Na'cho Mama's Fish and Chips

So look. Fish is ugly, it can be slimey, it's intimidating but...it's just food after all. It's pretty cheap, if you buy right, and it tastes freakin delicious so get over it, find a good fish market, a sharp knive and get to work.

Buying whole fish can be quite economical. Once you learn to butcher the few types of fish you might come across, it becomes pretty simple and quite quick. I'm not saying you will be ready to work at Le Bernardin, but you will be more than capable to throw together a meal for a few guests.

So, I was lucky enough to get a nice whole trout which I promptly took home, on ice, and took apart to cook for my lady. We had a nice "fish and chips", aka, Poisson et pommes frites. Sans malt vinegar, but we did throw in a semi decent burre blanc and a very acidic lemon sauce to top. I'm not going into crazy specifics for the recipes right now but I'll briefly describe at least the techniques behind it. As for filleting the fish, just youtube how to filet a flounder or trout or red snapper or whatever fish tickles your fancy.

For the french fries, frites, fried potatoes: If your normal, French, or uber patriotic respectively.

French fries are generally a two step process. You cut your fries then dry them well. If they sit too long they will oxidize and turn brown so don't leave them on a sheat pan for an hour while your oil heats up.

Fry the potatoes at 300-320 degrees until tender all the way through. Shouldn't take more than a couple of minutes. Let them cool and drain well. Heat the oil up to around 375 and put the fries back in until golden brown. Remove from the oil and season immediately. The fries should be crispy on the outside and warm and soft on the inside. It takes a little bit of playing around when you're using a dutch oven as a deep fryer. The temperature will swing wildly in different directions so, one hand on the food, the other on the gas knob.

The fish was incredibly simple. I filleted it into two pieces about 8 inches long and cut them both on a bias. The trout was about 2 lb's and was easily enough to feed two people. I left the skin on and dredged the skin side in a little bit of flour, although I'm told Wondra works a little better. I seared the skin on medium heat in a little butter and olive oil. Keep in mind how fatty and how thick the skin is, if it's a thick cut you don't want to sear it on too high heat or it won't render completely. Flip the fish after the skin is crisp and lightly browned and warm the bottom side through.

The buerre blanc sauce was a classic recipe that I got from cooking school. Nothing crazy and quite unimaginative but pretty good I suppose. I'll post the recipe another time.

At the end I took a little vinegar, sugar, lemon juice and supremed lemon. Tossed it in the drained pan that I pan seared the fish in. Let it warm up just a touch and spooned it on top of the fish.

Sorry for the not so typical post but I'm kind of scattered, have a lot to do and a bunch of stuff to read and not a lot of time to get it done so I'm kind of flying through this. Hope at least someone out there might at least try making the french fries. They are definitely worth the effort. Don't forget you can season fries with anything. My favorite is onion powder, garlic powder, salt, black pepper and celery seed.

Sharpening Your Knive, With a steel?

Many of you have one of the above in your knive collection. Most people get them for free when they purchase even a cheap set of knives and most people never use them or even know what they really do. One thing they don't do, sharpen your knives. Now, when you're done using it, your knive will effectively be able to more efficiently cut through items. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that kind of means the knive is sharper but you're still wrong. What a steel does is "hone" a knive's edge.

While using a knive the blade begins to lose its edge. What that means is that the microscopic tip of the blade edge begins to fold and wave in varying directions.  It can't be stopped and it happens no matter what you are cutting. Cutting on certain surfaces, like glass, marble, and normal dinnerware will cause it to happen almost instantly and will dull the knive almost beyond the ability of a hone to fix it. 

You want to hone a knive at a minimum each time you use it. Ideally you can hone before and after each use. This will help keep your edge in between sharpenings, but don't forget, even the best high-carbon blades need regular sharpening so don't rely on a hone/steel to do your bidding.

For details on how to properly use a hone, check out:

http://www.videojug.com/film/sharpening-a-knife-with-a-steel

Cooking Tip of the Day

Sometimes the simplest thing, is the best thing.

Ayu with Hiroko Shimbo

Yesterday I had the pleasure to see Ayu, a Japanese sweetfish, prepared using a few seperate methods. Ayu is cultivated in Japanese streams starting around June and continuing for four months. The fish was quite mild yet rich with a slight bitter aftertaste. It is hard to locate in the U.S., but it is becoming more predominant and has already been added to menus of Per Se and Daniel (seasonally of course). Ayu is quite small and has a life span of about one year only growing to 8-10 inches. It lends it self to grilling, saute, braising, roasting, the works. Typically, the Japanese season the fish and put heavy salt on the fins and tail then grill over very high heat on open flame. Chef Shimbo served it with an acidic watermelon sauce she made with watermelon juice and rice vinegar. The bitterness in the sauce compliments the bitterness in the fish quite well.

There were two parts of the presentation that impressed me. The first, watching Chef Shimbo, a slightly middle aged, incredibly petite woman, getting all up in her business. I cringed several times as I knowingly watched her grab incredibly hot items with bare hands without hesitation. She loved the food, the tradition, the perfection involved in Japanese cuisine and it was quite interesting to watch through a language and cultural barrier. The second was that for the first time I was made aware of this trip I've set on. Chef Shimbo was talking about traditions that were hundreds of years old. Still today people slave over stoves to recreate a bit of history in the present. We take items out of the ground, find them in rivers, on mountains, practically everywhere in the world, and using age old methods and techniques we convert them into feasts. The true idea of being a chef is pretty amazing. I'm not talking about working at applebee's (lowercase) and opening plastic bags and reheating, but the simple idea of putting seeds in the ground to harvest fresh produce in months to come to plate on a table shortly thereafter is amazing to me.

With that being said, I'll leave you with this. You may not be able to see, I took the picture with my iPhone, but settling in across the street under the 31st bridge between 30th and 31st Avenues is a quite spritely fellow. Tall in nature with flowing black curly hair and a wired frame in a green speedo. His name? Russell Brand. His place? Filming Arthur down the street.