Watts Consulting

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food

Steelhead Trout for Dinner

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Went to our local fish market (Snapper Grabbers) yesterday to discover a fish I’ve never had before: Steelhead trout. It looked to be a cross between salmon and rainbow trout, so I got enough for two (along with some shrimp to make shrimp and grits tonight).

Got some purple potatoes and asparagus at the grocery store, had a portabella mushroom leftover from earlier that seemed as though they would go nicely. Roasted the potatoes and grilled the asparagus and the mushroom along with the fish over a nice hickory smoke. It was excellent–and simple.

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Another Fish Dish

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Sadly, this isn’t tonight’s dinner. I cooked it several weeks ago and just now got around to pulling it off the camera. It was very tasty, though. A very light dusting of flour on some thinner than normal grouper filets. Served with some nice mashed potatoes and steamed green beans.

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Roasted Garlic Soup

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Sunday night was chilly here in Birmingham. Decided to warm things up with something simple–that, and the cabinets didn’t really hold loads of food as I have been avoiding the grocery store. Settled on a variation of garlic soup.

Roasted Garlic Soup

1 head garlic
2-3 tablespoons olive oil
2 medium onions, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
several sprigs fresh thyme
1/4 cup white wine, optional
3 VERY small potatoes, diced (no bigger around than a 1/2 dollar–hopefully smaller)
1 can vegetable or chicken broth
freshly ground pepper
1 cup milk (I used 2%, but half and half would give it an extremely rich flavor)
2 tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Rub the head of garlic until the outer layers of skin come off (leave the part that is directly on the individual cloves). Place in a small container, drizzle with about 1 tablespoon olive oil and bake in a 375 degree oven for about 45 minutes or until very tender. Remove and let cool.

Heat a skillet (I like my stainless chef’s pan for this) over medium heat until hot. Add remaining olive oil and onions. Reduce heat to medium low and cook, stirring frequently for about 10 minutes. Add garlic and thyme and cook another 2 minutes. *You may need to turn the heat to low for part of the cooking time. The idea is to caramelize the onions and brown them only slightly.

Squeeze roasted garlic cloves gently. The clove should pop out of of the skin with ease.

Add white wine, if using. Add potatoes, roasted garlic and broth. Season with pepper. Cook over low heat for about 10-12 minutes, or until potatoes are very tender.

Transfer to a bowl and blend in batches until smooth. Return to pan, add milk and heat thoroughly. Spoon into bowls and top with cheese. Makes two servings. Use a little more milk and another couple of potatoes and this would easily stretch to feed three.

Pan-Seared Trout with Capers and Butter

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Cooked some wonderful trout last night. Pretty simple, really. (recipe below) Served with fresh spinach sauted in a little olive oil with chopped garlic and new potatoes roasted with garlic, fresh rosemary and a splash of olive oil.

Seared Rainbow Trout

2 10-ounce trout filets
salt and pepper
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
canola oil (or olive oil, but I was out of everything but extra-virgin–not good for frying)
1 tablespoon butter, melted
2 tablespoons capers, drained
juice of 1 lemon
1 shallot, chopped (optional)
chopped fresh herbs (I used about a tablespoon each fresh flat-leaf parsley and fresh chives)

Place trout, skin side down, in a shallow dish. Season trout with salt and pepper. Sprinkle lightly with flour (you’ll shake much of the flour off before cooking).

Heat a cast-iron skillet over medium heat. Add approximately 1 tablespoon oil to skillet and place fish into skillet, skin side up.

Meanwhile, combine remaining ingredients (butter through fresh herbs) in a small bowl.

Cook trout for approximately 4 minutes on medium to medium high. Turn, placing skin side down. Top of trout should be a golden brown. Add butter sauce to skillet, pouring some over trout and some around. Turn heat down to medium-low and cook for approximately 5 minutes. Serve immediately.

Grilled Mahi-Mahi & Creamed Corn

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Last night’s dinner. Not really worthy of an actual recipe due to simplicity. Simple grilled mahi-mahi sprinkled with fresh chives and a pat off butter (well, I made some garlic-chive butter, actually) served over creamed corn. The creamed corn was basically a traditional recipe (I looked it up in Frank Stitt’s cookbook) with a couple of variations. I added chives and garlic to the butter and cut corn along with a splash of olive oil. Toward the end (about 20 minutes in) I needed to add a splash of water. And, in the background, fried okra. Simple meal but very tasty.

Simple Penne Pasta and Veggies

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A simple Sunday night recipe of penne pasta tossed with some fresh vegetables from the farmers’ market.

Penne Pasta and Garden Fresh Vegetables
1 each small peeled eggplant, yellow squash, green bell pepper, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 shallot, chopped
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large tomato, seeded and chopped
2 cups cooked penne pasta
1/3 cup or so freshly grated Parmesan cheese
drizzle good quality extra virgin olive oil

Saute first 3 ingredients (veggies through shallot) in olive oil until tender. Add tomato and cook, over medium low heat, for 5 minutes. Add pasta, sprinkle with half of cheese and stir. Place in bowls and sprinkle with remaining cheese and drizzle with olive oil. Nothing could be simpler.