Dover Sole
Friday Fish. There's a concept I haven't thought about since childhood...
We didn't eat a lot of fish when I was a kid, other than canned tuna and the occasional fried shrimp. Mom wasn't crazy about fish and we ate what mom liked - she was the cook. Fridays would be things like tuna casserole or her really good tuna salad - canned tuna, iceberg lettuce, celery, and mayonnaise. I never ever saw a Mrs Paul's Fish Stick - ever. I still don't think I've ever actually eaten one in my almost 64 years. They're just not something that evokes childhood, ya know?!?
It took me a while to like fish and nowadays there's nothing I won't eat, but it's usually not the first thing I think of when contemplating dinner. I need something to catch my eye - like the package of Dover Sole that fell out of the freezer when I opened it last night. It was an omen. Dinner solved.
I had cherry tomatoes and I had kalamata olives, so I thought a faux-Mediterranean topping on a cornmeal-breaded fillet would work just fine.
I sauteed a bit of onion in olive oil, added the sliced tomatoes, the kalamata olives, garlic, and a splash of white wine, and cooked it all down.
Foe the fish, it was simply breaded with a mixture of flour and coarse cornmeal and fried in an olive oil and butter mixture.
Simplicity.
Methinks it's time to bring a bit of seafood back into the house a bit more often...
La Vigilia and Crab Cioppino
The Feast of the Seven Fish... Christmas Eve was once a day of abstinence in the Catholic Church - no meat - and La Vigilia as it is referred to in Southern Italy - came into being early on. Far from being a day of fasting, it is a day of feasting. Italians know how to turn a simple meal into an extravaganza!
We're missing the Seven Fish up in North Jersey this year but we still wanted to uphold the tradition. Victor and I are home alone with Blanche, while Nonna is up with the rest of the family. But seven fish is a lot for two people - even for us. So... our Seven Fish tonight is Crab Cioppino! All Seven Fish in one pot. It's something I've wanted to do for a really long time - and tonight I have my chance! This is the first time in 21 years we've spent Christmas by ourselves. While it's not something I'd want to do every year, it's been a lot of fun, so far.
I was a bit concerned about finding dungeness crab being 3000 miles from home and considering there's a massive algae bloom going on out west. There are high levels of domoic acid in the crabs and right now there is no crab fishing at all in California and Oregon. But the seafood gods were on my side and I was able to find frozen dungeness crab at our local fish market. The place was packed this morning when I went in - they take their Seven Fish really seriously around here - but there was my crab in their freezer case waiting for me.
Frozen. But t was some damned good crab!
In fact, it was some of the best crab I've had in years! And it was frozen. Go figure. I know I'll be heading back there for more. In fact, I'll be heading back there for a lot of things. They had a great selection of all types of seafood.
The cioppino came out great. Really great. The broth was rich and flavorful with just a hint of heat. The seafood all cooked to perfection. Even the calamari was tender - and we all know what little rubber bands they can be. It really, really was good.
There's no way one can make cioppino for two. I made enough for dinner tonight, lunch tomorrow, and dinner for Steve and Marie to take home tomorrow night when they drop off Nonna. I'm stuffed - and already thinking about having more tomorrow!
To go along with the cioppino, I also baked rolls - Pane all'Olio - from Carol Field's Italian Baker. It's one of my most favorite bread books and every recipe I've made has come out perfect! These were no exception. A nice crust and a really tender crumb. The oil really makes a difference.
Here goes the recipe. Hopefully I'll get everything included... It's been a work in progress...
Crab Cioppino
- 1 large onion, chopped
- 1 bulb fennel, chopped
- 2 bell peppers, chopped
- 6 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 bottle red wine
- 1 tbsp red wine vinegar
- 4 bottles clam juice
- 3 28oz cans San Marzano whole peeled tomatoes
- 3 lbs dungeness crab legs and claws
- 1 lb shrimp
- 1 lb clams
- 1 lb Alaskan cod chunks
- 1/2 lb calamari
- 1 lb scallops
- 1 jar anchovies
- 1 tsp red pepper flakes - more or less, to taste
- 1 tsp Greek oregano
- 3 bay leaves
- Salt & Pepper
Get a large pot.
Saute onion, fennel, bell pepper, and garlic in olive oil until vegetables are quite wilted and beginning to get tender. Stir in the anchovies and red pepper flakes and cook until anchovies dissolve. Add one bottle red wine - I used a really good chianti - and bring to a boil. Simmer about 10 minutes and add the clam juice and vinegar.
