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I wrote once before about paella, a while back, but I have to do it once more, mostly because paella in Mallorca, just as it is vastly different from the version my mother makes at home, is also vastly different from the ones found in Barcelona.

When Alex and I were in Barcelona, I let him know about my personal obsession with sticking with native food. Whenever I travel, I feel the need to always eat that which the region is known for: never mind that I may be in the mood for simple spaghetti with tomato sauce (a craving that hits more often than I’d care to admit), in Interlaken, I’m eating rosti, in Rome I’m sampling the cacio e pepe or amatriciana, and in Barcelona, I’m most definitely going for tapas or paella, which is how I managed to eat tapas at least five times during my stay in the city, and paella twice.

The first thing I noticed about this paella marinara that Alex and I ordered to share (and failed miserably at finishing) was the abundance of both tomato-based sauce and whole pieces of seafood. I had always thought of paella as a rice dish, but this pile of mussels, squid and prawns most definitely considered rice the afterthought. While this particular version was a bit too heavily salted for my liking, both of the two versions I tried in Barcelona were a far throw from the tinted yellow rice I knew. I loved it.

My main problem with paella had always been its tendency to become dry: I love the crispy, crunchy bottom layer of rice that clings to the paella pan (which this dish did not lack at all), but I always find myself sprinkling Tabasco over the rice of a “typical” (as I knew it) paella, not only to pump up the spice, but to keep the starchy grains from growing too dry. The abundance of sauce along with the massive shellfish reminded me more of similarly spirited Italian pasta dishes, where the carb becomes secondary to the fish and sauce. It’s a different method and attitude towards paella, but I embraced it thoroughly.

This post has been hanging around on my computer for awhile, and I was getting awfully tired of seeing my last post, so I decided to come by and give you all something new!

As I previously mentioned, the Canadian is a big tuna fan. I had made him tuna once before, but it turned out too salty for my taste, so when he begged for tuna a second time, I obliged, but with a different recipe.

This was a second recipe I found on epicurious, here. I don’t like teriyaki sauce, so I subbed a mix of sesame oil and honey. I got nervous about the over-saltiness of the marinade from last time, so I didn’t marinate these for as long… I wish I had, because the tuna itself didn’t take in a lot of the flavor, but my God the mayonnaise was good! I wanted to put it on everything! I used half fromage frais (plain yogurt works) and half mayonnaise, and it was divine. The whole thing was served over wasabi-scallion mashed potatoes. I preferred this by far… much less salty. But it wasn’t quite enough for the Canadian.

He requested tuna dinner a third time, and I asked him which of the two he had preferred, and the answer was the first. I knew that it had been too salty for me, so I mixed it up a little and came up with my own recipe, an amalgamation of the two. As he didn’t love the mayonnaise, I left it out, and I didn’t have time to make the potatoes. The tuna on its own, however, was by far the best of the three: we both agreed.

Seared Tuna

3 tuna steaks
2-3 tablespoons white sesame seeds
2 teaspoons wasabi paste
2 teaspoons sesame oil
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon white or cider vinegar
2 cups frozen green beans, thawed
1 tablespoon vegetable oil 

Combine wasabi, sesame oil, honey, soy sauce and vinegar in a large glass dish. Set the tuna in the marinade and allow to sit for 30-40 minutes, turning occasionally. Heat a skillet over medium-high heat and heat the vegetable oil. Coat one edge of each tuna steak in seeds and sear, 1-2 minutes per side. Remove tuna and keep warm. Add green beans to skillet, adding remaining marinade. Cook until heated and serve green beans on the side. (Note: if you have time to make wasabi-scallion mashed potatoes, you should DEFINITELY do that as well, and make more sauce/mayonnaise.)

I have made my issue of undercooking things previously known. This problem, I may have also said, stems from a severe fear of overcooking things. Overcompensation… something I should work on.

Anyway, when I found a recipe over at Jaden’s (care of one of her biggest fans, Brilynn) that actually allowed me to cook something for as long as I wanted without any fear of overcooking, it was a dream come true. I made the salmon the evening before we spent the night waiting for the Canadian’s sister in Charles de Gaulle airport.

It came out beautifully cooked, but not the bright color that Jaden got. When, however, I made salmon for the Canadian’s sister later that week, as the Canadian and I were eating tuna, which she does not like, I experimented with turning the oven down 50 degrees. It worked wonderfully! It took a bit more time, but that’s no problem.

Jaden’s recipe is, as she states, more like a set of guidelines than an actual recipe. I’ll link you to her post about it, but the following is what I did.

Slow-Cooked Salmon

1 yellow onion, sliced
1 red onion, sliced
1 scallion, sliced, white and green separated
1 orange, sliced
olive oil
2 tsp. sesame oil
2 salmon fillets
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tsp ground ginger plus extra
1 tablespoon sesame seeds
garlic powder
salt and pepper
one lime

Place the onions and orange (reserve the green parts of the green onion) in the bottom of a baking dish. Toss with olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic powder, and ground ginger to taste. Salt and pepper the salmon fillets and place on top of the onions. Evenly distribute the sesame oil on top of the fillets. Add the tsp of ground ginger, the sesame seeds and the brown sugar, evenly dividing between the two fillets. Bake in the oven at 200 degrees for about 35 minutes, or until a paring knife inserted in the center comes out evenly. Squeeze lime juice over the fillets and garnish with green parts of scallions. Serve with extra onions if desired (if you have time, stick them in the oven and crank it up to 450 so they get a bit sweeter. If you don’t the yellow onions still have a bit of a bite).

