Peruvian-style ceviche

Well, I finally reached the end of the white seabass. I wanted to try something a little different with the last few pieces. I've seen a lot about Peruvian-style ceviche lately and I thought I'd give it a go. I had no idea that ceviche was such a big deal in Peru until I saw Tony Bourdain's No Reservations on that country. After hearing so much about it, I found Chef John Mitzewich's recipe for Peruvian-style ceviche on Food Wishes.

For my version of this ceviche I used white seabass, shrimp and scallops. I had about 2lbs of white seabass, and a pound each of 21-30 shrimp and large scallops.

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The white seabass was mostly from the tail ends of the fillets.

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The scallops were very good sized and extremely tasty

It took almost a full butt-load of limes to get enough juice to marinate all the seafood.

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Lupe and I did the laundry while the fish marinated. By the time we got all the clean clothes folded, the ceviche was almost ready to eat. It was drained and then I added the orange juice-olive oil dressing. I put a little Castillo Salsa Marisquera in with the citrus emulsion for some heat. I finished up by adding the cilantro, jalapeno, salt and pepper.

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We served the ceviche in some frosty cold little flan cups. Some crispy tostadas are used to scoop up the ceviche. Lupe went one step beyond and smeared a little guacamole on the tostada, added some ceviche and then splashed on some salsa marisquera. Soooooo good! The orange juice-olive oil emulsion really makes this ceviche. Lupe wasn't completely sold on the whole raw fish ceviche concept. She makes a killer ceviche, but uses cooked shrimp and crab meat. All it took was one spoonful of this ceviche and she was a believer. A big thank you goes to Chef John and Peru for this fantastic ceviche.

From The Hollow Leg Diner - images

Heading out in a couple hours to see if I can get some more WSB.

Need to catch more fish

The never ending white seabass has almost run out. My sister Lori came to visit and I had to make her some fish. I was at the Fred Hall Show most of the day, so I had to throw together something quick when I got home. I decided to do the pan-seared WSB with spicy tomato sauce again. I had three large steaks left, so I thawed those out and seasoned them with olive oil, Cayenne pepper, smoked paprika and black pepper. The spicy tomato sauce (salsa) that accompanied the fish was pretty basic stuff.

1/2 yellow onion - diced
1/2 red onion - diced
2 jalapeno - diced
5 cloves garlic - minced
3 cups tomato - diced
1/2 cup sherry
1 cup fish base
Cayenne pepper, smoked paprika, black pepper, salt to taste

Sautee the onion and jalapeno in olive oil until soft. Add garlic and sautee for 1 minute. Add Cayenne, paprika, black pepper and salt and then deglaze pan with the sherry. When most of the liquid has evaporated add fish base. Add tomato and cook on medium heat until all the veggies have broken down and most of the liquid has evaporated. Add water if necessary for proper consistency.

Heat pan on medium-high. Add olive oil and 1 tablespoon of butter. Place WSB steaks in pan when butter stops foaming. Sear steaks on each side. Add spicy tomato salsa to pan and finish cooking the fish. Turn fish during cooking to coat all sides.

Shrimp diablo
2 cups of shrimp - shelled
1/2 cup white onion - diced
1/2 cup green onion - thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic - minced
2 tablespoons of butter
1/3 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup white wine
Cayenne pepper, paprika, salt pepper to taste

Heat pan on Med-Hi. Add olive oil and butter. Sautee onion and white portion of green onions until soft and then add garlic. Add seasoning, salt and pepper. Add shrimp, tossing to cook on both sides until almost opaque. Add wine and reduce. Add cream and reduce until thick. It may be necessary to remove shrimp before sauce has reduced all the way. Pour sauce over shrimp.


Lupe made calabacita.
1/2 yellow onion - sliced
1/2 red onion - diced
3 jalapeno - 1 sliced/2 diced
3 cups tomatoes - diced
4-5 large calabacita squash - 1/2" pieces
1 cube caldo de pollo (chicken bouillon)

Sautee onion and jalapeno. When onion and jalapeno are soft add tomato and stir through. Add calabacita squash. Add cube of bouillon. Simmer on medium until the calabasita is cooked through, but not quite soft.