Add the canned tomatoes, breaking them up as you add each can.
Add about a teaspoon of Greek oregano, a pinch of salt and a hefty pinch of black pepper. Bring to a boil, and then simmer about an hour.
At this point you can turn off the heat and save it for later or bring it to a boil and carry on...
Add the dungeness crab.
Add the clams.
Add the cod chunks.
Add the shrimp.
Add the scallops.
Finally, add the calamari.
From start to finish on adding and cooking the fish should be about 20 minutes.
Ladle into large bowls - discarding any unopened clams - and serve with crusty bread.
Forget the napkins. Have several kitchen towels available. This is one messy meal as half of it is eaten with your fingers.
And it is worth every spot and stain you can make!
Clean-Out-The-'Fridge-Ravioli
I did inventory of the 'fridge this morning before doing the weekly shopping and found lots of bits of things that needed using up. Time to make a pasta sauce!
The beauty of Italian cooking is it lends itself to anything and everything. Rustic cooking is really nothing more than cooking what's on hand at the moment. I did some rustic cooking, today!
I had an eggplant, stalk of broccoli, some cauliflower, a bunch of tomatoes from the yard, most of a green bell pepper, onion, garlic, portobello mushrooms, and some frozen crab meat I had bought a while ago thinking I'd make crab cakes. Well... I didn't make the crab cakes and the crab was just taking up valuable real estate. Time to eat it up. And the fresh herbs out back are going bonkers. I can't use them fast enough.
I started off sauteing onion, green pepper, and eggplant.
In another lifetime I would have added the peppers much later, but Nonna needs her vegetables well... overcooked is one way of describing it. We make our sacrifices...
Meanwhile, I had broccoli, cauliflower, peas, garlic, mushrooms... all waiting to be added to the party in the pan.
After the onions and eggplant cooked down quite a bit, I doused the pan with lots of red wine and let it all simmer a bit before adding everything else.
I had a couple small bottles of clam juice - also taking up space - and in they went, as well. I covered the pan, let everything simmer, added some S&P and fresh herbs and then the crab.
It ended up being a cioppino-like stew that went great over cheese and arugula ravioli.
Clean-out-the-'fridge dinners usually make for a large pot, and this was definitely no exception. I had sauce for 12, easily! The leftover sauce is going into the freezer - something out, something in - and I'm thinking it would be really good in a crepe - crespelle, in Italian - with an Italiany-cheesy sauce over it.
Another meal for another time...
The 'fridge is cleaned out, the vegetable bins are sparkling, and everything is fresh and ready to go. The freezer actually has room, and the cupboards and basement overflow are getting cleared out, slowly, as well.
Life is good...
Tortellini and Cod
I had it in my mind to make pasta when I got home, today. Victor had the same idea - except his idea was even better than mine!
Victor cooks a lot on Saturday. It's his day of domesticity - laundry, vacuuming, that sort of thing - and more often than not, a great dinner. I love it! It is great pulling into the driveway on my last day of work for the week and seeing Victor in the kitchen. Really great!
Tonight was no exception... I saw him through the window and I knew something good was afloat.
We had some Alaskan cod in the freezer and Victor simmered it in a jar of his homemade sauce. Simplicity. And totally delicious. Nice-sized chunks of cod gave the sauce a delicate hint of seafood and fresh pecorino romano and basil on top brought it right over the top. I hate to keep harping on it, but it really is so easy to cook decent meals at home on a regular basis. You just have to do it. And the more you do it the better you become and the better you become the easier it is... Really. It's like canning 14 quarts of sauce at one time... Yes, it takes a bit of time to do it, but the payoff is fresh sauce without crap in it.
I'm getting a bit nervous, though... I think we're down to only 2 quarts of sauce left. It was my hope that we could get through until our (in my dreams) bumper-crop of tomatoes was here and we could make a vat using fresh tomatoes. Methinks we may have to make a batch using the last of the San Marzano tomatoes downstairs in the very near future. Oh well. The things we have to suffer through...
Tomorrow is my day in the kitchen. I'm planning on making a vat of Peach Sriracha BBQ Sauce. I have the peaches, the onions, the red peppers, the tomatoes, and the sriracha... I've been kinda formulating a recipe in my head for the past few days. We'll see how it comes about tomorrow. It's supposed to rain for the next 36 or so hours, so making a few gallons of BBQ sauce sounds like a fun thing to do.
And in the meantime... my tummy is smiling and I am one happy and content guy...
