MY New Summer Side!

The more I cook, the more adventurous I find myself becoming. I have always been willing to EAT anything, my hesitation was sometimes making something outside my comfort zone, but over time I have been more willing to experiment. Many of my ideas and new cooking adventures lately have been coming from the various cooking magazines I subscribe to. My favorite magazine recently has been Fine Cooking, a magazine recommendation that came from my good friend and fellow foodie, Kandice. Not only are the recipes interesting and delicious, the instructions and pictures make you feel like you can make everything in there. (It may even convince me to do more baking!)

The latest issue, has a wonderful section on "The New Summer Side" , how to create your own grain salad. This was a perfect example of something I have eaten many times and enjoy, but have never made myself.And this is where Fine Cooking excels, they don't just give you one recipe, they give you a CORE recipe you can build on and several add-in options that allow you to create your own combinations using the various ingredients.

For my first foray into making a grain salad, I decided to go with one of their recommended combinations with only a change to the grain (their recipe called for Basmati rice, I went with brown rice). The suggested combination was a dressing of rice vinegar, sesame oil and ginger with add-ins of mango, cucumbers, scallions and cilantro.

The most critical step in my mind was cooking the rice. I have a microwave rice cooker that my Chinese and Filipino aunt gave to me 15 years ago but I wanted to take no chances on the proper cooking so I followed the instructions to the letter. The rice came out great and my biggest challenge was not having a fine strainer big enough to properly rinse and drain it so I had to do it in batches.

Once the rice was done draining, it needs to be spread out to cool:

The rest of the recipe is a snap. Some chopping, some wisking. The article is absolutely correct that perfecting the dressing is a matter of taste. I salted, peppered, added more sesame and tasted at various intervals until I found the right combination. Frankly, I was thinking about what other things I could pour that dressing on! The final product was beautiful, light, and delicious:

I made this for one of my best friends when she and her kids came over for an impromptu cook-out and it was a huge hit. We are having our annual start of summer get-together next weekend and this will certainly be on the table. Now I look forward to experimenting with other grains and combinations!

Guest Blog: Salt-Crusted Fish

Sometimes the universe tries to balance things out. I have been ill for the past few days so haven't done much cooking. What a perfect time to have a good friend guest blog for me! My friend and fellow foodie Kandice is my connection to all things highly technical in the kitchen and her creation of Fine Cooking's salt-crusted fish with lemon dill beurre-blanc sauce is certainly an inspiration. Thanks Kandice!

Hello.  My name is Kandice and my weakness in the kitchen is seafood.

The Cook Crook knows I love Fine Cooking magazine.  I recommend it to everyone I know.  It is the epitome of food porn with page after page of amazing photography of food.  The pictures are what first attracted me.  When I delved deeper and read the articles, I found them instructive and educational.  That is exactly what this home cook with no professional training needs!

The April/May 2011 issue of Fine Cooking magazine featured Salt-Crusted Fish in the “Learn A New Technique” section.  Hooray!  I am forever trying to add different techniques into my repertoire and preparing seafood is my Achilles heel.  Obviously, I had to give this a try. 

Three things.  One, this technique does not impart any saltiness to the fish (unless you drop the meat into the salt when serving--oops).   Do not be alarmed by the many cups of salt in the recipe.  It is for the outside only.  Two, this is a presentation dish.  Be sure your family and friends can see you crack it open and serve.  It is impressive and they will be in awe of your culinary prowess.  Three, beware of bones!  Please, please, please be careful when eating fish with bones.  Children should always be supervised whenever they eat fish with bones.

This technique creates the most moist fish I have EVER had.  My standing offer to family and friends is to make this whenever they ask  They just have to bring me a whole fish.

I also made the Lemon-Dill Beurre Blanc sauce.  Be sure to REALLY reduce the wine!  The first time, I did not reduce the wine enough.  The sauce tasted good and the butter emulsified into the wine.  It just was not as thick as a sauce should be.  The second time, I reduced the wine much, much further and the consistency was perfect.  The sauce adds a rich brightness to the fish.

So readers? Beautiful AND delicious, right? I am still waiting for my chance to get in person instruction, guess I need to go shop for a whole fish!