Pisco has a couple friends visiting from out of town, so he decided to throw an impromptu dinner party in their honor. One of the guests didn’t like seafood (!), but luckily she was off at some wedding event and only returned for the dessert course. Last week’s eating trip to Vancouver led to a couple tasty plates of black cod (sablefish), so he decided to try his hand at it for the main course.
Starters were simple enough – chèvre on sliced baguette, with a drop of honey, run briefly under the broiler. I need to find a way of getting this toasted more evenly, since the broiler tends to char the edges before the cheese is completely melted. It’s a great dish, and would be even better with a pinch of chopped basil on top, as it was originally served to me some years ago.
While shopping at Uwajimaya, Pisco came across fresh clams and bought a couple pounds on a whim. Mark Bittman just wrote a great column in the NY Times (“101 Simple Meals“), and one of the dishes is steamed mussels. Mussels, clams, what’s the difference? I bought the clams before noticing where the mussels were kept, that’s all. Throw a cup of white wine, some chopped garlic, chopped tomatoes, olive oil, and butter into a large pot. Boil, drop in the clams, and wait five minutes. Out comes a ridiculously good dish, with plenty of rich liquid. Make sure you get some good bread – you’ll be glad you did, as the broth is heavenly.
On to the black cod. I got mine at Waji’s for $9/lb – four fillets running around a 1/3 lb each would be enough to serve four people, if these mains follow appetizers. The recipe was quite simple – marinate the fillets in a mixture of sake, mirin, miso paste, and sugar, and then broil. Epicurious has a good recipe, and there are lots of others on the web. The recipe recommends letting the fish steep for a two or three days, but we only had two hours and that seemed to give it a good flavor. I followed the instructions pretty closely and would only change the broiling instructions; I would skip the baking part and just broil on each side – this leads to a crunchy skin, which adds a wonderful texture to the dish. This is an incredibly easy dish to make, and we agreed it turned out to be spectacular. Pretty rare, considering it was the first time we made it, but it’s just that easy.
We accompanied the fish with steamed asparagus, sprinkled with sea salt and lemon juice. Delicious!
Dessert was quite simple – a dish of lemon sorbet, followed by a chocolate cake from Le Panier, courtesy of the guests.
For refreshments, we had white port and tonic for starters, Lagar de Castelo albariño for the clams, ice cold extra dry “Katana” Hananomai sake with the sablefish, and limoncello with the sweets.
This menu worked so well, I can’t wait to do it all over again.
July 26, 2007 at 11:38 am |
I’m the guest from this dinner who loves fish and let me tell you, this was the one of the best meals I’ve had in months. Simple but bursting with flavor at every course!