Tilapia with Chile Lime Butter
Yes, I've been cooking. No, I haven't been writing about it. It seems like 99.999% of the things I've been cooking, lately, are things I've cooked a bazillion timers before. Nothing new. Nothing to really write about.
Talk about a culinary rut!
So... when I was at the store the other day and saw some fresh tilapia, I grabbed it. I generally don't buy farmed fish, but there's pretty much no such thing as wild tilapia, anymore. It's all farmed. And I needed something different that Nonna would eat.
Farmed tilapia, it is.
I had seen a recipe in Bon Appetit for Tilapia with Chile Lime Butter, so I decided a variation on a theme was in order. I had lots of peppers I was frying up so I grabbed a couple and chopped them nice and fine.
Next was the fish. Into a skillet with just a bit of olive oil and a pinch of minced garlic, salt, and pepper. Lightly sauteed.
To the chopped chiles I added the huice of 1 lime and the grated rind.
I mixed it all into a half-cube of butter and made it all nice and creamy.
When the fish was done, I added a dollop on top to melt nicely all over the plate.
Slightly spicy and really limey. It was perfect.
I put some of it on top of the asparagus and lapped it up with the rice, too.
All-in-all, a successful dinner.
Pesce Fresco
I knew coming to Sicily we would be having some great seafood. What I didn't realize was how much we would have at one place!
Ristorante al Monaco. Victor's maternal family name is Monaco - like the country he should own. And it was like dining with family with platter after platter of some of the finest seafood I have ever in my life consumed. And I've eaten a bit of fish in my life.
I'm not going to even remotely do justice to this feast - but I shall give it that ol' college try.
The first thing we had was an Octopus Salad. Fresh. Refreshing. Light and delicate. Flavors and textures that just blended so naturally together.
Oysters on the half-shell. The most tender, succulent oysters I've ever had. Rich and sweet - not rubbery or chewy - the most delicate texture. I didnt put a thing on them - no lemon, no nothing. Adding anything would have been sacrilegious.
A fried fish, calamari, potato, carrots, and whatever whitefish dish. Can't quite describe it, but I wanted more and more. One of those things I'd love to be able to replicate, but I was having too much fun eating it to pay attention to what it was I was eating. Like a roasted vegetable, garlic - but not a lot of garlic - seafood mash-up that kinda knocked my socks off.
Shrimp No BP Oil Spill here. Fresh. Succulent. I'm running out of adjectives. It's difficult to describe just how sublime they were.
Anchovies. OMG Anchovies.I seriously have never had a sweet - not salty - anchovy in my life. Pop into your mouth and pull off the bone. These were definitely not your pizzeria anchovies. I would eat these every day for the rest of my life. They didn't even begin to resemble their canned or jarred relation of the same name. OMG.
Fried Calamari. These were not your typical fried rubber bands. The perfect bite and chew. Tender. Delicate. Words I'm going to keep using over and over and over. No sauces, no nothing. They spoke for themselves.
Squid Ink Arancini! Okay. We've made arancini for years. Never like this. And we have squid ink at home. This is definitely one we can make.
Mussels in a tomato sauce. Again. I've had mussels all my adult life. Never this good. Served in more of a tomato broth than a sauce, it was secondary to the sweetest, most tender mussels I have ever eaten I was going to say "in my life" and realized I've already said that. A lot.
I's difficult to rave and gush over something like this. The words just start failing me. And words never fail me.
And then the pasta arrived. Fresh pasta. This stuff didn't come out of a Barilla box. Cavatelli in a simple clam sauce. Clams, wine, a drizzle of olive oil. When you start with great ingredients, you don't need to cover anything up.
And then came the mixed grill...
San Pietro, shrimp, swordfish, and something else that I never learnd its name. How many times have I said sublime, best I've ever eaten in my life, fabulous, fantastic, and OMG?!?
Not enough times, because nothing I can say will bring justice to the meal we had, today.
It was seriously that good. I may never get to eat there, again, but i can die happy, knowing I've had some of the best seafood on the planet.
Oh. And it all cost 25 Euro per person - with unlimited liters of wine.
Crab Cioppino
When I went shopping yesterday, I forgot to get the frozen peas for dinner, but I did pick up a couple of pounds of frozen Dungeness Crab that just happened to be on sale. Folks can talk all day about their Alaskan crab or their Maryland crab, but the only real crab is the Dungeness.
