Fresh White Fish with Herbed Lemon Sauce

With the blossoming of Spring, I've moved from some of the heavy dishes of the winter into a taste for something lighter and more delicate. I've stopped eating tuna, except on the rarest of occasions, even though it is my favorite protein. Likewise with Chilean Sea Bass (or, before marketing geniuses took hold, the Patagonian Tooth-fish).

So, in an effort to eat more sustainable seafood, I've been going with more local and bountiful species. I got this Lake Superior White Fish fresh from Whole Foods on Monday and made it that night. It was one of the best fish meals I've ever eaten. Seriously. Like, so good that I told myself that I could eat it every night. Anyway, here's how I made it:

I chose to bake the fish, but wanted a lot of crunch and flavor, so I added a coating before the breadcrumbs and topped it with a herbed lemon-butter sauce with shallots. I think that the spread on the fish is key to getting a lot of flavor onto the fish but not overwhelming the delicate nature of it.

I beat together: 2 eggs, 2 tbsp Horseradish, 1 tbsp Mayonnaise, Cayenne, Paprika, Salt and Pepper. Then I coated the fish with the mixture.

I then covered the fish with breadcrumbs and baked at 350. I wish I could tell you how long I baked it for, but I waited until it was about 155 degrees and took it out.

While the fish was baking I made the sauce. I melted 2 tbsp of butter and added a little olive oil to the pan along with the shallots. I then squeezed in the juice of one lemon. Once it was aromatic (4 minutes or so), I added a little blend of freshly chopped lavendar, rosemary and thyme. I topped the fish with this and it was so good. Not too heavy and just the right blend of acidity and base.

I served it with boiled red potatoes and steamed carrots. Overall a really great meal.

Mexican Breakfast

I've been riffing with this one for a while, but the gist is cheese and jalapeno quesadilla's topped with eggs and enchilada sauce.

I made cheddar and jalapeno quesadilla's with corn tortillas.

at the same time I start warming black beans with a shallot and enchilada sauce in a small pot.

I added refried beans to the bottom of the plate and then topped them with the quesadilla.

Spaghetti Carbanara

Rib-Stickin Spaghetti Carbanara. This stuff is so good and delicate if you handle it right. We just had a great Carbanara out at Otto in Manhattan and I thought I would give it a shot.

I started by browning some pancetta in a nonstick skillet.

While the pancetta was going I shredded Parm Reg into a bowl and added 3 eggs and a couple of splashes of milk.

After I boiled the pasta, I removed it with a good amount of the pasta water on it and added it to a bowl with the egg mixture then added the pancetta to mix. I then added a lot of crushed black pepper and served. 

Pozole & Cheese Enchiladas

I decided to make a nice Mexican dinner with the focus on Pozole, a fresh and hearty Mexican soup that dates back to the Aztecs. While I did riff on it a bit, I made sure to stay true using hominy and pork shoulder.

I started with a base of red pepper, onion, kale, garlic and jalapenos.

I added the onions, peppers and garlic to the pot to sweat and then added the kale along with 2 cans of crushed tomatoes and 1 can of diced tomatoes. From there, I let it simmer and cook down for about 2 hours.

During that time I started roasting the pork shoulder at about 250 degrees.

I chopped the pork and added lime to add some citrus flavor and freshness.

Just before serving I tossed in radishes and additional jalapenos.

I made onion and cheese enchiladas with sprouted corn tortillas, which really hit the spot as a side dish instead of the main course .

To make the enchiladas, I warmed the tortillas in some corn oil and then added enchilada sauce to them and stuffed each one with a fair share of onions and cheese, while also adding a piece of kale to each one. I then topped with more cheese and baked at 350.

Rack of Pork with Celery Root Puree & Braised Brocolli Raab

I'm actually pretty amazed that I pulled this one off tonight, since we are all pretty sick around here. I brought the pork out of the fridge about 45 minutes before I seared it on the stove to temper it.

I wanted it to taste really fresh so I made a rub for it in my food processor.

I used the peel from half of a lemon and orange and reserved the juice from the orange to add to the mixture. I added the peel along with half of the onion, some walnuts, sage, thyme, rosemary and garlic to the food processor. I squeezed the orange in and started blending. I then added some olive oil and kept blending, finally adding coarse mustard and a little horseradish.

