Pan-Fried Mahi-Mahi with Jamie Oliver's Salsa Verde and Served with Jill Dupleix's "Crash Hot Potatoes"

For those of you wondering about the appearance of fish on this post given my vegan diet of late, I completed my second month of eating vegan. I reached my goal, and while I will keep many parts of the plant-strong diet, I must say that I really missed my fish! My first non-vegan meal eating out included fish and shrimp tacos, and my visiting niece and I pan-fried some local mahi-mahi (Jamie used lemon sole fillets), and topped them with dollops of Jamie's tangy and delicious salsa verde.

While Jamie served broccoli and new potatoes with his fish, we went with Jill Dupleix's classic Crash Hot Potatoes (recipe here), an old favorite of mine, way before The Pioneer Woman made them popular a couple of years ago. It was fun to get to cook with my niece Laura, who did the prepping of the herbs, chopping of the gherkins and the "crashing" of the potatoes. It was a simple dinner that tasted great.

You can find the recipe for the salsa verde and the pan-fried lemon sole Jamie served it on here, or in "Cook With Jamie" on pages 218-219.

Salsa Verde
From "Cook With Jamie" by Jamie Oliver

1 clove of garlic, peeled
a handful of capers, drained
a handful of gherkins, drained and finely chopped
6 good-quality anchovy fillets in oil, finely chopped
2 bunches of fresh flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
a bunch of fresh basil, leaves picked and finely chopped
a bunch of fresh mint, leaves picked and finely chopped
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
red wine vinegar
good-quality extra virgin olive oil
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

To make your salsa verde, finely chop the garlic and put in a bowl. Add the capers, gherkins, anchovies, parsley, basil and mint. Mix in the mustard and 1 or 2 tablespoons of red wine vinegar, then 3 good lugs of olive oil, adding more if needed to make a loose mixture. Balance the flavours with pepper and, if necessary, salt and a little more red wine vinegar. (Rather than doing all that chopping, we processed the herb leaves, 2 garlic cloves, anchovies, Dijon, 1 Tbsp red wine vinegar, and olive oil in a food processor until it formed a loose paste. Then we added the chopped gherkins and the capers and gave it a couple of pulses. There was no need for more vinegar, salt or pepper. Easy-peasy)

Notes/Results: Moist flakey fish with piquant green sauce and crispy potatoes--it was wonderful. Jamie's salsa verde had great flavor, and when you use the food processor instead of hand-chopping the herbs, just takes minutes to prepare. Potatoes are a great pairing--we used small round yellow potatoes and topped them with thyme and rosemary. Since I used a thicker piece of mahi-mahi, it did take longer to cook the fish but it was worth it. Definitely I will make all of this again.


It's Pops is Tops week at IHCC and this dish would be perfect for any dads who love to fish or fish-loving dads out there. You can check out what the other IHCC participants made for the pops in their lives by going to the post and clicking on the links.

I'll leave you with a picture of a beautiful pink lotus that I took today in Waimea Valley.


Have a peaceful and happy Aloha Friday! ;-)

Grilled Zucchini with Caprese Salad and Rocket (Arugula) Salsa: A Fresh & Tasty Side Dish, Ready for Summer

This is another simple, quick and very tasty Jill Dupleix recipe from her new column in Delicious magazine. (I made her "Curried Egg" Garden Salad from the same column last week). This Grilled Zucchini with Caprese Salad and Rocket (Arugula) Salsa is a great side dish and a perfect way to ring in summer and liven up plain zucchini. I used some bocconcini cut in half, along with some very sweet local grape tomatoes and basil from my CSA box. The small zucchini (pretty much a year-round veggie here), baby arugula and parsley were also all local--which makes me happy.


Dupleix says, "The flavours of zucchini and tomato with fresh cheese and a zippy herb sauce make it feel as though summer is never going to end. Make this a main meal with a platter of prosciutto or grilled fish."

