Grouper Française

I'd been wanting to try my hand at this for some time, but Things Come Up.  Over the long weekend, I had a chance to read up on it, and gave it a try.  The thing with française is that it's subtle - not my strong point.  I managed to restrain myself and leave out the non-essential.  Easy recipe, great results.

Grouper Française

Ingredients:
4 medium sized fillets of your favorite white fish (grouper never disappoints)
3 Tbsp butter
3 Tbsp olive oil
2 Tbsp beurre manié (1 Tbsp soft butter, 1 Tbsp flour, well mixed)
batter:
3 eggs
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1 Tbsp white wine
dredge:
1-1/2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1-1/2 tsp pepper
1/8 tsp garlic powder
sauce:
1 cup chicken stock
1/2 cup white wine (it's always Riesling at our house)
1/3 cup lemon juice
1/3 cup butter

Directions:
Mix the dredge ingredients on a dinner plate and whisk the batter ingredients together in a wide bowl.
In a large skillet on medium-high heat, melt some of the butter in some of the oil.
Dredge the fillets in the flour mixture then dip in the batter until well coated and transfer immediately to the skillet.  Gently cook the fish until white, turning once.  Repeat with the rest of the fish.  Set aside.
Add the sauce ingredients to the pan and reduce a little while whisking in the beurre manié.  When sauce begins to thicken, return fish to pan and heat through for 2 minutes.
Serve with pasta (maybe rice?).

Notes:  Put the pasta in boiling water about when you start to fry the fish.  We had this with carrots and green beans.  Don't get the pan too hot, this doesn't want to be too seared.  We made it for 2 (half this recipe) with flounder (it's what we had).

Wife's rating:  ****1/2(out of 5)  Hours later, she was still talking about it.
My rating:  ****1/2  Glad I put down the mustard, shallots, etc. that I was tempted to add.

Recipe of the Week #10: Chocolate Peppermint Cookies

These are ordinarily just Christmas cookies at our house, but sometimes they can be a nice treat.  Simple and delicious.  My wife originally got the recipe from one of her friends.

Chocolate Peppermint Cookies

Ingredients:
1/2 Cup Softened Shortening (I use margarine and it works fine)
1 egg yolk
1/2 tsp Peppermint Extract
1 Package Chocolate Cake Mix
1 Cup Powdered Sugar

Directions:
Mix shortening, yolk and peppermint extract until creamy.
Add cake mix; dough will stiffen until mixing by hand is necessary.
Form into balls and drop on ungreased cookie sheet.
Bake in oven at 375 degrees for 8-10 minutes.
Cool on a rack, then roll in powdered sugar.

Wife's rating: ***(out of five)  "I love everything you bake"
My rating: *** Very nice, very simple.  My son gives 'em at least ****1/2.

Recipe of the Week #9: Individual Beef Wellingtons

Once again, your humble correspondent must apologize for a missed week. Last week, my mother was admitted to the hospital. Fortunately, it was a false alarm and we got to take her home the next day.  But this was down in Miami, yada yada, another weekend went by.  Still, it was nice to see my parents.

For Valentine's day, I made Beef Wellington. I adapted this from various recipes on the interwebs:

Individual Beef Wellingtons

Ingredients:
1/3 lb Mushrooms, chopped finely
1/4 Cup onions, chopped finely
1 or 2 shallots, chopped finely
1/3 Cup Madeira wine
1/4 Cup Butter, unsalted
4  4 oz Beef filets
1 package puff pastry shells (2 sheets)
1 egg

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 425. Whisk the egg in a small cup.
Gently sauté the first five ingredients until it begins to dry out and turn into a paste (this is called duxelles).
Roll out the two pieces of puff pastry that come in a package somewhat, cutting each piece in half so you have enough to cover all four steaks.
Place the steaks each in the center of a pastry sheet and divide the duxelles evenly on top of the four steaks. Fold the pastry up over the steaks and duxelles, sealing the seams with egg mixture. Brush the tops of the pastries with the remaining egg mixture to brown them nicely.
Cook steaks on a cookie sheet lined with parchment, uncovered, for 25-30 minutes.
Serve with sauce Bearnaise.
Serves 4, but there was only the two of us....

