Wishing those of you in the US a happy Memorial Day weekend! Hope you have something fun planned for this holiday, or alternatively, can get some R&R.
We at Naked Capitalism will still be working, just not quite as much.
Today, you’ll have five posts rather than your customary six.
On Memorial Day Monday, we’ll have three posts.
On Tuesday, we’ll have at least five and perhaps our usual six, depending on news flow.
If you want to talk among yourselves, maybe you can share recipes for lazy cooks. One reason I like cooking fish (aside from the fact that I really do like fish) is that if you’ve added any more than five ingredients to a fresh piece of fish, you are working too hard.
Enjoy!
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From all of us down here in Oz…
Avagoodweekend!
The one think I like about cooking fish is that, apart from liking fish very much, my recipes are simple and fast. In most cases no many extra flavours needed and with the company of some vegetables. Contrary to this, for instance dill or fennel in small amounts, combine nicely with sea bass, sea bream and other white fish meats. In any case, overcooking fish is capital sin so in most dishes you have the thing done in a few minutes.
With white fishes I often add as company boiled potatoes with a sauce that is typical from the Canary Islands, the ‘mojo picón’ that could be translated as ‘hot dip’ an emulsion made of olive oil, garlic and hot red pepper basically.
Enjoy memorial day!
Memorial Day is important! The Monday is nice. Still, one cannot help but think this has diminished the observance.
Fish! Fresh (i.e., caught earlier the same day) flounder from the Georgia Coast, a very light mixture of finely ground corn meal and flour, salt, pepper, and a pan of with a quarter inch of very hot oil. 4-5 minutes on one side. Flip. 3-4 minutes on the other side. Sprinkle with lemon. If you want to go full Southern, real grits (polenta for those who object to grits; the two foods are the same thing) cooked for an hour with either buttermilk or cream cheese added half way through, ample salted butter and sharp cheddar cheese if desired. Feast! Broil it if you must with lemon, butter, and the mild spice/herb of your choice ;-)
Choice #2: Alder-smoked halibut and baked potato wedges from that hole-in-the wall place in Seattle that probably doesn’t exist anymore.
One of my favourites for Christmas is anglerfish in American Sauce, a rich sauce one of its main ingredients being the heads of shrimps boiled to do company to the anglerfish (cut in filets). The American Sauce is one of my favourites where after poaching some garlic with leeks, red peppers, a carrot and a couple of fresh tomatoes you add the shrimp heads, parsley, bay leaves a cup of brandy (flame it) and let it boil for about half and hour and grind to a puree (after removing the bay leaves). Exquisite.
Do the angler filets in the pan, after both sides are done add the hot sauce and complete the cooking for the extra minutes needed depending on the thickness. Add the boiled prawn bodies and enjoy with a Chardonnay or any other white wine of choice.
Recipe for lazy cooks, takeout, Or receive a dinner invitation. Or hit the garden for greens if available.
May all in the NC universe have a very nice, long, peaceful weekend!
Calimari stir-fried with garlic, hot chili, soy sauce and, at the end, a bit of rice vinegar or lemon juice (don’t exaggerate here). A bit of sesame oil adds another dimension of taste. Serve with jasmine rice and an abundant salad of spring vegetables(cabbage, salad greens, touch of spring onion, etc.)
I wish all NCers a great weekend!
Don’t watch “My Octopus Teacher” before you prepare it.
Enjoy the weekend, everyone.
A happy weekend to all. This week’s weather has cooled things down a wee bit and brought a few bouts of steady rain. And for the southeastern US, a few days with high temps in the mid 80s is hard to disagree with, even if the humidity picks up.
Good hiking weather absent a rainstorm. Been meaning to check out Table Rock or a more nearby destination like Jones Gap.
Ignacio’s advice above is excellent, although I wouldn’t use hot pepper of any kind on fish, shrimp, squid, or octopus.
Another pastime may be to order some cookbooks from dealers. Alibris (not Amazon) may have copies.
Honey from a Weed by Patience Gray is a classic. She has whole chapters on fish, and the names of fish (fascinating), and how to prepare fish. She also is very good on another favorite of mine: mushrooms. (And their many names in her working languages, English, French, Italian, and Catalan.) It appears to be out of print, but check around.
Pomp and Sustenance by Mary Taylor Simeti looks to be still in print:
https://www.marytaylorsimeti.com/books-in-english
Sicilian cooking does has some baroque touches, but fish cookery in Sicily is simpler. The recipes for swordfish and tuna are grand. Also, she has good recipes for pasta made with fish sauces, if that is something you fancy. There is a fish couscous recipe that takes some doing–but it is a holiday weekend in the U S of A after all.
Many cultures, especially Asian, enjoy hot peppers or sauces with shrimp, crab, octopus, squid etc and those dishes can be excellent… see my recipe below.
Best wishes all.
