600168 Sun Mar 01 07:54:19 -0800 2009 45 31 Home Cooking 0 4462511 **March 2009 Cookbook of the Month** is Fish Without a Doubt by Rick Moonen and Roy Finamore Please post your full-length reviews of recipes for poaching, steaming, and boiling here. Please mention the name of the recipe you are reviewing and the page number, if possible, as well as any modifications you made to the recipe. A reminder that the verbatim copying of recipes to the boards is a violation of the copyright of the original author. Posts with copied recipes will be removed. Thanks for participating! Sun Mar 01 07:54:19 -0800 2009 56490 foxy fairy 1 4464968 Packets of Haddock with Zucchini, Tomatoes, and Parsley Pesto, Pg. 223 Easy prep and full of flavor....I've never heard of Leida or Avocado Squash recommended as alternatives so I used the zucchini. Onto an 18" X 18" piece of aluminum foil go sliced zucchini seasoned with sea salt, FGpepper and olive oil then halved grape tomatoes are seasoned like the zucchini and placed on top. 1" thick haddock fillets are seasoned with S & P and placed on top of the vegetables. The packets are folded up in thirds for the "drugstore wrap" - the directions are given in the front of the book - placed on a baking sheet and baked for 15 minutes. This had a nice, mild seafood taste with lovely opalescence. On my own I might have added sliced onions, a bit of minced garlic and a sprinkle of paprika but I now see that would have completely over powered the haddock. Parsley Pesto, Pg. 422 A typical recipe, this.... 2 cups flat leaf parsley, 2 cloves garlic, 1/3 cup Parmisano, 2 tablespoons pine nuts, 1/3 EVOO, kosher salt all processed in my ancient Braun which is holding up very well after about 25 years! What really makes all the difference is using the freshest ingredients. The pesto was a perfect accompaniment for the fish. A simple baked potato and sautéed kale completed the meal. Mon Mar 02 04:53:15 -0800 2009 4462511 75332 Gio 2 4465638 Oooh! This sounds great, too. I'm always looking for ways to use tomatoes and zucchini in summer. Do you think this could be done on the outdoor grill? ~TDQ Mon Mar 02 09:00:33 -0800 2009 4464968 12005 The Dairy Queen 3 4465718 I think probably, TDQ. Chris Schlesinger has, in his cookbook with John Willoughby "The Thrill of the Grill," a few packets like this one designed to be cooked on an outdoor grill. They call them Hobo Packs. Mon Mar 02 09:20:32 -0800 2009 4465638 75332 Gio 2 4465780 My eyes glazed over when I saw the Parsley pesto in the book, but you've made me rethink my reaction. I always seem to have parsley around the house, and we eat a lot of fish. thanks for nudging me a little in this direction. Mon Mar 02 09:33:52 -0800 2009 4464968 56762 LulusMom 3 4465798 I've made the arugula one, and it was lovely. Mon Mar 02 09:38:45 -0800 2009 4465780 10985 MMRuth 4 4465849 I read your review on the Fw/oaD thread and it sounded so good. Unfortunately my husband has put his foot down when it comes to arugula. Sad-making. But I now get away with cod, brussels sprouts and garbanzo beans, so we're making progress! Mon Mar 02 09:52:36 -0800 2009 4465798 56762 LulusMom 3 4465812 We get tomatoes, parsley and zucchini in abundance in summer and I never know what to do with it all. I am definitely going to try this on the grill when summer comes. I'll bet the pesto keeps for awhile, too. ~TDQ Mon Mar 02 09:44:01 -0800 2009 4465780 12005 The Dairy Queen 2 4705818 Revisited this recipe last night and once again it was very delicious! Used some lovely fresh pollock fillets this time and somehow it was even better than I remember. Also, this time used my new toy, a Cuisinart mini-chopper, for the pesto. Make this dish! It's terrific. Served with Oseland's Green Beans with Coconut and the Fingerling potatoe salad from BAY'A. Fri May 22 04:01:57 -0700 2009 4464968 75332 Gio 1 4504478 Better boiled lobster, P. 118: I'm assuming this is the right place for this post. I'd never cooked lobster before and I figured I might as well start. I was spurred to try when someone on the Manhattan board griped about paying $80 a pound for cooked lobster at Citarella and someone else said just cook it yourself, a 9-year-old could do it. I got two small lobsters _ 1 1/4 lb. each. I figured that would do for a first course for four. Following the directions in the book, I brought a pot of water to the boil and put a LOT of salt in it. Then I lowered the critters in head first. I brought the pot back to the boil, boiled for one minute, then turned the heat off and let the pot sit for 20 minutes. It worked perfectly! The lobsters were delicious. I'm pumped that I scaled a new culinary peek. Sat Mar 14 10:46:31 -0700 2009 4462511 