USVI-On-Line

slow-roasted plum tomatoes, and roasted pepper halves stuffed with chopped tomato, anchovy, fresh mozzarella, slow-roasted red onions, oily black olives; with a drizzle of freshly-made basil oil.

liamsaunt wrote:
We had a fish weekend. Friday, I made shrimp tacos using this fish spice blend from St. John Spice. I love that fish spice.

Just wondering if STJ Spice has it's own fish spice blend or do you use the Sunny Caribbee fish spice?

AH

canucknyc wrote:I made this the other night. OMG it was good! It's a Brazilian fish soup called Moqueca. Oh baby.

Canuck, I made this the other night, and it was fabulous! I used light coconut milk, added a splash of Trader Joes' Thai Red Curry sauce (wrong culture, I know, but it tasted right!), some extra garlic, and just a little bit of sugar to balance out the tartness of the broth. So good! Thanks for posting

[quote="Maryanne"]slow-roasted plum tomatoes, and roasted pepper halves stuffed with chopped tomato, anchovy, fresh mozzarella, slow-roasted red onions, oily black olives; with a drizzle of freshly-made basil oil.

WOW Maryanne! Recipe please...

Hi T, this recipe for Peppers Piedmontese is from Skye Gyngell's cookbook--she's in England. When I make the basil oil, I make far less of it---use 1 bunch of basil. I happened to find a UK newspaper article with the recipes, so didn't have to type. :)

Peppers Piedmontese

4 or more ripe plum tomatoes
2 red peppers, sliced in half lengthwise, seeds removed
4 cloves of garlic, peeled and sliced
20 basil leaves
8 good-quality anchovies in oil
Freshly ground black pepper

Fresh mozzarella, torn into chunks, at near room temp
Oily black pitted olives.
Slow-roasted red onions

Start by peeling the tomatoes of their skin. To do this, cut a cross shape at the base of each tomato, boil a pan of water, plunge in the tomatoes and remove as soon as the cross at the base has begun to curl back. This will take only seconds. Remove from the water using a slotted spoon. Place in a bowl and allow to cool.

Heat your oven to 180C/350F/Gas4. Once the tomatoes have cooled enough for you to handle, peel off their skin, slice in half and spoon out the pips. Chop the flesh into chunks and place in the cavity of the peppers. Now simply tuck in the slivers of garlic, the basil and the anchovies, distributing them evenly. Grind over a little black pepper and place in a baking tray flesh-side up. Place on the middle shelf of the oven and roast for 40 minutes.

The flesh of the pepper should be soft but not falling apart, steaming just slightly. Remove from the oven and allow to cool to room temperature, when the flavour of the peppers is at its very best.

Before serving, add the mozzarella, red onions, olives, and then drizzle with basil oil.

Basil oil:

This sludgy, verdant sauce lends a vibrancy to many of the dishes I cook. Its flavour is clean and punchy, and it helps the ingredients in many dishes really sing. Makes enough for a medium-sized jam jar 3 large bunches basil.

1 garlic clove
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
200ml/7fl oz extra-virgin olive oil.

Pull the basil leaves from their stalks and put them in a food processor with the garlic and a good pinch each of salt and pepper. Process until the basil is finely chopped. With the motor running, slowly trickle in the oil and continue to blend until you have a beautiful moss-green purée. Leave to stand for a few minutes, then taste and adjust the seasoning. Pour into a jar, cover and refrigerate until ready to use. This oil will keep well in the fridge for up to a week.

AH, it is the sunny caribbee fish spice. Delicious!

Maryanne, that looks really good.

Interesting article on the biochemical reasons for "Cilantro Haters". It has over 500 comments.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/14/dinin ... ef=general

Interesting article. I am one of those people who couldn't bear cilantro once upon a time; then I did a 180 and now I love it.

Maryanne wrote:Interesting article. I am one of those people who couldn't bear cilantro once upon a time; then I did a 180 and now I love it.

That is so strange. As recently as just a couple of years ago, I could not stand cilantro. It kept turning up in fresh salsas when we were dining out, bleuch. No thank you. Then, and I do not recall which recipe called for it, I was forced to use it and suddenly, loved it. I agree with the "soapy" reference, in the article. Maybe my taste buds have cleaned up their act.

I only recently discovered, like two months ago, that some people had such a strong cilantro adversion.

A good friend of ours will eat ANYTHING and loves my cooking. He always up for trying something new or unusual.

I was cooking as he and Hubs sat at the kitchen table. He saw me ready to put cilantro on a dish and begged me not to do so.

I was so surprised. I have known him for 15+ years and he eats at our house at least 4x per month, sometimes more and it was the first time he ever behaved this way.

liamsaunt wrote:AH, it is the sunny caribbee fish spice. Delicious!

Thank you!

AH

I feel badly for people who dislike cilantro. I love it! It does not taste soapy to me at all. To me it tastes fresh and bright. I dislike foods that to me "should" have cilantro when it's not included...like guacamole for example. Here are some fish tacos I made earlier this week with nice fresh cilantro in the mango salsa, the pico de gallo, and whole on top.


<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/28539958@N00/4522600015/" title="fish tacos by liamsaunt, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2683/452 ... 790e50.jpg" width="500" height="464" alt="fish tacos"></a>

those look great!

I found some ramps at Whole Foods yesterday. I sauteed them in a little olive oil and they were so scrumptious I wish I bought the whole basket !

Get some if you can, one and all...

Now I am hungry for fish tacos

Ramps! I LOVE ramps! Going to Whole Foods after work...