Halibut with a Rustic Tomato Sauce

It’s a week night and even though we like to eat at 7:30-8 on weekends, it just doesn’t work for week nights when I need a couple of hours to blog, and such! I’m always looking for tasty and quick ways to serve fish and Kristy’s delightful Baked Cod Portuguese was a sure winner, but I didn’t have the fire roasted tomatoes, nor the time to make them, so I took her recipe as inspiration. This one is quite low calorie, no butter or olive oil.

An incredibly filling meal

Makes 3 servings (100g each fish and 200g tomato sauce and greens)

Ingredients:

• 300 g Halibut
• 300 g cherry or grape tomatoes, halved
• 90 g vidalia onion and garlic (the ratio is entirely up to you, I had about 80g onion, 10g garlic)
• 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
• salt to taste
• non-stick cooking spray
• 300 g mixed greens, including cucumber and green onions
• 3 tbsp chopped fresh flat leaf parsley

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly spray a cookie sheet with non-stick cooking spray. Distribute the tomatoes, onion and garlic on the pan evenly. Salt.
2. Bake for about 30 minutes. Pour the contents into your immersion blender jar and blend until smooth. Add the smoked paprika and blend again. Keep the oven on.
3. Strain through a fine sieve, discard what is left in the sieve.
4. In a cast iron pan, sear the fish skin side on high heat for about 4 minutes. Pour the rustic tomato sauce over the hot fish and bake in the hot oven for about 15 minutes (this depends entirely how thick your fish is).
5. Meanwhile, create a fresh green salad (about 100 g each serving) with the mixed greens (we used spinach and baby arugula), cucumber and green onion.
6. When the fish is cooked through, remove the skin and place 100 g onto each bed of greens. Add about one third of the sauce to each plate. Garnish with parsley.

The sauce was lovely, not too acidic (I didn’t add sugar because I am no carbing for three weeks!) but you certainly can to taste. And the garlic really added a wonderful nutty flavour of a baked clove. I will definitely make this sauce again, perhaps with chicken or left over turkey, but then I would add chili pepper flakes to heat it up.

Read Full Post »

The best ever Hungarian Cheese Sticks (sajtos rud)

Hungarian Cheese Sticks (Sajtos Rud) – this recipe came from my Aunt Agi in Budapest. I have done my best to convert to imperial measures, but to be sure, you should use the metric. Added note, I have successfully made these several times using imperial measures…so go for it!

Hungarian Cheese Sticks (Sajos Rud)

• 300g (about 2 cups) all purpose flour
• 150g (1/2 cup) margarine/sweet butter
• 1 tbsp fast rising yeast (bread machine yeast works)
• Sour cream as necessary for kneeding (I generally need about 2 tbsp)
• 100g (1 cup) shredded cheese (sharp cheddar works well, freshly grated Parmesan is best)
• Salt and Pepper to taste
• 20g (1/2 cup) shredded cheese
• 1 egg yolk

1. Dissolve yeast in 1/2 cup warm water + 1 tsp sugar
2. In a pastry blender or food processor with plastic blades blend flour, margarine, yeast, cheese and salt and pepper until a smooth ball forms, adding sour cream as necessary.
3. Let rest in a warm dark place for 1 hour.
4. Preheat oven to 375F
5. On a piece of parchment paper, roll out dough to about 1/2 cm (~1/4 inch) thickness.
6. Cut into 7-10 cm (3-4″) x 2 cm (1/2 inch) sticks.
7. Lightly beat the egg yolk and brush tops of sticks.
8. Sprinkle with remaining cheese.
9. Let rest 10 minutes.
10. Slide cheese sticks on parchment paper onto a cookie sheet. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until cheese is golden brown.
11. Re-cut sticks, if necessary, while still warm. Allow to cool.
12. Enjoy!

Read Full Post »