A Nice Fish Dinner And No Thunderstorms.

I checked my weather radar and severe thunderstorms were all around us.
I despise the ABC affiliate in Norfolk, which is the only ABC station I get down here.
The station preempted Oprah, of all people, and Dr. Oz, so the weatherman could do an excruciatingly painful inch-by-inch, foot-by-foot crapologue about nothing except the storm path. Of course, commercials were not interrupted.
This is not the first time this station has done this.
Nor will it be the last, unfortunately.
At least it was Oprah they preempted.
Now, had they cut into All My Children, HEADS.WOULD.ROLL.

I anxiously awaited a nice thunderstorm,
but, alas, it was not meant to be.

Pretty clouds.

Rain, rain, everywhere around me, but it ain't happening here.

So, let's get cooking.

If you recall, which you probably don't, we barbecued a whole chicken for the Fourth of July.
I saved the neck and giblets and decided to use them for dinner last night.
First, I sauteed the neck in olive oil and butter.

I added some sliced mushrooms.

Then I added the giblets.
Here's a note for you:
When sauteing mushrooms, don't add salt until you're done sauteing.
If you add salt at the beginning, the salt draws water out of the shrooms
and the shrooms will steam, not saute.

I had some leftover water chestnuts from the other day, so I sliced them, along with garden squash, and celery and onions, and added them to the mix.

Next, I added about a cup of Arborio rice.

And to make a nice risotto, I added in just a bit of vegetable broth, stirred the rice to let it soak up the broth, then added more broth, on and on until rice was ready.

I used up the whole can of broth plus a little more water.

Aaaaaand the risotto is ready.


In the meantime, Mr. Hawthorne was preparing tile fish.
After pulling out the pin bones with a small pair of pliers, he patted the fish dry.
This is very important when frying fish.
If the fish is wet, the batter won't stick.
ALWAYS, pat the fish dry.
(Sorry didn't mean to yell.)

Mr. Hawthorne likes to use McCormick's Fish and Chips batter to which he adds water, some Old Bay and some cayenne powder.

When frying fish, it's important to have the oil at the proper temperature, 350-375 degrees.
I always check with the wooden spoon trick.
Dip the end of the spoon in the hot oil and if bubbles come out rapidly, the oil is ready.
Another important tip is to never crowd the pan.
Use a big enough pan so the fish pieces don't touch.
And use enough oil.
Don't skimp on the oil.

Here are the fried fish fillets.
Mr. Hawthorne saves the leftover batter and fries it for chips.

I decided to make a sauce for the tile fish.
First a bit of Dijon mustard and honey.

Add some orange marmalade and a bit of soy sauce.

Finally add in some fresh orange juice.

Here's our dinner.
Fried tile fish with orange mustard sauce, risotto with giblets, batter chips, and if you look closely on the left of the plate, there's a little puddle of Malt Vinegar or fish and chip vinegar, which is excellent with fried fish. If you haven't tried it, do so. You'll like it.
The fish was flaky, the batter light, the risotto full of different flavors, the mustard orange sauce a very nice complement to the fish and malt vinegar.

Never got any rain, but did get a nice sunset.