In this grief period I’m going through, there’s a word that’s used (learned at my grief class) that we get ambushed by life’s little moments. You never know when it’ll happen, just like in the old-time Western movies when the solitary rider was trotting along on his horse, thinking he’s safe and boom, the enemy found him, ambushed him when he least expected it. Not that grief is an enemy. Grief is a process, but it is something to get through, just like a valley where you never know what’s around the next corner. You understand what I mean, I’m sure.

That’s me. I was looking for something in the refrigerator. And when I moved something else, right there was this bottle of Smucker’s sugar-free strawberry preserves. You’d probably not think much of it. But the last time that bottle was touched was March 10th when my DH took it out to have on his toast. That was the day before he had his stroke. You’ll recall, perhaps, that he was a diabetic. I reached for that jar and I hugged it to me. And I cried. Not for a moment had I expected to open the refrigerator and end up in tears. My house is full of his touch – his handprint – his fingerprints. I can’t see them, of course. I go into his walk-in closet every few days still seeking out his scent and rarely do I find it, unfortunately. The closet is cedar lined and that’s what I smell. The other day I went into a hall closet where Dave kept his jackets. I did find his scent there, in a beautiful leather jacket he bought a few years ago. I wish I could bottle it! Don’t think I’m crazy – this is a commonplace thing for spouses to do. A widow friend of mine told me she’s still unable to dispose of her husband’s clothes, even though it’s been 2 years. I’m not nuts. Honest. Just set back by a little ambush. But I’m getting right back up and going forward. I want to, and I know Dave would want me to.

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What can I tell ya’? These are just delicious. So lemony and very tender. Yet they’re almost like a pound cake (cookie) but with lemon and then the tangy lemon glaze. All good. And easy.

At most of Phillis Carey’s cooking classes she serves dessert. Even though the class may be about fish (like this one) or chicken, she knows her audience – we always like a bite of sweet before we leave. We weren’t disappointed in these really good cookie/cake bars.

They’re pretty simple – you mix up the cake batter, pour it into an 8-inch square pan, bake and cool it completely. That’s important. No pouring of the glaze on hot or even warm bars. Cool the cake fully. Meanwhile, you mix up the glaze (powdered sugar, lemon juice and lemon zest) and when the bars are ready, you pour it on and ideally, use an offset spatula to spread it out to all the edges. The glaze is not thick at all, so you do need to work at working it out to those far corners. But worth it, and it’s not hard – just take the extra few seconds to spread it quickly.

What’s GOOD: loved the lemony flavor. Loved the texture of the cake/bars. Loved the lemon zest. Loved it all. Worth making for sure.

What’s NOT: nothing that I can think of.

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Of the 4 fish recipes I got at the last Phillis Carey class, this was my favorite. It’s something you could make in a jiffy, and as long as your kids like soup and cod, it’ll make them happy too. The garlic toasts just “make” the dish, in my opinion anyway. The broth isn’t a lot – you could make this more into a soup by adding more chicken broth. A nice big chunk of cod with the tomatoes and well, that’s it. Make extra garlic toasts – they’ll disappear.

When Phillis began demonstrating this, someone in the class asked where she’d bought the cod. Like that person, I don’t see cod hardly at all in our markets (California), but they said it came from a local grocery store and she particularly recommended we seek out Alaskan cod. She did say we could substitute mahi mahi, sea bass or halibut (but NOT tilapia or salmon). Sole would work too, but we’d want to roll the sole up into little pinwheels in order to make the whole dish work. I loved it with the cod, and next time I see it I’m buying some. Generally I prefer using fresh fish whenever possible (two exceptions are shrimp and salmon) but I might make another exception here since I think it would work okay.

So here’s the drill: You sauté garlic and red pepper flakes (just a tiny, tiny pinch) in olive oil, then you add canned tomatoes (the good kind, San Marzano brand for sure – Phillis was insistent on that part), then you add white wine, some water – then the aromatics (bay leaves, saffron, salt and pepper) before adding the nice big chunks of cod.