As a kid growing up, crab was both a luxury and a freebie. A luxury because it was a rare treat in the house, but a freebie if we went down to the wharf and caught them, ourselves. More than a couple of times we headed down to the wharf, armed with crab pots and gunny sacks. Six or 8 little kids - aged from about 9 to 13 - would jump on the streetcar to Powell Street and then onto the cable car to Fisherman's Wharf and the Bay. We'd get some bait from a fisherman - I don't think we ever had to pay for any scraps - and the pots would go off the pier into the water. We'd spend a few hours roaming the docks and talking to the real fishermen - it was an active fishing port back then - and then load our bounty back onto the cable car and home. Crab races were always fun on the streetcar and at least once we left one under a back seat to get nice and ripe in those non-air-conditioned days. A couple of times we had a huge crab boil right on the sidewalk in front of Sonny & Junior's house, bringing fresh-cooked crabs to the neighbors. We led the good life.
Fast-forward a few years and I was cooking at the Riviera Dinner House. Once a year, Marco and Gracie - the owners - would have a Cioppino Feed. The only thing on the menu that night was Crab Cioppino. Marco and I made vats of it - served with crusty loaves of Larraburu sourdough bread. Larraburu was to sourdough what Dungeness is to crab. It was the epitome of crusty goodness. My father drove a Larraburu truck before getting into the San Francisco Fire Department in 1954 - and taking a significant pay cut to be a fireman. But even without the family connection, Larraburu was the best bread in The City. I can't even imagine a restaurant today doing such a thing - and completely filling for two seatings plus seating at the bar - but they pulled it off for years. It was that good.
Crab Cioppino is an Italian-American creation created in San Francisco and based on a Genovese seafood stew. Once upon a time, most of the fisherman down at the wharf traced their ancestry back to Genoa and it was a communal meal made from a hodgepodge of fish and seafood.
It's funny how the mind works. I saw those crabs and I was transported back in time remembering those crabbing trips to the wharf while my mind simultaneously reeled and raced for that recipe from The Riviera.
I think I got pretty close - for not using fresh crab and clams - and I can vividly remember the crab races down the aisle of the L Taraval.
Crab Cioppino
- 2 onions, chopped
- 4 stalks celery, chopped
- 2 bell peppers, chopped
- 1 red bell pepper, chopped
- 6 cloves garlic minced
- 2 cups red wine
- 32 oz clam broth
- 2 28oz cans whole peeled Italian tomatoes, roughly chopped
- 2 or more pounds Dungeness Crab
- 3-4 pounds assorted seafood - clams, shrimp, langostino, calamari, scallops, firm white fish
- 1 tbsp red pepper flakes
- 1/2 cup chopped Italian parsley
- salt & pepper, to taste
Break out a big pot.
Saute onions in olive oil until they begin to wilt. Add celery, peppers, and garlic, and cook until everything is tender and fragrant. Add a pinch of S&P and a hefty pinch of red pepper flakes.
Add 2 cups decent red wine and cook until it comes to a boil and slightly reduces. Add clam broth and bring to a boil.
Add the tomatoes and just cut slightly - you want chunks of tomato in the final dish. Add more red pepper flakes. Bring everything to a boil, reduce heat, cover, and simmer about an hour. Stir in the parsley.
30 minutes before serving, add the crab. 15 minutes before serving, add the remaining seafood.
Simmer until everything is cooked through. Serve in wide bowls with the crustiest french bread you can find.
I've been thinking about Cioppino for quite a few months, now - ever since I thought there was a slight chance we would be hosting Christmas Eve dinner. I thought it the perfect dish for the Feast of the Seven Fish! We didn't host, but if we ever do, I know what I'm making!
And today about 2:45 - before I had even finished the base sauce - I realized I had enough food for the neighborhood, so I called Victor's brother and sister-in-law to come over and join us. We all ate heartily - and there's still a batch that went into the freezer for Nonna when we're in Sicily in a few weeks. It definitely is the perfect food to feed a crowd.
Sicily... Okay. About as far from Genoa as one can get and still be in Italy, but also with a heavy seafood tradition. I can't wait to see what ideas we bring back with us. We may end up with the Feast of the Twenty-Seven Fish.
It could happen.
Alaskan Cod
I love it when Victor heads into the kitchen. We love the same foods but we do cook differently. I'm the primary cook so I tend to be a bit more cavalier in my attitude - and messes. Victor is more precise, and while I can splatter a wall at a hundred paces, his messes are more confined. Usually. My heart swells when I walk into the kitchen and see a mound of pots and pans, cups and spoons, and major disarray. It doesn't happen often, but it's fun when it does. I just snicker as I'm thrown out of the kitchen.
