That's a good lookin' dip!

One nice thing about working from home is that I have the luxury to go the store pretty much whenever I want. As you might imagine, I try to go when there aren’t a lot of people there.

The downside of this flexible schedule is that it has made me a pretty lazy meal planner. Because I can go to the store every day, I do go to the store every day. Sometimes multiple stores…

The people all know me now at the local spot as the weird 20-something guy who shops only when retired people shop.

I think they like me though because I bring them lots of strange ingredients. I have a knack for finding weird stuff they didn’t even know they had in their own store.

On this day, that ingredient was fennel thanks to the poll last week when an appetizer won. There was a pristine row of fennel bulbs in my local store. Untouched.

The check-out person didn’t even know what they were, let alone the look up code. When he asked me what they tasted like I blurted out, “It’s like licorice celery.”

He replied, “That sounds horrible.”

I almost brought him some of this dip just to redeem fennel in his mind after my apparently gross description!

Baked Fennel Dip

Yield: Serves 6.

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour

Ingredients:

3 bulbs fennel, quartered and roasted
2 cloves garlic
3 Tablespoons honey
1/4 cup half and half or cream
1/3 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
3 Tablespoons olive oil
Pinch of salt and pepper
Butter, for baking dish
Crackers or crusty bread

Helpful Equipment:
Food Processor

Directions:

1) Chop stems and roots off of fennel, leaving just the bulbs.

2) Wash bulbs well and quarter them.

3) Heat oil in an oven safe skillet over medium-high heat. Once hot, add the fennel quarters and sear on each side for 3 minutes per side.

4) Add garlic cloves (whole, but peeled) to the pan. Sprinkle on some salt and cover the pan with foil. If you don't have an oven-safe skillet, you can transfer all of this to a baking dish.

5) Bake the fennel and garlic at 400 degrees for 20-25 minutes, until the fennel is very tender.

6) Transfer fennel and garlic to a food processor and pulse until smooth. Add other ingredients (reserve 2 tablespoons of cheese for topping) and continue to pulse until everything is combined.

7) Butter a 3 cup baking dish and transfer the dip to the dish. Sprinkle on remaining cheese and salt and pepper.

8) Bake dish again for 20 minutes at 400 degrees.

9) Serve dip with thick crackers or crusty bread.

Adapted from a Martha recipe.

Roasting Fennel

Fennel is kind of a strange vegetable. It’s looks like what would happen if you stuck celery and dill in some sort of nuclear chamber and fused the two together.

It’s delicious stuff though and I love cooking with it every chance I get.

Strange Root!

What I love about fennel is its light flavor. It smells pretty strongly of anise, but once you roast it down, it completely mellows out. It still has a subtle licorice flavor, but it’s very light.

Mixed with a few other ingredients, I think it makes a really solid dip.

Prepping fennel can be a pain if you’re doing something fancy with it. For this recipe though, just chop off the stalks and the root tips and give them a good rinse.

Ready to quarter and cook.

Quarter the fennel next and toss the fennel quarters into a pan with a good drizzle of olive oil. If you have an oven-safe pan, that would work best since we are going to transfer these to the oven after a quick sear.

Just heat the skillet over medium-high heat until the fennel lightly caramelizes, about 5 minutes.

All ready to roast!

After that, go ahead and add a few whole garlic cloves to the dish along with a good pinch of salt.

Cover this entire thing with foil and roast it at 400 degrees for about 25 minutes. The fennel will get super-tender.

This will also make your house smell like a licorice factory and a garlic farm had a baby.

This will make your house smell awesome.

The Dip

Besides the fennel and garlic, there’s only a few other ingredients that you need.

The half and half (or cream if you want to get crazy) is important as it gives the dip a really smooth texture. The honey gives the dip some sweetness which is nice and the Parmesan cheese gives it some saltiness and, well, cheesiness which is always good for a dip.

Good flavors here!

Basically, just throw all of this stuff in a blender or food processor and pulse it until it’s a smooth consistency. I recommend tasting it at this point and adjusting for salt and pepper. It might need a bit more cream or honey. Just use your best taste bud judgement.

NOTE: If you don’t have a food processor, I still think you can make this dip. The fennel bulbs are so tender after roasting that I think you could just mash them with a fork and the stir everything together. It might be a bit more rustic, but I think it would work fine.

When you think it’s ready, pour it into a lightly buttered baking dish and sprinkle on a bit more Parmesan cheese.

Ready for the oven.

Bake this bad boy at 400 degrees for another 20 minutes and you’ll be left with this thing of beauty.

The crispy edges are the best.

Those almost burned bits around the edges are my favorite part. They are crunchy and delicious.

Serve this warm with crackers or nice crusty bread.

Chomp!

Why did I pick this as a Thanksgiving Appetizer?