Meanwhile you make the garlic toasts – ideally you’ll allow the oil to sit with the garlic for about an hour so you’ve got some good garlicky flavor – then that’s brushed on the slices of bread, placed on a baking sheet, good Parm is added and it’s baked for 8-10 minutes. Serve the fish with the tomato broth and stand a slice of bread up in the bowl, leaning on the side. You definitely want to dip the bread into the broth. Altogether delicious.

What’s GOOD: the flavors just work – the saffron, the bay leaf, the good San Marzano tomatoes. A very low calorie dish providing you don’t gorge on the bread (which would be easy to do).

What’s NOT: nary a thing. Well, you’re not getting any vegetables in this dinner (remember, tomatoes are a fruit). Serve some quick cooked green beans as an appetizer maybe?

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Zippadee-doodah! Not only was I glad to be back in the kitchen again, but oh, what a good recipe I’m sharing with  you today. It’s low in fat, hearty, and really high in the flavor department. It is great to make ahead, good to freeze too. And wonderful comfort food.

Even though I have some posts already in my queue, I just couldn’t wait to share with you this recipe that I made yesterday. And yes, I know, this really isn’t soup weather. My apologies for that, but when I get a bee in my bonnet about something, it just won’t be stilled.

You’ll remember, perhaps, I posted a few days ago about watching Anthony Bourdain’s CNN show called Parts Unknown where he visits rather oddball places in the world, mostly to sample the food and learn about that country’s food culture. He is such a character – is he an alcoholic, you think? He visited Tangiers, and I was transported back to the day trip Dave and I took to that city (from across the narrow straits at Gibraltar and Spain) back about 15 years ago. And all I remembered was the soup, harira (pronounced just like it looks – hah-ree-ruh) we had for lunch. It was special and full of flavor. I’d totally forgotten about it until I was watching that show. And I could almost taste that soup. I went on the hunt for a recipe. Found several – if you google harira you’ll find several hits. I printed out two in particular and made my own version but with more of it coming from this one at bbcgoodfood.com. The other one was from about.com under their section called Moroccan food.

What makes this different is the group of spices used. Lots of them. Really LOTS of them. The most unusual, perhaps is cinnamon (although you do not taste cinnamon in the finished soup). Also ground coriander, turmeric, cumin seed, ground cumin, ground ginger and some harissa. Now, harissa is perhaps not a common staple in every grocery store, for sure. And I know I had a bottle of it in my refrigerator, but I couldn’t find it. Perhaps it hadn’t gotten used enough and I threw it out awhile back. I substituted red chile paste/sauce (the Thai one) but I think sriracha would work fine too. The ingredients are similar (a variety of red chiles, red peppers – not necessarily hot ones – garlic, sometimes other seasonings, but those are the main ones). And I’m sure if any Moroccan reads this he/she will think it heresy to use anything but a true harissa from Morocco.  You can make your own from this recipe at saveur.

As I began cooking I had a sad moment – my darling Dave would have been hovering around me, and washing dishes (and putting them away) as fast as I dirtied them. I missed his presence. I had to wash dishes three times in the process of making this soup and eating it for dinner last night. Some went in the dishwasher, but not all. He’s chuckling at me, I suppose, saying uh-huh, you miss my dishwashing don’t you? Only one of many things – oodles of things – that I miss about him every single day.

Anyway, I didn’t brown the chicken thighs (boneless, skinless) because I didn’t really think they would acquire all that much flavor from that process. So I sautéed the vegetables (onions, celery, leeks) in a bit of oil. There’s another interesting step here. Mostly I toss out parsley stems and cilantro stems, but here, you wash both and cut off all the stems from the leaves. Save the leaves for later. Also cut off the little brown stem ends. Those stems of parsley and cilantro I diced up fine with a knife. The food processor might have done it fine, but I’d already put the veggies in the workbowl so I just minced away and added them to the food processor too. All that gets gently sautéed. Then you add the canned tomatoes. Do note that you want to use canned tomatoes in puree, not just tomatoes with juice/water. The puree adds just a little bit of texture to the soup.

