Pan Seared Halibut with a lemon crema sauce

Pan Seared Halibut on a bed of lentils with sauteed spinach and a lemon crema

This was really an easy dish.  It only took about 15 minutes not including the lentils.  I like to make a lentil soup and freeze it so that you have lentils anytime for dishes like this.  The lentils were really optional though.  The key to getting a pretty carmelization on the fish is to have the skillet really hot.  This dish made me realize why fancy restaurants give you tiny portions and charge you double.  It was that good but awfully rich.  We only ate about two thirds of it.

Ingredients:

Fresh halibut (6 oz per serving)
two lemons
zest of one lemon
1 lb baby spinach
olive oil
fresh ground pepper
sea salt or citrus salt
1 T butter
1/4 cup cream
1 shallot

Season the fillets with salt, pepper and the zest of one lemon.  Heat the skillet over medium high heat.  Add enough olive oil to just coat the bottom.  Add the filets skin side up to the skillet.  If you want to be decadent, add a pat of butter to the pan for additional flavor.  Cook the fillets for 4 to 5 minutes on medium high heat.  Flip the filets making sure that you have achieved a nice carmel color on the top side of the fish before you flip them to the skin side (they may not have skin on one side which is fine too).  Continue cooking until they are cooked through (don't over cook as they would become rubbery).  Approximately 3 to 4 minutes.  You can reduce the heat if needed as you don't need a crust on the bottom.  Meanwhile-
In a separate skillet, add the diced shallot to 2 Tablespoons of olive oil and sautee until translucent.  The shallot has such a nice flavor and adds depth to the spinach that onion or garlic can't achieve.  Add the spinach and toss with tongs just until wilted.
In a small skillet, add the remaining tablespoon of butter and melt.  Add the cream and the juice of half of the lemon.  Depending on the size,  and your taste, you may need the other half of the lemon.  Pepper to taste.  The cream sauce will thicken as it cooks.  Should take less than 5 minutes.

Serve the fish over the bed of spinach and lentils if desired.  Drizzle with the cream sauce.  Could also do over a bed of mashed potatoes or risotto.  Below is the simple lentil recipe.

Lentils:
Green or red lentils (1/2 cup)
1/4 yellow onion diced
4 minced garlic cloves
2 cups of chicken broth
1/2 T of herbs de provence

Sautee the onion and garlic in olive oil.  Add the rinsed lentils and chicken broth and herbs and cook until tender.  40 minutes.  This is the easy version when just using the lentils as a side dish.  The main dish version has tons of other ingredients.  Recipe to follow when it isn't 100 degrees outside :)

Roasted Chicken (Quick and Easy)

This is such an easy, fast way to roast a delicious chicken and the whole thing roasts just like a rotisserie chicken (no soggy under belly).  A chicken typically takes over an hour to roast but doing it this way gets done in half the time. The trick is to turn your roasting pan rack upside down so instead of having a "valley" to rest the chicken in, you will have a "hill" to splay the chicken over.  You will need to figure out which side of the chicken is the back (I just look at the wings and figure out which way it would fly).  Using a sharp knife, cut along both sides of the back bone but not all the way through the chicken (breast side) and remove the backbone.  If you are in a hurry, you can just cut along the back bone and leave it intact.  I like to make this a one dish meal adding roasting potatoes (fingerling, creamers, baby reds) to the pan.

Ingredients:

One whole roasting chicken
two lemons
fresh thyme or dried herbs de Provence
4 sprigs of fresh rosemary, de stemmed and chopped (you can substitute thyme or dried herbs)
smoked salt (Falk Salt) or regular sea salt
fresh ground pepper
6 whole garlic cloves (or more)
8 ounces of chicken broth
olive oil
as many small potatoes cut in half on the bias(diagonal) as you like depending on how many you are serving

Heat oven to 375 preferably on convection roast if you have that function, otherwise, add 15 minutes to the cooking time.  Splay the chicken over the inverted roasting rack inside of the roasting pan.  Coat the chicken with olive oil, salt, pepper, fresh thyme or herbs de Provence and the zest of one whole lemon.

In a separate bowl, coat the cut potatoes and whole garlic cloves with olive oil, salt, pepper and your chopped rosemary. Slide them into the roasting pan underneath the chicken.

Cut the naked (zested) lemon in half and add it (not just the juice) to the pan.  Cut the other lemon into wedges and add it to the pan as well. These are really just for show.  They turn a beautiful roasted brown and can be served with the potatoes but this is optional too.

Cook until the internal temperature reaches 165.  This will be between 30 minutes and 50 minutes depending on whether you are convection roasting and the size of the chicken.  It is possible that you may need to add a little chicken broth to the pan if your chicken doesn't have a lot of juice dripping down.

Remove from oven and set the chicken on a carving board.  Remove the rack.  Put the roasting pan onto two burners (front and back) and add the chicken broth to deglaze the pan and make a jus.  Squeeze the two naked lemon halves into the jus.

Crock Pot Chicken Tacos

I call these game night tacos.  That is to say, with 4 kids, it's almost alwzs game night and we are either gone early or home late so how nice to have dinner ready to go.  These tacos are at the top of the kids requests list and are super simple and very healthy.  None of that pre-packaged msg laden taco packets. 