Note: The steaks were the first time I made, it… the fillet is the Canadian sister’s. For hers, I didn’t have any orange or green or red onion, but she didn’t mind. For hers, I put the lime in with the aromatics.

I used to be one of those people. I know you know what I’m talking about.”Valentine’s Day is just commercial America’s way of making money between Christmas and Easter.”

“Those chalky hearts are the best thing that come out of Valentine’s Day, and Tums taste better.”

“At least the chocolate will be half-off tomorrow.”

Well… I hate to disappoint my fellow grumblers, but in France, Valentine’s Day is awfully nice and quiet. I wouldn’t have even noticed it was coming, except for the fact that I live down the street from a flower shop, which I pass at least twice every day, and they had a reasonable assembly of red flowers in the window.

As my first Valentine’s Day with a boyfriend, I guess I should have planned something big. My friend, the English One (who took me to Wagamama…), was pretty surprised when I told him that the Canadian and I didn’t have any big plans, but I didn’t mind. I’m not a huge fan of commercial holidays.

I made tuna (the Canadian’s favorite). He bought me a little flower. We watched some TV and drank a bottle of wine. Not veering terribly away from the norm, but I adored it. It was my best Valentine’s Day ever. Little chalky hearts, be damned.

Asian-Flavored Seared Tuna (adapted from Bon Appétit March 2000)

Note: I used regular soy sauce, and I found this to be way too salty for me. However, I don’t really like salt, and the Canadian thought it was fine. If you are sensitive to salt, I highly recommend using low-sodium or not serving the extra sauce on the beans. And yes, I know this recipe makes three steaks… the Canadian got two. Because it’s Valentine’s Day.

3 6-oz. tuna steaks
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 teaspoon wasabi paste
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
2 large handfuls green beans
2 tablespoons sesame seeds
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 scallion, finely chopped
1 heaping teaspoon brown sugar
Mix the soy sauce, wasabi paste and onion powder in a bowl, and place the tuna steaks in the marinade. Let sit for no more than fifteen minutes while you prep the rest of your ingredients. Meanwhile, boil some water and blanch the green beans. Heat a skillet over high heat, and add the sesame oil. Remove steaks from marinade and allow to drip of excess liquid. Roll one edge in the sesame seeds, and season both sides with black pepper. Cook the tuna steaks to preferred doneness… we like them almost raw with just the outside seared and hot. Remove the steaks and keep warm. Add the sugar, scallion and green beans to the skillet, and cook until the sauce has reduced slightly. Serve green beans on the side. And keep in mind my tip about the extra sauce… if you must have it, keep it on the side.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

In 2002, I experienced my first-ever New England winter. According to my Ipswich-native roommate, it was one of the coldest ones in recent history. “Even we don’t get weather this bad,” she would mutter as the two of us sat in our thermals on the bathroom windowsill, running all three showers to build up steam so that we could thaw after a long day. We both bought smokers gloves (with the fingertips cut off) for doing our homework, and, like twins, we wore twin braids and a toque (then called a ski cap in my American-only vocabulary) every day, and she went so far as to wear thermal long underwear under her jeans. It was cold.

Spring came eventually, and on the first sixty degree day, a Sunday, we spent the afternoon in t-shirts, doing our homework on the lawn. Yes, it was cold, but damn, I could walk around without shoes on and not get frostbite, so I would! It felt like summer to my warmth-starved body, and so that evening at dinner, as we clambered in from the lawn holding our shoes in our hands, I fixed myself a bowl of sticky rice and soy sauce. I know… bizarre, but allow me to go on another extremely long tangent and explain.

My father has done every fad diet known to man. Some were annoying, like the grapefruit diet, and others I enjoyed, like one that had him eating sugar-free Jello and Cool-Whip and chunks of nutty Parmegiano-Reggiano. I have yet to completely understand what that particular diet was all about.

My favorite, however, is a recurring one. Every summer, when we go out to Long Island, Noda-San comes back. Noda-San, also known as “Mr. Sushi” runs a four-seat sushi bar in Westhampton Beach. It’s the second best sushi I’ve ever had (the first best, also eaten with my father, was in a strip mall in LA somewhere near Studio City. Go figure.) Anyway, every summer, when Noda-San comes back from Puerto Rico and opens up the sushi bar again, my father decides that a diet consisting solely of sushi, grilled fish and seaweed salad is just what he needs. Sure enough, it usually ends with him losing about twenty pounds, all of which he slowly regains over the winter months. My sister and I are his usual dining companions, and I, the only one with drivers’ license, am rewarded with sushi money if I make the drive to pick up his typical Japanese breakfast of seaweed and rice vinegar.

