pistachio-encrusted halibut

The most amazing thing happened to me the other day.

It was an 80 degree spring day in DC.  I set off for a post-work jog with my friend Travis, using our steady, "conversational" pace to sound off on my latest irritation in a seemingly endless string of white girl problems and karmic disasters. (It's not called a "conversational" pace for nothing.  And I was taking advantage of a captive audience.)  As we were rounding the Washington Monument and I was finishing the story, (and he was, more likely than not, telling me to quit whining), I found a folded twenty dollar bill on the ground.  No, really.  I stopped and said, "AND THEN I FOUND TWENTY DOLLARS!"  (Which also happens to be my favorite punch line for a terrible story.)  He couldn't believe it, and neither could I.  With the volume of tourists on the National Mall that afternoon, finding money on the Mall was even more of a rarity.  I giddily speculated that maybe my luck was finally turning around, and good karma had returned to my side once again.

Unexpectedly $20 richer, I decided to treat myself and see what kind of overpriced shenanigans were being pushed at my neighborhood Whole Foods.  A fancy cheese and a bottle of wine?  Nah - cheese needs crackers, and I am just as happy with a $10 bottle of wine as a $40 one.  And I don't need a whole bottle to myself.  A nice piece of steak?  Eh, I want a grill for that.  So I wandered over to the seafood counter and started chatting up the fishmonger.  Now, as anybody who goes to the grocery store with me will tell you, I am really friendly with grocery store employees.  Some will say unnecessarily so.  For example, one time I was buying the mini bottles of Gallo cooking wine at Safeway - I don't generally drink white wine, so the mini bottles are convenient for cooking.  I got to the checkout and the checkout girl started telling me about how much she loves the "personal bottles".  Yes, apparently she drinks them.  She wanted to know all about the party I was going to that night, and told me to be careful because people might be trying to slip a mini bottle into their purse.  I didn't have the heart to tell her that I was using it to make fondue.   

But, that instance aside, normally grocery store employees can be very knowledgeable and helpful, and it always pays to ask questions if you're buying something unfamiliar.  If you're sincere, not only can you get discounted bananas, but they are eager to help you pick out a good cheese or a loaf of fresh bread.  They can direct you to the right wine to make mulled wine (just buy the cheapest box, but not the "nasty stuff old people drink out of the jug").  Butchers just love helping young ladies find a proper cut of meat for whatever it is they are cooking, and they generally deliver a nice compliment along with your T-bone.  Fishmongers see the seafood come in every morning, and they know what is the freshest, the tastiest, and the most in-demand.  This fishmonger sold me on a nice piece of halibut.  He just went on and on about the damn fish for a good five minutes.  About how halibut season has just started up in Alaska, and this was the first shipment of the season.  About how it came in that morning and how its eyes were just bulging out and looking him right in the mug.  (TMI?  Apparently that's the sign of a super-fresh fish.)  About how his knife slid through it like butter when he was cutting it into filets.  Now, I love halibut, but I never buy it because it is prohibitively expensive.  $24 a pound is just ridiculous - who eats this stuff, anyway?  Luckily, Whole Foods was running a special on halibut ($16/pound) to welcome the season, so I went ahead and splurged - I bought myself a whole pound, enough for three good-sized filets.

With my first filet, I made a quick dinner that I saw in April's Cooking Light.  As I cannot have breaded fish, I had been on the lookout for an encrusted fish recipe that did not contain any gluten or sugar.  This recipe, which originally called for hazelnuts, fit the bill.  However, I used pistachios instead, as it was what I had on hand, and I am not wild about hazelnuts in the first place.  But y'all.....this fish was so tasty.  Halibut is slightly sweet, so the salty, nutty crust is a nice addition.  However, this fish was such high quality, so delicious, it melted in your mouth and flaked into pieces with the mere touch of a fork.  For my next filet, I am just going to poach it in some white wine or broth with a bit of lemon - it really doesn't need much.  My fishmonger friend was right - it was really an incredible piece of fish.      

So today you have two morals to my story.  Moral #1: Always be nice to grocery store employees, especially the butchers and the fish mongers.  They can sell you a great piece of meat or fish.  Moral #2: Money may not grow on trees, but apparently it sprouts out from concrete.  And Travis, I guess I owe you a beer after our race on Sunday...it's the least I can do.

