Hit the Cookbooks: Mustard Roasted Fish

In an effort to expand my culinary knowledge and skill, I'm going to try and use cookbooks for some of my recipes to try new ingredients and techniques. Nothing like having food splotches all over the pages of a recipe book to make you feel like a real cook!

I recently decided I was going to try fish to test whether or not I still hate it. I chose to find a recipe from Ina Garten's Back to Basics, which has beautifully simple and refined recipes anyone can cook. I hoped her recipe would be so exquisite I wouldn't even notice that it was fish I was eating.

I've never really liked seafood. I can't stand the fishy smell or taste. However, I love fried fish. Catfish, walleye, small-mouth bass - really anything with mild fish flavor and tons of fried breading. My friends and family affectionately tell me I like "pond food." I would take more offense, but pond food is delicious.

This time though, I skipped the breading. Although it took me a while to actually put the bite of fish in my mouth when I sat down to eat, it wasn't too bad. The sauce was great and helped cut through any unwanted fish flavor. It was creamy but not too heavy, which complemented the fish well.

I changed the recipe to accomodate the fact that I can't afford some of the stuff she uses. I also served this fish with parmesan roasted potatoes, and the combination was pretty good.

Hopefully I'll be getting a digital camera soon so I can take better pictures of the food I make. Until then, my built-in computer camera will have to do!

Roasted Fish with Mustard Cream Sauce
4 fish fillets (I used tilapia, but you could really use anything light)
1/4 c. sour cream
1/4 c. heavy whipping cream
3 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon course ground mustard
1/4 c. minced onion

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper and place the fish fillets in the pan. Salt and pepper the fillets well.

Whip the heavy whipping cream until it starts to look like whipped cream. Fold in the sour cream. Add both mustards and the onion. Spoon the sauce over the fish fillets, covering completely. Bake the fish 10 minutes or until the center starts to flake easily.

Parmesan Roasted Potatoes
8-10 small red potatoes, quartered
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
Italian seasoning
Olive oil
Salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Toss the potatoes with olive oil until all pieces are coated. Season with as much Italian seasoning and salt and pepper as you like. Add the Parmesan cheese.

Spread evenly on a cookie sheet and bake for 20-25 minutes or until potato pieces are tender. Half-way through cooking, toss the potatoes around to make sure the potatoes don't stick.

Reclaiming my Passion for Food

For about four years straight now, I have been the sous chef. Yeah, sometimes I take the lead if we are baking. And sometimes, if it's been a hectic day, I'll make the standby chicken and rice casserole. But I rarely get the opportunity to take the lead and experiment in the kitchen.

It all started about four years ago. I've always had an interest in food. My step mother made everything homemade. Bread, pie, casserole, every dinner--all from scratch. She taught me a lot, and I've always remembered it, but it seems that every time I am in a relationship and I introduce the other person to the wonders of food, they take over. Before Jim, the person I dated fell in love with food and has now been accepted to the Culinary Institute of America. I remember every time we tried to make dinner, that person would find the recipe, go grocery shopping, and then proceed to make the entire thing, barking orders in my direction the whole time.

Then I started dating Jim. While gentler, it's been about the same. We started cooking together. I would make the food and find the recipes at the beginning, vowing what had happened with my first relationship would not happen again. But then he wanted to get better at cooking, learning everything there was to know about anything he could get his hands on, so I took a step back, because he really enjoyed it and I was glad he found something that made him happy. In the process though, my love for cooking took the back seat. I found myself cutting veggies while he did everything else, and then eventually when he was practicing knife skills, I wasn't even doing that.

I'd pretty much given up, conceding in this fight to be head chef. Whenever I did attempt to try and make something I knew how to make, he would just watch, and then next time, he knew how to make it and he took over. Or whenever I was making dinner, he would comment on everything I was doing wrong and how the way he did it was much better. "You really didn't the get the oil in the pan hot enough." So I grimaced and turned the heat up. "You should really try cutting it like this." So I stepped out of the way while he showed me how to cut the damn peppers in perfect julienne strips, all the while finishing the whole dish. Let me say just this: I hate perfectly cut vegetables. Yes, I know. It cooks evenly. But it feels so pretentious and anal. I like rustic, simple looking food, and that means rustic cuts.

At that point, I knew it was hopeless. I would just enjoy being cooked for instead. But every time he would cook, I always wanted to be in the kitchen, trying it out for myself. I should have said something, and I tried several times, but he never really got the message.

For Christmas, my dad got me a cookbook. It's a great cookbook. It's Ina Garten's "Back to Basics". The recipes are so elegant and simple and I spent several days studying all of the recipes and photos before I realized that this was my very first cookbook. For four years, I watched both of my significant others receive cookbooks and kitchen tools and gadgets as gifts, wondering why no one ever thought I liked cooking as much as they did. Well, I'm done with that.

World, I love cooking. I love cookbooks. I love recipes. I know how to cook just as well as the people I've dated. I just cook differently. And with this new cookbook, I intend to let everyone know.

Besides, neither of them could ever pull off my amazing roast chicken. : )

"Cooking" By James Peterson

From Jim, my cooking partner-in-crime:

I thought I'd review what I think is the very best cookbook and general kitchen manual there is on the market. Simply titled "Cooking", this book by James Peterson covers almost everything you need to know in the kitchen. The subheading on the outside of the book says it all: "600 recipes, 1500 photographs, one kitchen education." Because this book really is so much more than a cookbook, it's more of a intro education to the culinary arts.

So what sets this cookbook apart? First off, the pictures, all 1500 of them. They are big or small, sometimes there will be 10 on a page and sometimes there will be none. But nevertheless, the pictures are a godsend. Most, if not all of the pictures were taken by James Peterson himself, as he is, among other things, a food photographer. And because of his intense background as a chef and culinary instructor, he knows just how to take pictures that show exactly what he wants the reader to see for the greatest visual comprehension for beginning chefs.

There are countless step-by-steps in this book, all with superbly photographed instructions. That is this book's strength, the step-by-steps. From how to properly dice an onion, to how to make a soufflé (from before the eggs are cracked until after they are out of the oven...superb), Cooking covers how to make terrine fois gras and how to make that thanksgiving roast turkey with prep, cooking, and the carving. All covered with photos.

One thing that I most surely miss from the circa 1975 Good Housekeeping Illustrated Cookbook that I grew up with in my parents home, are the pictures of every dish. I know, I know 1500 photos... 600 recipes... there should at least be room to have a picture of every dish so you know what you're making right? Wrong. Sorry. I wish it were true as well, but that would almost undermine the idea of this book. It isn't written as an end all cookbook, but a stepping off point. The idea is that with the detailed instruction for how to do one task, you can then take that knowledge and run with it, preparing other dishes that are similar without any actual need for a picture of the other dishes for guidance. And if given a chance, this method works very well (at least for me) and encourages a little more confidence with newly learned skills.