Lemon Pepper Tilapia Pasta Primavera

This spring dish is light and refreshing. It's bowl food, a kind of hot pasta salad main dish. Fresh ingredients are key here. No frozen short cuts this time!

It can be made using a skillet and one pot of boiling, salted water if you're strategic with your order of operations, minimizing dishes to wash and time to prepare. Use penne rigate to hold the light sauce and flat baby spinach that won't clump up like curly spinach.

1 lb tilapia fillet
1/2 lb asparagus, cut on the bias to match the length of the penne pasta
1/2 lb baby spinach
1/2 lb penne rigate pasta
1/2 red onion thinly sliced
1/2 c. chopped cilantro
1/4 c. extra virgin olive oil
3 lemons
1 tbsp garlic paste
1 tbsp unsalted butter
1 tsp salt, plus more to add to boiling water
2 tsp fresh, coarsely ground black pepper

4 servings

In a large mixing bowl, juice the lemons and whisk in half of the cilantro, half of the onion, all of the garlic paste, all of the olive oil, salt, pepper.

Marinate the fish 30 minutes to 1 hour while washing and preparing the other ingredients. (You can cut it into chunks to make it fit into the bowl more easily.) Take the fish out of the marinade and put it in a cold, non-reactive 12-inch skillet.

Meanwh9ile, bring 6 quarts of water to a boil. Blanch the asparagus for until tender. Remove with a spider (see picture) from the boiling water. Shock in cold water, then drain it, (the spider is good for this, too) and marinate while cooking the fish, adding the remaining onion. Blanch the spinach in the same way for 2 minutes and shock. (Don't marinate the spinach.)

Cook the penne until just short of al dente in the same water (approx. 10 minutes). After dropping the pasta in the water, cook the fish in a skillet until it flakes apart, about 10-15 minutes on medium low heat. Cook the large pieces until opaque and flaky. Separate into big flakes. Stir in the butter and pasta to the skillet. Add lemon marinade and asparagus. Bring to a boil then simmer for 2-3 minutes. Toss in the spinach. The sauce will be thin but flavorful.

I think the leftovers will be good cold, too.

Pernil

My first try at making pernil was a success! I brined it and it came out moist, succulent, crispy and not greasy at all.

1 5-6 lb fresh pork shoulder
1 c. kosher salt
5 dried bay leaves

2 tbls prepared garlic paste
1 tbls black pepper corns
3 tbls dried oregano
3 tbls dried thyme
4 c. water
ice

4 tbls olive oil
1 heavy pinch kosher salt

Boil salt, bay, garlic, pepper, oregano, and thyme in water until salt is dissolved and fragrant. Place pork shoulder in a pot large enough to submerge it. Add enough cold water to the pot so it's about 3/4 full. Add some ice to the boiled mixture to cool it. Add the entire mixture to the large pot. Brine in the refrigerator over night or few days.

On the day of cooking, dry the meat with paper towels and let it come to room temperature. Preheat oven to 400 for 30 minutes. Brush skin with olive oil. Place in roasting pan, fat side up, using a baking rack or coiled up aluminum foil to keep the bottom of the roast out of the grease. Sprinkle skin with kosher salt. Bake at for one hour. Lower heat to 300 and cook until the temperature reaches 150 according to a meat thermometer. Raise the temperature back to 400 and finish roasting for 45 minutes.

Ceviche

A marinated seafood dish that was inspired by Anzuelo Fino's version.

I made a spicy version and a mild version by dividing between two bowls, and adding the habanero to one bowl. It should be VERY finely diced. This is an extremely hot chili. I seeded and chopped using gloves.

Allow at least 3 hours for the seafood to "cook". You can serve room temperature or chilled.

$8.00 1 lb 16-20 raw frozen easy peel shrimp, peeled and thawed, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
$3.00 1/2 lb light sea fish fillets such as whiting, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
$2.00 2 c. frozen mote*
$1.50 10 limes
$0.50 2 lemons
$0.50 1 bunch green onion, chopped
$0.50 1 bunch cilantro, chopped
$0.10 1 habanero chili, seeded (optional)
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 tbsp salt + more to taste
water

ketchup, Valentina hot sauce for servings to be individually garnished according to taste

Boil mote in enough salted water to cover, about 10 minutes, or until tender. While the corn is boiling, finely chop the cilantro and green onion. Drain the mote and let it cool while juicing the fruit. Mix the garlic, herbs, and mote together in a large bowl. In as small a bowl as will accommodate the shrimp, fish, and juice, fold the fish and shrimp together. Pour the citrus juice over the seafood and mix thoroughly. Mix the mote and seafood/citrus mixtures together. There should be enough juice to cover the whole salad.

