fish

“Mighty Rad Gumbo”…

~ Gary Bechard ~ Leave a comment

Or so sang “Little Feat” in this song about gumbo and his mamma being in the “Seafood Hall of Fame” because of her cooking. It was this song that was my original inspiration to create a gumbo recipe. If you have ever read this blog, you will know that I am no stranger to driving, a LOT, whether it was my epic 4 hour round trip to commute to my last job or the months I had to drive north to western Pennsylvania before we moved there. Along those same lines, I recently completed a move to North Myrtle Beach and, as can be imagined, there was a great deal of driving involved as we shuttled items from western Pennsylvania to the beach. When the weather is nice and people aren’t driving while sitting on their shoulders, I listen to my iPod and when this song came up my mind went into overdrive!  I had never done a gumbo, sure there were stews and soups and such but gumbo?  In my head, it was kind of exotic.  You know the stuff that chefs in New Orleans (Neawleans as pronounced) do with their voodoo spices and tantric cooking practices. So, I did not want to do a “safe” regular gumbo but wanted to do something that brought together a whole host of other flavors (kind of a combination creole-gumbo, a “cre-umbo”, if you will) and since I was cooking for a large group, I wanted it to make a decent quantity so you may have to trim down the amount of the individual ingredients if you are making for fewer than 8. You may notice that there is no added salt or an excess of seasonings as all of the flavor comes from the Andouille sausage with which you start the recipe. This recipe is the result of all that time in the car. I loved it and so did the folks who were eating it (one had it for breakfast the next morning).  As you may, or may not, know the first to taste a new recipe has the honor of creating the name.  My niece Caroline (the southern one), because of the Olympics in Rio gave the recipe its name, “Brazilian Blowout Gumbo”.  (special note: next up is a honey mustard, tarragon glazed chicken but that will be later this week)

Brazilian Blowout Gumbo

(Makes 6 – 8 servings)

Gary Bechard – The Well Fed Cyclist

Ingredients:

3 – Boneless-skinless chicken breasts, cubed

14 ounces – Andouille sausage, sliced crosswise

16 ounces – Cooked tail off shrimp, defrosted, 51 to 70 count

1 cup – Fresh okra sliced

1/3 – Medium sweet onion, rough diced

1/3 – Red bell pepper, diced

1/3 – Yellow bell pepper, diced

1/3 – Green bell pepper, diced

1 ½ stalks – Celery, diced

1 – 28 ounce can of whole peeled tomatoes

1 – 28 ounce can of tomato sauce

1 – 28 ounce can of diced fire roasted tomatoes

2 – 15 ounce cans of fire roasted corn

1 handful (about 3/4ths cup) – Fresh Parsley leaves, finely chopped

3 – Cloves garlic, finely chopped

8 ounces – Chicken stock (or vegetable stock if the spirit moves you)

Extra Virgin Olive Oil (I say this amount but it should only be enough to swirl around the bottom of the pot a couple of times during the cooking process)

1 tbsp – Coarse ground black pepper

2 tsp – Thyme (I used dried ground)

A brief note before the construction instructions: I normally chop my vegetables and meat ingredients ahead of time because it makes for easier cooking and cleaning.

Construction Instructions:

In a big stockpot, pour a nice “figure 8” of olive oil on the bottom. Turn the heat to mid range (5 or 6 on most electric ranges) and bring the oil up to temperature remembering that olive oil has a low smoke point and does not withstand high heat very well without breaking down. When the oil is hot, add Andouille sausage slices and cook them until they are done and they have rendered their fatty goodness on the bottom of the pan. Remove the slices from the pot with a slotted spoon, set aside and add a little bit more olive oil and bring the oil back up to temperature. Next add the chicken cubes and cook them until they are done and repeat the process of removing the cubed chicken and setting aside. Once again, drizzle a little bit of oil in the pot and with a wooden spoon scrape some of the tasty bits off the bottom and add your garlic sautéing this until the garlic softens making sure that you do not allow the garlic to turn brown. Lower the heat to low medium and then, add the onions, peppers and celery sautéing these until they soften. With all of that goodness going on in the pot, add the okra slices and pour in the chicken stock covering the vegetables. Cook the okra until it is tender then add back the chicken and the sausage. Once this is done, add each of the cans of tomatoes, tomato sauce and the fire roasted corn (water and all) and stir all of these together allowing the ingredients to get acquainted. Next add the parsley and the thyme, re-stir, to distribute the herbs evenly. Lower the heat so that the mixture is at a low simmer (the liquid will lightly bubble and not be a rolling boil) and make sure that you are constantly stirring to make sure the heat stays even throughout the mixture and to start breaking down the whole tomatoes. You can aid in breaking down the tomatoes by cutting them through with the edge of the wooden spoon with which you are using to stir. The process will take about 30 to 40 minutes and you should notice that your liquids cooking down a bit. In the last 10 minutes, after the whole tomatoes have broken down, add the shrimp and cook for another 10 minutes until they are heated thoroughly.