Pistachio-encrusted halibut with roasted asparagus
Adapted from Cooking Light (April 2012)
Serves 1

for the fish
1 teaspoon butter
1 teaspoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 six-ounce halibut filet, skinned
2 tablespoons finely chopped pistachios
salt & pepper, to taste

for the asparagus
1 garlic  
1 handful of asparagus spears, maybe 6 
Cooking spray (olive oil preferred, I use a misto) 
1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme 
2 thin slices lemon


1.  Preheat oven to 400.
2.  Brush tops of filets with olive oil and sprinkle both sides evenly with pinches of salt and freshly cracked pepper.  Press the top of the filet onto a plate of chopped pistachios, pressing gently to adhere.
3.  Heat butter in nonstick skillet over medium-high heat.  Place fish, nuts side down, in the skillet. (Alternatively, you could use olive oil or cooking spray, but I like the added richness from the butter.  It's not that much, anyway.)  Cook three minutes, or until browned.  Turn fish over gently and cook four minutes, or until desired doneness.
4.  Meanwhile, spray asparagus with cooking spray and toss with garlic, salt, pepper, and thyme.  Lay two thin slices of lemon atop the asparagus.  Roast on 400 for 8 minutes or until crisp-tender. Pin It Now!

cilantro lime pesto

pan-seared tilapia with cilantro-lime pesto

I’ve been on an Italian kick recently.  My computer background is a picture of the Cinque Terre, and I've been eating eggplant lasagna like it's the only food on Earth.  I think I am just getting excited for my upcoming trip!  Bollie, Jamie and I are peacing out in 34 days, but who's counting?  To continue my Italian binge, last night I went to Faccia Luna in Arlington for dinner.  Per the waiter's suggestion, I opted for the agnolotti con mozzarella - a sundried tomato ravioli filled with fresh mozzarella and smothered in a basil cream sauce.  It was very heavy, but not a huge portion, so it was great.  I'll spare you the details since I gave you a pizza post and a lasagna post back-to-back, and we'll switch gears to......fish!

Forget tuna - tilapia is the real chicken of the sea.  It's a mild, flaky white fish, not super "fishy" and versatile enough to be paired with a wide range of flavors.  Also like chicken, it's a nice canvas for any seasoning, accompaniment, or occasion.  If you don't like chicken, think of tilapia as the little black dress of fishies - it can be dressed up or dressed down, you can take it anywhere, and, when done right, it works for anyone.

I like tilapia for an occasional weeknight meal because it takes just a few minutes to grill it on my George Foreman, or just twenty minutes in the oven, sealed in a foil pouch with veggies.  A few weeks ago, I made a cilantro lime pesto that I thought would go great with a cumin-spiced tilapia filet.  The inspiration for this pesto was completely utilitarian.  I hate wasting leftovers, but I especially dislike tossing herbs.  I had a large bunch of fresh cilantro that I used to make black bean and corn enchiladas and tilapia with mango salsa.  Cilantro is one of those herbs that I don't use on a regular basis, so I wanted to find something that would use it all up and would keep well.

I had heard about people making pesto out of various greens and nuts, but I'm skeptical of anything that replaces basil and pinenuts.  Whitney and I actually made a pesto with spinach and almonds once and hated it.  (We used a recipe from Rachel Ray, which she made look amazing on Food Network but was the most flavorless clump of green oil I've ever had in my life.  You've been warned.)  However, I thought I would give it a try using cilantro since the herb's robust flavor would give so much depth and definition to any dish.  But, people have very strong feelings about this "Chinese parsley", kind of like brussels sprouts and beets!  (Side note: Does anyone know why it's called "Chinese" parsley?  I have never seen cilantro in Chinese food; it's more synonymous with Mexicali cooking to me.)

I adapted this recipe from Real Simple, swapping out the lemon juice for lime juice (because nothing goes with cilantro better than lime), added almonds (because can it really be a pesto without nuts?), and omitted the sesame oil (because that seems pretty fru-fru, and I didn't happen to have any).  I froze the pesto because I didn't have any immediate use for it, and it froze well.   It was a real hit with some grilled tilapia (marinated in cumin, olive oil, and lime juice.)  The pesto would also be great with shrimp and linguine, or, as Whitney suggested, as a sauce for fish tacos.

