Category Archives: By Ingredient

Bouillabaisse

We were at the Saratoga Farmer’s Market the other day and stopped by at the Mission Fish vendor. They specialize in fish caught fresh in the Monterey Bay and always have a good selection. They’ll even clean and fillet the fish for you for free. The fish heads and bones they package up for sale, and that’s what we came home with.

We took those fish head and bones and put them in a large stock pot, tossed in some shrimp shells, and added the mirepoix – onions, celery, and carrots – a cup of dry white wine, a quarter of a lemon, some whole peppercorns, a bay leaf, and some herbs de Provence, then covered with water. Brought it to a boil, then simmered for 1 hour before straining out the liquid.

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Fish Taco

Sometimes we get fish tacos from Rubio’s just to have something different than your normal beef, chicken, or pork taco. But usually, fish tacos are made from breaded, fried fish. It’s not so bad if the fish is fresh and breaded right before frying. But like most chain joints, you really get frozen breaded fish that has been nuked and then fried. Talk about unappetizing!

We had some tilapia fillets that I cubed up and and marinated in lime juice, orange juice, s&p and oregano. Then I pan fried the fish until cooked through.

Here’s my fish taco, with a little of Jeremy’s secret spice rub #2 sprinkled on the fish. Garnished with jack cheese, some pineapple salsa, and some sliced avocados. ’twas good!

Aloha, Nate

Churrasco Taco

I don’t eat beef that often but when I do, it’s usually grilled in some form. We had a beef tenderloin in the freezer that I took out and thawed. Then I made a chimichurri marinade based on this recipe: http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,,FOOD_9936_29257,00.html

I cut the beef tenderloin into 6 strips then pounded them to 1/4 inch thickness and marinated them for about 6 hours. Here they are grilling on the gasser.

They were great just chopped up and eaten on their own. It’s a really good marinade but I think the beef tenderloin didn’t need to sit for 6 hours, especially with all that vinegar.

We couldn’t finish it all that night, so I made tacos and quesadillas on another day. Here’s my taco with jack cheese and homemade salsa. Mmmm. I could have had another but I ran out of tortillas 🙁

Aloha, Nate

Dinner Rolls

What are the best dinner rolls you ever ate? I remember once eating some great bread in a steak restaurant near Provo, Utah. Forget what they were called, but they were good.

When Annie and I were dating, every so often we’d go have the buffet at the Plumeria Beach Cafe in the Kahala Hilton on Oahu. Besides the awesome spread there (oh, for the days when we could eat lots more and not worry about the weight), they had a basket of rolls with different selections from regular to whole wheat to sourdough to taro. The taro bread was especially good.

Annie made these two types of dinner rolls for us the other night. The first was “Butter-Dipped Dinner Rolls” from “The Bread Bible” and the second was “Dark & Soft Restaurant Dinner Rolls” from “Whole Grain Baking” by King Arthur Flour. Here are both doughs rising before shaping.

After baking. They were both great, but I think the edge went to the butter-dipped ones. Those were so light, airy, and buttery

These were the best rolls I’ve had in a very long time.

Aloha, Nate