need more fish

isn't the romanesco the most beautiful vegetable in all the land?

i mean, isn't this the most beautiful thing on the planet?!

Fibonacci sequences appear in biological settings, such as branching in trees, the fruitlets of a pineapple, an uncurling fern and the arrangement of a pine cone. In addition, numerous poorly substantiated claims of Fibonacci numbers or golden sections in nature are found in popular sources, e.g. relating to the breeding of rabbits, the spirals of shells, and the curve of waves. (wikipedia.org)

the most perfect vegetable on the planet! nerd that i am, i lovelovelove fractals, especially the mandelbrot set, the julia set and the fibonacci number (golden spiral).

c'mon! how could you not ABSOLUTELY ADORE something so clearly structured, logical and easy to understand for a non-mathematician (but somewhat nerdy girl) like me?!

i don't even have a recipe for this parboiled romanesco plus shrimp, i just wanted to update again with a few pictures ... i have been relapsing like crazy for a few weeks now - but don't pity me, i'm already on the road to recovery.

so here it goes: another photo-lovestory!
well, at least i can offer you a tiny sign of life out of my kitchen :)








(... and it was delicious!)

fingerfoodfish

i am always looking for cool ideas to cook fish these days. so when i found this recipe for sardines as fingerfood / tapas i ripped it right out of the magazine. sardines? sure! i tried several kinds of fish in the past weeks and i think i am already tasting differences. so today i'll buy myself some sardines and quickly fry them up for a nice lunch ... or so i thought! can you believe i did not find one single fishmonger in linz who could sell me fresh sardines?! yes, okay, after half a day on my bike on tour through the city i finally found a shop that would sell frozen ones (which i bought anyway). but i wanted to cook them straight away! i would have to thaw and gill them - and that is something that i am not really curious about. i never gilled a fish and honestly, i don't ever want to. i confess that i prefer my meat clean and cut into handy pieces in a styrofoam box. see no evil, hear no evil, don't think of the fact that you actually eat something that was alive once ... yesyesyes! how naive ... don't judge me!


so what is all that about?! are there really no fresh sardines available in this city?!

of course there are. somebody hinted that i could order them in a local eurospar and they would have them available cleaned and gilled the next morning. this is exactly what i wanted! i stuck the frozen sardines in my freezer compartment - they can wait until i am ready to actually gill an animal ... and then i ordered fresh sardines from the eurospar at the city's (only?) shopping center.


[stop looking at me like that!]

rinse 500 g sardines (15 fish) and pat them dry. dredge in flour, shaking off any excess.
heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. when the oil is hot, fry the sardines until brown and crispy. remove to a large serving plate, and keep warm.


add four chopped cloves of garlic to the pan and cook until brown. add one tbsp of paprika powder, one bayleaf, 100 ml balsamic vinegar (the original requires white vinegar), 100 ml white wine and 100 ml water and allow the mixture to simmer, stirring occasionally. when the liquid has reduced by about half, pour the sauce over the sardines. you can sprinkle the fish with chopped herbs too - i used chopped basil. the herbs are optional. let stand for at least two hours to allow the fish to marinate.

serves 3


while looking for other recipes about sardines i found a similar one here. apparently those sardines are called "naples style". who knew!

i also strained and reduced the marinade by two thirds and it makes a wonderful and glossy dip / sauce for the filets. though there is 1/3 of balsamic vinegar in this sauce, it is not acidic at all. it actually gives the fish the final kick!


all in all it took me half a day to cook plus two days to actually obtain sardines, but it really was all worth it!

and thanks for the fish

i am having a rough time healthwise right now and i am not in the mood for anything at the moment. i just finished cortisone iv treatment and i am slowly getting back my sleep-wake rhythm. it sucks to be totally off my game! i was not even in the mood for eating or cooking, but i had some zander in my fridge which really had to be prepared. while it might be best to cook this fish in the oven or fry the battered fish i was going for a different fish in the pan - situation. accidentally, actually!

