Dana's Halibut with Sufferin' Corn & Okra Succotash

My sister, Dana, is an incredible cook, and baker, and has recently been hired as a private chef. She lives on the Big Island of Hawaii and if there's one thing she knows well (though she knows many) it's how to cook a fish.

Honestly, I'm not a big fish eater. That doesn't mean I don't like fish (I do, as long as it's the sustainable, not-over fished variety), it means that I can't eat it unless it's perfect, so therefore, I often don't order it or make it. I usually only eat fish at a top restaurant or when I'm in Hawaii or the Caribbean, where you know you're getting incredibly fresh fish. I found a fish monger recently who gets really fresh stuff, so I decided to give it a shot.

The great thing about fish, is that when it's fresh, you barely have to do anything to it, and it cooks really quickly. Dana cooks simple, fresh, sustainable and organic food. She cooked this halibut for me once, and it was great, so we did it again last night, and made a succotash out of some beautiful fresh okra I found at the farmer's market, white corn, and onion.

Succotash is a Native American dish, (Algonquian tribe). In the Narragansett language it means for "boiled kernels of corn", and is technically, made with corn, lima beans, and butter or cream. It became very popular during the Great Depression because of the cheap ingredients, especially in the south, where they added vegetables to it, as well as peppers. Since we're in the Great Recession, we figured it was appropriate.

What you'll need:
A piece of halibut
3 ears of white corn
A large handful of okra
1 onion, yellow, preferably maui
lemon, olive oil, salt and pepper

First, heat up your grill or your pan. You want to get it nice and hot.

Take your fish, rinse, pat dry, put in a bowl and season both sides with salt and pepper. Squeeze on the juice of half your lemon, then coat with olive oil. Let it sit in there for about 10 minutes. The lemon juice actually cooks the fish, so you don;t want to marinate it in lemon juice for too long.

While that's sitting, cut your okra horizontally into 1cm pieces, so you get think discs of it. Roughly chop or dice your onion. Saute the okra and onion on medium heat for five minutes, with some olive oil. Season with salt and pepper. Then turn it down to low.

Now take your corn and halibut outside and put it all on the grill. I'm not that great at grilling corn, but I try and leave it on there long enough to get some good grill marks on it, turning and rolling every few minutes so that it cooks evenly.

For the fish, I cooked it for about 4 minutes a side. The first four minutes, the grill was open, the second for minutes, I closed it, so the fish would cook through. My grill was about 450-500 degrees. I then opened up the grill and flipped it once more and cooked it for another minute on each side, so it had a nice golden color on each side, and was white / translucent all the way through - it was just starting to flake apart. While your fish is cooking, be sure to go back inside and give your okra and onions a stir -- or have your friend or significant other tend to it.

Take the fish and corn off. Cover your fish with tinfoil while you finish the succotash.

Take the corn, and cut it off the cobb into a bowl, and add it to the onions and okra. Crank the heat up to medium high, add a little more olive oil, salt and pepper to taste and cook for 2 minutes.

Unfoil your halibut, plate and serve with a large spoonful of succotash.

It's Hawaiian and Narraganett for D-lish.

The BSD Salad

Sometimes a man just wants a god damn salad -- a Big Swingin' Dick salad. A BSD salad is personal. It should be the things you love most in a salad, together. Maybe you love avocado and pine nuts?Maybe you like pear in your salad? Maybe you like spinach? Some things will work together, some things won't. Experiment a bit and find the one that's right for you.

Also, it should be easy. No fuss. Man style. Here's what I came up with on Saturday afternoon...

What you need:
1 Italian Sausage (mine gad fennel in it, so money)
Wild Arugula, washed
Heirloom or some type of tomato
Fresh Burrata
Girard's Champagne Dressing
Good Balsamic

Quickly grill or fry your sausage.

While you're doing that, wash and dry your veg. Chop up your tomato. Put the arugula and tomatoes into a bowl. Dress with Girard's.

