Crispy Baked Bluefish

I discovered a new fish – wild Bluefish. I decided to try it because it was wild, locally caught (from Long Island) and very inexpensive - $5.99 a pound. I’ve cooked with it several times now - it's an oily, hearty fish that has a lot of flavor. Supposedly it is also high in Omega-3s. This is my favorite way of preparing it so far. It’s crispy and tasty, but not fried.

I still wonder why this fish is so much cheaper than other local fish…. Perhaps the sickly blue color turns people off at market?

Ingredients (per serving):
• 8oz. Bluefish (or any thick whitefish)
• Quarter cup panko breadcrumbs
• Quarter teaspoon each dried basil, dried parsley, dried oregano
• Three teaspoons olive oil
• Quarter teaspoon salt, plus extra to taste
• Cooking spray

Preheat oven to 350°
In a small bowl mix breadcrumbs, herbs, and a quarter teaspoon salt.
Add two teaspoons olive oil and mix together.
Coat top of fish with one teaspoon olive oil, and sprinkle with salt to taste.
Top fish with breadcrumb mixture.
Spray baking dish with cooking spray and place fish skin-side down in dish.
Bake through, about 13 minutes.
Turn oven to broil and cook until topping is brown, about two minutes.

Happy Accidents: Turkey Mushroom Burger

This week I defrosted ground beef, only to discover it was actually ground white meat turkey! So, rather than grilling a burger, I had to develop a new recipe for the acid-reflux diet. Unlike ground beef, you can’t just put turkey on a grill and expect a juicy burger. White meat turkey has a low fat content, so burgers could come out very dry if just cooked plain. Also, they need to be cooked all the way through. I came up with a way of seasoning and steaming the burger, making it moist and tasty. This burger is very healthy, and it doesn’t need a bun or condiments.

Ingredients for one turkey burger:
• Quarter pound ground white meat turkey
• Three tablespoons chopped onion
• One teaspoon plus one tablespoon chopped parsley
• Three quarters cup sliced cremini mushrooms
• One clove chopped garlic
• Two tablespoons chicken broth
• Two tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• Salt

To prepare the burger:
Season turkey with one tablespoon chopped onion, one teaspoon parsley, and salt. Form burger.

Heat skillet until very hot and spray with cooking spray.
Sear turkey burger on each side but do not cook through. Remove from heat and set aside.

Clean skillet, and return to burner. Heat olive oil on medium heat.
Add two tablespoons onion, one tablespoon parsley, and one clove garlic to pan.
Once the onions and garlic are sweating, add mushrooms to skillet and toss to coat.
Cover skillet and let the water emerge from the mushrooms – about five minutes.
Add chicken broth.
Return turkey to skillet and cover the pan to steam the burger, six to eight minutes.
Remove the burger and top with mushrooms and broth.

Vegan Quesadilla

My friend Brooke introduced me to Daiya, a vegan cheese that is actually gooey and melty. Thanks to this cheddar-flavored bag of "stuff," I can now make quesadillas for the acid-reflux diet! It’s pretty simple, and very versatile, so there’s no formal recipe.

In a skillet with olive oil I sautéed onions, garlic, and dried cilantro with a liberal amount of salt. I added a few sliced mushrooms and zucchini, and tossed it all together until everything was cooked. I covered half a flour tortilla with Daiya and added the cooked mixture. I added some more Daiya and folded the tortilla in half. See the picture below for how I cooked the quesadilla. What a tasty snack!

"Oat and Honey" Cereal Bars

Here’s a delicious snack for the acid-reflux diet. It’s rich in fiber, and heart healthy too! I have to give credit to Mark Bittman, since these are adapted from his granola bar recipe. I swapped out the granola and nuts for basic Cheerios, and dropped the acidic apricots and used raisins instead.

Ingredients:
• One cup Cheerios
• One cup crisped brown rice cereal
• One third cup almond butter
• One quarter cup honey
• One quarter cup raisins

Grease a brownie pan with oil and line with plastic wrap.
Combine cereals and raisins in a large mixing bowl.
Combine almond butter and honey in a saucepan.
Heat saucepan until mixture is smooth.
Pour hot mixture over dry ingredients and fold together with a spatula.
Pour all ingredients into brownie pan, pressing down with spatula to even it out.
Cover with additional plastic wrap and fold over to seal.
Cool in refrigerator for at least three hours.
Remove plastic wrap and cut into bar shapes.

