Summer Special: Fish Burgers with Fruit Salsa

When Nancy and I lived in Tulsa, we sometimes shopped at a fishmonger place called Bodean. Unique at the time, they received fish by air daily. For Tulsa that was impressive.

After several years they opened an upscale restaurant next door. From time to time we ate there as well.

As wonderful as all that may have been, our favorite was what they did with leftovers. They chunked the fish pieces and made them into spicy fish burgers. After we moved away, we missed the fish burgers.

I began to experiment and finally came up with a recipe and method we enjoy.

Sometime later we discovered how fantastic a fruit salsa went with the burgers. Depending on the season, I use strawberry, peach, apricot, or nectarine
.

Salsa Ingredients

1 quart of fruit, rough chopped in 1/4 to 1/2 inch pieces.

1 onion, diced and rinsed in cold water

1 to 2 jalapeños, seeded and chopped small

1 clove garlic, minced

juice of one lime

1 tablespoon chili powder

a small double handful of chopped cilantro

salt, as much as needed

sugar as needed

Method

Combine the ingredients and taste the salsa. It may need sugar or more lime juice or both. Let the salsa sit for an hour or two before service.

P.S. It may need a splash or two of sriracha as well. 

Fish Burger Ingredients

You will need 4 to 6 ounces of fish per burger. Salmon, trout, cod, halibut, walleye, crappie, white bass, and striper have all been in my burgers. Do not be afraid to mix and match. Pat the fish dry before you begin. That is important so I'll say it again. Pat the fish dry before you begin. If the fish is dry, it is easier to form the burgers.

12 to 16 ounces fish, cut in 1/4 to1/2 inch chunks

1/3 to 1/2 cup panko bread crumbs

1 shallot, minced

zest from one lime

1 Tablespoon Old Bay seasoning

1 egg, beaten

a handful of chopped parsley

Salt and pepper!

Method

Thoroughly mix all the ingredients except the egg in a bowl. Wait 10 minutes for the panko to absorb moisture. Slowly add some of the egg and mix again. Continue to add egg until the mixture will form balls that hold together. If your mixture is loose and damp, let it sit, uncovered, in the refrigerator to firm up.

Form thick patties and place them on parchment paper in the refrigerator for at least an hour.

Pan fry the burgers in 1/4 inch of shimmering oil. Try not to move them around, especially just after you place them in the pan. You want the burger interior cooked and the outside gold brown. Please note some fish browns more than other kinds, so the uniformity of color depends on several factors.

Serve the burgers with salsa and grilled vegetables.

Enjoy your summer!

Early Summer Farmers Markets Rock!

Tonight's meal features four items I found when I visited the farmers market Thursday. Farmers markets are the ultimate "support your local merchants" opportunity. The big conglomerates at the farmers markets are family operations or communes or monks. Hardly the types to set up superpacs.

One item I found was a cheese smith who featured goat milk chevre. It had just the right tang to it. Even though I felt the price high, I bought a small portion.

Another, and even more elusive find was fresh green peas. Frozen peas are a great product - arguably the best frozen vegetable that exists. Having said that, fresh peas have a grassy quality the frozen never convey.

One vendor had Spring onions with bulbs about 1 inch in diameter and beautiful thick green stalks.

Last of all, I found some end of the season asparagus. You could tell the vendor was clearing the beds; the stalks were decidedly non-uniform in size.

For tonight, the asparagus will be the salad. I blanched it Thursday night and chilled it. I will dress it with a Spring onion and cherry tomato balsamic dressing.

The main course will feature the peas and the chevre, plus some of the excellent slab bacon we order from Nueskes. I guess we should call it Bacon and Pea Penne with Chevre.

Ingredients

1 pound dry penne pasta
1 quart fresh green peas
1/2 cup of 1/4 inch bacon strips cut from slab bacon (5 slices of thick bacon cut in 1/4 inch strips)
1/4 cup chevre cheese
1/2 cup reserved pasta water
1 large clove garlic
fresh grated parmesan or romano cheese
Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Method

Blanch the peas in heavily salted boiling water until the flavor just begins to change. Do not over cook. Drain and cool the peas with cool water.

Start 6 cups of well salted water over high heat. Drop the clove of garlic in the water. Bring the water to a roiling boil. If ready ahead of time, turn it off to wait on the best time.

Add a tablespoon of of the olive oil to a cold skillet and add the bacon. Set the heat to medium low and slowly cook the bacon until crispy but not dark brown.

Remove the bacon lardons and set aside. Bring the water back to a boil and add the penne.