While I was blending the rub, I seared off the pork rack.

I then peeled the organic celery roots, which have a really unique, almost sweet smell.

After searing the pork, I added the rub and put it in a roasting pan on a rack at 400 for an hour and 15 minutes. I added an orange, garlic and onion to water under the rack in the roasting pan so the juices wouldn't burn and the aroma would be nice.

I let the roast sit for 15 minutes while I boiled the celery root and blended it in the food processor. The meat turned out ridiculously tender and had great flavor. I braised the raab in some water with pepper flakes, wanting to keep it fresh and not flavored with any stock. The celery root puree was really fresh tasting, and the texture went well with the pork, which was very tender. The rub was a nice addition, especially when you would get some of the rind of the citrus on the bites.

The pork was just a little past medium and extremely tender and juicy.

Smoked Whitefish with Garlic Naan and Winter Root Salad

So, I'm moving my menu into the spring even if the weather isn't letting me know we're there yet.

When we were out in NYC at Russ and Daughters the fish monger was going on about how they can't get any 'chubs' out there (among other meanings, chubs are a smoked fresh water fish, commonly from the great lakes). After I made a couple of jokes under my breath and we got back to chicago, I decided to hunt them out. I found them at Dirk's and got a couple on Monday. I was thinking about serving them with bagel's, but that bored me. So, I ended up getting some Garlic Naan. I warmed the naan in my skillet while I sliced shallots and washed the arugula. The whitefish was really delicate and delicious and I can't wait to have it again soon

I served it with a peruvian potato salad I made earlier in the day so it could cool. I added Carrots and Radishes to the salad, which was nice. I topped it with a dressing made of grainy mustard, a little mayo and red wine vinegar. It tasted good, but I was disappointed in how it looked, especially since the potatoes were so vibrant.

Here is how the plate looked when served. Very colorful, delicious and fresh.

Stilton Stuffed Mushroom

As you can probably see from my posts, we enjoy our steak, arugula and mushrooms. It's one of those things that isn't broke, and I don't stray away from the flavors much. However, I really liked this mushroom cap. I took large crimini mushrooms and sauteed them for about 15 minutes in a small amount of butter. I then added some english stilton bleu cheese to them and covered it so the cheese would melt down a bit. It was a perfect savory bite to complement the chianti we were drinking with dinner.

Here it is on the plate with the strip served over arugula:

Germanic Stir-Fry

This is a pretty typical meal that we eat when I don't feel like cooking. Usually it's some sort of lean smoked sausage with cabbage and potentially mac + cheese. This time it was a chicken sausage added to a pan of sauteed cabbage and onions. I add a little creole seasoning for flavor and we eat it with mustard. It looks heavy, but is actually pretty light.

Orecchiette with Walnut Pesto

I think that this took about 20 minutes to make...but it was really satisfying. Orecchiette roughly translates to 'small ear' in Italian and comes from Southern Italy. I decided to serve it with a walnut + basil pesto. To make the pesto, I added basil, parm reg, basil and walnuts to my food processor. Then, slowly drizzled in olive oil until it became emulsified. I then drained the pasta and added the pesto to the pan and tossed it until it was completely covered.

Braised Ox Tails

And yet another combination of braised meat over polenta....but at least the weather is warming, which means that these hearty dishes will be shelved until the fall. This time I used oxtail, and slow cooked it.

Added button mushrooms and browned them before adding the wine and beef stock.

The finished product...

Lasagna, Garfield Style

Last Saturday I decided that I was going to make a serious Lasagna so I set off to Whole Foods early in the morning for ingredients and started on my sauce around 11ish. I used Muir Glen fire roasted tomatoes in the sauce, which were crushed. I added them to garlic and onion which I had sweated, along with a pinch of sugar and a touch of san marzano tomato paste. I then let it reduce all afternoon. I also sauteed up sausage and added it to the sauce in whole links.

I boiled the noodles and decided that I wanted eggplant in the lasagna, so I started sauteing up thin slices that I cut lengthwise to mimic the lasagna noodles.

To assemble, I splashed some sauce on the bottom of the pan and added my noodles. I topped the noodles with sauce, then a layer of fresh mozzarella and finally some eggplant. I repeated that three times and then shredded parmigiano reggiano on top along with additional mozzarella.  I baked it in the oven for about 45 minutes while we went on a family walk. After letting it sit for 20 minutes we finally dug into what turned out to be the best Lasagna I have made in years, if not ever.

