The only knowledge I have of blowfish is from an episode of the Simpson’s I saw while I was in college (I think my eight year old daughter actually knows more about the fish than I do). What I took away from that episode is that blow fish is poisonous and if not prepared properly, you die. So when my father-in-law asked me if we wanted to go out to a blowfish restaurant, it took me a minute to answer while I recalled this highly accurate information I learned from an American cartoon I saw 20 years ago, and debated my own consequences. It felt like the culinary equivalent of sky diving. Was I ready to be this close to death? And with my children? Well, Homer Simpson lived, so I decided to give it a try.
Miso Glazed Tilapia
(I can never get fish to photograph to well. It tastes much better than it looks)
I found this recipe on the internet. I’m not sure I prepared the glaze correctly, but we did enjoy the flavor. The saltiness of the miso balanced out the citrus from the zest. As the instructions read on the blog, I just smothered the marinade on top and baked instead of doing the cheesecloth method. This was easy to do and I just scraped off some of the marinade so it wouldn’t be too strong.
I served this with gyozas, seaweed salad, and rice. I was surprised how quickly I threw this together.
RECIPES:
Hoisin-Glazed Salmon Burgers
These were surprisingly easy and fairly quick too. They were really moist and had a great flavor, but I’d double the hoisin sauce glaze next time.The homemade pickles that go on top are a must.
RECIPES:
Pineapple Teriyaki Salmon
I was recently featured in a cooking column story for our local Patch site. I wasn’t sure what to make but decided I should do like I normally do and pick something I’ve never made before. But I also didn’t want something labor intensive, and something with a short cooking time. When scouring my title go-to website, Cookinglight.com, I came across this recipe and thought it’d be perfect.
We loved it, and Ellie loved it! She thought it was chicken though. Oh well. I should have let the sauce simmer longer to become thicker to be a glaze, but I decided to keep it thinner. While in the oven the fish soaked up all the flavor and was very moisture and had a perfect texture. I would definitely make this if we had guests over.
RECIPES:
Risotto w/ Shrimp and Asparagus
MAJOR FAIL! I now know that when something calls for Arborio rice, I shouldn’t use brown rice.
Aya was requesting a risotto with asparagus for dinner. I had made a simple risotto dish here and there before and was up for the challenge. When scanning the ingredients I did see that it called for Arborio rice, which I had never used. Aya indicated that brown rice would be fine. But let me tell you, it wasn’t.
The cook time for this recipe was about 30 minutes. And about thirty minutes in I started wonder how this rice could possibly be done in 30 minutes when it takes at least an hour in the rice cooker. Well, two and half hours later of stirring in three times as much water and broth as the recipe called for, it still never cooked all the way threw.
So I defrosted some already cooked rice from the freezer, added the shrimp and asparagus, and some broth and called it a day. This recipe beat me, but I am determined to make this again the correct way with Arborio rice.
RECIPES: