Pan-Roasted Monk Fish with Basmati Rice and Coriander Broth

Forgive me Plumpjack, for I have sinned. I have gone against what this blog stands for and for that I must be punished. In tonights dish I used ..... store bought fish stock!

This is easily the greatest sin committed in the kitchen, especially for this dish. Why? Well, besides it being the worlds ugliest fish, Monkfish has a very mild fleshy flavor and takes on the flavor of its accompaniments - in this case broth. I had no control of the flavor of the broth so I had no control over the flavor of the final dish. I used Kitchen Basics Seafood Stock which is some of the better quality stock but it's still not homemade. Can I be forgiven?

In my adventures to Central Market, I typically peruse the meat sections to get an idea of what they carry so I know they'll have what I need for future meals. On my prior visit, I saw several monkfish tails and figured they'd have what I needed. When I purchased the monkfish tail at CM the other day, however, it was the last one they had available. It made me wonder how fresh it really was. This was only a minor setback as I like a choice when choosing the meats I use not only for quality but for portion size as well.

On to the dish...

It called for the monkfish tail to be wrapped in a few peices of bacon. I won't even get into what this looked like to me (pervert alert!).


The broth consisted of a carrot, a celery stalk, half an onion and a dash of ground coriander. These were sauteed before adding 4 cups of the fish stock. I brought it to a boil and let it simmer for 15 minutes. While this was simmering, I cooked the basmati rice by sauteeing the rice briefly in olive oil then adding the water to cook through.


The monkfish tail cooked in a large oven proof skillet for 3 minutes on one side. I then carefully flipped the tail and finished the cooking the oven at 350 degree for 15 minutes.


To serve, I place a few spoonfuls of the basmati rice in a bowl, then topped it with a portion of the monkfish. Over this I poured the broth but not too much because this is not soup!


Rating: 87 points
Difficulty: Easy
Date Cooked: December 12, 2009

The monkfish was delicious but as I mentioned earlier it doesn't have a very distinctive flavor hence the bacon and coriander broth. Erin thought the broth was "too fishy". Imagine that! She would have liked the addition of lemon in some fashion. I liked it so much I polished off the rest of the tail.

Sea Scallops with King Trumpet Mushrooms and Meyer Lemon Relish

Tonight called from something fairly simple and straight forward. I purchased 6 diver scallops on Sunday for this week and I thought these would be perfect. Cooking this dinner took a bit longer than planned. For one, I placed the scallops in the freezer Sunday so I had to wait for those to thaw. I know, I know. I shouldn't have freezed them. Shoot me. I also had to wait for 2 cups of my chicken stock to thaw.

While all of this defrosting took place, I diced the celery, carrots and mushrooms. A few things wrong here already. Recipe called for parsnips which for some reason I didn't write down. The relish really needed them. Secondly, I couldn't find King Triumpet mushrooms so I substituted shitake mushrooms which really wasn't a big deal. The shitake's added a great earthy flavor to the final dish.


I first made the relish which called from sauteeing the carrots and celery. The cooked for about 5 minutes and were placed in a small bowl. To the small bowl, I added juice from 2 lemons - one roasted (See below) and one not. I couldn't find Meyer lemons either. Ugh! Good thing this isn't baseball or I would have struck out already. I also used a bit of the zest from the roasted lemon. The final relish was so mouth puckeringly tart that I added a dash or two of sugar. Erin loves lemons so she was all about the relish.


The diver scallops I purchased from Central Market were nice and meaty. The portion size in the recipe was 4 per person. Luckily, Erin was with me at CM and said "I can't eat 4 of those!" We only bought her two. Not me. Give me 4 of those suckers!


The cooking of the scallops and mushrooms was quick and painless. The scallops cooked for roughly two minutes on each side in a tablespoon of butter. Once the cooked, I removed them from the pan and poured in 1/4 cup white wine and scraped up any brown bits. The mushrooms came next and cooked for 8 minutes or so on reduced heat. The scallops were added back to the pan to warm up.

To plate, I placed equal size portions of the scallops and mushrooms along side basmati rice topped with the lemon relish.


Rating: 92 points
Difficulty: Easy
Date Cooked: December 7, 2009

Erin LOVED this. The lemon relish was easily her favorite part. The mushrooms? Not so much. I will eventually find a dish with mushrooms she will like. The relish was super lemony which contrasted greatly against the rice and scallops. The scallops were plump, meaty and buttery. The rice was excellent as well thanks to the chicken stock. This was a great dish all around in my opinion.

Pork Chops with Sweet Corn Maque Choux

Thanks to the holidays and some great times with the family, it's been awhile since I've cooked anything from the PJ cookbook. I've lined up 3 PJ meals this week before Christmas goes into full swing. Tonight I prepared the Pork Chops with Sweet Corn Maque Choux ("Mock Shoe").

