Help me with dinner tonight - and what's yours?

[Robin Garr]

Let's (starting rather late in the East) do one of those typical Friday threads: What are you having for dinner tonight?

Now, looking for a little help here:

I picked up a nice square of fresh mahi mahi today, a pretty piece, even in thicness and nicely textured, right off the inbound fish flight this afternoon.

I'm thinking about doing something quick and simple - seasoned flour dredge, saute, maybe a little garlic and ginger and finish with some Asian spice.

That's probably good enough. But before I commit, if anybody's lurking around and has a great idea for a quick and more "interesting" variation that won't send me out to the grocery for a rare ingredient, let's hear it!

Here's something I do with lowly cod loins (original recipe called for monkfish) that is great.

Make a quick intense vegetable broth with a scant cup of water, some parsley sprigs, a chopped up carrot and celery stalk, maybe some peppercorns, a bay leaf and whatever. Bring to a boil and simmer to reduce to less than a quarter cup. Press through a sieve.

In that broth briefly blanch some julienned green beans, carrot, and/or whatever other veggie sounds good or is in the fridge. Remove veggies and reserve the remaining broth.

Briefly saute some minced shallot, or julienned scallions in a little butter until almost done. Then add remaining broth and a little cream to pan and reduce.

Place fish on foil, top with julienned veggies, pour on a little sauce and form a packet. Into a 350 oven for about 10 minutes and there you go.

Let's (starting rather late in the East) do one of those typical Friday threads: What are you having for dinner tonight?

Now, looking for a little help here:

I picked up a nice square of fresh mahi mahi today, a pretty piece, even in thicness and nicely textured, right off the inbound fish flight this afternoon.

I'm thinking about doing something quick and simple - seasoned flour dredge, saute, maybe a little garlic and ginger and finish with some Asian spice.

That's probably good enough. But before I commit, if anybody's lurking around and has a great idea for a quick and more "interesting" variation that won't send me out to the grocery for a rare ingredient, let's hear it!

Here's a simple idea:

Baked Snapper with Chipotle Butter

½ tsp. ground cumin
½ tsp. paprika
¼ tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. black pepper
4 6-oz. red snapper filets (or other whitefish filets)
Cooking spray
1 Tb. butter, softened
1 canned chipotle chile pepper in adobo sauce, finely minced
Lemon wedges

Preheat oven to 400 degrees
Combine first 4 ingredients, sprinkle evenly over fish. Place fish on a baking sheet coated with cooking spray, bake 15 minutes or until fish flakes easily with a fork.
While fish bakes, combine butter and chile pepper. Spread butter mixture evenly over fish. Serve with lemon wedges.

- Cooking Light Magazine – May 2003

Tonight we're having a skillet dinner of sausage, fried sweet potatoes, cubanelle peppers & onions seasoned with crushed fennel seed and some red pepper flakes with a green salad and honey wheat bread.

No suggestions for you, but I'm having mac & cheese.

Me, too. Coincidence!

Fish tacos!!!

Stopped off at the only BBQ joint worth the name in Tulsa for some pulled pork and chopped brisket, along with sides of baked beans and potato salad.

Grilled lamb chops
steamed Yukon Gold spuds
Robert' Mushroom Ragu -yummy over the potatoes
Steamed Broccoli

[Jenise]

Lunch was silver dollar pancakes with smoked salmon, caviart, capers and lemon creme freche followed by escargot and celery root flan followed by braised lamb shanks with steamed vegetables followed by a cheese plate. Oh, and about 12 wines. I can't even think about dinner.

Mahi Mahi's a great fish. For a simple prep, I'm quite fond of broiling the fish and then topping it with loads of slivered almonds and green onions toasted in butter. Very simple, very pretty, very delicious--love the contrast of textures.

Stick with the mahi mahi! I had 8 ounces of yoghurt carefully blended with 3 packs of Splenda and 3 squirts of lemon juice. Dessert will be later across town ... popcorn and old movies from the Moraga public library. But when it comes to fish like that I'm partial to a macademia nut crust and mango salsa with a side of (mayonnaiseless) potato salad or taro root chips. Stuart, don't throw out the mac and cheese if you have leftovers. I'll have that with some pineapple spam tomorrow ... my version of bachelor saimin.

