Tomatoes

FRIDAY FISH: Tuna Patty Breakfast Stack

/ More Time at the Table / Leave a comment

Jump to Recipe

I think most folks keep a few cans of tuna in the pantry for quick lunches or emergency dinners. It’s lovely food, inexpensive as protein goes, shelf stable, and versatile. I buy a stack of tuna cans at Costco, alternating every few months with canned salmon just so we have a change. We’re tuna salad for lunch people, maybe once or twice a month but during FRIDAY FISH weeks, looking for new uses for canned fish is something that keeps me hopping. Two weeks ago, including fish in a brunch dish in the spring lineup began to flit through my brain. Eggy meals complete with red meats line the menus of breakfast shops with only a veggie omelet, a smoked salmon benedict, or the occasional bowl of tan, sticky oatmeal to tempt someone looking for a healthier alternative. Why couldn’t there be a benny-ish sandwich utilizing a filling tuna patty topped with a gorgeous fried egg? The easy answer was that there could. I took the fish burger or salmon patty approach, but opened cans of tuna instead of salmon or chopping up raw cod. I added a few typical ingredients (panko, onion, garlic, egg) and then threw in dill, Old Bay, and a bit of ground cayenne for fun. What was so amazing was how fast these little tuna patties, as they came to be called, came together. And when I toasted and buttered an English muffin, topped one with that hot egg and a few garnishes, I was happy as a clam with my breakfast. (Why are clams happy?)

Continue reading →

FRIDAY FISH: Sweet Chili Salmon with Black Bean Pasta Salad + Ideas About How to Make it Into a Dinner Party

/ More Time at the Table / Leave a comment

No Sweet Chili Thai sauce here, you create these flavors with chili powder and brown sugar.

Jump to Recipe

Coming up on the 16th anniversary of my blog (May, 2024- YAY!), I know and maybe you know, too, there are mostly original recipes here. I also know there’s nothing new under heaven, so it’s your guess how many of my dishes first existed elsewhere. I often, though not always, don’t want to know if someone else has come up with it before me. I’m happy in la la land, thinking I made it up, imagining I have a little creative bone of some sort in my body–and I do. But this doesn’t stop me from happily cooking or especially baking dishes others have perfected before me. (Why reinvent every wheel?) Both of the recipes featured in today’s FRIDAY FISH are happily-credited adaptations from other fine cook-writers (see recipe headnotes–which is where you should see credit to other cooks and writers or books) and luscious they are together. I wanted a different flavoring for salmon and thought, “Chili.” Author Andie Mitchell had already figured it out and thank you to her! I also knew my May, 2023 Black Bean Pasta Salad would be the perfect companion for a southwestern-flavored fish. When I needed a black bean salad for 50 last spring for my friend Sylvie’s high school graduation, blogger Cookie and Kate had a solid, flavor-full basic idea I only needed to embroider and enlarge. Together, the two recipes are all you want for dinner…and the salad leftovers could be lunch for a couple of days. Double win. Should you, however, want more, I include ideas for appetizers, wine, and dessert for a dinner party or special occasion. (See just below the recipes.)

Continue reading →

egg salad blt sandwiches for the start of summer and beyond

/ More Time at the Table / Leave a comment
Summer in a Sandwich
Jump to Recipe

There’s nothing like a BLT in the summer and I thought I’d just about exhausted the possibilities for variations on that particular theme until one day I had some leftover bacon and was nursing a sudden yen for egg salad at the same time. Next thing I knew, there were egg salad BLTs on the table and much happy wonder to be had right alongside them. I mean, it is bacon and eggs, after all! I think they’re now on the permanent lunch or lazy dinner rotation and not only for summer.

Continue reading →

FRIDAY FISH: Fish and Chickpea Chowder

/ More Time at the Table / 1 Comment

Looking for St. Patrick’s Day Ideas? Just click on “St. Patrick’s Day” in the categories section at right to find my favorites including Salmon on Caraway Cabbage, Irish Soda Bread with Potato Soup, Salmon on Colcannon, Colcannon Soup, Traditional Kerry Apple Cake, and more.