Papas fritas al horno

6-8 medium red potatoes - diced
1 Anaheim chile - sliced into thin rings
1/2 yellow onion - large dice
1 cup Mexican seasoned bread crumbs
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Cayenne pepper and Italian seasoning mix

Dice potato and toss in olive. Add bread crumbs, seasoning and Parmesan cheese and toss. Spread on a cookie sheet and place in a pre-heated 375 degree oven. Bake until almost fork tender. Set oven to broil at 500 degrees. Finish cooking until potatoes are fork-tender inside and crispy on the outside.

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Orange shortcake with ice cream

I had to come up with a dessert recipe on the fly. We had some shortcake cups and some vanilla ice cream with strawberry. A quick check of the pantry revealed a can of mandarin oranges as well. That was enough to come up with something. I made the ice cream last week. I just made the standard French vanilla ice cream and I added chunks of diced strawberry right at the end of the stirring time. Rather than get a strawberry ice cream it was more of a vanilla ice cream with frozen strawberry chunks. It sounds weird, but it was like having little strawberry candies in a vanilla ice cream. I took the mandarin oranges out of the can and put the syrup in a sauce pan. I added some vanilla-scented sugar, a splash of vanilla, a dash of cinnamon and a healthy amount of dark rum. This mixture reduced down until it was a very thick syrup. I put a layer of the mandarin oranges in the shortcake cup and topped it with a scoop of ice cream. I drizzled the hot syrup over the ice cream and put the last few mandarin orange segments on top. The hot syrup melted some of the ice cream and the mixture soaked into the shortcake. Yummy to the highest power. Lupe liked it.

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Ten days of white seabass

A casual glance at the date of my last post will confirm that I've been slackin. At least I have a semi-decent excuse for neglecting the blogs.........FISHING! Yes, I'm back on the kayak and doing some fishing. Go check out The Overloaded Kayak to get the gory details. I've spent a lot of hours on the water of late. Some of that time has actually been successful. On Friday, March 12th, I caught a 46.5lb white seabass.

From The Overloaded Kayak Images

As you might imagine, filleting a large fish in a small kitchen is a pain in the keister.

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Just a little bit bigger than my (soon to be destroyed) cutting board.

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So what do you do with 20+ pounds of white seabass? That's what I was trying to figure out. After a long day on the water (9 hours+), a bunch of post-fishing tasks and filleting this beast, I was in no mood to cook much. In trying to get the head off I also accidentally cut my favorite cutting board in two. The last chop with the cleaver went through the spine and the board in one mighty crack. I ran out to Bed Bath and Beyond to get a new cutting board and then hit the store for some veg and herbs. Before I left I had broken down the spine into some manageable pieces. I loaded the carcass in my biggest stock pot and filled it with water. As I was out at the store, Lupe added some onion, garlic and carrots and brought the pot up to a simmer. By the time I got back, the remaining meat on the carcass had cooked perfectly. I removed all the meat from the bones and then continued simmering the stock. I added some parsnips and parsley and some seasoning at this time. The pot was kept simmering until it had reduced down quite a bit. It was after 2 in the morning by the time I took it off the stove and strained the stock. I took half of the stock and reduced it down until 10 in the morning. By that time I had a very concentrated liquid. I don't know if it was technically still a stock or a fish base. I'll call it a base. This went into ice cube trays. After the base had frozen, I vacuum-packed the cubes; two or three to a pack. I now have enough fish base for the rest of the year. The other half of the stock went into a soup. I sauteed some diced onion, carrots and parsnips. Once they had some color on them I added some asparagus stocks, cut into 1 inch pieces. I tossed in some Italian seasoning, red pepper flakes and a half a lemon for flavor. This was simmered until nearly tender and then I added the asparagus tips and then some parsley. When all the veggies were tender I returned the meat to the pot. I put some in a travel container for Lupe to take for lunch. I'm not a big fan of clear soups, but this was very good. The asparagus really made the soup. The fact that it was chocked full o' fish was also a plus. I served the soup with some big chunks of sourdough bread. Perfect.