Water is added at this point, and I stirred in a little glob of my favorite Penzey’s chicken soup base. Then all the spices get added in, plus the chicken thighs. That mixture is simmered for about half an hour, until the thighs are cooked through. Now, you could use chicken breasts in this – no reason why not – just don’t overcook them – if you cut the breast meat into big chunks, it’ll probably not take more than 10-15 minutes to cook through. Remove as in the recipe. But don’t cook the chicken any further or it’ll get dry – yes, I know, it’s in soup – but it will, trust me. Once the chicken is cooked through, remove the pieces to a wide bowl to cool. Then add the lentils to the soup and simmer that for about 20 minutes, then add a can of garbanzo beans (or cook your own). At that point add back in the chicken that you’ve shredded by hand, or diced and minced to suit you. Taste it for seasonings. Add more water maybe.

I didn’t want a soup that was heavy-laden with carbs (the garbanzos and lentils) but you could easily add more if you’d prefer. A serving of about 1 1/2 cups is ample for dinner, with a dollop of Greek yogurt on top and some cilantro leaves.

What’s GOOD: oh my goodness, everything about this soup is good. Mostly, I think it’s the spices that make it different/good. It’s just abounding with flavor. Good for a family meal, good for freezing. Altogether wonderful, okay? Make it. Now. This is going onto my Carolyn’s Favs list if that’s any indication of how good it is. There is some heat in this soup, but you can vary it by using more or less of the chile paste.

What’s NOT: nothing, unless you don’t like lots of spices.

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So what makes this bruchetta Sicilian? All I can determine is it’s the cheese – a thin slather of cheese put on the toasted bread before you spoon on the tomato mixture. But whatever it is, this combo makes for some really good tasting bruschetta.

Daughter Sara asked me if I’d make bruschetta for a family gathering at their house. Everybody brought something. Sara made Bolognese sauce, other family members brought fresh pasta, another a salad, another some additional appetizers.

You really can’t make bruschetta ahead of time. You just can’t. Even toasting the bread I thought might make the bread more crisp. And there is a fine line (in my opinion anyway) between having a piece of toasted bread that is golden brown crispy on the outside but still retains softness inside (as this was made) and broil-toasting bread in the oven and the bread becomes little discs of hard crunch (which was not what I wanted). So I took along my handy-dandy stovetop toaster. In Italy it’s called a brustolina. A couple of  years ago Joanne Weir mentioned it on her website, said she had a shipment of them, while they lasted, etc. I bought one and have used it often. In Italy cooks use them for toasting bread (as I did in this case), but also for toasting polenta, and roasting peppers. It’s lightweight and really thin.

The metal underside (perforated) absorbs the heat from the flames, distributes it around that square thing. Then on the top there’s a wire mesh that keeps the food barely above the metal plate and it takes no time to toast things on it. I’ve only used it for toast so far. In case you’re interested, you can buy them from a Philadelphia store for $14.99 plus shipping. As I write this, they say it’s out of stock, but expected in a couple of months.

So anyway, my daughter kindly did the toasting for me while I made the tomato mixture. That part was easy, although you do need to remove all the seeds from the tomatoes (otherwise it gets too messy, oozy) and chop the tomato flesh (with skin is fine) into small dice. I added some fresh minced green onion, dried oregano, salt and pepper and just before ready to spoon it onto the toasts, I added fresh slivers of basil. And don’t even think about doing this unless you have good tasting RIPE tomatoes. I used Kumato – I do love those things. Trader Joe’s carries them and some regular grocery stores do too. They’re a dark brownish-greenish tomato, sort of, and the flesh inside is darker than usual, but it’s a really tasty, juicy tomato.