126235 NYCkaren 2 4504548 I'm impressed. This is one I haven't done yet. My husband got really squeamish when I brought home live soft shell crabs - more for me! Sat Mar 14 11:20:40 -0700 2009 4504478 56762 LulusMom 3 4504587 And soft-shell crabs don't really even move! I never thought I could kill a lobster. I worked my way up by starting with crabs. It was worth it. So much cheaper than ordering lobster in a restaurant. And as a former vegetarian I do feel that if I'm going to eat animals I should be willing to kill them. Sat Mar 14 11:50:52 -0700 2009 4504548 126235 NYCkaren 4 4504806 I completely agree (as another former vegetarian). Sat Mar 14 13:34:23 -0700 2009 4504587 56762 LulusMom 4 4522664 I love eating crab, but can't bring myself to cook one because they really freak me out. Those swivelly eyes on stalks, the pincers, the horrid sideways scuttle.... I really need to get over it. A friend has promised to come and hold my hand the first time I do it but so far I've avoided it! Pathetic. Fri Mar 20 10:39:48 -0700 2009 4504587 110146 greedygirl 1 4521791 Turbot (Sole) poached in milk, with noodles and mustard butter sauce (p. 88) Lulu and I liked this (Lulu was crazy about it), husband said "just ok." I poached sole instead of turbot and loved the result, very soft and tender, almost melt in your mouth. You serve the fish on a bed of egg noodles and peas with mustard butter sauce. The mustard butter sauce requires that you first make the basic butter sauce (my one complaint with this book is how you see a recipe, think - pretty simple - and then find that you keep having to make yet another recipe to make it - but this is minor since none of these things are difficult). Made the basic butter sauce, and another quibble. He tells you to use a small pot when melting the butter, and then to use an immersion blender. For me, this meant melted butter all over me, all over the stove. I wasn't thrilled with that part. But the basic butter sauce (boil shallots and a sprig of thyme in water, then add butter a bit at a time) tastes absolutely heavenly - I think it alone would be wonderful over the poached fish. For the mustard butter you add mustard and a little lemon juice. Very simple. I did *not* strain out the shallots from the butter sauce. I like that little crunch they give, and don't really see the point. Fri Mar 20 06:15:20 -0700 2009 4462511 56762 LulusMom 2 4521954 and photo (posting this took almost an hour) Fri Mar 20 07:22:53 -0700 2009 4521791 56762 LulusMom 2 4522377 I could totally see that immersion blender thing happening to me.... hope you didn't ruin a cute outfit :) That sauce sounds great. Fri Mar 20 09:32:23 -0700 2009 4521791 56490 foxy fairy 3 4522519 I felt like a dummy for having thought it could work! Luckily was wearing an oldish shirt, but still, not thrilled. Fri Mar 20 10:08:11 -0700 2009 4522377 56762 LulusMom 4 4523436 I can't remember exactly what it was, but I know that something similar happened during one of my COTM adventures. Of course pretty much all of my cookbooks are spattered to the max, but I know I had things flying everywhere at one point too.... LOL. Fri Mar 20 14:12:36 -0700 2009 4522519 56490 foxy fairy 5 4523569 I'm so glad I'm not the only one! And geesh - you should see the shape this cookbook is in at this point. Good thing I love it, because no one else is going to want it now. I've had my way with it. Fri Mar 20 14:52:29 -0700 2009 4523436 56762 LulusMom 6 4527062 I got the book from the library and I am trying not to get it totally splattered. The fish looks great. Good thing Lulu liked it. My daughter won't eat fish unless it's fried. Sun Mar 22 07:53:13 -0700 2009 4523569 126235 NYCkaren 7 4527515 I'm a little worried about the next time I end up getting the COTM from the library. Have you tried shrimp with your daughter? That is one that Lulu loved from the start, no questions asked. And dipping sauce with *anything* seems to make it more appealling. Sun Mar 22 11:22:51 -0700 2009 4527062 56762 LulusMom 8 4527547 Yes, shrimp is the one seafood that my daughter Margaret will consistently eat. So we've been eating a lot of it. Sun Mar 22 11:41:09 -0700 2009 4527515 126235 NYCkaren 2 4528314 Dover sole, fresh caught, was only $5/lb today at the market, so I bought some and made this dish for dinner. Since there are only two of us, I divided the recipe[s] in half. I elected to omit the egg noodles since I had just made some Viennese rolls. Started with the butter sauce. With such a small quantity of sauce in the pan, the immersion blender was fairly useless, so I started adding the butter with a wisk. As the amount of sauce increased, I alternated between the blender and the wisk just