Cookbook Challenge #2: Halibut with Sake, Soy Sauce, and Ginger (Ni Mono)

It’s entirely coincidental that the second Cookbook Challenge recipe is also a fish dish. We really don’t eat all that much seafood (boo!) but we’re 2 for 2 right now: John liked this well enough to eat half a piece of fish. So maybe I’ll just keep trolling all my cookbooks for seafood recipes….

This is one that I probably picked up at a used bookstore or garage sale somewhere, knowing that I don’t have a lot of fish/seafood cookbooks and wanting to expand my repertoire. Honestly, this isn’t the way to do it. I’ve got a few things flagged for later in the year – David adores his smoker and there were definitely some intriguing treatments here – but mostly this served as an interesting reminder of how food trends change over time. I’m sure we’ll look back on the current era and roll our eyes at “artisanal” and all the microgreens and sweet dancing monkeys on a stick ALL THE DAMN KALE… but this felt pretty fussy. Lots of French sauces, multi-step garnishes, lots of cream and butter, etc. – just a bit more fabulous than I’m willing to be on most days. Some of that is probably because it’s a Bon Appetit publication, because Bon Appetit is also a bit more fabulous than I’m willing to be on most days. If Imaginary Mom is a Good Housekeeping-type of gal, this is Imaginary Glamorous Alternate Life Non-Mom cooking.

That being said, I’ll hang onto this one and tackle some of the smoker recipes later this year. I can’t imagine I’m going to be bold enough to try serving fish at a dinner party anytime soon, but I never say “Never” where food is concerned.

From “Cooking with Bon Appetit: Seafood,” copyright 1983. We served it over plain white rice with steamed snow peas and bok choy, but you could fancy it up with an assortment of Asian salads and it would be nice enough for company.

Halibut with Sake, Soy Sauce, and Ginger (Ni Mono)

8 small 1-inch thick halibut steaks (I used swai and it was great; any white fish would work here)
½ cup mirin
½ cup Japanese soy sauce
¼ cup sake
2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
½ teaspoon salt

Arrange fish in a single layer in large skillet. Combine mirin, soy sauce, sake, sugar, ginger, and salt and pour over fish. Cover, place over medium heat, and simmer until fish is opaque. 

I Have 99 (Food) Problems But Fruit Isn’t One of Them: Pork Chops or Chicken with Apples

My son’s capriciousness is not limited to fish. I don’t know from day to day whether or not he likes pork, and invariably I’ll make pork chops on what is clearly a Chicken Day. And if, god forbid, I make chicken, he’ll declare that he’s tired of the same thing all the time and could I mix it up a bit? The solution, of course, is to make whatever I want or whatever is in the freezer or whatever is on sale. I give the illusion of choice by asking him which he prefers when I make the grocery list, but I’d be lying if I said that I actually listen to this (he always asks for the same 3 things anyway, and everyone else in the family is sick of them).

The one constant in his diet is apples. Never, ever, ever in the history of the world has there been a kid who loves apples like he does. Some people budget for junk food or restaurant dinners or wine; I have a fruit budget. We could literally have an orchard in the back yard and not keep up. I fully expect swarms of fruit flies to follow him around during the warmer months, and briefly considered whether a medieval-style pomander of vinegar and dish soap worn around his neck would address the problem as handily as it does my garbage disposal.

Imagine my delight when I came across this recipe in a recent issue of Cooking Light (September 2016, and I have I mentioned enough times that you really ought to subscribe?). Here I have a 50/50 chance of picking a meat that he will eat; it is ridiculously good, takes almost no effort, and is nice enough that you could serve it to company. It scales up nicely and holds well at room temperature if your family is eating in shifts due to someone’s sports schedule; throw a green veg on the side and you won’t even miss the starchy stuff.

Chicken or Pork Chops with Apples 

1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil, divided

4 bone-in pork chops or boneless, skinless chicken breasts

Kosher salt

Freshly ground black pepper, divided

1/2 cup  chicken stock

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

1 tablespoon chopped fresh sage

1 1/2 teaspoons chopped fresh rosemary

2 medium apples, thinly sliced

1 small red onion, thinly vertically sliced

Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add 1 1/2 teaspoons oil to pan. Sprinkle meat with salt and pepper, then add to the pan and cook 5 minutes on each side or until done. Remove from the pan and set aside.

Combine stock and mustard and whisk to combine. Add remaining 1 tablespoon oil to pan. Add sage, rosemary, apple, onion, and a bit more salt and pepper to the pan and cook 4 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in stock/mustard mixture. Return meat to the pan and cook 3 minutes or until liquid is reduced by half. 

