Mar 10th - Korean Curried Halibut stew

This was not a good idea. It happens. It does not happen too often but it happens to the best of us. I mean it tasted nice. The disappointment was the fish. We bough vacuum packed frozen Halibut steaks from this shop on Commercial. I have bought weevil infested Kale from that shop too. It is the veg market called Triple A Market next to Wazubee Cafe. It has given us some really poor produce and this fish ends our patronage for good. The owner pushed the fish on us as it was on sale. It took two days to defrost in the fridge. Since it was fish I did not want to nuke it to defrost and I will not counter defrost any meat ever.

My biochemist, snobby academic sister tells me that salmonella does not spontaneously occur in poultry or meat, that it would have to be infected to begin with for a poor storage to foster its propagation. Whatever! As you can never know, why take the risk!? She rarely cooks and worships at the altar of ready-made-Trader-Joe meals so I do not give much weight to her culinary advice. Though she is a faithful reader so.... V you are awesome! :^{}

Anyhoo, I wanted to sear the steaks to crisp them up and then simply serve the curry stew over it but D thought it would just be easier to cut it up and stew it with the veg. Fine. He cleaned it so I did not mind. It was ALL BONES! The skin was so elastic and difficult to remove. In the end, from two steaks, there was maybe 100-150 g of meat, not including the slice D took off his thumb. Then when we added it to the curry, it all but dissolved. There was not one piece of fish larger than a pea. It added great flavour to the curry which, without the traditional addition of chicken or beef, can be a bit sweet and one-dimensional. That's why I add butter :^D.

This was the recipe but I would highly recommend using something firmer like snapper. I might post the photo later but the disintegrated fish did not photograph well :^P but the carrots did. Actually, the original intention was a coconut fish curry like the one we had from Wiimaan Thai we had a couple of weeks ago but we seemed to have mysteriously run out of coconut milk. I thought that was impossible.

Start rice now.

Korean Curried Halibut Stew

5 cubes of Korean yellow curry sauce, standard issue. I like "Golden" brand best.
3 c water
250 g fish (do no use frozen Halibut steaks from Triple A Market)
1 russet potato (the thin skinned, yellow kind but any you like is fine. Do not use a baking potato though. They will melt away) cubed 1 inch
1 carrot, chopped roughly
1/2 onion, chopped roughly
1/2 zucchini because I had 1/2 zucchini left (Totally optional, you could add peas. My mom would use peas here.)
3 cloves garlic
2 chilies halved, with seeds, mouahahaha

In a bowl, add boiling water the cubes of curry and set aside to soften. Mix with a fork to break up.

In a large skillet, heat some neutral oil, enough, canola or peanut, medium-high. Add the onion, carrots, zucchini, potato. Stir occasionally to prevent burning or sticking. Add more oil as necessary. 5 minutes.

Add the garlic and chilies and toss for 2 minutes. You do not want to burn the garlic. Add the melted curry slurry, mixing with a fork to ensure you get all the curry. Add more boiling water to the bowl to ensure you get as much of it you can. Stir. Bring to a boil. The sauce thickens when it boils. Reduce to a simmer and add the fish.

Let simmer until the potatoes and carrots are fork tender. That means, you can easily pierce either with a fork with out too much effort and they also let go without prying.

Serve over rice.

We had a nice Spanish wine our friend gave us as a hostess gift for our Superbowl party. All honey and loveliness. Different from the new world Sauvignon Blancs. Nice!

Triple A Market
1626 Commercial Drive
Vancouver
Cost:$
Value: terrible, bug infested Kale, old peppers, stale carrots and mealy halibut
Cleanliness: dodgeriffic
Summary: I do not recommend you buy produce from this shop. Go to Norman's or Santa Barbera.

Feb 16th - Jumbo Walnut and Gorgonzola Tortellini in Basil Pesto Sauce

Duso's Pasta Counter

Pesto is very simple to make and tastes so much better if you do it yourself. In addition to the freshness, you can play with the herbs and nuts you use. Now the original or rather standard is Basil. Basil ground with only oil is called Pistou and the French will claim it as their own and that the Italians 'bastardised' it by adding cheese and pinenuts. That is called Pesto Genovese. You can replace pinenuts with almonds, walnuts or cashews. I wouldn't recommend you do all cashews or walnuts though. Cashews are too soft and heavy and walnuts too strong. Do not try it with peanuts. Blech. My favourite is the standard pinenuts with a mix of fresh Basil and Arugula (aka Rocket). The arugula adds a nice sharpness. You can also use mustard greens or other herbs.

I usually make large batches and freeze the remainder in ice cube trays. I use more garlic than most and more pepper. Don't try to freeze it in one large container. You'll be cursing me as you hack at it with a knife and hammer later. It can keep like this for over a year. Wrap tightly so they don't absorb neighboring flavours.

Basil and Arugula Pesto

3 cups basil leaves
3 cups arugula leaves
1 cup parmesan or pecorino cheese, grated
1 cup pinenuts
1 cup olive oil (+/- 1/4 cup depending on consistency you like)
7 cloves garlic
2 t fresh black pepper
1/2 lemon, zest and juice

In your food processor, blitz the leaves. Add more leaves as more spaces is created with the blitzing. Add the garlic and pulse until chopped. Add the cheese and pinenuts. Pulse until the consistence of a tapenade or fine, well blended mince. Add the zest and juice, for the brightness in flavour and keeps the basil slightly greener. Season to taste. With the spout open, drizzle in the oil until you see the consistency you like. THIS WILL MAKE ALOT ALOT. But I bought a big big bunch of farm fresh arugula.

When you're ready to eat from frozen, take out 1.5 to 2 cubes per person and let defrost in the bowl as you cook or nuke for a bare 10-15 seconds. The high oil and water content will melt it really quickly. Toss the cooked pasta directly into the pesto.

We bought tonight's Walnut and Gorgonzola Tortellini from Duso's on Granville Island in the Public Market. They have a fantastic selection of fresh pasta, cheeses and other italian goodies ready to eat. after visiting some of the Olympic pavillions on Sunday. They were handmade and far more homey looking that the rest in the counter. Though all their pasta is quite nice. It is slightly more expensive than in little Italy but it is definitely more central.

They're large so boil for 12-14 minutes. Gently toss in the pesto, with some of the pasta water.

YUMMO! The gorgonzola was very gentle and there were still chunks of walnut in the filling. Very nice! Start with only 2 T of pesto each. You don't want to drown out the filling, particularly the gorzonola.