Author Archive for Hal

Almond Crusted Halibut

Published by Hal on June 22, 2008 in Fish Fry-day and recipes. 1 Comment

When we were on vacation a few weeks ago, we got a phone call from Stacie’s brother, Donnie. Donnie is currently in the military, stationed in Fairbanks, Alaska, and I’m sure you can imagine what kind of adventures one can get into when you’re in Alaska. This particular weekend, he went fishing and managed to catch some halibut. Thirty pounds of it.

Donnie wasn’t sure what to do with it, so he did the first thing that came to his mind–he shipped it home to his parents. Which was funny, because it’s really just his parents at home, with the occasional kid popping in for the weekend–hardly the crowd to feed thirty pounds of fish to! But, that’s okay, because Stacie and I benefited from two pounds of this easy to cook fish.

I made the first pound on Thursday, and it was definitely a treat. What’s great about halibut is its versatility and its mild flavor. I paired it with some crushed almonds, pan fried it, and served it along side some garlic and shallot snow peas.

Almond Crusted HalibutIngredients

  • 1 pound of halibut, cut into two pieces
  • 1/2 cup crushed almonds
  • 1/2 cup of flour or plain breadcrumbs
  • salt & pepper
  • vegetable oil

Directions

  1. Generously season the fish with salt and pepper.
  2. Combine the flour and the almonds, then dredge the fish in the mixture.
  3. Heat a tablespoon of oil in a skillet, over medium heat and add the fish.
  4. Cook the fish for 5-7 minutes on each side, until the fish is cooked through. Serve immediately.

To make the garlic and shallot snow peas, simply heat some olive oil over medium heat in a skillet, and add a clove of chopped garlic and a chopped shallot. Cook until both are translucent, but not caramelized. Add the snow peas, and cook until heated through–but not too much, because you still want them crunchy.

That’s it–easy, simple, and great for tonight’s supper!

A good combination

Published by Hal on June 10, 2008 in observations of food. 1 Comment

Cherries and nutella.

Yum.

An $8.50 salad

Published by Hal on June 9, 2008 in admin and observations of food. 1 Comment

I went out for lunch today, because life got in the way of going to the grocery store this weekend and, unfortunately, hunger stops for no one, not even two weddings and monsoon-like downpouring of water (and the subsequent flooding that keeps people from getting home in a timely manner from said weddings).

And I must tell you, I’ve been fleeced. I knew the restaurant I chose was expensive, but I thought that, surely, a salad would not be terrible. After all, the components, while not as cheap as they once were, still are not very expensive and pound-for-pound, are much less expensive than other options.

$8.50 later, I am a little annoyed.  $8.50 paid for a half a tomato, two tablespoons of cheese, a quarter of a shredded carrot, a half a chicken breast, one crumbled strip of bacon, 1/4 head of lettuce, and 1/4 cup of dressing.

I don’t have solid figures to break this down for you, but I know I could have purchased enough raw materials to make at least 3-4 salads for that same price. From a boutique health food store.

Can you tell I’m annoyed? I’m going to the grocery tonight, and will probably buy these same components to have this same salad again later this week. And I’ll be able to eat 4 times for the amount of money it cost to eat just my lunch today.

Keep this perspective when you think about that dinner from Applebee’s or Friday’s you might order tonight.

—

So, Joseph from Louisville sent me an email asking me where I’ve been.

I’ve been horrible about writing for the last two months, but here’s why:

  1. I’ve been extremely busy between work and personal commitments, and
  2. I’m not immune to food price inflation, which leads to
  3. I haven’t been cooking very much.
  4. However, the item in number 2 some how hasn’t stopped me from going out to eat, which probably results from the item in number 1.
  5. I also didn’t realize that I had enough of a fan following that someone would actually miss me (Thank you, Joseph!)

So, in short, I’ve been eating, but I haven’t been cooking very much. I do have a recipe I should share with you, and several food places to write about. And, now that I’m aware someone is paying attention, maybe that’ll light enough of a fire to post more frequently. Don’t expect a new recipe every day (when I started out, I didn’t realize how expensive, in both time and money, that kind of commitment would take), but I’ll make it a stated goal to do this at least once a week going forward.

Dinner Tonight: Asian Noodle Salad

Published by Hal on April 28, 2008 in recipe reviews. 1 Comment

I spent a little more time in the kitchen tonight than I have in recent weeks. I just wanted to cook something, and I came across a delightfull gem in my “starred” posts in my RSS reader: Pioneer Woman’s version of Asian Noodle Salad (by Jaime Oliver). This salad has a ton of everything God made that was delicious. I didn’t take pictures because we were so hungry, but if you’ve ever been to PW’s blog, you’ll agree that I can’t hold a candle to her photography greatness (her and Jaden from Steamy Kitchen–they are both AMAZING).

