It’s the day after a fast day and I’m really not feeling 100%. What I really want is soup, and more than that I want it to be cold enough to MAKE soup. Alas, though we had a few days of lovely cool weather, it’s heating up over the next week to around 100°. ***sigh*** So, I settled for a really good salad and leftovers from the olive oil poached tuna. It was a big hit at the break fast last night.
My friends Debbie and Jodi invited me to join the crowd at their house for break fast on Yom Kippur and asked me to bring tuna salad. Well, I hope they know that there will be no can or store bought mayo involved… Price was not my first consideration but, Trader Joe’s sells frozen albacore filets for less per pound that their canned tuna. Nice bonus!
Layer the bottom of a heavy pot (just the size to hold the tuna in one layer) with lemon slices, bay leaves, rosemary, thyme and pepper corns.
Lay the tuna on top of the aromatics.
Pour in olive oil to cover (this required half a liter).
Bring just to a simmer. Turn off heat. Flip the fish over (to bring the other side into contact with the lemon and to move the edge that is in contact with the hot pot to the center). Cover and let stand for about 20 minutes until just cooked through.
Store the fish in a bag. Strain and refrigerate the oil. I will use some of it to make mayo for the salad. Properly stored and heated to 165 F before using you can poach fish in it again.
Follow a standard mayo recipe using some of the olive oil that the fish was poached in. I am going to skip taking photos while I have an immersion blender in one hand and a bottle of olive oil in the other. I used the juice of half a lime to make mine and less oil than one would usually use per one egg yolk so I made a very eggy mayo.
Wash your hands WELL and flake up the fish by smushing it (that’s a technical cooking term of course).
Wash your hands well again. Offer them to the cat to smell. He will tell you if you got all the tuna smell off of them… Careful not to get bitten. Add 1/2 cup finely diced celery (I like to to use the very tender inner stalks and some of the pale green leaves), and a 1/4 cup each chives and parsley. Throw in any other veggies, pickles, olives, herbs you wish. Add the mayo and mix. Salt to taste.
This made about a quart of tuna salad. Scale it to fit your needs.
Call it huevos al diablo, eggs in purgatory or shakshuka, it’s just plain good.
Sweat onion, bell pepper (I used a lovely white one from the garden), garlic and a minced hot pepper (again from our garden a ripe jalapeno).
Add 4 roughly chopped plum tomatoes.
Cook until saucy, make a well and drop in a couple of eggs.
Cover and cook for 3 minutes.
Plate with whatever you’d like to have along side. I might have gone just a bit overboard with the parsley and chives…
Out to the front porch with a book and a cup of coffee. By the way the photo at the top of the page is my view as taken with the upgraded panorama feature in IOS6.
The past 3 days have been a whirlwind of food and synagogue in rapid alternation. Saturday (Erev Erev Rosh Hashanah) dinner at my dear friend David’s house – here’s his text message:
Sunday night with Darren at La Fonda – we ordered a mixed appetizer plate, which turned out to be really heavy in the non-air conditioned church where we hold services. It was REALLY hot especially sitting on the bima with all the extra lights on us. Truly uplifting services on Sunday night and again on Monday (a little less oppressive on the heat scale). Then after temple Monday our annual pilgrimage to Langers Deli (still in the same location though the neighborhood is now all Latino).
Today what I needed was to eat simply – so fish fit the bill. I went off to Whole Foods this morning and picked up a super fresh Thai Snapper. Came home and filled it with thyme, rosemary and preserved lemon wedges, wrapped it tightly and put it in the refrigerator. All it needed as an accompaniment was a good sauce – 1/2 and 1/2 mayo and yogurt with finely chopped preserved lemon, Spanish olives, pepper, dill, garlic and lemon juice. Brocoli Rabe done to a slight char on the grill with olive oil and chipotle pepper, the right wine (an old vines zin) and a friend to share it all with.
All dressed up…
Oil both the fish and the very hot grill
Keep the greens moving. Oil the other side of fish then flip.
Do NOT over cook the fish!
Mr. Snapper, I am ever so grateful to you for the delicious dinner. And to Deb for snapping the photos of the snapper.
Happy New Year / Shana Tova!
There is a point to these postcards. I’ll get to it when I’m not at work and posting in a hurry.
Flori Cooks 