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Halibut Chile Verde over Polenta

So. Life.

Anyway, I finally have halibut in my freezer. There was a several-year gap without halibut due to fishing season, time, small children, and other priorities. We used to have halibut all the time but since moving to Sitka, it’s a bit tough to get. But thanks to the good will of a friend, there is a halibut in my freezer again.

However, halibut is very much boneless skinless chicken breast. I do not dream of a simple poached chicken breast any more than I dream of gently poached halibut with a sissy sauce of herbs and white wine. There is a place for all of that, and that place is where people pay upwards of $26/lb for halibut.

I am also a Working Mom so I like dishes in 9×13 pans and leftovers.

So I ended up here, with a halibut chile verde over polenta. The chile verde takes some notes from the rajas recipe in The San Francisco Chronicle Cookbook Volume II (SF Chron) (Bauer and Irwin, 2001) and the pork chile verde in the Bon Appetit cookbook (Fairchild, 2006). The polenta is also from the SF Chron cookbook, but lightened because I at least pretend to support cardiac health in my house.

Halibut Chile Verde over Polenta

Halibut Chile Verde

6 poblano peppers (Or pasillas, or anaheim peppers. I live in southeast Alaska so I take what I can get)
1 tsp cumin seeds
1-2 T oil (I use olive oil but vegetable or whatever is fine)
1 large onion, thinly sliced
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 jalapeno or serranos or whatever, seeded and minced. (I don’t do this because I have toddlers and they can’t handle spice yet. but you do you!)
couple of tablespoons of white wine (optional)
1 cup-ish chicken broth
1 pound halibut, cut into 1-inch chunks
1/3 cup sour cream
1/2 cup (or more if you like) grated queso fresco

roast poblanos over an open flame or broil them in the oven. Place them in a bag to steam, remove skin and seeds then slice into long strips. Toast cumin until it smells good then grind it up (feel free to substitute ground cumin here but then hang your head in shame). heat oil over med-high heat in a large dutch oven. Add onions and allow them to develop a fond on the bottom of the dutch oven. Add the garlic, toasted cumin, roasted peppers, and any minced jalapeno/serrano you have. Let that get nice and toasty. Deglaze with white wine and stir up any brown stuff on the bottom of the pan. Add chicken broth (deglaze with that if you are skipping wine) and stir. Lower heat to med-low. Add halibut and stir gently. Fish releases a lot of water but if your mixture looks too dry add a bit more broth until it looks like a nice, thick stew. remove from heat after all of the fish looks opaque. You don’t want to over cook here because you are going to bake this whole thing in the oven.

Polenta (modified from the SF Chron cookbook Volume 2):

1 cup water
1/2 cup milk (or heavy cream if you want to indulge)
1 tsp salt
1 cup polenta
1 tsp dried oregano
1/2 cup grated Queso Fresco (or Mozzarella if you life in a queso fresco-free place)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Combine water, milk, and salt in a sauce pan, place over high heat and bring almost to boil. In a separate bowl, combine polenta, oregano, and cheese and stir to combine. Stir into hot liquid, making sure there are no lumps and everything is incorporated. Pour into 9 x 13 pan. Bake for 10 minutes, stir then bake for 25 minutes longer. My oven runs hot so I usually let it go for about 15 minutes or more–the top should be golden and polenta should be springy.

Lower heat in oven to 325. Ladle the chile verde over the polenta, dot with sour cream and sprinkle cheese over the whole thing. Bake in the oven until everything is heated through and the cheese is melted and bubbling (20-35 minutes depending on your oven).

This whole thing can be made in advance and cooked the next day. It also reheats reasonably well for a fish recipe.

This has become one of my favorite things to do with halibut. It is way WAY easier than enchiladas and my kids mostly eat it.

No, there isn’t a picture because I do not have that kind of time and this photographs about as well as a cheese-covered dish in a 9×13 pyrex can. It is tasty, I promise.

References

Bauer, Michael and Fran Irwin. 2001. The San Francisco Chronicle Cookbook Volume II. Chronicle Books.

Fairchild, Barbara. 2006. The Bon Appetit cookbook. John Wiley & Sons.

Of course there are references. I am A Scientist.

 


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Rhubarb Jam (with strawberry too, I guess)

 

After four years of neglect I finally fertilized and separated my rhubarb plants. I have cared for these very minimally since we dug them up from someone’s abandoned lot. (We are classy.) With our mild spring I got a lot of gardening done despite having two toddling helpers. I now have rhubarb for days. Or Dayz because my rhubarb is that extreme.