Ingredients:
4 boneless, skinless chicken breast
1 cup of salsa ( I prefer Herdez)
smoked paprika (optional)
Ground smoked chipoltle seasoning (optional)
dried minced onion (optional)
Shredded cheese
taco shells (either hard or soft tortillas)
lettuce
tomatoes
jalepenos
sour cream
actually, whatever acoutriements you desire

Place the chicken breast in the crock pot, cover with the salsa and cook on high for 4 hours or low for 6+ hours.  Once done, use two forks to shred the chicken and if the chicken is a little watery from the salsa, add some shredded cheese for consistency.

Assemble your tacos the way you like them.  The above picture is what you are looking for in consistency in the crock pot.

Lobster Bolognese

This dish is definitely one of the finer things in life.  Don't let this particular post scare you away from my blog because most of my dishes are simple, yet elegant.  This one is more detailed but just make a double batch so the next time all you have to do is pull it out of the freezer.  It's worth it, I promise.

Ingredients:
12 oz lobster tail (I buy two small ones, they are cheaper)
1 can of lobster stock (found on the soup aisle- you can forgo this if you can't find it)
1 bottle of clam juice (found by the tuna fish)
1/2 lb of bulk sausage or basically 2 links and take the sausage out- I use habnero chicken but italian will do
Olive oil for sauteeing onion
1/2 yellow onion finely diced
10 garlic cloves minced
10 very ripe Roma tomatoes or other really red tomato coarsley chopped
1 teaspoon anchovy paste (optional)
2 Tablespoons of white truffle oil- not optional and you should always keep this on hand
1/4 cup of heavy cream or half and half
salt, pepper- I like smoked salt
12 basil leaved juliened (means to roll them up and cut them into strips)
6 small fresh mozzerella balls cut in half (this is also optional)
your choice of pasta.  I recommend pappardelle or spagetti

Cut the lobster shells up the back and pull the lobster meat out and set aside.  In a sauce pan, add the lobster stock and the clam juice AND the lobster shells (this is why it's ok if you don't find lobster stock- you are making your own- add 1 cup of water if you don't have lobster stock and cook a little longer).  Bring to a boil and then continue to simmer. 

Sautee the onion and garlic in a very large skillet.  Add the sausage and cook until brown.  If it is chicken sausage, you should not need to drain the fat, otherwise, drain excess fat. Make sure that you have made the sausage as fine as possible with the spoon or spatula.  It is not the star of the dish, more a subtlety. Add the diced tomatoes and cook until they begin to soften.  Using a ladle, add one ladle of your simmering lobster stock to the skillet.  As it reduces you can add additional ladles.  all in all you will probably add 4 ladles in the course of cooking the sauce. If you chose to use anchovy paste, add to the sauce.

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil for your pasta.  By the time it boils, your sauce will be close to ready so you can add the remaining lobster stock to the pasta water for additional flavor.

Dice the lobster into 1/4" sections and add to the sauce.  Cooking the lobster too long will cause it to be rubbery.

Now it's time to season the sauce with your salt, pepper and truffle oil.  Right before you drain your pasta, add the cream to your sauce.  Turn off the sauce and add the halved mozzerella balls and the basil.

These porportions would serve 6 generous portions.  When I have frozen the sauce, I'm astounded how much better it is the next go 'round.  It's so rewarding to have an impromptu dinner with lobster bolognese so don't skimp on the sauce!

I know this sounds awfully difficult but it really isn't.  I would love to hear your feedback when you make it!

Bon Apetite!

Beef Bourgenoine

I guess if you need to have some left over beef, I should give you a reason.  This recipe is a take on the traditional but is lighter because it uses tenderloin and doesn't take 3 hours to cook.  Very filling but quite good!

Ingredients: This served 2 adults and 4 kids

1.5 lbs of a tenderloin of beef sliced into 1" steaks

6 carrots peeled and chopped in 1" slices

15 pearl onion

2 cloves of garlic

1 T butter

1 T olive oil

6 sprigs of thyme

1 bottle of red wine (decent)

1 box of beef broth

4 slices of bacon diced

package of sliced baby bella mushrooms

In a heavy skillet (iron) brown the tenderloin slices but not for long if you like your beef rare.  You will cook it more later.  Remove and set aside.  Add the bacon a cook until crispy.  Remove and set aside.  Drain the bacon grease leave a little.  Add the minced garlic and pearl onions carrots and cook for about 10 minutes.  Add half the bottle of wine and deglaze the pan.  Add half the beef stock and the thyme. Continue to cook until the sauce thickens and the veggies are tender.  Along the way, you will need to add more wine and stock.  Once the carrots are tender, you will want to add the beef and bacon to the pan but if you like it rare, you will only want it to cook for about 3 to 5 minutes.  Meanwhile you will sautee the mushrooms in butter until they are perfect.  Salt and pepper the mushrooms and the other skillet to taste.  Add the mushrooms to the other skillet once they are done and you are ready to serve.  I made this with mashed potatoes but it was really too much.  Not sure what the option would be on that- just be hungry!