Well, for one, you can make it in advance. Two, although it does have a bit of cream in it, it’s actually a really light dip. The flavors are completely refreshing and palate cleansing so I thought it would work well as a snack before the big meal.

It’s definitely a unique dip and one that I bet most of your guests haven’t had.

Healthy and delicious!

One of my favorite meals during the summer months is a veggie-packed salad. Grabbing a bunch of fresh items from the market and topping them with a simple salad dressing can sometimes be exactly what my body needs.

It’s kind of hard to replicate that situation in the winter. I mean, sure, you can go to the grocery store and pick up some okay stuff that’s been shipped across the world, but it wouldn’t taste as good.

Not to mention that when it’s cold out, I’m not in the mood for a huge plate of crunchy cold veggies. Just doesn’t work.

And that’s where this salad comes in. It has only a few ingredients all of which are very available in colder months. By cooking the salad slightly, it’s makes for a really delicious, and warm, meal.

I topped mine with some marinated chicken, but you could definitely make this salad just as a side dish.

Warm Winter Salad

Yield: Serves 4.

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 50 minutes

Ingredients:

1 small head of cauliflower, cut into florets
1 large fennel bulb, sliced thin
1 16 ounce can white beans, drained and rinsed
1 lemon, zest and juice separated
1 Tablespoon fresh thyme
2 Tablespoons olive oil
2 Tablespoons fresh parsley
Pinch of salt and pepper

Marinade for chicken:
2 lemons, juice
1/4 Cup olive oil
1 1/2 Tablespoons garam masala
Pinch of salt and pepper
4 chicken breasts

Helpful Equipment:
Mandoline Slicer (for fennel)

Directions:

1) For the chicken marinade, just whisk all the ingredients together and let the chicken marinate for at least 30 minutes. Then cook the chicken however you like. I prefer either grilling or in a cast iron skillet.

2) For the salad, make sure to slice the fennel really thin so you don't get a big bite of it.

3) To warm the salad, add oil to a skillet and heat over medium heat.

4) Add thyme leaves to oil and cook for a few seconds.

5) Toss in cauliflower and cook until hot and par-cooked, but not soft, about 3-4 minutes.

6) Add beans and fennel and toss to combine. Let cook for 30 seconds just to warm ingredients. Then season with salt and pepper.

7) Add lemon juice, zest, and parsley and toss again.

8) Serve with chicken or it's also great as a side with a dash of hot sauce.

The veggies for this salad are really simple. They also happen to be mostly white which is coincidence really.

Good Winter Ingredients

The only tricky veggie to prepare for this salad is the fennel. If you’ve never used fennel before, it has a pretty strong anise flavor. I love it, but because the flavor is so strong it’s best to slice it really thin when you prepare it.

When you’re preparing it, slice off the green stalks, then slice the bulb in half vertically. There will be a core in the bulb that isn’t as tasty as the outer layers of the bulb. You should be able to just kind of rip it out.

Then slice the fennel as thinly as possible. You can use a sharp knife for this but if you have a mandoline, it’ll make really short work of it.

Steady hand...

Marinating the chicken

I decided to serve this salad with some marinated chicken. The marinade I used is really simple. It has a lot of citrus flavor to it and the garam masala gives it a nice subtle spice.

Just whisk all the marinade ingredients together and then marinate your chicken for about 30 minutes. You can do longer if you want, but 30 minutes should do the trick.

A simple marinade.

Cooking the chicken

I think ideally, you would grill the chicken. But on this given night it was particularly cold here so I didn’t feel like lighting up the grill.

I just cooked mine in my cast iron skillet, cooking it over medium-high heat for about 7 or 8 minutes per side. If you have really thick breasts, you might need to finish them in a 350 degree oven to make sure they are cooked all the way through.

Again though, the chicken is optional. The salad works great as a side dish also.

Warming the salad

To make the salad, start by getting your oil hot over medium heat. Then add your thyme leaves to the oil.

Let them cook for a few seconds, just until they become fragrant.

Don't burn it!

Then toss in the cauliflower. Stir the cauliflower to make sure it’s coated in oil. Cook the cauliflower until it’s warmed but not completely soft.

I cooked mine for 3-4 minutes.

Then add the fennel and beans and toss everything to combine it well. Season it with salt and pepper.

Right before you’re ready to serve the salad, add the lemon juice, zest, and parsley to the warmed salad.

Don't overcook this!

The citrus flavors in the salad go great with the chicken, but I also ate the leftovers by themselves with a few dashes of hot sauce!

A great healthy dinner.

If you’re new to fennel, this is a great dish to try it out. All the other ingredients are pretty easy to prepare and it takes just a few minutes to pull everything together.

This completely worked for a salad fix for me. It’s packed with veggies, but still warm and hearty which is what I want in a winter dish.