No matter, I am able to deal with it because I have the perfect recipe for Rhubarb-Strawberry Jam. I clipped it out of the August 2009 issue of Saveur and have made it every year. You can find the recipe here  but I will list the ingredients for you:

  • 5 cups of Rhubarb cut into 1/2 to 3/4 inch pieces
  • 2 cups of hulled and quartered strawberries
  • 2 1/4 cups of sugar
  • 1 tablespoon lemon juice

That’s it! I love this recipe because it is my Ideal Jam Recipe: tons of fruit, not much sugar, and no pectin/thickener to deal with. There is just enough sugar and strawberries to take the edge of the rhubarb but it’s still tart and bright. I learned the hard way that this recipe does not double, so learn from me and don’t end up with an enormous dutch oven of brown-black stringy goop that still won’t set up.

I measure the portions as follows–one heaping 2-cup Pyrex cup of strawberries and two of rhubarb.

Strawberry
Strawberry
Rhubarb
Rhubarb

It’s pretty scientific. I can attest it works though, the pure laziness and forgiveness of this jam is another reason I love it. I can make this jam while my kids scream at my feet for whatevertheheck and it turns out beautifully. Because this jam does not double, I prep several batches when I come home with my 1/2 flat of strawberries. Hilariously, I buy my strawberries from down south so it’s not really a pure Alaskan Jam. I do grow strawberries in my yard but it’s a race between my kids and the slugs to see who can eat more.

Anyway, make sure you use an even mix of the red and green rhubarb stalks. Before I paid attention to that, my jam was a tasty brown pile. It’s a fun complimentary colors fact! Red + Green = brown glop in a Kerr jar. Don’t worry about it too much but if you want your jam to be a pretty pink pile of goop, minimize the green.

So then you dump all the ingredients into a pot, bring it to a boil then reduce heat. You should stir it often and skim the foam off. I never used to skim but it makes the texture so much nicer in the final product. It takes about one to one and a half hours to cook down.

Early Jam
Early Jam
Late Jam
Late Jam

Then you can it! I use a random assortment of jars with the standard rings and seals. I give a lot of this jam away so I’m not to stressed about having fancy jars. (I would love to have a pinterest pantry full of Weck jars but that’s not my life.)

I follow whatever USDA guidelines exist for canning. I use a hot pack in sterile jars then process in a hot water bath for 10 minutes. I have a big canner with one of those racks that hold 7 jars.

 

IMG_2742

Done

And there is a pretty jar of jam. Also, those squat jars are super-pretty but suck to process in a canner. They are the width of a quart jar but are shorter than the sides of the racks so they slide all over the frickin’ planet. I have two left to give away then I’m never buying them again. I am a solid wide-mouth pint or half-pint person. Yes that is boring but they stack nicely. Those up in that picture do not stack and that frustrates me.

When I was a kid, I never thought I would have strong opinions on canning jars. I’m not going to die on a hill over them or anything but I would probably argue with a stranger at a bar if I’ve had a few. There you go. Make some jam.


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a pot of beans

Beans are not glamorous. Especially a circa 2009 25# bag of pinto beans from Costco. They were cheap and they never really go bad. Beans are a pretty good apocalypse food. (When researching methods for cooking I stumbled on some survivalist forums. Wow. Let’s all discuss the best way to live underground after the world ends.) While beans never really spoil, they get old and harder to cook. My Costco beans are very old and hard to cook. 10 hours in a crock pot will not soften them. Crunchy beans are gross. Crunchy beans when you aren’t crazy about eating beans in the first place is damn depressing.

Recipes that say beans cook in an hour or three are lying. It’s the same as when a recipe says you can caramelize onions in 10 minutes. There is science that explains why both of those are terrible lies, I have read about it. It involves proteins, sugars, and acidity.

I could have thrown them out. I am, as you might guess from this post about beans, Very Cheap. I can’t throw them out. I figured out how to cook them. Actually, I figured out how to soak them so they could cook before the actual apocalypse. Baking Soda. add about 2 tablespoons of baking soda to the soaking liquid the night before does some chemistry to the beans so they will actually soften.

Figuring out a recipe was much easier. As a kid, we used to eat at Chevy’s, a Cal-Tex Mex chain in the Bay Area. I liked that they had some machine that made tortillas right there in front of you and the pinto beans. They were soupy, salty, soft beans served in a food service white cup. I know they aren’t authentic but they were amazing. That flavor memory is my guide. I found the closest approximation by varying Home Sick Texan’s basic bean recipe.

This recipe isn’t even fancy enough for a picture.

