It's Saturday afternoon,
Maxine is napping upstairs,
and Rosie is starting on dinner.
From home, I'd brought some Romaine hearts,
Rosie's Caesar salad dressing,
and her Herbalicious Croutons for a nice Caesar salad,
a fresh pineapple, kiwis, and strawberries
for a tropical salsa,
and fresh rockfish we'd picked up at Billy's Seafood.
I must give credit where credit's due.
I got the idea for this from a dish
I had
at the Taste of the Beach Grand Tasting:
Great American Grill's
Rockfish with Hot Butter Rum Sauce and Kiwi Strawberry Salsa.
I'm starting on the salsa first
so the
flavors can mix and marry.
1 fresh pineapple
1 cup strawberries
2 kiwis
the zest of 1 lime
The second lime is just keeping
the first lime company until he gets zested.
Slice the pineapple.
Add a little oil in a hot iron skillet
and sear the pineapple slices.
Work in batches.
If you had a grill and wanted to grill these slices,
I'd say go for it.
This is how you want your slices to look.
Nice and caramelized.
Chop the pineapple.
Chop the strawberries.
Add in a tablespoon or so of sugar ...
... and an equal amount of balsamic vinegar.
Stir to mix well,
and let macerate for about an hour.
This increases the flavor and juice.
I peeled ...
... sliced ...
... and chopped my kiwis ...
... and added them to the pineapple.
I love the colors here.
Wish I had daylight.
Zest a lime ...
... and add it to the pineapple/kiwi.
After at least an hour of macerating the strawberries,
add them in.
I love colorful food.
It's fun to eat and makes my mouth happy.
Stir well and refrigerate.
This little fishy had been swimming the day before.
It's a rockfish, also known as striped bass.
These fish are anadramous,
meaning they migrate between salt and fresh water.
Rockfish live mostly in the ocean
but return to fresh water to spawn.
This needs nothing more than
freshly ground salt and pepper,
butter ...
... and a liquid.
I'm using a little bit of chicken broth ...
... and whatever white wine I found in Maxine's fridge.
I topped with lemon and lime slices and more butter.
I baked this in a 350 degree oven for 15 minutes,
and checked for doneness.
Not yet.
Problem is -
I'm not familiar with Maxine's oven.
After 15 minutes at 350,
I cranked it to 400 degrees
and gave it another 10 minutes.
Still not ready.
Gave it 7 more minutes.
Light and flaky.
Perfect.
Always test the fish as you go along.
Gently pull the meat apart in the center with a fork.
If it's nice and flaky, it's ready.
While I was dealing with the drama of the fish baking
and the unknowns of Maxine's oven,
I made a rum/cream sauce for the fish.
Heat 2-3 TB of unsalted butter in a pan.
I like to barely brown my butter.
Gives it a nice nutty flavor.
Just be careful not to burn the butter and ruin it.
You can go from brown to burn in a heartbeat.
I'm going to make a roux
(butter and flour cooked),
and add some chicken broth, cream, and rum.
Maxine didn't have flour,
so I used corn starch.
Whisk it in and cook a bit.
Whisk in a little broth ...
... and some cream.
Finish with a little rum.
I was planning on making a lemon/asparagus risotto
but when we went to Food Lion,
there was no arborio rice.
Quel suprise!
So I'm going with a couscous mix with parmesan,
and the barely alive asparagus
I'd brought from the beach.
I don't know why Mr. Hawthorne bought this -
besides his predictable answer,
"It was on sale!"
I added 1 1/2 cups of chicken broth
and a good amount of butter to the pan.
Check out my mess in Maxine's kitchen.
I added in the seasoning packet of chemicals ...
... and stirred it up.
Bring the broth and chemicals and butter
to a boil
and add in the chopped asparagus ...
... and the couscous ...
... and a handful of sunflower seeds.
Turn off heat, cover, and set aside for 5 minutes.
After five minutes,
toss the couscous.
Since Foodlion had no Parmesan cheese
(Sheeze!),
I added in grated Asiago.
Add in a little more butter.
Cover until ready to serve.
Carmen had brought a lovely colorful dish -
red peppers, sliced mushrooms, and almonds.
She added in the rest of the asparagus
in a pan of water ...
and steamed for a minute.
