Tonight I was supposed to be cooking snails. Or spot prawns. Or rabbit. Or one of many other dishes that I can’t quite tell you about yet. What I can tell you is that there is a lot going on. And this recipe isn’t supposed to be one of them.

See, sometime back March, I started getting busy. So busy, in fact, that I didn’t want to say anything for fear that I would jinx it. Good things were happening… things like shooting photos for cookbooks and hearing back from clients that I hadn’t heard from in a while. And, now, I’m in the midst of shooting my third and fourth cookbook (only the photos are mine), I have a 3 page spread in the most recent Seattle Metropolitan Bride & Groom, loads of shots in the new Edible Seattle, and a bunch of new photos coming soon to Epicurious, to name a few. Oh, and did I tell you, I have to get all that done before the 25th? Because (drumroll please), we are going on vacation. A real vacation. An unbelievable vacation. Italy. For 5 weeks. Yes. 5 weeks. That’s 35 days. 840 hours. 50,400 minutes.

Anyway, I’ve spent the day shooting (with the help of my new friend and assistant, Claire Bloomberg ) to try to get cookbook #3 finished up before I turn into a zucca, and really should have been testing one of the other recipes this evening. But then it occurred to me that well, some of you still might be out there wondering what had happened to me and if I got swept away with the tumbleweeds that have been blowing around here. So, instead, I took a break. Which is to say, I cooked something and took photos of it for myself instead of someone else. And, for me, I decided to make a little breakfast for dinner. Or, perhaps a little desert for dinner, depending on how you look at it.

My mom used to make dutch babies, and we’d have them with freshly sliced peaches. This recipe, isn’t hers, but my guess is that it is pretty darn close. I found it on the Whole Foods website after 15 minute flipping through indexes of my cookbooks didn’t give me what I was looking for. The batter is about as simple as it gets… equal parts flour and milk with eggs, whipped smooth but not too fluffy. Poured into a cast iron skillet over melted butter and stuck into a hot oven and you have a show that is more entertaining than 90% of what is on TV these days. Seriously, I was so mesmerized watching the batter puff up… like someone was blowing into it in little spurts. Every few seconds, another quick puff. I even had to go grab my camera and take a shot of the magic… of course, like all good magic, it stops as soon as you try to record it. Or, in my case, as soon as I opened the oven door. Luckily, it was just about done puffing anyway.

You can top a dutch baby with any kind of fresh or stewed fruit. Or even just a little squeeze of lemon. But, I’ve been craving a vanilla apricot sauce since I had a vanilla apricot jam a few weeks ago. And, of course, it’s apricot season here in Seattle.

PS: I am so excited about our Italy trip and we already have probably more than 5 weeks of stuff to do… but I’d love to hear suggestions if you have them! We will mostly be in Umbria.

Dutch Baby Pancakes with Vanilla Apricot Sauce

This recipe makes a mini dutch baby, perfect for one for breakfast or two for dessert.

2 eggs
pinch of salt
1/4 cup flour
1/4 cup milk
1 T unsalted butter

Preheat the oven to 425F.

Whisk the eggs with the pinch of salt until they just begin to get a little fluffy. Gradually whisk in the milk and flour and continue to whisk until smooth.

Melt the butter in a 5-inch cast iron pan. Then, pour the egg mixture over the butter. Move the pan immediately to the hot oven. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until it puffs up over the edges of the pan and is a rich golden brown on the edges.

To serve, top with the vanilla apricot sauce and a sprinkle of powdered sugar.

Vanilla Apricot Sauce

This sauce is fruity and light, but not very sweet. If you like yours a bit sweeter, you can add some sugar into the apricot sauce. It makes just enough for the mini dutch baby pancake.

4 apricots
1 vanilla bean
juice from 1/2 lemon
1/2 cup Sauterne or other dessert wine

Blanch the apricots and peel off the skins. Slice into quarters, discarding the pit.

