Why even try, when it'll just happen all over again? I guess I just love the punishment.
Speaking of loving punishment, I tried to take some pictures of myself today. Yeah, not my best idea ever. I have tried this before, and it never really works out. I always look kinda cross eyed. This one was my best effort, and I say best effort because it's not exactly a winner. Ah well.
Anyway, back to the food! That's the important stuff!
As you know, earlier today on my town outing I bought some very fresh halibut filets at the fish market. I wanted to make them tonight, obviously, to get the most delectable flavor out of them possible. I did my usual fridge rummaging and found two massive artichokes, fresh spinach, strawberries and feta. Sounds like dinner!
I started by making the salad. I have always wanted to do the whole strawberries with cheese and spinach kind of salad, but the family always shoots it down. Today i just didn't ask! (heh, now I'm getting sneaky! Bwahaha) I filled four individual salad bowls with spinach, and sliced a couple of strawberries over each one. Then I crumbled a small amount of feta, and sprinkled on some sunflower seeds for crunch. I just love the way the red and green look together!
To set off the flavors of this salad I adapted a recipe I had found for brown sugar balsamic dressing. We didn't have any brown sugar, so I used 1/2 cup olive oil, 1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar, 1 tsp white sugar, and 2 tsp honey. It was just right! Not too overpowering, but it added great flavor contrast!
Next I got some cous cous ready to go. I just measured out one cup into a bowl, added some sea vegetable and sesame sprinkle seasoning, some dried dill, lemon pepper and 1 Tbsp olive oil, and set aside for later.
I stuck the ginormous artichokes, halved, into the pressure cooker. Thank gawd for pressure cookers! 10 minutes to cook a choke?! Oh yeah! Before I sealed down the lid on these babies I added a couple cloves chopped garlic to the water, it adds a great subtle flavor!
Once I had started the chokes I took the filets out to the grill. I hadn't realized how massive they were! I asked for enough for 4 adults, this is enough for 6 or 7!
Oh well, I think I'll live!
I heated up the grill, oiled up my hunks (of fish, that is), and seasoned them with herbamare ocean.
I turned the grill down to medium, made sure it was oiled, and slapped the fish on. Ooh, what a nice sizzle!
I even had grill marks going on! I AM THE GRILL MASTER! (master...master...can you hear it echoing like I'm the Master of the Universe?)
I ran inside while the fish was cooking and boiled some water. I dumped 2 cups of boiling water over the cous cous in it's bowl, covered it and went back to check the grill.
I got the fish off the grill with only a little sticking, but it was perfectly done! Yay me! I took the lid off the cous cous, fluffed it with a fork, and mixed in some parmesan cheese to make it all gooey-good.
The chokes were done too, so I pulled the salads out of the fridge and called everyone to dinner. My FIL cracked open a bottle of his wine, and we all loaded up our plates.
Everything was sooo good! I have to say, this was my most successful fish-cooking experience, and I'm pretty darn happy about it! (not to mention being happy that I didn't completely jack up $30 worth of fresh fish!). The salad was even a hit with the family! Wonder of wonders! (it must have been because of the wine!)
All in all it was a pretty successful meal! Speaking of success...Just a note here, I wanted to say how much fun I'm having with this food blogging business! I feel more inspired to make better food, and to make it look better. I want to cook and bake more and more often! I find myself reading other peoples blogs more often too, and there are some great people with wonderful ideas out there! So thanks to readers and fellow bloggers alike! I think I like the changes that are happening in my life! (happy dance!)
What is your favorite way to prepare just-caught fresh fish?
I just had spinach salad with fruit yesterday for lunch! What a coincidence. Actually the fruit was in the home-made salad dressing that I made.
ReplyDeleteI will be posting the actual recipe on my blog soon, but it consists of mostly tomato, orange juice, lemon juice, olive oil and some seasonings - blend it all together and you have a great low fat, great tasting fruity salad dressing for baby spinach or any other type of salad.
Ooh, Jedopi, that sounds SO good! I'll have to keep an eye out for that post. We have salad pretty much every night, so I'll have lots of opportunities. Thanks for your comment! I love hearing from you!
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