Living in land-locked Colorado, we might not expect Front Range cooks to spend a whole lot of kitchen time on fish. Sure we can bring home a few trout now and again — under 16 inches and no more than four at a time — and there are, of course, some other fish in our state. Sometimes we even order online or great fishing friends gift us a few fillets after a lucky trip. Overall, though, we’re mostly limited to buying our dinner fish at the nearest grocery, warehouse, or specialty-food store. It turns out, the warehouse buy is not such a bad deal. The prices aren’t too awfully difficult and you might as well buy frozen fish from the frozen department. It’s less expensive, often flash-frozen at sea, and most likely the fish behind the counter in the grocery seafood department was once frozen, too. For real savings and ease, I buy a bag of frozen, individually cryovaced fillets now and again, most recently mahi mahi –in Hawaiian, it means strong-strong — that came in under $30 for three pounds.

Post/Recipe

If you’re a regular reader, you might have read about the fish fajitas I made last week and yes, you guessed it, they’re mahi-mahi. Ready for FRIDAY FISH soup this week, I popped out two more 8-ounce fillets to make an herby and creamy chowder with a nice hint of tomato and an itty-bitty kick. Filling and healthy with chickpeas instead of the typical chowder potatoes, this vegetable-laden, high fiber, high protein stew comes together quickly and might take the place of clam chowder in your foreseeable future. Crusty bread? Butter? Cold oaky Chardonnay? Yes, please do!

Continue reading →

Chicken-Mushroom Bolognese

/ More Time at the Table / 3 Comments

Looking for Thanksgiving? Try my THANKSGIVING, AN INTIMATE VIEW (Redux) or type Thanksgiving into the search box for more info than you needed.

Over the years, I’ve made Bolognese sauce almost exactly like the world famous Marcella Hazan’s recipe or just as Tyler Florence or Aida Mollenkamp thought it should be done and it’s always lovely any of those ways. Aida’s version (scroll down for info) is the one I’ve used for my lasagna for many moons and there’s nothing, nothing, nothing like it. (That recipe, more’s the pity, is no longer on the internet to my knowledge. Sad. Print your favorites, friends!) Even my sister, who doesn’t particularly like to cook, has made it. This time, I simply went ahead and fixed it just as I wanted to.  Which meant a little more tomato than Tyler and a lot more tomato than Marcella and, the biggie–I made it, ye gods and little fishes, with chicken, mushrooms, and bacon instead of with Aida’s (and many other cook’s) veal. Bolognese, the real deal, has just a little tomato and no herbs at all save parsley; it’s meat sauce with milk (I know–but you won’t taste it) and is served with a little sauce and a ton of pasta.  Like 1 cup of sauce to 1 1/4 – 1 1/2 pounds of pasta.  Nothing like Americans are used to.  Perhaps because we eat pasta as a main dish. Italians use pasta as a first course -primo–served between the antipasto and the secondo, which is a meat or fish dish or our main dish/entrée.  I like it sort of in between, but I do want a little more sauce and meat to the meal because I like it that way. Period. And this time? I wanted lot and lots of chicken. Chicken? Why chicken?

Continue reading →

One-Pot Drumsticks and Rice with Vegetables (Stove Top)

/ More Time at the Table / 1 Comment
Have fresh tomatoes that need using? Chop 2 cups to replace the can of diced tomatoes.
Jump to Recipe

Last week, while working on my post “Cheep Eats” (sic), I got on a roll cooking chicken drumsticks, my very favorite part of chicken. I kept thinking about a big baked casserole of whole chicken pieces and rice I often made when feeding our family of six. Occasionally I’d swap in pork chops for the chicken. And while I still have that recipe in my now worn BETTY CROCKER COOKBOOK (I don’t see the exact one on the internet despite looking), I knew it needed a big update. I no longer cook with dry soup mixes very often and CURSES! my oven had died, so a new version had to work on top of the stove. I wanted bunches of vegetables included to make dinner a breeze. Is there anyone who doesn’t like a one-pot, whole meal dinner? What I had in mind was a chicken-rich, herby rice pilaf full of those veggies and with plenty of room for herb or cheese garnishes at the end. I know it’s not quite fall, but I’m in the mood for cozy food and this hit the spot!

Continue reading →

Bruschetta for Dinner

/ More Time at the Table / Leave a comment
Who said dinner couldn’t be fun?!