Place in a small pot, on medium low heat, with the lemon juice and wine. Slice the vanilla bean open and scrape out some of the seeds into the pot. Then throw the whole bean into the pot. Give it a stir. Cook until the sauce thickens, but not so long that the pieces of apricot loose their shape. Remove the vanilla bean before serving.

Last week, I got the range of my dreams. I’ve been pining away for a commercialesque gas range now for about as long as I can remember. Some people dream about their wedding dress or owning a fancy car. I dream about cooking with gas. I have pretty much always made do with a simple electric range… there was that one span in college when the apartment came with a old, white enamel gas stove from the 50s which put out about as much heat as a few votive candles huddled together for warmth. I’ve managed to cook up some pretty amazing stuff with the electrics too. But always there was a longing for something industrial and packed with BTUs. In April, we had natural gas run to the house. We were just doing the furnace (which like many older Seattle homes was still running on oil). The stove would have to wait. Then, work picked up, and suddenly Cam and I decided, hey… let’s just bite the bullet and get the stove. At long last, my stove was coming home.

Of course, nothing is all that simple. To begin with, I had to figure out what stove I wanted. It became pretty clear to me pretty quickly that the Viking I had been envisioning was not a great choice. Although fit and finishwise, they are gorgeous machines, even a little bit of digging and you’ll soon see that they tend to be ultra prone with problems. That research lead me to Wolf and DCS, which subsequently lead me to a company called Bluestar. Although not available (at least at the moment) in the dual-fuel version I was hoping for, everyone who had a Bluestar was in love. To start with, they are one of the least expensive high-end ranges you can get, and have the most powerful cooktop, with a blazing 22,000 BTUs. I was pretty sold, until I went and looked at one that is. Cool and industrial, definitely… but the fit and finish started to scare me. The oven didn’t feel like it closed quite tightly enough and had some sharp edges. The open burners intimidated me as I thought of my panache for boiling over. While in the store, we stumbled across the American Ranges. These ranges have a similar price point to the Bluestars, but have closed burners with an easy to clean stainless top, and the oven is the largest in its class… easily able to fit full sized commercial baking pans. The edges were smooth all around, and while the burners weren’t quite the same as the Bluestars’, 17,000 BTU seemed like plenty for me (and about the same as the Wolf, DCS and Vikings). We went home to do more research, happily finding that American Range owners are nearly as religious about their stoves as the Bluestar owners. We were sold.

To get the stove in with the necessary duct work required some semi-serious kitchen demolition that included very large holes in the ceiling, cabinets, and eventually brick work. Amazingly, thanks mostly to Cam, it all came together, and after just over a week with chaotic kitchen construction, I ended up with one kick-ass stove and some killer ventilation to boot. Of course, before I got a chance to use it, we left town.

But, finally, I’ve fired up the gas and started searing away. While my first meal on it wasn’t so much a great test (pasta and sauce on top with a zucchini gratin baking in the oven), tonight’s dinner was made for this stove. At the Pike Place market, I picked up four enormous sea scallops to sear. Just a little smoked sea salt, aleppo pepper and olive oil, one really hot frying pan and enough patience to let each side sear before touching them (this is always the hardest part). Topped with a little mango and green garlic salsa… yum.

Seared Scallops with Mango and Green Garlic Salsa

The Salsa
1 mango, 1/4 inch dice
1/2 cucumber, seeds removed, 1/4 dice
3 garlic spears, roughly chopped
1 lime
olive oil
aleppo pepper
salt

Mix the mango, cucumber and chopped garlic together. Squeeze the lime juice on top, add a splash of olive oil and stir to coat. Add a pinch of aleppo pepper and salt to taste. Cover and refrigerate for least 5 minutes.

The Scallops
4 large sea scallops
smoked sea salt
aleppo pepper
olive oil

Rinse the scallops and pat dry. Sprinkle with the salt and aleppo pepper and drizzle with olive oil.

Heat a heavy-bottom skillet over medium heat for about 2-minutes. Add enough oil to lightly coat the bottom of the pan and heat. Add the scallops to the pan leaving plenty of room between each one. Cook on one side for 2 to 3 minutes without moving them. Then, flip them over, and cook on the other side until browned. Remove the scallops from the pan and let them rest for a few minutes before serving.

