Deus Ex Culina

Japanese Style Salmon Pouch

I saw Alton Brown's show on cooking with pouches, and I decided that it'd been a while since I'd cooked fish, never mention since I'd posted anything here. So I figured I'd use his principle of selecting vegetables, starches and aromatics to put fish in a pouch and microwave it, and see how it came out. I selected an interesting array of vegetables, and the result, well, you'll have to read on to see what happened...

Read on to see inside the pouch...

I was inspired when I put this together:

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup lotus root, thinly sliced (I used this instead of a starch because I'm being low-carb these days)
  
• 1/2 fiddlehead ferns, thinly sliced
  
• .07 lbs morell mushrooms, about 7 or 8, sliced
  
• 1 tablespoon red miso
  
• 3 tablespoons light mirin sake
  
• 3/4 lbs salmon steak, boneless
  
• 1 tbs sliced ginger
  
• salt and pepper to taste

Instructions
Slice up all the veggies and toss. Then, dissolve the miso in the mirin. Take a large sheet of parchment paper, and fold it in half. Cut it into a giant heart shape, and place the veggies inside, on one half of the heart. Salt and pepper the veggies to taste. Place the salmon steak on top of the veggies, and the ginger on top of the salmon. Again, salt and pepper to taste. Then, pour the mirin-miso mixture on top of the whole structure. Fold the second half of the heart over, and starting at the curved part, begin double folding the top and bottom halves together. When you've made your way to the pointed end of the heart, twist that end until the pouch is tight. Place pouch onto a microwave safe dish, and microwave on high for 5 minutes. And voila!

And I have to tell you, the mixture came out excellent. The vegetables had a wonderful earthy tone, the mirin-miso mixture added a sweet touch, and the fish went well with everything else. The fish had a poached texture, but unfortunately, the center didn't fully cook through at 5 minutes. But that was ok as the portion was a bit large for just one person. So I'll re-microwave the uncooked portion as leftovers tomorrow perhaps.

Porktastic

I think we're doing the 4th of July at Nate's place, and I want to try and smoke a suckling pig in the smoker. I found a place that mail orders them for $160, which may be the best option, but I need to do some more price shopping. In any event, check out this event where a couple of culinary students roasted a whole pig, Cuban style.

Check out their feast here.

(BTW, I know I've been negligent with posts here, but I have stuff to post, believe me. And I may just make the 4th of July a whole Deus celebration as well.)

Simple Tilapia

It's very warm here today. Anything heavy would be inedible. But Tilapia was simple, quick, and very yummy.

1 filet per person
Corn meal (masa harissa)
cayenne powder
some milk

Soak the fish in milk for a minute or three. This is mostly to take away any wrong fishy oil, and to ensure that the corn meal/cayenne mix will stick to the fish.

Saute over medium heat, about 5 minutes per side. salting it late seemed right, and worked really well.

mmmm!