Mod Ozzfest 2013 -- King Prawn Salad with Peas, Asparagus, and Sweet Almond Dressing

(This recipe accompanies Naked Vine New Year 2013 -- A Taste of Australia.)

• 1 lb. king prawns (big freshwater shrimp)
• 1 red onion, cut into wedges
• 1 bunch asparagus, trimmed
• 1 c. frozen peas
• 4 c. rocket (also known as arugula)
• Sweet Almond Dressing

Light your grill. Preheat oven to 425. Toss red onion wedges with salt, pepper, and olive oil. Roast until soft and starting to caramelize, stirring a couple of times -- about 10-15 minutes.

Toss asparagus with salt, pepper, and olive oil. Grill until crisp-tender and slightly charred -- 5 minutes.

Shell prawns. Toss with salt, pepper, and olive oil. Thread on skewers and grill until cooked through -- 2-3 minutes per side.

Blanch peas by dropping into boiling water for 30 seconds. Immediately drain and rinse with cold water.

Cut asparagus on the diagonal into 3-4" pieces. Toss rocket, peas, onion, and asparagus with dressing. Remove prawns from skewers and arrange on top. Season with salt and pepper as desired.

Mod Ozzfest 2013 -- Mussels in White Wine & Garlic Sauce with Pepperoni & Yellow Pepper

(This recipe accompanies Naked Vine New Year 2013 -- A Taste of Australia.)

OK, folks. If you want to ding me for not being "authentic" with my mussel preparation, feel free. Then bite me. The idea here was for it to be easy, so as not to detract from the revelry. Trust me, you'd want to swim in this sauce. And doesn't this look tasty?

• 1 package frozen Kroger (or brand of your choice) mussels in white wine and garlic sauce
• 4 oz. or so good quality pepperoni, cut into small dice
• 1 yellow pepper, cut into small dice

In a large pot, saute pepper and pepperoni until slightly browned. Increase heat to high and add mussels. Cook according to package directions. Either eat as shown or pull the mussels from the shells, put them back into the broth, and serve as a bouillabaisse. 

Repurposing Basil, Part VI (Extra-healthy red snapper in foil packs)

As the heat continues to blister us here around the neighborhood, light & fresh meals are the order of the day. If you’ve followed us here, you know that I love to do foil pack meals on the grill. Only problem – when it’s seven skadillion degrees out and the air feels like reclining on a damp sponge, even grilling can be a chore.

We took it easy. The Sweet Partner in Crime put together this delicious foil pack recipe with some fresh snapper filets in the oven. This is an incredibly simple, flavorful recipe that’s also super-healthy. No oil or butter was harmed in the creation of this dish. It’s unnecessary here:

• 2 (8 oz.) snapper filets
• 12-16 cherry or grape tomatoes, halved
• 1 medium yellow squash, cut in half lengthwise and sliced
• 1 green bell pepper, diced
• 1 medium shallot, minced
• 2 tsp. dill weed
• 1 tsp. dried thyme or 4-6 sprigs fresh
• 8-10 leaves fresh basil, cut into small strips
• salt & pepper

Preheat the oven to 400. Put one of the filets in the center of a piece of foil. Top each with half of the ingredients listed above:

 

Seal the foil tightly to make a couple of pouches:

Bake for 25 minutes (cooking time may vary based on size and thickness of filets). Let stand for five minutes at room temperature. Be careful opening the packets. You’ll get a blast of steam when you do. Empty into bowls and serve with some crusty bread for sopping up the juices.

 

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Repurposing Basil, Part II (Basil-infused Sockeye Salmon, Grilled Pattypan Squash & Roasted Beets)

A recent trip to Lexington to spend some quality dude time with my friend The Chad yielded a deliciously unexpected result. The Chad and his lovely wife participate in a Community Sponsored Agriculture program. If you’re unfamiliar, a CSA is a program in which you buy a “share” of the output of a local farm. Each week or two, members pick up a variety of fresh veggies. Like the proverbial Gump box of chocolates, you never know what you’re going to get.

When I was there, The Chad had picked up his share as well as the share of some friends, as they were on vacation. As a result, he had vegetables in every nook and cranny of his kitchen. He so much as begged, “Please...please...free me from this vegetal avalanche!” So I did.

Among other things, I ended up with a bunch of lovely looking beets and the first-ever pattypan squash I’d ever run across. A pattypan squash is a summer squash which looks like...well...a pan. It’s “flying saucer” shaped. It’s got a neutral flavor – like a very firm zucchini.

