BAKED TROUT WITH CARMELIZED ONION/VERMOUTH REDUCTION

                                                Prep time: 15 minutes

                                                Cook time: 30 to 60 minutes

                                                Serves: 4

Farmed rainbow trout currently makes it onto all the ‘best choice’ seafood lists, with minimal contaminants and sustainable production. Thank goodness, because trout is a wonderful fish, flavorful, reasonably inexpensive, and easy to cook. Plain trout with salt and pepper is hard to beat. This recipe elevates plain trout to casual entertainment level. Give it a try.

MUSIC: Minimalism was quite possibly the most profound movement of second half twentieth century ‘classical’ music. One of my favorites is Steve Reich’s Variations for Winds, Strings, and Keyboards, a pleasant, undulating ride for 22 minutes. For non-minimalists, try jazz guitarist Tuck Andress’s masterful album RECKLESS PRECISION, especially Body and Soul, and Begin the Beguine.

HERE’S ALL YOU NEED:

1. Two trout filets (or three if they are small)
2. One medium onion, finely chopped
3. Dry Vermouth (or other dry white wine), ¾ Cup, more or less*
4. Sundried tomatoes, about ten to twelve halves, chopped coarsely**
5. Olive oil, 2 Tablespoons
6. Butter, 1 Tablespoon
7. salt and pepper

HERE’S WHAT TO DO:

• Place trout filets, skin down, in a greased baking pan (oil or butter) just big enough to hold them, and bring to room temperature.
• Heat olive oil/butter in a sauce pan and sauté onions about 15 minutes until slightly carmelized to a golden brown color.
• Add vermouth and sundried tomatoes and cook on medium-high heat until reduced by half or more.
• Heat oven to 400° F.
• Pour/spread reduced onion mixture over the trout and place in oven.
• Bake until just done, usually about 8 to 10 minutes, certainly until active bubbling at the edges.
• Serve immediately on warmed plates, with kosher salt and coarse pepper added to taste.

CADENZA: Serve with either rice or potatoes, plain with only butter and salt and pepper so the flavors of the trout get top billing. A green veg on the side accompanies well (asparagus or broccoli best, hint of lemon juice).

WINE: White is best. A medium-dry Sauvignon Blanc, Vouvray, or a not-too-sweet Riesling accompanies the fish nicely.

*Dry Vermouth is inexpensive and full of flavors that work well in cooking. Any white wine works here as well.

** Sundried tomatoes come either dry or packed in oil. In this recipe, either is fine because cooking them in the Vermouth sauce softens them nicely.

Prosciutto and Broccoli with Pasta

Prosciutto and Broccoli in Pasta  

             

                                    Prep time: 20 minutes

                                    Cook time:  15 to 20 minutes

            The inspiration for this dish came during an Italian cooking class I took many years ago. The chef’s mother’s family, who lived in rural Italy, had made variations of this recipe for three generations. The dish had clearly withstood the test of time.

            I once made it for a woman to whom I was strongly attracted. It led to a variety of good things during and after the dinner. For one, I ended up marrying her (after, not during). Over the years, this recipe has withstood the test of time in our household when many others have fallen away as our tastes changed.

            The recipe is simple, the flavor bright; good for any season of the year. The main attractions are the olive oil and garlic, but all the ingredients, while they maintain their ‘individuality’ and color on the serving dish, meld beautifully on the palate.

MUSIC: This dish begs for Italian Opera (Pavarotti in an early career recording of La Boheme would be fine). If opera is not your thing, Frank Sinatra with the Count Basie big band “I Only Have Eyes For You” would work exceedingly well. If neither opera nor Sinatra is your thing, try one of them anyway. 

HERE’S ALL YOU NEED

1. Pasta: about ¾ to 1 lb. Any noodle will do, but shorter cuts (penne, fusilli, capunti) are best because the pasta is tossed with the sauce before serving, and long noodles can be cumbersome. Fresh pasta is always best.
2. Prociutto, Italian (Parma) or domestic, one slab ¼ inch thick, enough to make 1 Cup of cut pieces (see below). ¹
3. Broccoli, two or three stalks, stems in tact.²
4. Sundried tomatoes, about 6 to 8 halves or ¾ Cup chopped.³
5. Celery, chopped, 1 Cup minimum, with leaves.⁴
6. Garlic, 2 to 3 cloves, chopped
7. Olive oil, extra virgin, ¼ to ⅓ of a Cup
8. Parmesan cheese, grated, for garnish
9. Salt, Pepper to taste

