This was a surprise. I was not expecting it to be anything other than a way to use up some frozen mahi mahi from Trader Joe’s (the kind that’s frozen, in the marinade). But, hey, this was delicious! The yogurt gave it a nice tanginess and the almonds and parmesan are a wonderful combination. Plus, anytime you can spend about $6 on fish and make a great dinner, it’s a win!

Since I did use the marinated mahi mahi, I just rinsed each piece of fish under cold water and removed any marinade. So, then I felt free to salt and pepper myself. Not a lot of salt just a sprinkle on the fish, then a pinch in the almond-parmesan coating.

I also just coated the top of the fish, as I wasn’t convinced the bottom would be un-soggy (even with the rack-on-top-of-the-baking-sheet method). Next time I may try to coat all of the fish and see what happens, but just coating the top worked well and was quite flavorful.

Mahi Mahi with Parmesan Almond Crust
Adapted from a recipe by Ellie Krieger
1/3 cup 2% plain yogurt (I used Greek style)
1 large egg white
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
1/4 cup panko breadcrumbs
2 tbsp parmesan cheese, grated
1/4 cup chopped toasted almonds
2 cloves garlic, minced finely
1 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
salt and freshly ground pepper
3-4 pieces of mahi-mahi fillet
lemon wedges
olive oil spray

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Lightly oil a wire rack large enough to hold fillets in a single layer. Place the rack on a baking sheet and set aside.

Combine the breadcrumbs, almonds, parmesan, parsley, garlic, a little salt and pepper in a shallow dish. Whisk together yogurt, egg white and mustard in a medium bowl until creamy.

Sprinkle each piece of fish with a little salt and pepper. Dip one side of fish into the yogurt mixture and then in the crumb mixture. Pat crumbs on the top of fish to cover any placed that didn’t get coated.

Set on the prepared rack; spray tops with olive oil. Fish should not touch. Bake until lightly browned 10-14 minutes (depending on the size of your fish and if you are going to give it any broiler time). For a more golden crust, let sit under the broiler for a few seconds. I believe I gave my pieces about 12 minutes at 400 and then maybe one minute under the broiler.

Serve fish with the lemon wedges.

Oh my god, this was so good. I think this is the best cake i’ve ever made. I think this will be my signature cake, you know, if I ever need a signature cake.

I wasn’t even sure this was going to turn out as I basically combined two recipes, substituted some ingredients and just hoped for the best. It’s a little spicy, very vanilla-y, with a little hit of citrus.

This cake uses cheese! Intriguing! But, instead of all ricotta cheese, I used one cup of mascarpone and 1/2 cup of ricotta — but you could use all ricotta (what the original recipe with the cheese called for if you wanted to). I just had the marscapone on hand and I wanted to use it.

The cake has a light texture and a wonderful flavor. It doesn’t even need a glaze or powdered sugar!

Cardamom, Vanilla & Orange Pound Cake
A combination of two recipes — an orange ricotta pound cake by Giada De Laurentiis and a vanilla cardamom pound cake in Gourmet magazine
1 1/2 cups cake flour
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp cardamom seeds, freshly ground (or just use ground cardamom)
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter, room temperature (plus more for the pan)
1 cup (8 oz) mascarpone cheese
1/2 cup part-skim ricotta cheese
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 large eggs
1 vanilla bean, split, seeds scraped out
1 tsp vanilla extract
zest of 1 orange
2 tbsp milk (fat-free is fine)

Cardamom seeds — I ground these in a spice grinder. You can also just use pre-ground cardamom

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a bundt pan or a 9 by 5 by 3-inch loaf pan with a little butter. Actually, here I used the Pam for baking (butter + flour in a can) because I kind of love it…I’m not sure why. Anyway, in a medium bowl combine the flour, ground cardamom, baking powder, and salt. Stir to combine.

I accidentally added the orange zest after creaming but before the eggs…no biggie…it still worked!

Using an electric mixer, cream together the butter, mascarpone, ricotta, and sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. With the machine running, add the eggs 1 at a time.

Add the vanilla (seeds & extract), orange zest, and milk until combined.

Add the dry ingredients, a small amount at a time, until just incorporated.

Pour the mixture into the prepared pan and bake until a toothpick comes out clean and the cake is beginning to pull away from the sides of the pan, about 45 to 50 minutes.

Let the cake cool in the pan for 10 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

You might not make it to “completely”…just do the best that you can. It is pretty good warm!

Mmmmmmm…cake….

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I finally got my Alton Brown poster up on the back of the basement door. It looks good and guards over the kitchen like a benevolent, science-y mascot!

Oh, look, it’s more bread! And not just any bread but some tasty, crunchy, chewy ciabatta.

This is very similar to the French loaf recipe, but there’s no sugar and you shape the dough into two, flat, rectangular loaves. There aren’t a lot of pictures here — mainly because I think I was just lazy. This, like the French round, is from the treasure trove of King Arthur Flour online recipes — specifically the yeast breads > French & Italian.

Rustic Italian Ciabatta
Adapted from the King Arthur Flour Website
1 1/2 cups cool water (12 ounces)
3 1/2 cups Bread Flour (or King Arthur European-Style Artisan Bread Flour (14 3/4 ounces)
2 tsp dry active yeast (the original recipe said instant yeast — is that something different? I used dry active)
1 1/2 tsp salt

Stir the water, 2 cups of the flour, and 1 teaspoon of the yeast together, cover and let rest at room temperature for several hours, or overnight. Here’s what I did — we were going out of town for the weekend, so I mixed the starter up and stored it in the refrigerator for about 2.5 days.