I gotta say, I've tried a lot of salad dressings in my life (i love me some salad dressing) and Girard's Champagne Vinaigrette is pretty unstoppable. One of the things I love about it, too, is that it lends itself well to modification -- you can add some mustard to it for some kick, or add some balsamic to it to give it a richer flavor. You can really play around with it. Sometime I eat it as is, sometimes I put a spin on it. It's a great, basic dressing.

Back to it, cut up your burrata into hunks and put on top, drizzle some good, syrupy balsamic (the expensive stuff) over the cheese. Take your sausage off the grill, pour yourself a glass of Zind Humbrecht and fuhgeddabowdit.

"Yea, that's I'm eating a salad and having a glass of white wine for lunch...you gotta problem with that tough guy?"

Caprese Egg Sandwich

One of the best things about summer is that tomatoes are in season, and not just tomatoes, but heirloom tomatoes. They have such great flavor, and a wonderful, fleshy texture. And there are so many varieties...I like the really dark crimson, nearly black ones called "Rosso Brunos". If you ever see any at the farmer's market or in a store, don't hesitate on buying them. They're the best tomato I've ever tasted.

From what I've read, they are called "Heirlooms" because the tomato seeds have been saved from one growing season to the next and have been handed down through several generations. Nice one.

There are so many ways to enjoy an heirloom and here's a good one for the morning, in under five minutes! A great, rustic breakfast spin on the great italian salad.

What you'll need:

1 thick slice of heirloom or another kind of large tomato
2 fresh basil leaves
1 egg
1 english muffin
1 large slice of havarti cheese

Side note - I just started a little vegetable garden and I'm completely obsessed with it. We're growing 4 types of tomatoes, basil, 2 types of lettuce, chives, egg plant, strawberries, and about 7 types of peppers (my wife thinks I've gone way overboard on the peppers, and she's right).

Anyway, our basil has gone absolutely nuts, the thing has grown about a foot in the past week and we have more basil than we know what to do with, and it's really fun to head out the the garden and pick some basil or lettuce and then eat it immediately.

So, for this dish, poach your egg, either in the microwave or on the stove (see previous post for instructions on cooking the egg).

Toast your english muffin. When it's finished, remove and put the slice of tomato on top and the two pieces of basil. Then slide your egg on top, and put the large slice of havarti on top.

Put the sandwich back into the toaster oven on broil, until your havarti is nice and melted -- be sure you use the baking sheet that the toaster oven comes with and cover with a piece of tin foil so the cheese doesn't run into the toaster (it's a pain to clean).

After about a minute, you'll have missile lock on a tasty treat.

SAUSAGES W/ BRAISED CABBAGE, SAUTEED SPINACH AND ROASTED YUKON GOLD POTATOES

We had a great, mellow Friday evening dinner with our friends Alex & Kristen the other night and it goes to show you that you don't have to go to a ton of trouble to host a great dinner.

A & K are world-class entertainers, and I think their key to having people over is to make it fun, seemingly effortless , and get everyone involved. Alex is not afraid to put his guests to work, and it's great because people always end up in the kitchen and would actually much rather have something to do than stand around while the host scrambles to make dinner. The four of us cook together all the time, and it's always a blast.

So for this meal, some good sausages and simple sides are all that are required. Since I wasn't leading the charge, I'm not going to do a full blown recipe here, but give you the gist of what went down.

What you need:

Some good sausages
Yukon Potatoe
Two bags of fresh spinach
Rosemary
Garlic
Olivie Oil (OO)

Quarter your potatoes, put in a bowl and toss in OO, salt, pepper, and chopped rosemary. Put on a baking sheet and into the oven on 350 for 1 hour.

Now pour a glass of wine and hangout for 40 mins...

40 mins later, heat up your grill for 5 minutes or so. Put on the sausages on medium heat.

Back inside, wash up your spinach and put it in a pan on med-high heat. It's ok if the spinach is still wet. Put in a glug of olive oil, chopped up a few garlic cloves and sautee until the spinach is soft, but still a nice shade of green. If you cook it too long, the spinach will become a brownish color that is not appealing and doesn't tase as good either.