Day 2 - grilled collar

I marinated the collar pieces and the belly in some teriyaki and sriracha. I added some extra mirin into the mix for basting. The collars and belly were grilled on the gas BBQ. I basted the pieces with the marinade every few minutes during cooking. I took the collars off when the meat had just turned opaque. Good stuff. I ate both collars by myself. I didn't mean to do that, but that's the way it worked out. Lupe was really hungry when she got home and didn't want to wait for me to finish my prep. She had a bowl of soup before I knew what she was doing. She assured me that she would have a little of the collar with me. I'm not sure if she was ready for the collar. She wasn't really digging the fact that I had left the fins on. By the time I was done grilling, Lupe was knocked out on the couch ( I had kept her up late the night before with the all-night cooking session). I put the grilled collars down on the kitchen counter and went to set the table for us. Each time I walked by the fish I would sneak a little piece. Before long, I had forgotten about setting the table and just camped out by the fish. Next thing I know, I had eaten all the fish. It was that good. I couldn't stop myself. That was probably the best fish I've ever had. When Lupe woke up to go to bed she asked me what happened to the fish. I was tempted to make up some excuse for eating all of it, but I couldn't. I just had to explain to her how good it was. "Sorry, Honey. I'm a pig."

Day 3 fish tacos

Most people use calico bass, sand bass or white fish for fish tacos. I don't think there is a law against using white seabass, but at $16/lb, most people don't. I figured it would make some damn good tacos. We were heading up to the in-laws for the day, so I took several vacuum packs of the WSB. As luck would have it, they were having a party for one of Lupe's nieces. Perfect reason to make fish tacos. I stopped by North Gate to get some things that I would need. While I was there I picked up 2lbs of shrimp. I wasn't sure how many fish tacos I could get out of the stuff that I had brought up with me, so I wanted to have something extra. We made a healthy, low-cal dinner for Lupe's parents before we started on the fish tacos. I pan seared some seasoned fillet pieces and topped them with a little salsa fresca. This was served with steamed broccoli. After that was done we got busy prepping for the tacos. The fish was cut into strips and seasoned with Mexican seafood seasoning and salsa. I made the sauce from mayonesa, crema agria, lime juice and seafood seasoning. Lupe thinly sliced a head of cabbage and red onions. I made a big batch of salsa fresca, cut about a million lime wedges and diced a half dozen avocado. When we were ready we set up the breading assembly line. Since the fish pieces were in a wet marinade, I wanted to dust them with flour first. From the flour they went to the egg wash and then into a bowl of Mexican seasoned bread crumbs and panko. The panko gave a very nice crunch to the finished product. The combination of marinating and using seasoned bread crumbs resulted in an extremely flavorful fish stick. In addition to the fish, we also breaded and fried the shrimp. These were absolutely awesome.

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As we fried the fish and shrimp, my sister-in-law Carmen warmed up a couple hundred corn tortillas. If you have never had fish tacos, this is how you make them. You put a piece of the fried fish on a tortilla, add some cabbage, a dollop of sauce, then top with onions, salsa, avocado and a squeeze of lime.

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Now that's a Baja-style fish taco. Good stuff. I don't know if they make shrimp tacos in Baja. If not, I will claim that recipe as my creation. Both were fantastic. I even got the certified authentic Mexican thumbs up from the family.

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Day 4 Burgers ( I didn't want to burn out on fish)

Day 5 Pan seared WSB with Fettuccine

I wanted to test the fish base to see how it would work. The fish was simply seasoned with lemon, pepper, Cayenne and smoked paprika and pan seared. Fettuccine was dunked as I worked on the sauce. For the sauce I sauteed onion, shallot and garlic with a little Italian seasoning. The pan was deglazed with white wine. Once most of the wine had reduced down, I added two cubes of the fish base and a little water to get the desired consistency. Once the sauce had tightened up a bit I added a splash of cream. I then drained the pasta and added it to the sauce. A couple of quick tosses and it was ready to serve.

Day 6 Pan seared WSB in a spicy salsa with asparagus

I wanted to try a Mexican twist on the fish this time. The prep was the most time consuming part of the whole meal.

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You can never have enough prep bowls and ramekins. The sliced onions were for the asparagus. Diced onions, jalapeno, tomato, sliced green onion, finely chopped cilantro, and minced garlic were all for the salsa. The fish was seasoned with a Mexican seafood mix. I started by giving the asparagus a quick sautee in a little olive oil. The asparagus was seasoned with some sea salt and fresh ground black pepper.

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Once the asparagus started getting a little color I tossed in the onion slices and a little minced shallot. In another pan I sauteed the diced onion, jalapeno and garlic. I used some ground chili, Cayenne, black pepper, sea salt and paprika for seasoning. After the onion and jalapeno were soft I added the green onion. Next into the pan was the diced tomato. Finally, two cubes of fish base and a little water. I turned up the heat and let it reduce down. By this time the onion in the asparagus had softened. I deglazed the pan with white wine and then added some chicken stock. I let this reduce uncovered as the asparagus finished cooking.