Perfectly cooked!

I’ve almost (almost!) worked my way through all of our wedding presents. I think we actually did a really nice job of registering for things that we will actually use in life. Some of my pans are already a bit worn which I take as a good sign!

One of the presents that I’ve had in the back of my mind for a while now was a bamboo steamer we received. I knew that I would use it and it would be awesome, but I just couldn’t pull the trigger. Dumplings would be the obvious choice (I’ll make those later now that I’m warmed up), but I wanted to start with something even simpler.

Steamed fish is pretty hard to screw up because even if you overcook it, the moisture keeps it really tender. I served this with a really delicious roasted veggie side and some good crusty bread. It was a hit!

Steamed Salmon w/ Roasted Veggies

Yield: Serves 4.

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 50 minutes

Ingredients:

4-6 ounces of nice salmon per person. I bought about 1.25 pounds (20 ounces) of salmon and it was perfect for 4 servings.
Some greens to layer in your steaming pot
Salt and pepper

Roasted Veggies: (Adapted from Whole Living Magazine)
2 medium fennel bulbs, sliced
1 red pepper, sliced
1 orange pepper, sliced
1 can (16 ounces) chickpeas
1 pound seedless red grapes
2 tablespoons olive oil
Salt and pepper

Helpful Equipment:
Bamboo steamer

Directions:

1) For the veggies, chop them all in slices (except the grapes). Try to keep them in fairly thick slices since you're going to be roasting them on pretty high heat.

2) Toss them with some olive oil and salt and pepper.

3) Bake at 425 degrees for 30 minutes. Stir them a few times throughout the cooking process to make sure they are cooking evenly.

4) For the fish, remove the skin by sliding a sharp long knife along the skin. Try to remove it as close to the skin as possible.

5) Take a pair of tweezers and remove any pin bones in the fish or at least warn your diners that there will be bones in the fish.

6) Cut the fish into 4-6 ounce pieces and salt and pepper them. Layer them over a bed of greens in your bamboo steamer and set the steamer over a pot of simmering water.

7) Steam for 10 minutes (or longer depending on fish thickness).

8) Serve everything as soon as possible!

The Steamer

Like I said, I used a nice bamboo steamer for this dish, but it’s not necessary to have one of these to make the dish. It’s just a heckuva lot easier if you do have one.

If you don’t though, here are two other methods you could use to steam the fish:

1) Make a Steamer – It’s a bit of work, but using instructions like these you can get creative and make a steamer that holds your fish and produces steam. The problem with a system like this is that it isn’t terribly efficient. The steam doesn’t really cook the fish as it rises. But it will work.

2) Wrap it in parchment – You can also just wrap the fish in parchment paper with some salt and pepper and bake it at 350 degrees for 10 minutes or so. The parchment will seal in any moisture from the fish, effectively steaming it. I’ve made fish like this a few times and it’s always really good.

All of that said though, this steamer was the easiest thing to use ever.

Before we get into that though, let’s talk about the roasted veggies.

Yep. Those are grapes.

This might look like kind of a weird assortment of veggies, but trust me, the flavor combination is out of this world good. I was obviously really skeptical about the grapes. Will they explode? Will they burn? The answer is neither really, but they are tasty and go well with the other flavors.

Because we are roasting these guys, keep them in fairly large chunks. For the fennel, cut off the green stems and cut it down the center. Then remove the inner core and roughly slice the layers.

Everything else should be pretty standard to slice up. Just add everything to a large bowl and toss it with the olive oil and salt and pepper!

Very interesting flavors.

Lay this out on two baking sheets and bake it at 425 degrees for about 30 minutes. Be sure to stir it a few times as it cooks to make sure it cooks evenly.

Fishy Business

For this recipe, I bought a nice piece of salmon and cut it down myself. If you have a friendly fishmonger they might take care of this for you, but I consider it good practice.

To take the skin off the fish, take a sharp (preferably long and thin) knife and slowly run it down the length of the fish between the skin and the meat. The skin should separate pretty easily. Then you can chop your salmon into four even pieces!

Don’t forget the pin bones! Salmon almost always have a series of inter-muscular bones called pin bones. The only reason it wouldn’t have these bones if it was processed for you already. These bones are usually about 1 inch to 1 1/2 inches from the back side of the fillet. If you want to provide your guests with a flawless salmon eating experience, take a pair of tweezers and pluck out all the bones.

If you’re me and feeding a some hungry people, just warn them that there will be some bones and skip this step.

Pin bones suck.

Season each piece of salmon well with salt and pepper and lay them in your steamer on a bed of greens. Spinach works well for this or just any salad greens that you might have.

I already love my steamer!

What about the Skin?