Chicken Glop

I’ve always found it interesting that many cultures don’t have separate foods that are just for breakfast. Like my daughter, they eat the same kinds of things for breakfast as they do for lunch and dinner rather than the modified English country breakfast we’re accustomed to. As a person who doesn’t eat gluten or dairy and who really doesn’t like eggs, Anna’s breakfast options are pretty limited when we go out; her favorite Coney Island breakfast is lemon rice soup. This dish fits the bill perfectly for her: easy to reheat, substantive enough to get her through to lunchtime, and squishy enough to eat when you’re half-asleep on the way to school.

Hey! Did you know that Glop was a Marvel comic book character? I didn't.

The original Chicken Glop was based on a recipe for a Middle Eastern dish called halim - basically a meat porridge - in which I substituted millet for the barley (and a Cornish hen for the chicken, but Cornish Hen Glop doesn’t have quite the same ring to it). It was tasty but took a while to make on the stovetop, so I was super happy when Cooking Light published a slow-cooker chicken congee in a recent issue. I’m always on the lookout for good slow cooker meals, which make David’s life a lot easier on weeknights when I’m at work and he’s schlepping the kids to various sports practices. It also helps keep him and John safe, since Anna post-swim practice is sometimes hungry enough to resort to cannibalism if food isn’t produced quickly enough.

We liked the original Chicken Glop, but this version is just fantastic. I’ve literally eaten it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the last 2 days, and I’m really sad that it’s almost gone now and I’m going to make more as soon as I buy more chicken. This is definitely going to be a coffee can recipe now that the coffee can is an actual binder in the kitchen instead of the electronic version that David alleges he maintained for years.

Adapted with minor variations from Cooking Light magazine, January/February 2017, where it is more respectably named Slow-Cooker Chicken Congee. I recently renewed my subscription after a 10-year break and I can’t recommend it highly enough to everyone that cooks. At least half of our weeknight dinners for the last 6 months have come from here.

Chicken Glop

8 cups chicken stock (homemade or unsalted)
1 cup uncooked basmati or jasmine rice
1 tbsp fresh ginger, grated (we keep the pre-grated jars in the fridge for John’s favorite ginger chicken, which I can’t believe I haven’t posted yet. We literally eat it every week.)
1 whole cut-up fryer
1 star anise pod (another great reason to buy your spices in bulk rather than pre-measured jars)

Put all the ingredients in your slow cooker and cook on Low for 6 ½ hours or so. When it’s done, take out the chicken, pull the meat off the bones, and put it back into the rice. Cook on High for about 30 minutes.

Seriously. That’s it.

If you use a slow cooker liner, which is basically a plastic bag that goes into the insert and makes cleanup a zillion times easier, you will be much happier using your slow cooker. You can find them near the plastic wrap and foil at the grocery store. 

The original recipe calls for a Thai chile in the slow cooker, and topping your bowl with chopped peanuts, green onions, hot chili oil or Sriracha, watercress springs, and diced avocado. And I bet that would really elevate this dish and be delicious; maybe I’ll try it next time. But it’s a lot more likely that I’m doing to ladle it into a bowl and eat it as-is, maybe with the little salt and pepper, because that’s what Chicken Glop is all about. 

Cookbook Challenge #1: Cornmeal-crusted Snapper, or Next Time Fish

I have a lot of cookbooks. One hundred sixty-nine, in fact, which is actually fewer than I thought (and therefore is not too many, as some might suggest). Some of them are souvenirs from places I’ve visited; some are holdovers from the period during which I couldn’t figure out how to cancel the Cookbook of the Month Club; some are clearly intended as jokes; and some are indispensable and beloved, full of written notes and splattered pages, a diary of our family dinners.

But I’m in the middle of a housecleaning binge, so anything that takes up shelf/closet/floor space needs to earn its keep and justify the room it takes up. I have a hard time letting go of cookbooks even when I haven’t really used them much – you never know when a recipe will come in handy! – so it clearly makes more sense to start dusting them off and using them. With that in mind, I’m starting a personal cookbook challenge: to make and post a recipe from every single one of the 169 cookbooks currently gracing my shelves.

Recipe #1 comes from Prime Time Emeril by Emeril Lagasse, he of “Bam!” fame. That was early in the celebrity chef stage. I’d like think that we’ve all calmed the hell down a little bit since then; and I’m not going to let the memory of my friend’s brother screaming ‘BAM!” at the top of his lungs every time he (over)seasoned a piece of fish one summer ruin this cookbook for me. I’d been assuming it was a gift from friends some years ago, the source of a rich and amazing risotto recipe that we loved back when everyone in the house ate dairy….but I was paging through it looking for that recipe, and realized that it’s from a completely different Emeril cookbook. I had no idea I have 2. I have no idea where this came from. Possibly Cookbook of the Month Club.