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The fish went in a separate pan for searing. I deliberately cooked the fish separately. I wanted the salsa to cook down quite a bit. The fish would have overcooked if I had tried doing everything in one pan. I seared the fish on each side and then tossed it into the salsa pan to finish cooking. This gave me the nice, crusty sear on the sides and allowed the sauce to penetrate into the fish. The fish was served with asparagus and some fettuccine (with some bay scallops added for texture).

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Day 6 Leftovers - I ain't proud and they're yummy

Day 7 Mediterranean WSB

WSB steaks marinated in olive oil and lemon juice with some Italian seasoning. Thanks to Yani for his tips on this one. I went Italian instead of Greek, but the idea was the same. I'll try the Greek style soon enough. I had just gone to Filippi's Italian Grocery in Little Italy to get some Cento San Marzano tomatoes and I felt compelled to do an Italian-style dish. I was dying to try Chef John's tomato sauce recipe and this seemed like a good opportunity. I made the tomato sauce and it lived up to expectation (Chef John kicks ass). The fish got a quick turn in the pan with a little olive oil and butter. I made some linguini to go along with the fish. The linguini was topped with a little of the tomato sauce and Parmesan cheese. I think I covered all of Italy with this one. I decided to use spinach for the veg. I sauteed some shallots and a little garlic and then deglazed with a splash of white wine. Two bunches of spinach were tossed in the pan and then I added some chicken stock. After the spinach had cooked down I threw in some toasted pine nuts. All in all, a very satisfying meal.

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Day 8 More leftovers (spent 11 hours on the water and was in no mood to cook when I got home)

I've got three steaks and three tail-section fillets left. The steaks are going to get the Yani treatment. Everything that he has posted on Big Water's Edge looks so good I have to try the Greek-style. The rest is going to be used for a Peruvian style ceviche.

Out of pork, but not out of options

All good things come to an end and the pork loin was no exception. With Lupe on a diet I have been somewhat lazy about restocking the fridge. We just aren't eating as much and I don't make nearly as many pilgrimages to the stores anymore. Now, the fridge is looking kind of bare. This afternoon I looked into the icebox and realized that options were not plentiful. Not much in the way of fresh veg and no protein. Yikes. I quickly surveyed the freezer to see what might be available. Hhhmmmmmmh? let's see......a couple of huge tri-tips. No; those will take forever to thaw. Frozen hot Italian sausage.....no, Lupe isn't going to go for that. Pork loin? not again. Let's see what's under the frozen squid bait packs and the lobster hoop net bait cages. Voila! Turkey thighs. The Thanksgiving that keeps on giving. I bought those back in November. You gotta love the vacuum sealer.

Once thawed, I removed the meat from the bone and cut it into small cubes. The thigh meat was seared in a little pork lard and then I threw in half a head of minced garlic, four sliced queen olives and some diced red jalapeno (en escabeche). I just let the garlic go long enough to get a little golden and then I added a 7.5oz can each of San Marzano chipotle sauce and El Pato tomato sauce with jalapeno.
A 12oz can of fire roasted tomatoes provided enough liquid for finishing the turkey. The turkey was cooked through and tender when the sauce had reduced down by a third. Right at the end I added a can of corn. Everything was ready just as the rice cooker clicked off. The chile con turkey was served over rice and topped with authentic crumbly Mexican cheese (no doubt brought into the country in my mother-in-law's purse) and diced avocado. Perfect spicy, hot, filling meal for a cold night.

Pork to the Rescue

Welcome to the pork fat rebellion. We rally for the cause. We will stand and fight the scourge of the low-fat diet. No longer will we suffer the indignity of salads with lite dressing, steamed vegetables and skinless chicken breasts. We will rise up and eat what we want; the fatty, savory, unctuous good stuff. We will laugh in the face of our skinny oppressors. We may not live long, but we will live well. How noble a death the rebel shall have. As the chest pains strike we will defiantly raise our fists in the air, clenching that meat which made all the sacrifice worthwhile: PORK!

OK, so it wasn't quite like that, but I did break the diet blues with a little porky goodness. It wasn't even something substantial like a pork butt or spare ribs. I dare say that it might even have been somewhat lo-cal. I'm still working on getting rid of all the frozen meat that is taking up room in the freezer. My close call with a good sized thresher shark on Friday drove me to free up more space. Sometime in the next few trips I know I'm going to catch something big. I can feel it. I just want to have some room for it in the fridge when it happens.