You know me… I hate wasting stuff. Salmon skin happens to be one of the things that I hate wasting more than other things because you can make delicious salmon chips out of it!

Just slice the skin into strips and add them to a hot skillet with a bit of oil. Cook them for a few minutes until they are really crispy and golden brown. Then drain them on a towel.

Everyone will look at you funny until they try them. There will be no leftovers.

For the adventurous...

Back to the veggies

The veggies definitely take the longest to cook, so you want to start them first. When they are done they’ll be a mix of textures and flavors that is just really wonderful. The fennel goes well with the fish and the grapes are kind of sweet.

I’m making this mix again for sure.

The grapes were actually really good.

Cooking the Salmon

Once you have the fish cut into appropriate pieces, it’s dumb simple to cook assuming you have a steamer. Just stack the steamer up and set it over a pot of simmering water. After about 10 minutes the fish should be perfectly cooked. It might take a few minutes longer depending on the thickness of your fish.

I even served it with some of the wilted greens that it steamed on.

Crusty bread is a good side also.

I served it with some crusty bread that I toasted a bit.

This was a very healthy and simple dish to make. I made it on a week night actually.

I liked the fish the best, but Betsy was a big fan of the roasted veggies. I think I caught her sneaking some later in the night…

This is why I needed a good roll!

I left you all hanging yesterday as to what I used those Kaiser rolls for. Well now you know. But let me back up and talk about burgers.

In my very humble opinion, a really good burger comes down to a few very simple things. You don’t need to mix in tons of spices and sauces and stuff. This is what’s really important:

Nick’s Keys To a Good Burger No Matter What

- Use good meat. It’s pretty hard to examine meat quality once it has been ground so this usually means grinding it yourself or asking the butcher to grind something that you select. This is not hard and takes seconds yet 99% of people don’t do it.
- Fat. I’m sorry, but a good burger needs fat. At least 20%, but probably 25%. Deal with it.
- A good bun. You know that fat? It’s gonna need a place to go. You want something that will hold up to the burger.
- High heat. A good burger has a seared crust.

Do those things and you can’t go wrong. Notice I didn’t say anything about doneness, cheese, toppings, or anything else. In my opinion those can all be fixed to taste.

Don’t Get me Wrong. Will I eat a burger that is missing one of my four keys of a good burger? Probably. But I seriously doubt it will be a Good burger unless it has those things.

So let’s make a good burger. This is an adaptation of Mr. Bittman’s Burger.

The Pork Burger

Yield: 10 burgers.

Prep Time: 1 hour

Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes

Ingredients:

2.5 pounds boneless pork shoulder, grind it yourself or ask your friendly butcher
3-4 garlic cloves
1.5 Tablespoons fennel seeds
Salt and Pepper

Orange and Fennel Chutney:
1 fennel bulb, chopped
2 oranges, peeled and chopped
1/3 Cup sugar
1/2 Cup water
1 Teaspoon red pepper flakes
Pinch of salt and pepper

Helpful Equipment:
A good food processor will help. If you don't have one, you can get your butcher to grind the meat.

Directions:

1) To make the chutney, pulse the fennel bulb and orange segments in a food processor until they are finely chopped. If you don't have a processor you can just chop them finely.

2) Combine the fennel and orange with the other chutney ingredients and simmer for about 45 minutes until the mixture is thick.

3) Once it's done, set it aside to top your burgers with later!

4) To make the burgers, chop your pork butt into a few large pieces and then pulse in a food processor with fennel seeds and garlic. Also, if there are any large pieces of fat on the pork shoulder, cut them off and process them before the rest of the meat so it's finer and more integrated into the meat.

5) Once your meat is chopped (you can also get your butcher to grind the meat), form about 4 ounce patties and put a large thumb impression in the center of each burger. Season well with salt and pepper.

6) Grill the burgers on a hot grill or in a hot cast iron skillet for 4-5 minutes per side until cooked through.

7) Grill or toast the buns and serve each burger with a good amount of chutney.

Making the Chutney

When Bittman made this, he just ground the fennel straight into the meat. That’s fine if you want to do that, but I like it better as a topping. It’s really the only topping this burger needs and it doesn’t even need it to be honest. It would be a great burger with nothing on it.

Good flavors people.

But if you wanted to make a topping for this burger, this is about as easy as it gets. It’s very flavorful, has some heat and sweet to it, and makes the pork flavor really pop.

To start, just chop up the fennel bulb and segment up the oranges. Then pulse everything in your favorite food processor.

This is gonna hurt!

Now if you don’t have a food processor you could definitely just chop this up until it’s pretty finely chopped.

Then add the fennel and orange to a saucepan with the other ingredients and bring it to a simmer. Let it simmer, stirring occasionally for about 45 minutes to an hour.

Easy and delicious.