I’m always on the lookout for fish recipes that my son will eat. Invariably I’ll find something and make it and he’ll hate it with a full-on, Calvin-pretending-to-die-at-the-dinner-table fervor. So the next time I make fish I assume he’ll eat leftovers from a different meal and buy a correspondingly smaller piece of fish, and he will loveloveLOVE it and nobody gets as much dinner as they want. This is a Next Time dish, because he loved it and ate a whole big piece of red snapper and Anna had to eat soup (also from this cookbook, btw) after dinner.

Cornmeal-Crusted Fish

½ cup flour (I used Bob’s Red Mill all-purpose GF mix)
1 ¼ tsp salt
2 ½ tsp seasoning (more on this in a minute)
1 egg
¾ cup masa harina
3 tbsp olive oil
4 8-oz fish fillets. The original recipe called for redfish; I used snapper; but any thin white fillet would work

Blend ¼ cup of the flour, ½ tsp salt, and 1 tsp of the seasoning mix and pour onto plate.

Whisk the egg with 2 tbsp water, ¼ tsp salt, and ½ tsp of the seasoning mix. Pour onto another plate.

Mix the masa harina, the remaining ¼ cup flour, ½ tsp salt, and 1 tsp of the seasoning mix. Pour onto a third plate. At this point, it’s helpful if the plates are lined up next to the stove so you can move the fish along in a little assembly line.

Dust each fillet with the flour, dip in the egg wash, and coat with the masa harina mixture.

Heat the olive oil over medium-high heat in a pan large enough to hold the fish without crowding. Pan fry the fish until golden brown, about 3-4 minutes per side. Serve immediately.

About the seasoning: The original recipe calls for Emeril’s Original Essence or Creole Seasoning. (Every time I read this all I can think is “essence of gelfling!” from the Dark Crystal.) I assume that you can buy this in stores but he also gives a recipe for making your own mix. I took out the paprika and cayenne, so the oregano and thyme were pretty noticeable; I’m guessing it’s quite a lot different if you follow the recipe as written. I bet it’s delicious. Please let me know when you try it.

2 ½ tbsp. paprika (yes, paprika has flavor! If yours doesn’t, throw it out and go buy the good stuff from Penzey’s)
2 tbsp salt
2 tbsp garlic powder
1 tbsp fresh-ground pepper
1 tbsp onion powder
1 tbsp cayenne (and you should certainly feel free to adjust this to taste. ‘Cause damn.)
1 tbsp dried oregano
1 tbsp dried thyme

Mix thoroughly and store in an airtight container. Use within 3 months. 

Is It Bread? Is it a Vegetable? Is it a Casserole? It’s…. Corn Thing!

We’ve all had those days, the kind of days with Noun Trouble:

“What did you end up getting your son for Christmas?”

“That thing he wanted.”

“What should I wear to the holiday party?”

“That thing. It’s cute.”

“What are we having with the tacos?”

“That corn thing.”

(I’m sure there are plenty of circumstances under which Noun Trouble becomes an actual communication problem, but this isn’t one of them – nobody else could figure out what to call it, either.)

In an effort to satisfy the hungry *and* the picky and still have lots of time to hang out with friends on New Year’s Eve, we opted to set up a taco bar and let everyone fend for themselves. This ludicrously easy side put in an appearance and made everyone happy, and there’s no actual dairy in cream-style corn so if you’ve been living large over the holidays and cheating on your involuntary food restrictions, you can proceed with similar abandon here and not even feel bad afterwards. 

I'm not usually a food-from-cans person. I'm sure there's an amazing version of this that you could make with actual corn scraped from an actual cob, and some heavy cream, and all sorts of extra steps and seasonings and such. Some days I adore recipes like that. Today is not that day. Today is a day when I want to produce comfort food with a minimum of time and effort so I don't look absolutely underprepared to have 30 people in my house and I can spend all my time talking to them and mixing margaritas instead of washing dishes. 

The chiles are optional but you should include them; they add flavor but not heat and hey – they’re an actual vegetable, so if you’re trying to rationalize your recent food choices you can comfort yourself with that teeny little speck of green. You healthy person, you!

From Quick Mexican Cooking by Cyndi Duncan and Georgia Patrick, which also contains an amazing and very easy recipe for enchilada sauce that will make you swear off the canned stuff forever. This isn't my usual style of cookbook but these 2 recipes alone have kept the book on my shelf for 18 years. 

Corn Thing

1 egg, beaten

¾ cup milk (or fake milk of your choice)

1 15-oz can cream-style corn

1 11-oz can whole kernel corn, drained

1 4-oz can diced green chiles

1/3 cup oil

2 tablespoons sugar (optional)

½ cup shredded cheddar cheese (or fake cheese, but I’d almost skip the cheese instead)

¾ cup cornmeal

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt (because you haven’t gotten enough from all the canned stuff)

Heat the oven to 400. Spray a 9x9 baking dish with cooking spray.

Combine the egg, milk, corn(s), chiles, and oil. Add the remaining ingredients, stir to mix, and pour into the prepared pan. Bake 30-40 minutes.