Cooking Vignettes

Between moving and being lazy I haven't put anything here in some time. While I haven't written anything, I did take pictures of a pair of cooking adventures that I'll throw together from memory, and fabricate any details I don't remember. It will be like two truths and a lie, except about food, and probably with lots more lies.

First Ann's recipe for fish. I think it was mahi mahi, but it might have been halibut or dolphin. She greased a baking sheet and put the (very thick) filets on it. The topping was made from crushed pecans, breadcrumbs, heavy cream (I think? some kind of dairy), seasonings (I see salt there not sure what else, I would also have used pepper (possibly lemon pepper (whoa! nested parentheses!)), onion flakes (those were probably in there), and some sambal oelek), and probably some extra virgin panda oil (you get that from the first pressing of baby pandas). Now that I mention it, I think sesame oil would be good also, that stuff is great. Once you have the topping, you cover the fish with it and bake it. It comes out looking very similar, but cooked.

The topping was good but the thickness of the fish left it a little raw in the center. Ann liked it that way; I was less enthusiastic. I think it would have been weird to butterfly the fish though since it wasn't homogeneous throughought - the center started redder and differently textured. Maybe a longer cook at lower temperature, say 350ish? This post is seeming less and less useful as I go on.

On the side we had quinoa with chicken broth and broccoli which was also good. You make it by cooking quinoa in chicken broth and then adding steamed broccoli.

The other recipe was mine, so I'm both less required and more inclined to just make things up. It was pretty solid though. I made an egg wash with sambal oelek, chopped garlic, and lime juice. Also eggs. I soaked the chicken in that for a half hour. I don't know if eggs contribute to a marinade, but I figured the rest of it would be good. While that was chilling, I made a crust by mashing about half a bag of Tostitos (TM) and adding copious amounts of black pepper, chili powder, cumin, onion flakes, garlic powder, more cumin, paprika, and cumin. Cumin is delicious by the way.

 I put ½ inch of canola oil in a skillet and got it really hot. My limited experience with frying suggests that hot oil is the key. You should let it hang out in the pan for a bit, then tilt the pan to spread it around, then let it hang out some more until it gets really hot. Then you're wrong and it still isn't hot enough so wait two minutes longer than you think you should wait. Then dip the chicken in the tortilla chip coating and place it in the oil. I cooked it on each side until the chicken looked cooked. The chips didn't really brown as much as I was expecting so I couldn't use that as a guide.

I think it actually turned out really well, which is good because I usually hate cooking chicken. If only pork was actually a white meat...

Now that I'm reflecting fondly on that one, I should probably point out that I did not intentionally lie in the above description. Were I to lie, I would mention the balsamic vinegar and polar-bear-tears reduction I made to go on top.

We also tried twice to cook scallops, which I don't have pictures of. Scallops are really difficult to cook. We learned after the first disaster that you need to drain them, wash them, and dry them on paper towels first. Discard the scallop juice. It is no accident that scallops are not served au jus. Then put butter and some oil in a skillet and get it very hot. And to reiterate, you will always be wrong and it will not be hot enough, so let it get hotter. That gives them a nice sear and turns them into sea bacon. I still have no idea how to turn them into cooked scallops.