Flounder Filet. Turn oven to 300 or so baking. Slice some onion. Put the onion and some olive oil in a pyrex dish or broiling pan. get the olive oil all over the onion and bottom of pan. Place flounder in pan, spread onion around on top of the fish. Crumble feta over all of it. Turn the oven to broil, and put the fish in the oven. Remove and enjoy.
A hot weather family favorite that has been very popular with guests as well:
For 4:
Two bags of salad mix featuring chopped kale, cabbage, brussels sprouts, etc. (if it comes with dressing, reserve dressing packets for another use)
Meat from a grocery store rotisserie chicken, taken off the bone and chopped into bite-sized pieces
Any one of the following: 2 cups seedless red grapes, cut in half; two large apples, peeled, cored and chopped; 2 large navel oranges, peeled & cut bite-sized; 6 clementines, peeled & sectioned
1 cup raisins; 1 to 1-1/2 cups salted peanuts
Optional: two or three scallions, thinly sliced
One 12-oz bottle Spicy Asian Peanut Dressing (I like Trader Joe’s)
Reserve 1/2 the peanuts. Toss everything else together with dressing to taste (about 1/2 a bottle) a few minutes before serving. Garnish with the reserved peanuts, and pass the remaining dressing.
Also great w/o the chicken as a vegetarian main dish salad.
Whole wheat waffles, with slices of the bacon we smoked last fall sliced off the slab and fried up. Sushi for dinner because that bottle of cold sake in the fridge ain’t gonna drink itself.* Then maybe a movie, one of the old ones, and as far from the subject of politics as possible.
*I love fish. I once asked our waiter to go get the chef so I could compliment him (and his staff) for a trout so tasty I knew there had to be fishermen back in that kitchen. (There were two.) Trout are delicate and those who don’t fish or don’t respect fish will over season and cook the crap out of it. That trout that day in Mesa Verde was fresh and perfect… and absent that rare occurrence, that’s why here in a flyover state, (imo) dinner is sake and the sushi is to absorb the alcohol and pour a little on the ground for the demise of that once great denizen of the ocean.
Tao Te Ching 60
Governing a great state,
Is like cooking small fish.
If you rule the world by Tao,
The ghosts will lose their spiritual power.
Not that the ghosts lose their spiritual power,
But their spiritual power will not harm the people.
Not that their spiritual power will not harm the people,
But neither does the sage harm the people.
Since both are harmless,
Te flows back and forth [without impediment].
translation Ellen Chen
Sage butter is as easy to make as it sounds and is really good on all kinds of fish, even the above mentioned trout. My mom’s father used to take my brothers and I fishing up the Moosehead Lake region when we were small. He was of a similar mind as Lexx above on over seasoning and regarded butter as the only ingredient necessary to prepare freshly caught trout.
Mmmmm, thank you, mrsyk. I have been looking for other uses for those two large happy sage plants out in the garden. They overwintered very well and came roaring back in April. I’ve had to cut them back twice to keep them from crowding out their neighboring, less exuberant herbs. I’ve been thinking about pairing sage with blackberries in our next kombucha batch.
Sage can be aggressive until its cooked in a fat, then it becomes something very different and I can’t get enough of it. Here’s an old recipe I pulled off the Food Network years ago and have made several times*:
https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/dave-lieberman/apricot-glazed-chicken-with-dried-plums-and-sage-recipe-1916164
*I prefer thighs with the skin on.
Though not so popular nowadays, as a Scout I remember marching to the Cemetery for the Remembrance.
Often with a gaggle of Vets in the remnants of their old Glory.
Sometimes with a Drum Corps keeping cadence.
A speech then, and maybe a short Concert by the Local School there, before breaking out the vitals for Lunch (sometimes right there in the Cemetery).
Our “Firelands” Homeplace hometown’s cemetery from the early 1800s has Veterans Commemorative Markers from Civil War/Spanish American/WW1/WW2/Korea/Vietnam/ODS/OIF and OEF.
More than 200 Grave Markers last time I counted. Quite the Flag Show.
It’s a small Township in Ohio.
It is always a somber Reminder for this VN Era/Cold War Veteran.
Harder to find nowadays so sometimes I drive down to the VA Hospital for the morning Ritual.
Poignant is a word that fits for me, and Reflective for the drive back home.
https://www.pbs.org/national-memorial-day-concert/memorial-day/history/#:~:text=It%20was%20first%20widely%20observed,national%20commemoration%2C%20former%20Union%20Gen.
About fish. Since fish are so often iffy: (I never buy tilapia because it is reputed to be garbage fish, etc.) But I used to enjoy fish. Boise Idaho has now started a tilapia farm which is clean and fresh and the fish that come from it are to die for. Big, sweet and juicy – just like Gollum ordered. Tilapia is a good fish to farm, especially for the landlocked.
Yves’ “One reason I like cooking fish (aside from the fact that I really do like fish) is that if you’ve added any more than five ingredients to a fresh piece of fish, you are working too hard.”
This followed by the picture of an amused frog who prefers them raw. Wonderful!
