I was going to post this as a Cookbook Challenge recipe so
you could all see that I’m continuing to make good use of each and every single
one of my cookbooks, thereby justifying the fact that I keep buying them. Alas!
I’ve already posted something from this particular book (funnily enough, also a
fish recipe), which is from the very first year that I discovered (now-defunct)
Cooking Light magazine.
Then I thought that I could talk about how much John has
been cooking lately and amuse you with tales of his kitchen adventures. But he
was at karate yesterday while I was cooking this, so that won’t work either.
 |
| Make up any story you like about this recipe. |
There’s no story about this one, unless you count the fact
that John loved it and I had to cut him off so we could all get some dinner,
which is completely in keeping with the price; halibut is an outrageous
$19/lb. right now and he only likes expensive fish. Having made this as written, I would be perfectly happy
trying it with cod or swai or just about any white fish on sale. Or shrimp. Or lobster….
ooooh, that would be fantastic. I totally should have done that instead.
Here's the the thing about expensive ingredients: No matter how much you spend at the grocery store, it's going to be less than you spend at a restaurant. The math might work out differently for people who are only cooking for one - which I suppose is a big part of the popularity of meal kit services - but I couldn't feed all 4 of us a seafood dinner at a restaurant for what I paid for that halibut. Nor could I eat it sitting in an armchair in my pajamas drinking sparkling wine with a friend, unless I could talk her into going to the restaurant as well. At home I don't have to worry about cross-contamination or having a waitress who thinks that soy sauce labeled "low sodium" is the same as soy sauce labeled "gluten-free," and I don't have to argue with my kids about pop, dessert, or going to a second restaurant afterwards because one of them can't find anything on the menu they like.
The whole thing came together in under 20
minutes with ingredients I had on hand. And yes, I realize that you might not
have lemongrass just lounging around in *your* freezer, but it’s been
surprisingly useful and I don’t have to go running all over hell's half acre looking
for specialized ingredients since I started making a monthly trip to the Asian
or Indian grocery store. I found that now that I spend all day cooking I'm not quite as interested in making something complicated or time-consuming on weeknights; and with the kids cooking more regularly, it makes sense to ease them into it with relatively straightforward recipes.
From Cooking Light Annual Recipes 2005, just like every
other thing we ate this week.
Sweet Black Pepper Fish
½ cup water, divided
3 tablespoons sugar
2 ½ tablespoons fish sauce
3 tablespoons minced peeled fresh lemongrass (I found a big
plastic tub of pre-peeled, pre-chopped lemongrass in the freezer section of the
Asian market. It beats the hell out of dealing with fresh lemongrass.)
1 tablespoon minced fresh garlic (since I was already taking
shortcuts, I used jarred garlic paste)
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper (ok, I actually did
grind this. For a dish with this much pepper it was worth the extra 20 seconds
of effort.)
1 cup coarsely chopped green onions
4 6-ounce halibut fillets
1 tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro
Combine ¼ cup water, sugar, and fish sauce in a large nonstick
skillet. Bring to a boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar.
Add the lemongrass, garlic, and pepper. Cook about 2 minutes
or until slightly reduced.
Add the remaining ¼ cup
water, onions, and fish, and cook over medium-high heat 7 minutes or until fish
flakes easily with a fork, turning once. Sprinkle with cilantro before serving.