Top each scallop with a healthy spoonful of the salsa.

It’s ok if you think I’m a bit crazy. Everyone else around me does too, because I’ve been excited– even to the point of giddy– about making up a batch of ice cream inspired by a recent trip to Il Laboratorio del Gelato. No one would begrudge me the ice cream part, certainly. It’s the kind of ice cream. Beet ice cream. See, there’s that look. Why would I go and ruin perfectly good cream and sugar with something as well, dirty-tasting, as beet? Maybe I am a bit nuts.

But then again, consider. Beet sugar is a highly used sugar in all kinds of sweets. And, even unrefined, I think it’s hard to go wrong with a salad of roasted sliced beets and juicy sweet mandarin oranges. I’ve also done wacky things to great effect with beets before. Is it that much of a stretch to go to ice cream?

Anyway, let’s back up a bit. Il Laboratorio del Gelato is in New York. Not Seattle. So how did that happen? Last weekend, we wrapped up the last vestiges of my birthday (which was back in April) with a trip to NYC for some eating, shopping, and well, more eating. We stayed in the lower eastside, at the Hotel on Rivington, which shoots up through blocks of vintage walk-ups and shops like bolted arugala. The entry way is a sculpted birth canal, which leads to a sleek, modern interior to match the shiny steely blue exterior. Rooms are minimalistic with crazy views if you get one of the upper rooms. Our room had a peak-a-boo view of the Manhattan bridge and a not-so peak-a-boo view of apartments, including from our shower.

The hotel is right across from a place called Economy Candy. It’s like candyland meets one of those old hardware stores. Shelves floor to ceiling with candy piled everywhere. Old classics like pop rocks and candy cigarettes. Fancy new chocolates. 3 feet long Twizzlers. Mints and gum and candy coated ants. I may be joking about that last one, but I’m really not sure. The smell from all the candy was pretty overwhelming, and the line was pretty long… so we moved on.

Since we arrived on Friday early evening, we kept it pretty simple. Dinner at Lupa, one of our favorites, with hand-made pasta followed by a couple of fantastic desserts… the tartufo (a huge chocolate covered ice cream ball with espresso poured over the top) for him and a black pepper panna cotta with rhubarb for me. It’s not the panna cotta everyone would want, but it was fantastic… strong black pepper with perfect creamy finish.

We spent the better part of Saturday in Williamsburg, Brooklyn wandering our way down Bedford after a fantastic brunch at Bonita of huevos (with bacon!) for me and chiliquiles for Cam. We were on vacation, so sangria at 11 seemed like a good idea.

Then it was wandering the streets and people watching and enjoying the spring weather, until beer-o-clock.

Saturday night, after a trip back to the Lower East Side wtih beers and yummy herby popcorn down the block from the hotel at Spitzer’s Corner, we hopped back over the bridge to dinner in Williamsburg where we really loved the casual vibe. We were supposed to eat at Sweetwater that night, but based on a last minute recommendation, we stopped into Aurora, a packed Italian bistro tucked a few blocks away, and ate at the bar. I had one of the best raviolios I’ve ever had… fresh buffalo mozzerella, fava beans covered with razor thin slices of summer truffles. Cam’s wild boar ragu was good, but not quite as appealing to him as the Amatraciana at Lupa the night before.

The next day, after a bit of a lie-in, we got up and walked down the street to Katz’s deli, another of our regular stops when we visit NYC. It’s touristy and completely chaotic, but you can’t argue that their sandwiches are amazing. After lunch, there was more shopping in Soho. It was a gorgeous day of a holiday weekend, so the crowds were insane, but we managed to find a few side streets to wander that were a bit less crazy with some fascinating shops like Shoe which sells beautiful handmade shoes by Cydwoq (sidewalk) and relaxed and had an espresso at Gimme coffee on Mott St.