Spaghetti with Clam Sauce and Zucchini

Linguini con Vongole is my favorite dish to have at an Italian restaurant. I do occasionally still eat it if I’m out with a crowd, but with the acid-reflux diet, I’m really not supposed to. I wanted to make my own version, but I knew that if I made it without the typical white wine and butter, it would be too bland for my taste.

I found my inspiration from a recent episode of Lidia’s Italy. My favorite TV chef made my favorite Italian dish, and I finally figured out how to bring fabulous flavor to my own version of Linguini with clams. Unlike the recipes I found in my cookbooks, Lidia did not make the linguini and clams separately, and then combine them at the end; she made a clam sauce with the reserved water from steaming the clams. Genius!

The result had a delicious seafood flavor. I also added zucchini to the dish, since I like to get my veggies. You can make this with linguini or spaghetti – I used Barilla Plus spaghetti.

Ingredients: (per serving)
• One dozen clams
• Half a zucchini, chopped (optional)
• Two cloves garlic, sliced
• Half medium shallot, diced
• One tablespoon buttery spread
• Half teaspoon dried oregano
• Two tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
• Kosher salt
• Olive oil

To prepare the clams:
In a large pot, bring one inch salted water to a boil.
Put clams in the pot, cover tightly to steam the clams.
Once clams open, remove them and reserve the water.
Once clams have cooled, remove them from the shells.
If clams are small, keep whole; otherwise chop them to bite size.

Cook spaghetti just short of al dente while preparing the sauce.

For sauce:
In a large sauté pan, heat olive oil and sauté shallots, garlic, oregano, and one tablespoon of the parsley. Salt to taste.
(Add zucchini here if using it. Coat zucchini with mixture, and move to the next step once it is soft)
Add half cup reserved clam water and buttery spread to pan. Bring to a boil and let ingredients come together.
Add clams to sauce, allow clams to heat up.
Add spaghetti to sauce and allow it to soak up sauce.
Sprinkle with remaining parsley.

Doctor's Orders - Vegetarian Quinoa

Earlier this week I went to an acupuncturist for my GERD and ulcers. When the treatment was over, the doctor told me that I had to eat vegetarian for three days. Plus, he added extra stipulations - nothing greasy, sweet, or raw. To say the least, this was an interesting challenge to add on to my already strict diet!

As you can tell from the recipes on this blog, I do sometimes eat vegetarian, but it’s usually just for one meal. I rarely go a day without eating meat, so I’m generally not concerned about having balance in my vegetarian meals. Now that I was going to be a three-day veggie, I had to pay more attention to nutrition.

I altered my quinoa recipe to make a one pot, nutrient-balanced, satisfying, vegetarian meal. I’ll be honest – it’s not the prettiest dish, but it was really tasty. I hope all of the vegetarians out there enjoy this dish.

And please, no notes about “keeping it up” – I’m too excited about the “Beef on Weck” I will be eating in Buffalo this Saturday!

Veggie Quinoa

Ingredients:
• One cup quinoa
• One and a half cups vegetable broth
• Quarter cup chopped onions
• Quarter cup chopped green bell pepper
• Half cup chopped spinach (note: I used frozen)
• Three quarters of a can of cannellini beans
• Teaspoon dried parsley (note: I usually use fresh, but I did not have it on hand)
• Teaspoon dried oregano
• One bay leaf
• One tablespoon canola oil
• Kosher salt

Heat oil in a pot and add onion, pepper, parsley, oregano, and a dash of salt.
When onion is sweating, add vegetable broth.
Stir in spinach and bay leaf, and bring to a boil.
Add quinoa.
Bring heat down to a simmer.
After ten minutes, add cannellini beans and stir.
Quinoa should be done in another ten minutes.

Greenmarket Grilling

Here’s a great summer idea for the acid reflux diet – grilling vegetables for a delicious, fresh salad. I used what enticed me at the Union Square Greenmarket. With local vegetables you know they will be fresh and flavorful, so they don’t need extra spices and acids. Today I used Japanese eggplant (the very small, skinny ones), Kirby cucumber, and sweet corn.

I grilled the corn in the husk, and cut the kernels off the cob when it was done. I split the Japanese eggplant lengthwise, and brushed it with extra virgin olive oil, salt, and dried herbs. The eggplant was done grilling in just a few minutes, at which point I cut it into bite size pieces. I didn’t grill the cucumber – I just peeled it and cut it into pieces the same size as the eggplant. I tossed everything together, adding a drizzle of olive oil and a few shakes of salt. It was crunchy, tasty, and refreshing.