Saturday Nourishing the Body Nourishes the Soul

It is a glorious sunny day out there.  A light breeze, blue skies and when I woke this morning, I wanted to cook.  For me, cooking has alway been a sort of refuge, a way to get away.  When Chris and I were first married, we lived in a condo at the end of the Pike Place Market.  I worked at the other end of the market and would walk through it, to work and home every day.  My evening routine would be to shop for our dinner on my way home and making our meal was how I unwound my day.  So today I found myself in the kitchen looking for a little peace.  And as I'm typing this, I can hear the chatter of my girls as they make cookies for our dessert tonight.  It's a beautiful sound.


I went shopping knowing I would find inspiration once I got to the store.  I think my desire to make a big meal drew me to both seafood and a good steak.  For us greedy food lovers, surf and turf is always a good thing.


Garlic Butter White Prawns 
16 large fresh U15 wild white prawns
Lemon juice
White wine
Garlic 
Melted butter to baste


Clean, devein, and shell the prawns.  I cut them almost all the way through to flatten them.  Marinate them in some lemon juice and white wine for about 30 minutes.  Grill them brushing with the melted butter and some chopped garlic.



Miso Glazed Black Cod
1 Whole black cod, cleaned, head removed, almost 3 lbs
1/4 cup light miso
2 tbsp light soy
1/4 cup mirin
1/4 cup sake
2" piece of ginger, peeled and julienned
2 scallions, sliced diagonally
few sprinkles of sesame seeds


I filleted and de-boned the black cod.  Mix together miso, soy, mirin and sake.  Place cod in a large dish and pour marinade over top, then sprinkle with the ginger, scallions and sesame seeds.  I marinated the fish for about 6 hours.  Grill the fish on a piece of thick tin foil.  To finish, I took my flame torch and scorched the top.  I had thought of broiling the fish, but decided grilling was better.  However, grilling would not impart the searing on top, hence the flame torch.


Beef Tenderloin with Lemongrass, Ginger and Shallot Teriyaki
3 Beef Tenderloin Filets, just over 2 lbs total
1/2 Cup Veri Veri Teriyaki sauce
2 Lemongrass stalks, smashed and cut into 2" pieces
2" piece of ginger, smashed and roughly chopped
1 large shallot, smashed and roughly chopped
Freshly ground black pepper


One of my favorite shortcuts to use is doctoring up bottled sauces.  Veri Veri Teriyaki is my favorite teriyaki marinating sauce.  My kids love it most on chicken.  I mixed the sauce with the lemongrass, ginger, shallot and pepper, placed it in a large zip lock bag with the beef tenderloin.    For smaller portions of steak, I split each large filet into 3 pieces.  Get your favorite grill guy/gal, and grill over high heat until medium rare.  


We had the prawns as an appetizer ad served the black cod and beef tenderloin with corn on the cob, grilled asparagus and easy yukon gold Potatoes Fondantes.


Food always brings us together in presence and in spirit.  For this I am thankful, for food nourishes our bodies and our souls. 

Comments

Popular Posts