Panko Crusted Cod with Two-Tone Potatoes

Eating dinner together at the table has always been incredibly important to my family.  For as long as I can remember, sitting down to dinner has always been a priority.  Even during middle school when my travel soccer stage overlapped with my brother's early career on stage, we were never a family that grabbed fast food to eat in the car.  It was always home-cooked, and at worst we ate in shifts.  Shopping and cooking was always balanced between my mom and dad.  And my dad isn't one of those microwave-dinner doesn't-know-how-to-boil-an-egg dad's either.  Not only can he cook, but he puts a lot of thought into what flavors  he wants or mood he wants to convey, and then creates meals inspired by them.  Since I've been home, I've kind of taken over the grocery shopping and dinner preparation (partly due to my intense need to have control over most aspects of my daily life).  I mean, it's not like I don't take their wants into consideration - I get their input and most of the time call from the grocery store for their advice and decision making skills, but the physical acts are usually done by me.

Dad's Notes on Dinner.

Except for days like today.  Today I drove up to my alma mater to visit an old friend in town for the week, and didn't get back until later this evening.  When I got home, my dad already had dinner in his head and in the works.  Tonight, I was merely a sous chef.  Chopping, sauteing, and following the direction and vision of the head chef.  This recipe is a brain child of my father, with my only culinary involvement being the addition of basil and lime.

Panko Crusted Cod with Two-Tone Potatoes

2 tbs olive oil

2 medium carrots, minced
1 medium sweet onion, minced

3 small celery stalks, minced

½ cup basil, chopped

2 large white potatoes, peeled and cut into quarters

2 large sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into quarters

1 tbs garlic, minced

12 tbs butter

½ cup milk, slightly warmed

2 filets (or 1½ lbs) cod

1 lime, juice and zest

panko 

salt and pepper

+ Preheat the oven at 375 degrees.  

+ Place the potatoes in a large pot and cover with water.  Bring the potatoes and water to a boil, cook until fork tender.

+ In a medium pan, heat olive oil over medium-high heat.  Once the oil is hot, add the carrots, onion, celery and basil.  Cook on high until the mirepoix becomes fragrant, stirring frequently to prevent the veggies from sticking.  Turn heat down to load and let cook, stirring occasionally.

+ While the mirepoix is cooking down, cover the bottom of a large baking dish with panko.  Melt 8 tbs of butter in a large bowl.  Dunk the filets of cod in the melted butter and then place them in the baking dish.  Cover the tops of the fish with panko.  Top with lime zest and juice.  Bake for 20-25 minutes.

+ Once the potatoes are soft, drain and separate the white and sweet potatoes into two large bowls.  Add 2 tbs butter and ¼ cup milk to each, adding the garlic to the white potatoes only.  Mash until smooth, adding milk if needed to obtain desired consistency.  
+ Line a small baking dish with parchment paper.  Place mash potatoes into zip-locked baggies, cutting one corner of each to make a piping bag of sorts.  Pipe small circles of potato onto the parchment, layering white and sweet potatoes on top of each other.  

+ In the last moments of the fish cooking, turn the oven to broil and put the potatoes on a rack above the fish.  Watch carefully, as you want the top of the potatoes to brown slightly.

+ Serve mirepoix over cod with potatoes garnished with a sprig of basil on the side.

Working Girl Dinner

Let me start off by apologizing for disappearing for a week - I am sorry. However, a very big part of me isn't sorry since my lack of updating is due to my recent employment. Yes, that's right, I am no longer an unemployed post-graduate.  I am officially employed. And I have to say, so far, I'm absolutely loving it.  Not only am I working as a barista - the breakfast bartender, making your life better one drink at a time - but I'm working with some truly amazing people.  They were incredibly welcoming to a newbie who asks far too many questions, and I feel like I've been there for much longer than a week.  I think I've settled in very nicely, though my milk foaming could use a little work.

Only downfall to my recent employment?  A job kind of takes away of a lot of the idle time around the house that I've been using as prep and cooking time.  Not to mention the fact that when I get home all I want to do is crash on the couch and have others serve me.  That being said, I really miss cooking.  That's why, today after work, I stopped at the grocery store and picked up a few quick items to add to things I already had in the house for dinner.  At home we had a of bag baby scallops in the freezer, a quart of cherry tomatoes, a bunch of scallions, fresh basil, and elephant garlic.  You heard me right, elephant garlic.  My two favorite things in the entire world combined by a genius to make one amazing thing.  This garlic dwarfs a normal clove, and cuts like an apple.  It's crisp and fragrant, but makes your eyes water like the worst onion - my whole face was hurting actually.  While the garlic is bigger, the flavor is more mild and less aggressive than regular garlic.  But I digress...