Pork Chop (from the Butcher and Larder)

So I was very excited to go to a new butcher shop in my neighborhood called the Butcher and Larder, a name I love. When I got there the pickings were pretty slim and it seemed like they were waiting on a truck to arrive. Luckily, the two things that I was looking for were in stock. He hand cut two rib chops for me that I thought looked really good (they were) and he also had fresh pork lard that I had wanted to make some flour tortillas, so the trip was a success.

Although the fat looked pretty cool, I cooked them on medium which didn't allow it to render down at all and it ended up just getting cut off. I cooked them in my cast iron and added the chop to a bed of rapini that I sauteed with hot pepper flakes and reduced with balsamic.

Rib Roast

In going back through some pics, I realize there are some I haven't posted and want to recall. This was a killer piece of beef we had hand cut when a friend was in town. I don't want to show the final product out of respect to the demolishing we did to it, but it was solid.

Steak, again?

The number of cast iron cooked NY Strips I have made in recent months has almost becoming obscene. It's probably just a sign of how often they go on sale at Whole Foods, that, and a combination with how often I'd like to eat steak. Either way, tonight was a night to celebrate and it happened to coincide with a sale at WF. The one thing I did do to spice it up was go with an unusual mushroom. The Forest Nameko was surprisingly delicious and tasted better than the crimini's that I use as my go-to.

I just sauteed the Nameko's in a small amount of butter with some diced yellow onion.

For a starter, I sliced a baguette and topped it with an Italian Gorgonzola then added toasted pistachios, peppadew and microgreens.

For veg, I sliced pickling cucumbers, grape tomatoes and onion and then tossed them in sherry vinegar, rice wine vinegar and mirin.

BLT's and Borsht

I thought that soup and salad sounded good this weekend so I decided to go outside of the traditional comfort zone and create a nice soup.

Traditional borsht has a lot more ingredients than I wanted in my soup, so I just decided to keep the flavors simple. I roasted red beets at 350 for a while and added some whole carrots and a part of an onion to the pan after about 15 minutes of roasting. After they were done roasting I blended them up individually. For the beets, I blended them with a little beef stock and a touch of cream to ensure they were smooth. I wanted the carrots to be a different texture so I didn't blend them as long but still added a touch of stock and cream to them. As you can see in the picture they are a rougher chop.

The colors were even brighter in person and the soup was warm and delicious. Because of the amount of roasting, the sugars came out in the beets and it didn't taste overwhelmingly earthy.

For the BLT, I just kept it traditional, except for replacing the lettuce with Arugula.

Friday Night Bistro

I had been craving something a little richer so I decided to do a simple bistro meal with steak and au gratin potatoes last Friday night. I cooked the strips in my cast iron skillet to medium rare with a nice pepper crust on them. It would probably have been more bistro like to make the au poivre sauce, but I decided to skip it. I topped the steak with bleu cheese and microgreens.

I stayed pretty traditional with the potatoes, using an aged gruyere and vermont cheddar. I also added chives to them and some cream so they would have a little sauce. I used Yukon Gold's and they seemed to melt into each other while baking.

I really love mushrooms of all kind. For this dish I simply sauteed up some crimini's and added a balsalmic glaze that I brought back from Italy. The glaze is really thick and cooks down pretty well. They were a nice complement to the steak.

Beef Shanks with Polenta and Crunchy Salad

Beef shanks are something that I don't use all that often, but I really enjoy them for a change of pace. I prepared these like a traditional osso bucco, browning then braising and adding tomatoes to prepare a sauce.

I chose not to cook these too long so that they maintained some of their texture and we were able to cut through the large pieces of meat. Although the picture doesn't look all that appetizing, they were quite good.

I left the polenta fairly rough and didn't add milk or much cheese to keep the texture grainy, which I think succeeded in keeping the richness of the dish to a minimum.


I had a lot of veggies around so I decided to make an arugula salad with a lot of crunch and flavor. I chose to add the diakon, fennel and kumquats to the salad. I also added stilton and topped it with a peppadew.

I topped the salad with a light vinaigrette.