I served this over whole grain brown rice with jalapeno-cheese bread slices.

Enjoy!

The Well Fed Cyclist

On the Edge…continues

~ Gary Bechard ~ Leave a comment

Well it is the same ‘bat time”, same “bat channel”…almost (some of you younger folks may not know what in the world I am talking about with that phrase, however. So you may need to ask your parents). I was going to do a post yesterday but I was off with some Canadian friends doing stuff.  This is the first of many fish recipes I have come up with over the years since fish is what I consider food of the gods (not to offend anyone who thinks red meat is the tastiest thing on the planet). As everyone who has read this blog knows, I have way too much time to think while piloting the lawn mower or doing other assorted “yard things”.   This recipe is a product of my pining away for another visit to Key West while doing mundane things. Key West is one of those places that inspire extreme opinions. You either love it or you hate it. Most of the time there is no gray area. However, I loved it! It was laid back, comfortable, eclectic, fun and accepting. The food is good and almost always pretty healthy and there were plenty of places to find good rum, wine and other intoxicating beverages (Hmmm, I am hoping that is not why the food was really good). It was there that I learned about key limes and the fact that they do not travel well and for that reason you do not find them very far north of Florida. I wanted to incorporate them in a fish recipe because, well, frankly, I am not sure the limes would go with say a red meat.

Almost all of my fish recipes are very healthy and fit into the “On the Edge” category of being good for the pre-diabetic. They are all low in carbohydrates (I have to try to keep the whole meal under 30 grams if I can) and are almost devoid of sugars so you can eat “clean” , as the healthy food groupies say now. This recipe was inspired by a trip to Key West and a wonderful sailboat cruise in the Gulf of Mexico a number of years ago where I was the pilot of a 43 foot sailboat my family chartered for me on my 50th birthday. Without further delay, here is the recipe.

Key West Mahi-Mahi
(Serves 4)

Ingredients:

2 lbs – Mahi-Mahi fillets (should be 4 at 8 oz each)
1 cup – Scallions (finely chopped)
¾ cup – Shitake mushrooms (coarsely chopped)
½ tsp – Sea salt
1 tsp – Coarse ground black pepper
1 tsp – Light Soy sauce
10 – Key limes (juiced, well maybe not “juiced”, per se, but the juice of the limes) (about 3/4ths of a cup)
[Note: If you cannot find Key Limes, you can normally find Key Lime juice in the grocery store hanging out near the Bloody Mary mix]

Construction Instruction:
In a 9 X 13 inch baking dish that has had the bottom sprayed with Pam or some other non-caloric cooking spray, arrange the fillets after lightly seasoning with the salt and pepper. (You can skip the salt if you would like because of the soy sauce) Add about a ¼ cup of water to the bottom of the dish to make sure the fish stays moist. Next, drizzle a thin line of soy sauce down the center of each fillet and slowly pour on the key lime juice. (You want to try to keep as much on the fillets as possible) After this is done evenly arrange the scallions and mushrooms generously over each of the fillets and putting any excess in the bottom of the baking dish. Cover the baking dish with foil (trust me on this one) and bake in an oven that has been pre-heated to 375 degrees for about 30 to 40 minutes. [Note: You should check on the fish at the 30 minute mark to see if it flakes easily. If it does, you are done. If not, you need to bake a bit longer until the fish does flake easily.]

This was served with Japanese buckwheat noodles, a lightly steamed blend of zucchini, yellow squash, green beans and red bell pepper. The wine was a Viogner!

Enjoy!

On the Edge…part deux

~ Gary Bechard ~ Leave a comment

First, I have to apologize that I did not take a picture of the plate this time so I had to put a picture of “Mr. Grouper” from Bubble Guppies.  He’s kind of cute and is not quite something I would want to filet, his being a cartoon and all.  (And, please note that no cartoons were harmed while writing this blog post.)

