Fish, Veg, Veg, Veg

Menu: baked wrapped tilapia again * eggplant relish again * three-tomato salad * tilapia-influenced coleslaw

I don’t usually re-run recipes quite so quickly, but we enjoyed the baked wrapped tilapia from my first post so much that I went ahead and did it again. This time instead of the chile garlic sauce, I used fresh hot peppers from this morning’s farmers market run, but otherwise it was unchanged.

I used a few of the ingredients … the wasabi oil and chopped garlic … to make a dressing for shredded cabbage for slaw… I added some chile garlic sauce, a little bit of Steen’s cane syrup for sweetness, Steen’s cane vinegar, a splash of mirin, and finally a spoonful of Miracle Whip light to finesse the line between creamy slaw and vinegary slaw.

For the eggplant relish, again, I roasted two small heirloom ivory eggplants from the farmers market in the same 400-degree oven with the fish packets and a red bell pepper. I chopped the peeled pepper and eggplant together and stirred in a drizzle of balsamic vinegar. That was it.

Finally, I sliced three kinds of heirloom tomatoes purchased at the market this morning, ground fresh sea salt over, and sprinkled a chiffonade of basil over.

I would definitely do it again.

Repurposed

Menu: Black beans with pork and cherry tomatoes * baked sweet potato fries * Indian-spiced kale * 2005 Peter Lehmann Barossa shiraz

We had a leftover pork chop in the fridge and a whole lot of leftover kale. I cubed the pork chop, heated a little olive oil in a saute pan, and dumped in the pork cubes. Then I dumped in at least a dozen of the fresh farmers market cherry tomatoes and let it all saute for a few minutes until the tomatoes started to split. I added 2 cans of black beans; ground salt and red pepper over; and finished with a splash of lime juice. Turned the heat down to medium-low and left it while the sweet potatoes cooked (these were the toughest: I opened the bag of Alexia sweet potatoes from the freezer, thank you Central Market). Reheated the kale, served it all up.

Cook’s sustenance:
1/2 glass champagne
1 salad cucumber, quartered and munched on

Cook’s soundtrack
Bob Schneider, “Gold in the Sunset”
Stevie Wonder, “As”
Lyle Lovett, “Simple Song”
The Mavericks, “Hot Burrito #1″
Hayseed with Emmylou Harris, “Farther Along”
Fleetwood Mac, “Never Going Back Again”

How did it turn out?
The kale still needed salt and Crystal sauce. But the beans… how did I do that? They were velvety, unctuous, a tremendous combination of flavors. Was it the leftover olive-oil laced pork fat? The celestial cherry tomatoes? The citrus splash? I will be trying to replicate that every time we have leftover pork chops.

Would I make it again?
I would certainly try!