Grilled Zucchini with Caprese Salad and Rocket (Arugula) Salsa

by Jill Dupleix, Delicious Magazine Volume 7 / Issue 3

(Serves 4)

4 zucchini, very thinly sliced lengthways

1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil

4 vine-ripened tomatoes, seeds removed, chopped

2 x 120g (about 4 ounces) buffalo mozzarella balls, drained, chopped

1/2 cup basil leaves

Rocket (Arugula) Salsa

1 cup rocket (arugula) leaves, stems removed

1 cup flat-leaf parsley leaves

1 garlic clove, finely chopped

1 Tbsp tiny salted capers, rinsed, drained

1 Tbsp red wine vinegar

1/4 cup (60ml) extra virgin olive oil

For the rocket salsa, place ingredients in a food processor, season with sea salt and pepper, then process until smooth. Loosen with a little water. Set aside.

Preheat chargrill or barbecue to medium-high. Brush zucchini with oil and grill, turning once, for 5 minutes until lightly charred. Arrange zucchini on plates and top with tomato and mozzarella. Season, then drizzle with rocket salsa. Top with basil leaves.

Per serving: 1672 kj (400 cal), Fat 34.9g (sat fat 12.2g), protein 13.5g, carb 5.8g, fiber 4.9g, chol 30mg, sodium 275mg.

Notes/Results: Really good! What's not to like? The zucchini gets new life topped with the caprese-style salad and the peppery (from the arugula) and tangy (from the red wine vinegar and capers) salsa. (Although I do think it is actually more of a pesto than a salsa). It's a fresh-tasting and easy side dish that pairs well with grilled meat, poultry or fish. I served it with some simple lamb patties (ground lamb mixed with grated onion, garlic, chopped cilantro, mint and parsley, cumin, salt and pepper), and it made a great light dinner for a warm night. I will make this again.


I am sending this one to Side Dish Showdown, the monthly event hosted by my friend Reeni at Cinnamon Spice & Everything Nice. Reeni will be rounding up all of this month's fabulous sides at her blog after the end of the month (which is in just a few days--yikes! Where does the time go?!), so stop by and check them all out.

Happy Aloha Friday!

Eco-Friendly Palm Leaf Plates and a Simple "Curried Egg" Garden Salad

I am skipping my semi-regular Things I Am Loving This Week--although these eco-friendly plates I am reviewing and this easy, tasty salad are certainly lovable enough!

The wonderful Marx Foods gave me the opportunity to try some of their eco-friendly disposable Palm Leaf Plates and a box arrived with 10 plates in a variety of shapes and sizes. I was curious about the plates, which are made from fallen, discarded Adaka palm leaves that are cleaned, dried, stretched, flattened and molded on a heated press into different shapes and sizes. (Details of the process are here).

I have several groups of palm trees in my front and back yards that shed their leaves often and leave their palm leaves all over my yard. It's nice to see that a company is doing something useful with this resource.

(My neighbor's dogs love to pull the palm leaves in the backyard down as they are about to shed and use them as chew toys and doggie tug-of-war. Fun for them but not all that useful!)

While I was out front taking the picture of the fallen fronds, the neighborhood ducks came by to "chat" about what I was doing. They are quite the busybodies, are very vocal with the quacking, and were probably complaining that I had no bread with me.

But I digress with the yard reports...on to the plates...

Since the palms naturally shed their leaves and no trees are cut down to make the plates, they are a natural and renewable resource. The plates are sturdy, durable, and completely biodegradable and compostable, making them very "green" and a perfect replacement for paper plates and serving bowls.

I tried them for serving a variety of foods--snacks, veggies, salads, and even used them to hold tea bags on a display table at a wellness fair. They held up well--even with the moist ingredients. About the only thing I wouldn't do with them is use them for really wet and liquid dishes that would sit out for a long time. Although they are disposable, they can be washed, dried and used again depending of course on what you used them for. Although more expensive than paper plates, the fact that they are sturdier, eco-friendly and look nicer make them a great green choice.

I used them to serve an easy and delicious "Curried Egg" Garden Salad that I made for a light lunch. The recipe comes from the newest Delicious magazine (OK, the newest one I can get here) from Australia. One of my favorite cooks and cookbook authors, Jill Dupleix is writing a new Lighten Up column where she will be posting lighter, healthy recipes. I have already made and loved two of them so far and have another couple marked to try.

