Batter-Splattered

Cod and Cauliflower and Whale-Watching

Last weekend I went on a day cruise in search of gray whales migrating north on their way from Baja, California up to the Bering Sea. It was a very rare sunny day in Seward, Alaska -- the captain said it had been raining for two weeks straight -- the luck I have, I tell you.

 

That sea lion on the top there? That's how I feel on this long holiday weekend. Just lolling about.

In the end we didn't spot any gray whales. But we did see a humpback whale and we got to float about and watch a pod of killer whales feeding on fish. My friend Annette took that particular opportunity to argue with some of the many small children on board the boat, particularly one talkative little boy trying to share his knowledge of marine mammals.

Little boy: "See that one over there? The one with the tall straight dorsal fin? That's a male."

Annette: "No, it's not."

Little boy: "Yes, it is! The females have shorter curved fins."

Annette: "No. That's not true."

Little boy: "Well, that's what my marine mammal book says."

I was all like, I don't know, Annette. He seems pretty sure of himself. And he has a book.

He slinked off, thoroughly dejected.

He must have been pretty stoked though later when the captain said over the intercom: "And if you'll look at the killer whale at two o'clock, that's a male. You can tell by the long tall dorsal fin."

After watching those whales feed on fresher than fresher fish, I came home with a fierce hunger. Luckily, I had some fresh cod in the fridge just waiting to be cooked up. And along with it, I made an old favorite, this cauliflower salad with white beans, feta cheese, fresh rosemary, and tangy vinaigrette dressing.

The original recipe is here. Their version calls for thinly-sliced Belgian endive but I usually leave that out, partly because it's good without it and partly because the markets here are hit-or-miss when it comes to finding something so exotic. Exotic for Alaska, anyway.

My favorite step in this recipe is the first -- you saute chopped fresh rosemary in olive oil till it's nice and fragrant then set it aside until you're ready to throw all the other ingredients together in a big bowl. By then, the whole house is full of that lovely aroma of olive oil and rosemary.

I usually make a huge bowl of this, even though there's only two of us to eat it (even my meat-loving other half loves it). That way, I can take leftovers to work with me for lunch -- because the cauliflower is uncooked, it stays crispy for days.

The cod recipe is here. It has a tasty shallot-lemon vinaigrette that you're supposed to split between the fish and a salad of fresh herb leaves. This time around, I just made a half recipe of the vinaigrette though and skipped the herb salad.

The flavors of these two recipes go together so nicely and they're both so easy to prepare.

Cauliflower, White Bean and Feta Salad

Serves six

1/3 cup olive oil
1 teaspoon minced fresh rosemary

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
2 1/2 teaspoons finely grated lemon peel
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

1 medium head of cauliflower, trimmed, cut into small florets (about 3 cups)
1 (15-ounce) can white beans (such as Great Northern or navy beans), drained
2 large heads of Belgian endive, trimmed, halved lengthwise, then thinly sliced crosswise
1 tablespoon chopped fresh chives
2 teaspoons chopped fresh parsley
1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese (about 3 ounces)

Combine oil and rosemary in small saucepan. Stir over medium heat just until fragrant, about 1 minute. Cool.

Whisk lemon juice, vinegar, lemon peel, salt, and pepper in small bowl.

Combine cauliflower, beans, endive, chives, parsley, and rosemary oil in medium bowl; toss. Mix in cheese. Add lemon juice mixture and toss to coat. Season salad with salt and pepper. 

Sauted Black Cod with Shallot-Lemon Vinaigrette

Serves two

Mix in small bowl to make vinaigrette:
3 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 cup minced shallots
1 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon Sherry wine vinegar
1 teaspoons (packed) grated lemon peel
Salt and pepper to taste

Sprinkle with salt and pepper:
2 6- to 7-ounce black cod fillets with skin

Heat in large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat:
1 tablespoon olive oil

Cook fish until just opaque in center, about 4 minutes per side. Arrange fish on plates and spoon vinaigrette over each.   

Fast White Bean Stew

I needed something quick and easy to use up what was leftover from our Easter ham of greed and gluttony but all the recipes I referenced called for a hock and an hour and a half of simmering. Not exactly conducive to a quick and easy after-work dinner. Plus, the dog got the hocks. It would have been cruel to deny her the opportunity to gnaw those bones to a nub.

