Fish Tacos

Meyer Lemon Curd

I actually used only two Meyer lemons, since they were as large as grapefruits! I'm surprised at how really easy this was to make!

Recipe based on www.RecipeGirls.com's write-up of a Gourmet recipe.

3 to 4 meyer lemons
1/2 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1/4 stick butter (the original recipe suggested 1 stick butter, but I tried 1/2 a stick the first time, and 1/4 stick the second time I made this recipe and both come out fine)

Zest the lemons (there should be able 2 tsp zest). Juice the lemons (about 1/2 cup juice). Whisk together the zest, juice, sugar, eggs, and butter. Place the the mixture over a double burner. Keep whisking until the mixture has thickened enough to coat the back of a spoon or until it is 160 degrees Fahrenheit. (The receipe suggests that this should take only 5 to 6 minutes, but it took me more than double that). Remove mixture from heat, and force curd through a fine collander, which is set in another bowl. Serve warm or cool completely. It thickens after being cooled in the refrigerator.

Straight from pan, its pourable and bright yellow:

Engrish: Lame Chops

Hummus

The secret to making creamy hummus? Use lots of tahini!

1 can chickpeas
1 meyer lemon
a few pinched of salt
1/4 jar tahini
olive oil

Strain chickpeas from can liquid--save the liquid and do not wash (because there is lots of flavor in the liquid). Blend these ingredients: chickpeas, juice from 1 lemon, tahini, a few pinches of salt, a drizzle of olive oil. Add the reserved chickpea liquid as needed to achieve the proper consistency.

Optional: Serve garnished with smoked paprika and/or roasted pine nuts, and a drizzle of olive oil.

Spinach Triangles

This is similar to Spanakopita, except I used Gruyere instead of feta.

1 package phyllo dough
1 stick butter
1 bunch spinach leaves
1 large yellow onion
a pinch of grated nutmeg
salt
3 dried red chilies
4 cloves garlic
1 small block Gruyere cheese, grated
oregano

Defrost phyllo dough as suggested on the package (e.g. leave it on the counter for a few hours).

Mince the onion, and saute with some olive oil and butter. While the onions are sweating, peel and mince the garlic. Add the minced garlic to the onions and also add a pinch of salt. Use a pair of kitchen scissors to cut the red chilies into flakes over the saute pan. Continue sauteing until the onions are nearly caramelized (about 20 minutes).

While the onions are cooking, remove dirt from the spinach by filling a sink with cold water and soaking the spinach. Remove any large stems. Boil some water in a large pot. Drain the spinach and blanch it by quickly immersing in the boiling water. Drain the spinach immediately and rinse with cold water until the spinach is cold. Squeeze as much water as you can out of the spinach (this is so that the triangles don't get watery). Mince spinach and set aside.

When the onions are cool, mix them with the minced spinach, the grated cheese, a pinch of freshly grated nutmeg, a pinch of salt, and some minced oregano. Since only a small amount of filling is in each triangle, I seasoned the mixture heavily. Taste and adjust seasonings.

Melt 1 stick butter. Preheat oven to 350 or 400. Prepare to damp cloth towels to store the phyllo dough between, and set up your work area with a pastry brush, the filling, a spoon, the melted butter, and a few baking trays. When you are ready, open the phyllo dough and cut it into long strips about 4 inches tall, and 10 inches long. (I did this by cutting the dough horizontally across the middle of the short side, and then by cutting each piece horizontally in half one more time). Put the dough in between the towels.

Take 2 sheets of dough and lay it on your work area. Lightly brush them with butter, and place one sheet on top of the other. Place a spoonful of filling near the end of the dough. Fold the dough into triangles, similar to how you would fold a flag. Brush some butter on the outside. Place the triangle on a baking tray (the triangles will not expand so they can be fairly close together). Work quickly since phyllo dough can dry out. Continue making triangles until you run out of dough or filling.

Bake at 350 or 400 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes. The phyllo dough may color quickly, but it doesn't seem to burn to easily, so it is not necessary to worry about the exact time. Cook until the insides are warm, and all of the phyllo layers are flaky.

These appear to freeze reasonably well. If you need to make these ahead of time, then I recommend freezing them raw, rather than baking them ahead of time because the baked triangles don't stay as crispy 24 hours later. Simply, bake the frozen triangles right out of the freezer with no defrosting for 20 - 25 minutes.

Sea Bass en Papillote

Well the good news is that I'm even faster at folding these packets than I used to be. The bad new is that I still can't time this correctly. I put it in the oven for 10 minutes at 400, torn it open, and decided it needed 10 more minutes... Luckily after that it was cooked perfectly and really moist!