The whole idea behind pre-diabetic cooking is to control the carbohydrate intake (you need about 30 grams per meal) and to make sure that you are getting the right kind of carbs for your diet. (think whole wheat, fruits and vegetables) I think this is one of the reasons that most of the literature points people in the direction of making sure that fruit is part of every meal. True a lot of fruits are full of sugar but the ones recommended for pre-diabetics and diabetics alike are berries. YUM! For any of you living near Maine or the New England area blueberries come to mind as the berry of choice along with your basic strawberries, raspberries and such. I have a high school classmate that said in our yearbook “Essence of blueberries is all you need to exist” and I would have to agree. So if you are cooking for a pre-diabetic make sure to include the berries, in their natural form of course.

This recipe was one of those thought up on a long ride one of these past weekends. For whatever reason, the leek and mushroom combination kept popping into my head which was kind of weird because before this time I had never cooked with leeks. (channeling a chef from the past maybe?) They are a fine vegetable, however, and are akin to very mild scallions only much bigger. I like this recipe because it is easy and the way that it is baked deep seats the flavors into the fish. So without further adieu here is the recipe. Later this week I will put out here the “how to” for the vegetable stock I made from the leftover parts of the leeks.

Glam Grouper
Grouper done with Leeks and Mushrooms
(Serves 4)

Ingredients:

3 – Large Grouper Fillets (mine totaled about 2.5 lbs)
4 – Leeks
2 pts – Mixed mushroom slices (if you cannot find these use a mushroom with a lot of earthy flavor like Portabellas or Cremini and mix them with Shitakes, Oyster and other flavorful mushrooms)
7 – Garlic cloves (fine diced)
1 – Handful fresh parsley (or a bit more, coarse chopped)
16 oz – Mushroom broth (you could also do vegetable stock but the mushroom broth gives a better flavor)
1 pinch – Sea Salt per fillet ( use coarse ground and only put 3 to 4 granules each)
Coarse ground Black Pepper (a couple of grinds per fillet)

Preparation:
Prepare the leeks (you are going to use the white parts) by cutting the white part off and slicing the long way into shreds. Wash between the leaves because a lot of dirt can get caught in there and I am pretty sure the grocery store has not washed them for you ahead of time. Save the green parts of the leeks to make vegetable soup stock.

Construction Instruction:
Spray the bottom of a 9 X 13 baking dish with a non-caloric cooking spray and arrange the fillets evenly across the dish. Pour in the mushroom broth so that it surrounds each of the fillets. Next, salt and pepper the fish and arrange leeks, mushrooms, garlic and parsley more around the fillets than on them. The reason for putting the ingredients around as opposed to on top is that you are going to steam cook the fillets and allow the fish to absorb those flavors. Tightly cover the baking dish with foil and bake at 375 degrees for about 40 minutes or until fish flakes easily.

This was served with a wild rice pilaf made with lightly sautéed mushrooms and sweet onions, roasted cauliflower and asparagus. On the side, there was also a berry salad with blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, strawberries and some kiwi for good measure.

Enjoy!
The Well Fed Cyclist

Trust me officer “Baked” is a relative term…

~ Gary Bechard ~ Leave a comment

I am sorry but yes, it is yet another fish recipe and this after I thought it was going to be “chicken week”. However this is a very easy recipe and won very high marks from one of my most discriminating critics (my daughter). The name of the recipe was kind of joke because nobody would EVER cook while they were fully baked…right? Not that I have ever been that way but I was just referring to the state of the fish at the end of the recipe…Yah, that’s the ticket. You believe me right? Okay, even if you do not believe me, this is still really good fish.

This recipe was born while I was watching chocolate chip cookies being made at the same time I was trying to figure out how to make faux fried fish for dinner. I think I was watching Alton Brown on the Food Network, but that is neither here nor there, and as I was watching the vanilla extract being added to the cookie batter (after Alton’s requisite aside on actual vanilla beans, where they come from, how they grow, what we do with them, etc.) I wondered how it would taste on breadcrumbs and ultimately the fish. I quickly made a crumb test batch to try out on my family first. The test was a success and the rest, as they say, is history. The best thing about grouper is that it takes on virtually any flavor you put on it and the better the outside flavor the better the fish. I know that grouper is expensive right now but if you get the chance you should try this recipe. Haddock or most any other mild, flaky white fish would also work.