The inspiration for this recipe came from a cookbook I own called The Italian Country Table by Lynne Rosetto Kasper, from NPR. She calls her version Sicilian Farmer’s Bruschetta, and I’m assuming the farmer’s part of the name comes from the addition of some kind of country cheese (she calls for sheep’s or cow’s milk ricotta, mozzarella, fresh goat cheese or medium-aged sheep cheese). I had some regular goat cheese, but I grabbed a little tub of Boursin (flavored with garlic and herbs) and I didn’t end up needing the soft goat cheese at all. Her version uses thick-sliced bread, a lot of EVOO, red onion, red pepper flakes and oven roasted canned tomatoes. I just switched several things – I used thinner sliced bread (this was an appetizer, not the meal) – I used the green onion, none of the red pepper (we had kids eating this and didn’t think they’d like it much)very little oil, did scrape a couple of garlic halves across the hot slices of bread (actually Sara did that part), then I spread the cheese on top of the warm toasts and spooned some tomato on top. Done. Served. Do check for seasoning (we ended up adding more salt than I thought it would need, but it did). I used a fresh loaf of sourdough bread that was about 4” in diameter at its widest.

What’s GOOD: the addition of cheese to bruschetta was wonderful, but note, it’s not Parmesan. Certainly using Boursin cheese doesn’t give it an Italian flair, but I improvised and really liked the results. Use ample fresh basil, and very ripe tomatoes. Altogether delish.

What’s NOT: probably the only thing is this must be made at the moment. You could try toasting the bread an hour or so ahead and keeping it in a plastic bag, but then you’d lose the crisp part. The tomato mixture could be made ahead an hour or so – just don’t add the basil until the last.
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Today I was out shopping by myself. Bought some shoes, a few blouses and a pair of slacks. Haven’t done much shopping recently, but ended up at Nordstrom’s at about lunchtime. Went into the café and ordered a bowl of their daily special soup, a chicken fideo. The clerk at the order counter even gave me a taste of it before I decided whether I would order it or not. Oh was it delicious. Now I’m “on the hunt.” Have looked up many recipes for it and am going to figure out how to make it. (And no, Nordstrom’s recipe isn’t on the ‘net). The soup was just so good. And it looks like it’s easy.

I’m also going to make another chicken type soup. I should ask myself why am I thinking hot soup when it’s been in the mid 80s here in SoCal?. Reason: I was watching Anthony Bourdain’s show on CNN called Parts Unknown. He visits places all over the world – not the usual tourist stops, though. One was in the high Andes to seek out cacao beans, a rare white type thought to be extinct. Then in Sicily to taste all varieties of meat (he’ll eat anything), and the last one was in Tangiers, Morocco. Memories came flooding back to me – Dave and I spent a day in Tangiers –  we were on a trip with a group of friends, in Spain, and on a free day we decided to take a day trip to Tangiers. The most memorable thing was the chicken harira soup we had at lunch. The 2nd memorable thing was a visit to a spice shop – but I had no idea about Moroccan spices then. Anyway, I’ve found two recipes for that soup and am going to combine the best of both. So, there will be a couple of soup recipes coming up in the near future.

On Tuesday I’m hosting our bible study group (about 13 of us), the one Dave and I led for the last 9 months as we read The Story, the synopsis of the bible with our pastor preaching along with each week’s lesson. We’ve just finished the 9-month study and decided we would have a potluck dinner. I’m going to do my old standby favorite pork roast on the barbecue, and one of my grilled chicken recipes. Am not going to make anything new. Maybe I’ll take pictures, though, so you can see that I really am cooking some again. I’ll bring out a few bottles of wine from the cellar. The others will bring everything else including dessert.

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No question about it – I love salmon. And truth be told, Asian (soy sauce style) sauces or marinades aren’t particularly my favorites, but this one? Well, it was pretty darned good. A little on the salty side, but everyone else who ate it thought the salt level was fine.

