Last week Tony and I watched Eric Ripert make this dish on his show Avec Eric. I had been wanting to make the Chilean sea bass again after trying it for the first time a few weeks back, it was really delicious then and I keep thinking about it. So that's easy, Eric did all the thinking for me, I will make that dish on Friday. I was a little worried because the sauce was the key, he said you have to reduce the port wine to 75% before adding the sherry vinegar and reducing that. You have to catch it at just the right time or it will be bitter. Appetizer and dessert were ideas I had, just floating there in the back of my mind waiting for the right moment to make an appearance.
Pissaladiere
This is a french appetizer that is pizza like. I saw a couple different recipes where the dough is made like a regular pizza dough and others that used puff pastry (I think puff pastry is the proper way). I made my regular pizza dough recipe but used a whole wheat pastry flour instead of the all-purpose flour I usually use (for no other reason than to try something new). This Pissaladiere is topped with caramelized onions, black French olives and anchovies (I used Sardines because Tony eats those and we have them in the pantry). Bake it in a hot 550 degree oven for 15 minutes and cut into small 2 inch squares. I loved the black olives that I bought at Whole Foods that were marinated in Herbs De Provence. Half of the pissaladiere I left free of sardines because I haven't gotten there yet.
Chilean Sea Bass over Shiitake Mushrooms with Port Wine and Sherry Vinegar Reduction
My first bite was..."wow, it tastes like a very high end restaurant"... and it did. This recipe is really pretty easy, just pay attention to the sauce so it doesn't burn. He used porchini mushrooms but I used shiitake just because they looked good at the store. He says the trick with the sauce to get a mirror like look is once you have reduced it to the right consistency you add cubed softened butter and shake it in (don't stir with a spoon or it will be cloudy) and no salt and pepper or it will ruin the look too (and it doesn't need any seasonings). That sauce was so good and amazing how that technique works. The fish itself is cooked skin side down in canola oil over high heat, pressing it down to get a crisp skin, turn over and I finished mine in the oven (350 degrees for 10 minutes and it was perfect). He uses a black sea bass and it looked to be about an inch thick so he was able to cook it on the stove top the whole time. I used the Chilean sea bass which was more like 2 inches thick so I finished mine in the oven. Nice recipe!
Peach Cobbler with Vanilla Ice Cream
This is a Tyler Florance recipe. I don't think I ever made a cobbler and so to get some direction I looked on foodnetwork.com and came across this one that had 5 stars. After reading it I remembered seeing this episode and thinking how good it looked and I'd have to make it some day. I read some of the reviews and they were saying there was way too much cobbler topping so I made 1/2 the amount for the topping and the reviewers were right, 1/2 was fine. It didn't cover the fruit completely but I think I like that better because it looks prettier when you see some bubbly fruit peeking through. This was also delicious. Yummmmm!!
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