Add the peas to the hot bacon/olive oil and saute as you cook the pasta. Do not cook the peas to the gray stage.

When the pasta is very al dente, reserve 1 cup of the liquid and drain the pasta.

Add the chevre, peas, and bacon to the pasta and mix. Add the pasta water gradually to melt the cheese and finish cooking the pasta.

Garnish with freshly grated parmesan.

Summer Vacation Grilling and Chilling

Between now and mid August, I am committed to only four teacher related days in late June and early July. Those days are for training in aspects of teaching, professional development to improve my craft. Other than those days I am free to do as I want - sorta, kinda. After all, I am married.

This morning I drove into town to visit the farmers market. I picked up local made feta cheese, peas, radishes, new potatoes, asparagus, spring onions, and arugula.  On the way home, I stopped at the grocery and bought a tri-tip roast.

I blanched the asparagus and chilled it to use in a salad later this week. The peas will go in tomorrow's bacon, peas, and penne meal.

For the potatoes, I used the Ina Garten No Eggs No Pickles Potatoes Salad recipe to make a potato salad sauce. Some of the Spring onions are mixed into it.

I steamed the new potatoes after I cleaned them up and quartered them. The salad now sits in the refrigerator chilling.

After the potato salad went in the refrigerator, I tackled the roast. The first step was to clean it up.

No one wants to eat something with that much fat and silver skin. I spent about 15 minutes and wound up with a much more attractive chunk of meat.

Next I mixed Greek seasoning, Northwoods seasoning, tandoori seasoning, and chili powder with salt and made a dry rub for the roast.

The roast now sits in a plastic bag in the refrigerator to become flavorful.

Where is this all headed? Why to the grill, of course!

I will build the fire on one side of the grill and place the roast on the other. I will cover and cook until the meat registers 115 degrees. Then I will move it over the coals and char the exterior while pushing the temperature to 125 degrees. After I rest the meat, I will slice the roast thinly across the grain as if it were flank steak.

When it all comes together the plate looks like this:

Flavorful Healthy Chicken Breast

One of the more difficult things to accomplish is to prepare chicken breast that remains tasty and moist yet is fully cooked. If the breast is skinless, the chore becomes even more challenging. This recipe evolved from several sources, and I promise you will enjoy the tender chicken that results.

INGREDIENTS

2 skinless chicken breasts

1 pint of cherry tomatoes, each halved

1/4 cup capers with 2 Tablespoons of brine

Juice from one juicy lemon

4 cloves garlic sliced thin

1/2 cup green onion tops

1 Tbsp. Penzy's Sunny Paris seasoning (optional)

3 Tbsp. butter

salt and pepper

flour for dredging

1 Tbsp. olive oil

METHOD

Prepare the ingredients for cooking.

Pat the chicken breasts dry. Using a sharp knife, slice each breast in half horizontally. Salt and pepper the breast fillets generously and then dredge in flour, shaking off the excess.

The flour will help brown the chicken without overcooking it. The thinner pieces of chicken will cook through to the middle before the outside becomes overcooked.

Heat the oil in a large non stick skillet until it shimmers but does not smoke. Saute the chicken over medium heat until lightly browned and cooked through. Remove the chicken from the skillet and cover with foil to keep warm.

Add the butter to the skillet and the onions. When the onions are limp, add the garlic and cook for two minutes. Add the tomatoes and capers and continue cooking until the tomatoes begin to melt. Add the lemon juice, and spices if using, and mix well.

Serve the chicken covered in the pan sauce. The first picture shows a wild mushroom ravioli beside the chicken. Any pasta will love this sauce. For those avoiding carbs, my sister in law would suggest spaghetti squash or cauliflower as a side.

Enjoy.

Sunday Dinner Roast

I regularly correspond on a message board that targets Ozark fishermen, Ozark Anglers. One thread has 3,631 posts as of today. Oddly, the thread title is "What's Cooking?" A recent post in that thread has inspired me to create this post in my blog. The post discussed a slow cooker pot roast and stated, in part, "Come morning before I leave for Grampa duty I will add the sirloin roast. Granted one of my least favorite cuts of beef but it came with the rest of the beef."

I was surprised to see his comment as I have been using that cut for Sunday roast beef for some time. Much less expensive than rib roast or tenderloin. Maybe I can help spread the word about this alternative.

Normally I have the butcher cut the normal top sirloin in half to yield a four to five pound roast.

The shape of the cut determines how you tie it for roasting.

While I prepare the meat I begin by making a garlic paste. I cut the top off a bulb of garli, put it on a sheet of tin foil and soak the bulb in olive oil. I wrap the foil over the bulb and put it in aa 350 degree oven for 40 minutes.