All this to say that, to me, soy sauce and sesame are possibly the flavors that best exemplify summer. Which is why, even though I had a spaghetti Bolognese dinner planned for this evening, I changed my mind as soon as I saw the clear blue sky and smelt the spring. I don’t care what that damn Groundhog says. I don’t care that I still nearly froze in my bed last night, or that I’m still wearing two pairs of socks and nursing big cups of hot tea. Today, there was a hint of spring in the air. It smelled like fresh grass and mulch… like that day so many years ago when the ice and snow finally started to melt, and we sat by rapidly shrinking snow drifts to work on chemistry homework. This is why I abandoned the package of ground veal for another day, and went out to buy some salmon, to be served with lime, soy, spinach and rice, a food I never, ever eat, unless it’s with soy sauce and sesame, as soon as I can start to see the beginning of spring.

Lime-Honey-Soy Salmon

2 salmon fillets
2 limes
2 tbsp. honey
2 tbsp. soy sauce
1 tsp mustard
salt and pepper
vegetable oil

Season the fillets on both sides with salt and pepper, and add to a “screaming hot” (as Rachael Ray says) skillet with vegetable oil. Cook for two minutes per side, until the outside is crisp and brown, and the inside is cooked through but still moist. Remove from skillet and keep warm. Add the other ingredients to the skillet and cook down for one minute, stirring constantly. Drizzle the glaze over the fillets and serve. We had it over rice and reheated frozen spinach, and it was divine.

I just made the most amazing dinner for my family. I hate to gloat, but it was pretty darn awesome.

First, I made a simple salad of mixed greens, Craisins, sliced almonds, orange sections, and blue cheese.

I need to pause here to say that Craisins are AMAZING. And this from a person who hates raisins. Craisins are dried and sweetened cranberries, and they have this amazing sour sweetness that bursts in your mouth, much sweeter than an actual cranberry.

Craisins mix very well with pungeant cheeses like Gorgonzola, and a sweeter salad dressing. I mixed honey, mustard, champagne vinegar, and olive oil for this one.

After the salad, I made a Salmon with Orange Glaze from “The Healthy Kitchen.” I meant to take pictures as soon as it came out, but my family was so hungry and it looked so tasty that I forgot until there was only half a piece left. The salmon was amazing. The glaze wasn’t too sweet, and with a little extra soy sauce, the dish tasted great. I made a few changes to the recipe from “THK.” This is my version of the dish.

Salmon with Orange Glaze

Preheat oven to 400°F.

Sear six 6oz. fish fillets in sesame oil in a large, very hot skillet for 1 minute on each side. Remove fillets from the heat and transfer them to a glass baking dish or baking pan. Drizzle three tablespoons of soy sauce and one quarter cup of sherry over them and bake them for 10 minutes. Remove them from the oven. Sprinkle with black sesame seeds.

Meanwhile, heat one cup of freshly squeezed orange juice, one teaspoon of orange zest, three tablespoons of sherry, and half a teaspoon of freshly grated ginger together in a small saucepan over medium-high heat until reduced by half. Remove from heat, strain the sauce over the fish, and serve.

To go with the salmon, I made Orange Ginger Brown Rice that I got off of Food Network’s Date Plate. Growing up, my mother never made brown rice. In fact, she hardly ever made rice at all. I was raised eating all Italian or French food, because my father’s family is Italian, and my mother was trained in France. I think this could be why I’m so interested in Asian styles of cooking, even if it is mostly fusion cooking now.

I don’t love white rice; I find it rather bland, and the only time I like it is with sushi. Brown rice, however, is a different story. I love the nutty flavour and texture, and the difference between the harder outer husk and the tender inner grain. Once again, I made a few changes to the recipe I found on Food Network, and this is my changed version. I added more broth, and used sesame oil in place of the vegetable oil that the recipe used. I also subbed red onion for white. This recipe paired very well both with the rice I used and with the fish.

Orange Ginger Brown Rice

Begin by sweating two medium red onions, diced, in sesame oil in a medium sized pan until they are translucent. Add two cups of brown rice and saute for 1 minute. Add two teaspoons of orange zest and two tablespoons of ginger and cook for 1 more minute. Add four and a half cups of vegetable stock and bring to a boil. Cover the pan with a lid and cook over low heat for 20 to 25 minutes or until rice is tender. Add salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste.

Dessert was a peach crumble I made with peaches that were about to turn bad. So good for crumble! Here’s the very straightforward recipe I used. Once again, I forgot to take pictures until it was mostly all gone, but oh well.

Peach Crumble
Preheat oven to 425°F.

Mix 3/4 cup flour, 2/4 cup sugar, 1/4 cup crumbled sliced almonds, and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Add 1 stick of cold butter, sliced into tablespoon pieces, and mix with hands until butter is in small pieces and coated. Spread one pound of sliced peaches in a 9 1/2-inch deep-dish glass pie plate and sprinkle topping over it.

Bake crumble in middle of oven until fruit is tender and topping is golden brown, 25 to 30 minutes.

So there we go. I’ll be back tomorrow!
emiglia