I’m Totally Baked
Vanilla Grouper
(makes 4 – 5 servings)

2 ½ lbs – Grouper fillets (skinless, about 8 ounces per person)
1 ½ cups – Canola Oil
1 ounce – Pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 tsp – Sugar
7 ounce package – Panko breadcrumbs

Combine canola oil, vanilla extract and sugar in a medium bowl and whisk together thoroughly and set aside (for now). Next, in a big ass skillet, pour about half of the oil/vanilla mixture in the bottom and start it on low heat. After about 2 to 3 minutes of letting the oil/vanilla mixture heat up add about 1/3 of the breadcrumbs and mix together until the breadcrumbs absorb the oil. Repeat this same process until you have run out of breadcrumbs and the oil/vanilla mixture. Move the heat to just below medium and toast the breadcrumbs for approximately 3 to 5 minutes, then lower heat and toast some more at low for another 2 to 3 minutes. After this remove the breadcrumbs from the heat and set aside to cool.

After the breadcrumbs have cooled a bit, wet grouper fillets (I did it with water but you can also use buttermilk but if you do I would soak the fillets for the entire time you are making the breadcrumbs) and roll them in the mixture fully coating them. Spray the bottom of a 9 X 13 baking dish with a non-caloric cooking spray and arrange the fillets in the bottom of the pan. Bake the fish at 380 to 400 degrees for about 35 minutes or until the fish starts to flake easily. The breadcrumbs should have a “toasted marshmallowesque” look to them. (I always start checking my fish at the 30 minute mark because sometimes fillets can be of different thicknesses and the thinner ones take less time. You do not want to overcook them.)

I served this with steamed fresh green beans garnished with almond slices and wild rice pilaf with Cremini mushrooms and petite peas.

Enjoy!

Gotta hate coverups…

~ Gary Bechard ~ Leave a comment

Yesterday, I was writing about the Meddeteranean style diet and the health benefits of going that direction. I will say that it is very difficult to stick to a diet like that when there is an abundance of “easy”, albeit, unhealthy alternatives. However, I believe that if you keep the ingredients fresh and watch the added sugars and such you should be fine.  There is a blog that is dedicated to fresh and healthy called “Peeled” here on WordPress and you should really check it out. She has a lot of good ideas to “keep it clean”.

I know that I was remiss in my duties about posting the pork recipe I did with black cherries and lime last week but I hope I can make amends with this fish recipe (the pork recipe is not yet in electronic form). So, I hope you will forgive me this one time and I will try to not let it happen again. I do have quite a few fish recipes left in my kitchen notebook so you may be seeing fish for a while and I hope that does not bother anyone.

This was a recipe I thought of while dreaming of a blue water sail through tropical waters to an island of choice. No, it was not at night while I was sleeping but while I was perusing a Condé Nast Traveler magazine on a Saturday about island destinations which included Hawaii. For me, the sailing part would just be a really cool way to get to any of the destinations listed.

This recipe was also a way to address one of the things I dislike which is when people do not even taste the food in front of them before they cover it up with some sort of sauce or “ketchup type” thing (I mean you work to make sure the flavors in the meal are balanced and such and they should at least taste it right?) So, it goes without saying, I was kind of tired of watching while some of the people for whom I cook slathered their fish with cocktail or tartar sauce so I was trying to come up with something they could use that would enhance the flavor of the fish instead of cover it. Thus, The Salsa, a tartar sauce alternative, was born. Since this recipe, I have come up with a bunch of other salsas to be used in a wide variety of dishes.

Here is the recipe:

Tropical Dream Flounder
(makes 4 servings)

2 lbs – Flounder fillets (skinless) (I try to have 6 – 8 ounces of fish per person)

The Salsa (the tartar sauce alternative)
1/3 – Fresh pineapple (diced fine)
1 – Mango, no skin, (diced fine)
1 – Orange (diced fine) (I try to make sure that I have just the meat of the orange and not any of the skin on the inside)
1/3 – Medium sweet onion (diced fine)
½ – Red bell pepper (diced fine)
½ – Green bell pepper (diced fine)
A couple of healthy splashes of white balsamic vinegar (if you have to measure 2 ½ tablespoons)
Coarse ground black pepper (to taste)
Ground cayenne pepper (to taste)
½ tsp – Sea Salt (it’s a fish it deserves ocean stuff)
7 – Mint leaves (finely shredded) (I used spearmint because that is what is growing under my deck)

Salsa assembly:

In a medium to large bowl put pineapple, mango, orange, onion, red bell pepper, green bell pepper, and mint leaves and toss thoroughly to make sure all of the ingredients are evenly distributed. Splash with the balsamic vinegar and toss again. Place mixture in the fridge to that all those nice flavors can get acquainted.

