Fish Tacos!

It's Mexican/Spanish/Argentinian week at Casa de Bissler! We kicked off the week with some delicious fish tacos. 

We were less enthused reading the recipe and realizing we had to deep fry the fish, but they turned out pretty darn tasty. We used about 1 lb of halibut, rather than 2 lbs, but kept the amount of breading, oil and sauce the same. I think that was smart for the breading and the cooking part, but probably didn't need it for the sauce (as we're trying to figure out what to do with all the extra!). 

We used a Kaliber non-alcoholic beer (they are good for something, amirite?) to make the beer batter. I pretty much want to cover everything in beer batter now.

Beer batter on top, sauce on the bottom

Prepping the fish pieces

The deep-frying was a little scary at first. We were a little afraid of catching everything on fire, and I hate oil splatters everywhere. We fried the fish in about an inch of vegetable oil, and kept a lid nearby just in case things got out of control. We also kept our distance (and those of us who hate wearing shoes inside kept our distance). Since the pieces were a little bigger, Paul did two or three batches to make sure they weren't too crowded. 
 

Fried goodness!

Ready to enjoy!

We topped them with the sauce, tomatillo salsa and red cabbage. They were DELICIOUS. Like good as the ones I've had in restaurants before.

As for what to do with the leftover oil, we let it cool for a few hours and then dumped it back into the (now) empty vegetable oil container to throw away.

My Life for the Last Week

Yup. This has been my life (along with soups, stews and overcooked pasta) for the last week or so after having dental surgery. I feel bad that I was so energized after returning from Italy, only to fall flat on my face and not really cook anything since we've been back. I'm hoping that I'll be back to eating real food within the next couple days and can get back to cooking!


In the meantime, I'll try to update with Italy food photos amid my ice packs. 

Wild Boar with Celery Root and Onions

Paul and I had attended a fun event back in January for Artizone, which is a company that delivers artisan products from local shops directly to your front door. We got really excited about the opportunity to order some interesting food from the options available within the different partner markets. Feeling brave, we ordered a rack of boar (among some other interesting items). I really like boar ragu, so figured this would also be delicious. 

We found a recipe online that looked interesting, calling for us to brine the rack overnight, and then serve the cooked meat with celery root (celeriac) and caramelized onions. We made the brine liquid suggested and let it sit overnight.

Boar rack covered in the herb paste

I am now a fan of celery root. It's a little gnarly looking, but it's pretty tasty. I peeled the outer layer (trimming where needed) and then used the mandoline to slice it into thin pieces. 

Cooking the slices of celery root in some melted butter. Yum!

I would note that this recipe doesn't give a cooking time for the oven, and that's sort of a problem. We cooked it as suggested -- browning on the stove, then in the oven -- with an oven-safe thermometer inserted. The thermometer began reading that the rack was at the right temperature (I think we based this on a beef temperature, but went towards the high/well-done end), but it was definitely not. I like rare meat, but it was cold-raw. 

We ended up cutting the rack into smaller pieces and continuing to cook the pieces in the oven until they were more thoroughly cooked. I think it took an hour to an hour and a half total to get everything cooked through to where I wasn't scared to eat it.

The meat atop the celery root and onion mixture.

We each had two chops, which was definitely enough meat. I thought it was a little salty for my taste (probably from the brining), but Paul liked it. The celery root and onion were really great -- and the sweetness went well with the saltiness of the meat. The herb crust was really tasty and aromatic, so I would definitely make that again for other types of meat.

Homemade Ravioli

Paul and I were motivated one Friday evening to make our own pasta. Four hours later, we were ready for dinner. It's definitely a lot of work, but a fun experience (especially when your frantic pasta making is fueled by wine and sheer hunger). We started by making Mario Batali's tomato sauce recipe (it's our go-to for making sauce).

We made two fillings -- a roasted squash with sage and a ground turkey with ricotta cheese and Italian seasonings. We used the tomato sauce with the turkey, and make a sage brown butter sauce for the squash ravioli. 

The sauce bubbling away on the stove.

Turkey, ricotta and Italian seasonings on the left -- roasted squash and sage on the right.

Paul is usually the pasta-maker in our house, but I helped roll it out as well this time!

We used a pizza cutter instead of a more traditional pastry wheel or pasta cutter.

Squash ravioli with browned butter and sage sauce

Turkey meat ravioli with a fresh tomato sauce

It's definitely time consuming, but also pretty fun and rewarding to make your own pasta. Food just seems to taste better when you've made it yourself. I think I would have a little less dough on the outer edges of the ravioli next time, as it cooks differently than the pasta that is surrounding the filling (i.e. it takes longer to soften up since it's two layers of pasta versus one). I think I would just trim the ravioli a little more next time to solve that problem. My favorite was the squash ravioli with the brown butter and sage sauce -- so delicious!

We also had TONS of leftovers -- and opted to freeze them, uncooked for a quick dinner another evening. We defrosted and cooked them yesterday for a tasty mid-week meal!

Lesson Learned: Chicken Pot Pie

When the recipe calls for a 3 to 4 lb. chicken, don't buy a 7 lb. chicken. Because it won't fit in the biggest pot you have ( an "us" issue, as the 7.5 quart pot was clearly not big enough for a 7 lb. chicken to be submerged in water).

Precarious.

It will essentially double your cooking time (an "everyone" issue, as I assume most people like to eat dinner with in 4 hours of starting to prepare it) as well, as you try to cook down the chicken broth mixture you made with twice as much water, trying to cover your gigantic chicken.

It took forever, but it was pretty delicious (and we have lots of leftovers).  I also made up time by using thawed puff pastry instead of homemade pie dough, which cooks up super quick. 

Much better.

 The chicken pot pie recipe was used was from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything.