Another First For Me

I stand (really sitting on the couch right now) before you at thirty-six years of age and can tell you that up until today, I've never had Cornish hen.  Luckily, that changed.  It turns out that they are thoroughly enjoyable.  I wanted to continue my streak of cooking because as of late I've noticed that The Diet and The Exercise are beginning to work.  So I headed down to Findlay Market because I knew that I could acquire what I needed for the Honey-Lime Glazed Cornish Game Hens on page 264.

Any reader of mine will know that I love themes when cooking.  Since this recipe had a focus on honey, I desired something else with honey for the side.  Earlier this week while I was at Fresh Market, I noticed that they had fresh figs.  Over the years of using Weber's grilling book I've come across a few recipes that used fresh figs, but never knew where to purchase them.  As I looked for a side dish this morning, I noticed that one of the salads that used fresh figs also used honey.  Perfect!  So while I was at Findlay I also picked up some local honey.

Like I said, I've never worked with nor eaten Cornish game hen, but I was giggling at their size.  The chef's knife is included in the picture for comparison.

The first step is to remove the backbone.  My IKEA poultry shears made short work of that.

I was a little suspect of how much rosemary there was in the marinade.  This brought back horrible memories of when I first tried Thumper, because I was nervous about the game hens being too gamey.  Regardless, I took the fresh herbs (thyme and rosemary) from this:

To this:

Which were then added to the other marinade ingredients.

 

The birds were flattened to create more surface area for marinade attachment.

The Ziploc bag technique was used again, and I proceeded to enjoy a couple of hours of working on my basement.

As dinner hour approached, I gathered what was necessary for the side dish, the Grilled Figs With Arugula on page 79.

The recipe actually called for a couple of whiskings of the dressing, which I guess was to ensure that the honey was well distributed.  Thus, the dressing was the first thing to assemble.

The fresh figs (much softer on the outside than what I had anticipated) needed to have the tops removed and then halved lengthwise.

The honey and champagne vinegar were whisked together (separate from the dressing, which also had these ingredients), and then brushed on the cut side of the figs right before grilling.

Another ingredient that I purchased at Findlay was some domestic aged Asiago cheese.  The Guide instructs you to use a vegetable peeler to make ribbons of cheese to top the salad.

It worked pretty darned well!

The Cornish game hens were indeed quite done, and the honey had done what most sugar-based ingredients will do...it "caramelized."  The birds were so tender/juicy that one of them had a little difficulty coming off the grill in one piece.

The figs take only two minutes on the grill, so they were quickly done while the birds were resting.

Finally, I was able to plate and sit down with The Bride for a nice meal.

I truly enjoyed this meal.  First of all, Cornish game hen has absolutely no gamey taste at all.  In fact, if blindfolded, I would tell you it was just chicken.  What I really liked about the bird was that because it was so small, you get to eat the entire bird.  You can enjoy all the parts, flavors, and textures that make up the bird without getting too full in the process.  Regarding the flavors, I didn't really pick up on the honey, but the lime certainly came though, with just a hint of rosemary.  The Bride and I both ate all of our birds.  There is also something rather primal about the process of picking a whole bird clean, which added an element of intrigue to the meal.  The honey was also a little lost in the salad, but the champagne vinegar was a bit of a star, and the dressing was also quite tasty with the bird.  In all, the meal was a lot of fun and a positive first experience with a new food.

Impromptu Lunch

The Bride sent me a text this morning indicating that she desired salad for lunch, and inquired if I could grill some chicken for when she got home to add to the salad.  Realizing that there was an opportunity to burn through a recipe, I briefly skimmed for something I could do to chicken in a hurry, and arrived at the conclusion that a rub recipe would be best suited for this mission.  I selected the Type-A Rub on page 53.

I'll keep this quick.  Basically, you make the rub, put it on something like chicken, and then grill it.  The only "problem" I had was that the recipe called for mustard powder, and all I had was mustard seeds.

This was easily remedied with a visit to the spice grinder.

I figured I could mix everything together and grind the mustard seeds as well as the peppercorns all at the same time.

BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!

The rub was sprinkled on the chicken breasts and allowed to set in for an hour.

Lovely stuff, really.

I swear there were greens in there somewhere.

The rub is good, but nothing entirely special.  I probably won't be using it again, but it didn't disappoint.  I guess I could sum it up best by saying that it was tasty, but not exactly interesting.  Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to enjoy the rest of my day!

Eggplant^2 & Still No Escolar

It is now Week 2 of The Exercise, and so far it is improving.  The Sucking Of Wind continues, but is becoming less severe.  The Diet also continues, although last week there was the occasional slip-up, but hey, baby steps.  The Bride requested fish (surprise) which was good because it helps steer me away from red meat as much as possible.  I wanted to have an appetizer ready for consumption when she came home, and as I looked through that section I selected the Eggplant-Tomato Dip on page 82.

While the eggplant was on the grill being roasted whole, I prepped the rest of the ingredients for the dip.  It was all going to be pureed together, so I placed everything into my immersion blender's container.

I'll be honest...when I grabbed the eggplant with my tongs, I apparently burst an air bubble that had formed.   It made a noise comparable to a firecracker.  If anyone was watching me at the grill at that moment, they would have seen me jump back in a startled state.

I cut open the eggplant removed as much of the seeds as possible, and then diced up the remainder.