I had 8 ounces of yoghurt carefully blended with 3 packs of Splenda and 3 squirts of lemon juice.

That is not dinner, young man!

Well, I had Crab Louie.

I like mahi-mahi broiled, with some chive butter and black pepper, myself. It doesn't need much help.

[Robin Garr]

Place fish on foil, top with julienned veggies, pour on a little sauce and form a packet. Into a 350 oven for about 10 minutes and there you go.

Very, very interesting, Fred. Sorry I didn't get back to talk more, I got involved with a phone call. But I did, independently, decide to do a papillote with onions and various aromatics - garlic, ginger, lemon, lime, soy, a little peanut and sesame oil. I used foil, 30 min at 475, but needed a little kick from the microwave at the end, which surprised me even though it was a thick fillet. I'm thinking it might be better to use parchment paper next time.

I used foil, 30 min at 475, but needed a little kick from the microwave at the end...

Wow, I know mahi mahi is not cod but had you used my 10 min at 350 you'd have been eating warm sashimi!

BTW, my concoction is a take-off from a recipe for monkfish in foil from "TAPAS, The Little Dishes of Spain" by Penelope Casas which I recommend highly.

[Robin Garr]

had you used my 10 min at 350 you'd have been eating warm sashimi!

No joke! I'm curious how much difference the foil made, and will likely try this again. Pretty soon, probably, as I'm inclined to write about this method in Thursday's WineAdvisor FoodLetter. I do find in general that oven cookery takes longer than stovetop - at least in my oven, it does!

BTW, my concoction is a take-off from a recipe for monkfish in foil from "TAPAS, The Little Dishes of Spain" by Penelope Casas which I recommend highly.

Thanks for the tip! We've got a couple of really good tapas eateries around here, so it's easy to go out and get some, but I'd love to look at the Casas book.

A salad of smoked salmon and chèvre. A main of chicken breast in coconut milk and lemongrass and chili. Mushrooms in balsamico and mangetout on the side. The salad especially worked well with the Tempier rosé.

For dessert we had a typical Indonesian dish of black rice in coconut milk.

Here's a simple idea:

Baked Snapper with Chipotle Butter

½ tsp. ground cumin
½ tsp. paprika
¼ tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. black pepper
4 6-oz. red snapper filets (or other whitefish filets)
Cooking spray
1 Tb. butter, softened
1 canned chipotle chile pepper in adobo sauce, finely minced
Lemon wedges

Preheat oven to 400 degrees
Combine first 4 ingredients, sprinkle evenly over fish. Place fish on a baking sheet coated with cooking spray, bake 15 minutes or until fish flakes easily with a fork.
While fish bakes, combine butter and chile pepper. Spread butter mixture evenly over fish. Serve with lemon wedges.

- Cooking Light Magazine – May 2003

Tonight we're having a skillet dinner of sausage, fried sweet potatoes, cubanelle peppers & onions seasoned with crushed fennel seed and some red pepper flakes with a green salad and honey wheat bread.

Hi Linda,
I use the chipotle in adobo sauce quite a lot in lots of different ways, but never have I done it with fish. A favorite trick of mine o to take a can of these chipotles and process them in the food processor, which in effect turns them into a paste which I then just spoon what ever amount I want. As long as we are on the subject of chipotle though I thought I would point out that one can get a small bottle of chipotle sauce much like the red pepper sauce we know as Tabasco. the brand of this chipotle sauce is Bufalo and it is from Mexico. It can be found (in my local) at the Kroger store.

A favorite trick of mine o to take a can of these chipotles and process them in the food processor, which in effect turns them into a paste which I then just spoon what ever amount I want.

I never thought about processing them. I'll have to try that next time.

I open the can, separate the peppers out into piles of 1-2 peppers and some sauce on a parchment-lined baking sheet and freeze them. Then pop them into a ziplock.

Otto !! I LOVE black rice ! Yuuuummm...