Ginger Baked Rockfish

I’m back with a Fish Friday post! I haven’t shared any fish recipes for a while. This one isn’t anything fancy. In fact, I had a few “fancy” ideas for the rockfish we bought. I was thinking of a tomato sauce, maybe putting a coating on it…there were a few ideas. Then, just before I was going to make it, K made a request. At his work’s cafeteria, there was some sort of ginger fish dish that sounded good, but he had not gotten it. He wanted something like that. Now, I had made a similar dish with salmon before and decided to do a similar version for the rockfish. K’s family usually steams fish, but my family always baked it, so that’s what I do here. I asked K if he wanted to try to steam it but apparently he did not have great results previously.

 

Chocolate and Peanut Butter Tart

Are you a peanut butter fan? If so, we should be friends. I love making peanut butter things. My husband is not normally a big fan. After making the berry clafoutis, I decided to make a dessert for myself. This giant Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup sounded wonderful. That night, I cut myself a slice and K was eyeing my piece. Finally I gave him a bite. He loved it and had to have some. There went my plan to have a treat to myself!! (Not that I really mind sharing my sweets with my sweetie–insert eye rolls here.)

Two Vegetables and a Main Chicken

None of these recipes are crazy-involved. We make variations of these regularly. The only reason I took pictures of the green beans and celery are because they were memorably good, and I used some fried shallots my friend Lisa made for me. You don’t need fried shallots for the recipes, but it showed how easily we could throw them into dishes to enjoy their sweetness. Below you will find the recipes for green beans and celery, and also chicken. I did not include step-by-step pictures this time, but hopefully you can still follow along.

Jeweled Rice

We hadn’t had any Indian food for awhile, and in my search for a recipe to make, I came across this. It is not Indian at all, but it had some of the same seasonings which I was craving. This led to my first experience eating pistachios and being aware of what I was eating. They are super tasty! I can see why they cost so much. I was sad I had to buy a whole container initially, but after trying them, I am ok with it. You can buy some of these ingredients already prepped, such as the carrots and slivered almonds, but it’s not necessary. I love my food processor for doing carrots. It does it in under a minute and they taste better than the store-shredded kind.

 

I served our jeweled rice with some chicken to add some protein. We had the leftovers other ways, too, like with soft poached eggs. Mmm.

Panfried Egg Noodles with Chicken

Please don’t get nervous when you see how long this recipe is. It’s actually not complicated, it’s just that the ingredients repeat themselves, and it’s easier to group them by purpose (marinade, sauce, etc.). And, the main reason I made this was because I didn’t need to buy anything. I had all of these ingredients because they are very common for Chinese recipes. We were having a small send-off meal for Lisa who was on her way to Thailand for a couple weeks. We had been planning to have a dish from K’s parents, but when Lisa visits, you have to cook.

 

Mocha Oatmeal Muffins

This weekend one of my best friends got married and I was blessed with being her Matron of Honor. Or MOH as I preferred being called. Matron just doesn’t sound “young and cool”. Not that I think of myself as “young and cool”, but you know, it would be nice to be thought of that way. Shortly before this, K and I went on our friend’s new boat and it was funny because there was a guy who was super interested in the boat and kept checking it out. Our friend said he hoped some 30-year old girls would do the same…and I had to laugh because we are now at the age when our friends should want 30-somethings to date, and it would be creepy to want a 20-year old. None of this seems to have much to do with food, but really it does. You see, as you get older you start to want things to be a bit healthy for you, but still have elements that make you feel slightly reckless. And here you have these Mocha Oatmeal Muffins.

 

Berry Clafoutis (Baked Custard)

If you were keeping track of our blueberries and what we were doing with them, you might have thought we had used most of them and that blueberry recipes were finished. Or, that we wouldn’t have possibly bought more berries at a farmer’s market because they were a great price, especially for organic ones, and they looked sooooo good….or maybe you can believe it? I get a bit obsessed with berries in the summer. We have so many varieties out here in the Seattle area, and they seem to have such a long season here. I love it! K also loves it because he loves berry treats for his birthday desserts, and I try to find new ways of giving him these treats.

The Tartine cookbook has been great for getting me to branch out with treats I never would have thought to make before. This recipe is another extension for me. K loves flan desserts because he grew up with his mom making numerous versions with canned fruit, plain, and so on. Then, of course, there is the classic egg tart in Chinese cooking. I asked him what he wanted for his birthday this year, and he wasn’t super interested in anything except that he didn’t want cake. So, I followed his wishes (except to make a small personal ice cream cake for him) and made this baked custard.