But then I found this recipe for Fast White-Bean Stew, described as being full of hearty cannellini beans, baby greens, and baked ham. Pretty tasty stuff.

Has anyone else had a hard time finding a good can of organic cannellini beans? Or is it just me? The first can I tried was so lacking in flavor that I haven't bought another can since, but then I bought this other kind and it contained little bean bits rather than whole beans. How do you rinse bean bits? It's gross because you get about three inches of foam on top of the beans in the colander.

As I was preparing this stew, the very first step had me in doubt. A quarter-cup of olive oil sounded like way too much to saute the garlic in, but I trusted in the recipe writer and I glug-glug-glugged all that oil into my pot.

Turns out, I should have followed my gut instinct because it was way too much oil. It ended up pooling on the surface of the stew. If there's anything worse than bean bits, it's pooling oil.

But in spite of that, this is still a really good and fast stew, as the name implies. I wouldn't hesitate to make it again as written below.

 

Fast White Bean Stew

Serves four

2 large garlic cloves, chopped
2 T extra-virgin olive oil (for the stew), plus 1 t (for the toasts)
1 (14- to 15-oz) can stewed tomatoes with juice, chopped
1 3/4 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth
2 (19-oz) cans cannellini beans, rinsed and drained (3 cups)
1/2 lb. baked ham, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 (5-oz) bag baby romaine or baby arugula or baby spinach (10 cups loosely packed)
8 (3/4-inch-thick) slices baguette

Cook garlic in oil in a large heavy pot over moderately high heat, stirring, until golden, 1 to 2 minutes. Add tomatoes with juice, broth, beans, ham, and pepper and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, 5 minutes. Stir in greens and cook until wilted, 3 minutes for romaine or 1 minute for arugula.

While stew is simmering, preheat broiler. Put bread on a baking sheet and drizzle with some olive oil. Broil 3 to 4 inches from heat until golden, 1 to 1 1/2 minutes.

Serve stew with toasts.

 

Lentil and beef chili

This is a really good chili recipe, but not your average chili recipe. Lentils instead of beans, packed with vegetables -- leeks, onions, red bell peppers, green peppers, green onions, garlic, crushed tomatoes... There is ground beef but it takes a backseat to all those veggies and if you wanted to go strictly vegetarian, you can add more lentils and leave the beef out altogether.

This is really easy to throw together. It simmers for an hour and a half. Because we were impatient to dig in, I didn't cook it quite as long as I probably should have -- the lentils hadn't quite softened up completely -- but I think I like them better that way anyway. It gives it a little more texture and bite, rather than being mushy.

This is definitely one of those dishes that tastes better the next day and even better the next next day and so on and so forth.

Lentil and Beef Chili

Serves 6

1 pound ground beef (or to go vegetarian, skip the beef and add an additional 8 oz. lentils later)
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 onion, chopped
2 leeks (white and pale green parts only), chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
4 green onions, chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped

8 ounces lentils
2 28-ounce cans crushed tomatoes
1 1/2 cups water
2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon chili powder
2 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons dried marjoram, crumbled
2 teaspoons dried oregano, crumbled
2 teaspoons dried basil, crumbled
1 teaspoon pepper
1 cup grated Parmesan
Sour Cream

Heat heavy medium skillet over medium-high heat. Add ground beef and cook until beef is brown, crumbling with fork, about 5 minutes. Drain well. Heat oil in heavy 3-quart saucepan over medium-high. Add onion and next 5 ingredients. Sauté until onion is tender, about 8 minutes.

Add beef, lentils and next 8 ingredients to saucepan. Cover and simmer until lentils are tender, stirring occasionally, about 1 1/2 hours. Stir in Parmesan. Simmer, uncovered, until mixture is thick, about 15 minutes. Serve, passing sour cream separately. 

How to be a lazy cook or in the alternative: White Chicken Chili

Let's say you have a whole mess of ladies and their dogs and kids coming over for potluck lunch on a Sunday afternoon (our own football-free Super Bowl party) and you only have a few hours to prepare and really need to spend it giving the house a good scrub but still want to cook up a big pot of something warm and filling but not too heavy.

Well, do I have a dish for you!

White chicken chili.

It's so cheating a chili that I'm a little ashamed to admit that it starts with this, a packet of McCormick's white chicken chili seasoning. You add some chicken breasts and thighs cut into bite-sized bits. Then some broth (instead of the water recommended on the package). Then some cans of cannellini beans. And unless you get fancy and add something like tomatoes or corn, that's all there is to it. You just let it simmer on the stove for awhile and let all the flavors settle in...