HERE’S WHAT TO DO:

• Get all ingredients prepared ahead of time:
• cut prociutto into small shoe-string sticks, about one inch long, total about 1 Cup or less.
• cut broccoli into bite size pieces, including stems ¹
• chop sun dried tomatoes coarsely
• chop garlic, celery
• Cook pasta in plenty of salted water, drain and set aside.
• In a 4 quart shallow sauce pan, sauté garlic and celery in olive oil. Don’t skimp on the olive oil, especially if it is really good olive oil.
• Cook garlic and celery for 3 to 5 minutes approximately on medium heat. Don’t burn the garlic.
• Add rest of ingredients and turn up to medium-high and cook, stirring occasionally, until the broccoli is bright green and has softened slightly, about 2 to 3 minutes.
• Turn off heat
• Add a portion (or all) of the pasta in with the sauce and toss lightly. Add a Tablespoon or two of water if needed.
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Serve on warmed plates and top with plenty of grated Parmesan.

CADENZA:  Serve with a country-style Italian bread and a simple leaf salad, maybe with some sliced green onion but without all the extras that are popular these days like nuts, pears, pomegranate seeds, etc. 

WINE:          Red wine is definitely best. Chianti, Rioja, Dolcetto d’Alba, or any of the lighter reds. Most white wines will nicely accompany this dish as well: Sancerre, Vouvray, Pinot Grigio, Chardonnay, French Chablis or white Burgundy.

¹About prociutto: While Parma prociutto from Italy is generally considered the best, some domestically produced (i.e. North American) prociutto is fine for this dish. The thick slab is important in order to make the small pieces; you might not need the whole piece depending on where on the leg it was cut. Don’t use more than one Cup of meat: too much procuitto overpowers the other flavors. One piece with every bite or second bite, is plenty.

²About broccoli: if you didn’t already know this, most of the sugar is in the stem, so use as much stem as possible. Cut off the chewy outer skin, but don’t discard the light green pulp of the stems. Stems are the best! The florets look nice but have less flavor.

³About sun dried tomatoes: I once heard a guy in the media predict that sun-dried tomatoes were only a fad and would soon go the way of quiche or other food fads. Clearly this guy’s fund of knowledge was more about pop culture than food. He was so wrong (about both sun-dried tomatoes and quiche). Sun-dried tomatoes are one of life’s wonderful taste treats, and will remain so as long as they exist on the planet. Though highly versatile, my preference is to use them in cooked dishes, not raw, as in a sandwich. But…personal tastes, you know.

            Buy them packed in olive oil or dry. The brighter the color, the brighter the flavor usually. If very dry, they require reconstitution in water before using for cooking.

⁴About celery: the leaves are full of wonderful flavor. Include them in all recipes that call for celery, especially soups.

OXTAIL SOUP

This may seem manic, but I have to share this with those of you who like to cook because it was so unexpectedly delicious and took about ten minutes. This is how it happened. It was all done with waay leftovers.

1. Ox tail bits from the freezer: I had made beef stock from oxtails [[[one oxtail sawed by the butcher into pieces, a quartered onion, some chunks of clelery, some chunks of carrot, a bay leaf, some water—you figure it out, just not too much—and cook it for two to three hours, strain off the broth to keep, ditch the veggies, freeze the oxtail bits]]].

2. Some of the leftover stock, gelatinized in the fridge, about ½ Cup or a little more.

3. Mashed potatoes from three days ago—equal parts potato and celery root pieces—boil the hell out of them, smash’em, add some butter and cream, salt and pepper.

4. Reduced tomatoes from, like, five days ago. (Take a can of chopped tomatoes, or sauce will suffice, and reduce by 50% in a pan on the stove or in the oven at 350, a little salt, a little thyme, until sort of dryish.)

• Thaw out the oxtail pieces enough to take the meat off the bone, or better, heat in a pan until you can take the meat off.
• Heat in a sauce pan with a little butter and light oil (sunflower or veg oil) along with one or two tablespoons of the reduced tomato goop. Stir to prevent sticking/burning.
• When hot, add the old stock/broth
• Add one or two tablespoons of the mashed potatoes and blend into the broth.
• Warm
• Serve
• I also had a few leftover mushroom agnolotti/ravioli/tortellini that I refreshed in hot water for a few minutes and added to the mix just before serving.
• A little parmesan and pepper is excellent.

It was unbelievably delicious, and I even was sober. I don’t have a photo. Next time.

Love