Flounder, eggs, hummus and crackers breakfast

One would imagine that flounder this small would be illegal to keep, but there it is. It takes two of these undersize frozen flounders to make an ordinary fillet. The flounder cook in hot olive oil in less than a minute cut up into two-inch pieces. 

A portion of the hummus from yesterday is thinned with chicken broth and jazzed up with a speck of cumin and additional salt and used as a sauce. What madness it is to combine fish fillet pieces with thinned hummus! The combination is surprisingly good. Every now and then I stupidly stumble on something that I really like. 

Frankly, hummus scares me, as does anything constituted substantially of beans. An unfortunate incident with seven-bean soup put me off all legumes, pulses, whatever they are, for a decade until one day I tried this stuff ↓ which works very well for me with beans, which is what it is designed for. The thing is, the liquid form of Beano is marketed in ridiculously tiny squeeze bottles so I just pick up three or four at a time at the grocery store, and then the whole Fabaceae world is open to me.  Some of the reviews on Amazon for Beano are hilarious. One person bought it for their cat but is mad at the cost increase. Another reviewer is dissatisfied because it didn't help with problems associated with stomach ulcers. Another person just cannot be helped. For some reason that I do not understand the tales of discomfort that are explained on Amazon cause me to revert to perverse prepubescent light-headed silliness. Boys are incorrigible on this point. There is something about it that is so funny that it must be videoed and uploaded to YouTube, and it's universal. There are thousands of videos on this, and they're all boys with BIC lighters cracking each other up. Search "feuerfurzen" on YouTube to see for yourself what I'm on about, you'll get similar results in any language you enter. 

Flounder and swordfish, tomato with basil

This is a piece of flounder and a piece of swordfish that was frozen, excess fish from a previous bouillabaisse. The two pieces were thawed then poached in hot olive oil that never exceeded 150℉. Okay FINE! The temperature got up to 165℉ but that was only in one spot and I quickly stirred it around and it went back down lower than 150℉. Both pieces cooked surprisingly fast. The oil was never so hot that the fish couldn't be turned with fingers holding the fish so the tongs could slip under. Seemed a little strange. The interior of the fish reached 135℉.

Chopped parsley was tossed into the onion sauce off the heat. 

I could have been more refined about this sauce by processing the onion or possibly by grating it instead of dicing it. But I am cooking for myself over here and not trying to impress anybody with refinement. There is only lemon and oil, salt and pepper. Nothing at all exotic like lemon grass, star anise, or nam pla, whatever that is. 

*looks up nam pla*

Oh, fish sauce. I guess it's not that exotic. 

The sliced tomato with basil was seen on the cover of Jean-Georges book Cooking at Home With a Four Star Chef. Mark Bittman coauthor. I suppose it should be noted the four stars are awarded by the New York Times, not Michelin. 

I did not read the recipe for the tomato although I did notice other photographs of it inside the book when I flipped through. Seemed simple enough by appearances. Oh! The chef's version of the tomato is sitting in a puddle of some kind of green sauce. That's probably important. 

This book is neato-mosquito packed with lots of great ideas. Everything looks simple with just a few exotic ingredients. I bought the book used at a discount on Amazon. I only paid a few dollars for it, possibly six or seven, I forget. Whatever, it was totally worth it. Not everything is photographed. there are a lot of great color photographs of about half the recipes, maybe less. There are more black and white photographs of chefs at work and artistic restaurant snaps of things going on that interested the photographer. It's a bit frustrating because all of that extra black and white photography stuff is unattributed. The photographer is attributed but not the subject. The reader has no idea where these things are taking place. I should say the flipper-througher has no idea, maybe all that is explained in the introduction which I haven't read yet. 