We were in the mood for some grilled stuff, so I simply sliced the pattypan in half, brushed both sides with olive oil, and sprinkled with salt, pepper, and garlic. The beets we sliced into rounds and put in a foil pack with olive oil, chopped garlic, salt, and pepper. There was some nice-looking sockeye salmon at the supermarket, so I snagged a couple of pieces and gave them the salt/pepper/olive oil treatment. I covered the tops of the filets with basil leaves.

Fired up the grill to medium-high and put the beet pack on there after a couple of minutes while the grill was heating up. After about 10 minutes, I killed the burners on one side of the grill. I’ve been cooking more and more fish over indirect heat. I’ve found that to be a much more forgiving cooking method. I put the fish over the now-off burners.

The squash went over direct heat. I grilled that for 6-7 minutes on a side. Everything finished at more or less the same time. When we dished it up, it looked like this:

 

The basil did infuse the fish with a nice, light herbal flavor – a good counterpoint to the smokiness from the grill and the earthiness of the vegetables. Quite a nice little dinner.

 

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Coconutastrophe, Part II (Shrimp Masala)

So, something to do with your newly smashed up coconut? Well, you might consider something along these lines:

SHRIMP MASALA

• 4-5 cloves garlic
• 1 2” piece of ginger, chopped
• 1/3 c. of your just drained coconut milk
• 2 bags frozen large shrimp, thawed, peeled, deveined
• 1 (16 oz) bag frozen sliced okra, thawed
• vegetable oil
• shallot, chopped
• 1 serrano pepper, chopped
• 1 tbsp. garam masala
• 1 can coconut milk (you won’t have enough in the coconut)
• 1/2 c. shredded coconut
• 1/2 c. chopped cilantro
• basmati/jasmine rice

Pulse ginger, garlic, and coconut milk in a blender until it’s a paste.

Heat a tablespoon of the oil in a wok over medium-high heat. Stir-fry shrimp for 3-4 minutes until mostly cooked. Remove shrimp from wok and set aside. Add a little more oil. Stir-fry okra for 2-3 minutes and set aside.

Add a little more oil. Stir-fry shallot & pepper for 1 minute. Add garlic paste and garam masala. Cook for 30 seconds. Add remaining coconut milk. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 1 minute. Return shrimp to wok. Simmer for 1 minute. Return okra to wok and simmer for 1-2 minutes.

 

Meanwhile, make your rice. Serve masala over and top with cilantro and coconut:

Verdict? Pretty tasty.

That said, As much fun as it is to use household building tools in the kitchen, I’ll probably stick to getting my coconut pre-attacked. Some external labor is worth paying for.

Get It While You Can (Mahi [or other fish] with Roasted Corn & Peppers)

Here…something very quick and impossibly tasty. Corn’s coming into season, so the fresh stuff is easy to lay your hands on. Also, this recipe is fish-related, and you might as well enjoy the critters while it’s possible. Thanks, BP & Haliburton…

Anyway…

• 2 bell peppers of different colors, diced
• 2 cups corn kernels (cut off about 4 ears fresh)
• 2 tbsp. olive oil
• 1/2 tsp. dried thyme or several sprigs fresh
• 1 lb or so of grouper, mahi, or similar meaty fish filets
• salt & pepper

Preheat the oven to 450F. Toss the bell peppers and corn kernels with salt and pepper (maybe 1 tsp. salt, 1/4 tsp pepper or so), 1 tbsp. olive oil, and about half the thyme. Put mixture in a baking pan and roast in the oven, stirring a couple of times, until things start to brown – about 12 minutes.

Rub the rest of the oil into the filets (we used mahi here). Remove the pan from the oven and push the corn and peppers aside to make room for the fish. Put the fish in the center of the pan (skin side down if there’s skin). Sprinkle the fish with more salt, pepper, and the remaining thyme. It’ll look something like this:

Return the pan to the oven and cook until the fish is just done. A 1” filet will take about 15 minutes, give or take.

Plate everything up. We added a side of sliced avocado sprinkled with lemon juice and served it with a light Sauvignon Blanc-ish white from Languedoc, but any light white will go nicely.

Enjoy. Total prep – under five minutes.

Dig (barbecue-glazed grilled salmon)

Cleaning out the pantry -- an iffy prospect.

I never know what I’ll stumble across while I reach for the back wall. It can be sort of exciting in a way. It’s a culinary archeological dig.

I’ll run into spices that I bought not realizing that I still had a supply (“What? Another bottle of fennel seed? More red curry paste?”), food-related gifts (“Dehydrated bean soup? Who gave me this?”), zippies with half a cup of unused orzo pasta and the like.