As it slowly cooks, the orange and fennel will break down. The sugar will thicken the sauce slightly and it’ll end up being a perfect topping for your burger!

The only topping we'll need.

Making the Burgers

I try to keep burgers simple, but I like to start with good stuff. That makes your job really easy. If you start with excellent meat, then you only need to add things that accent the meat. If you start with crappy meat, you have to figure out a way to flavor it.

I used a really nice cut of pork shoulder for these burgers. The great thing about pork shoulder is that even the best pork shoulder you can buy will only set you back a few bucks. Nobody really likes this cut of meat for some reason which is amazing to me because you can make these burgers… or carnitas.

I shouldn’t be telling you all this because now the cost of pork shoulder will go up!

Fat is your friend. Trust me.

Once you get your shoulder, you can definitely just have your butcher grind it for you. If you have a food processor though, you can do it yourself which will have the added affect of making you feel awesome.

There’s really only two things to know about grinding your own meat (using a food processor instead of a meat grinder). First, make sure to cube your meat into inch or so cubes. That’ll make it easier. Second, if you have any very large pieces of fat on your shoulder you should process those separately. You’ll want to process them longer than the meat so the fat isn’t stringy at all.

Then you can just mix everything in a bowl with the chopped garlic and fennel seeds. You don’t need to add a bunch of stuff to these.

No need to make this complicated.

I like to go with about a 4 ounce burger. So if you start with 2.5 pounds of pork shoulder that should work out to about 10 burgers. If you wanted to be exact you could definitely weigh them with a kitchen scale, but that’s kind of unnecessary. Just eyeball it.

Once you get your burgers formed, salt and pepper them pretty liberally.

Salt and pepper liberally.

Cooking the Burgers

Now these burgers are awesome on a hot grill. They could also be cooked in a hot cast iron skillet. The key here is cook them in or on something hot. Medium heat doesn’t exist for these. You want to sear them and brown them nicely.

These guys will sizzle.

As they cook, the fat will melt and flavor the burgers. Whether you’re cooking on a grill or in cast iron, they’ll probably need about 4-5 minutes per side. Don’t fiddle with them too much. Let them get some nice grill marks.

And don’t worry, there’s so much fat in these guys that it’s pretty hard to overcook them. They’ll be juicy as long as you don’t leave them on the grill overnight or something.

And it should go without saying that you’ll want to toast your rolls.

Watch out for flare-ups!

The rest of this should be self-explanatory. Put the burger on the bun. Slather it with the chutney. Eat it.

BITE!

I’ll be completely honest. I didn’t even need the chutney. The burger was perfectly juicy and the bun was crunchy and chewy and awesome.

I don’t like to toot my own horn, but I’m tooting my own horn.

In my opinion, these were maybe the best burgers I’ve made.

The poll winner, a fish baked in salt, left me standing in my kitchen last Sunday night, giggling like a school boy, as I played with a very good looking 3 pound red snapper and six pounds of Kosher salt.

It was an awesome and fun cooking experience.

If you can’t tell, underneath all of that salt there, is one whole fish.

Artsy shot!

At first I was very excited to make this meal, then I was slightly nervous, then scared, and finally excited again. What’s funny about this dish is while it looks intense, it’s actually one of the simpler ways to cook fish because it basically ensures a tender result unless you forgot about your fish in the oven and went to the movies or something.

Red Snapper in Salt

Yield: Serves 4.

Prep Time: 25 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour

Ingredients:

1 3-5 pound whole fish, red snapper or bass work great, fins and gills removed
2 (3 pound) boxes of Kosher salt
4 egg whites
1/2 Cup water
1/4 fennel bulb, sliced thin (use the rest for a salad)
1 lemon, sliced thin
1/2 orange, sliced thin (use the rest for a salad plus maybe one full orange)
A few sprigs of thyme
A handful of parsley
Olive oil for drizzling

Directions:

1) Pat your whole fish dry and stuff it with thinly sliced lemons, fennel, and orange slices. Also add a few sprigs of thyme and parsley.

2) Mix salt, egg whites, and water in a large bowl to form a rough paste.

3) On a large baking dish, completely pack the fish in the salt mixture. Use parchment paper to make for easy clean-up. Add about 1/3 of the salt mixture on the bottom of the dish and sit the fish right on top. Then completely surround the fish with the salt but don't pack it super-tight or you'll damage the fish. Be gentle.

4) Bake the fish at 450 degrees for 25-35 minutes for a 3 pound snapper. If you have a digital thermometer you're shooting for an internal temperature of 130 degrees.

5) Let the fish rest for 5 minutes when it comes out of the oven.

6) Use a mallet to lightly crack open the salt casing and break it all away. Then use a sharp knife to cut away the top skin layer. Then just gently lift the fish out with a spatula. It'll be too tender to lift it all out in one piece so just take it in pieces. Lift out the fish skeleton and then also lift out the bottom segments of fish meat.