Dupleix says, "A lovely light salad for all those who love curried egg sandwiches, but are looking for something a bit lighter. The curry powder gives the whole thing a kick, and the nigella seeds look very dramatic against the pale, soft colors."

"Curried Egg" Garden Salad

Jill Dupleix, Delicious Magazine Vol. 7 / Issue 3

(Serves 4)

4 eggs

1 butter lettuce, leaves separated

1 telegraph cucumber, peeled, thinly sliced

1/4 cup micro cress

150g thick low-fat Greek yoghurt

1 tsp curry powder

2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil

pinch of cayenne pepper

1 tsp nigella seeds

Fill a small pan with hot water and add eggs. Bring to the boil, then reduce heat to low and simmer for 3-4 minutes until soft-boiled. Remove eggs with a slotted spoon, cool, then peel and quarter. Season and sprinkled with cayenne.

Meanwhile, place yoghurt, curry powder and some salt and pepper in a small bowl. Stir well to combine. Stir in oil and set aside.

Divide lettuce among plates. Arrange the cucumber and the eggs on top and dollop over yoghurt dressing. Scatter with cress and nigella seeds and serve.

Per serving: 569 kJ (136 cal), fat 10.5g, (sat 2g), protein 3.6g, carbs 4.7g, fiber 1.3g, chol 4mg, sodium 95mg.

Notes/Results: Excellent! Light and full of flavor from the delicious and simple curry yogurt dressing. This is a quick salad to make and it was a perfect light, healthy lunch. I used some local Manoa lettuce leaves, mixed with local baby arugula as I couldn't find any micro arugula, and I tossed in some radish sprouts too. (The edible flowers were in my CSA box salad mix this week). The dressing was wonderful with the eggs and would also be perfect with chicken, fish or lamb, or with other veggies. I will make this salad again and the dressing could become a new favorite.

A big mahalo to Marx Foods for sending me the plates to try--they are fun serving dishes that work well and are a great choice for the environment.

The Things I Am Loving This Week post will be back next Tuesday.

Aloha,

Things I Am Loving This Week

Time again for Tuesday's "Things I Am Loving This Week"--those things (mostly food-related), that I am enjoying and want to share. Actually this week it is all about the food so let's get started.

Last week I made Clean Eating's Almond Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies (see post here), and they were really good--especially the 1/2-batch I added rolled oats to. I wanted to play with them a bit more and ended up with a whole new, and I think even better cookie that I am loving. These Fully Loaded Healthy Peanut Butter-Oatmeal-Chocolate Chip Cookies are full of good-for-you ingredients like more oats, flax seed, wheat germ, peanuts and dried cherries but they taste amazing, all chewy and good and with my favorite salty-sweet combination of flavors. And they are still made with no flour, oil or butter. Yum!

Fully Loaded Healthy Peanut Butter-Oatmeal-Chocolate Chip Cookies
Adapted from Clean Eating Magazine
(Makes 24 Cookies)

1 cup unsalted almond butter, stirred well
1/4 cup Sucanat
1 large egg + 1 egg white
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp sea salt

1 cup rolled oats

2 Tbsp flax seeds

2 Tbsp wheat germ

3 oz dark chocolate (70% cocoa or greater), broken into small pieces or same amount in semi-sweet or dark chocolate chips

1/2 cup dry-roasted peanuts

1/2 cup dried cherries

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a medium bowl, stir together the first 5 ingredients until blended. Stir in oats, flax seed, wheat germ, chocolate, peanuts and dried cherries. Drop the dough by rounded tablespoonfuls onto parchment paper-lined baking sheets. Bake for about 9-10 minutes or until lightly browned. Let cool on baking sheets for 5 minutes. Remove to a wire rack and let cool for 15 more minutes.