Bruschetta (broo-SKET-ta), the incomparably attractive Italian appetizer, is simply too big of a starter come the dog days of summer. I mean, it’s like eating pizza for hors d’oeuvres before Thanksgiving dinner when the temps are 95 F in the shade–like today. Typically grilled bread rubbed with garlic and topped with chopped silky ruby-ripe tomatoes and a scatter of fresh basil slivers, I like to instead offer it up with a variety of toppings for an al fresco dinner and let everyone make themselves happy. And while I thought I was being somewhat imaginative this July, when I dug out some of my Italian cookbooks to get a little background, I of course discovered that while not everyone, certainly certain someones have been there before me. (Curses, foiled again.) Folks like one of my favorite food writers, Lynne Rosetto Kasper.

Continue reading →

Colorado Springs Omelet

/ More Time at the Table / 2 Comments

Here in Colorado and perhaps even elsewhere in the U.S., there’s no diner breakfast more famous than the Denver Omelet — except maybe biscuits and gravy. You know how the Denver Omelet goes — lots of browned onions, green peppers, diced ham and some ooey-gooey orange cheese. It should be cooked firm and golden brown unlike the pale and buttery French omelets. And while I’m totally fond of a Denver omelet or a French omelet (mushrooms, please), for that matter, I have for quite a while enjoyed a different sort of southwestern egg breakfast here in my kitchen in Colorado Springs. My tender little elegant omelet is whisked with salsa rather than cream or water. It’s cooked slowly and gently in a covered skillet rather than at breakneck speed with constant whisking in an open pan à la française (like the French). Occasionally I turn the burner off toward the end, but leave the covered pan on it for another minute or two to slowly finish cooking my omelet. Good trick to have up your sleeve for any eggs (and some other things, too) you make to avoid an overcooked fry-up.

Continue reading →

FRIDAY FISH: Pan-Seared Halibut with Tomato-Sweet Pepper Salsa

/ More Time at the Table / 1 Comment
Shown here with Red Onion-Oregano Potatoes and Cheesy Green beans.

For Hot Cross Buns and Easter brunch ideas, scroll down to bottom under LIFE GOES ON.

Jump to Recipe

No matter what kind of fish or seafood you’re cooking, there are two basic secrets to its success. #1 Don’t overcook it. #2 You need a great sauce. I mean, think about it. Even everyday sorts of fish or seafood like fried shrimp or fish and chips come with a sauce you just have to have: cocktail sauce for the shrimp and tartar sauce for the fish. Right? This is also true of fish cooked by chefs in upscale restaurants, though the sauces may (or may not) be a tish more sophisticated. Sometimes butter and/or lemon are all that’s called for, as in Sole Meunière, which is not much more than thin and floured sole fillets cooked in–yes– butter and lemon, then sprinkled with, what else? Parsley. Simple is as simple does. And the dish has been top drawer famous forever! No matter the fish, it is often the sauce that counts.

That’s especially true in my quick Friday Fish for this week, Pan-Seared Halibut with Tomato-Sweet Pepper Salsa. Everyone knows pico de gallo and other sorts of Mexican salsas often made with cilantro and jalapeños, but a fresh tomato salsa (salsa only means “sauce”) without those two ingredients and with sweet peppers, tiny ripe tomatoes, parsley, green onions, and lemon, orange, or lime is something different. That difference is smile-worthy because instead of being overwhelmed by large-scale flavors, this mild fillet is enhanced and freshly seasoned by what is almost a baby salad garnish — which takes the dish over the top to my tastebuds.

Continue reading →

Salsa-Black Bean Dip

/ More Time at the Table / 1 Comment
…for garlic lovers only

I’m not a football fan. At this point in my life, I don’t think it’s going to change. I’m occasionally somewhat nasty or worse about it, but skip that here because in the U.S., if there’s a get together on any Sunday afternoon in January or early February, it’s likely to involve football. Hmm. The Super Bowl (February 13, 2022–6:30 pm ET) is coming like a freight train barreling down the track to your family room as well as to your kitchen and mine. So just to get my two cents in, I usually make a concerted effort to at least add something tasty and even healthy to the game day food lineup. This year, it’s an addictive, pantry-centric southwestern black bean dip that’s perfect with a cold beer at kickoff or even for dinner some other time. (Why can’t we have dip for dinner? I think we can. I’ll write you a note.)

Continue reading →