7) Serve immediately!

Adapted from an Alton Brown recipe.

Preparing the fish

There’s only a few important things to remember about the fish in this dish. As always, get the fish as fresh as you can. I got this red snapper from my local fish market and they even cleaned it to my specs which was lovely of them.

There’s really no way you could do this with anything less than a whole fish (although you can use two smaller fish). Without a whole fish though, the meat would get too salty. Have your fishmonger (or do it yourself if you are privvy) remove the gills and fins on your fish. Leave the skin and scales on. That’s right, you don’t even need to worry about the scales. If your fish already happens to be de-scaled that’s just fine though.

The only chance we’re really going to have to flavor this fish is right at the beginning so let’s stuff it with lots of citrus and herbs right away. These for example:

Lots of flavor here...

Slice up everything pretty thin so it’ll fit nicely in the fish cavity.

Go thin on the slices.

Once you have your fish, rinse it with cold water and pat it dry with a paper towel. Then stuff it full of the herbs and fruits.

Stuffed full!

Playing with salt

When your fish is ready, you need to make the salt mortar. I’m not really sure if that’s the right word for what this is, but basically it’s a mortar like you would use for laying brick I imagine.

Whatever you want to call it, it’s really fun to make.

This made me giggle.

To make the mortar, just mix the salt, egg whites, and water in a large bowl. It should be slightly moist and clump together if you press it.

Next, line a baking sheet with parchment paper and then scoop about 1/3 of your salt mortar onto the parchment paper diagonally. Make sure that there aren’t any whole or gaps in the salt crust! Then lay your stuffed fish right on top of the salt. It’s okay if the head and tale stick out a bit.

This is fun cooking.

Next, start packing the fish in salt! You want to form a dome shape around the fish. Try not to press really hard or you might damage the fish. Just gentle shape the salt. Try not to get in a hurry. It’s kind of fun!

I used all the salt.

Make sure your oven is preheated at 450 degrees and then bake this very heavy thing for 25-35 minutes depending on the size of the fish. For a 3 pound fish, mine was actually a bit overcooked after 30 minutes (although it’s fine to overcook this fish a bit. It’s still very moist).

If you have a meat thermometer you can poke it through the salt crust after 25 minutes or so and get the temperature of the fish. 130 degrees or above and you’re all set. Be sure to let your salt dome rest at room temp for 5 minutes before cracking into it.

The Fun Part

Getting the fish out of the dome was actually very easy. Use a small hammer or mallet to lightly crack the salt shell all the way around the fish. It should lift right off. Use a small pastry brush or something to dust off any salt that’s stuck to the fish.

So cool.

Next, use a sharp knife to gently slice all the way around the top layer of skin and then just peel it back. It should come off really easily in one piece. It’s pretty amazing actually.

After the skin is off, use a knife or small spatula (or pie server) to gently lift the pieces of fish from the top side of the fish. That should expose the spine and bones which you should be able to grab by the tale and gently pull off.

Pretty cool.

Tipsy was not impressed.

Then you’ll have the same amount of fish underneath the spine which you can scoop off the bottom layer of skin.

If any of that was terribly confusing to you, Alton has a video of the whole thing. If you want to skip to the end part of getting the fish out of the salt, it starts around 7:30 in that video.

If you wanted to be really crazy, I guess you could just serve the fish intact at the table, but I thought it was nice to pull off all of the fish fillets and serve them with some lemon slices.

This is a lot more food than it looks.

It's actually a lot of fish.

I served my red snapper with some brown rice and a quick salad using the fennel and orange I had left over from the stuffing. I should’ve just went the extra step though and made this fennel and orange salad which goes perfectly with fish.

Healthy dinner!

Not only was this meal very delicious, I think it would’ve been pretty hard to mess up. Like I said, I actually overcooked my fish by about 10 degrees and you would’ve never known. The salt keeps all the moisture and flavor trapped in so it gives you tons of room for error in the cooking.

So if you’re in the market for something different and fun, I thought this was a fantastic dish!

Have you ever tried this? How’d it go? Cooked anything else in salt?

I’m also fairly certain that Tipsy loves this new obsession of mine because I’ve caught her twice now licking the salt off my baked goods!

These crackers though… I’m telling you that I’m in love with them.

Lavish indeed!

You can put all kinds of fun spices and seeds on them and then bake them in one large sheet and break them up into shards. Man they are good and a snap to make. (Get it? Snap!)

Lavish Crackers

Yield: 2 sheets of crackers

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 45 minutes

Ingredients:

1.5 Cups all-purpose flour (The book recommends bread flour)
1/2 Teaspoon salt
1/2 Teaspoon instant yeast
1 Tablespoon honey
1 Tablespoon vegetable oil
1/3 to 1/2 Cups water, room temp.

