Rating: 💋 💋 💋 💋
Happy Festivus!
This recipe comes from the cookbook At Blanchard's Table: A Trip to the Beach Cookbook by Melinda Blanchard. Blanchard's is reported to be this amazing restaurant on the beautiful island of Anguilla in the Caribbean. I have not been to Blanchard's, but I have heard rave reviews. This cookbook allows us to get a taste even if we cannot jet off to the islands. I highly recommend the cornbread recipe in the book - it is the most phenomenal cornbread I have ever tasted!
This week, however, we are talking fish. My mom is hanging up her apron (briefly) and letting my dad take over. My dad tends to be more of an Antoni Porowski kind of chef - he does not follow recipes so much as he finds an ingredient and gets inspired. His Danbalayh and Danboli, as well as Chicken Danny, are famous around these parts. For Blanchard's tuna though, he solemnly followed the instructions to a T and created a fantastic Saturday night meal.
Here is my dad's very organized set-up so he would be ready to go when he started cooking.
He called me in as sous chef, but I feel my role was marginal in comparison to all he did. I suppose that is the purpose of a sous chef. Still, I feel he gave me more credit than I was due. All I did was stir the orzo as instructed and occasionally poke the bok choy in its sizzling pan. My dad took care of mixing the sauce, setting up the orzo and bok choy on the stove, and grilling the tuna filets. When the filets were ready, we moved in for lightning speed plating and called my mom and Reilly to the table - you do not want this dish to cool before serving. My dad carefully placed the tuna overtop sizzling bowls of orzo, then artfully arranged the bok choy around the filets. To finish it up, I came in with a sprinkling of scallions and a healthy drizzle of the Asian sauce.
When serving this, please be careful when carrying the plates to the table - the sauce brims over and you do not want to spill! Deep bowls can be a great solution to that problem, if you have them. We did not, so I had to channel my ballet training.
And here we have the finished Filet Mignon of Tuna over orzo and bok choy in an Asian sauce. Everyone loved it. Even Reilly, who has a very discerning tongue. The Asian sauce picks up the mild, slightly bitter flavor of the bok choy, and all that soaks into the fluffy orzo. The tuna was incredible, perfectly cooked, and its sweetness paired beautifully with the tangy soy. Also, can we admire the gorgeous grill lines my dad created? We each added wasabi as desired to pick it up a bit. Everyone had their own style. Reilly abstained altogether. My mom added a smidgen of wasabi to her fork with every bite. My dad and I stirred our wasabi into the sauce until it dissolved to give an even kick throughout the dish. This dinner was great because it was quite filling for a fish dish, but did not leave us immobile from all the food. I felt like I was dining at a fine restaurant from the safety of my house.
I think it is fair to say our feat of strength was making it through 2020. Look at us go!
As Christmas nears, I am thinking about how we can make the most of it, even if our circumstances differ from the usual holiday rhythm. One tradition my family has, brought to us from my mom's German roots, is hiding a pickle in our Christmas tree. It seemed relevant to mention in the food blog. Now, do not worry, it is not a real pickle, just an ornament that looks like one. I was so thrilled when I went to the Christmas markets in Vienna three years ago and saw entire vendors dedicated solely to selling different Christmas pickles - my people! The purpose of hiding the pickle is, whoever finds it first within all the green pine needles gets a present. There are rules involved. In my family, my mom selects the gift and hides the pickle on the tree the whole season. That is just the practice round. Then, on Christmas Eve, after dinner, my mom shoos us all out of the family room (and sometimes the whole house when Conor is especially misbehaving) and rehides the pickle so there can be no cheaters. Then she sets us loose on the tree and whoever spots it first gets the gift. Laying on the ground and looking up the branches is expressly forbidden. You also cannot comb through the branches with your fingers or in any other way manipulate the tree. There are a lot of restrictions we have accrued over the years.
Early on, my mom thought we all had a fair chance. Pretty much every year though, Conor finds the pickle. Since Conor has three sisters, one year when we were younger, he opened up a Spice Girls CD. We got the gift, he got the glory. My mom has gone for more neutral gifts since. Naturally, my brother is very cocky about his skills. As soon as he walks in the door, he shouts, "I found it!" You cannot even see the tree from our kitchen door. Still, no matter how my mom tries to outsmart him, he comes up on top. I did find it once and won a boogie board, but that was back before I was even a teenager, and it is marked down in history as what is referred to as "an Upset". Conor had no idea what hit him. I am thinking, since everything else about this year has been upside down, maybe I will find the pickle this year. Shannon? Reilly? Who knows, could be the year of the underdog. I certainly hope so.
Now, I told you I would show the elves that haunt our house. I was hoping maybe, in light of everything, they would go easy on us this year. That does not seem to be the case. It was a year of important lessons and they have pinned their eyes on us to make sure we got the message.
After obtaining releases from a group of them, here you go:
There are nineteen others not pictured. See what I mean? Terrifying. Especially Baldie on the right.
Wishing you all the happiest of holidays!
XX,
MK
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