SkinnyCook

Traditional Japanese Rice and Fish

I have a burgeoning interest in tradtional Japanese cooking, so today’s post is about my lunch of rice and poached fish. Sexy, no? It’s actually ridiculously fast (if you already have some leftover rice chillin’ out in the fridge) healthy, tasty, and utterly easy.

Poached Fish

1 or 2 filets of fish - Again, use whatever you like. I used dover sole, but it could be anything. Mild white fish will poach well. Salmon or tuna would work, but they will be more delicious broiled or grilled because of their high fattiness.
1/2 cup stock, bullion or white wine - We need something with a bit of flavor for poaching the fish. Vegetable, fish, or chicken stock will do fine, just don’t use beef stock.
cooked rice - Any sort will do fine. I like jasmine for this.

Heat a large skillet with the cooking liquid of your choice. Rinse the fish. When the liquid comes to a boil, add the fish. Let cook, undisturbed for 3-4 minutes. Flip it over for an additional 3-4 minutes. That’s it! Put that over hot rice and you’re golden. It’s pretty plain just like that, so I suggest some soy sauce. A traditional Japanese meal wouldn’t be complete without their weird pickles and condiments. I know you’ve been dying to buy a jar of them from your local specialty grocery, so now’s your excuse. I’d suggest salted plums, gomiaso or my new fave, seaweed salad.

Seaweed Salad

1/2 cup arame or wakame seaweed
1/2 cup hijiki seaweed
*Seaweed is available dried in PDX at Peoples and Food Front in the bulk bins. Otherwise, all Asian grocers (Fubonn)  will carry more types of seaweed than you knew existed.
1 tbl. lemon juice or rice wine vinegar
1 tbl. olive oil
3 tbl. apple cider or 2 tbl. mirin
1 tbl. sesame oil
1 tbl. soy sauce

Soak the dried seaweed in enough water to cover for one hour. Rinse and drain. Saute in a smallish skillet for 15 minutes with the olive oil. Add remaining ingredients and cook for about 5 minutes more until the liquid is absorbed. This will make enough for several meals and is good with all types of grains or on top of some lettuce for a super-healthy salad.

Day After Xmas: Eggnog French Toast

Yesterday was the enormous feast for Christmas Day with friends. Here in Portland, we were celebrating with the help of a 40-year snow, so many were stuck without a way to get back to family gatherings in far-flung locations. Being a loyal tweep, I invited any and all to come to my place. I was honored to welcome seven friends, both new and old, into my home. Nothing could’ve made me happier than having a houseful of happy faces.

But I digress… this post is about breakfast. What do you do with half container of leftover eggnog? Why, you make French toast, silly. It’s what God intended us to do with the stale bread accidentally left out on the counter all night because we were too lazy/hungover/despondent to actually clean up the mess from Christmas Day dinner.

Secrets of your success

• Use really good (stale) bread
  This could be any kind of bread. Think any Italian, French, sourdough. Get fancy with cranberry walnut, double chocolate, cinnamon, etc… go crazy. The only thing maple syrup and eggy-goodness won’t help would be some savory thing like olive bread.
• Soak it in the egg mix for at least five minutes
• Fry it up in butter
• Top with real maple syrup

Recipe

Serves 1-2

2 eggs
1/2 cup eggnog or milk
2-3 large slices of bread
1/2 tbl. butter

Whisk together egg and eggnog. Dunk the bread in it. Put the heat on medium-high for the skillet to get nice and hot. Wait five minutes. Perhaps have a mimosa. Fry. Pour on hot maple syrup. Eat.

Here’s the first post of my first *personal* blog. I’ve been blogging a bit for my employer at StepChange Group on Social Media nonsense. Here, I’ll talk about what really matters. Namely, feeding yourself in some kind of sane fashion. My mantra is to use as few ingredients, pots, pans, and utensils as possible. The vast majority of these meals will be weeknight wonders, taking between ten and twenty minutes. I subscribe to Organics to You’s box ‘o wonderfulness. If you also subscribe, we’ll likely have the same stuff in our fridges to work with.