Mackerel Fillets Simmered in Soy Sauce

Some delicious Boston Mackerel from the market the other day, and Bittman provides a great recipe.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 1/3 cup sake
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 2 tbsp rice vinegar
• 6 thin slices peeled fresh ginger
• Finely grated zest of 1 lemon 
• 4 crushed garlic cloves
• 4 mackerel fillets, ~1 lb. total, skin on

Procedure

1. In a 12-inch skillet with a cover, mix together all ingredients except fish. 
2. Bring to a boil and simmer over medium heat for about 5 minutes, uncovered.
3. Add fish skin-side down and simmer until cooked through, 7-10 minutes - once the fish turns opaque, poke it with a small sharp knife. When the point meets little resistance entering the thickest part, the fish is done. 
4. Spoon a fillet and some sauce onto a mound of rice
5. Enjoy!

Verdict

Excellent!

Minar Indian Restaurant

After venturing out to the Post Office around lunchtime, I was lured into a cafeteria-style Indian restaurant offering 10 different dosas - basically I can't turn down any food if it's encased in a delicious, starchy wrapper. And I'm glad I went to Minar - the dosa was top-notch, tasty if a little on the soggy side in places after my trek back to the office. The potato-and-pea filling was solid, but the real standouts were the coconut chutney on the side (could eat a cup of that) and the sambar. Man, the sambar - super-flavorful, savory, and with a slow-building burn that set my scalp pleasantly sweating. And at $5.95 for the masala dosa ($7.25 for the paneer, which I plan on trying in the future), an excellently economical and filling lunch.

Butter beans from Scotland

One of the goals of the week end in Edinburgh was to get my hands on some stuff that I either can't find or aren't that great tasting in Slovakia. My friend took me to the local organic store, and I returned with curry leaves, massala, shortbread cookies (hey, when in Scotland...), some lentils, and those huge, lovely butter beans (half a kilo).

As soon as we got back to the landlocked country, I soaked half of them in anticipation of today's lunch.

Google gave me this recipe option: Butter Beans in Sesame (incidently, submitted by someone in Glasgow).

This is how I adapted it:

Ingredients

half a Tblspoon olive oil
quarter teaspoon of cumin seeds
1 and a half Tblspoon sesame seeds
one small onion, chopped into small pieces (not just strands)
1 teaspoon of ground cumin
1 teaspoon of ground turmeric
1 teaspoon of Hungarian spicy paprika
half a teaspoon of salt
about a cup of cooked butter beans
2 cups of chopped fresh spinach

Procedure
Popped the cumin seeds in the olive oil on medium-low heat in a non-stick pan (the only pan I have). Added the onion for about 5 minutes. Added the ground cumin, mixed and a minute later added the sesame seeds. 3 minutes later added the turmeric, paprika and salt. Mixed, waited a minute, and added the butter beans, mixing well so that the beans were covered in the spices and sesame seeds, but without turning them into a mush. Then I folded in the spinach (it was left over in the fridge, didn't look too good for a salad). Cooked the whole thing for another three minutes, until the spinach was cooked.

Verdict
Nice mixture of spices. It reminded me of the Greek dish with fava beans in tomato/cinnamon sauce. Basically, if I'd gone ahead with adding the chopped tomato can early on, and added cinnamon,I could have been in for a similar treat. But this was a very nice surprise find, and the mild butter beans are a very good template on which to lather spices. I recommend the butter beans, cooked with a piece of kombu and a clove of garlic, even though it takes an hour and a half on the stove (I really need to get myself a pressure cooker...).

Great Burrito Mexican Fast Food Restaurant & Pizza

At first blush, a hole-in-the-wall lunch place with not just tacos and pizza but also pitas and "Italian Heroes" on the menu is not going to be a winner. But going on a recommendation from a friend, I decided to give Great Burrito a go and am glad I did. In addition to tacos, the Mexican side of the menu (where I'd advise you stay) also features burritos, tortas, quesadillas, tostadas, sopes, enchiladas and huaraches. Meat choices go from chicken, steak, chorizo, to pork carnitas and al pastor, lengua and "a la casa" (chicken, beef and pork together). For the first test-run I went with one chicken taco and one each carnitas and al pastor.

The tacos (at $2.50/per) were big enough that two would've sufficed, but I'm glad I tried all three. Each was complimented with raw onions, cilantro and a salsa particular to the taco, and each featured very nicely differentiated marinade. The al pastor was savory and a little sweet, pork meltingly delicious and tender. The carnitas were spicier and had a nice pepper edge to the flavor, while the chicken was oddly but nicely definitely marinated in soy sauce (in part, at any rate), and nicely charred. Served with a wedge of lemon (not lime) each, washed down with a Jarritos Mandarina, a truly excellent lunch. Definitely worth a return trip, or worth stopping by if you work in this part of town or find yourself here around food-time.

Tasty Hand-Pulled Noodles

Wandering around Chinatown on a chilly Sunday afternoon, I stumbled into the (vaguely recalled as recommended) Tasty Hand-Pulled Noodles, and am glad I did. Unadorned entirely, with a short menu (about a dozen choices of noodles either in broth or fried, with a few supplementary appetizers and dumplings), the food was simple and perfectly delicious.

Roast duck with hand-pulled noodles in soup was intensely flavorful, with tender bits of duck hacked alongside the fresh noodles and tender greens in a rich broth. The cucumber salad to start was spicy, savory and delicious, the tea was served in styrofoam cups, and the bill for two ran to <$20, with tip.

The place is tiny and fills up quickly, so going for an early or late lunch (I did the latter) is recommended.

Food and Memory

An excellent comment from an open thread at Ta-Nehisi Coates' blog:

I agree that it's more than just the food or the convenience. It's a whole host of ancillary stimuli. I go to Popeye's, this specific one right across the Harrison bridge, when I'm feeling disappointed, which is about once in two or three months. It's just a place where I feel it's okay to be disappointed. It's that ambience, the people there, just something, I don't quite know what that allows for it. Man, after that first bite of Popeye's, it's all disappointment. If I wanted, I could make better chicken than they do and with less guilt attached. But that's not the point. I'd rather not take my disappointment home and cook with it, nor clean up after. 

Food is not just about eating.

Sichuan Peppercorn Chicken Stir-Fry

Ingredients

• 1 lb chicken breast meat cut into strips
• 
4 carrots, julienned
• 1 red pepper, sliced

• 1 onion, sliced
• 1/2 c. mushrooms, sliced

• 1 tbsp minced garlic
• 
1 tsp ground or crushed Szechuan peppercorns

• salt to taste

Procedure

1. Marinade chicken strips with ground Szechuan peppercorn and salt for 30 minutes.
2. In a hot pan, drizzle some oil and pan-fry chicken strips until golden brown; remove and set aside.
3. Add a little more oil to pan and sauté the garlic. 
4. When fragrant, add carrots, red pepper, and onion; stir-fry for about 5 minutes, adding water when necessary.
5. Cover, and steam for several minutes.
6. Add mushrooms and cover for 2 minutes.
7. Return browned chicken strips to the pan and continue stirring. 
8. Add salt to taste and ¼ cup water to loosen brown bits in the pan. 
9. Cook until combined.
10. Serve, and enjoy!