For dinner, we decided to just wander around to see what we saw. We thought about trying to get a table at WD-50 which was right around the corner from the hotel, but ended up popping into Tapeo 29 for some yummy tapas. I highly recommend the boquerones. The bistec was wonderfully flavorful, but a bit tough. After noshing there for a bit, Cam decided he was still hungry… so of all things, we headed back to Lupa for a little pasta and salad dessert.

The real dessert had come earlier in the day with the stop at Il Laboratorio del Gelato. I’ve written about this place before, but it’s still as good as ever. And, this time, I got a bit more adveturesome in my flavors. I couldn’t resist a taster spoon of the beet gelato. I wasn’t sure what to expect, whether the beet would be subtle almost unidentifiable or not. Turns out, it’s not. It’s fresh and vibrant and packed with earthy beet flavor. I was intrigued, but not ready for a whole bowlful, so I got the olive oil gelato instead. But I almost immediately told Cam that I’d be making some beet ice cream when I got home. I wanted to play with this flavor… the cold beet was good, but I thought it really could use more flavors to fill it out. I started throwing out flavor combinations as we walked around… beet and chocolate chip, beet and cardamom, Meyer lemon beet. I would not be daunted by eye-rolls.

I was a bit daunted though at figuring out how to start. There were sadly no beet ice cream recipes in David’s Perfect Scoop. I thought for sure he’d have done it already. And the only reference I found online was to an article about Il Laboratorio del Gelato. I’d be winging it.

I headed to the market to get my beets, picking up a bunch of golden and a bunch of red. The golden beet flavor I had already figured out… I wanted it to be bright and fresh with orange and honey. For the red beets, I knew I’d be playing with flavors. I dotted a plate with little blobs of beet puree like a painters palette and started tasting. Most of the flavors worked… beet and vanilla was lovely, as was beet and cardamom and beet and cinnamon. Beet and anise, however, was terrible. Finally, I decided on cinnamon with a hint of citrus.

As my beets roasted, I searched through Perfect Scoop to find the closest thing I could… a sweet potato ice cream that I’m also dying to try. The recipe is simple… basically adding the cream to the puree and seasoning, and then freezing. No eggs to bother with, and a bit more control of adding ingredients a bit at a time to find the right balance of sweet to bright to creamy and trying to keep the beet flavor intact, but not quite so aggressive.

One thing to know is that as flavors get cold, they change. Sweet isn’t quite so sweet when frozen. My golden beets started out less sweet than their red cousins, and the beet flavor really shines through kicking the orange and honey out the door. It starts great and has a certain charm, but it is definitely not for everyone.

The crimson beet ice cream with cinnamon and lemon zest is almost otherworldly. The cinnamon jumps up and bites you in the nose as you open the tub. The color is startlingly fuscia. As the cream starts to melt in your mouth, the beet perks up and announces a big hello and how do you do. The earthy flavor lingers (maybe asking for a bit more sugar and lemon zest), but in a pleasant, “well, how about that” kind of way. Even still, it’s not for every palate and even adventuresome mouths may only want small portions.

Beet Ice Cream
(a very rough recipe… you’ll need to adjust based on the flavors of your beets. Just consider this a rough guideline).

Peel and chop the beets, and roast at 375F with a splash of olive oil for an hour or two until the beets are nice and soft. Puree the beets in a blender with a bit of liquid (orange juice works well… but red wine or port would be a nice touch with the red beets too) until very smooth, and then push through a fine sieve. You should end up with quite smooth puree that either looks a lot like ketchup or mustard, depending on your beet color. I was very tempted to forgo the whole ice cream project and just turn them into beet ketchups and mustards!

You’ll end up with a lot of left over pulp. I saved mine and plan on making some beet-stuffed raviolis with it. Three large beets yielded about 1 cup of beet puree for me, with about the same amount of leftover pulp. That turned into enough ice cream for small servings for 4 people.

Let the beet puree cool to room temperature. Add your spices (cinnamon and zest from 1 lemon in my case for the red, the zest of two oranges and a splash of vanilla for my golden) and a healthy pinch of salt. Mix in honey or simple syrup until it seems a bit sweeter than you think it should be. Then, add your cream, a little at a time, stirring to incorporate. Taste it as you go along and adjust your sweetener accordingly. I used about 2 to 1 cream to sweetner ratio, and my ice cream was not too sweet. Then load the mixture up into your ice cream maker. Freeze overnight.