After one hour of marinating, taste and adjust salt if necessary. Serve with optional ketchup and hot sauce.

*A kind of large kernel corn, used in South American cuisine. Don't mistake it for maize choclo nor substitute "American" sweet corn. This link shows "white corn" desgranado which is what I used. It's available in regular supermarkets in Jackson Heights. Specialty Latin American supermarkets may be the only source outside the neighborhood.

Sweet Pea Hummus

I served this with herb-grilled lamb chops, cucumber yogurt sauce, stuffed grape leaves, cucumber -vidalia onion-grape tomato- basil salad, and pitas yesterday for Easter. Today leftover hummus with sardines in vinaigrette along with the grape leaves and grape tomatoes makes a nice lunch.

The recipe originally appeared on the Serious Eats blog.

1 lb frozen green peas, thawed
1 lemon juice
10 mint leaves
1/4 olive oil
1 tsp garlic paste
salt and pepper to taste

Pulse all the ingredients together until you get a hummus consistency. Add water if necessary.

Delicious, fast, cheap, easy, and healthy!

Sweet Challah Toast

This isn't healthy but it is healthier than donuts, which it will satisfy a craving for. Faster, easier, and just as yummy as French toast, too. For a brunch it will provide a bread product that isn't too filling and can be served with the honey on the side to be customized by each person to be either sweet or savory.

1/4 loaf challah bread
4 tbls unsalted butter, softened
pinch kosher salt
1 tbls honey

Cut challah into 3/4-inch slices. Butter on both sides with unsalted, softened butter. Cut in half. Toast in a hot skillet on both sides. Add a modest pinch of kosher salt and a drizzle of honey on one side. Serve with hot coffee. Serves 2

Ratatouille breakfast/Provençal cheese steak lunch

I made ratatouille for breakfast this morning and then used the leftovers for a cheese steak sandwich later, with a French twist.

Provençal Cheese Steak Sandwich

2 slices rustic, crusty bread

Brie cheese, sliced

1/4 lb thin sliced steak labeled "for pepper steak"

1/4 c. leftover ratatouille (see ravioli-avec-ratatouille)

Grill seasoning

olive oil

Cut the meat into modest bite-size pieces and sprinkle generously with the grill seasoning. Heat the oil in a heavy skillet on high heat. Brown to desired doneness. Re-heat the ratatouille in the same pan. Place the brie slices on hot toasted bread and top with meat and ratatouille.

Margarita Chicken and Succotash Tostadas

This healthy-ish meal has a lot of fiber, complex carbs, and protein. I made the succotash and chicken to serve together, but also happened to have some leftover tostadas and sour cream. (Does the last two components cancel out the healthful aspects of the first two?) Anyhow, combined together, they made a great summer dinner.

I'm currently in an American food craze, using a lot of indigenous American ingredients and combining succotash with a fried tortilla, aka tostada, which incorporates black beans and pumpkin seeds fits into this phase. I also served the tostadas with new purple potatoes, boiled in heavily salted water, sprinkled with olive oil and dill. Succotash is native to the northeast U.S., tostadas come from Mexico, and potatoes originated in Peru.

The succotash uses butter beans instead of lima beans, which I don't like, but also edamame can be used. I used Goya* products because I think their frozen vegetables taste freshest and their beans the best. The tostadas were from a small pack of 10 I found. I don't know the brand. The oil and butter can be left out and fat-free sour cream used to make this nearly perfectly healthy (besides the tostada.) You'll have a lot of succotash left over but the chicken makes 4-5 tostadas.

Succotash
1 bag frozen *corn, thawed
1/2 bag frozen *peas, thawed
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 can butter beans, rinsed and drained
1 red bell pepper, seeded and finely chopped
1 jalapeño pepper, seeded, and finely chopped
1/2 green bell pepper
1/2 red onion, finely chopped
1/2 cup toasted shelled pumpkin seeds
1 tbls melted butter
1 tbls olive oil
1 tsp dried dill
salt and pepper to taste

Margarita Chicken
1 lb chicken breast tenders

marinade
l/2 c. lime juice
1 jalapeño pepper, seeded and finely chopped
2 tbls *adobo seasoning
2 shots tequila
pepper

Tostadas
sour cream

Combine the ingredients for the marinade and marinate the chicken for at least 90 minutes while making the succotash.

Combine all the vegetables and pumpkin seeds for the succotash. Melt the butter in the olive oil. Add the dill, salt, and pepper. Fold into the veggies being careful not to mush up the beans too much. Adjust the seasonings and herbs to taste.

Grill the chicken and cut into bite-sized pieces.

Top the tostadas with a thin layer of sour cream, a generous scoop of succotash, and dot with the chicken, in that order.