Cucumber Raita

I didn't use onion, green chili, mint, or cilantro since I didn't have any around. However I had some left over green chutney from an Indian restaurant which I mixed in, and the cilantro in that was mild enough for my taste, even though I don't like cilantro.

plain yogurt
1 large cucumber or a few small ones
salt
optional: 1 finely chopped green chili or a small amount of chopped onion
optional garnishes: mint, cilantro, chili powder or cayenne pepper

The basic recipe is to peel and seed 1 large cucumber. Then grate the cucumber. Lightly salt the grated cucumber and let it sit for 30 minutes until it is watery. Squeeze out the water. This step is to make sure that the cucumber won't make the yogurt watery. Taste the cucumber--it if it really salty then rinse it and let it sit for a while longer and re-squeese. Mix the salted cucumber with yogurt and let sit for at least half an hour in the fridge so that the flavors combine. Add the onion and green chili if you are using them. Taste and adjust for salt.

Before serving you can mix in freshly chopped cilantro leaves, and mint leaves, and optionally also garnish with chili powder or cayenne pepper

Khichri (Parsi rice and lentils)

This was inspired by the two recipes for khichri in My Bombay Kitchen: Traditional and Modern Parsi Home Cooking by Niloufer Ichaporia King. The little stories in cookbook are wonderfully interesting, and the recipes are different from things that I'm familiar with (they are a combination of Indian and Persian). I first noticed it because it won a James Beard award, so borrowed a copy from the library, but I think I'm going to buy one so I can have it in my permanent collection! NPR has an article about the cookbook and some of the recipes posted.

King always cooks her rice on the stove top; I always use a rice cooker. In addition, she suggests adding some softened onions to the khichri, but I didn't have some on hand. I also used a mixture of half rice, and half lentils and mung beans. The lentils cook in the same amount of time as the rice, so they turned out very soft, but the mung beans were a bit crunchier then I'd like--next time I use mung beans, I would soak the rice/bean mixture for 30 minutes before cooking to help soften the beans (I think I was actually supposed to use split & husked mung beans, not the whole beans). In addition, I've also reduced the size of the recipe to make only 1 cup.

My Khichri: (makes 1 cup cooked rice)
1 part basmati rice
1 part red lentils (masur dal) or husked mung beans (mung dal) or a mixture of both
1 tbsp oil or ghee (I used olive oil -- which isn't parsi at all, but I don't have any ghee)
1/2 stick cinnamon
2 or 3 whole cloves (I didn't have any so I used a very small pinch of clove powder)
6 black peppercorns, ground (or a few twists of grated pepper)
2 cardamom pods
2 red chiles, cut in half
1/4 tsp turmeric
a pinch of salt

Wash the rice, lentils and, beans in several changes of water until the water is almost clear. Check and make sure that the mixture doesn't have any stones. Add the appropriate amount of water (my rice cooker has water lines according to how much rice is being cooked). Add the remaining ingredients. You can either cook the mixture right away, or if you would like an even softer khichri, let the mixture soak for up to 30 minutes. Cook the mixture in a rice cooker, following the machine's normal directions. When the rice is done, fluff it gently.

Seasoned Pressed Tofu with Carrots and Celery

I had planned to use the grated celery and carrots with tofu noodles, but the tofu noodles were too old to be eat. So instead I used the vegetables with some pressed tofu, and I'm really pleased with the results! The shape of the carrot and celery "noodles" are a nice contrast with the tofu slices. I went for minimalistic seasonings on this--which seems to work well with the dish.

For more information about seasoned pressed tofu see here or here.

1/2 block seasoned pressed tofu
1 large carrot
2 stalks celery
3 dried red chili pepper
a dash of Chinese rice wine (about 1/8 cup ish)
salt
1 tsp Chinese BBQ paste (I used vegetarian)
1-2 tsp hot chili oil
1 tsp peanut oil

Peel the outer layers of the carrot. Cut the carrot and celery into pieces about 4 inches long. Use a manoline to juilenne the carrot and celery into long thin strips approximately the thickness of spaghetti (I used a Benriner Japanese Mandoline with the medium toothed blade). Slice the tofu block into slices about 1 or 2 mm thick.

Place some oil in a saute pan on high. When the oil is hot, cut the three chili peppers in half and add to the pan. Add carrot and celery "noodles". Saute for one or two minutes, until the vegetables soften. Add a dash of rice wine and let the liquid boil off. Move the vegetables to the side, and add 1 tsp Chinese BBQ paste in an open section of the pan. Saute the bbq paste for 15 seconds to release aromas. Mix the bbq paste thoroughly with the vegetables. Add the tofu slices and mix in the hot chili oil. Continue cooking for one to three minutes, until the tofu is hot and the vegetables are cooked but not limp (i.e. the equivalent of "al dente" for vegetables). Turn off heat, add add peanut oil. (Peanut oil is added after cooking, since it can burn.)

Shrimp Donburi

Follow recipe for Chicken Donburi, except that shrimp cooks much faster than chicken (shrimp cooks in about 1 minute or less).

I used brown rice, and chives instead of scallions. Since I didn't have any dashi (which would have been preferably since its fish based), I used chicken stock and also added 1/4 tsp fish sauce--be very careful to only add a tiny bit of fish sauce because it is very extremely salty.