The first thing to tumble out of the freezer when I was getting my frozen bait was automatically selected to be the main course. Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding; winner winner, pork loin dinner. Glad I didn't have to think that one out for too long. I've gotten hooked on the Korean red pepper marinade, so that was a no-brainer. I thawed the loin and whipped up a batch of the marinade. It was at that point that I did the stupid thing that I so often do. I started thinking about other ways I could marinate the loin. Rather than wait for another day to try out something new, I pulled another loin out of the freezer and got busy on the marinade. I don't know why I do this all the time. I guess I'm afraid that I'll forget whatever I just thought up if I wait until later to cook it. It really doesn't matter. I forget to write down my recipes 90% of the time anyways. Pretty much every time into the kitchen is a reach into the deep, dark recesses of my addled brain to try and figure out how I made some dish the last time.

Back to the marinade. This one was a chipotle chile and garlic concoction. I mixed a 7.5oz can of San Marzano chipotle sauce with about 1/2 cup of sherry. I added another 7.5oz can of chipotle chile en adobo, which I finely chopped. (I'll probably discard the seeds next time I do this) I finished the marinade with about 2/3 head of garlic-minced. Both loins went back in the fridge for a good, long soak.

That evening I brought the loins out to let them come up to room temperature. I wiped all the marinade off each of the loins in preparation for searing. I decided to try different cooking methods for each one. I brought my big cast iron pan up to high heat to sear the Korean-style loin. A little pork lard was added to the pan before the meat went in. I gave it a good sear on four sides and the ends. The pan was removed from the burner and I added about 1/4" of beef stock to the pan. I figured this would deglaze the pan and keep the meat moist while it cooked uncovered in the 350F oven. I wanted to cover the loin with the marinade, but I couldn't do so early in the cooking. There is too much mirin in the marinade and it would burn onto the pan before the meat was done. It took about 30-40 minutes to get the loin up to desired temperature. During this time I turned it twice and added a little more beef stock. When it reached 120F I covered it with the remaining marinade. I took it out at 129F. I know this is a little low for pork, but I don't like letting it go to 140F. Most of these pork loins are so lean they get dried out if you let them get above 135F. While the loin rested, I added more beef stock and a splash of mirin and Korean apple vinegar to the pan juices. This was reduced and served over the loin. Yummy goodness as expected.

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I made a cauliflower side to go with this pork loin. The cauliflower was cut into small florets and seared in a hot pan. After the florets had some color on each side, I deglazed with about 3/4 cup of sake. The sake was almost completely reduced and then 1 cup of beef stock was added. I went for the same Korean flavor by adding a splash of fish sauce, Korean apple vinegar and mirin. I used a couple of spoons of Hunan chili-garlic paste for some heat. As there was a lot of liquid in the pan, I cooked the cauliflower with the lid off. Once the sauce was reduced to the consistency I was looking for I covered the pan for the rest of the cooking time. Just before the cauliflower was at the desired tenderness, I added about a tablespoon of butter to the pan. The richness of the butter softened the heat of the chili nicely.

The pork loin and cauliflower was served with white rice. All in all, not such a bad meal. You could almost say it was lo-cal and healthy.........almost.

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The chipotle pork loin was seared in my Le Creuset Dutch oven. I'll tell you; that will open up your sinuses. I removed the loin from the pan and added a sliced red onion. After a quick sweat on the onions, the pork loin went back in the pan. I poured the marinade over it and topped with some of the onions. There was a lot of marinade, so I didn't have to add much liquid; just a bit of stock. I put the lid on the Dutch oven and it also went in the oven. As expected, it took a little longer than the loin that was roasted in the open pan. I misjudged the timing a little and didn't get this one out until it was already at 136 degrees. It was not a problem, as there was plenty of moisture in the pan. The marinade and pan drippings were used for sauce. I just added some extra stock and reduced it down until it was nice and thick.

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Lupe and I tried to limit how much we ate. We each tried a little piece of the chipotle pork loin; just to taste. We ended up having pork loin in sandwiches, salad and a variety of other dishes throughout the week. I even made Lupe a chipotle pork and egg sandwich for breakfast one day. I fried an egg with a little of the chipotle sauce added to the pan. The toasted bagel was served open face with thin pork loin sliced topped with the egg and melted cheddar cheese.