Cilantro Lime Pesto, adapted from Real Simple
Serves 2-4

3 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped, or 2-3 teaspoons minced garlic
2 cups fresh cilantro, lightly packed
2 tablespoons lime juice
1/4 cup good quality olive oil
1/4 cup slivered almonds
salt & pepper, to taste

1.  Toss garlic, cilantro, lime juice, and slivered almonds in a food processor and pulse to combine. 
2.  Slowly drizzle in olive oil until mixture has reached desired consistency.
3.  Season with salt and pepper, to taste.

I'd like to wish a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my lovely friend Sarah!

Thank you for always making me want to be a better friend.

24 will be a fabulous year, I'm sure of it.

P.S.  Thank you to Whitney for catching a pretty silly mistake within 10 minutes of posting this entry.  I didn't sleep much last night and went to Hot Yoga this morning so I'm tired and a little over-zen'd (i.e. not as anal about my entries).

Have you all ever made a pesto sauce from something other than basil and pinenuts?  Leave your experiences or ideas in the comments! Pin It Now!

salmon burgers with japanese coleslaw

Salmon burgers with Japanese coleslaw

I know what you're thinking.  Another Asian recipe?  I'm sorry, but I never get tired of Asian food.  When in doubt, wok it out.  (Rita, that was for you.)

I like salmon, but I don't buy it very often because the good stuff is expensive and I'm just a lowly peon trying to get by in this overpriced city.  The last time I was in Norfolk, my mom's friend Kelly was raving about Costco's salmon burgers, and I knew I had to give them a try!   On my next trip to the mega-warehouse, I beelined to the frozen foods section (because really, who has time to waste at Costco?) and picked some up.  At $15.99 for a twelve-pack, I was pleasantly surprised at how affordable they were.  At last, high-brow cuisine comes to the hoi polloi, via the most popular American dish ever created - the burger!  These babies have no breadcrumbs or other filler in them - I hate it when crabcakes and salmon burgers are loaded down with flavor-killers!  The only ingredients in this burger were salmon, water, canola oil, egg, and spices.

Best of all, these salmon burgers are good for our planet and good for our bodies; they're made from wild-caught Alaskan salmon, not the flavorless, nutritionally inferior, farm-raised Atlantic stuff that's injected with pink food coloring. Some of you may be surprised to see that comment coming out of my mouth.  I am skeptical of the words "organic", "cage-free", "range-free", "grass-fed", blah blah blah, and I do not consider myself a staunch proponent of those products.  Sure, I often buy cage-free eggs or an organic something or other because it may taste better or the price differential may be worth it to me, but a conventionally-grown vegetable is not a dealbreaker in my book.  One area where I always strive to go "natural" is salmon.  Salmon is already expensive to begin with, farmed or wild, so it's worth it (to me) to spend a few extra bucks for bigger flavor and more nutrients.

I quickly pan-seared the burgers for 4-5 minutes per side in just a hint of oil.  Then I splashed some soy sauce on top and put it on a "bun" - i.e. a whole wheat deli flat.  I don't buy hamburger buns if I'm just cooking for one or two because I don't go through them quickly enough, and moreover, I just don't love the taste of them.  I slathered some Duke's mayonnaise on both sides of the bread - I love mayonnaise!  I understand there are a lot of mayo-haters out there, but mayonnaise is my favorite condiment and I will never give it up.  If you don't like mayo, just leave it off.  This burger would be delicious with wasabi mayonnaise, but alas I didn't happen to have any wasabi casually laying around in my refrigerator. 

Finally, I topped each patty with a generous serving of Japanese coleslaw.  This is not a creamy coleslaw, but rather a vinegary, crunchy cabbage salad.  Simply delicious!

