What to Do with Herbs vol 2

Fish Veracruz Style

Taste & See: Like the most recent post, here's another simple dish full of complex, rich flavors you can make almost entirely with stuff in the pantry, plus a jolt of fresh herbs.

What do you have in your pantry?

You have pungent, flavorful, long-lasting things. Things that you can add in small doses to de-borify basic staples. Things that keep for ages. (To be fair, some of the below should be refrigerated.) Things that don't cost much, at least not for the work they do. Things like:

• A good array of spices, dried herbs & dried chilies. What is a good array? It depends on what you like to cook, duh. But it's also not a bad idea to just buy something and learn how to use it. I never used Aleppo Pepper until this awesome cookbook inspired me to shell out a few bucks for something I've since come to love and sprinkle on EVERYTHING.
• Olives, capers, anchovies, preserved lemon : Last forever, a little goes a long way.
• Canned tomato, tomato paste, sundried tomato: Do you see a theme?
• Roasted red peppers: The miracle jar that makes you feel like you actually do eat more than just carbs and cheese.
• Garlic, ginger, onions: Great in everything. Just keep on hand. Being without garlic when you need some is like having to read a whole lecture on your pantry before getting to the recipe .  .  . uh, er . . .

I could continue but hopefully these suggestions give you an idea. 

What's the point?

Let me spell it out: pantry + fresh herbs = blah weeknight evening when you're tired and hungry but don't have much on hand, you can still eat a decent dinner without ordering in or working hard. 

This is pretty much why this site exists, but I feel a mild need to remind you since I'm just now coming back from a hiatus, lest you're here looking for something super fancy. This blog is about faking fancy. Are we on the same page?

Alright, lecture over. On to the recipe.

Baseline Recipe: Red Snapper, Veracruz Style, from Epicurious / Bon Appetit.

This is an adaptation. I'll just tell you what I did - I didn't have everything on hand & didn't feel like measuring precisely.

I wasn't expecting much - I just needed to use up the fish. But even though it took just minutes to throw together and didn't use anything fancy, this dish was so flavorful and satisfying. I actually wished I had company so I could show it off. And PS, the sauce would be fantastic even without the fish.

What You Need:
Jar of home preserved tomatoes. (Oh, you don't preserve your own tomatoes? Kidding! Just keep some cans of diced tomatoes on hand, like I said!)
Olive oil
Small onion (+ half a leftover shallot I needed to use up) 
Garlic
Bay leaf
A few tablespoons chopped fresh oregano and parsley
Raisins
Capers 
Fillet of porgy (a fish similar to Red Snapper available at a budget price at my farmers' market)

What to Do: Preheat oven to 425. Chop garlic, onion & shallot in food processor; saute briefly in olive oil. Meanwhile, put a colander over a bowl and dump in tomatoes. Press down with a potato masher or spoon, reserving the drained liquid. Add (what is now) tomato puree to onion mixture, allowing to thicken (about 1 minute). Add bay leaf, chopped herbs, handful of raisins, spoonful of capers, and tomato sauce. Simmer until it thickens.

Put about a half cup sauce in a shallow baking dish (I used a pie pan), add fish fillet, and top with remaining sauce. Bake about 15 minutes or until fish is just opaque in center. Garnish with more chopped parsley. Serve over rice.

Pre Fab Cooking

Return of the Faux Gourmet You Know & Love

Taste & See: Real Simple always has these "recipes" that consist of pre-made food products assembled and combined in such a way that they create something new, and ostensibly, wonderful. I've never made one of those recipes. I like cooking, and I've always thought I was too proud to let Betty Crocker or Pillsbury do for me what I'm perfectly capable of doing for myself.

Then again, it is also true that I don't always want to burn my eyes with the heat of a dozen smoking chilies.

Let me explain. A few weeks ago I made the Best. Salsa. Ever. Want the recipe? Grill bell peppers, tomatillos, tomatoes and garlic, smoke some pasilla chilies, grill a half dozen other kinds (chipotle, jalepeno, anaheim, banana, ancho), give it a good coating of ground rock salt, and puree the whole mess. That simple.

It was glorious. It also caused my eyes to sting and water, my face to burn, my throat to hack, my fire alarm to have spasms. In short, there was a price to pay for the glory.

Sure it tasted incredible; it had a deep, smokey flavor that started off mild and slid into a surprising kick, not too spicy to overwhelm the layers of complexity. It was truly glorious. But then again, on a week night when I want to get my dinner together in time to watch Glee, maybe a jar of my fave supermarket salsa will do.

