Get Him to The Greek

Sunday's dinner.  We had two heads of broccoli and one eggplant ready to be rotated out of my veggie stock, so I figured I'd also use up the last of our frozen whiting filets on a Greek-style dinner (always an easy choice).  All of the recipes are in The Food of Greece by Vilma Liacouras Chantiles.

Whipped eggplant:

1 largish eggplant (about 1 pound)

1 tbsp Earth Balance

1/4 cup warmed milk (optional)

pinch of nutmeg

salt and pepper to taste

Cut eggplant in half lengthwise and bake in oven at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.  Scoop pulp from skins into a bowl, mash with a fork (or puree in a blender; remove any pieces that don't want to mash) and stir in remaining ingredients.

Fish baked in paper:

4 whiting filets, thawed

1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley

2 tbsp lemon juice

6 bay leaves

1 tbsp capers

salt and pepper to taste

Combine all ingredients and marinate in the fridge while the eggplant's baking.  Raise heat to 375 degrees.  Place two filets on parchment paper and wrap so that outer folds are down (or tie with kitchen string).  Repeat with remaining two filets.  Place both packages on a shallow baking pan and bake for 15 minutes.  Discard bay leaves when serving.

Lemon-pepper broccoli:

2 heads broccoli, stems removed

2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp lemon juice

salt and pepper to taste

Place broccoli flowerets in a microwave-safe bowl, cover with a paper towel and microwave on high for two minutes.  Stir in remaining ingredients and serve.

This was another of those that sounds like a lot but was easy to get done in the time it took to bake and then mash the eggplant, about 50 minutes total.  And since Steve had picked up the Get Him to The Greek DVD at Walmart on Friday, we had to watch it Sunday night.  It was better than I expected, but I would not recommend it to the Bambi or Eat Pray Love crowds.

Coming soon...more adventures in new veggies!

Whiting escabeche

One of my favorite things to order when we dine at Old San Juan is their menu item called "La Garita," which is tilapia in escabeche sauce over rice. I was inspired to look up the escabeche recipe a while back, and Monday night I finally decided to give it a whirl.

I had half a cup of the chimichurri left over from the shrimp 'n grits, so I cheated by adding that to the diced peppers and olives along with the half-cup of tomato juice that the recipe calls for. I thawed the fish and put it all in a big Ziploc bag Sunday afternoon and left it in the fridge until I got home on Monday, then emptied the contents onto a shallow baking pan lined with foil and put it all in the oven on 400 degrees for about 15 minutes. While it was baking, I made the rice. Easy!

Whiting au poivre with herbed lentils

So, last week I saw where some website had posted French recipes in celebration of Bastille Day.  One of them was "Tuna au poivre with lemon-caper lentils," with tuna being chosen as a healthy substitute for pepper steak.  Well, I almost never have either in the house, but we did have whiting in the freezer.  Also, Steve doesn't like capers because of their unsavory provenance ("they're a garbage vegetable"?), which was just as well because I had carrots and some zucchini from the backyard that needed to be used up.  The link to the recipe this is based on is here, and here's what I actually made (Tuesday night):

2 6-oz. whiting filets and one flounder filet, thawed
salt and fresh-ground pepper
1 cup lentils, rinsed and sorted
1 sprig fresh rosemary, chopped
2 medium carrots, peeled and sliced
2 medium zucchini, quartered lengthwise and sliced about 1/3 inch thick
1 tbsp lemon juice

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees.  Salt and pepper both sides of each fish filet, pressing in the pepper.  Place the fish filets in a greased shallow baking pan and bake until fish flakes with a fork, about 15-20 minutes.  Halfway through the cooking, sprinkle lemon juice on the fish filets and put them back in the oven.

Meanwhile, bring 2 1/2 cups of water to boil.  Add lentils, carrots, rosemary and salt.  Cover and simmer for 10 minutes.  After 10 minutes, add zucchini, put the lid back on and simmer until lentils are done, another 15-20 minutes.

Easy, huh?  Steve and I both had the whiting on Tuesday night, and I had the flounder for lunch at work the next day.  The flavors of whiting and flounder are different, but I thought it worked either way.

As hungry as I am, I can't believe I'm still typing.  Thank God Steve brought home another rotisserie chicken; now all I have to do is cook up some of the broccoli he brought home a few days ago and we'll be set!