Avocado Pile

When I was a kid/teenager, my dad often made these "avocado sandwiches" for breakfast. They're more piles than sandwiches, but that's what I always called them growing up for some reason. He also added salmon caviar, which I don't have at my disposal anymore now that I live in a rural area with no Russian immigrants in it. He'd also frequently add in leftover salmon if he'd baked some the previous day, which is surprisingly delicious cold. The salmon adds a beautiful color to this recipe -- a talent that tinned sardines do not possess. Even so, if you can look past the drab appearance of the fish-in-a-tin that you found in the deserted end of the pantry, it makes for a shockingly delicious (and oh-so-nutritious!) meal.

I'm completely guessing on these amounts, by the way. It doesn't make any difference how much you add of what, so just throw in ingredients until things look and taste right to you.

[Makes two avocado piles.]
Ingredients
1 fresh, ripe avocado
3-4 sardines/anchovies/some other salty fish
1/4 cup feta cheese
2 eggs, poached or medium-boiled (slightly runny yolks)
freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Directions
Get your eggs cooking. If you're poaching the egg, just boil some water in a deep pan and crack the eggs carefully into it. Flip the egg over halfway through, and remove the egg just after the whites have been cooked. If you don't mind running egg whites, which I find gross, then you can remove them even earlier! If boiling, put the eggs in cold water and cook over medium heat. After the water has been boiling for just under 2 minutes (though the exact amount depends on how much water you used -- the more water, the faster the egg cooks), pour the water out and run the eggs under cold water; peel.

Meanwhile, cut avocado in half and remove the pit. (The best way to do that is to give it one firm chop with a sharp knife and then gently rotate the pit. It should come out easily as you pull the knife away.) Carefully slice up the scrumptious green meat into cubes


Using a fork, scoop the avocado out into a bowl, but reserve the shells for serving. Crumble up the feta and add it to the bowl, along with the fish. Grind in pepper (and whatever other seasoning floats your boat) to taste. Chop up the (hopefully slightly runny) egg and toss it on. Serve inside the avocado shells.

Variation: Try the original -- replace the canned fish with salmon, either smoked or leftover from whatever method of preparation you prefer (baked, fried, grilled...). In this variation, remember to squeeze some lemon juice in the mix.

Stuffed Tomatoes

I was looking through a cookbook on Middle Eastern food for inspiration when I came across a recipe for Tunisian stuffed tomatoes. Those call for olives and capers, which I really dislike, as well as preserved lemons, which I don't have. So this is a departure from the Tunisian traditional, but we loved it. Try it with lemony potatoes for a light dinner. Or just make the stuffing part as a quick spiced-up version of a tuna salad for lunch/snack.

Ingredients
2-4 medium tomatoes, firm but ripe
2 red peppers
1 can tuna (chunk light -- not albacore!), drained
1/4 cup parsley, chopped up, stems removed
1-2 tsp. lemon zest, grated

Directions
Roast the peppers. This is the most fun part. If you have a preferred method for pepper-roasting, do that and skip to the next paragraph. I like to do it the Alton Brown way -- directly over a gas burner. Put the peppers (one per burner, if you're doing more than one at a time) directly on the metal grate above the burner and turn with tongs every couple of minutes until you get an even char on the skin. (You'll remove that part, so don't worry.) Then put the hot, charred pepper into a bowl and cover with a plate. Let it sit until it cools, about 15 or so minutes. This will steam the pepper inside its skin.

Preheat the oven to about 350F. Combine all the other ingredients in a separate bowl. When the peppers are cooked through and cool enough to handle, peel off the skin. You should be able to do this easily with your fingers -- it'll come right off. Get all the charred bits off the pepper, and pull the pepper apart to reveal the seeds inside. Depending on how cooked through your peppers are, this may be messy. Get all of the seeds out, and then cut the peppers into thin strips (whatever size you want to eat inside the tomato).

Now take your tomatoes and cut a small hole into the tops -- reserve the caps. Scoop out all the juice and seeds with a spoon. Now shove your tuna/pepper mix into the tomatoes, replace the caps, place them on a baking dish, and roast for about 20-30 minutes. The tomato should be soft but should still retain its form.

