Breaking Down my First Fish :)

I've been craving fish for a week or two now, so yesterday I finally I decided to make it happen. I do live in the beautiful coastal city of Charleston, SC, after all, where there's certainly an abundance of fresh, local seafood readily available at all times. So, I headed to Crosby's Seafood, my favorite little fish purveyor, to see what they had.

I named him Nemo.

 This is what I ended up with! A whole, 2 lb., locally caught red snapper.  Kind of ambitious of me, but I decided that it was high time I attempt to break down a fish myself.  I get it theoretically, but practically I've never done it.

First, I had to get those scales off.  So, I put the fishy in a plastic bag in the sink to try to make as little mess as possible.  I grasped his tail with my left hand, and with the right hand I ran a spoon down his body against the grain of the scales, and they came off pretty easily. I did this on both sides of the fish, up to just below the gills. When I was done, I rinsed him off to make sure no scales were left. 

Next, I cut off the spiny fin on his back, just because I knew I would probably hurt myself if I left it on. Because I am ridiculously clumsy.

Next, I started outlining the fillet.  I found the fish's backbone with my fingertips, and ran my knife all down one side of it, staying as close to the bone as possible.

Then, I cut through from the top to the bottom, making a little flap at the tail.

The next step is to run your knife along the belly.  You want to try to keep the bones under your knife, with the nice meaty fillet on top.

 

To finish the outline of the fillet, I ran my knife along the head, behind the gills and the little swimmy fin (yeah I have no clue what that's called).  Now there should be a nice outline of the fillet, with just the meat in the middle keeping it attached to the body of the fish.

So, this picture sucks, but I tried to sharpen it up as best as I could.  I didn't want to leave it out because its kind of an important step.  In this step, you actually finish separating the fillet from the body.  Just run your knife along the body of the fish, trying to keep most of the bones on the bottom of the knife.  It's a little tricky, but eventually, the fillet will come free.

So, do the exact same thing for the other side of the fish to get your second fillet.  I cut a little V out of the center of each fillet because there was a line of big, stubborn bones that weren't worth it to try to pull out.

This is the little piece with all the bones in it.

 Here are my two fillets.  I scored the skin before searing to keep the fish from curling up as the skin shrinks.  But wait!  What to do with the carcass? You wouldn't throw it away, would you?

I threw it in a pot with some onion, green onion stems, celery, garlic, peppercorns, star anise, fennel seed, and a couple bay leaves.

I covered all that with water, brought it to a boil, and then turned it down to a simmer.

 

I let that go for about 20 minutes, strained it a few times, and voila!

I ended up with a lovely fish fume which I then froze to have around for a later use.  I've actually got something in mind for it, so stick around and see what happens.

Okayyy so back to the snapper fillets.

Salt and pepper the fillets.  Heat some oil in a pan, and lay the fillets skin-side down first.  Cook until the skin gets nice and crispy, then right before you flip them, add some butter and garlic to the pan.  Flip, and baste in the butter for a couple minutes more.

And that's it! I had my snapper with a simple chilled cucumber / heirloom tomato / red onion salad, some pan roasted red potatoes, a squeeze of lemon, and a simple basil pesto.  The fish was sooo good.  I'm still dreaming about that crispy skin this morning.  And seriously, it probably took me just as long to post about breaking down the fish as it took me to actually do it.

Hearty Breakfast Oatmeal

So, I'm still sick. And my tooth is still kind of bothering me, so I've been brainstorming on hearty, easy to eat, feel-better foods to make myself.  When I thought of oatmeal! Not the cinnamon & brown sugar variety that comes in a packet (which does have a place in my heart), but the real stuff, the kind that takes a little patience to make.  

I went as far as to go to the store just to get said real stuff, along with some blueberries and cream (antioxidants!).  As far as anyone in the Craig family is concerned, there is only one brand to get.

While Mom typically does most of the cooking, Dad always seems to make the oatmeal.  And he only buys this kind.  Its a little more expensive, but I was okay with a splurge.

Looks a bit like hamster food

So, its pretty easy to make, but like good grits, it takes a little time.  Stir one cup oatmeal into four cups briskly boiling water.  Stir well.

 

Be patient...

When the oatmeal begins to thicken, reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.  

That's more like it

About 10 minutes before the oatmeal is finished cooking, I like to add a touch of heavy cream and a pat of butter.  Stir well, and add water if you feel like its getting too thick.

That's about it! Everyone likes to eat theirs differently. First, I added some honey.
 

Brown sugar is nice too

Then, lots of blueberries and a little cream floated on top!

And there you have it! Brandon was gearing up to watch his Gamecocks play, so he ate his like a true Irishman, with a dark porter in hand. I kid you not.  As for me, hot tea is all I'm drinking these days. Sigh.

Chicken Pasta Soup

The last few weeks of '09 have not been very kind to me.  I've had food poisoning, a root canal, and now I've come down with some kind of yucky flu-ish illness.  So, I'm kind of depressed because I haven't really felt like eating like usual.  Nothing really strikes me, but I need energy because these next couple days are the busiest days of the year in the food and bev industry.  Even if I wanted to call in sick, there would be no one to cover the shifts for me!  Plus, I'm broke, and its all about the mon-ay.


