Cooking started a little early, even for me this week, but I think it will be worth it. I’m attempting 2 new things this week: ceviche and sun-dried tomatoes. I’ve wanted to try ceviche for a long time, but have never really seen it on a menu at an opportune time. If you don’t know what ceviche is, it’s a chilled seafood dish where the seafood is not cooked according to a traditional method. When I was working at the Blue Marlin in SC, when I would take home any scrap of food offer to me, George, one of the cook’s, gave me wahoo, but it was 2 days old. He put some lemon juice on it and told me it would preserve the fish, but that lemon juice was a “cooking agent,” and would thus also “cook” the fish if left too long. You make ceviche with some raw shellfish, throw in some citrus, and let it chill. I really wanted to make something that went well with summer. It’s been hot here for a while, so I thought some lighter food would be appropriate. At the same time, I hate cold food for dinner most of the time. Breakfast is usually cold, lunch is always cold, if you have time, you should have hot food for dinner. I tried to combine hot and cold this week for dinner.
Before I get too far, I have to give mad props to Em. She made scallop creole last night for me and it was amazing. We both learned how hot a habanero pepper really is. In fact, I’m really peppered out at this point. I cut up the habanero Sunday night and didn’t wash my hands well enough. Unfortunately, I made this important discovery after I scratched my eye. Then on Monday, I swear my finger tips felt burned when I was out in the sun. Then I cut up a jalapeno for the ceviche and once again touched my face. It really only takes two times to be sick of your face burning. I digress. My beautiful girlfriend made me some delicious southern cooking and a red velvet cake to match.
Starter: Iceburg wedge w/ low-fat herbed dressing topped with cherries and avocado
Dinner: Broiled Halibut w/ Peach and Jalapeno Ceviche and warm broccoli salad
Wine selection: Kief-Joshua Chenin Blanc
Strange selection? Emily and I went wine tasting in Sonoita, southern Arizona. It was my 2nd time tasting in that area, and despite what you may think (I thought the same thing) their wines are really, really good. I originally heard the region was similar to some areas of Tuscany, which actually made some sense when you see the area. This time I was told the region was similar to Spain, Burgundy, and other parts of Italy. So if you’re looking for European wine tasting on the cheap, you can fly into Tucson, and in 3-4 hours traveled to 9 different wineries from all the major regions of Europe. Chenin Blanc is my favorite white wine, but it’s so hard to find. It’s a “full-bodied” white, but not oaky like Chardonnay and not too grapefruity like Sauvignon Blanc. It’s more of a subtle melon and pear flavor. I thought it would be a good summer wine and if there was any leftover when dinner started it would go well with the salad dressing and wouldn’t overwhelm the citrus on the fish.
Cooking started on Friday when I put the tomatoes out to “sun-dry.” It’s actually remarkably easy – cut some tomatoes, place on cookie sheet, place cookie sheet on the hood of your car like they used to do in Tuscany, and wait several hours.
I was a little overzealous with the first tray and they sun-dried to the cookie sheet, which we added a little water too and after a few minutes, they were ready. I wanted to do another tray though and not have to add water, but I was not successful in that endeavor on my second attempt either. The 2nd batch was sun-dried, rain-kissed, and then sun-dried some more. I haven’t gotten sick from them, so overall, success! They did taste good too.
I think the hardest part of making this meal was figuring out the timing. Actually, I think it’s more that I was excited to start cooking, but time is fairly essential when it comes to preparing and eating semi-raw fish. So I would just periodically cut vegetables throughout the day to keep myself occupied as though I was doing something. Cutting up the herbs, shallots, onions, broccoli…that was all fine. When it came to slicing the cherries, that required a Ph.D. in fruit machetectomy. For whatever reason, my gym has a revolving thing of quotes, and one of them is about cherry seeds having satanic power according to the Dead Sea Scrolls. With how hard it is to get those things out, I now want to see what else might be true in the Dead Sea Scrolls. I chopped up fresh mint, rosemary, and chives and mixed those together with fat-free Greek yogurt and vinegar and instant low-fat dressing with flava’. I topped the wedge with the de-satanized cherries and threw on a few slices of avocado. The avocado seemed perfectly ripe, but when I cut it open, it was thoroughly bruised. How the hell do you tell a bruised avocado at the store? I had enough for the salads. Just to make sure, I threw a chunk of goat cheese on the side.
The ceviche was fun to make. I had to blanche fresh peaches. Who blanches things anymore? The last time I heard about blanche, she was a character on Golden Girls (this is what I grew up watching with my mother, an unfortunate part of my pediatric development). Produce is so cheap and fresh out here, I have to take advantage of it. So I blanched, peeled, and cut the peaches (easier than the cherries). Most of the stuff I read on ceviche had a large quantity of lemon or lime juice in the marinade. I saw an Emeril recipe that used tequila. It didn’t really feel like a tequila night, so I made my marinade with a little bit of brandy. I thought it would add a little sweetness to the marinade. I used the cut-up peaches, bay scallops, shallots, jalapeno, and lime marinade and let it chill for about 2.5 hours. I stirred it about every half an hour, not because I was supposed to, but because I can’t leave it alone. It was very fresh tasting and light, but I wasn’t completely happy with it. Either the marinade needed something else to take a little bite out of it or I should have charred the jalapeno, because it still had a strong grassy flavor that just didn’t quite gel with everything else.
For the broccoli salad, I used that summer broccoli salad with raisins and cheddar cheese in a sweet dressing as inspiration, but I really wanted the side to at least be warm and healthier than the original. I thought I would just swap the main ingredients, sun-dried tomatoes for raisins, part-skim mozzarella for cheddar, Greek yogurt for the dressing, and bacon for bacon. First rule of cooking, bacon makes everything better.
I baked the broccoli until it was just starting to brown. The side ended up being saltier than I expected, but the creaminess fit in really, really well with the citrus of the ceviche.
And finally, the halibut.
I get really excited when halibut is actually affordable. A non-interesting fact about my family, at Christmas time, all my siblings gather around the table with my Dad and we then take turns sharing our stories about who got the best sale at the grocery store for the year. I did find chicken breast fingers for $1.67 pound, but the halibut will be my opener for Einstein Christmas 2011. It’s such a meaty, subtle white fish. With all the other flava’ going on in the meal, I didn’t want to do too much else to the fish. I mixed together some lemon juice and olive oil to just coat the fish a little and keep it from drying out and then a little S&P under the broiler and it looked great!
That’s my meal for this week. Overall, I accomplished that summer taste I was going for. It was light, fresh, and flavorful. Thanks for reading. Not sure what next week’s meal will be. I haven’t checked the grocery store fliers yet.
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