Red Snapper with Marinara over Angel Hair

Tags

dinner, fish, healthy, marinara sauce, quick, recipe, recipes, red snapper, spaghetti

One of my hard to break bad habits these days is ordering take out when I get home late and am too hungry to cook.

The freezer is well stocked with steaks, chicken breasts, and fish but to defrost it and cook it can be time-consuming. I was determined yesterday morning to cook no matter what time I got home and put two frozen red snapper fillets in the fridge to thaw. I had a freezer stash of marinara sauce too so I was going to have red snapper with marinara sauce over angel hair.

Of course as I sat in the office at 6:15, about an hour after I was scheduled to leave I had to mentally prepare myself to run home, walk the dog and prepare dinner- stomach growling or not!

I am writing because dinner was ready in under 25 minutes. It was healthy, hearty, and “Brilliant!” (Brent’s words).

Here’s what you need to feed two:

2 red snapper fillets (8-10 ounces) be sure to remove bones/scales

3 – 4 cups of marinara sauce (depends on how saucy you like it)

½ box thin spaghetti or angel hair pasta

Directions:

Set up a large pot of water to boil.

In a large frying pan, heat 1 cup of marinara sauce. Place red snapper skin side down. Add ½ cup more sauce to the pan to cover the red snapper slightly. Cover and allow to simmer on low for 20 minutes.

When 8 minutes of cook time remain for the fish, place the pasta in boiling water. Cook for 6-8 minutes, or according to box/preference. Drain reserving 1 – 2 tbsp of starchy water.

Remove the fish from the pan with a large spatula. The fish will be tender- be careful when transferring to a plate. Place drained pasta in the pan with the leftover sauce adding a little more sauce and the starchy water to coat the pasta. When the pasta is coated, transfer to plate- top with snapper.

We sprinkled some parm cheese and red pepper flakes on to this.

It was so good. The red snapper really holds up well to marinara sauce. It’s not fishy at all, either! I highly recommend for anyone trying to get more fish in their diet and those that want something quick for dinner.

Fried “catfish” with cornbread and slaw

Tags

coleslaw, cornbread, dinner, fish, fried fish

While at the fish market, I was bargain shopping when I placed the fresh basa filet in my cart. At $3.99 per pound it was a HUGE bargain and I figured I was going to make it work. Luckily, BR likes fish too so we just had an open mind about it. The fish monger, while packaging it, held it up and said “this is a good fish, ever have it?”. I said no and he told me a few things about it.

One thing that stood out to me about this fish was how similar to catfish it is. In fact, it’s a passable substitute for catfish that’s less fishy tasting. That was enough for BR and I. So, that’s why this post is called fried “catfish”. Its fried basa filet.

1/2 cup flour

salt

pepper

2 catfish filets (5-7 oz each) Or 2 basa filets

2 Tbsp oil (I used olive)

Optional: 1/4 cup non fat greek yogurt, juice of half a lemon, and 1 tsp old bay seasoning

1. Sprinkle the filet with salt and pepper and dredge in flour.

2. While the fish is dredged, set aside and heat a skillet with oil over a medium high heat. Allow the oil to get hot before adding the fish. You test the oil by putting the handle of a wooden spoon in the oil. If it bubbles when it touches the oil, its ready. Or you can wet your hands slightly and flick a drop of water in the oil. If you hear the sizzle its ready. If I had to recommend a method, I would recommend the wooden spoon… but a good 1-2 minutes should be enough.

3. Add the fish and lower to medium flame. Allow to cook on each side for 6 minutes or until golden brown. When the fish is cooked through, set aside on some paper towels. 

While the fish is hanging out, I made a sauce for the fish. For a lil kick. Non fat greek yogurt with lemon and old bay mixed together make for a great sauce. Taste to your liking. I added more old bay – we likes it spicy.

Since we were having a southern style dinner, I whipped up some cornbread using an old reliable.

Jiffy cornbread mix is my favorite instant cornbread. So easy to make and quick too!

Took another shortcut using a pre shredded cole slaw mix. Just added mayonnaise, mango chutney, salt and pepper.

Then, we feasted.

The basa fillet was definitely a great substitute for the catfish. You better believe I went back to stock pile my freezer!

Tomato Fondue over Blue Fish

Tags

dinner, dinner with D, fish, ginger, healthy, recipes, scallions, tomatoes

Sometimes, I really miss my old roommate, Diana. Not that my current living situation is terrible (far from it) but sharing a passion for cooking with my roommate was awesome. I have fond memories of sitting in my room watching hours of Chopped on Food Network and getting a whiff of something amazing. And, because I was compelled by curiosity, I would mosey over to the kitchen and be all “whacha cookin’ roomie?” Whatever was in that kitchen would be divine!