The cubes went into the container, and I was ready to make the dip.

WHHIIIRRRRR!!!

The recipe calls for toasted pita shells, but I had this wonderful sourdough boule at home that I didn't want to go to waste, so I used that instead.

I'm getting better at grilling bread.  Thanks Weber!

The sourdough pieces were then sliced into triangle shapes to approximate the pita chips, and below is what was awaiting The Bride when she got home from work.

The main dish that I picked out was the Escolar Swordfish With Grilled Vegetable Salad on page 310.  This is the second (and last) escolar recipe in The Guide, so I figured that I would try something different.  Last week I replaced that fish with tuna, and this time I wanted to try swordfish as the substitute.  This also had the advantage of not worrying about trying to leave the interior of the tuna rare.  Swordfish is supposed to be cooked through, which is a bit easier to accomplish.

The "vegetables" in this salad were eggplant, tomato, and fennel, which was quite similar to the appetizer.

The eggplant and fennel went onto the grill, and in the meantime I diced the tomato.  I cannot wait for my heirloom tomatoes to get into full stride.  I won't have to pay for tomatoes for the rest of the summer, and they taste SO much better!

I also had the time to assemble the dressing for the salad.

Proper grill marks were accomplished, and once the vegetables were cool enough to handle, they could be diced for the salad.

The trio of vegetables and their dressing were tossed together, while the fish took its turn on the grill.

More proper grill marks made it known that the fish was ready!

I split the fish into two halves and plated our dinner.

Just like last week, the appetizer stole the show.  I am still marveling at how delicious the dip was for how healthy it is.  There really are no "bad" ingredients, and also is quite malleable.  The simple addition of a spice mixture can completely change the flavor profile for the sake of variety.  As I remain on The Diet, this may make some more appearances.  The swordfish was tasty, but was just salt and pepper.  The dressing for the vegetable salad made it more interesting, and I found myself constantly placing swordfish on the same fork load as the vegetables to liven up the fish's flavor.  The vegetables themselves were also pleasant.  What I really enjoyed about them was that every element was able to be tasted.  In the same bite you could taste the eggplant, followed by the fennel, followed by the tomato.  It was fun.

Two Options

As the school year came to a close, I came to grips with the realization that I was facing two options: either it was time to purchase a set of bigger pants or it was time to change some lifestyles.  Thus, it was time to not only resume The Diet, but actually incorporate something new...The Exercise.  You can safely anticipate me complaining about both of those sometime soon.  Today was a good day for leisurely grocery shopping and taking my time with prep work.  The goal was to have an appetizer ready for when The Bride returned from work, and then prepare the main course afterwards.  As afternoon set in, I started getting back into the Better Lifestyle by starting the marinade for the Marinated Escolar Tuna With Red Pepper Relish on page 309.

Escolar is a wonderful fish that is often found in high-end sushi restaurants, especially noted for its oiliness (read: tastiness).  It is hard, however, to find here in Cincinnati at the fishmongers, so I settled for high-grade tuna.  The recipe called for a much longer marinade time compared to most.  Fish usually cannot be marinated for more than half an hour as the acidity will start to "cook" the proteins in the fish, which is the essence of ceviche.   Still, I always like to follow a recipe as close as possible the first time, unless I see something glaring that needs addressing.

Into the Ziploc bag!

The red pepper relish was next as I had some time on my hands.  You are supposed to roast the pepper on the grill, but since I was doing this an hour beforehand, I went with the range instead.  This is actually pretty easy to do if you have a gas range.  Just place the pepper on the grate and wait.

When the skin starts to blister and blacken, give it a quarter-turn.

When all sides are done, place in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap to let the pepper steam the rest of its skin off for a few minutes.  I know I've shown you this before, but it's been a while.

While the pepper was steaming, I prepped the rest of relish.

Once the pepper was cooled, I removed the skin, diced the flesh, and mixed it in with the relish.

I then moved on to appetizer, the Spicy Seafood Bowl on page 71.

 Let's skip ahead to the mise en place!

I sauteed the onions, added in the garlic and red pepper flakes, and then the rest of the stew ingredients (sans seafood stuff).  Basically, if you look at the above picture, it was glass bowl on left, second glass bowl, and then large porcelain bowl.  Have I mentioned that I LOVE mise en place?  The tomatoes needed a few minutes to break down.

Ten minutes later (pardon the steam in the picture) the stew was achieving the correct consistency.

While the sauce was reaching that point the seafood was on the grill, expect for the clams.  These were to be steamed open by the stew.

Cover the dish and let the steam work its magic.  Give the pan a shake from time to time.

The seafood came off the grill.  I learned that grilling cod is a pain.

I cut up the seafood and threw it all in the saucepan.

Here is the appetizer:

After we ate the stew (more on that in a bit) I cooked the tuna steak and plated our dinner.

First of all, the stew was AMAZING!   I think it very well could be in my Top Ten of All Time.  The flavors were off the chart, not to metion quite broad.  I'm actually at a bit of a loss as for how to properly describe how much I enjoyed this.  I did, however, make one critical error: I neglected to pick up some bread.  This dish screams for some toasted San Francisco sourdough bread.  I would also, in the future, double the stew ingredients.  I had cut the amount of seafood in half since it was just The Bride and me for dinner, and there was still barely any room in the pan.  

Regarding the tuna steak and red pepper relish...meh.  It was good, but forgettable.