coriander seeds These are regular coriander seeds found in the spice section of any grocery store. These particular seeds are from the bulk section of Whole Foods, but they could be anything. When these particular seeds were smashed, they tended to break into hemispheres. That did not happen the previous time I smashed coriander seeds. That time the seeds broke into irregular pieces with approximately the same amount of debris. I have no idea how old these seeds are but they appeared to be breaking apart on their own. They separated with very little effort. I got the impression they were exceedingly dry and possibly old. So, there seems a big chance the seeds might not germinate. This is June 1, 2011. You'll see these photos again if the seeds germinate and if the plants grow.  Each round coriander pellet is actually two seeds. That is why two plants emerge from the same spot when the pellets are planted without breaking off the outer shell. The outer shell tends to delay germination. You can see how that would spread out germination across a season and possibly even across seasons.  The smallest sauce pot I own was used to press the seeds. The pot was rolled over the seeds with slight pressure. That's all it took to break these particular seeds apart. When the pot stopped rolling as if on ball bearings, then pressure was stopped, the surface tilted to cause whatever round seed remaining to roll off, then those separated seeds were smashed apart too.  All the seeds and all the extra debris was spread evenly over the top of wet dirt and gently pressed in then covered loosely with damp dirt. No attempt was made to sort through for proper seeds. The pot was covered with plastic kitchen wrap to hold in moisture.

Flounder and spinach with ricotta, mushrooms and onions

Two small flounder filets are poached in hot olive oil.

In another pan, a spinach side is prepared from fresh onion and mushrooms combined with frozen spinach and ricotta.

Lemon to finish both flounder and spinach.

The idea was to poach these filets on exceedingly low heat. Lower than boiling water which at Denver altitude is 202℉/95℃.  ← Poached lower than that. The pan was heated then olive oil poured in. The fish was laid into the pan and the tips immediately curled which indicated to me the oil was too hot so the pan was removed from the hot burner onto a cool burner where it stayed, the heat cut from the abandoned burner. The filets changed immediately from opaque to translucent. When the filets were turned, one of the filets broke, and the oil was merely warm to the touch. These filets are barely cooked, and I must say, I have never had fish filets cooked as outstandingly as this. I do not understand why this is not the preferred method proclaimed across the land. Yes, the fish is coated with olive oil when it is removed from the pan -- but so what? -- a simple squeeze of lemon and BANG! There it is, dressing. Adorned here with un-rinsed briny capers. 

In another pan, this is a two-pan deal, onions are sweated and fresh mushrooms barely heated through. Spinach is added still frozen. The heat is kicked up to melt the ice-spinach which produces steam. Madera is added to flavor and hasten the steam. Italian seasoning, then ricotta is spooned into the combination off the heat. Another squeeze of lemon.  So both sides of the plate, spinach and flounder are alive and bright with zippy-zappy lemon.

A guy or a gal, a bloke or a bird, a bro or a ho, could eat this all day long and not gain an ounce. ← Possible 25% of exaggeration for dramatic rhetorical declarative. 

ARTS !

Eggs, spinach, flounder, bacon

Egg separated, whites to an oversized bowl for whipping impeccably free of oil, that means not a plastic bowl. Copper is best but not necessary. The whites are beaten to stiffness fortified with cream of tarter which stabilizes the foam. The yolks are kept whole. Should a yolk break, then put the broken yolk into a third bowl to be mixed into the nest. 

The beaten egg whites are flavored and then mixed with the nest material of your choice also flavored, here frozen spinach with garlic, nutmeg, oregano, S/P. 

As with a soufflé, a small amount of egg white is mixed with the sturdy vegetable to loosen the mixture. Then that loosened but still sturdy mixture is folded back into the remaining bulk of egg white foam. A thorough mixing is not necessary. The longer one folds and turns and blends, the more foam is destroyed. So it is a balancing act. 

It occurs to me this can be done in bulk for a brunch or some group by spooning the nests onto a baking tray. It would probably work even better than as here in an oiled bowl. 

The yolks can be added to the nest at any point during the cooking. Here, the yolks are raw but they don't have to be. 

This version shown here lacks any cheese, another thing that could make the nests more substantial. 

I am imagining a less foamy version of this where the cohesive egg whites are more like scrambled egg than soufflé. Possibly including egg yolks and some unbeaten whites. More vegetable and less foam including actual leafy vegetable and not chopped spinach. 

ARTS !