Let the ice cream sit at room temp for about 10 minutes or so before trying to serve it. I don’t know if I got lucky or it has something to do with the texture of the beets, but not only the color of the ice cream was gorgeous, it also scooped like a dream.

Really, do I need to say more?

My cupboards are about to explode with little bags of this and little half canisters of that left over from my April shoots. I have chocolates chips in an array of shapes and colors. I have candied dried fruits and just about any nut you can name. I’m not sure what to do with it all… I shutter at the idea of throwing it away (even things, like banana chips that no one in my family likes), but I really don’t have the room for it. So, when I started craving cookies today, I decided it was time to make a dent in at least some of it. Today’s lucky remnants included a bag of Trader Joe’s dried valencia oranges, a little can of Ginger People’s candied ginger chips, some Dagoba choco-drops and some oats thrown in for good measure. The resulting cookies look deceptively like plain old Toll House, but the ginger gives each nibble a lingering little zing.

PS: A piece on sour cherries that I worked on last summer with Matthew and Dana is now on Gourmet.com, along with one of my photos. It’s so exciting to seem my photo up there!

Everything Out Of the Cupboard Cookies
Makes about 24

1/2 c unsalted butter
1/2 c golden brown sugar
1/2 c granulated sugar
1 egg
2 t orange juice
1/2 t vanilla
1 c all purpose flour
1/2 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
pinch of salt
1/2 c oats
1/2 c dried orange pulp
1 t dried citrus zest
1/4 c candied ginger chips
1/2 c chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350F and line your baking sheets with parchment paper.

Cream the butter and both sugars until they are lightly fluffy, stopping the mixer a few times to scrape down the sides of the bowl.

In a separate bowl lightly mix the egg, orange juice and vanilla. Add, all at once, to the creamed butter and beat until it is pale and creamy.

Sift in the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Stir until just combined.

Stir in the oats, orange pulp, citrus zest, ginger chips and chocolate chips.

Scoop little balls of dough, about 1/2 inch in diameter onto the baking sheet. Bake for 12-15 minutes, or until golden brown on the edges.

Let the cookies cool on a wire rack, if you can stand to wait.

My poor dog-earred food magazines. All those little folded over corners which continue to suffer from neglect. This month, I must have marked at least 40 some recipes. Including one in the May 2008 Gourmet for Chile Peanuts. I don’t even like peanuts. But, I fell in lust with the photo, and I love the combination of chile and lime. Enter the bag of pistachios that have been sitting on the counter, getting slowly nibbled away.

Do you like pistachios as much as I do? The addictive process of popping them out of their shells. I’ll just shell 10 more, I think, only to find myself a few minutes later repeating the same thing, just 10 more. I give the thin brownish purple skins a little pinch to expose the green nut meat. It’s good that I enjoy the shelling process because I seem to eat almost as many as I’m going to need. For this recipe, I ended up with a healthy cup full… but who knows how many ended up in my belly along the way.

I think that this chile lime mixture would work well with almost any nuts… but I love the bright green color with the red spices from the paprika and chile. And the lime tang really wakes up the sweetness in the pistachios. These are the perfect little addictive snack to munch on if you are enjoying a little Cinco de Mayo cocktail as well.

If I could only have one type of dessert for the rest of my life, it would probably be bread pudding. Of course, just saying that implies all sorts of dessert loop holes. There are a million different ways to make a bread pudding resulting in practically a new flavor and texture combination that would do me fine the rest of my days. You can change out the bread type, making your pudding pillowy soft or densely grainy. You can make single servings or a deep dish to alter your crusty to creamy ratio. And, of course, you can play around with almost any fruit or spice combination… which is what I decided to do with my sadly stale, leftover loaf of Macrina Bakery Brioche.