I purchased these wonderfully thick chops at Central Market. These are bone-in with a good amount of fat to really bring in some extra flavor.


Up next was preparing the Maque Choux which is a traditional dish of southern Lousiana consisting of corn, red bell pepper, onion and a dash of cayenne pepper. Think a spruced up cream corn. The photo in the PJ CB shows the corn not as creamy. Actually it's not creamy at all. I followed the recipe as outlined, however, I would have toned down the heavy cream. It called for 1/2 cup which was a bit much, however, the Maque Choux was still delicious.


The pork chops were to be cooked in the drippings left over from the cooked garlic. The recipe called for 8-10 thinly sliced cloves which was a ton of garlic. I only cooked 6 cloves. They were cooked in some olive oil and basically roasted into little garlic chips which were to be a garnish for the final dish. More on the garlic later.


Cooking the pork chops was quite simple. Salt and pepper on each side then cooked covered for about 10-12 minutes on each side. Once the pork chops were properly cooked, the reciped called for a pan wine sauce using 2 cups reduced dry white wine and 2 tablespoons unsalted butter. This sauce was intensly rich as it brought together all the flavors left in the pan from the garlic, pork chops and wine.


The final platting called for the pork chops to be served on top of the maque choux with a few garlic chips and the pan sauce. Another side used in the PJ CB was sauteed kale which we couldn't find.

Rating: 91 points
Difficulty: Easy
Date Cooked: December 6, 2009

Overall this was a great dish. The pork chops were very juicy and the Maque Choux added a nice little kick of flavor. Oh, and that garlic. Holy sh!t. I ate one the garlic chips with a bite of the chops and that's all I tasted the rest of the meal. It was intensly strong. Too much if you ask me. I am actually still tasting the garlic as I write this.

Meyer Lemon Pork Tenderloin with Dry Jack Polenta

Butternut Squash Soup with Fresh Sage

I had purchased the butternut to go with the roasted chicken as an appetizer but I didn't get around to making the soup so that's what I did tonight. I had cooked a few butternut squashes recently since they are in season but I hadn't cooked them with sage yet. Sage is a pretty common herb for the fall and goes great with turkey and all things Thanksgiving.

To begin, I split the butternut squash which was bout 3-lbs in weight.


Once I split it, I prepped it for roasting which included lathering the flesh with unsalted butter and a few sage sprigs in the cavity.




After roasting for about an hour this was the end result (At left).

The sage had filled the kitchen with a nice fragrance. While the butternut was roasting, I prepped the remianing ingredients which consisted of an onion, some garlic, one white potato, leafs of about 10 sage sprigs, some ground nutmeg and 6 cups homemade chicken stock. The previous soups I've made called for butter and cream the smooth the final soup, however, PlumpJack's wanted you to retain the texture of the butternut and potato so there were no "smoothing" ingredients.

Once these were ready, I melted some butter in a soup pot then cook the onion and garlic, and sage. I say this again, the sage smelled amazing! Here's the pot before I added the butternut and chicken stock. Once the stock goes in, everything is brought to a boil then simmers until the squash was ready.



Time for the butternut! Once it was cool to handle, I scooped out the flesh and cut up the squash into managable chunks and tossed these into the pot and let this simmer for 15-20 minutes to soften them up a bit more.

This was then pulsed in a food processor in batches to make the soup. Again, it wasn't pulsed too much to retain a sort of meaty texture versus a creamy soup.

Here's the final product - ready to serve.


Rating: 80
Difficulty: Easy
Date Cooked: November 3, 2009

The reason for the rating is because I prefer a creamier soup. The saving grace was the sage which brought an awesome flavor to the dish. If I were to make this again, I'd modify it a bit to include some cream to soften it a bit.

Rosemary Roast Chicken with New Potatoes and Carrots

Today was a lazy day. No other way around it. I needed a lazy man's dinner and this roasted chicken sounded perfect. The prep was amazingly straight forward and easy. With the help of Erin, who wanted to get her hands dirty, we prepped the chicken with olive oil and chopped rosemary. For the sides, we cut up some carrots and red potatoes and tossed them with garlic gloves, olive oil and chopped fresh rosemary. We layed this carrots and potatoes in a roasting dish then placed the chicken on the roasting rack.

After the oven heated to 400 degrees, we cooked the chicken for about 1 1/2 hours. Once it was ready, we cut it up and served it was the carrots and potatoes. See? Wasn't that easy?

Rating: 90
Difficulty: Easy
Date Cooked: November 1, 2009

Like I said, this dish couldn't have been easier. The carrots and potatoes were perfectly cook. The chicken we super moist and the fragance of the rosemary was very refreshing.

