Dinner In Twenty Revival

Feeling guilty about not feeding yourself or your man right? Got those empty fridge blues? Heal yourself. Lift yourself. Buy fresh fish.

Yes, I was feeling bad about not cooking most of last week (except for the homemade pizza on Wednesday night) because I was mooching off my mom's excellent brisket (recipe pending)...

Yes, I felt low about the previous week's leftovers (Thai Curry Noodles, recipe pending) rotting, uneaten in the fridge...

but I raised myself up.

I got myself into my minivan and drove to the new grocery store down the hill that is just starting to smell a little, but only in the meat department, and I found some wild-caught halibut steaks (because I'm just green enough to only eat wild caught fish) on sale (because I'm budget conscious) and I bought two...

Two fish steaks, ten bucks and yea, I knew I could feed us in about twenty minutes (because I was going out with the girls later).

So I drove back home to my kitchen and, lo, I did not have to use a cookbook because the recipes were so easy as to be inscribed on my heart and I did not have to waste time reading or thinking about how to make the poached fish from Jean George Vongerichten and Mark Bittman's collaborative cookbook, Simple to Spectacular: How to Take One Basic Recipe To Four Levels Of Sophistication (give a hand to my sister, Maris, who read the book and passed on the recipe!) or how to make soul-shaking Brussels sprouts (yes, I said Brussels sprouts), which I ate at Erwin Drechsler's restaurant, Erwin, in Chicago, and reverse engineered (though he is so nice I could probably have just asked for the recipe).

Here they are:

Cayenne Fish Jean George/Mark Bittman
Take two halibut steaks, rinse and sprinkle lightly with cayenne pepper. To a heat-proof glass pan add a cup of white wine and juice of half of a lemon. Place fish in pan and cook fish on a high heat for about ten minutes on the stove top, turning fish steaks at the five minute mark. If the liquid reduces too much before the fish is done, add more wine to the pan. If you aren't used to cooking fish, it's done when the meat is opaque and flakes when you insert a fork.

Note: I don't believe in serving fish "rare" at home, I leave that to the professionals, so don't comment any arguments to me about fish done-ness. Unless it's sushi, cook it through.

Reverse-Engineered Brussels Sprouts from Erwin
Take about twenty sprouts and wash them. If they are large, peel off the outside leaves so that you are only working with the sweeter interior. Cut sprouts into halves. Wash, peel and cut up two small red apples (I like sweet Honeycrisps for this recipe, but Fuji or Galas are nice too). Warm a tablespoon of olive oil in a pan and add sprouts and apples. Cook, turning sprouts and apples with a spatula until the sprouts are bright green and browned a bit and the apples are soft, about five minutes. Coat with a teaspoon of sesame oil and cook briefly, another minute. If you have another minute to spare, toast some sesame seeds or almond slices and toss those in.

Now you are saved!