Red Snapper Stew

From Sunset (Lane Publishing's) Cooking for Two or Just For You.

 This is one of the first recipes I ever cooked for myself that I would qualify as being a true gourmet dish. I have made this dish for over 45 years now. 

 

16 ozs red snapper, boned and skinned
1 bell pepper, green, seeded and cubed
1 whole onion, quartered and quartered
15 oz. can tomatoes, whole or diced
12 ozs. tomato juice
¼ cup wine, white, dry
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
½ tsp salt
½ tsp oregano leaves
3 tbs olive oil

Instructions
Batterie de Cuisine: 3-4 quart pot, knife, garlic grater, small bowls for holding ingredients.
Prepare the fish by drying it with paper towels. Cut into 3/4 inch cubes. Put in a bowl and reserve. Cut the bell pepper along the stem side, remove the top (lid) and pull out the seeds from inside the bell pepper. If desired, using a vegetable peeler, skin the pepper. Cut the stem away from the meat and cut the remaining into dice. Cut the pepper into sections, then into 3/4 inch cubes. Skin the onion and remove the stem and root end, slicing 1/8 inch from each end. Cut the onion in half, from top to bottom. Lay the sides flat, cut in half again, turn around and cut again, making the onion sliced into eights.
Reserved the pepper and onion in a bowl. Peel and grate the garlic and put in a condiment or small cup. Add the 3 tablespoons of olive oil over the garlic. It is important that the garlic go first, or it will flow out in the next step, which is not wanted.
 

Heat the pot over medium low heat. When hot, pour the olive oil from the condiment cup, leaving behind the garlic for the moment. Raise the heat to medium high, add the onion and pepper cubes (pieces). Stir to coat the cubes with the oil. When they are coated, using a spatula or your finger, add the garlic and any remaining oil. Stir to mix the garlic into the vegetables. Sauce the vegetables for up to 8 minutes over medium high heat. The onions are to soften. You can cover the pot for a minute at a time to get some stem to help with the softening.

Next add the tomatoes (if whole) and break them up with a spoon. If using diced tomatoes, add them. Next add all the remaining ingredients, except the snapper. Over medium-high heat, bring the pot to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and add the fish. Cover and simmer 8 minutes longer until the fish is flaky and can be prodded with a fork.
 

Serve with crusty French bread (a baguette) and a lettuce salad. 

While any leftover can be eaten the next day, it never tastes quite as good.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Côtes de Porc Sauce Moutarde et Herbes de Provence

So the market had pork chops on sale. Center cut and about 5 to 6 ozs. each and I haven't had a pork chop in a while, so I bought the "family pack" of 10 chops.

I remembered that I had some Herbes de Provence in the spice cupboard and wanted to use that up, too.

Netsearching for pork chops and herbes de provence (in the French language) came up with:

Côtes de porc sauce moutarde et herbes de provence

So I do owe whoever dreamed this recipe up gratitude. I will add this to my permanent repetitive book of things I like to cook.

For those of you who don't speak French, I will give the recipe in English.

For two chops or two for dinner. You can easily make this for 4 to 6 by increasing the ingredients proportionally.

Preparation Time: 20 minutes
Cooking Time: 15 minutes

1 cup of rice (per 2 people)
2 pork chops, about 5 ounces each. They can be larger, but not much smaller.

crème liquide allégée - no quantity is specified and the instructions call for reducing it. To my best understanding, this is like American "Half and Half". Our Half and Half is about 10% cream, 90% milk. The French have theirs at 15% and I used heavy cream and am happy I did. You can make this with heavy cream and milk.

2 tsp. Dijon Mustard (not Yellow Mustard here, please)
3 cloves of garlic
1/2 onion, diced, per 2 people
sage leaves, fresh
Herbes de Provence (I have Penzey's in the cupboard, but any will work)
salt
pepper

First, using a paper towel dry the chops. Put them on a plate or pan and sprinkle each chop with salt and pepper and then cover them with the herbes de provence. Reserve.

Start making the rice. The chops take 15 minutes in a skillet or frying pan and the skillet will need 10 minutes to preheat. Time your rice accordingly. Mine takes 4 minutes to reach a boil, 25 minutes of simmering and will then stay quite hot for 30 minutes thereafter, if I don't uncover it.

I use my small toaster oven for heating plates and keeping food warm. It will be used for keeping the fried chops warm while making the sauce.

The French recipe calls for putting the chops into a non-stick skillet and starting the cooking from a cold pan. I didn't do that. The purpose of the cold pan is to prevent the chops from cupping or curling. This can be achieved by making 3/16 inch deep slits around the perimeter of the chop, every two to three inches. 

Add a light film of olive oil to the heated pan. Cook the chops on each side for 7 1/2 minutes. Meanwhile chop the onion and mush the garlic. Have ready the sage leaves and cream or half-and-half and the mustard. If you don't mind the cream and mustard should be standing on the counter at the start of the chops cooking to lose their 'frig-chill. After the chops are done, remove them to a warm oven.

Add the onion and fry 5 minutes until they are translucent. Add the garlic at the 3 minute mark. Add the cream. You will have to eye-ball that based on how much you like sauce with rice. Raise the heat, add the mustard stir to incorporate.

Now for the hard part.

Remove some of the sauce and onions to cover the chops. Add the sage leaves to the skillet and allow to cook 5 minutes longer. Serve the rice, pan sauce and the chops and onion sauce on top.

I had no fresh sage leaves. I used powdered sage. I cannot complain.