Last weekend, I trekked up to Swanson’s nursery for a little spring gardening fix. Since we moved, I no longer have a yard with fresh raspberries, strawberries and rhubarb shooting up… I really should have done something about that last fall, but never quite got around to it. Now, that is remedied with a couple of blueberry bushes thrown in the mix for good measure, along with a new garden star that I have never thought of before: Sweet Bay. Apparently, bay leaf is quite easily grown around here (I think it is pretty easy to grow it almost anywhere), so I’m quite excited to see how my little shrub grows. It’s already pretty bushy with bright green, shiny leaves which seem worlds away from their dried cousins that I’ve always used in the past. Since the flavor of bay is quite strong, I went ahead and plucked off a few leaves to see how it compared to the dried variety.

My initial thought was for some bay infused ice cream. I remember a few posts that had me intrigued in blogs over the years. However, that loaf of Brioche was staring at me, telling me a pudding was in order. It didn’t take me along to decide that if bay was wonderful in ice cream, it would be equally delicious in a custardy bread pudding, adding a hint of slightly green, earthy spiciness.

For a starter recipe, I found a lovely, simple brioche pudding on Food & Wine, and altered it slightly to add in the bay and skip the healthy dose of berries that would have overwhelmed the bay essence. Of course, me resisting berries is like a cat resisting a mouse… so I ended up drizzling on a quickly made strawberry syrup in the end.

This pudding is a lovely thick and moist, subtly sweet treat… and great for either breakfast or dessert. The bay came through, although it was quite subtle. However, after preparing the dish, I realized that it’s best to use more mature, leathery bay leaves rather than the softer new leaves, so patience with my bay bush is definitely going to be called for.

A few weeks ago, I picked up a little book that I have come to adore, A Handful Of Herbs. It’s tiny and really only has a handful of recipes and gardening tips… but the recipes are good, the tips are fun, and the photos, of course, are gorgeous. I have come to love to leaf through its mere 120 some-odd pages. The first recipe that caught my eye was one for something called zhatar. It is a Persian spice mixture that I had never heard of that mixes thyme with sesame seeds and salt to make a dry rub that is often sprinkled on hard boiled eggs. It sounded intriguing, and I made a little note to myself to come back an try it. Imagine my surprise when a project that I am working on for a client (the thing that has kept me so busy, I haven’t had a chance to blog) included a recipe that included zhatar!

The recipe for zhatar (sometimes zaatar, sometimes za’atar) seems to vary by region, but usually includes the combination of thyme and sesame with ground sumac. The dish that I was preparing for my client also introduced ground pistachios into the mix. Yum! It may not be traditional, but I highly recommend it. I also like throwing some red chile flakes into the mix for a little kick.

You can use the zhatar on eggs, like I did with these poached eggs over hashed fingerling potatoes. But, it’s also fantastic on yogurt with a little lemon and olive oil mixed in, or sprinkled on top of hummus.

By the way, I received a fantastic treat in the mail today! The first issue of Edible Seattle. This is a magazine that I’d be excited about regardless, but it is all the more fun because it is packed with my photos (including the cover shot!) and an article I wrote last fall on Maria Hines of Tilth. The magazine should start showing up on shelves soon!

These are muffins that don’t want to be blogged about. I’ve made them now six or seven times, each batch very much destined for the blog. But this or that got in the way… I’d run out of time before scooping them up into a bag and heading out of town, or they’d simply all disappear by the time I got around to snapping a few shots. Finally, I managed to get some nice photos of the last batch I made a few weeks ago… only to draw a blank when I sat down to write about them. I was quite tempted to simply post the recipe and the photos and say nothing, I was getting so frustrated, but then I ate one of the little fruity buggers and got my revenge.