The cod, above, was one of the lesser-messes - if one could call a saucepan, a skillet, and a roasting pan a mess at all. But what it lacked in mess, it more than made up for in taste. It was one good hunk of fish!
It was simply panko breadcrumbs mixed with grated parmesan cheese, and a pinch of pepper, lightly fried until crisp. Oven-roasted potatoes and fresh peas. Simplicity.
It proves that a great dinner can be simple and not make a huge mess in the kitchen.
For some people.
Orecchiette al Tonno
My clever ruse worked. And, it worked even better than I had hoped!
I was looking through an old issue of La Cucina Italiana yesterday and found a recipe for orecchiette with a tuna sauce I had somehow missed. It was a simple recipe and just by reading the ingredients I knew it would be a hit.
I showed the recipe to Victor and he said he would make fresh orecchiette! The plan was working very well...
This morning, he said he would actually make the whole dinner! Ya gotta love a man who can cook. I happily said go for it and set out to make a loaf of crusty bread as my contribution - smiling, knowing I was in for a treat for dinner.
I tell ya - this one is a winner times two! The pasta is stellar and the sauce is out of this world. And all of it is simple to do. The pasta took a little bit of time to make, but it was done in about 30 minutes. The sauce took no time, at all.
We all cleaned our plates - I sopped up every last drop with buttered slabs of crusty bread. It was a sacrifice I gladly made.
Orecchiette al Tonno
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 4 anchovy fillets
- 1 garlic clove, finely chopped
- 1/2 cup Italian parsley, chopped
- 1 6oz can tomato paste
- 1 pound fresh orecchiette (dried, if you must)
- 1 (5-ounce) can high-quality tuna in olive oil, drained
- Freshly ground black pepper
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.
In a large skillet, combine oil, anchovies, garlic and half of the parsley. Heat over medium heat, stirring occasionally and breaking up anchovies until fragrant, about 5 minutes.
Add tomato paste and 3/4 cup water; bring just to a boil, then reduce to a gentle simmer and cook about 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, cook pasta until just tender, 5 to 6 minutes. Drain pasta (reserving 1/2 cup cooking water) and transfer to skillet with sauce; add remaining parsley, tuna and generous grinding of pepper.
Cook over high heat, tossing to coat pasta with sauce, and adding as much of the pasta cooking liquid you need to moisten, as desired. Add S&P, as desired and top with freshly-grated cheese.
You can use a store-bough orecchiette, if you really have to, but this is pretty stellar - and really easy to make.
Fresh Orecchiette
- 2 cups semolina flour
- 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 2/3 cup water
On counter, whisk together flour and salt. Mound flour mixture, then form a well in center. Slowly pour 2/3 cup warm water into the well, whisking with a fork to incorporate flour from inside rim. Continue until liquid is absorbed and a rough cohesive dough forms, then knead, scraping as you go, until dough forms a mostly complete mass.
Knead 8 to 10 minutes more to form a smooth dough.
Divide dough into 6 pieces; wrap all but 1 piece in plastic wrap. On a clean work surface roll unwrapped dough into a 1/3-inch-diameter rope. Cut rope into 1/3-inch-long pieces.
With the side of your thumb, gently but firmly press 1 piece to just flatten into a coin-like shape, then simultaneously gently but firmly press and drag the coin to create a small lip. Flip the coin over your forefinger to create the small “ear” shape, with the inner surface now on the outside.
Transfer orecchiette to a lightly floured baking sheet and repeat with remaining pieces and dough.
Making fresh pasta really isn't as difficult as you think - and the results are so worth the trouble (says the guy who never has to make it because Victor always comes through...)
But if your house doesn't have a Victor, grab a kid - or spouse - and have a bit of fun-together-time in the kitchen!
It really is worth it.
Oh... and here's the bread I made...
My only change from the last time I made it was switching out 1/4 cup white for whole wheat flour. I still used the 1/3 cup rye flour.
Enjoy.
Ann's Seafood Cottage Pie
Our friend Ann sent Victor a recipe yesterday for her famous Fish Pie. One look at the recipe and I knew I was making it tonight!
It's a really simple concept and really simple to put together. I could have used a teensy-bit larger casserole... I really tried to keep it small, but... The secret, of course, is no matter what the size of the casserole - place it on a sheet pan.