So at the store, I grabbed some ingredients to fill in the blanks and then sort of threw things together.  You know how much I love throw-together dinners, and they turn out to be the perfect meals for working girls with a small budget and even less time.

Elephant vs. Regular Garlic Clove

A Sort-of Scampi
1 quart cherry tomatoes, halved
1 bunch scallions, chopped
4 tbs fresh basil, chopped
2 cloves elephant garlic
1 cup dry quinoa
2 cups vegetable broth
1 head of broccoli, cut into florets
½ yellow onion
⅓ cup white wine (Cupcake Sauvignon Blanc)
1 lemon, zest
1 bag frozen baby scallops
½ lb wild-caught shrimp
olive oil
salt and pepper to taste



+ Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  In a medium bowl, toss tomatoes, scallions, basil, and garlic in a splash of olive oil.  Season generously with salt and pepper.  Pour the tomatoes into a deep baking dish (scraping the olive oil and seasoning from the bowl with a spatula).  Bake tomatoes for about an hour, or until shriveled and juicy.
+ In a medium pot, bring quinoa and vegetable broth to a boil.  Reduce to a simmer and add broccoli.  Simmer uncovered until the liquid is absorbed and the grains have split.
+ In a large sauce pan, saute onions in olive oil until translucent.  Add the garlic and cook until just beginning to brown.
+ Mix the shrimp and scallops with zest, a little olive oil, salt and pepper in a medium bowl.
+  Add the shrimp and scallops to the pan, then add the wine.  Then cover and cook until shrimp is curled and pink, and the scallops turn white.
+ Serve with a scoop of shrimp and seafood over a bed of quinoa topped with the roasted tomatoes.

Citrus Soy Glazed Salmon

I love fish.  All seafood to be exact.  Last year when I went through a "hardcore vegan" phase, I still ate fish (hence the quotation marks.)  Tuna, squid, anchovies, crab, mussels, shrimp, scallops, lobsters, I love it all.  Salmon is my all-time favorite though  Baked, grilled, seared, raw: I'll eat it any way you give it to me.

At home, I follow a pretty regimented method for cooking my fish.  Preheat the oven, place the fish in a baking dish, drizzle it with a little olive oil, dash of salt and pepper, and then pop it in the oven until its pink and flaky.  Its seriously that easy.  I think people have this preconceived notion that cooking fish is hard, but just follow my four step process (dish, season, bake, and serve) and you'll be a master pesca-chef. 

Every time I cook it though, I deviate from this base by adding whatever happens to be in the house at the time.  Sometime I add a different seasoning (curry powder, red pepper flakes, paprika), or spread some jam or preserves on top of the fish (I highly recommend Trader Joe's Fig Butter), or I create my own marinade.  

Tonight was one such night.  I just bought a bunch of lemons and a new bottle of soy, so viola!  Citrus Soy Glaze!

Very Important Note That You Need To Read Before Proceeding To Recipe:

Note the delicious color of this farm-raised salmon.

Always Wild-Caught fish.  ALWAYS.  You know how grass-fed beef is healthier and tastier than corn-fed beef?  Same goes for fish.  Fish farms are no different from the meat industry's factory farms.  Farm-raised fish are industrially produced and manufactured; they feed the stock corn to fatten them up quickly, they don't have the room to move and exercise meaning they're fatty and lack flavor, and they add anti-biotics to the feed.  These fish are exposed to more chemicals on farms and are lacking in the nutrients that they get from living in, you know, their natural habitat.   Take salmon for example, there's a huge difference in color: farm-raised is almost grey, while wild-caught is a dark, beautiful, well, salmon color (farms will sometimes add dyes to the feed in order to make the fish's meat pinker).  I'm going to stop this rant now, but don't ever have me catch you at the fish counter at the supermarket buying farm-raised fish.  And if they don't have wild-caught at the counter, check the frozen section.  All fish is frozen, its just that the fish at the counter has already been defrosted, so there's really no difference.  I always try to have some fish in the freezer for days when I can't get the the store, or just feel like making fish tacos.  Okay, rant officially over.

Oh, one last thing.  This recipe serves four fish-loving adults (aka my family).

Citrus Soy Glazed Salmon

1½ lbs wild-caught salmon (just in case you forgot)
2 tbs honey

¼ cup orange juice
juice and zest from ½ lemon

1 tbs soy

3 cloves garlic, minced

pepper to taste

+ Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

+ Mix honey, orange juice, lemon juice and zest, soy, garlic and pepper in a medium bowl.
+ Place the salmon in a baking dish.  Cover with marinade.
+ Bake for 30-40 minutes, depending on the thickness.  Baste with marinade throughout cooking to prevent from drying out.