This is another fish recipe from the class I took a couple of weeks ago at Great News. A Phillis Carey class all about fish, more fish, and more fish. I liked every one of them. This one is marinated in an Asian-style mixture (soy and fish sauce – see photo at right of the three crabs brand). It can be marinated for an entire 24 hours if you want to. Phillis did it for about an hour. Salmon is a sturdy fish and can handle 24 hours of marinating – most fish cannot – it would start to “cook” and the marinade would overwhelm.

The sauce is super-easy to make (ginger, garlic, sugar, lime juice, water, fish sauce and a tiny bit of chili paste or sriracha, all whizzed up in the blender). You just spoon the sauce over the top (and on the rice). So, you see, it’s really easy to make. Prepare rice to serve on the side and a green vegetable of some kind (so the plate has some color). I would probably do broccoli, asparagus or green beans. Any of those would work.

What’s GOOD: the Asian flavors are really nice – if you’re not familiar with fish sauce look for the 3 crabs on the label – that’s a good brand. And don’t smell it – as Phillis said – if you ever smell fish sauce you’ll likely not ever use it. So just don’t. But it lends lovely flavors to things. Trust me on this one. And if you haven’t used the fish sauce within about 6 months throw it out and buy a new one (that tip was news to me at this class).

What’s NOT: nothing at all. Don’t add any salt, that’s all I recommend. It doesn’t need it.

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With my relatively new risotto cooker, making this dish was a cinch for a recent dinner party. I added corn for color and texture. The fontina cheese combined with the traditional parmesan was a good mix. The cheese flavors were more subtle, but you did know it was there.

Since I know most of you don’t have the Breville BRC600XL The Risotto Plus Sauteing Slow Rice Cooker and Steamer , the instructions below are for making risotto the traditional way – stirring and stirring. If you’re fortunate enough to have the risotto cooker, then you’ll already know how to make this. I truly cheated this time – after sautéing the onion I just poured everything into the cooker – I didn’t even do the step of allowing the wine to soak into the rice first – all of it went into the cooker, I turned it on, and 20+ minutes later it was done perfectly and ready to serve. I poured in a little bit of chicken broth at the end and it probably could have used a bit more, as you can see from the photo – it should have been just slightly more soupy. But the flavor was wonderful.

The original recipe for this came from the Food Network, but I changed it around a bunch, so it’s not really the same anymore. It was an entrée type risotto with chicken. If you want that one, just search for Fontina Risotto with Chicken and you’ll find it.

What’s GOOD: what’s there not to like about risotto? It makes a really nice company side dish (get one of your guests to do the stirring and broth-adding). If you have the risotto cooker, then this dish is a snap. I liked the fontina in this (had never tried using that cheese in risotto before). It mellowed out the rather sharp cheesy flavor from Parmigiano.

What’s NOT: nothing, other than the time it takes to make risotto. (All the more reason to buy one of the risotto cookers!)

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If pork tenderloin is cooked just right, it can make a lovely entertaining entrée. And it will be doubly special if you serve it with the bourbon butter sauce to drizzle on top. But it’s also easy enough to do for a weeknight dinner, too. The bacon makes it special, but the sauce puts it over the top in the flavor department. I forgot to take a photo of a serving with the sauce. Just trust me on this one.

With a group of people coming over for dinner, I thought pork tenderloin would be a good one to serve. This was a week ago I did this, and we were in the midst of a blistering heat wave. We had 2 days with temps over 100° and a couple of days either side of that with temps in the high 90s also. And winds. Oh my yes, the winds. We get something in the California weather system – really only Southern California – called Santa Anas. It’s a hot wind that whips up and blows in from the desert and oh, does it blow. It can blow furniture around the patio, throw cushions 30 feet away, up into trees, stuck in shrubbery. In the previous house Dave and I owned we had a rolling metal trolley cart blow right into the pool. It didn’t break (had 2 pieces of glass too) but we had to ask our son to come over and dive down to the bottom of the pool to get the 2nd piece of glass that was just seemingly stuck to the deepest area. It was winter when this happened, so he donned his wet suit and did it for us, bless him! In years since we generally tie the rolling cart to a post somewhere so it doesn’t go wandering with the will of the wind. With these Santa Anas, about the only – ONLY – saving grace is that generally the humidity is low – this time about 10-15%, so if you stayed inside the A/C’d house, it was bearable. But it was way too hot to eat outside.