Recipe:

1 pound picked over, rinsed pinto beans
2 T banking soda
3 (or more) cloves of garlic
1 yellow onion
1 (or two) poblano or pasilla pepper
a chunk (maybe 1/4 to 1/3 pound) salt pork–optional, I have made these beans without this and they tasted just fine
salt to taste

The night before you want to eat beans, place rinsed beans in a bowl, cover with water, stir in baking soda and let soak. (Since my beans are very old, I soaked them like this for about 8 hours then rinsed them and soaked them again in clean water another 12.) Rinse the beans, cover with about 7 or 8 cups of water. Whirl the garlic, onion, and peppers in a food processor–you want them chopped very finely. You can do this by hand too, just chop until you think hauling firewood up the stairs in the rain starts to sound like a good idea. Add all of this plus the salt pork to the pot and bring to a boil. Reduce to simmer and cook until the beans are soft. This may take 6 hours or more. It took 5 yesterday on my stove. Add salt at the end. Serve to your grateful family.

An aside: I am so stubborn that I will not buy any new beans at the store until I use all of these old pinto beans up. I am tired of pintos but I will not stuff more beans in my pantry until these are gone. I am down to my last 3 to 4 pounds. Then I can learn how to make other beans.


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Salmon Burgers. Better than they have any right to be.

Look, I know it’s been a year since I started this here blog. [Insert Excuses.]

Here is a recipe for something that allows me to eat salmon twice a week.

For those of you who don’t know me personally, which at this point in my blogging career is probably nobody, my husband is a commercial troller. Plus, we like to fish recreationally. So because half of the adults in our house catch fish, specifically Salmon, for a living + catching more fish for fun = a metric buttload of salmon in our chest freezer. “How is this a problem?” You may ask, because Wild Salmon is at least $8.99/lb where you live.

Because Salmon, no matter what VooDoo you do, always tastes like salmon. If you eat it twice a year, this isn’t a big deal. If you are trying to eat it twice a week, it gets old. Really. Fast. (If you are pregnant, married to a commercial troller who has to process 5-gallon buckets of salmon every week then you may dry heave while vacuum sealing that precious commodity.)

Hence my discovery of fresh/raw salmon burgers. They taste like salmon, kind of, but don’t feel like you are eating salmon. Plus the recipe is pretty versatile. Unlike several salmon cake/burger recipes this uses raw salmon that you then cook like you would a Red Meat Burger. It ends up with a better texture and isn’t a dry hockey puck of salmon+mayonnaise that can happen if you use cooked salmon. (Using up leftover salmon is a whole ‘nother discussion that I would like other people to chime in on.)

So here you go. This recipe doesn’t have exact measurements because it is based on chunks of salmon that get pulled out of the freezer. I adapted it from numerous versions available on The Interbob, most notably from Cooks Illustrated. If you have questions email me or leave a comment and I will try to help.

This recipe works without eggs because you turn those organized salmon proteins into a sticky mess that holds these things together. (Those are actual science words. I should know. I do science for a living.)

Basic Salmon Burgers

1 chunk of salmon pulled from your freezer, maybe 1 to 1.5 pounds (The fattier fish do the best with this so I suggest using King/Chinook or Sockeye.) Skinned then cut into 1/4-1/2 inch cubes.

1 shallot, cut into quarters

2-ish tablespoons mustard (I use Dijon but Western Family Yellow is ok)

1/4-ish cup mayonnaise

1/2 cup finely diced herbs (I use a mixture of chives and italian parsley because that’s what grows without any problem in my garden)

1/2 cup panko

Salt and Pepper to taste

Put the shallot into your food processor. Pulse it a couple of times until it is a coarse dice approximation. Add 1/4 of the cubed salmon. Process this into a pink-slime paste. mmm-mm Pink slime. Add mustard and mayonnaise and pulse until combined. (feel free to increase or decrease mustard and mayo for your tastes.)

Pink Slime

Whirrled up shallot and salmon

Add the rest of the salmon to the food processor and pulse a few times so that everything is mixed. Dump the salmon into a bowl and fold in herbs and panko. Add salt and pepper in whatever quantity you find appetizing.

Folding

Salmon, herbs, and Panko

Divide the mixture into evenly-sized patties. They tend to be 1/2 to 3/4 cup in size. Place on parchment-lined baking sheet, flatten, and place in the freezer for up to 20 minutes.

If U Care Parchment, because I really do.

Pretty patties already to go

Cook the burgers using your desired method. Grill is great, but also fried in butter in a cast iron pan is good.

Serve on bun of your choice with a fancy mayonnaise or whatever. I add capers, lemon, and parsley to mayonnaise. Stuff lettuce in there too so combat all the mayonnaise.

Oh, hey. Add a pickle too.

Look at that thing. Eat it.

I have doubled this recipe to have some burgers ready to go in the freezer for when I get home from work and don’t want to cook but am feeling too fancy for another Newman’s Own frozen pizza. It’s easy to overload a food processor, though, mine maxes out at about 2-ish pounds of salmon.