Rosie Is Back At The Range Again.

 

 One of the first meals I made 

upon arriving home was, naturally, seafood -

specifically, a pistachio encrusted mahi mahi. 

Both Mr. Hawthorne and I missed our East Coast Seafood.

In fact, my column for the Outer Banks Voice

this month was about that very fact.
I find East Coast seafood far superior
to West Coast seafood.

In preparation for that column,

I made this particular dish

which is always a winner.

I served the mahi mahi with a compound butter

of cilantro, lime, and red pepper flakes on top,

sittin' pretty on a nest of oshitashi on the bottom,

with a pineapple rum salsa on the side.

Pineapple Salsa 

small can of pineapple

soy sauce

rice vinegar

honey

orange juice and zest

lime juice and zest

mint

rum

s & p

Mix together in whatever proportions suit you.

Be creative.

I used tablespoon-fulls.

Honey.

Soy.

Rice vinegar.

Rum.

Mint.

Mix all together.

Cover and refrigerate.

Next, a compound butter:

Add some chopped cilantro to softened butter.

Add in some cayenne pepper flakes.

Mix well.

And don't forget the raw, green coriander seeds

on your going-to-seed cilantro plants.

Excellent source of pop and flavor.

For the oshitashi ...

I toasted some sesame seeds

in a little peanut oil

and some sesame oil.

Go easy on sesame oil

until you know how much of a punch it packs.

Stir and lightly toast the seeds.

Add in the spinach and let wilt.

A little soy sauce and ...

... lemon juice are welcome additions.

I love dark green foods.

This spinach dish, 

which I first had at Koi Restaurant in Nashville,

has become a favorite of ours.

On to the mahi mahi,

or dolphin fish,

Coryphaena hippurus.

Freshly ground salt and pepper.

Dip filets in beaten egg whites.

Pistachios.

Ground pistachios.

Evenly coat the filets with the ground pistachios,

pressing the nuts into the fish.

Lightly saute the fish in a 

mixture of oil (I used peanut.) and butter.

The butter is for flavor.

The oil is to raise the smoke point of the butter.

Remove filets.

Deglaze the pan with a little white wine.

Then return filets to pan and

place in a 450 degree oven for about 7 - 10 minutes -

until the fish is firm and opaque in center.

The saltiness of the pistachios is a nice complement 

to the fish and I love me some earthy green spinach.

The toasted sesame seeds are a nice touch.

See those little green balls on top in the butter?

That's coriander, the seed of the cilantro plant.

I pick them while still green to eat.

They give a surprising cilantric and citric punch

to whatever they're on.

Grow some cilantro

because you won't get these little babies

anywhere else.

They're culinary gems, I tell ya.

Rosie Makes Another Of Aartie's Recipies.

I've been watching Aartie's Paartie on Food Network and in spite of the reappearing stupid flower in her hair, her annoying giggles, her "cutesy" names for her dishes, the idiotic story arc of her "accountability group" coming over, and the opening graphics, apparently designed by a twelve year old, I do believe she has something to offer. I just hope TPTB at FN don't have her dumb down her apparent talent and Indianize American recipes, like her Sloppy Bombay Joes.

Last Sunday, she made chicken breasts that I wanted to try. She called them "I Ain't Chicken Chicken." What the hell does that mean? Are you chicken? Or not?

Here's my chicken with roasted sliced Yukon gold and sweet potatoes. Basically, Aartie made a compound butter of orange zest, ginger, and cardamom and stuffed it underneath the skin. Sounded good to me, plus I actually have cardamom seeds on hand.

Check out the price on these bosoms - $0.97/pound.

I had whole cardamom seeds, which I shelled, then pounded the innerds.

I took a one-inch cube of frozen ginger, peeled it, nuked it for 20 seconds, then I was able to squeeze a bunch of juice out.

I grated the rest of the ginger and added it to the butter. You could also use a garlic press for the ginger. Frozen ginger is best for grating. If you've already nuked your ginger for the juice, use the garlic press.

Zested one orange and added that.

Added in the rest of the cardamom.

This smells pretty darn good.

Mix well.

Separate the skin from the meat, stuff some of the compound butter inside, and ...

... massage to distribute throughout.

Drizzle with some EVOO. That's Extra Virgin Olive Oil!

And add some salt and pepper. Buy yourself grinders and get sea salt and whole peppercorns. It makes a difference.

I thinly sliced a sweet potato and ...

... a Yukon gold.

I drizzled ELBOO over the potatoes. That's Extra Light Bertolli Olive Oil!

Aartie said to bake the chicken in a 500 degree oven for 30 minutes. That ain't enough. I gave mine 45 minutes. If you want to be exact, a thermometer should read 160 degrees for chicken. After 30 minutes, it was only 138 degrees.

Here's our lunch. The chicken was tender and juicy and I truly liked the flavors of the ginger and orange zest and the cozy warmth of the cardamom. The first thing I ate was a slice of potato. It was infused with the above flavors and was quite lovely. The chicken skin, though quite flavorful from the compound butter, was not crisp. I need to get the skin crisp, then it would kick ass. Next time, I'll cook the potato slices separately. I like my taters crunchy. Some of these were crisp - the ones not soaking up the delicious chicken juices. I like crisp.

This is good but I need to crisp the skin.

Yukon gold potato slices imbued with chicken/orange/ginger/cardamom flavors and crisp sweet potato slices.

I'll remember this dish and, of course, I will try to perfect it. The skin! The skin! I'll remember that I made it on a Thursday afternoon after I'd been with Surfsquatch on the beach and as I waited for Earl to make his nocturnal visit. Good times.