Wife's rating: ****1/2(out of five)  "Your best yet."
My rating: **** Very good, I just think I overdid it.

Recipe of the Week #8: Pork Marsala

Over the past couple of weeks, my wife and I have been in and out of town trying to help our daughter deal with mononucleosis at college, so I apologize for the lack of a ROTW last week. To make up for it, I offer a new favorite, pretty much made up on the fly.  Watch out not to reduce too long, last night I managed to retain some of the aromatic nature of the Marsala and it paid off huge.

Pork Marsala

Ingredients:

1 Cup Flour (All Purpose)
2 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Fresh Ground Black Pepper
4 boneless pork chops
1/2 Cup Butter
4 Tbsp olive oil
1-1/2 Cups Sliced mushrooms
1-1/2 Cups Marsala wine
2 Tbsp Dijon mustard
1/4 Cup Chicken Broth
1/4 Cup Heavy Cream

Directions:

Trim and pound pork chops to 1/4 inch thick pieces of the desired size.
Pour 2/3 cup Marsala wine and the mustard in a 1 gallon zip-lock bag along with the pork pieces. Mash around to make sure all the pieces are well coated.  Set aside for 1/2 hour or so in the refrigerator.
In a shallow dish or bowl, mix together the flour, salt, pepper. Coat pork pieces in flour mixture.
In a large skillet, melt some of the butter in oil over medium heat. Place pork in the pan, and lightly brown on both sides, then remove to a plate.  Add more butter/oil as you go.
Add the mushrooms and sauté until tender.
Pour in the rest of the wine, butter, and the broth.  Reduce about 1/4, then add the cream.
Return the pork to the skillet and cover. Simmer pork about 8 minutes, turning once, until no longer pink.

Served, last night, with Shallots-n-Cream Mashed Potatoes.

Wife's rating: ****(out of 5)  "That was...so...delicious"
My rating: ****  Finally nailed Marsala.
Special Guest rating: ***1/2  "That was really good, Daddy"  I think I'd have gotten another star had she been feeling well.

Recipe of the Week #7: Gallo Pinto

A couple years ago we were lucky enough to visit Costa Rica. With nearly every meal while we were there, we had gallo pinto, a Tico rice and beans. The wife got tired of it eventually, but the kids and I (mostly I) loved it every time. I went looking on the web for a recipe recently and found this recipe, which I modified because I'm lazy.

Gallo Pinto

Ingredients:
1 can black beans.
6-8 sprigs cilantro (coriander leaf) fresh or frozen, not dried!
1 small or medium onion
1/2 small red or yellow sweet pepper (optional)
2 cups (700 ml) chicken broth or water
1-1/3 cups (350 ml) white rice
1/2 teaspoon (2.5 ml) salt
1 Tablespoon (15 ml) vegetable oil
1-3 Tablespoon oil to fry the Gallo Pinto

Directions:

Chop cilantro, onion, and sweet pepper very fine.

Add 1 Tablespoon oil to a large pan and sauté the dry rice for 2 minutes over medium high flame then add half of the chopped onion, sweet pepper and cilantro and sauté another 2 minutes. Add water or chicken broth, bring to a boil, cover and reduce heat to simmer until rice is tender (20-35 minutes). This is also the recipe for Tico rice used in other favorites like tamales.

Sauté the rice and beans together in vegetable oil for a few minutes until hot.  Sprinkle with a little fresh chopped cilantro just before serving.

Once the rice and beans are cooked you can also refrigerate or freeze them. Make up small batches of Gallo Pinto when you want it by simply sautéing them together.

Notes:  This made several meals worth for just the two of us.  My favorite is when we'd have breakfast for dinner, scrambled eggs, gallo pinto, sausage, fruit.  Life is good.

Wife's rating:  ***(out of 5)  She just doesn't get it.
My rating:  ****1/2 Food can make you happy.

