Dinner construction

Today’s post is going to be a little light on graphics. The idea for it didn’t come to me until I had everything on the stovetop or under the broiler, but I guess we can just muddle through.

It’s Friday evening, I’m by myself, and have to start dinner. My true love is on the other side of the Atlantic, my best friend Alex (yellow-nape Amazon parrot) is happily eating his dinner of oatmeal, yogurt, and green beans and I’m trying to figure out what to make. I haven’t been to the grocery store in a few days, so the pickings are limited but the mean that emerged about thirty minutes later was wonderful and that’s what this story is all about.

Let’s start with the bottom of the plate. Those are cucumbers – sautéed cucumbers to be specific. This story starts with Joshua McFadden’s Six Seasons, a cookbook that has become one of regular sources of inspiration over the past year or so. One of the recipes that has become a favorite is pan-roasted radishes with figs and radish greens. The idea of cooking radishes had never occurred to me before, but these guys are really good and it got me thinking about why we think of some vegetables only in their raw state.

A couple of days ago while slicing cucumbers for my salad, the same thought entered my head – what would happen if I cooked the cucumber? So I selected a big cucumber, sliced it lengthwise, seeded it, and sliced it into 1/4″ half-moons. I decided to cook them with Asian ingredients and heated up some sesame oil and sautéed the cukes for about 3-4 minutes, then splashed some soy sauce, black vinegar, and a little hot pepper oil* into the pan, mixed it together and plated. Let me tell you that cooking cukes works very well. The flavor of a cooked cucumber is a little more intense than the raw version and the seasonings deepened the flavor beautifully. What you see in the pictures are Thursday’s leftovers, still delicious.

So on Friday, I had the leftover cucumbers and a piece of black cod that needed to be cooked. I needed another vegetable and the options were limited – pickled beets, carrots, and a half-head of cabbage. I couldn’t think of any combination of seasonings that would make the Asian cucumbers work with the picked beets, so they were out. Sliced and sautéed cabbage is something I do often with various flavor profiles – Indian, Italian, caraway seeds and vinegar, and so on but I’d never tried Asian, so I decided to experiment with the cabbage.

That meant that the fish needed to have an Asian flair, which meant marinating, which meant that I needed to work on the fish next. I splashed some sesame oil, soy sauce, and mirin into a small dish, mixed in about a tablespoon of white miso, and then added the fish, skin side up. I let it sit while preparing the cabbage, salad, and setting the table (and keeping Alex busy with freshly microwaved green beans).

Back to the cabbage. First, sliced it into thin strips and then heated sesame oil in a skillet.  Added the cabbage and sautéed for a few minutes until the cabbage started to soften. Added fish sauce, a little toasted sesame oil and some more hot pepper oil. I also added a little bit of turmeric to even out the color, then turned the heat to low, covered the skillet, and kept it warm while finishing everything else.

Having spent about 20 minutes marinating, the rest of the fish prep was easy. Since my stovetop was a little cluttered, I decided to broil and seven minutes later I had a piece of black cod that was deliciously moist inside while the miso marinade has started to crust on the top.

I plated everything the way you see it, drizzling a little chili-honey glaze that was leftover from the eggplant described in  Copying a Restaurant’s Dish. When I looked at the plate, it looked lovely and inviting and it was all improvised in a 30 minute time span using a limited palette of ingredients from my depleted refrigerator. That was when the idea for this post came to me and I took a picture before eating the results, which is, after all, the purpose. And it was delightful.

(*) Chinese hot pepper oil is one of my favorite tools. Essentially, it is vegetable oil infused with dried red pepper flakes and seeds.  The red pepper settles to the bottom of the jar so you can choose to use just the oil or for more kick, add some of the seeds and flakes, too.