I'd like to take this time to introduce another assistant in the kitchen: Maverick. His duties usually include keeping me company and taste testing.

Tortilla Soup

Being a native Texan, totilla soup is a pretty standard affair. It's a fairly simple dish that's loaded with flavor. I chose this dish because it utilized the chicken stock I had made today and I wouldn't have to spend a lengthy amount of time on dinner as we had a party to get to.

The prep work was simple. I sauteed some onion, garlic and cayenne pepper for a few minutes then tossed in some cut up corn tortilla's and let this cook for about a minute.



Next came some diced tomatoes, a good helping of cilantro and a few cups of that fresh homemade chicken stock.



After brining this to a boil, I let it simmer for about 45 minutes. While this was cooking, I fried some corn torilla's strips to use as a garnish. I didn't snap a picture of it because there was hot oil popping all over the place.

The soup had now cooked through so it was time to bring out the food processor to pulse the soup into a nice smooth texture.



I topped ths soup with the tortilla strips and it was ready to serve! I also topped mine with some shredded chicken from the chicken stock. A few avacado chunks and cilantro would have also topped this off nicely.



Rating: 90
Difficulty: Easy
Date Cooked: October 31, 2009

I wasn't blown away with this dish but it was delicious. Everyone really enjoyed and seconds were had by all. The cilantro really punched you in the mouth and I mean that in a good way. The crisp tortillas strips added a nice crunchy texture. The simplicity of this dish also lended itself a favorable view point in my mind.

The Basics: Chicken Stock

As I read through the PJ Cookbook, I noticed chicken stock was a foundation for many recipes. The recipes noted "Chicke Stock (Page 194) or canned low-sodium chicken broth". Canned? Canned chicken broth? No thanks. Remember what I said about fresh homemade chicken stock? It's a must and it's SO easy. Water, chicken, carrots, onions, celery, thyme, bay leaf, and some peppercorns. That's it! It practically makes it self. Set a pot to boil and toss everything in then simmer for 2 hours or so. How much easier can it get? So get that canned crap out of your kitchen and make the real thing. It tastes so much better too. You can use the boiled chicken to make chicken salad or use it for tacos etc, etc.

First, I boiled the chicken for a few minutes then drained to rid of some of the excess fat. I then put cold water over the chicken (about 2-3 inches over) and brought it to a boil again.

Once boiling, I tossed in the onion, carrot, celery, thyme, bay leaf, and peppercorns and reduced the heat to a simmer. This cooked for about 2 hours. You want the stock to have a nice golden color and rich flavor.

Once it does, strain the stock through a fine mesh sieve into a container then let cool. I put mine in an ice bath to let it cool faster. As it cools, the fat will congeal at the top. Discard any and all fat. I'm left with my base for many ingredients.

I store my stock in ziplock sandwhich bags for ease of use. Just measure 1 cup into each bag. You can use the stock then and there for the most freshness or store it up to 3 days in the fridge or 2-3 months in the freezer.

The Beginning

I, like many home cooks, am in need of a challenge, a goal. I need something to keep my energy flowing and my eagerness to cook from falling to the wayside. No more Food Network and their celebrity "chefs". No more 30-minute meals. No more $10 dinners. You can kiss all things processed good-bye. No more store bought pre-packaged bland dinners. Bring on fresh produce. Bring on fresh poultry, meats and fish. Give me homemade chicken stock. Give me meals that take scores of patience and pampering. I need real food. That's what brings me here.

This will hopefully be the first of several cook-through blogs I am going to create. I am going to start with fairly simple challenge (Simple compared to Alinea At Home.) I had the good fortune to visit this restaurants winery a few years back. A good friend of ours had set up a tasting for us and we went knowing little about what to expect. We were greeted by a whimsical atmosphere and good vibes coming out of the stereo thanks to a little Dave Matthews Band. As we tasting the wonderful Cabernets, I picked up an unassuming cook book that was just sitting there staring back at me. I thought this would be a great gift for our friend who had set up this tasting as well as many others in the Napa Valley. We purchased the cookbook and 2 bottles of wine - a 2005 Estate Cabernet and a 2005 CADE Cuvee (CADE is a sister winery which opened in 2007 and is the epitome of green and sustainability.) One more thing, as we were paying, the gracious wine pourer took the estate cab and traded it out for one signed by the wine maker Tony Biagi (See Above). Very cool!

So this is where I am now, about to set out to cook through the PlumpJack Cookbook. There are over 70 recipes which includes breakfast, lunch and dinner; mains, sides and appetizers; and of course, desert. Since I wasn't able to dine at the PlumpJack Cafe, I will bring the PlumpJack Cafe to Texas.