When the bulb is done, I remove it from the oven and turn the oven heat down to 220 degrees. When the bulb cools, I picked the roasted garlic from the cloves and mash it with a fork. I add 2 Tbls. of olive oil and a teaspoon of Greek seasoning. I recommend either Cavendars or Penzy's.

In the meantime, I salt and pepper the roast liberally and then sear it in a very hot skillet with only a small amount of oil. Once the meat is seared, I use my fingers to slather the Greek garlic paste over the roast surfaces. The roast then goes in the 220 degree oven.

At 200 to 220 degrees, the roast normally requires about 30 to 35 minutes per pound. The shape and starting temperature of the roast will affect the actual time. 

When the internal temperature reaches 125 degrees, I pull the roast and cover it with foil to rest for 20 minutes. If It is way too early, I wrap it in foil and put it in the warming drawer on low.

As a teaser about a future post, here's a picture of tonight's side dish for the roast, Slow Cooker Cheesy Ranch Bacon Cauliflower.

I recommend you thinly slice the roast against the grain.

This roast finished early by almost an hour. I held it in the warming drawer. As a result it ws more medium rare than rare. Despite that, it was juicy and tender.

An Ozark Spring Day - Mediterranean Style

One of the marvels of our modern world is how trade has changed. What used to be unavailable one place has become available. For example, only ten years ago, if you went to the seafood section of the freezer case of a grocery in the Ozarks, you found a frozen shrimp ring and your choice of several brands of catfish nuggets or hushpuppies. Not so today.

Today I found small trays of frozen fishes from the Mediterranean. The trays contained chopped squid, baby clams, mussels, and Langostino pieces. I was inspired to try a one pot meal based on this find.

Ingredients

8 ounces of mixed seafood varieties (mussels, clams, shrimp, squid, or octopus)
16 ounces of linguini or interesting pasta such as flowers
1 pint of cherry tomatoes, halved
4 cloves of garlic, crushed and chopped
a double handful of baby spinach leaves
4 large shallots, halved and thinly sliced
2 ounces of dry white wine
oregano, basil, thyme, chives, crushed red pepper, and salt to taste
good virgin olive oil

Method

Bring 5 quarts of well salted water to a boil in a pasta pot. Cover it and let it sit for future use.

Heat 2 to 3 Tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat in the bottom of a dutch oven to the shimmer stage. 

Add the shallots and spices and stir well as the oil cools and the onions begin to cook. 

When the shallots are translucent, add the garlic and cook until fragrant. Then add the white wine and the tomatoes.

Turn the water back to high and bring to a boil. Add the pasta.

Cook the tomatoes as the water reheats, about five minutes.

Add the seafood and the spinach and turn the heat to low. Simmer while the pasta cooks.

When the pasta reaches very al dente, remove it from the water and reserve a half cup of the pasta water.

Add the pasta to the seafood mixture and stir well. Add the pasta water. Turn off the heat and cover the pot. Allow the pasta to finish cooking in the juices for five minutes

Plate the pasta and garnish with fresh grated Parmesan or Romano and minced chives or parsley.

School Night Shrimp Curry

Sometimes a bit of spicy food is exactly what you need to end a school day. This dish will provide that without burning your system down.

Ingredients

8 ounces peeled, deveined raw shrimp

2 small zucchinis, quartered and sliced in quarter inch pieces

2 small carrots, peeled and sliced in quarter inch rings

1 large  or 2 small jalapenos, seeded and pith removed, diced fine

1 bunch green onions, white and pale green sliced in thin rings, green tops reserved

1/2 cup frozen green peas

1 large clove garlic

3 Tablespoons Penzy's Curry Powder

1 Tablespoon butter

1 10 ounce can coconut milk

1/2 cup low sodium chicken broth

2 Tablespoons fish sauce

1/4 cup cilantro, chopped

1/4 cup mint, chopped

cooked rice (preferably basmati)

2 Tablespoons brown sugar

Method

Mix the fish sauce and chicken broth with the brown sugar until it dissolves and set aside.
Saute the onion, zucchini, jalapeno, and carrots in the butter over low medium heat until the onions
are translucent and the zucchini is done. Add the garlic and curry powder and continue to cook until the spice is quite fragrant.
Add the coconut milk and the broth mix and cook until the liquid begins to boil. Add the peas and shrimp and cook until the shrimp is pink and plump. Remove from the heat and add the mint and cilantro.

Serve with rice and garnished with minced green onion tops.