Baked Cod with Beurre Blanc Sauce

I have been wanting to make a beurre blanc sauce since watching Meryl Streep drool over the sauce while portraying Julia Child in Julie & Julia.  I am an easily intimidated cook. Just the thought of making a beurre blanc had me quaking in my Wellies.

A little encouragement from a friend and I decided to give this a whirl. After all, my set of Mastering the Art of French Cooking has been sitting on my shelf, beckoning to me. I usually avert my eyes and run quickly by them. But really, for how long can one be frightened of sauce? So into the deep we go …

For the fish:

• 6 6-oz cod fillets
• 1 T lemon juice (the juice of about ½ lemon)
• 2 oz unsalted butter (½ stick), melted
• Kosher salt, to taste
• Ground white pepper, to taste

For the Beurre Blanc

• 1/4 C white-wine vinegar
• 1/4 C dry white wine or dry white vermouth
• 1 T finely minced shallots or scallions
• Salt and freshly ground white pepper
• 8 ozs [2 sticks] best-quality unsalted butter, chilled and cut into 16

For the Fish:

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Arrange cod fillets, skin-down, on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.

With a pastry brush or even a paper towel, brush the fish with lemon juice and then melted butter.

Season with Kosher salt and with a pinch of white pepper.

Bake until the fish is opaque and just beginning to flake, 10-15 minutes or so, brushing once with more melted butter about halfway through the cooking.

Serve topped with hot beurre blanc sauce.

NOTE: That’s the easy part!

For the Beurre Blanc:

In a 1 1/2 quart saucepan combine vinegar, wine, shallots, salt and white pepper and bring to a simmer.

Gently simmer liquid until reduced to 1 1/2 tablespoons. Remove from heat and immediately swirl or whisk in 2 pieces of chilled butter. As the butter is incorporated into the liquid add another piece and continue to swirl or whisk. Return pan to low heat and while constantly swirling or whisking add successive pieces of butter. When all of the butter has been added remove from heat. Sauce will be thick and creamy. Adjust seasoning to taste. Serve immediately.

NOTE: My sauce BROKE! Broke I tell you! THere it was … beautiful, luscious, creamy, thick. And then, in the few seconds it took me to reach into the oven and grab the fish, the sauce BROKE! Timing with this dish is EVERYTHING! Or, don’t cook alone and have someone in the kitchen at the critical moment to pull the fish out of the oven! I was able to salvage it by putting a bowl in the freezer for a few  minutes and then transferring a few spoonfuls of the sauce into the cold bowl and gradually whisking in the rest of the sauce by the spoonful. It still wasn’t as luscious and creamy as it appeared to be getting before the DISASTER, but it was still DAMN good!

John’s Kitchen Sink Cookies

Kitchen catastrophe. My favorite cookie scoop BROKE – I know, we aren’t supposed to play favorites with our cookie scoops, but this one was my favorite! Perhaps from exhaustion due to over use. Perhaps a mutiny from the other scoops in the drawer. But somehow its poor little cogs slipped and it wasn’t pushing the dough out.

Do I buy a new one? Do I attempt to fix this one?

Attempt. Attempt is the key word. I knew what was wrong. I knew what needed to be done to fix it. I just couldn’t manage to get it to do what I wanted. I HATE WHEN THAT HAPPENS! Yes, perhaps a little unrealistic. But I want what I want when I want it and not being able to get the @&$*%# cogs to line up properly was making me NUTS (yes, more nuts than usual).

Enter a cowboy in a white hat. It was much like John Wayne riding in at the last moment to save the fair damsel in distress. ‘Don’t worry, sugar plum, I can fix your beloved cookie scoop for you. But it will cost you …” GULP! We’ll just gloss over the sugar plum part. I mean, he is willing to repair my scoop! For that he could call me twinkle toes! COST ME? This could be scary. Impinging on my virtue even (QUIET! SHHH!!! Say nothing! Giggles allowed!)

“Cookies, sugar plum, it will cost you cookies.” Ooooohhhhhh … can you tell I am not sure whether to be relieved or disappointed!

Cookies? I can do cookies.

Enter Everyday Food and the amazing John Barricelli AND an Every(thurs)day Food posting. Look at all the things accomplished with one stone! A fixed scoop, a new cookie recipe, and an Every(thurs)day Food event. Well, damn I’m a good sugar plum.

An aside, if you don’t have John Barricelli’s SoNo Baking Company Cookbook - get it!

