Mirrors of Love
Inner Peace
Moral Bliss
Crimson Rays
Earth Awakes
Wisps of pink and peacock blue
Majestic sunrise in view
Simple Awes
Dropped my jawI Love You
You Love Me
Every Day
Hope renews
I Have Faith
Trust Tomorrow– Cynnie, Feb 13, 2013
Today is Day 2 of Pesco-vegetarian challenge. Yesterday, I spent about $44 on groceries for the rest of the week: spinach, 2 snapper fillets, 2 salmon steaks, yam and some lunch supplies for my sweeter-half. Earlier today, I tried going through The Joy of Cooking for inspiration, but could find nothing. Feeling kitchen confident, I whipped up two dishes while washing dishes (during idling time): vegetable casserole and snapper fillets with buttered lemon herb sauce.
Ironically enough, I find that cooking for two is easier than cooking for one. We rarely have leftovers. The trick is to ration enough ingredients to cook and not really follow recipes unless you are entertaining. The theme for Valentine’s was red, so I added some finely diced red bell peppers onto the casserole and paprika to the seasoned flour.
Since potatoes take a longer time to cook (than fish), I melted olive oil margarine in a saucepan, added some chopped garlic to the melted butter/margarine. Added a quick sprinkle of dill-weed into the melted butter, fry it up. Then, added chopped up potatoes to the melted butter mixture. It could have spent more time in the saucepan, but I transferred it into the toaster oven. I sliced cauliflower to look like little trees, added them onto the potatoes, sprinkled about a tablespoonful of Parmesan cheese on top of the cauliflower and potatoes; then, added a finely diced-up tiny slice of red bell pepper and popped it into the toaster oven at 200 F for about 30 to 45 minutes. At the half hour mark, I added small amounts of shredded cheddar cheese.
Buttered Herb Fish Fillet
** Olive Oil Margarine was substituted/used instead of butter**
Seasoned Flour Mixture:
1/4 cup flour
1 and a half tsp paprika
1 tsp sea salt
2 tsp lemon pepper (or a mixture of grated fresh lemon zest and pepper)
Set aside some Parsley or Provencal herbs for garnish when fish is done.
1. Melt about 1 to 2 tbsp of butter/margarine. Dredge fish in the seasoned flour. The seasoned flour will give the fish a nice lightly coated texture.
2. Add about less than 1 tbsp (a very small drizzle) of white wine vinegar to the melted butter. Stir the melted butter mixture. Optional: you can add lemon & herbs to the melted butter for extra flavour.
3. Lower the dredged fish into the pan; depending on the size of the fish fillet, it would take about less than 3 minutes per side of the fish fillet. Once the meat becomes flaky, it is cooked. Do not overcook as fish can become rubbery. It took me 5 minutes to cook each fish fillet in total.
4. Serve and enjoy!
Easy, peasey, lemonless-squeezy!
P.S. The poem is my own original work. If you want to use it, please ask for permission or at least reference my blog. Thanks! 🙂