Before you follow the link, let me give you a few pointers about this salad:

1. It makes a TON of food. Vegetables are bulky. Cooked pasta takes up alot of room. You can either halve this recipe or make it in your bathtub. Your choice. Personally, if your bathtub is clean…

2. This recipe calls for hot peppers–2 or 3 jalpeno’s or serrano peppers. If you don’t like the heat, cut back to just one pepper and make sure you take the seeds out. To really ensure that you won’t have any problems, slice the ribs and membrane off the inside of the pepper, just like filleting a fish. What ever you do, though, don’t skip the pepper! Once you get past the heat, it adds a lot of flavoriciousness.

3. Yes, this recipe really calls for that much cilantro. Yes, you need it. Yes, you could use more than just a bunch. And, apparently, if cilantro tastes like soap to you, you might be allergic to it. At least, that’s the rumor floating around teh interwebs.

This salad was amazing. Make it for yourself and 5-7 of your friends. Or, enjoy it for a day or two. I’m sure it can only get better with age!

Mini Garden!

Published by Hal on April 27, 2008 in tools and wine. 0 Comments

I’m starting a small window garden! Let’s Hope it works… there is basil, chives, and oregano. We’ll check back in a few weeks to see how it’s going!

Posted from moBlog – mobile blogging tool for Windows Mobile

3 Blind Moose

Published by Hal on April 22, 2008 in wine. 6 Comments

3 Blind Moose Pinot GrigioStacie and I have been drinking a lot more wine since we moved to Bloomington. I think I’ve said this before, but it’s (still) true. What happens is, when we’re picking up ingredients for that night’s dinner, we’ll pick up a bottle of wine that (we hope) goes with dinner.

Last night, the dinner was chicken and caesar salad. Plain ol’ chicken. I, off-handedly, said we should pick up a bottle of wine. I was joking. Sort of. So we settled on a pinot grigio–but, we were at the grocery store, not a big party store–and there wasn’t anything there over $20. Honestly, I’m not big on really expensive wines, anyway.

I think I’d heard or read something about 3 Blind Moose before, that it was a decent brand for the price. So, that’s how we settled. It certainly did not disappoint. It was light and crisp–and I just realized that if I were going to write about the wine, I should probably have paid more attention! But, the point–it was tasty, and for $7, it was priced right. We certainly enjoyed it.

Do you have any inexpensive wines you enjoy? Have any experience with 3 Blind Moose you want to share?

bourbon hal glaze

Published by Hal on April 21, 2008 in admin. 0 Comments

In case I haven’t made it clear enough, I use a wonderful software for tracking who visits my site, how they get here, and what they do when they are here (see the “Legal” section).

So, what I do see when I open my email this morning to view the keyword hits to this site? “bourbon hal glaze”

Is someone trying to glaze me and cook me? Should I be horrified? I’m not, but I am thoroughly amused. In case you are wonder that site that should hit, here it is.

Here’s what else comes up for “bourbon hal glaze.”

I think they meant “ham,” and not “hal.” Oops :) If it was you, send me an email and let me know–you’ve just become famous to the common culinarians!

—

Where have I been? Okay, so here’s what happens–you get really excited about this idea, decide to try your hand, and start running this like a business. Then, you realize just how hard work it is, and you slow down. Your job gets in the way, and it’s hard to post again. And, finally, you eat nearly every other meal for the last two weeks out. Not even good places out. McDonald’s out. Not healthy. Not write worthy. So, no posts from me. I’ll get back into the swing of things again, I promise :)

The economics of eating…

Published by Hal on April 9, 2008 in Frugal Friday and observations of food. 1 Comment

I work in a profession that is notorious for not keeping regular hours. Fortunately, I seem to do pretty well when it comes to managing my time, so I can usually come home and relax a little before going to bed. But that doesn’t mean that I get the joy of exercising my passion frequently because I come home late, or when I get home I’m so mentally drained that  just want to veg out (dear readers, that’s what happened a few months ago when I stopped writing every day–but that’s a different post).

So, sometimes we just go out to eat. But, let me tell you just how expensive that can get. In February we spent nearly $800 on food between groceries and dining out. It was about 50-50 because we hosted a SuperBowl party, otherwise dining out would have killed groceries. March was a little better, but only because we had to exercise some restraint to pay for some of the largesse of February (we bought computers and booked vacation, as well as spent a million dollars on food). This is what prompted me to post about recreating a favorite salad at home.