And right now, all the food snobs are surfing off in another direction. But they're probably looking for a make-it-from-scratch version of this recipe (if you have one, send it to me to make on a lazier day!).

Not only were my bathroom and kitchen extra specially squeaky clean for the ladies, but this chili also had all of them savoring every bite with their eyes closed and asking for the recipe.

Not bad for something that's such a cinch.

And lemme show off some of the leftovers left behind by the ladies:

Tiramisu above and fudge below:

My husband's gonna be so pleased to come home from his own football-filled Super Bowl party to find these treats waiting for him to dig into.

Venison Black Bean Chili

Garden of Eating is hosting a comfort food cook-off and I thought I'd jump right in. They want to know what people eat during this bleakest stretch of winter when the days get short, the nights get cold, and the going gets tough.

Living here in Alaska, I know a thing or two about bleak, short, cold and tough, and when I think of comfort food, it needs to stick to your ribs and be made of simple and inexpensive ingredients thrown together in a pot and eaten by the bowlful. Don't pull the little spoons from the drawer. Oh no. You want one of those big 'uns.

As for the venison called for in this recipe: if you're not me (and I don't think you are), you might not have a freezerful of moose (pity) and so you could use beef or even chicken in this recipe, unless of course you want some moose in which case stop on by because do you have any idea how long it takes a household of two to work its way through an entire moose? Even a small one? Well, I'll tell ya. It takes a long, long time.

I decided on venison chili for tonight's comfort food dinner -- it's something I make often. Sometimes with ground moose. Sometimes with diced-up moose steaks or a roast. This recipe full of healthy junk like beans and lean meat and bell peppers and tomatoes, and so even though it's stick-to-your-ribs fare, you'll still feel like you ate well for dinner.

I make this in a pot on the stove and let it stew for an hour or two but you could also throw all the ingredients into a crockpot, turn it on low, and let it crock for 8 to 10 hours. It goes without saying that it's even better the next day.

Here's the nice version:

And here's the naughty version:

It's pretty versatile. If you don't have a bell pepper, you could add an extra can of tomatoes. You could use kidney beans instead of black beans. Really, just go crazy.

Venison Black Bean Chili

Serves four

2 pounds venison roast, cut into bite-sized pieces

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 large onion, chopped

1 packet chili seasonings or mix your own using a recipe such as this -- stir in a couple of tablespoons of the mix

1 t ground cumin

2 to 3 cans of black beans, drained and rinsed, the number of cans depends on whether you like  your chili saucy or not. If not, then add all three cans to take up some space and thin out the sauce

1 can chili-style chopped tomatoes, undrained

1 bell pepper (yellow, red, orange, green, it's your choice), chopped

1 cup chicken broth

1 6-ounce can tomato paste

1 16-ounce can refried beans

Salt and pepper to taste

If desired, garnish with sour cream, sliced green onions, and shredded cheese

You can throw all of the ingredients except the tomato paste, refried beans, and garnishes into a crockpot on low, cover and cook for 8 to 10 hours. Uncover and stir in tomato paste and refried beans and salt and pepper to taste.

Or you can saute the garlic, onion, and bell pepper in a little olive oil until the onion is wilty then stir in the seasonings and the chopped venison and continue sauteing until venison is browned. Then add the black beans, tomatoes, bell pepper, and broth. Let it simmer for an hour or two then stir in the tomato paste and the refried beans. Really, you can eat this whenever it tastes ready. Easy peasy.

Red beans and rice

Here's one of my favorite recipes and one of my favorite dishes of all time. Red beans and rice with some sausage. Oh so good. Very simple to prepare.

Red Beans and Rice

Serves six

2 T olive oil

1 lb. smoked sausage, sliced

1 onion, chopped

4 cloves garlic, minced

3 cans kidney beans, don't drain or rinse

1 c chicken broth

1 t cayenne

3 cups cooked rice

Heat oil over medium heat in a large pot. Add sausage, onions, and garlic and saute until onion is soft and tender. Add beans and their juices, broth, and cayenne. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover and simmer until very thick, stirring occasionally, for 45 minutes or so.

You can either serve this on a bed of rice or you can stir the rice into the pot and mix it all together.