Tried and True Recipes

We love fish in our house, but often the price tag prevents us from eating it more often.  A few weeks ago I went to Wegmans to see what they had for wild caught fish.  I looked longingly at the Alaskan salmon (for $24 a pound!!!) and eventually settled upon four filets of monkfish.  Nevermind that I had never had monkfish before.  The price was right, and it looked like it might be good — firm, white, hopefully not too fishy.  Little did I know, we were in for quite a treat.  Monkfish will now become a staple in my meal plans!

Of course, having never purchased monkfish before, I had no clue what to do with it so I consulted my good friend Google and discovered this recipe for Monkfish Provincial at AllRecipes.com.

Ingredients:

• salt and pepper to taste
• Cajun seasoning to taste
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 pounds monkfish fillets, roughly chopped
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/4 cup butter
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 large tomato, diced
• 1 (8 ounce) package sliced fresh mushrooms
• 1/4 cup dry white wine
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley

Directions:

About 30 minutes before I wanted to have dinner ready, I gathered my ingredients and set to work.  First, I chopped the tomatoes, mushrooms and garlic.

Then I took out the monkfish and salted and peppered it real good.

I cut it up into quarters.  The recipe says to chop them, but I wasn’t sure if I’d like it that way.  I think if I do it again, I’ll try chopping it up a bit more because once I got through the whole recipe, I realized that it is supposed to be more like a stew.  Oh well, live and learn.

I combined the salt, pepper, Cajun seasoning, and flour in a Ziplock bag and shook the monkfish around in there till it was all nice and coated.

Then I heated some butter and olive oil in my saute pan and browned the monkfish well on both sides.

I added the tomatoes, mushrooms and garlic and cooked it for about 3 minutes before adding the wine and parsley.

I cooked it another 3 or 4 minutes till it was cooked through and flaky and served it with broccoli.

The recipe says to serve over pasta or rice, and I will definitely serve it over brown rice or quinoa next time. It needed something to soak up the juices, but it was still perfectly delicious if you’re trying to steer clear of carbs.

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Since this meal is on the menu plan for this week, I thought it would be a good week to post the recipe. I basically made the meal just exactly as Heather said to do on Home Ec 101.  (I don’t like to deviate from a recipe until I’ve made it at least 100 times.)  So really, you could just go get the directions off her site, with a much better explanation than I’m about to give you, I’m sure.  But I’ll tell you how it went for me.  For simplicity’s sake, I will reprint her ingredients list, but then I’ll give you my personal commentary on the process.

You will need:

• 2 lbs raw large or jumbo shrimp, peeled and deveined
• 1 bell pepper – diced
• 1 onion – diced
• 1 stalk celery – diced
• 3 garlic cloves – minced
• 1 cup white flour
• 1/2 cup vegetable or peanut oil (I used olive oil)
• 24 oz or 2 bottles dark beer
• 2 cups fish or shrimp stock (I made a quick stock with the shrimp shells)
• 3 -4 bay leaves
• 3 TBSP Creole or Cajun seasoning, divided
• 2 tsp hot pepper sauce (I used Louisiana Hot Sauce at Heather’s recommendation)
• 2 TBSP Worcestershire Sauce
• salt to taste
• optional green onions as garnish

I decided to make my own shrimp stock.  I like to use Emeril’s recipe, but I don’t stress if I don’t have all the components.

The first thing to do when making the étouffée is to prepare the veggies.

In case you were wondering what étouffée means (or am I the only one that wonders things like this), according to my good friend Wikipedia, the French word “étouffée” means “smothered” or “suffocated.”  So there you have it.

Now that the veggies are prepared and set aside, it’s time to prepare the roux.  Heat the oil in a heavy pot until it starts to smoke.  I didn’t use a thermometer; I just watched it like a hawk.  Once it starts to smoke, immediately turn the burner down as low as it goes and add the flour.  Whisk till smooth and then increase the heat back to medium and switch to a wooden spoon, but whatever you do, keep stirring. (Except when you stop to take a picture, ahem.)

It will start to darken; let it get nice and brown.

Then add the veggies and stir till the onions are translucent.

Now it’s time to add the beer.  I did not have the proper beer in the house, as I later discovered.  I used what we had, which was probably something very dark and hoppy, knowing my husband’s taste in beer.  Whatever it was, it was quite strong and bitter, although ironically my KIDS liked it (the étouffée, not the beer!!)  Paul liked it too, and I could appreciate what it SHOULD have tasted like, but it wasn’t quite there.  When I make it this weekend, I plan to buy a Newcastle ale, per Heather’s recommendation.  I have high hopes for success the second time around.

Nevertheless, we shall plow ahead.  Add the beer a bottle at a time, stirring well after each.

And then add the shrimp stock and whisk till smooth.

NOW.  Add the bay leaves, 1 TBSP Creole seasoning, 2 tsp hot pepper sauce, and 2 TBSP Worcestershire sauce; mix well and simmer for 20 minutes.  You can add more Creole seasoning if you like.  This is also the time to add salt and pepper to taste.

Meanwhile, throw some rice on the stove.  Seeing as the word étouffée means to smother or suffocate, it stands to reason that you gotta have something to smother with it.  I realize it may be tempting to smother your child’s noisiest toy, but trust me, it will taste better if you smother rice.  Or, as one of Heather’s readers suggested, grits.  In fact, this recipe makes me yearn for a plate of the shrimp and grits I had when I visited the coast of South Carolina a few years back.  I wonder if I can find a recipe that replicates that…  Hmmmm….

But back to the recipe at hand.

During this time you can also get out your shrimp (which you previously washed and shelled and deveined, if you made stock with its shells.  Otherwise, you need to peel and devein it now.)  Then toss it with 1 TBSP Creaole seasoning.  When you’re about ready to plate it up, add the shrimp to the sauce, simmer for three minutes, and serve!

I served mine over rice with a side of collard greens.

Yes, this is a lot of work, but it’s not hard (just get the right kind of beer, m’kay?)  I recommend trying this recipe on a weekend when you have some extra time to spend in the kitchen and there’s another adult around to keep an eye on the kids.

I submitted this recipe to the Tasty Tuesday blog carnival at Balancing Beauty and Bedlam and Mouthwatering Mondays at A Southern Fairytale.

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Faithful reader and commenter Mary Kathryn suggested Chicken In A Pot when I begged for more chicken recipes in a recent post.  I followed the directions she left in the comment section, and she was right.  This chicken is moist, succulent, and best of all, EASY PEASY.  Here’s what I did.

Take a fresh pastured chicken, rinse him well and salt him inside and out.  Then heat 2 Tbsp olive oil in a deep, heavy pot and brown the chicken on both sides.  He will look something like this.

Then all you do is toss in some chopped up celery, 5 or 6 cloves of garlic, a chopped up onion, a handful of rosemary and a bay leaf.

Cover the pan with foil and a heavy lid to seal the pot, and cook on 250 for 1 hour 30 minutes.

This worked well for my smallish (4 or 5 lb ??) chicken, but it may need longer if you have a bigger chicken.  It should be just about falling apart.

Leave it all in the pot for about 15 minutes.  Then discard the veggies and pour off the juices into a small saucepan.  Add a bit of butter and lemon juice to juices.

Heat it a bit, while you carve up the bird.  Then strain the juices and drizzle over the meat.  Yum scrum.

I served it with quinoa and fresh broccoli, and I made sure to save enough juice to drown drizzle over those as well.

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