Foodie Stuff

Well, in honor of Top Chef night, I like to make something a little more labor intensive than our usual fare. Tonight was my attempt at persuading J to like fish. It's funny because he knows he wants to like fish because it's so good for you, but he is convinced it keeps him less full than other food and he just has some sort of aversion to it. So tonight's offering was tilapia. It's a pretty mild fish and doesn't leave the house smelling fishy, so I think it was a winner. The recipe is my own design, so hopefully you'll like it.



First, I made the red pepper sauce. I sliced up about 3 bell peppers, today it happened to be 2 reds and 1 orange, and sauteed them in a little bit of olive oil until they were soft. After they softened up a bit (lot) I took them off the heat, out of the pan and let them cool a while. When they were cool I added them and one seeded chipotle chili in adobo sauce with a bit of olive oil and salt and pepper to taste. I pureed this and let it be until the other components were done.

After I had the sauce done (and J was on his way home), I drizzled a bit of olive oil, kosher salt and ground pepper over the brussel sprouts and threw 'em in a 400 degree oven for about a half hour, till they looked overcooked but were actually carmelized and delicious!

Next came the cauliflower puree. I took one head of cauliflower and cut it up into pieces, then boiled it in milk with salt and pepper and a little bit of garlic powder. It really only took a few minutes for the cauliflower to be fork tender, and then I took the cauliflower out with a slotted spoon and pureed this in the food processor, adding some of the milk it was cooked in to make sure it was smooth.

The fish was the last to go since tilapia cooks pretty quickly. I sauteed it in a little olive oil dressed only with salt and pepper. I sauteed on each side probably for about 4-5 minutes tops. The fish had a nice crust to it, but was flaky when we took a fork to it.

To plate it all up, I laid out a bed of the cauliflower puree, laid the fish on top and dressed it with the red pepper sauce. The brussel sprouts were on the side. It was really tasty, and even J liked it! We had about 10 times as much red pepper sauce as we needed, so this weekend we are going to use it as a spicy pasta sauce with rotini and grilled chicken.

On Valentines Day I tried out my baking skills on an incredibly rich devils food cake. The cake and frosting were so rich I decided to add strawberries for some contrast and it was a good addition. I think it turned out very pretty too!



Oh yeah, and it fed J and I twice, and his entire family. I think I maybe should stick with cupcakes.

Happy Top Chef night!