Other times, we simply buy convenience foods and make something “semi-homemade.” We’ve been doing that a lot this week–Stacie learned how to make a really good pizza dough, but it takes about an hour and a half, which means if we both get home around 5:30, we’re not eating until 7 or later. So, we bought two pizza crusts and a jar of sauce, with some cheese. Cost us about 8 dollars, and we should have gotten 8 meals (2 people, 4 meals each) out of this, and saved us at least an hour and a half (I’m not factoring the time spend making a good sauce, though, which may add more time).

And, on the far end, we just make everything from scratch. This is probably the cheapest option–I spent as much on a bag of flour as I did on the pizza crusts, and I could make 30 or 40 crusts from that flour–but it’s also the most expensive in terms of time. There have been days where I’ve spent hours in the kitchen–first, because I love it, and second, because I needed to between making sauces, baking bread, or whatever, something needed my attention.

Thinking about this makes me realize why cookbooks emphasizing 30 minute meals are so popular–not very many people have the money to go out every night, and not very many people have the time to indulge in a large cooking expedition every night. Furthermore, it seems that the American palate has been conditioned to expect “Wow!” at every meal, or at least something better than bologna and cheese. So, we compromise on cost and time and opt for quick fix dinners. Have you thought about this lately? Is this healthy? Do you really need to have vodka cream pasta each night, or would a simple sandwich with a simple salad suffice?

I’m guessing so, but we don’t want it to suffice. At least we–well, some of us–aren’t eating out at every turn, wasting even more money to save time.

Sizzling Steak

Published by Hal on April 7, 2008 in recipes. 0 Comments

I sometimes just have a strong desire for steak. I’m not sure what’s up with that, or even why that is, but it’s true: I love steak. We discussed having Pizza tonight, but we didn’t. We took Layla on her walk, and then set off to the store for some much wanted hunk-a-beef. Mindful that we are on something of a tight budget for the next couple of months (we have several weddings to go to, and Stacie is in one of them; and, we both just bought computers this month :( ), we were careful about what we chose.

I’m not even sure which cut I chose, I just know it was about 6 oz of meat for each cut and the cut was red with not alot of fat but for a strip on the outside. We picked out two lovely potatoes to steam, and I picked up a box of kosher salt (I had run out and we walked by the display). Getting home, I unwrapped the lovelies from their package and set to work seasoning and setting. I opted for a gentle dusting of said kosher salt, a liberal crack of pepper, and a shake or more of onion powder and garlic powder, each.

I like my steak between medium and medium rare, and these were about 1/2 inch thick. That means I cooked these for about 4 minutes on each side, bringing the temperature inside to between 135 and 145 degrees when I took them off the heat (remember, meat will rise 5-10 degrees when it’s resting before you serve it). Coupled with the delicious potatoes, this was a superb meal. Would have been okay health-wise, too, if I didn’t add butter, sour cream, and cheese to my potato :( But, it sure was good!

One day, soon, I’ll find batteries for my camera. I really need to make that a priority, don’t you think?

Chicken and Biscuits Florentine

Published by Hal on April 6, 2008 in recipes. 0 Comments

So, what’s the worst thing a food blogger could do (besides not cook, or write about it)? Not have batteries in the camera to take a picture of the food s/he is writing about. Ooops.

Well, anyway, I don’t have pictures to share, but I thought I would provide the recipe anyway, just in case I forget (because I am prone to do that, now). I came up with this because I needed to use up a lot of things: I had a can of cream of chicken soup that we bought for some reason, and I had a ton of vegetables in fridge that were calling out to be eaten. I thought I might could do a chicken primavera, but then I didn’t haven’t enough farfalle pasta. I thought linguine would be too much. So I opted for rice. But as I was eating this with the rice, I realize that the chunkiness of the veggies and the sheer volume of the spinach was calling for something else–a biscuit! So, there you have it.

Ingredients

  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 onion, finely diced
  • 3 carrots, diced
  • 3 ribs of celery, diced
  • 4 cloves of garlic, smashed and minced
  • 4 chicken tenders, cut in to bite sized pieces
  • 1 can condensed cream of chicken soup
  • 1 can of milk
  • 1 box of frozen spinach, thawed and very well drained
  • 1/2 green pepper, diced
  • 1/2 red pepper, diced
  • salt and pepper

Procedure

Heat the oil over medium heat in a large saucepan. Add the onion, celery, and carrots, and a dash of salt and pepper, and cook until the vegetables are tender. Add the garlic and chicken, stirring just until the chicken is nearly cooked, about 5 minutes. Add the soup and milk and stir to combine. Then, add the spinach and stir to evenly incorporate everything. Once the mixture has come to a bubble, add the peppers. Spoon over a split biscuit and serve.

One final thing to note: I upgraded my WordPress installation tonight–if something doesn’t look right, please contact me at blog [at] commonculinarian [dot] com.

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