Flounder with mango coulis

* Mangos. I used frozen. Fresh fruit is preferred, but the cellular structure of frozen fruit is damaged by having been frozen which makes processing easier on the machine.
* lime
* Grand Marnier, purely as an extravagance.

I have a lot left. I think I'll just eat it like a smoothie.


My original intention was to broil sole filets but that effort floundered.

What?

The thing is, these filets are so small you have to eat a dozen of them to get the minimum nutritional requirement of an infant Aye Aye ... born prematurely ... to a family of genetically midget Aye Ayes ... who have become inactive in captivity. They're small, I'm telling you.

Flounder rolls with florentine

Flounder stuffed with florentine that is stiffened with toasted sourdough bread crumbs. Coated with butter and lime sauce, which I tasted along the way and go, "Eww, yuk!" Added sugar, fixed. Topped with shredded basil and toasted sesame seeds.

florentine

* butter
* flour
** butter and flour to a roux
** 1 or 2 cubes of frozen home-made chicken broth sufficient to bring roux to a thick sauce
* garlic
* diced onion
* chopped spinach
* Parmigiano Reggiano
* toasted bread crumbs to stiffen
* nutmeg
* S/P

Florentine daubed onto flounder filets on top of oiled aluminum foil. Then rolled up and sealed as a roll within the foil. This is the tricky bit, the flounder doesn’t want to roll. It would rather fold. Bake for 20 minutes in toaster oven, less if your filets are tiny things, more if they’re thick. Use your fish-baking judgement here, and remember, overcooked fish is the big fail, so better to undercook and return to oven than to overcook and ruin the whole thing.

sauce

* butter
* 1 cube frozen chicken broth
* 1/2 teaspoon corn starch in 1/4 cup cold water
* juice of 1/2 lime
* 2 teaspoons sugar
* S/P
* juice exuded from the cooked fish.

Flounder, spinach sauce, biscuit

These are small flounders, and they made me think, "Isn't there a size limit on flounders?" Probably not. Once on T.V. I saw a guy pull up a flounder somewhere in the Bering Sea that was the size of a garage door -- a two car garage door. It took a long time to bring up to the surface. His pole was thicker than a broom stick and he broke one of his fingers getting it into the boat, which then took up the entire topside area of the boat. These are like aquarium size flounders and that broken-finger sport fisherman would mock them with derisive laughter.

The flounder is cooked in an excess of butter that is then used as the basis for my trademarked spinach sauce. The sauce is started by dropping a chicken broth ice cube into a mini Cuisinart along with a handful of spinach and a clove of crushed garlic. All that is thinned down a little bit with buttermilk that was already out from making the biscuit to get it out of the Cuisinart, but then the sauce is thickened with corn starch and further acidified with lime. The butter milk is not essential, it's just that it was convenient, I could have used milk, more chicken broth, water, or white wine.

And of course salt and pepper on the flounder and in the sauce.

How to make a single biscuit.

* 1/4 cup flour
* nob of butter, say a tablespoon, rubbed into the flour. If it's not enough butter to completely affect all the flour then add more. By rubbing, I mean smash it with your fingertips then get it off your fingers using the flour in the bowl before the heat of your fingers has a chance to warm it. Keep doing that until the butter is completely smashed and ALL the flour has butter in it. So you end up with a bunch of little butter dots coated with flour.
* use two leavening agents for double rising action.
a) 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
b) 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* aprox. 1/4 cup buttermilk to moisten the mixture and to react with the baking soda. Drizzle it into the combined mixture while stirring with a dinner knife. Add just enough buttermilk to bring the flour mixture together. Do not knead and do not overwork, just bring it together and smash it into a ball.
* bake on high for 12-15 minutes. Ideally, you'd put a batch of biscuits into a HOT oven to force the heat-activated portion of the leavening before setting, then cut the heat back immediately after putting them in. But this is not realistic with just one biscuit in a toaster oven. I used the convection oven that is a component of a combination microwave at its highest setting. I baked it for 12 minutes, then two more minutes, then again for two more minutes. So this biscuit was baked a total of 16 minutes.