Serve as a side dish or as a main course. Goes well with lemony roasted potatoes. If you have filling remaining, refrigerate and use for the next day's lunch box -- works well as a fresh tuna salad over a bed of baby spinach.

Easy Bouillabaisse

This is one of those dishes that look so beautiful and taste so delicious that if you admit how simple the production was, your dinner guests will assume you're being falsely modest. So you may not want to ruin the illusion. ;)


It may look like soup, but it always fills me up as a meal of its own. This stew is quite thick.

Any flaky white fish will do. I've tried this recipe with cod, tilapia, halibut, hake, haddock, and catfish. Maybe my pallet isn't that developed, but I think it tastes great with all of the above, so which fish you want to use is up to you. This recipe is loosely based on this one that appeared in the New York Times, but a number of proportions (and some ingredients) have been altered.

[Serves 3-4 people.]
Ingredients
1/2 cup olive oil (not extra virgin)
2 tomatoes
1 small onion
1 carrot
1 bay leaf
2 handfuls of parsley
3 cloves of garlic
1/2 cup lemon juice
2-4 fish fillets
salt and pepper to taste
1.5 cups broth
1/2 cup white wine
3/4 cup of bay scallops (optional)
3 slices of white bread (I suggest sourdough)

Directions
Blanch tomatoes (i.e. place them in boiling water for about 5 seconds each, then run them under cold water), which will make it very easy to peel them. Peel, seed, and dice tomatoes. Thinly slice onion and carrot. In a (preferably cast-iron) dutch oven, heat oil until it's beginning to sizzle. Add the prepared tomatoes, onion, carrot, bay leaf, and one handful of parsley. Stir with a wooden spoon/spatula for a minute or two. Crush one clove of garlic and add it to the pan, and cook for about another minute.

Place the fillets (if you want to have a thicker stew, add more fillets accordingly) in the dutch oven -- in one layer, or as close as you can get it. Add the lemon juice, salt, and pepper, and boil the fish for 10-15 minutes, flipping the fillets once halfway through.


While the fish is cooking, prepare the bay scallops. This basically means rinse them under cold water, and then make very sure that they are dry -- pat them down carefully with paper towels until they're completely dry. Melt a tablespoon of butter on a (preferably cast-iron) skillet. Dice one of the garlic cloves and add it to the butter. Making sure that pan is very hot, throw on the scallops. Don't stir them around too much, so that they have a chance to brown nicely on every side. It's easy to overcook scallops, so about five minutes should do the trick. Remove scallops from heat and set aside.

Back to the stew! You can use chicken broth if you want the stew to have a less fishy taste, or fish broth if you're going full-on. If I'm lazy and out of homemade stock, I just use one bullion cube and 1.5 cups of water. Add broth and wine to the stew. Simmer until the fish is just cooked through -- it'll be flaky and come apart easily.

Meanwhile, toast the bread. Rub with butter and the third garlic clove and place on the bottom of the serving bowls.
Toss remaining parsley into the dutch oven. Ladle over the toasts, and top with browned scallops. Eat immediately!

Grilled Mahi Mahi with Couscous

Ingredients (for Mahi Mahi marinade)

1/4 cup lime/lemon juice
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 clove garlic
2-3 tsp spicy brown mustard
1/4 tsp salt
one twist of fresh ground black pepper
1 tsp of Worcestershire sauce

Whisk together and brush as much on Mahi Mahi fillets as possible. (This amount is probably good for up to 8 fillets.) Set aside. Meanwhile, make couscous (the following is good, or perhaps even a bit much, for 2 people):

Ingredients (for couscous)
2 cups water
1 boullion cube
1 cup couscous
1 handful of chopped parsley

Dissolve cube in water. Bring to a boil. Turn off heat and add in couscous. Cover and set aside for 7-8 minutes. Then, sprinkle on parsley and toss together. Keep covered until fillets are grilled.

Grill Mahi Mahi fillets for about 5 minutes on George Foreman grill or equivalent. Serve on bed of couscous.

Variations:
Use brown rice or quinoa instead of couscous for a gluten-free variant.