Generally speaking, you'd be amazed at what a little clever doctoring can do to the most banal of base ingredients: leftover cream cheese from a bagle brunch, a can of tomato paste & a bit of bacon stashed in the fridge become a delightful tomato soup; leftover coconut milk and mustard create an oddly satisfying sauce to accompany pumpkin gnocchi. And my ridiculous salsa--or its supermarket substitute--tossed over a bunch of things I tend to have on hand anyway gives me a big pan of enchiladas to last all week.

Do it Yourself: So do you want gourmet smokey salsa? Or do you want dinner? The recipes are easily adapted; make them either way to fit your needs.

Chicken Enchilada Casserole


Ingredients:
4 chicken thighs, skin & bone on
2 small onions, chopped
About 5 cloves garlic
Chicken broth:

• Gourmet: homemade. Martha Stewart's Cooking School (cookbook) has a great chapter on stocks and broths.
• Faux Gourmet: Canned will do, but Better than Bouillon is very tasty & just as easy.

1-2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
Approximately 8 small tortillas
Salsa or enchilada sauce:

• Gourmet: 1-2 cups gourmet smokey salsa, described above.
• Faux Gourmet: 1 jar of your favorite supermarket version (smooth, not chunky)
  

Beans:

• Gourmet: 1 cup Accidental Bean Soup, omitting 1 cup yogurt & substituting 3-4 tbsp chevre or cream cheese.
• Faux Gourmet: 1 can black beans, straight up

Instructions
Simmer onions, garlic, chicken thighs and broth to cover in pan on low heat. When chicken is cooked all the way through it will be very soft, falling off bone easily. It will also be quite hot so be careful and use two forks to shred meat, removing bone and skin. Season with salt and pepper.

Build enchiladas in pan, alternating with layers of tortillas, chicken/onion/broth mixture, salsa, black beans, and cheese. Plan for about three layers and divide ingredients accordingly for each layer. Top with final layer of tortillas and cover with cheese.

Bake at 350 until cheese melts, approximately 30 minutes. (Check at 20.)

Tomato (Paste) Soup
Given that you *could* just buy canned tomato soup straight up, you may wonder why bother with making it yourself? Well, little cans of tomato paste, like the one you see in the photo below, generally cost between 69-99 cents and make approximately 3 servings. Really. Your soup will be healthier and full of things like FOOD instead of preservatives and chemicals. You can season it in dozens of interesting ways instead of getting a bland sweet and salty combination punch. And it is really, really easy...the perfect go-to food for a late night rally-snack or a rainy day when you've got nothing to eat. (Except for lots of canned tomato because you read my post, In Praise of Canned Goods, & promptly stocked up. Didn't you. You did, right?)

C'mon lazy people. This is a LAZY recipe. You can do it. And you'll have tomato soup you can be proud of.


Ingredients
Small can of tomato paste
Something creamy:

• Gourmet: About 1/4 cup chevre
• Faux Gourmet: About 1/4 cup cream cheese OR milk

Bacon, chopped, to taste
*Tip: for convenience, slice bacon height-wise rather than width; it is very easy to separate & chop into small pieces this way. I use approximately 1 "inch" of bacon slices in soup for 3 people.
Seasoning

• Gourmet: Fennel seeds, black pepper & garlic salt
  
• Faux Gourmet: Omit fennel
  

Optional additional seasoning:

• Gourmet: Apple cider vinegar & sugar
• Faux Gourmet: Omit apple cider vinegar
  

For other variations try adding chopped roasted red pepper (from a jar or can!), chili flakes, basil and oregano, cumin, paprika, curry powder, ginger...just, not all at the same time.

Instructions
Add tomato paste and 2 cans water (or if omitting cream cheese/chevre, 1 can milk) to pan and stir to combine. Stir in cream cheese/chevre. Simmer over medium heat til hot then turn heat to low.

Meanwhile, briefly fry bacon in skillet. For very decadent soup, add bacon & grease. For not so decadent soup, reserve grease and add bacon.

Season with fennel seeds and garlic salt- approximately 1 tsp each. Season with salt and pepper to taste. You may also want to add a bit of sugar and/or apple cider vinegar to sweeten it up, especially if you're used to Campbells's.

Serve with a grilled cheese sandwich: I recommend a sharp cheddar with a good, sweet mustard and prosciutto.