Notes: Sucanat is a minimally processed derivative from sugar cane. Sucanat is somewhat grainier than sugar and has a slightly molasses sort of taste--so it works well in cookies and muffins. Because it is minimally processed, it retains its natural iron, calcium and other nutrients that help balance rather than spike blood sugar. You could use a raw sugar or brown sugar instead. You can also substitute almond butter and almonds for the peanut butter and substitute dried cranberries for the cherries.

I love finding locally-grown foods to enjoy. The farmers market this week was selling bags of Hawaii Grown Macadamia Nuts from the Big Island of Hawaii, and $20.00 later I had a large bag of fresh slow-roasted (4 days) mac nuts and a Crack-A-Mac macadamia nut cracker (from Australia), to enjoy. I had to buy them--usually when I see mac nuts here they are shelled and in a bag or can.

The slow-roasted nuts are crisp and almost buttery tasting and quite delicious. The adorable Crack-A-Mac cracks them pretty easily as long as you line up the white "dot" that indicates the natural fracture line of the nut with the tip of the vice.

Macadamia nuts are a great source of calcium, iron, potassium, magnesium, manganese and zinc. They also have a good amount of fiber and B-vitamins. While high in fat, it is mostly mono-unsaturated fat and mac nuts contain no cholesterol. They nuts are tasty enough to eat on their own, but I'll probably find something to make with part of them. Fun!

Sometimes I love and crave a good potato and when I do, Crash Potatoes are the way I go. It seemed like the Pioneer Woman got the whole blogosphere crazy about Jill Dupleix's Crash Potatoes when she posted them on her blog awhile back, but I was making them long before the craze and long before my blogging days, with the original recipe from Jill Dupleix's cookbook. I had come across Jill's "Simple Food" in a bookstore a couple of years after I moved to Hawaii and fell in love with the gorgeous photos and simple recipes. The first thing that caught my eye was her Crash Potatoes (which should actually be called "Crack Potatoes" since they are so addictive) and I made them, and made them again...and then again...and yet again. I never ended up posting them on the blog though, and it finally seemed like time when I got some locally-grown potatoes at the farmers market in order to make a lamb stew, had some leftover, and got that old familiar craving.

These potatoes are slightly bigger than I would normally use but that just means more surface skin to crisp up! I like the fact that you can change out the herbs based on what you have on hand. Rosemary works well and I've even added garlic, and once some bacon. Each time they have been delicious but there is something about Jill's original recipe of thyme and fennel seed that is actually pretty darned perfect. If you haven't tried these, you really should--they are incredible--crispy skin, soft inside and full of flavor. If you have tried them, make them again--you know you want to! Use your good olive oil and sea salt for these and enjoy. I'd like to tell you they were the side for a balanced dinner but in all honesty I had a big salad and protein for lunch and I just ate a couple of the potatoes for dinner and was blissfully satisfied. ;-)

Jill Dupleix says, "This is one of those crazy little recipes that, once tried, is immediately incorporated into your own repertoire. It's what you want when you want a crisp roast potato, only better. And all you have to do is boil some small potatoes, smash them flat, and blast them in a hot oven until they are terminally crisp. Serve with eggplant and lamb, pan-fried fish, broiled sausages, or even on their own, with drinks."

Crash Hot Potatoes
"Simple Food" by Jill Dupleix
(Serves 4)

16 small round potatoes
salt
1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
1 Tbsp fennel or caraway seeds
small handful of thyme sprigs

Heat the oven to 500 degrees F or the highest setting. Don't peel the potatoes. Just bung them into a pot of salted water, bring to a boil, and simmer for around 15 minutes, until they take a skewer without too much resistance. They should be just about cooked without being soft.

Drain the potatoes and arrange them on a lightly oiled baking pan. Use a potato masher to squash each potato flat, until it is twice its original diameter. Brush the tops with olive oil, and scatter with sea salt, black pepper, fennel seeds, and thyme sprigs.

Bake the potatoes on the top shelf of the oven for 20-25 minutes until crisp and golden. Serve hot.

A little sweet, a little nutty and a little savory...these are the "Things I Am Loving This Week."

How about you? What are you enjoying right now?