Here in Austin we have only one decent “bring them in from the gulf daily” fish store, Quality Seafood on Airport Blvd. Visit; fish plus NOLA boudin for sale; dine in or out; occasional music.
As for me, right now I’d kill for a freshly caught blue fish from the west side of Prudence Island, RI.
this time of year I like to make a salad out of peeled, seeded and chopped cucumber with sliced green onions or whatever onion laying around, 2x as much oil as vinegar (sometimes i go with sesame oil and rice vinegar, sometimes i do olive and white wine vinegar, whatever is around), and whatever spices sound good, usually garlic, salt, pepper and parseley. it keeps well in the fridge and makes a slight pickle.
also the grill is superior of tools for the lazy chef. I like grilled ears of corn with the silk removed but the husks still attached, soaked in water before going on, so they get smoky and you peel the husks back instead of charring the kernels. Garnished with salt and lime! also grilled smoked sausage that has been butterflied, made into sandwiches with bahn mi buns or whatever nicer bread. Goes well with the cucumber salad as a garnish too.
The grill is superior of tools for the lazy chef – could not agree more! I love grilling ears of corn. I also love grilling a whole chicken, butterflied (or spatchcock, these days). Use indirect heat on the grill and get the coals red hot. Butterfly the chicken (cut out the spine and flatten out). Season heavily with kosher salt, and then place on the grill with the legs facing the indirect heat. Cover and roast for about 10 minutes per pound. If need be towards the end flip the bird over and place directly over the coals to finish and crisp up the skin.
In the warmer months I’ll have this with seasonal veggies and use the leftovers in salads. In the winter months, the leftovers go into soups and chicken hash.
Also, when tomatoes are in season, I will happily make a meal of fresh tomatoes, mozzarella, and basil with some olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper.
For corn, I soak the ears, and don’t bother peeling back the husks. Put the corn on first and add anything else on after about 15 minutes.
Easy recipe if you like spicy hot shrimp, SE Asian style:
Ingredients:
3-cups white rice, cooked
1 lb peeled medium to large raw shrimp
1 teaspoon white or black peppercorns
3 Tbsp cilantro stems and leaves, approximately
3 Tbsp coarsely chopped garlic
2 Tbsp fish sauce mixed with 2 Tbsp of water (Thais prefer the Squid brand, but any will do)
2-3 Tbsp oil that can withstand high heat (grapeseed, canola etc)
In a mortar or food processor crush the 1 teaspoon peppercorns to powder
Add:
3 tablespoons cilantro stems and leaves
3 tablespoons chopped garlic
Blend or pound the garlic and cilantro til you have a smooth paste.
Put the oil in a wok or suitable frying pan, heat to quite hot, and add the shrimp. Stir-fry til the shrimp are half cooked (just starting to get some color) turn down the heat a little, then add the garlic/cilantro/pepper paste, stir around to coat the shrimp and cook for a minute or two, then add the fish sauce with a little water and mix thoroughly. Serve immediately over white rice.
This recipe can easily be cut in half for two people.
What’s cool about this recipe is that it is very old, from before capsicum peppers had been brought from the new world. It’s also delicious if you like spicy food.
Yum! This sounds like a winner, thank you. Here is another recipe for shrimp.
Shrimp in Chipotle Sauce (courtesy WWOZ, New Orleans)
This dish is a cousin of BBQ shrimp, but the smoky spice of chipotle chiles creates its own vibe. It’s in the style of Veracruz regional Mexican cuisine, down the Gulf Coast from New Orleans and the main port of colonial Mexico. You can see the strong Spanish influence here in the olive oil and garlic.
The main ingredient here, canned chipotles in adobo, are widely available in supermarket Latin food sections.
1 pound shrimp, peeled and deveined
1/4 cup lime juice
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
4 Roma tomatoes
4 cloves garlic
4 green onions
1/2 200 ml can chipotles in adobo sauce and sauce from can
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 cup olive oil + 2 tablespoons
Combine pepper and lime juice in a bowl. Add the shrimp and marinate for an hour or two.
Roast the tomatoes under a broiler until lightly charred on the outside (10 minutes).
In a blender, puree the chiles and their sauce, the roasted tomatoes, oregano and 2 tablespoons olive oil and one clove of garlic.
Drain the lime juice marinade from the shrimp. Add the puree to the shrimp and stir to coat.
Mince the remaining garlic, chop the white parts of the green onions, reserve the green tops and chop them. Add the 1/4 cup olive oil to a pan over medium heat. When the oil is hot, add the onions and garlic and stir for a minute or two, until the onions are soft and the garlic begins to turn golden.
Add the shrimp and chili puree mixture to the pan and stir to combine.
Cook, stirring regularly, for several minutes, until the shrimp is just cooked. Add the chopped green onion tops at the last minute. Serve with white rice.
That sounds great! Will try it.
In Canada we celebrate today as Victoria Day but really it’s the present Queen’s Birthday. Whatever!