So, I buckled down and made some feel-good chicken and pasta soup. This is my Aunt Loralee's recipe, which I fell in love with when I was like 10 years old.  I only tend to make it when I'm feeling really crummy, or have someone sick to care for.  It's super easy, and you can use any old vegetable-bin staples you have laying around.  There's no specific measurements- just a dash of this, pinch of that, little bit of this, handful of that, so you can tailor it to your liking.  Her recipe called for green beans, which I didn't have on hand, so I added a diced potato for some additional starchy energy.

Loralee's Chicken Pasta Soup

Rotisserie Chicken

2 or 3 bay leaves

Garlic/Cumin/Sage/Crushed Red Pepper/Salt & Pepper

Veggie Bouillon (2 or 3 squares, dissolved in soup broth)

Carrots, finely chopped

Celery, finely chopped

Potato, diced

Tomatoes (one can or a couple of fresh, finely chopped)

Dry White Wine

Soy Sauce

Worcestershire Sauce

Tabasco

Orzo, Pepini Noodles, or other pasta of your choice

Boil chicken in large soup pot of water.  (It doesn't have to be a full chicken- you can eat some for lunch and use the rest for the soup).  I let the chicken boil while I diced the rest of the veggies.  Take chicken out and cool in colander, keeping broth in pot.  While chicken is cooling, add remaining ingredients, except for the pasta, to the broth.  Pull chicken off bones and tear or cut into bite size pieces and add back to soup.  Let simmer for 1-4 hours, tasting and adding additional spices as desired.  

Twenty minutes before serving, turn up heat to boiling.  Once boiling, add pasta *I used half a box of orzo.*  Enjoy!

Have a happy new year!  Be careful tonight!

Chicken & Broccoli Stir Fry

We drank a crisp Viognier with this.

For some strange reason, I've been craving a good stir fry all week.  I'm not too experienced in the Asian foods department- I've always felt kind of intimidated making even the most simple dishes. So, I've kind of vowed to myself to try harder.  This craving got to the point where I went to the grocery store and picked out some ingredients that I thought would work well: broccoli, mushrooms, bean sprouts, a can of water chestnuts.  I looked at like 20 different stir fry recipes for inspiration, and just kind of threw one together.  Here's what I went with:

Chicken & Broccoli Stir Fry

2 boneless chicken breasts, cubed

chopped broccoli

quartered mushrooms

bean sprouts
1 can diced water chestnuts 

chopped basil

soy sauce
Worcestershire sauce
ground ginger
crushed red pepper
ground chili powder
toasted sesame seeds

white rice

chicken stock

butter

soy sauce

I cooked the rice using 1/3 part chicken stock to 2/3 part water.  Add a splash of soy sauce and some butter.

For the stir fry: Heat about a tablespoon of canola oil in a wok or skillet over fairly high heat.  Add chicken, a pinch of ground ginger, and a splash of soy sauce.

chicken

Cook until the meat is no longer pink. Remove from wok.

In the same pan, heat about a tablespoon of canola oil.  Add broccoli and saute until it starts to soften, about 3 to 4 minutes.  Add mushrooms;  season to your liking with soy sauce, Worcestershire, crushed red pepper, ground ginger, and ground chili powder. Cook an additional 2 minutes or so.  

  veggies

Add sprouts, water chestnuts, and basil.  Add cooked chicken.  Adjust the soy sauce and spices as you feel necessary. 

all the rest

Toss in toasted sesame seeds.  Serve over rice, with Sriracha chili sauce. This was easy, healthy, and delicious!

 

Lentil & Brown Rice Soup

Am I allowed to say that I served it with Bisquick biscuits?

With all this delicious chicken stock on hand, I thought it only made sense to make a soup out of it. So, I went through all my recipes and picked one of my mom's that she labeled "EASY AND DELICIOUS AND GOOD FOR YOU".  I figured, this couldn't be bad. The only catch was selling it to Brandon, who tends to be wary of exotic sounding legumes and grains, and who also favors the carnivorous side of dining. But, I thought, tough for him, he'll have to try something new.  Plus, the soup only uses pantry staples, so I didn't have to buy a single thing to make it. Thus, the recipe:

Lentil & Brown Rice Soup

3 1/2 cups chicken stock 
3/4 cup picked over, rinsed lentils
1/2 cup brown rice
1 16 oz can chopped tomatoes with juice
1 1/2 carrots, diced
1/2 chopped onion
1/2 stalk chopped celery
1 1/2 cloves chopped garlic
1/4 teaspoon dried basil
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
1/8 teaspoon dried thyme
1 small bay leaf
1/4 cup minced parsley
1 tablespoon cider vinegar

In a heavy pot, combine broth, 1.5 cups water, and all remaining ingredients except parsley and vinegar.  Bring to a boil.  Simmer, covered stirring occasionally, 45-55 minutes, or until lentils and rice are tender.  Stir in parsley, vinegar, and salt and pepper to taste.  Thin, if desired, with additional hot chicken broth or water.

Mmm, soup 

And that's it.  Easy, easy, easy. Brandon loved it, and kept saying how meaty tasting it was.  I told him the only meat was chicken stock, and that *gasp* it was actually healthy. Thanks, Mom :)