And I am going to admit something here that’s new . . . something startling . . . I don’t know how to barbecue. My darling hubby did all the grilling and barbecuing. Not that I didn’t give him some instructions with some frequency, but he did all that stuff. We have a gas barbecue that should be fairly foolproof. I just have to force myself to learn. My best friend Cherrie’s husband Bud has promised he will come one day and give me a lesson or two (they own the same barbecue), but I thought maybe I’d try doing something on my own first. Just to see how bad I am at this. Sometime soon. Stay tuned for that bulletin.

Okay, now that I’ve got that big cooking character flaw out of the way, let’s get back to this great pork tenderloin that is BAKED IN THE OVEN. Not grilled. <BG> The recipe came from a great blog I read, The Runaway Spoon – sometime last year according to my notes. After removing the silverskin from the pork (a bit tedious, but necessary) I cut the thick slices of bacon in half lengthwise. The recipe calls for a pound of bacon – I didn’t have a pound of bacon. I had about 7 slices of thick bacon, so I made do, and it worked fine. First the pork is rubbed with Dijon mustard (a lot actually – and do use all that’s suggested – you’ll really not know it was there when you taste it). Then the bacon slices are wrapped around the pork tenderloin (you could use toothpicks if you’d like the bacon to stay neat and tidy). Then you pat on some light brown sugar – trying to stick it to the bacon if possible (not exactly a slam dunk – just do your best). The recipe recommended placing the pork in an iron skillet. I don’t have one big enough, so I used my Le Creuset, and slightly rounded them in my largest one, well oiled with grapeseed oil first.

There at left is the uncooked sauce which I made about an hour or so ahead of time – it’s so very easy – mix good Dijon mustard, light brown sugar, bourbon, Worcestershire sauce in a saucepan, heat to a low simmer and cook until it thickens just a little bit, then you add in a copious amount of butter. A lot. 1 1/2 cubes to be exact (this served 8-9 people). The butter is added in slowly when the sauce is just below a simmer. Then let it sit and rewarm it just before serving. The photo at right shows the finished sauce.

The pork is baked at 375°. If you like/want crispy bacon, you’ll want to turn on the broiler at the end – I didn’t want to overcook the pork, so didn’t do that step. The bacon was definitely cooked and tasted great, but it wasn’t crispy, just so you know. Everybody ate theirs even so. The meat took about 45 minutes, maybe a few minutes more, but the pork I had (from Costco) were big tenderloins, so that may be why. Cook it until it reaches an internal temp of 140°. Then, if you switch to broil, the meat will likely go to 145° which is what you want.

I made risotto to go with this and the meal all came together at the last minute. I reheated the sauce, sliced the pork and gave everyone some of the bacon, either still wrapped or loosely draped over the pieces of pork, drizzled each serving with the sauce and served up a big green salad, some very fresh sourdough bread and that was dinner.

What’s GOOD: everything – the bacon, yum. The sauce, extra delicious. The perfectly cooked pork – tender, juicy and barely pink in the middle. Just the way I like it. Being able to make the sauce ahead of time was a bonus. The pork took 45 minutes in the oven, so just plan ahead.

What’s NOT: nary a thing – loved the dish.

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The sea bass is completely invisible. It’s underneath that small (yes, really, the potato part is not very thick) mound of nicely browned potatoes. There’s more crispy potatoes on the bottom as well, and then there’s a little lemony aioli on top. Really delicious.

