Vietnamese Caramelized Fish

This is a delightful dish I discovered on a recent visit to Ho Chi Minh City.  Having lived in Thailand, I love the freshness of Southeast Asian cuisine.  There are many great Vietnamese restaurants in Edmonton and I was looking forward to learning more about how to prepare some dishes I haven’t tried here.

This recipe for Vietnamese Caramelized Fish is really quick and simple.  The secret ingredient is a coconut caramel sauce but as most people might not want to make a separate caramel sauce, I tweaked the recipe slightly to get that flavour and texture right in the cooking.

Serve it with hot rice and a vegetable stir fry – let me know how it works for you.

Vietnamese Caramelized Fish

 

 

 

Mill are for more than just pepper –

I’m not the most active social media user, but enjoy Twitter for the bits of information, articles and ideas that are shared freely and widely.  Much of it isn’t particularly useful, but when it is, I’m grateful for this connectivity to creative minds around the world.

Yesterday I came across a new use for pepper mills, an article on the Real Simple magazine blog, Simply Stated, suggesting they be used for grinding coffee for individual French press.  It seems that to grind enough coffee to make a cup would be a lot of work, perhaps worth the effort only in the middle of nowhere on an outdoor adventure, as suggested by Mountainize, a web site dedicated to the outdoor lifestyle, where this tip first appeared.

Not a coffee drinker, this idea never dawned on me, except when I read it, I thought immediately of finely grinding espresso beans as a fresh garnish for a mocha torte, tiramisu or as an add to a great rub for meat.

Here are a few other alternative uses I’ve found for the many peppermills I have:

- whole chilis, to get freshly ground flakes
- whole spice blends, as I don’t like biting into coriander seeds, etc.
- cinnamon bark for fresh grated cinnamon
- different rock salts (Himalayan, Bolivian, Hawaiian, etc.)
- cocoa nibs for garnishing
- dried porcini mushrooms (for meat rubs and adding a hint of depth to sauces & soups)
- one for each kind of peppercorn – black, white, green & pink
- and now one for fresh espresso beans (which means adding only enough for a service as they go rancid quickly)

And the mills shouldn’t be very cheap (they tend to clog and break) but don’t have to be super high end. In fact, I find my $10 glass grinders perform better than my $100 Peugot. I also prefer glass ones because you can see the blend, spice, chili, etc. – I love that.

Don’t fill your pepper mill/grinder very full.  You want to run out of it frequently to ensure you’re using fresh product.  Some of my clients fill large mills with peppercorns once every few years(!), not realizing that flavour begin to diminish and deteriorate after 6 months.

Please shaer your great kitchen uses for pepper mills (and maybe out of the kitchen, too) – I’d love to hear them!

Summer in October

 

I am so grateful to G for all his hard work this summer, planting and caring for our container garden. We are still enjoying the fruits of his labour – literally.

Every day more tomatoes ripen and we (mostly me) enjoy them for breakfast, lunch and supper. Sliced, drizzled with olive oil & balsamic vinegar, and sprinkled with flaked sea salt.  Chopped into tabouleh or fattoush salads.  On a sandwich smothered in mayonnaise.  In bruschetta with fresh bread and cheese.  As a luscious soup or sauce for pasta.  Sliced and scattered on homemade pizza.  And with lots of hot peppers and cilantro, the freshest of salsas.

Some people preserve their tomatoes for later and maybe next year I will put some by for winter.  This first year of having an herb and tomato garden, I’ve been thoroughly enjoying them fresh.

On this last day of October with the wind blowing and freezing temperatures on the horizon, every burst of their sweet goodness reminds me of summer.

What went around comes around

A client called to book a dinner party for February.  They want a traditional English menu of roast prime rib, Yorkshire puddings, gravy, carrots, and sticky toffee pudding. I nodded agreement to everything until she asked for Duchess Potatoes. I quickly went through my mental recipe box and couldn’t find an entry. “You know, the one from the Purity Cook Book,” she explained.

Oh, that recipe. I smiled and assured her I did indeed know it.

This is one of the benefits of collecting cookbooks, especially unusual, eclectic and even dated

High protein, non-fat, 100% chocolatey goodness!

I bought too many bananas at the store last week (a bad habit of mine) and of course, several of them became overripe.  Well-speckled and on the verge of becoming squishy, they were prime for banana bread making.  But I wasn’t.  Not in the mood to bake, I threw them in the blender with unsweetened cocoa powder, greek yogurt and skim milk.  I love the combination of banana and chocolate, and this didn’t disappoint

Fudgy Puffed Wheat Squares

One of my all time favourite comfort sweets is puffed wheat squares.  Because I’ve been known to eat the better part of a pan by myself, I’ve gone to occasionally buying just one square from a lovely lady at Old Strathcona Farmers’ Market instead of making them.

Because they’re traditionally made with loads of corn syrup, white and brown sugar, and butter, I’ve had many clients ask me to create a recipe that has all the goodness and comfort of this favourite recipe without using trans-fats, corn syrup or refined sugar.  After several tests,