Japanese Coleslaw
Serves 4-6

For the slaw:
1 head cabbage, cored and shredded
1/4 cup sliced almonds
6 carrots, peeled and coarsely shredded
4 green onions, chopped (both white and green parts)
1 packet ramen noodles, uncooked and crumbled into small pieces

For the dressing:
2 tablespoons sugar (Splenda works too)
1/4 cup of canola oil or other flavorless vegetable oil
4 tablespoons white wine vinegar
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 tablespoon low-sodium soy sauce
Spice packet from Ramen noodles (I used the "oriental" flavor)

1.  Mix together ingredients for the slaw
2.  Whisk together the ingredients for the dressing in a cup or small bowl.  Put in refrigerator to chill.
3.  When ready to serve, pour dressing over slaw and toss.

Oh, and before I leave, I'd like to wish a very  

Happy Birthday 

to my friend Lindsey!  

Linds, maybe 24 will be the year your head actually grows to a full-sized adult.  

Thank you for being such an amazing friend over the past 12+ years.

isn't her head so cute and tiny?

By this point, it's pretty apparent that Asian food is my Achilles heel.  What is your favorite cuisine? Pin It Now!

the weekend in food

How was everyone's weekend?  Per usual, mine was a little overindulgent.  Again. (Are you noticing a trend here?  I think I whined about the same thing last week or the week before!  #mondayanxiety)

Friday night was "girls night" for my DC besties and I.  We had been looking forward to this night for a while - even though we live within a two mile radius of each other, we've all been so busy with work, travel, and fun that it had been a while since we'd hung out together!  This night had been on the calendar for a while, but we didn't know what we felt like doing until a couple of days before.  Anna-Catherine suggested a late dinner at Bangkok Joe's, a Thai restaurant on the Georgetown waterfront.

Bangkok Joe's has a très chic ambiance - very swanky and trendy, even though you can't tell by the picture of our corner table.  The food was solid and flavorful, with huge portions, but overall I didn't think it was anything to write home about.  I got the tofu basil rice bowl and also tried Randi's tofu pad thai; everyone else got noodle bowls with chicken, so I didn't try theirs.

I wish my dish had been a tad spicier; it just didn't pack enough punch for me.  Admittedly, I like my Thai food really spicy, so most people probably would have thought it was perfect.  The "upscale Thai bistro" put me even more solidly in the camp that ethnic food is best when cheap and from a hole in the wall.  (The one exception may be Indian food - which seems to be pricey everywhere.)  However, I will say that the company was a blast.  It was so good to see everyone because I think it has been a couple months since all six of us sat down together.  I have no idea when my friends and I all got so old.  Dinner conversation ranged from office woes to friends' upcoming weddings to wrinkles and anti-aging regimes. Whaaaat?  Slow down, Father Time!

 

After dinner we popped by Daily Grill to have a beer and watch the basketball games.  After a while, "a beer" multiplied into many drinks.  Randi, AC, and Kate left and it was just Brittany, Whitney, and me.  It was a slow night for the bar, and the bartender, with whom we are pretty friendly, was soliciting ideas for a new cocktail.  We wound up with something pink that was "girly, but sassy, snarky, and bitchy".  Whatever that means.  Was he trying to describe us? I was skeptical, as I hate sugary girly-tinis, but it actually wasn't that bad.  It tasted like strawberry pineapple juice with a kick.

Saturday, one of my sorority sisters from college, Ann-Somers, was in town for her birthday and the National Half Marathon.  She works as a consultant based out of Dallas, so we got our girlfriends from all over the East Coast (New York, DC, Richmond, and Charlottesville) to meet in the nation's capital.  Our friend Sarah made a reservation at Farmers and Fishers, another restaurant at the Georgetown waterfront.  Farmers and Fishers is a farm-to-table sister restaurant of one of my DC favorites, Founding Farmers.

It was my first time at the restaurant, and even though I had heard varying reviews, I was impressed with most of the food!  (And all of the made-in-house cocktails!)  We started with crab dip, fried calamari, a sprawling hummus platter, and a caprese salad tray for the table.  The apps were delish.  By the time the main course came, I wasn't even hungry, which was probably a good thing because my beet and goat cheese salad was kind of boring.  I suppose that's my fault for not ordering something more interesting.  Apparently Lyssa's tacos were 100% inedible, but other than that, I think everyone was happy with their meals. I had a bite of the roasted vegetable pizza and a couple different types of fish, which were all pretty tasty.

