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complaisant2u -> RE: Learning to cook? (6/5/2007 11:10:11 AM)
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Hi MadRabbit, no I don't use oil on the pastas. Seems to just add fat for no good reason. If I use immediately, then it's won't be sticky. If I'm concerned it'll get sticky I'll rinse with cool water. It keeps them from sticking but yea I know it washes some flavor off. It's an ok tradeoff with me.
Another easy dish that's pretty popular is grilled or pan seared salmon, mushroom rice and veggie.
For salmon, get the salmon steaks. You can get a whole side/fillet and cut them into the steaks. You want about 6-8oz per peice. You want to season these with Lawry's Seasoning Salt... or any of the knockoffs. Avoid the cheap stuff since it will have more salt than the other ingredients that make up the mixture. But sprinkle the salt on, and then spray the fish with a cooking spray like Pam. I use the cheaper Wall Mart brand.
If you then grill the fish, the thing is about grilling... it's almost impossible to make those pretty grill marks like on the commercials or in the restuarants unless your grill has a cast iron grill on it. Most grills are a stainless steel or ceramic grill and those just don't make the marks like a cast iron grill does. They do sell grills with cast iron grills. I got one from Lowes. But when you grill the fish, make sure the meat portion of the fish is sprayed with oil, and place it down on the grill... that's skin side up. Cook for a couple minutes... if you have a cast iron grill, rotate about 90 degrees (this makes a second grill line that create a diamond pattern) if not just leave it for a couple more minutes. Then flip the fish and cook the skin side. Don't worry about rotating the fish since the skin doesn't mark well and you might remove it. After a couple minutes the fish will have white stuff coming out of the side along the flakes. This is normal and shows it's cooking. Cook until the internal temp reaches 145 F. You use a chef's thermometer for this... a thin pointy metal tube with a dial temperature guage on the top. Note, the have fancydigital ones which work well, just don't use that big fat turkey/roast thermometer. When it's cooked, the skin can peel off or keep it on for the good flavor. A couple tricks... after you rotate the fish to make that second mark on a cast iron grill, then if you're timing is right you can rotate again for a thrid mark. If you line it up right...you'll make triangles patterns. A little off and you'll make Star of Davids. Another trick is when the fish is cooked it won't stick to the grill. If you try to rotate of flip early, the fish will stick. Not having enough or good coverage of oil on the fish or grill will do this too. For me, grilling is the way to go. Getting all fancy == more pans to wash. Commercial kithens are easy places to wash dishes. A commercial Hobart dishwasher cycle lasts a minute. Sinks are big and deep. My kitchen smaller, the dishwasher cycle is about 30 minutes and not too pan friendly, so usually I say thumbs down to a big stack of sautee and baking pans to scrub.
If you pan seer, then you'll also have to bake the fish. The thing with pan seering is you put just a very little oil on the pan and cook under medium temperature. Seer the fish skin side down to release oils from the skin. Cook for a few minutes and make sure you move the fish some to keep it from sticking. Flip to skin side up and cook until there's a nice browning on the fish. You may have to lightly press the fish down in parts so it contacts the pan to brown more evenly. It's possible, but difficult without burning the fish to cook it entirely in the pan. The oven is easier. Just throw in a 400F oven until the fish temps to 145. Note, ifyou save the stuff in the pan and any drippings from the oven, you may be able to make a sauce. You'd get the pan hot, maybe throw in some garlic to brown, then liberate the brown stuff in the pan with white cooking whine, reduce, let cool off to medium, add butter or as MadRabbit suggested some cream, and a great spice to add to this is Dill Weed. Fresh is always better than dried.
For the mushroom rice, I just make a plain white rice and add cream of mushroom soup. For white rice, it's about 1 cup of rice and two cups of water, put in pan, cover and boil. Reduce heat to low, but keep covered. If it boils over, remove from heat. The trick is to keep that rice covered. Cook for additional 12-15minutes. If you did good, then you can stick a fork in, pull back and no rice sticks to the bottom and there's no water left. If not enough time cooking, there will be some water... too much and it's stuck to the pan. All foods, rice including continues to cook as long as the pan is hot. Turning the eye off doesn't stop the cooking. So it's best to go ahead and put it in a mixing bowl, add add a can of cream of mushroom soup and mix. If you mix too much, the rice will start to mush and stick together (a food science thing), so try avoiding over mixing. One way to jazz this up is to grap a saute pan, brown ujp some garlic, add some julienee sliced shitake mushrooms, cook till about done, add a splash of white wine to get the stuff off the pan, cook the alchohol out of the wine which should take about a minute (depending on how hot the pan is and how much wine was added) and add this stuff to the mixing bowl to stir in with the rice and soup.
And broccoli, I use frozen. The cheap stuff at the store has a lot of stems in it, yuk. It's much better to get the florets. Sams has a great frozen bag of broccoli. I zap mine in the microwave untill they are about halfway done. Sprinkle some Kosher salt on them and throw in for another couple minutes. When they come out they're aldente, soft, but still a bit crunchy. If there is excess water, I'll drain. I turn a peppermill over them a few times for the fresh ground black pepper. I add a little butter/margerine/fat free margerine and toss for an even coating. The butter stuff is the very last step. Some parmesean cheese is good too, especially if you just grated it from the block.
And if you want, you can make a dill butter to add to the fish. Just get dill and mix together with margerine/butter. Add some to the top of the fish before you serve. It'll melt some, but still be there when served adding color, flavor and some pizazz. If you want to do it a bit easier, add a little butter dollup and sprinkle dill on top. All dry spices go stale. If you have last year's dill in the cabinet, chances are it's stale.
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