The thing is, it’s hardly fair to call these mixed berry muffins “muffins“. They are really more fruit than crumb, which is just the glue to hold all the juicy berry goodness together. I think they really should be called muffin mixed berries. And they were the first recipe I made from Seasonal Kitchen by Michele Cranston, a book I’ve really grown to adore. The beauty is that they are even seasonal in winter (in fact, that’s the section they appear in the book) because they use frozen berries. I’ve started keeping a huge bag of mixed frozen berries in the freezer, and whenever I need a quick idea for breakfast or a road trip, these muffins have become the answer. The only thing I don’t love about the recipe is the oil… it calls for vegetable oil and I think that’s just missing an opportunity for adding flavor. Instead, I’ve started using coconut oil which adds just the teaniest tiniest hint of coconut… not enough that coconut-haters will notice, but enough to give them a little something-something.

Now, quickly, before something comes up again and I don’t finish this post, here is the recipe:

One of the best parts of my job is that I tend to get a lot of free food. Even food that I winds up on the set is still edible when I’m done. Oh, I wouldn’t go feeding it to guests or anything… afterall, it is usually cold and always has been poked and prodded by my fingers. But, it’s also made from the highest quality of ingredients I can find, and is (almost) always, delicious.

Most of the time, this free food is simply left over from a shoot that I’m doing. Sometimes, it’s sent to me by companies that are looking for feedback, really excited about sharing their product with someone who thinks a lot about food, or someone who is simply looking for extra press. I certainly understand that there are some bloggers out there who prefer not to accept free stuff… but I’m not one of them. When I get free stuff, I never promise to write about it on this blog. It takes something pretty special, in fact, to make it on here. And, sometimes, I still don’t even get around to it. But, sometimes, like today, I do.

Today, I want to share with you a fish that I am really excited about. When I got mail from Hannah asking if I’d be interested in trying some Kona Kampachi from Kona Blue, I was intrigued. I’m a huge fan of sushi, and will always have a hard time turning away from sashimi-grade yellowtail. But, what really struck me is that Kona Blue is a company trying new methods of fish farming that attempt to solve some of the problems of related to traditional “aquaculture.” In-shore fish farm can create serious pollution problems, releasing waste and excess nutrients into water at rates that can’t be cleaned up by natural processes. Those farmed fish also tend to suffer from mercury poisoning. Kona Blue is fishing in large sea-cages sunk into deep water far off shore, so the fish can basically school as they would in the wild and the pollution problems can be avoided. And, at the same time, the natural fish population is not being depleted. The fish also boast a 30 percent fat content, high levels of omega-3 fatty acids, and no detectable mercury.

I think it’s really early to tell whether these new fish farming practices are a good thing or if they introduce problems of their own. But, I applaud companies for trying to solve some of these problems in a responsible way. Plus, I can tell you this, the fish is beautiful.

My package arrived well packed in ice, but not frozen, so the two, large fillets were immediately ready to use. The fillets are thick and fatty… perfect for a nice lunch of sashimi, with a ton still left over.

In fact I’ve been playing with a variety of preparations… the fish is so fresh, it’s almost a crime to cook it… but in addition to a sashimi miso salad, some simple nigiri sushi, I also lightly seared a good chunk and served it with a butternut squash mash and a fresh lemon dressing. Yum. I still have a whole fillet left that will have to be put to use quite soon. In the meantime, I thought I’d share a few shots and recipes with you.

If you want to try to find some of this fish on your own, you can order it from their website… but shipping is quite expensive. If you are in Seattle, Uwajimaya sometimes has it in stock and several area restaurants, like Canlis and Oceanaire have it on their menu. Or you can check out Kona Blue’s extensive “where to find” list.

PS: Thanks to Matt for correcting my initial mis-statement that Yellowtail is Tuna. In fact, it is its very own fish. All these years of ordering hamachi, and I always thought I was eating tuna!!!

Seared Yellowtail in Lemon Dressing
From Arabesque by Claudia Roden

I went searching through about 15 different cookbooks to find this super simple seared tuna recipe. Most of the other recipes I found piled on enough seasonings that the flavor of the fish would be lost. This yellowtail was far to lovely to cover up. What loved about the Arabesque recipe was how delicate the dressing is… it brightens and enriches the flavors already in the fish. I substituted hazelnut oil in the dressing, which I thought brought even a new dimension to the flavor. The original recipe also recommended pairing the seared fish with mashed potatoes, but I had some left over roasted butternut squash that I smashed up with a little OJ and a little cream which went beautifully with the citrus sauce on the fish. A little mache salad on the side brings a little more springtime to the plate.