to cut up the shallots. I did not strain the shallots. I used Fallot Dijon mustards. So glad I tasted before adding salt. There was plenty already. Meawhile the milk boullion was working in a small saucepan. Again, I reduced the amount of liquid from 8 cups in the recipe to 2 cups. [8 cups is HUGE.] Ran the peas under the tap to thaw and then warm, and set them in a strainer over some hot water to keep them warm. Fish was done at exactly 6 minutes [with that one turn.] I really liked this dish. Of course, I might like any dish with 2 tablespoons of butter per fish fillet! I still have a little sauce, the bouillon and one piece of fish left for a meal tomorrow. [What are people doing with the leftover milk bouillon? Does it just get thrown out?] Sun Mar 22 17:04:29 -0700 2009 4521791 59258 smtucker 3 4528323 Where in the world did you get Dover Sole for $5.00 a pound? Sun Mar 22 17:07:38 -0700 2009 4528314 10985 MMRuth 4 4528610 Somerville, MA Market Basket. Never frozen. I was astonished and put it right into my basket. Sun Mar 22 18:59:12 -0700 2009 4528323 59258 smtucker 3 4529178 Yes, I just tossed out the leftover milk bouillon. And yes, it really doesn't need salt given the salty flavor of the mustard. Mon Mar 23 06:03:24 -0700 2009 4528314 56762 LulusMom 3 4529845 Good sell, sm, I'll be making this on Wednesday. The Dover sole will be at the Reading Market Basket, and DH has his instructions..... Get There Early. We, too, used the whisk when we made the butter sauce. It just seemed easier to do it that way. Mon Mar 23 09:34:15 -0700 2009 4528314 75332 Gio 4 4529907 Oh, How I wish I'd started off with the whisk! Mon Mar 23 09:48:18 -0700 2009 4529845 56762 LulusMom 5 4529942 Next time...LLM...next time. LOL Mon Mar 23 09:56:32 -0700 2009 4529907 75332 Gio 6 4530250 I will get more smarter! Mon Mar 23 11:18:05 -0700 2009 4529942 56762 LulusMom 4 4538562 We made the Dove Sole tonight as I had planned and I must say it was superb. Loved the Mustard Butter Sauce, Loved the peas & noodles.... Loved the way he uses ground white pepper. It adds such a different taste to a dish. The fish was cooked beautifully in such a very short time. I'm saving the milk bouillon but I wonder if I should freeze it. I already have 3 bags of lobster stock in the freezer and can't decide what to do with them/it. I served the sole with a spicy tomato and white onion salad with cumin & white balsamic vinegar and it all went together beautifully. Wed Mar 25 17:31:14 -0700 2009 4529845 75332 Gio 3 4530426 smtucker: I'm really glad you mentioned Fallot mustards. Once you use them in cooking and on sandwiches you can't go back to Grey Poupon. They are fabulously tangy and tasty. I ran out and my local market didn't have any so I bought GP. We couldn't eat it. It's weird, here in SFBayarea, at Berkeley Bowl, I've often gotten dover sole at a very good price (around $5-6/lb). Petrale, otoh, is almost always very expensive. Could you use the milk bouillon as a base or addition to some kind of clam or fish chowder? Mon Mar 23 12:06:33 -0700 2009 4528314 10245 oakjoan 4 4530445 I'll have to keep an eye out for Fallot - I usually use Maille. Mon Mar 23 12:10:03 -0700 2009 4530426 10985 MMRuth 5 4530574 I know Kalustyan's carries it, but it's about 4 dollars more a bottle than it is at Zabar's. Problem is, Zabar's doesn't always have it. Those prices at levillage,com are terrific, smtucker. Nearly half what I've seen it for here in NYC. Definitely worth the shipping for me. Great tip. Thanks. Mon Mar 23 12:43:03 -0700 2009 4530445 11407 JoanN 4 4530493 I discovered Fallot years ago, and will never use anything else. (Well that isn't completely true. For summer potato salads at big family gatherings, I use the Grey Poupon.) I can't find the Fallot around Boston so I mail order from levillage.com. To order one jar is ridiculously expensive with shipping, but if you order 10 or 12, the price becomes very reasonable. Hard to find Fallot in France oddly enough, except in the Dijon region. Fish chowder might be a very good use for that milk. Great idea! Mon Mar 23 12:23:00 -0700 2009 4530426 59258 smtucker 4 4530729 FWIW, oakjoan, I've read that there's another fish that's often called "Dover sole" that's sourced on the Pacific coast, as opposed to the true Dover sole from Europe, and I've wondered if that's what we're seeing here for such a good price. Here's a reference to that: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dover_sole Mon Mar 23 13:30:20 -0700 2009 4530426 10074 Caitlin McGrath 5 4530807 I think you're absolutely right, Caitlin. Here's what James Peterson has to say: "Dover" Sole (Microstomus pacificus): Unfortunately this insipid-tasting fish is never