Never Doubt Ina

I mean ever.

She has just sold me for life. I adapted her Mustard Roasted Fish that she had on her show today, along with the Roasted Broccoli which was also featured. I am rarely stunned by an entree and I never cook fish, but this has just entered my standard meal routine. So much so that I will probably make it again tomorrow night, even though I used all the ingredients on tonight's dinner.

Besides being phenomenally good, this is a recipe that no one, and I mean no one could mess up. If you can stir and use a timer (which I have complete faith that you can), this one's for you.

I really shouldn't have been so surprised that I liked this dish so much, because it is eerily reminiscent of a fish dish from my childhood. This standard mom recipe combined mustard, mayo, salt and pepper on top of white fish. This is pretty much what Ina, and eventually I did, but with a few more sophisticated (sorry mom) upgrades. And boy was it out standing.

For the Roasted vegetables, they got kicked up too. Roasted vegetables are a standard in my book, but the way I did them tonight really heightened the flavor and presentation. I still love the old standard but if you have a little more time (and I only mean 5 minutes while the veges are roasting away) it is definitely worth trying.

I wasn't very hungry tonight, so I only made these two recipes but brown rice really would have been delicious alongside the fish and veges. I know it may sound boring and predictable but I think the nuttiness of the rice would pair beautifully when layered under the juicy fish, letting the cream sauce drip down and flavor the rice.

Mustard Crusted Fish

Ingredients:

4 4-6 oz white fish fillets ( I used wild turbot fillet )

Sauce:
2 tbsp low fat mayonnaise
1 tbsp grainy mustard ( I used homemade pink peppercorn tarragon)
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1 tbsp pickled caper berries (I buy these in the olive bar section of Whole Food or Central Market) or regular jar capers, chopped
juice of 1/2 lemon
salt and pepper

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Place each fish in a piece of foil. Mix all sauce ingredients together and divide equally among 4 fillets, spreading to coat top. Curl foil around edges of fish and place in oven for 8 minutes. Remove from oven and serve.

Dressed Roast Vegetables

4 carrots (I used ruby), sliced diagonally
4 crowns of broccoli, chopped
1 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper

Dressing:
zest of 1 lemon
1 tbsp parsley, chopped
2 handfuls toasted walnuts, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, finely grated
salt and pepper
juice of 1/2 lemon
1 tbsp olive oil

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Toss vegetables with olive oil, salt and pepper and place on baking sheet in the oven. Roast for 20 minutes or until carrots are tender.

In the meantime, combine lemon zest, parsley, garlic, walnuts and Parmesan cheese. Chop finely all together.

When vegetables are done, mix with the Parmesan mixture and add in remaining ingredients. Toss all to combine, serve and enjoy!

What's for Dinner...Part 2

Tonight, I use the Creamy Artichoke Sauce as a base for a heart healthy pasta dish. I had about 2 servings of the cream sauce left over from the baked potatoes, so I made 1/2 of this pasta recipe. It really lends itself to this dinner order (meaning baked potatoes one night and pasta the next), so if you are feeding a family of four, double the sauce recipe when you make it and use half for the potato dinner, saving the rest for pasta.

Recipe: Creamy Vegetable Cappellini


Ingredients:

1 tbsp olive oil
3 cloves garlic (minced)
1 package sliced mushrooms
2 cups packed spinach
1 roasted red pepper (thinly sliced into strips)
salt and pepper
1 recipe Artichoke Cream Sauce
1/4 cup chopped Italian parsley

1/2 package whole wheat cappellini

Instructions:

Prepare pasta as directed on package.

Meanwhile, in a large skillet, heat olive oil over medium heat. Add mushrooms and saute for 3 minutes, then adding the red pepper, garlic and spinach. Continue to saute 2 minutes until spinach has wilted but is still bright green. Add Artichoke Cream Sauce and let while mixture heat through, about 10 minutes.

Toss pasta and sauce together and serve immediately. Garnish with fresh chopped Italian parsley if desired.

Part 1...Whats for Dinner

Experimenting with tofu...something that I had never done until this week. I start with soft silken tofu and create a wonderfully versatile sauce that lent itself to dinner a few nights this week.

Recipe: Artichoke Cream Sauce

Ingredients:

1 package soft silken tofu

3 large artichoke hearts (packed in water and quartered)

½ cup quality parmesan cheese

Zest and juice of ½ lemon

1 tsp fresh thyme (from my garden)

Salt and pepper, to taste

Instructions:

In a blender, pulse tofu and artichoke hearts. Add mixture to a saucepan over medium low heat and add the remaining ingredients. Warm through and keep heated over low heat.

Serve and enjoy!

Makes 4 servings

This "cream" sauce was the key to my roasted vegetable baked potatoes that I made the other night. This dish was super healthful, flavorful and beautiful to look at. Choose any seasonal vegetables that you can find. The more colorful the better...and better for you. I used purple cauliflower, ruby carrots, red pepper and broccoli to top mine but feel free to experiment. Each unique vegetable has a slightly different flavor. For instance, the ruby carrots were super sweet...especially after being roasted. Of course, all the regular versions of these vegetables would be beautiful too.

Recipe: Roasted Vegetable Baked Potatoes

Ingredients:

2 tbsp olive oil

2 organic medium russet potatoes (washed and scrubbed)

1 head cauliflower (any colour)

1 head broccoli

2 carrots (ruby works beautifully)

1 red bell pepper

1 tbsp parmesan

Salt and pepper

½ recipe Artichoke Cream sauce

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 400◦F.

Poke potatoes all over with a fork, rub them with ½ tbsp olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Wrap each potatoe in tin foil and place on bottom rack of oven. Bake for 1 hour.

Chop cauliflower, broccoli and carrots into bite size pieces; rub with the remaining 1½ tbsp olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Place on baking sheet with the whole red pepper, bake for 40 minutes or until all vegetables are tender. Let red pepper cool in a plastic covered bowl, then skin and cut into thin strips.

Make sauce (recipe follows).

Assemble dish. Scoop out potatoe from skin and place in a bowl. Add 1/3 cup sauce, salt and pepper to the potatoes and mix well. Scoop potatoe mixture back into the potatoe skins and top with roasted vegetables and sauce.

Serve and enjoy!

Makes 2 servings.

If life gives you lemons...

Make lemon bars.

Sweets are my thing. I love them...all of them. Like I always tell people, I haven't found a dessert that I don't like.

Lemon bars are not something I crave or order out but every time I make them I fall head over heels. Lemon bars in my opinion are something that needs to be homemade (I feel this way about most things though). There is something so sweetly satisfying about the lemon shortbread crust wafting from the oven in the early morning and finding something to occupy time while you (not so patiently) wait for the bars to cool to a temperature that you can finally cut them.

This is how I spent yesterday morning.

Through much trial and tribulation, I have finally gotten the perfect lemon bar recipe. Like most of my tried and trues, from The Fannie Farmer Baking Book. However, I like a thicker crust and custard than any recipe I have found so I double it and bake it in a 9X13 inch pan.

Two key things that I have found make the perfect lemon bars are:

a. Correct formation of the crust

Where the key is to pat the shortbread crust out evenly and then work the dough up the sides with damp fingers. Also with damp fingers, even out the bottom. This will make the crust perfect every time.

b. You must do mix the custard by hand. In my experience, a electric mixer incorporates too much air into the mixture and ends up making unfortunate bubbles when baking.

My solution:
Mix with a whisk by hand.
Drop bowl multiple times before pouring custard over the crust. This ensures a bubble free custard.

Your efforts will soon be rewarded.