Directions:

1) Mix all the dry ingredients together and then add the honey, oil, and water. When adding the water, add it slowly and only add as much as you need for the dough to come together.

2) When the dough comes together in a ball, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead the dough for about ten minutes until it passes the famous windowpane test.

3) Put the tiny ball of dough in an oiled pan and let it ferment (rise) for about 90 minutes.

4) After the 90 minutes is up, the dough will be doubled in volume (or should be) and will be very pliable.

5) Chop it in half!

6) Take one half and slowly roll it out to the length of a sheet pan.

7) Flour both sides of the dough lightly to keep it from sticking and go slowly. You should be able to get this dough almost paper thin.

8) Transfer the dough carefully to a sheet pan lined with parchment paper that has been lightly oiled.

9) Spray the top of the cracker dough with some water and then go crazy with the toppings!

10) Bake about 18 minutes in the oven at 350 degrees (turn the pan half way through to get both sides cooked evenly).

11) Once the cracker is cool, which just takes a few minutes, break it into pieces.

Recipe from The Bread Baker's Apprentice.

Mix all your dry ingredients together and then add your honey, oil, and water. When adding the water, add it slowly and only add as much as you need for your dough to come together. I didn’t need 1/2 cup of water, but you might. When the dough comes together in a ball, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface.

A basic dough. Simple stuff.

Knead the dough for about ten minutes until it passes the famous windowpane test. I found this dough to be especially stretchy.

That's some good windowpane!

Then put your tiny ball of dough in an oiled pan and let it ferment (rise) for about 90 minutes. I like to use spray olive oil for this as it coats the pan evenly and then I spray the top of the dough also to keep it from drying out.

You can use any oil really though. Just make sure there isn’t a pool of oil in the pan. A light coating is enough.

A very smooth dough.

After your 90 minutes is up, the dough will be doubled in volume (or should be) and will be very pliable.

Next thing is to chop it in half! Just half of this dough will make enough cracker to cover a standard half sheet pan.

A little goes a long way here.

Then take one half and slowly roll it out to the length of a sheet pan. Mine ended up being about 12 by 16 inches. Flour both sides of the dough lightly to keep it from sticking and go slowly. You should be able to get this dough almost paper thin.

Then transfer the dough carefully to a sheet pan lined with parchment paper that has been lightly oiled (again I used spray oil).

This is very thin. Almost paper thin.

Now comes the fun part. Spray the top of your cracker dough with some water and then go crazy with the toppings! These are the ones that I decided to use, but really you could use almost anything. It’s okay to use a pretty good dose of spices because some of them will fall off after cooking.

These are some of the spices I grabbed.

Also, if you are a very orderly person and don’t like the idea of shards, you could use a pizza cutter or knife to lightly cut the dough into whatever shape you want and then after it bakes it will easily break into uniform pieces.

Frankly, I despise uniform pieces!

After about 18 minutes in the oven at 350 degrees (turn your pan half way through to get both sides cooked evenly), you’ll end up with a super crunchy cracker layer.

The cooked sheet.

Once the cracker is cool, which just takes a few minutes, you can break it into pieces. Personally I like big shards that have some of each spice on them. But there aren’t any rules. These are crackers people. Go crazy.

Shards are the best.

Just another shot for good measure.

Crunchy and good.

If you make both halves of dough, you’ll end up with a good amount of crackers, but don’t worry. They go quick. Especially if you have a very nosey cat who loves people food.

I browsed through the new Bon Appétit a week or so ago and I must say I was really impressed. I think it was maybe the best issue I’ve seen so far this year. Lots of really interesting recipes in it and cool summer time party ideas. If you don’t subscribe already, this issue might be worth a look the next time you are browsing the magazine section or something.

This was a dinner that I made using a salad and salmon dish out of the magazine. Absolutely delicious and darn healthy!

Healthy!

This salmon is packed with flavor because it is actually cooked wrapped in fresh bay leaves and lemons. The wrapping keeps it super moist and the flavor of the bay leaves is really incorporated into the salmon but not in an overpowering way. As always, I don’t recommend buying the farm raised stuff. It isn’t worth the few bucks in savings in my opinion.

But before we cook the salmon, let’s talk about that pretty salad!

Fennel and Arugula Salad (From Bon Appétit)
(Serves Four easily)

- 1 large fennel bulb or two small/medium sized bulbs
- 5 Ounces washed arugula
- 1/2 Cup pitted Kalomata olives
- 1-2 Cups Shaved Parmesan

Dressing:
- 3 Tablespoons lemon juice
- 1 Teaspoon red wine vinegar
- 1 Teaspoon anchovy paste (I didn’t include this because I was sharing the salad with a vegetarian and it was fine.)
- 1/2 Cup extra virgin olive oil
- Coarse salt

Not so hard to prep after all.