The fish:

Use salt, black pepper and cayenne pepper to season both sides of each piece of fish. (The idea is to have mildly (or very, it depends on your taste) spicy fish play off of the sweet and minty in the salsa.) Place fish on a cookie (or baking sheet) that has been sprayed with a non-stick spray and bake at 380 degrees for about 20 minutes or until fish flakes easily. Serve the fish with salsa on the top (or on the side).

Note: Flounder fillet are notoriously thin and they will cook very fast so it is best to keep an eye on them. (They become hard almost rubbery messes if you do not)

With this fish I served wild rice and a fresh fruit salad (you kind of have to use the remainder of the pineapple for something). The wine was Toasted Head, Viognier.

Enjoy!

Look deep into the spinning spiral…

~ Gary Bechard ~ Leave a comment

I am probably a latecomer to the Vegetti, and no it is NOT a gynocological instrument but it IS a simple kitchen tool that easily slices almost any vegetable into thin spaghetti like strips. I prefer to call it a “spiralizer”. My sister swears by hers and my daughter the same thing but me, nope, I like being the old fashioned curmudgeon, stuck in his ways and seem to bask in the toil that is julienning vegetables for interesting salads. I mean how else are you going to be able to elicit gratitude for the amount of time it took to make the meal? Well, not wanting any gratitude (I guess some gratitude would be nice) and being more than willing to do dinner last night, I decided to give the tool a whirl.

The dinner consisted of salmon, a mixed salad using the “spiralizer” and potato nests. You are most likely wondering what in the world is a “potato nest” but I got the idea from seeing a pasta nest in the grocery store and thought that the Vegetti could help me make that happen. The whole meal turned out fantastic!  and I ended up being very impressed with the Vegetti /”spiralizer”. Preparation time was only about 20 minutes and cooking time about 50 minutes. (It was a big piece of fish). I hope you try this and let me know what you think.

The salad consisted of “spiralized”, seedless cucumber (about a half), 1 small zucchini, 1 small yellow squash, half a Daikon radish (peeled), a large carrot (peeled) and the only things that were not run through the device, very thinly sliced onions and roasted red pepper strips. Combine these in a large bowl and lightly toss them together with  a light vinegar and olive oil dressing chill and enjoy.  I made my dressing with White balsamic vinegar (adds a bit of sweetness) 1/4th cup,  with 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil, 1/2 teaspoons of dried parsley, celery seed, salt and pepper.

Now is the fun part. I took some regular russet potatoes (pick narrow ones) peeled them and ran them through the “spiralizer”. Then I piled them in loose heaps (kind of like pasta nests) on a cookie sheet that had been sprayed with Pam, added a sprinkle of salt and pepper, sprayed the heaps with Pam and baked at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes or until the edges of the strips start turning a little bit golden brown.

Below is the recipe for the salmon.  I have always said that fish should be treated simply because you never want to take away from the essence of the fish and trust me, each type of fish has its own essence.

Simple Salmon

Gary Bechard – The Well Fed Cyclist

(Serves 3-4)

Ingredients:

1.5 to 2 lbs – Salmon fillets (about 8 ounces per person, 4 fillets, preferably wild caught)

1tsp – Coarse ground black pepper

1 tsp – Sea salt

1 tsp – Smoked paprika

1 tsp – Dried Parsley

½ tsp – Thyme leaves

3 ounces – White wine

Construction Instruction:

Arrange the salmon in a ceramic baking dish in which you have put the white wine. Dust the top of the salmon with the herb ingredients and cover the dish with foil. Bake the fish at 350 degrees for about 35 to 45 minutes or until the fish starts to flake easily. (I always start checking my fish at the 30 minute mark because sometimes the filets are thin and take less time and you do not want to overcook them.) The idea here is to cook the fish slowly so that the flavors are infused into the fillets.

I served this with a mixed vegetable salad and potato nests.

Enjoy!