Before I tell you about this recipe, let me just say a couple of things – first, the fires in Southern California aren’t anywhere near where I live. They are near where one of our daughters lives, however, but they’re okay.

Secondly, I’m slowly coming out of my severe grief. It’s been 8 weeks now, and although life, my life, will never be the same, I’m beginning to adjust to being alone (although I’ve been very busy so haven’t had a lot of alone time), adjusting to having no one here at home when I come home. Shopping for one isn’t so much fun, that’s for sure. I’ve had several houseguests, and as I mentioned, my social calendar has been really very busy. My friends have rallied around me. I’ve learned that I must go “out” and do something every day. Whether it’s just to go to the grocery store, the post office or run an errand or two. Cooking for one person hasn’t been very appealing, but with houseguests I’ve actually entertained. Sleep still eludes me more nights than I like, even with medication.

A dear friend lost her husband about 2 weeks ago. They moved to No. California some years ago and he developed a rare form of dementia (Lewy body dementia). Had been in a “home” for almost 4 years. His adult children had a reception here (where they used to live), so Susan (the widow) came down for it and stayed with me. As new widows we had a lot to talk about. Her husband had been in the men’s bible study group my DH had been in for 15 years. So, I did a dinner for the group and their wives. Someone brought appetizers and another brought a dessert. Yet another flew home from visiting family in from San Francisco and picked up some fresh-fresh sourdough bread (oh my was that ever delish). I did the entrée (which I’ll post soon), a new risotto recipe (yes, another post), and a green salad. I made one of my standby favorite salad dressings, so now I have a big jar of it in the refrigerator – my #1 favorite – the Creamy Garlic Blue Cheese Dressing. Although I’ve begun doing something different to the preparation. Guess I should write that up. One of these days.

In addition, earlier this week my friends Cherrie and Yvette and I went to a cooking class with Phillis Carey. The whole class was about fish, and I liked every single recipe, including the lemony bars she made for dessert. You’ll see them all here on my blog eventually. Then last night (as I write this) Yvette’s husband Joe (the one of mushroom fame here on my blog) has been staying with me. Two days ago the I-5 (the major highway artery that goes from the Mexican border north to the Oregon border, some along the coast, and further north it goes up the center of the state) was closed in both directions for several hours because of smoke and fire which crossed the freeway. Joe was stuck for 2 1/2 hours, sitting still on that freeway (along there, there are no exits as it goes through Camp Pendleton, a Marine Corps base). All this in 100° temps. To have the I-5 closed is catastrophic in our part of the world. Fortunately he had a full tank of gas so was able to sit in somewhat A/C comfort and work on his computer as he and thousands of cars were backed up for miles and miles. Anyway, the first night I served him leftovers from my dinner party earlier this week and last night I made a new salmon recipe that I liked a lot. All coming up on the blog sometime soon.

Now, back to this recipe. Of the 5 recipes, this may have been my favorite. Although there was another one (a cod one served in a kind of tomato saffron broth, sort of like a soup) that I liked a lot too. Really, I liked them all.

In this one, leeks are finely chopped and mixed with freshly grated potato. You put a mound of the potatoes in a hot frying pan, then place the fish on top, then another mound of the potato mixture. Once browned on one side, it’s turned over and browned on the other side. If the fish is thick, the whole pan may need to go in the oven (otherwise the potatoes would burn) for a short bake. Meanwhile, you make a mayo-based aioli with lemon to dollop on top. It’s pretty simple, really. And extra tasty.

What’s GOOD: first and foremost, the flavor. Loved the sea bass (who doesn’t?) and loved the aioli on top too. It’s easy enough to make and is very worthy of a company meal.

What’s NOT: it does take just a bit of fussing to mound the potatoes, nestle the fish, make another mound of potatoes, and the gentle-ness you need in the turning-it-over to brown the other side. It’s not hard, though.
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