chickens before, I had never really worked with a whole head of cauliflower (nor broccoli, for that matter).  I think I did a decent job.

The vegetables came off the grill in pretty good shape.  The onions I now have enough experience with (thanks, Weber!) that they were perfect.  Grilling cauliflower was a new experience, but overall I was pleased with my first attempt.  What I was really surprised at during the process was how fragrant the cauliflower was while grilling.  I had always thought of this vegetable as rather bland, but all I had ever had was boiled/steamed/sauteed cauliflower, so I had never been able to experience a "dry" cooking method that would allow its true aroma.

Per the recipe, I chopped everything into bite-sized pieces.

In following the recipe, it instructed me to melt the butter and mix in the flour and spices.  This I immediately recognized as a roux.  I've become quite comfortable with this procedure in the last two years, so this was easy.  What you have to train yourself in is to not freak out when it begins to clump, like in the picture below.  This step is necessary to cook out the "flour" taste and allow the starches to begin to cook in order to later thicken your sauce.

After pouring in the liquid, you have to whisk, whisk, whisk, and then whisk some more.  This is to break up those clumps of flour.  Once your sauce is smooth, you get to KEEP WHISKING!  YEAH!  Soon your sauce will go from thin and runny...

To thick and able to show the bottom of your saucepan while stirring.  This is the consistency you are trying to achieve.

Add in the remaining ingredients and cook to desired doneness.

The chick came out look SUPER!

I plated, poured the Splenda-laced Kool-Aid (Tropical Punch tonight) and sat down for another episode of The Tudors with The Bride.  

The chicken was just as good as it looks.  It was juicy, slightly crispy on the outside, and well-seasoned.  Even though I had given it about three hours to marinade, it needs a lot more.  The recipe calls for a marinade time of six to eight hours, so in reality I only provided half that time.  Still, this was amazing, and I can only imagine how good it would be after the full amount of time in the tangy sauce.  It was indeed a little hint of India, and I was rather happy with it.  As for the Red Onion and Cauliflower, it got a thumbs-up from me and a thumbs-down from The Bride.  She said she liked the curry sauce, but that the vegetables were too al dente.  I liked them that way.  What I would like to have changed was the amount of sauce.  I have learned to double the amounts listed in the cookbook for any marinade (I did so today as well), and I would like to have doubled this sauce.  When I think of Indian food, there is always a healthy sauce to other ingredients ratio.  I think this would also allow me to simmer the vegetables in order to make The Bride a little happier. 

Rebound Recipe

So last night did not go so well.  It was time to move on, and I decided to pick what I thought would be a no-brainer.  I also needed something that would be good for lunch tomorrow.  I was also in a colorful mood, due to the sudden nice weather.  For the main dish, I picked out the Italian Chicken Kabobs on page 252.

The first part was easy: make the marinade.  No problem.

The next step is where I hit my problem.  The recipe called for boneless skinless chicken thighs.  Have you ever tried to find those?  Four stores and over an hour later, I gave up and bought regular chicken thighs.  What is nice about buying a less-than-desirable cut of meat is that it is cheap...I purchased five pounds of chicken thighs for less than five dollars.  In fact, I picked up what I needed for tonight AND tomorrow's dinner, all for less than what I spent on the scallops.  But don't worry, I'm not bitter.

Okay, so to debone a chicken thigh, I recalled watching my butcher at Findlay Market when he deboned a leg of lamb for me a couple of weeks ago.  The first step was to remove the skin.  Most of it tugged right off (which is a little disgusting when you think about, but I get around that by simply not thinking about what I am doing).  

From there I used my paring knife to make little sweeps of the blade as close to the bone as possible.  I then "rolled" the bone and made another shallow sweep.  I repeated this process until I had removed the bone and as little meat as possible.

The recipe called for two pounds of the chicken thighs, so I zeroed out my digital scale.

I cut the chicken thighs into one-inch pieces, as prescribed by the recipe.

Net result of one skinned, boned, and cubed chicken thigh = 3.65 ounces.  I needed 32.  Oh boy.

So wouldn't you know it?  Five pounds of chicken thighs yields almost exactly two pounds of meat.  This, I assume, will be good to know for future reference.  Now what are the odds that I actually WILL remember this?  I should probably put this as a note in my shopping list app on my phone....

So a quick tossing with the marinade later, and I was good to go (or so I thought...keep reading).

With the meat bathing in the marinade, I gathered what I needed for the side, which was also rather colorful: Red and Green Cabbage Slaw on page 367.

 Similar to the kabobs, I started with the dressing.  Slaws are not rocket science, which is why they are such a nice side.

Chop, chop, chop, and then into the bowl!

Mix, mix, mix, and then let it rest to "soak up" the dressing!

OH CRAP!  You know, as a teacher, I should really be better at following directions.  Apparently I was supposed to marinate the vegetables along with the chicken.  No worries, though, veggies soak up liquids rather quickly, so I just gave kabobs an extra half-hour.

Wow...this recipe make a LOT of kabobs.  Looks like lunch for The Bride and me!

The first batch came off the grill looking exactly like I wanted them to.

The second batch was also right around the "perfect" mark.  Well done, Corey!

Kabobs and slaw were plated, I poured myself some Blue Raspberry Lemonade Kool-Aid made with Splenda (stupid diet) and I sat down for a nice colorful dinner.

These recipes got Weber back in my good graces.  I had figured they would, as almost all of their recipes have been quite enjoyable, with only a small handful of duds.  The chicken thighs are a nice change of pace from the breasts, the tomatoes were nicely caramelized and sweet, the bell peppers added a nice snap, and the squash...well, squashed when you bit into them.  It was lovely.  The dill in the slaw provided a nice level of refreshment, and rounded off the meal well.  If I had one bone to pick, it was that I would use less oil in the marinade, or maybe wipe off the pieces of chicken as I skewered them.  Still, this was a nice way to rebound from yesterday!