Add in the asparagus,
a vinaigrette,
and toss.
On to our salad:
Add in Rosie's Caesar Salad dressing
to the Romaine hearts.
And here's our dinner.
Carmen's wonderful
red pepper/mushroom/almond/asparagus salad with vinaigrette,
on bottom right,
couscous with asparagus and Parmesan in back,
and rockfish with tropical salsa and rum cream sauce,
bottom left.
I was extremely satisfied with this meal -
the flavors, the textures, the friendship,
all woven into a celebration tapestry of damn good eats.
I long for day light
so I can photograph this properly.
Hey - not a problem at all.
I'll just
have to make this again
for lunch some day soon.
And I shall look forward to that.
I need to pump up my rum sauce.
Here's Maxine's lovely table
.
I love her dining room.
Dark blue walls with white molding accents.
What a convivial bunch we are!
Carmen made this deliciosity.
Cake, strawberries, ice cream, and spray-cream.
For some reason I didn't really get,
Maxine decided to give Carmen her birthday present tonight
even though Carmen's birthday was a month ago
on February 26 -
a month after my birthday on January 26.
Perhaps Carmen has an
engagement calendar
similar to Maxine's.
That's Maxine at the head of the table.
See that yellow sweatshirt with a gardening theme
that Maxine's sporting?
Mama Hawthorne gave me that about 15 years ago for Christmas.
I would never wear something like this.
First, it's yellow.
Second, I want my sweatshirts with a zipper,
else I feel too constrained.
Third, if I ever wore something like this
with my lifestyle,
it would be ruined.
Tout de suite.
So when Maxine was visiting me
about a hundred years ago,
I noticed her eyeing this particular sweatshirt.
I knew she would enjoy and appreciate it.
Plus Maxine is a yellow person.
I gave it to her -
with the caveat that it wouldn't really be a good thing
if Mama Hawthorne saw her wearing this sweatshirt.
Somehow, Mama Hawthorne found out
that Maxine had inherited the sweatshirt.
I'm pretty sure Mama Hawthorne was OK with that.
After all, Maxine is the daughter she never got with me.
I will never know how in the world
Maxine
traveled from China back home
with her three Chinamen figurines in tact.
They represent wealth, happiness, and health.
I've always admired this piece in Maxine's collection.
I looked it up.
I found the picture
here.
Chimú sacrificial knife. It is made out of gold and the figure on top has a headband and earrings incrusted with precious or semi precious stones (turquoise?). The figure, with what seem to be rays protruding from the headband, could represent a sun deity of the Chimú or perhaps a priest or ruler "incarnating" a deity. Whether this knife was actually used in sacrifices or is a piece representing a sacrificial knife is not clear. It is not known whether this knife was used for animal or human sacrifice.
I llllove blllue walllllls.
The Kiss.
In 3-D.
This is an amazing piece of artwork.
You need to see it in person
to truly appreciate it.
I love Maxine's chandeliers.
Thank you, Maxine.
I'm tackling tuna.
Again.
My last effort wasn't up to par for my tastes.
I shouldn't use the word "tackle."
That implies some sort of supreme effort.
Sauteing a tuna filet is simple.
You just need to pay attention.
Like I say when cooking shrimp,
don't overcook it.
Take it off before you think it's done.
Here I have my lovely tuna filet,
a bit thicker than my last one,
seasoned with freshly ground salt and pepper.
I have fresh parsley from my garden.
And I have a mixture of:
1 part white sesame seeds
1 part black sesame seeds
and less than 1/2 part red pepper flakes.
I lightly toasted the sesame seeds and pepper flakes
in a dry skillet.
Important Note: This requires adequate ventilation.
Don't say I didn't warn you!
I pressed my tuna into the parsley and seeds.
I heated my iron skillet to medium high
and added butter, for flavor,
and a little oil, to raise the smoke point of the butter.
You don't need Extra Virgin Olive Oil,
just a regular canola, vegetable, safflower, or peanut oil.
Like I said, this filet was thicker than the last one -
about 1 1/2 inches thick.
I cooked it for 1 1/2 minutes each side.
I added a little lemon juice and capers
to my butter mixture and poured it over the tuna ...
... and served it with broccoli with lemon and butter.
What a lovely piece of meat.
Now that's a proper tuna.
For me.