On one particular evening, Diana had to recreate a dish for class (culinary school) and she had asked me to help her choose the best tasting dish. What an honor! So I grabbed my fork and dug in. A slab of fish covered in a delicious sauce. It was fresh tasting and really complimented the fish. She told me it was called tomato fondue. We brought leftovers of the delectable dish to my family and it was a huge hit when them as well!

Its been months since I have had her tomato fondue and after purchasing some blue fish, I thought it would make for the perfect opportunity to dig up the recipe. After searching on the internet to no avail, I contacted Diana for her recipe. She was kind enough to share it. And now, because everyone should know about this deliciousness, I will share it with you.

Diana’s Tomato Fondue

ingredients:

1 inch of ginger root, peeled then diced

3 plum tomatoes, diced

1 bunch of scallions, sliced

Method:

In a skillet sprayed with cooking spray, sweat the ginger in the pan until its fragrant and tender, about 3 minutes. Next up, add the tomatoes and stir to combine. The tomatoes will take about 5 minutes to become a rustic sauce texture and then you can add the scallions. Heat through for an additional 2 minutes and set aside. Serve atop several filets of your favorite fish or a chicken breast (but I prefer fish)

We are eating more fish these days and I kind of like it. My favorite fish to top with the tomato fondue is a delicate white fish- like basa filet or tilapia. But in this particular post, I pan fried some blue fish seasoned with just salt and topped it with the fondue.

The  blue fish is a bit of a fishy tasting fish but the ginger really freshens it up along with the kick of mild onion flavor from the scallions (Tried with regular onions- not the same).

We sunk out teeth into this delicious filet of blue fish topped with tomato fondue and enjoyed it with a side of garlic sauteed spinach. A super healthy dinner that was flavorful and satisfying!

If you arent a big fish person, I recommend trying this topping on fresh basa filet. It has a great texture and a very very mild fish taste (if any).

ENJOY!

Sons of Essex: Summer Menu Preview

Tags

dinner, fish, Restaurant Review, Sons of Essex

Last week I had the rare opportunity to attend a preview of the summer menu for Sons of Essex in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, courtesy of the new Community Manager of Manhattan on Yelp.

Our “sampling” was gratis but the booze was cash bar. Cant get mad at that especially since they honored happy hour. I say sampling in quotes because this was quite a meal. A small taste of 10 or so dishes equals a full belly.

If anyone watches Hell’s Kitchen, or did once upon a time, you might recognize this guy. He was a Cheftestant a few seasons ago, his name is Seth Levine. He is the executive chef at Sons of Essex and was behind our dinner. As I was devouring a dish he prepared, he came out to see how everyone was doing. That was when I took out my camera to take a candid photo. He stopped talking, looked at me and said “Do you want me to smile?”

With my mouthful, I said “Be yourself. Act natural”. But he was all “Why don’t I just take a picture with you?” And in true “Me” fashion, I didn’t want to disrupt the meal but he wasn’t having any of it and climbed to my seat where we snapped a photo.

That was really awesome of him. And he was a really cool guy. Don’t let those reality shows fool you. Their goal is to make ratings… and that often includes stretching the truth.

So, when I got there, we started with some pickles. I was a little late to hear the run down of our tasting but I was quick to nab a pickle. They make their own pickles and have picklebacks.

We started with a massaged kale ceasar salad. This might have been the first time I have ever had kale raw. Its such a tough green that I could never imagine eating it raw… but this preparation was delicious.

I filled up on salad and then realized there were more dishes coming out…

Like this crispy calamari salad with cucumbers and melon.

Or this crispy calamari salad with Thai red chili sauce. This was awesome, I could not get enough of it!

We had a truffle and arugula flatbread pizza that was super filling and it was at this point that I realized I had to pace myself to be able to enjoy everything.

But that logic went out the window when they delivered this beautiful pan seared soft shell crab. It was so fresh tasting and delightfully crisp.

(have you noticed a theme yet?) Cabbage wrapped cod fish with miso and ginger was addicting. We all kept coming back to it in amazement. It was just so perfectly cooked and seasoned!

Some parchment paper wrapped red snapper came out. This was good but it wasn’t mind blowing. I think I was half expecting it to be wrapped in Phyllo.

that would have been cool though.

After so many fish dishes, we were surprised when this delectable lamb came out with a creamy yogurt dill sauce. All that was missing was the pita!

And the last thing on the menu was a tomato stuffed with eggplant parmigiana.

I totally ate two tomatoes! It was delicious and gave me an amazing idea for a project in my new kitchen.

The food was great and the company was even better. I got to sit with some pretty awesome people. There is nothing like making friends over a great dinner.