marketed with the quotation marks, which may lead the unwary to confuse it with authentic Dover sole from Europe. The two have nothing in common. This fish, also called Pacific flounder, is considerably larger . . . than authentic Dover sole and has a mushy texture when cooked; authentic Dover sole has a very firm texture. Mon Mar 23 13:45:01 -0700 2009 4530729 11407 JoanN 6 4530849 I believe a lot of what's sold as sole in the US (called Dover and otherwise) is actuallyy flounder. Mon Mar 23 13:53:40 -0700 2009 4530807 10074 Caitlin McGrath 7 4531032 This fish was definitely not flounder. Fillets were the wrong texture and too small. Plus it didn't taste like flounder. That doesn't mean it was Dover Sole. The good news is that "the fish with no name" was really tasty. Mon Mar 23 14:43:18 -0700 2009 4530849 59258 smtucker 5 4537324 That's what I've always heard too. I remember reading an interesting earlier discussion on Chowhound (linked below), with the consensus that inexpensive US "Dover Sole" is Pacific flounder/flatfish. Dover Sole in US supermarkets: is this the real thing? http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/577963 Wed Mar 25 11:44:03 -0700 2009 4530729 10271 Rubee 6 4537330 Yes, I think that makes more sense - thanks for finding that link. Wed Mar 25 11:45:26 -0700 2009 4537324 10985 MMRuth 7 4538576 Well, I have to say that whatever those lovely small, flat, sweet fish fillets were they were delicious cooked in the milk court bouillon. Wed Mar 25 17:35:07 -0700 2009 4537330 75332 Gio 1 4536057 Steamed halibut (p. 107) with coconut and green curry sauce (p. 431) The steamed halibut recipe calls for corn and red pepper coulis, but being on a Thai cooking kick, I was happy to find the coconut and green curry sauce, which went perfectly with the fish. I adore halibut and never thought to steam it, which is a good idea. In fact, I never thought to steam *any* fish. I was very pleased with the results, and I'm here to say it's a good nonfat cooking technique so you can get your fat elsewhere rather than as a cooking vehicle. It also preserves the texture and flavor of the halibut. Lacking a steamer, I put a colander in a pot w/ water, and a cover that didn't fit, but it worked fine. It's a great technique for a thick fish like halibut, and I'll do it again. I've sauteed scallops and served with a corn coulis (excellent epicurious recipe) in the summer w/ tomatoes as a side, which is delicious but scallops are sweeter than halibut and I wanted something with more zing to go with the fish. Served w/ sauteed napa cabbage and roasted potatoes. Mmmm. Wed Mar 25 05:18:50 -0700 2009 4462511 33755 NYchowcook 1 4793041 Steamed Black Sea Bass with Sizzling Ginger (page 104) The fisherman at the farmer’s market had the most beautiful small black sea bass, so I bought it and found this recipe for which I had all the ingredients on hand. You slash the fish, stuff the cavity with shallots and ginger, and marinate the fish in soy sauce for 20 minutes. You then lay the fish on a bed of split, trimmed scallions and steam it for 10 minutes. After it’s cooked, you spoon over it a bit of hot oil in which you’ve sizzled matchsticks of fresh ginger. After all the spicy and robustly-flavored food I’ve been eating lately, I really had to sit still for a moment and let all the wonderfully subtle flavors announce themselves. I’m not all that sure that the ginger oil added much, but hard to know. It may just be that I was using frozen, rather than fresh, ginger and frozen ginger—although it works just fine for flavoring a dish—doesn’t retain it’s texture and contains too much liquid to really sizzle. Anyway, I really liked this. It’s not quite as easy to either make or eat as other Asian-type recipes I’ve made with fillets, but especially with barely-out-of-the-water fish it was a real treat. Just for photo identification, I had it with plain rice and roasted kale. Sun Jun 21 17:08:40 -0700 2009 4462511 11407 JoanN 1 4794104 Court Bouillon - p. 78 for poached Salmon Last week I poached salmon using this wonderful Court Bouillon recipe. I think it was the best poached salmon I've ever eaten, let alone made. Followed the recipe, but used 6 cups of water instead of 5. To poach the salmon, I heated the poacher a little, brought the bouillon to a boil, put the salmon in the poacher, poured the broth over the salmon quickly covered the pan and let it sit for about 15 minutes (3 pound fillet). Wonderful! The salmon was very slightly infused with the tarragon flavor - almost more an aroma than a taste. I wound up poaching 5 large fillets to help a friend with her party and everyone who had some raved. Mon Jun 22 06:04:27 -0700 2009 4462511 10231 mirage