We took the party back to Sarah's house, where we were joined by a few more girls and some of our guy friends from college.  Then, by request of the birthday girl, we went dancing.  Look how happy we all are to be reunited! #dimples

Sunday was a lazy day.  Whitney made shrimp and grits on Saturday night so I threw a fried egg atop a block of leftover grits and called it brunch.  I spent the afternoon watching basketball and doing some boring, administrative Sunday activities.  I also did some trip planning for the vacation my sisters and I are taking in May, following B's graduation.  We're going to Italy for 18 days and I could not be more excited!  We're flying in and out of Milan, stopping in Bologna, Parma, Modena, Ravenna, Florence, Siena, Rome, Cinque Terre, and Turin along the way.  If anyone has suggestions on places to eat (or see!), please send them on over.


What did everyone do this weekend?  Any tasty vegetarian eats? Pin It Now!

citrus tilapia with mango salsa

Citrus tilapia with mango salsa and black bean & corn salad

This post may as well be called "the art of enjoying leftovers" because I made this meal, less the fish, entirely from remnants of Sunday's black bean & corn enchilada supper.  However, the food is totally inverted in this recipe, so I didn't even feel like I was eating the same thing.  Sunday's main dish (the enchilada stuffing) became last night's side, and Sunday's salad (mango) became a part of the main attraction.  The seasoning, texture and temperature were different as well, which also helped disguise the "leftover" aspect.  The final product is a light but satisfying dinner, perfect for a mid-week meal.  Even better is that tilapia cooks lightening fast on my George Foreman!

I have made this mango tilapia recipe several times before to rave reviews, so I bought the ingredients for the salsa on my last trip to the store, fully intending to prepare the fish this week.  However, I ended up making the salsa and throwing it over spinach as a last-ditch attempt at a side dish for Sunday's enchilada dinner.  (See....another non-traditional salad!)  Luckily, there was some salad left over, so I got to enjoy the mango tilapia recipe in the end anyway!

For one tilapia filet, I just sprinkled each side with cumin and Goya Adobo seasoning.  Then, I whisked together equal parts lemon juice and lime juice and a drizzle of olive oil and poured it over the tilapia filet.  I refrigerated it for just about twenty minutes and threw it on the George Foreman for about two minutes on each side.  I then topped it with the mango salsa recipe, as follows.

Mango Salsa
Serves 2-3

1 large ripe mango, peeled, pitted and diced
1/2 red bell pepper, diced
1/4 red onion OR a handful of green onions, chopped
2 tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro, plus more for garnish
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and minced
2 tablespoons lime juice
1 tablespoon lemon juice
salt and pepper to taste 

Combine the mango, red bell pepper, red onion, cilantro, and jalapeno pepper in a bowl. Add the lime juice and 1 tablespoon of lemon juice, and toss well. Season to taste with salt and pepper, and refrigerate until ready to serve.

I wish I could keep writing, but I have things to do.  I have been really STRESSED OUT the past couple of weeks and have far too much on my plate (sorry, couldn't resist the pun), so I better get to work knocking things off my to-do list.  Hopefully I'll be a member of the Clean Plate Club by the end of the next week (okay, maybe that was overkill.)  Before I leave, a few things:

1.  The blog has reached over 1,000 page views!  It's REALLY time for you stealth readers to leave some comments before I install a real-time location feed on my page :)
2.  I am REALLY glad Whitney comes back from vacay tonight....I have missed my taste tester and editor-in-chief!  I am normally quite the grammarian, but I typically write my posts at 11pm and save them on Blogger to be automatically posted the next morning.  Considering I am up every day at 6am, by that point of the night, I'm exhausted.  Apparently, I haven't caught all of my mistakes because last night she texted me with a pretty embarrassing spelling mistake on one of my earlier entries....shame on y'all for not pointing it out!
3.  A very close friend of mine has been battling some serious and scary health issues recently.  I don't want to name her here because she's the selfless mama bear-type who wouldn't want anyone to worry about her.  She will be okay in the long run, but right now she's having a bit of a difficult recovery.  It would mean the world to me if you could please keep her in your thoughts and prayers.  To that person, I love you and I'm sending good vibes your way and thinking about you always!

With that, I hope I didn't kill your buzz.  Make the mango tilapia for dinner tonight and I promise you'll be on high again!  Until tomorrow! Pin It Now!