My fennel bulbs were a bit smaller than normal so I went with two of them. Also, I freakin’ love the stuff so I wasn’t worried about having too much. To prepare, chop off the green stems and the root end and then slice down the middle.

There will be a small semi-leafy core in each bulb that you should cut out with a paring knife. Then turn the 1/2 bulb so it is flat (face-down) on the cutting board and dice horizontally to make the slivers.

The completed deal.

Add these slivers to your arugula and olives (which should just be sliced in half and de-pitted if they have pits).

In a separate bowl, whisk together your dressing ingredients and then add that to your salad. Top the salad with shaved Parmesan cheese and some crushed black pepper. You can make this an hour or so in advance if you want.

Lookin' good!

The Salmon. Ok. This salmon was delicious but I paid quite the price (in pain) for it that you can easily avoid. The original recipe calls to wrap the salmon in fresh bay leaves and lemon and then grill the whole package. I, however, do not have a grill handy, so I decided to try it in the oven. This was a mistake.

Turns out that bay leaves are very strong. I actually knew this, but it just didn’t occur to me that if I was cooking 50-60 bay leaves, the fumes created by that might burn like Hades. That is one reason why doing this outside on a grill is a fantastic idea!

But if you think you can handle the fumes then by all means try it in the oven I guess. Let me warn you though. It is not worth it. My nose and eyes burned for like two hours.

GRILLED Salmon Wrapped in Lemon and Bay Leaves

- 2-3 packages fresh bay leaves (The original recipe calls for 4, but I only used a little over 1 package when I made my version.)
- 6-7 lemons, sliced into thin rounds
- 3 pounds center cut salmon (I only used about 1.5 pound cut. I still don’t know why you would need 4 packages of bay leaves.)
- Kosher Salt
- Olive oil

For the prep on this guy, I must admit that mine was a bit sloppy. Trust me trust me trust me. If you were actually grilling this fish, you would need to have a fish grilling basket to keep everything contained.

Also, I thought the best way to show how to prepare this for cooking is to do a little animated piece.

I’m not even going to tell you what temp to cook this in the oven because it seriously shouldn’t be done. On a medium heat grill through, it should take about 15-20 minutes per side or until the skin is crisp and the internal temperature is 135 degrees.

It will probably look much better than this:

At this point my eyes were on fire.

The second reason why this dish would be much better on the grill is that the skin on the salmon would get very crisp. That didn’t really happen in the oven.

A healthy meal!

Once I got past the intense bay leaf fumes, the salmon was actually delicious. It was moist and flaked apart. Even though the bay leafs were really strong, the salmon only had a hint of bay leaf flavor. The salad was killer also. The arugula and fennel paired perfectly with the fish.

The moral of the story: If you have a grill and want to try something original, this is a good dish. In the name of everything sane, do not try this indoors!

This fennel and orange salad fit the bill just fine.

Orange and fennel work.

This was a really simple salad that only required three main ingredients. It takes about 5-10 minutes to make (although it is better if you make it an hour or so in advance). It is completely refreshing.

And yes, I bought tangelos instead of oranges. I’m not really sure how I did that and didn’t recognize it until I got home. It’s cool though, you can use either. It is a bit sweeter with tangelos.

The makings of a killer salad.

The recipe for this couldn’t be easier.

Fennel and Orange Salad (from How to Cook Everything)

- 1 Pound fennel, approximately 2 medium-sized bulbs
- 3 oranges or in my case (doh) tangelos
- 1 lime, juice only
- Pinch of salt
- 2 tablespoons fresh chopped cilantro

Fennel may seem a bit intimidating if you’ve never prepared it before, but it is really simple. Chop off the top and root of the bulb, then slice in half lengthwise. Pop out the center core section of the fennel and then slice the sections as thin as you can get them. If you have a mandoline, this will be even easier.

Deconstructing the fennel.

Add these fennel sections to the juice of one lime and one orange. The other two oranges you want to prepare like this.

Orange you glad I showed you this?

Once you have the circular wedges, I chopped them in half again just to make them a bit easier to eat. Toss this all together with the cilantro and the fennel and let that marinate for as long as you want (up to 12 hours would be just fine).

The longer this sits the better it will be.

I made up a quick batch of couscous and also pan-seared a section of wild-caught salmon to finish off this salad.

Add some salmon for good measure.

This is one of those salads that you can make in just a few minutes, but leaves you feeling refreshed and good to go. I have a suspicion that this salad, maybe chopped a little finer, would also be awesome on a fish burger of some sort (tests pending).

Definitely give this a shot if you are looking to beat the now Summer heat.