i removed the skin of a zander filet (the european version of walleye) and i fried it in a little olive oil over medium heat. once the fish was done on one side i tried to flip it - what a disaster! it totally broke appart! well, i am not that experienced with cooking fish, but i should have seen this coming. oh, nevermind. i sprinted to my fridge in search for further ingredients for a fish-stew-thing that would cover up this flipping disaster. luckily i found some fennel and green beans which seemed to match perfectly. i kept frying the fish for some more while i was cutting up the fennel. i added it to the pan and also added some cremefine and a spoon full of capers. i put a lid on an let the rescued disaster simmer for a couple of minutes. in the meantime i prepared the green beans and cooked them for about 10 minutes.

i might need a little more experience with cooking fish but i will work on that. the dish itself tasted fabulous, by the way. fennel and fish seems to be a pretty nice combination!

a bit fishy, don't you think?

the past few days have been a little confusing for me, but i am also totally overwhelmed by all the support that has swamped my mailbox. your lovely comments and your encouraging emails give me lots and lots of strength and i want to thank every single one of you who has thought of me and/or dropped a line!

actually, i feel pretty healthy at the moment, only a little exhausted. the immediate cortisone treatment was not really a blast (eeeeeek, i don't like needles in my arms!) but the weird symptoms have totally disappeared. my sense of balance has improved drastically and my fine motor skills are totally back to normal. this was the reason i got checked out in the first place - if things slip out of your hand for no reason or you can not tilt your head without loosing balance and feeling disoriented ... well, that's a pretty good sign that something's wrong, right? suddenly i feel really stupid that i didn't see a doctor much sooner ...

i usually don't even take painkillers, i prefer to slow down and take it easy for a while, lay in bed and "cure myself" ... yeah well, that seems to be out of question right now :D ... i took it very easy over the weekend and i started to do some research on MS. i currently don't feel sick or weird, so i can not really embrace that i am in fact sick. all those super-clever webpages only make me go "huh??" at the moment. some suggest an immediate change of lifestyle, diet, workout and what not while others suggest to carry on as always and slowly adjust to this life changing disease ... i am pretty straight forward with my diagnose and not hopeless at all (aren't there supposed to be five stages of ... well, something?) so i think i just take it slow and see what's going to come ... i did so well with going all organic over the past few months, so i think i am heading in the right direction anyway. i don't want more adjustments in my diet right now. so before i get caught up in all these horror scenarios i decided to just take it easy for a while ...

and in my attempt to take it very easy i fell asleep while watching "finding nemo" on my laptop last night. it seems that springtime lethargy has slammed big time! can you believe that when i woke up all i wanted to do is eat fish? now, i am just cruel, right? i see this charming little movie and all i want to do is to have cute little nemo fried up on my plate!

so i am totally going for fish today. i am not at all experienced with cooking fish, because i usually eat tuna out of a can or i buy a smoked trout on the local farmer's market every once in a while. and i totally crave fish sticks once a year. yes, fish sticks! i am really scraping the bottom of my culinary barrel when i think about cooking a fish ... i am a bit scared to cook a whole one, actually ... so i decided to go for an über-expensive tuna steak from the local store.

tuna steak with a pepper and fennel seed crust

one tuna steak
one teaspoon of ground pepper
one tablespoon of fennel seeds
butter
salt

1. rinse the fish and dry it on a paper towel
   
   
   
2. grind a tbsp of pepper and a tbsp of fennel seeds - i used a mortar for that
   
   
   
3. pour the spices on a cutting board and coat the tuna steak on one side
   
   
   
4. put another board on top and weight it down with a bowl of water or the mortar you used earlier ... let the fish rest like this for 20 minutes
   
   
   
   
   
5. in a pan, melt a knob of butter and fry the tuna steak over medium heat on both sides, the coated side first. i am always going for a well done piece of meat, but if you prefer you can have your tuna steak medium rare too :)
   
6. season with salt before arranging on the plate
7. you can make a nice gravy for your veggies if you pour a little cream in the pan and bring it to a boil once more. add some of the ground spices too, it'll be delicious!
   
   
   
8. the tuna goes well with vegetables - in my case steamed swiss chard and boiled potatos
   
   
   

wow, i tell you, i don't want to blow my own trumpet here, but this late lunch was absolutely fantastic! i did not think that the combination of fennel seeds and fish would work so darn well! i am totally satisfied with this fishy creation ... maybe i'll try to get my hands on some good fish more often!