Add the remaining flour, yeast, and salt, mixing vigorously until the dough begins to hold together. This is a very sticky dough; add more flour only if it’s “soupy.”

Place the dough in a lightly floured bowl. Let it rise for 1 hour, then gently deflate it. Let it rise another hour, then turn it out onto a liberally floured work surface or silicone rolling mat, and sprinkle lots of flour on top.

Flatten the dough to an 8 x 10 inch rectangle, about 3/4-inch thick, and cut it into two pieces, each about 4 x 10 inches.

Transfer the loaves onto a piece of parchment, leaving about 6 inches between them. Cover with a proof cover or heavily oiled plastic wrap, and let rise till they’re very puffy, about 2 hours.

While the dough is rising, place a baking stone in the oven and set the temperature to 500 degrees F. Allow the oven to heat for 30 minutes. Spritz the dough with water, then transfer the bread to the stone, parchment and all, and lower the oven temperature to 425 degrees F.

Bake the ciabatta until it’s golden brown, approximately 22 to 25 minutes. Turn the oven off, crack the door open about 2 inches, and allow ciabatta to cool completely in the turned-off oven. Yeah, good luck with that…we lasted about an hour before the bread was taken out and snacked on.

Note: If you don’t have a baking stone, transfer parchment and ciabatta to a cookie sheet, and bake on the middle rack of your oven.

This was a recent experiment that ended up as a tasty dinner and then lunch the next day. I used a basic carrot soup recipe with ginger and lemon to start but then added a lot of other things to it (curry powder, cashews, coconut cream). It made a very interesting, satisfying soup.

My inspiration for adding all of those extra ingredients were a really wonderful bowl of soup I had a couple of years ago at The Cricket Cafe on Belmont and a recent lazy approach to dinner in the form of Pacific Foods Cashew Carrot Ginger soup.

I think you could easily substitute coconut milk for the cream (it won’t end up as creamy) but you’ll save some fat for a dessert or something. I went ahead and froze my leftover coconut cream in three batches for other recipes. That’s what I do when I open a can of coconut milk and don’t use it all. I’m assuming it will work with the cream as well. No one comment and tell me it won’t work. Do not crush my dreams!

Also, I just want to add that I got the Ad Hoc at Home cookbook for my birthday and I am so excited to cook something from it!

Curried Carrot Soup with Coconut & Cashews
Adapted from a recipe in Bon Appétit
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp butter
1 white onion, chopped
1 tbsp peeled fresh ginger, grated
Optional: 1 tsp fresh turmeric, grated
1 tsp curry powder
4 cloves minced garlic
3 cups medium carrots, peeled, chopped
1 tomato, seeded, chopped
zest of 1/2 lemon
1/4 cup toasted cashews
3 cups chicken stock or canned low-salt broth
1/3 cup coconut cream
small squeeze of lemon juice
Optional Garnishes: chopped green onion, thai basil leaves

Frozen pieces of ginger and turmeric, about to be microplaned

Melt butter and heat oil in a heavy large pot over medium-high heat. Add onion; sauté 4-5 minutes. Add ginger (and fresh turmeric, if you’ve got it), garlic and curry powder; sauté 2 more minutes.

Oh, last month I came across fresh turmeric at Pasta Works. I know, neat! I used what I needed then and then peeled some and cut it into about 1-inch pieces, wrapped it up and froze it like I would peeled, fresh ginger. That’s what I used here. If you have access to fresh turmeric, great. If not, just skip it. Or if you wanted to, you could add maybe a 1/4 tsp dried. But I wouldn’t worry about it.

Next, add the chopped carrots, tomato and lemon zest; sauté 1 minute.

Add 3 cups stock and bring to boil. Reduce heat, cover partially and simmer until carrots are very tender, about 20 minutes.

Stir in coconut cream and cashews. Cool slightly.

Puree soup in batches in blender. Return soup to pot. Squeeze in a little lemon juice. Season with salt and pepper.

Bring soup back to a simmer, thinning with more stock, if needed. Ladle into bowls. Garnish with green onions and Thai basil if you have any.

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Oh, I just added a bunch of images to Flickr, including: Brunch at Country Cat, our last dinner at Carlyle, Lincoln City and assorted food stuff.

Yesterday, Michael Ruhlman posed a question on Twitter as to why food bloggers cook. It’s short and bullet-pointed, but this is why I cook.

• It’s fun and relaxing (especially if you have a glass or two of wine while cooking).
• Otherwise, my husband would eat dry ramen noodles & take-out burritos. (Probably not all the time, but sometimes, yes.)
• I love eating.
• It’s a creative outlet.
• It seems familiar and comforting — I have fond memories of my mother and I watching Julia Child on TV every Saturday afternoon.
• It’s healthier. I know what I am eating and how much fat/salt is in there. And, if there is a lot of fat in there, I put it there on purpose. Ha!
• The successes are really great feeling. When I baked my first loaf of French bread, (last month!!) even if it wasn’t perfect, it was still recognizable as bread. And it tasted like bread. That was so awesome.

Bonus Question Why I blog about it:

• It’s nice being part of an online community of people who are passionate about food and love cooking too. I also just really, really like taking pictures of food.