Check on your sausages. When their ready, take off. Should be about 7 minutes per side.

Serve with the potatoes and spinach. Boom. A nice, rustic meal.

Now, the kicker to this dish, was this amazing braised cabbage relish that Alex made. I don't know how he did it, because he had made it a couple of weeks ago and froze a bunch of extra portions.

This is a genius trick that I've been using for the past couple of years -- THE FROZEN DINNER. Often, there's just not enough time to prepare a meal, right? You'd like to have people over, but you just won't be able to throw something together. That's why on the days you DO have the time to cook, it's a good idea to make some basic things in bulk to have on hand, just in case! I like to cook on Sunday mornings. I go to the Farmer's Market, pick up some good stuff, then spend a few hours in the kitchen, making dinner for that night, as well as a bunch of extra to freeze for a later date. I also like to freeze things in different sized containers for individual portions when I'm alone, two for just me and the wife, or four or more for when we have guests.

Right now in my freezer I have a gorgeous Duck Ragu, a Bolognese, Venison Stroganoff, Homemade Chili, and a Port Red Wine Reduction sauce. There are certain dishes you can freeze and they lose absolutely none of their flavor and no one will ever know! Sauces, ragus, soups and stews are especially good to do.

Perfect for impromtu dinner guests or TV dinner!

The Best Damn Pork Roast Period.

Pork Loin Roast with Apricots, Peaches, Onion, Leeks, Rosemary and Honey

This is one of my all-time favorite recipes. It was hatched by Alex and I years and years ago when we were living together in our friend Teddy's house, and I have made it at least 20 times since! The sweetness of the fruit goes incredibly well with the pork, and the onions cuts it nicely. It's a great sweet yet savory dish. It never gets old, always pleases a crowd and perfect for a summer night.

Here's what you need:

Pork Loin Roast or Two Pork Tenderloins

3 Fresh Apricots

Handful of Dried Apricots

2 Peaches

1 Large Yellow Onion

3 Medium Sized Leeks

10 Sprigs of Rosemary

Honey

Salt, Pepper

1 Glass of Riesling

Roasting Dish

Grill Pan / Pan or BBQ

Preheat your oven to 350.

Then, prep your fruits and onions. Cut your apricots and peaces into 8ths and dice the dried apricots. Slice your onion in half, then cut into 1/2" wide strips. Cut off the greens of the leeks so they are about 6" long (as you would a scallion), then cut in half length wise, and slice into 1/2 inch ribbons. Put everything into the roasting dish. Drizzle some olive oil and 4 tablespoons of honey over the top and set on high heat on the stove.

Next, get a grill pan going on high heat. if you don't have a grill pan, you can use a regular pan or BBQ if you prefer.

For the pork loin, I like to run about 4-5 rosemary sprigs right through. 4 through the sides and one right down the middle. This really gets the wonderful rosemary tasts into the meat. Then, generously rub the pork with salt and grind pepper all over it - top and bottom, rub olive oil over the entire roast.

When your onions and peaches start to sizzle, make sure you give them a few good stirs, then dump in your glass of riesling. Your riesling should come to a boil, but never fully cook off. You want to have a little bit in the dish when you stick it in the oven.

By now, your grill pan should be nice and hot, so put in your pork loin and sear for about 3 minutes on each side, or until you have some nice grill marks, golden color and crisp to the outside. When you do turn the heat off. Then with your remaining 5 springs of rosemary, create a bed for your pork roast in the roasting dish. With some tongs, lift the roast onto the bed of rosemary. Cover the pork with some of the fruit and onions, spoon some wine over the top and stick it in the oven.

Like chicken, it takes about 15 minutes per pound, or until it's internal temperature is about 155-160 for medium rare. I like my pork light pink in the middle, which prevents it from dring out.

Serve with a glass of dry riesling or another white wine and you are off to the races my friends.


Can't wait for my leftovers tonight...sometimes it's even better the next day!