Fish, Grain, Salad

 

Menu (Serves 2):

Baked wrapped tilapia filets . red quinoa with sun-dried tomatoes and roasted yellow peppers . cucumber/cherry tomato salad . banana cake with chocolate-chip/pecan streusel & coffee ice cream

 

I have no real excuse for not cooking on Saturdays. M and I like to take our yellow dog, Bailey, to the farmers market, and see what demands to be taken home. This week we picked up pickling cucumbers for salads, cherry tomatoes, and little peaches. Then on our grocery store run, we bought tilapia.

I’ve got a good cookbook collection, but I tend to check online first. Epicurious yielded a baked wrapped tilapia recipe from Chef Duncan Pickford in the June 2003 issue of Self billed as “Tori Amos’ favorite recipe” (this had nothing to do with my picking it), and since it suggested a substitution of parchment paper (which I have) for banana leaves (which I don’t), it seemed worth a try.

As usual, the recipe was a starting point:

Ingredients:

Topping:

• 1-inch cube fresh gingerroot, finely chopped or grated
• 2 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped or grated
• 2 green onions (green part only), finely chopped
• Fresh chile to taste
• 1 cup finely chopped cilantro
• 2 tbsp grapeseed (or safflower) oil
• Dash of toasted sesame oil
• Dash of soy sauce
• Dash of fish sauce
• 4 tsp dark maple syrup
• 4 fillets (4 oz each) fresh tilapia (or other firm-fleshed whitefish) 

I planted cilantro earlier this season, but our deer munched quite a bit of it. They did not, however, bother with any of my basil, so I had lemon basil, and the Mexican marigold that had been pruned out in an earlier munch had grown back. I gathered about a cup’s worth of a combination of those herbs and chopped them finely. I added them to the ginger, diced finely because I can’t find my ginger grater. M doesn’t like onions, so I didn’t bother with those. I have eleventy-umpteen condiments of all cuisines in my refrigerator and pantry, but no fish sauce or fresh chilis (or chiles), so I got out the Huy Fong Vietnamese chili garlic sauce. Sesame oil, check; soy sauce, check (wheat-free tamari); wasabi oil substituted for grapeseed oil; Steen’s cane syrup; substituted for maple syrup.

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 400°F. Combine all topping ingredients in a bowl. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Place a fillet on each banana leaf and divide topping evenly among them, spreading it over the top. Fold each banana leaf over to form a packet around each fillet and seal the edge of each packet with a small piece of aluminum foil, crimping it tightly. Place on a baking sheet and bake 25 to 30 minutes.

(Parchment paper substituted for banana leaf.)

Quinoa

1 c red quinoa (I used Ancient Harvest Inca Red)

2 c water

6 dried sun-dried tomatoes, cut into slivers

1 yellow bell pepper, roasted, skinned, and chopped

1 T olive oil or butter

Put quinoa, water, and sun-dried tomatoes together in saucepan; cover, bring to boil, let boil 5 min. Leaving cover in place, let sit 15 minutes or until fish is done. Toss with olive oil/butter and chopped pepper; salt to taste.

Cucumber-cherry tomato salad

2 pickling cucumbers; ends trimmed, sliced lengthwise into quarters, cut into quarter-moons

8 cherry tomatoes, quartered

Divide between two plates; grind fresh salt over, dress with salad dressing of choice if desired.

We don’t have dessert every night, but this morning I had to do something with several too-ripe bananas and turned to Epicurious for help. The leftovers of our banana coffee cake were excellent rewarmed and accompanied by a little scoop of Blue Bell coffee ice cream. recipe here, not much modified except to cook in a 9″ round pan because thanks to a childhood with the occasional Sara Lee, I think of coffee cakes as round)

Chef’s sustenance:

1 vodka-tonic with fresh mint and cucumber

rice crackers

Chef’s soundtrack:

Bill Withers, “Lovely Day”

Love Tractor, “We All Love Each Other”

The Notting Hillbillies, “Your Own Sweet Way”

Shuggie Otis, “Cold Shot”

Journey, “Any Way You Want It”

The Dukes of Dixieland, “Original Dixieland One Step”

Randy Newman, “Last Night I Had a Dream”

Alejandro Escovedo, “Wedding Day”

Violent Femmes, “Blister in the Sun”

PJ Harvey, “We Float”

How did it turn out?

Surprisingly wonderful. I was, frankly, cranky about having to cook the tilapia. A wonderful balance of heat and sweet. I had the leftovers for lunch and it held up. I don’t know that the sun-dried tomatoes added anything to the quinoa, but the peppers certainly did.

Would I make it again?
Yes. Soon, probably.