Ann's recipe assumes you know how to make a basic white sauce and make mashed potatoes. Staightforward cooking at its finest!
Of course she doesn't have a recipe, but here are the basics:
Fish Pie
A couple pounds of fish, a variety. Try some white fish, a few shrimp, and that salmon that is way past its use by date, is in the freezer looking odder every moment.
Thaw fish and cut into nice hunks, layer in the bottom of a greased whatever. I use a corning ware casserole.
Make about a cup of medium white sauce, flavored with sauted onion, tarragon, or whatever fresh herbs you might have. Herbes de Provence is a good choice, or maybe some dill. salt and pepper to taste.
Oh, and a grating of nutmeg, just because I always put it in a white sauce .
Add a couple of cups of frozen veggies or whatever leftover cooked veggies you have in the fridge. I used mixed vegetables.
Now while all this was going on, you were boiling potatoes, however many it will take to cover the top. I mashed them with butter and milk. Maybe add a beaten egg.
Bake at 350° for about 30 minutes. Place under the broiler for a minute if the top isn't browned enough for you.
I used Alaskan cod and langostino tonight, along with a bag of frozen mixed vegetables. Herbes de Provence, and ppotatoes mashed with a bit of butter and sour cream.
It was awesome. Even Nonna cleaned her plate! And there's enough left over for Victor and Nonna to have for lunch!
We will definitely be making this one, again!
Potato Puffs from Down Under
I need to make time to update this thing a bit more often! We're cooking and baking like there's no tomorrow - and nothing is getting posted!
Shame on me.
I guess the main reason is we're cooking and baking like there's no tomorrow. It takes time to sit down and write about food - and baking cookies is so much more fun - especially when one is a lousy typist.
Later today I think I'll do a cookie column and highlight some of the fun thins we've done. And we have ham from our friend Mike in South Carolina that is hitting the dinner table, tonight.
In the meantime... Victor was in the kitchen last night and what a treat it was! He got a recipe from his friend Roy in Australia for a potato dish baked in muffin tins and it seemed like a natural to go with some Dover sole...
We don't eat a lot of fish in our house. We both love it but I just never ate a lot of it growing up. My mother wasn't a fan other than fried shrimp or petrale sole in a restaurant once in a while so it never became a childhood taste memory. Our Catholic non-meat Friday meals were tuna or mac and cheese - homemade - not from a box. I never had a fish stick - still can't eat them. Fish is always something I have to actually think about buying - and we all know how well I think.
So with some Dover sole thawing and me working a bit late, Victor took over in the kitchen.
The extremely thin pieces of fish went under the broiler with butter and lemon zest for maybe three minutes. It's a flash-cook, done when the rest of the meal is already plated. But the start of the plate was the potato puff.
They're like a potato souffle only a lot easier to make.
Potato Puffs
- 3 cups mashed potatoes
- 2 eggs
- 1/3 cup sour cream
- 1 heaping cup shredded cheddar cheese
- 3 tbsp grated parmesan
- 2 tbsp chopped chives or parsley
- salt and pepper, to taste
Preheat oven to 400°. Lightly butter 8-9 wells of a muffin tin. Whisk the eggs with the sour cream. Stir in cheeses and chives/parsley. Add the potatoes and mix well. Spoon them into the cups filling them to slightly below the top. Bake for 25-35 minutes until they pull away from the sides of the cup and are golden brown. Remove from oven and let cook 5 minutes before removing from pan. Serve with additional sour cream, if desire.
The potatoes came out great. Victor made them in a larger muffin tin and switched out the cheese to an Italian 4-cheese blend. They baked just under 45 minutes. Most excellent.
We shall be doing these, again...
A simple, rockin' dinner.
Fillet of Sole
We had a hankerin' for a bit of fish the other night. I have to admit I don't cook nearly enough seafood. Not sure why, because I really do like it. It just doesn't float to to the top of the brain when I'm planning dinner. Makes sense, I guess. Fish is brain-food, and if you're not eating it...
A vicious cycle.
I went for sole. I did flour/egg-wash/flour and laid it out on a sheet pan. I put it under the broiler for about 3 minutes. Cooked to perfection.
The potatoes are really simple and really tasty. I thin-slice them using the mandoline and layer them in a small skillet with butter. I cover the pan and let them cook over medium heat until they get really crispy on the bottom and silky-soft in the center. Season with salt and pepper - they don't need anything else.
Everyone cleaned their plate. Always a good sign.
Now, all I need to do is remember to buy more fish...