1 lemon
2 T hazelnut oil
salt & pepper
1 thinly chopped green onion (or fresh chives)
2 T olive oil
1 thick-cut fillet of sashimi grade yellowtail (or tuna)

Zest and juice the lemon into a small bowl. Add the hazelnut oil, green onion and freshly cracked pepper. Set aside.

Heat the olive oil in a pan on high heat. Just before the smoking point, add the fish. Sear for only 1 minute on each side. Remove from heat. Slice into thin slices and sprinkle with sea salt flakes. Pour the dressing over the top to serve.

Yellowtail Sashimi in Miso Dressing
From Harumi’s Japanese Home Cooking

Here’s another lovely recipe from Harumi’s Japanese Home Cooking. This is so simple, but does require the best fish you can find, with a good amount of fat on it. The fat helps give a wonderful silky mouthfeel, not to mention a richer taste. You’ll need a few ingredients that you’ll probably have to go to an Asian market to get. Red miso paste and mirin can be hard to find in some supermarkets.

1/3 lb sashimi-quality yellowtail (or tuna)
3 T red miso paste
1 1/2 T casters (super-fine) sugar
1/2 T mirin
1 t rice vinegar
1/8 t dry mustard
1 1/2 c chopped green onion or chives
1 T finely grated ginger

Mix together the miso, suar, mirin, vinegar and mustard, until smooth and the sugar has dissolved.

Cut the fish into little cubes, about 1/2 to 1 inch each, and place in a medium sized bowl. Start adding the dressing a little at a time, stirring gently, until each piece is nicely coated. You may not need to use all the dressing… and I think it is best not to add too much dressing or you won’t taste the fish.

To serve, place in individual bowls, and top each with the green onion and a little dollop of freshly grated ginger.

It was supposed to be a good day today. April is looking to be jam packed, but here at the edge of winter, today was supposed to be a quiet one. I had nothing to do but whatever I wanted. How often does that happen?

Then, I got some really crap news and everything went all topsy turvy. Stuff that I’m hoping, like the weather that has just rolled in after a lovely blue sky morning, will simply blow over after a good night sleep. Stuff I’m hoping that I’ll never really be at a point that I’ll have to tell you about it. Stuff that I’ve at least for a little while pushed aside and to bake these lovely little raspberry upside down tea-cakes that I saw in my latest Donna Hay acquisition, Off The Shelf: Cooking From the Pantry. I really kind of bought the book for this recipe. It’s one of those things you look at and say, now, why didn’t I think of that?!? This book is simply full of recipes like that… quick, delicious things you can make from stuff you probably have on hand in the pantry or in the freezer.

Anyway, so I made these cakes to take my mind off the crap news. And, then, I got to eat the yummy tea cakes to take my mind off the crap news. And then, I had to go and spin for 2 hours to work off the crazy crap news cakes. So, here I am. Still pretty topsy turvy. But, at least I still have some upside down cakes to keep me company.

Raspberry Upside Down Cakes
Makes about 20 small cakes

8oz unsalted butter
1 c caster sugar
1 t vanilla extract
3 eggs
2 c flour
2 1/2 t baking powder
about 10oz frozen or fresh raspberries

Preheat the oven to 325F.

I used silicone cupcakes cups for this so I didn’t need to grease the cups, but if you are using a metal pan, you should. Or, you could line them each with parchment.

Cream the butter and sugar until smooth and pale yellow. Then, beat in the eggs and vanilla until smooth. Sift the flour and baking soda together and then fold into the batter. The batter will get fairly thick.

Line the bottom of each cup with a layer of whole raspberries (don’t defrost the frozen ones… just put them in the cups frozen). Then, top with batter, filling to the top of the cups.

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the cakes puff up and turn a light golden brown. Cool them on a rack in the cups for about 5 minutes, then remove from the cups and invert to serve.