This time around, I came up with a bottle of old barbecue sauce. No idea where it came from, but I feel fairly confident that it’s shelf stable. What to do? What to do?

Keep it simple. Pour some of the sauce into a ziploc bag. Thin it a bit with cider vinegar. Put in a piece of salmon filet. Zip it up, slather it around, and throw it in the fridge for a couple of hours.

After that, fire up the grill. When hot, grill the salmon for 3-4 minutes on a side over medium-high heat. When it flakes, it’s done.

For a side, cut the kernels off a couple of ears of corn. Chop up some tomatoes and a green pepper. Heat some olive oil in a skillet. Throw in the veggies with salt, pepper, and a teaspoon of ground cumin. Sauté for just a couple of minutes -- until the pepper just starts to get tender. Plate it up. Pour yourself a glass of pinot noir. Enjoy.



Afterwards, rinse out the bottle of barbecue sauce, recycle it, and try to forget that it was ever there…

Pan Piper (Pan-Seared Tuna Steaks w/ginger asparagus)

I promised you quick – tonight, I’m going to give you quick.
(So quick that I don’t have pictures to share, but I think you’ll get the idea…)
Asparagus is coming in this time of year, so I’ll make any excuse to grab it. After a weekend glued to the couch watching hoop, a healthy meal was in order. So…
For Tuna

• Get a couple of good tuna steaks.
• Marinate them for around 20 minutes or so in soy-ginger salad dressing of some kind in the fridge.
• Heat a little olive oil in a skillet over high heat.
• When pan is hot, drop in the steaks. Sear for 3 minutes on a side. (Longer if you like it less rare.) Transfer to cutting board.
• Slice thinly into pieces. Top with salt and pepper.

For Asparagus

• Cut the very bottom of the stalks, then slice the rest on a 45 degree angle, making pieces about an inch and a half long.
• Take about a 1/2 tbsp. crystallized ginger and chop the pieces as best you can.
• Melt about a tablespoon of butter and a little olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add a couple of cloves of minced garlic. Sauté asparagus pieces and ginger until asparagus pieces are crisp-tender.
• Top with salt and pepper.

Serve with a dollop of wasabi horseradish on the side for dipping. We had this with a sauvignon blanc and it worked well.
Easy, easy, easy.

Crepuscule with Monkfish & Chorizo (Monkfish and Chorizo Kabobs)

I've stumped the fish folk at Kroger twice with monkfish.

Both times, I've seen filets that looked pretty good, and the Krogerman handing it to me has said, "I've never known what to do with that." The answer? Grill it. There are any number of ways you can make it, and I've tried several. I remain a fan of the fire.

You'll sometimes see monkfish called "poor man's lobster." (It's also known as "goosefish.") The flavor and consistency is indeed akin. At under $10 a pound, it's worth thinking about for that kind of flavor -- especially when that flavor is paired with that wonderful Latin-esque sausage, chorizo.

Monkfish and chorizo. Like chocolate and peanut butter. Two great tastes that taste great together. There;s something about the richness of the fish with the spice and fat of the chorizo that just works well together. They're great together in things like paella. but grilling them is best, in my opinion. Since we're still in a surprisingly good patch of weather for early March, we fired up the grill again. My favorite way to pair these two has always been kebabs with some good veggies.

We got the grill fired up and got some yellow rice going. This particular kebab iteration required me to pre-cook a few links of chorizo. Put three links in a skillet with ½ cup of water. Cooked them for 12 minutes, turning once, then cooking uncovered, turning as necessary (brown 'em!) for 3-4 minutes. Set the links aside to cool. Cut up the veggies (tomatoes, peppers, & mushrooms in this case, but you can use whatever you like) and monkfish into good sized chunks:

Skewer the veggies, chorizo, and monkfish pieces. It might look something like this:

The grill should be hot by now, so put the kebabs over fire. Medium to high heat, 5-7 minutes on a side. I like using a grill basket, simply for neatness and ease of use. If you do use one of those, cook more towards the longer time. Then plate up a bed of rice, take the chunks off the skewers and arrange. Top the lot with salt and pepper.

We did a side by side of an inexpensive pinot noir (Lurton, a French pinot noir table wine) and Black Box Sauvignon Blanc.

Both wines worked fine. I liked the pinot, the Sweet Partner in Crime enjoyed the white. Either way, a very easy to cobble together, nice looking dinner, if you don't mind doing a little chopping.

Total time start to finish: just under an hour.




The night was young once we finished, so we decided to enjoy the good weather and the patio-friendly temperatures while we could. We started a fire and got rid of the last of the holiday greenery. Poured some more wine and had some chocolate. A nice way to end a fairly crazy day...