• 2 1/2 C all-purpose flour, (spooned and leveled)
• 1 t salt
• 1 t baking powder
• 1/2 t baking soda
• 1 C (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 C packed light-brown sugar
• 1 1/2 t light corn syrup
• 1 T pure vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• 1 C semisweet chocolate chunks
• 1/2 C raisins
• 1/2 C chopped pecans
• 1/2 C old-fashioned rolled oats (not quick-cooking)

NOTE: Hate raisins. I really can’t even explain why. Yuck. I used dried cherries instead. Dried cranberries would work as well. Also, I used Lyle’s Golden Syrup instead of corn syrup. No sinister reason, it’s what I had! Oh, and I used dark brown sugar. Again, what I had.

 

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper; set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda; set aside.

Using an electric mixer, beat together butter, sugar, corn syrup, and vanilla until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time, until well incorporated. Gradually beat flour mixture into butter mixture just until combined.

With a rubber spatula, fold in chocolate chunks, raisins, pecans, and oats.

Drop 2-inch balls of dough, spaced 2 inches apart, onto prepared baking sheets. Flatten dough balls slightly. Bake 12 to 16 minutes, or until cookies are lightly browned, rotating sheets halfway through.

Cool 5 minutes on sheets; transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Liebster Award & Pasta with Cauliflower, Bacon and Sage

So here I am poking around my foodie friends’ blogs and what do I see? I was given a Liebster Blog Award by my fellow foodie friend Stella over at Lola & Finn’s Mum. Stella, I am truly touched and thank you from the bottom of my mixing bowl!

The rules are simple. Once you receive the award, you must follow five steps:

1. Thank the person who gave you the award.
2. Link back to their blog.
3. Copy and paste the Liebster award to your profile
4. Pick 5 blogs that you feel deserve to be in the spotlight (they must have 200 followers or under)
5. Blog about it and leave a comment for your nominations to let them know that you have chosen their blog.

So for my nominations:

1.  Greg from Rufus’ Food and Spirits Guide. Great photos and great recipes for food and drink.

2.  Nuts About Food. Lovely photos. Fabulous food. Wonderful stories about life and family and living in Italy.

3. JamieAnne over at A Dash of Domestic. Great cook-alongs and recipes. Love her family and all the tales about them woven into her postings.

4. Geni at Sweet and Crumby. Steal have made many of her recipes with great success. Love her photos and writing style.

5.  Mary at Barefeet in the Kitchen.  One of my family’s fav recipes is from here – untuffed peppers! Great photos and great food. WHat more does one need!

Ever flip through a cooking magazine and just fall in love with a recipe? This one made my heart flutter – pasta, bacon, cauliflower, BACON, quick, BACON, sage, bacon – oh, and I think there may have been bacon in there as well.

Everyday Food Magazine, you have done it again! This recipe is wonderful. May have even turned my cauliflower haters into cauliflower lovers. Well, truth be told, we live by a strict, I make it, you eat it or starve policy in my house. One CLAIMS to not like cauliflower, the other staunchly believes he doesn’t like cauliflower – they both INHALED this pasta!

• coarse salt and ground pepper
• 3/4 lb of a short pasta
• 5 slices of bacon cut into 1/2″ pieces
• 3 T unsalted butter
• 2 medium onions, diced small
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1 medium head cauliflower, cut into florets
• 2 T fresh sage, chopped
• 2 t red wine vinegar

NOTE: I used mezzi rigatoni. The magazine suggested gemelli (my fav, but we were out!). And without having to say so, I used more than 5 slices of bacon. How many more is none of your beeswax! Also, as we all so often do, I went to the store without my list! No sage! I used dried and it was fine.

 

Cook the pasta in a large pot of boiling salted water. Reserve 1/2 a cup of the pasta water and drain pasta and return to pot.

 

NOTE:I cooked the whole pound of pasta.

IN a large skillet, cook bacon over medium until the fat is rendered and bacon is crisp. ABout 10 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer bacon to paper towels to drain. Add the butter, onions and garlic to the skillet and cook until onions are softened. About 10 minutes.

NOTE: Yes, my onions are a LITTLE dark. But not quite cinders. Watch the onions!

Add cauliflower, cover, and cook, stirring occasionally, until cauliflower is tender. About 12 minutes.

NOTE: You can substitute frozen cauliflower florets here. Just reduce the cooking time.

Stir in bacon and sage and cook until fragrant, 1 minute.

Stir in vinegar and enough pasta water to create a thin sauce. Season with salt and pepper.

Quick, easy, bacony, delicious. Even the ‘we don’t like cauliflower’ boys loved it! I might roast the cauliflower next time and then add it to the rest … hmmm, just a thought!