Recipe of the Week #6: Chicken Piccata

My favorite Italian restaurant is called Pane e Vino. It's at the Oaks in Melbourne, FL and it's this great little place. Very old world. I wanted to make something like I've had there and this recipe is an amalgam of a bunch I've seen on the interwebs.

Chicken Piccata

Ingredients:

6 to 8 chicken breast halves, boneless, no skin
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground pepper
1/2 teaspoon paprika, or to taste
4 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoon olive oil
1 cup chicken broth
1 cup white wine
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
8 to 12 thin slices of lemon
4 tablespoons capers (optional)
3 oz fresh chopped parsley

Instructions:

Put chicken breasts between 2 sheets of waxed paper or plastic wrap; pound to flatten to about 1/4-inch. In a shallow bowl, combine flour, salt, pepper and paprika; dredge chicken breasts to coat well.
Mix 2 tablespoons butter and 2 tablespoons flour in small bowl until smooth (beurre manié).
Heat some of the butter and olive oil in a large skillet. Sauté chicken breasts in batches, about 3 minutes on each side.
Drain off some of the fat if there's a lot. Stir in chicken broth and wine, scraping to loosen browned bits. Add lemon juice and heat through.
Whisk in beurre manié (a little at a time and check for consistency) and return chicken to the skillet with the lemon slices; heat until sauce thickens.
Add capers and parsley, if using. Serve with your favorite pasta and a green vegetable.
Serves 4.

Notes: Put the pasta in boiling water about when you start to fry the chicken.

Wife's rating:  ****(out of 5)  Didn't get a straw for the excess sauce, but close.
My rating:  ****  Might be better than Pane e Vino's, but my Marsala can't touch theirs.

Thursday Doorway

When we visited Spain a few years ago, we stayed a couple of days in Arcos de la Frontera at La Casa Grande, which I cannot recommend strongly enough.  I must have taken a thousand pictures in this beautiful little town.  I like perhaps a dozen of them.  That's my poor photography, not Arcos.

Recipe of the Week #5: Snapper Provençale On Yellow Rice

Kinda on a downer this week, the kids went back to college.  We really loved having them home.  So I wasn't feeling especially creative.  An excellent resource for times like this is Apron's, which is Publix's cooking school, recipe repository, event planning, what-have-you.

This recipe is easy, tasty, and pretty on the plate.  Roughly half an hour to make and, if you do use the pound and a half of fish they call for, there's leftovers for work the next day.  I like it with spinach instead of salad but I like nearly anything instead of salad.  Tonight was haddock, instead of snapper.  Very good.

Snapper Provençale On Yellow Rice

Ingredients
1 (10-ounce) package yellow rice mix
2 1/2 cups water
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
2–3 medium shallots (rinsed)
1 (4-ounce) can mushroom pieces (drained)
1 cup canned herb/garlic diced tomatoes (drained)
1/3 cup sliced black olives
1/3 cup white wine
2 1/2 teaspoons capers
1/2 cup flour
1 teaspoon seasoned salt
1 1/2 pounds snapper fillets (ask to have skin removed)

Instructions:
1. Combine rice mix, water, and 1 tablespoon olive oil in medium saucepan; bring to boil on high. When rice boils, cover, and reduce to low; simmer 15 minutes.

2. Peel and chop shallots (3 tablespoons); place in medium bowl. Stir in mushrooms, tomatoes, olives, wine, and capers. Mix flour and seasoned salt in shallow bowl.

3. Preheat large sauté pan on medium-high 2–3 minutes. Place remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil in pan; swirl to coat. Dredge fish in flour mixture; place in pan (wash hands). Cook 2–3 minutes on each side or until golden.

4. Remove rice from heat; let stand 10 minutes. Pour tomato mixture over fish; reduce to medium and cook 4–5 minutes, stirring often, or just until fish is opaque and separates easily with a fork. Fluff rice with fork; serve fish and sauce over rice.

Wife's rating: ***1/2 (out of 5).  "This is such a treat."
My rating:  ***1/2.  Like I said, very good.