Disaster

It was one of the worst meals I´ve cooked... :( It wasn´t really my fault. The cut chicken I bought turned out to be very bony and fatty. Metta wouldn´t eat it after trying a couple of bites - texture issues. Next time I´ll pay the extra for the breast meat. The worst part was the wood ear fungus I used in the steamed chicken and wood ear fungus dish turned out to be very bitter. Even Metta complained and he loves bitter foods. We gave up on that dish and dined on gen-ji mai rice (almost brown rice) and sauteed broccoli. Not very satisfying - I´ll be foraging in the fridge later for a snack.

Gotta love Hawaii

In the interest of saving money, we packed the fixings for a deli sandwich meal today. Up the windward coast we went on a house hunting mission. The children started to fuss after their noonday nap so we pulled over at Heeia Park. It´s a rustic park overlooking a sandbar on the ocean. Metta found a little covered lanai with a bench to get us out of any possible rain. I made beautiful roast turkey sandwiches while Metta and the girls played. Nutty whole wheat bread spread with mayonnaise and avocado, filled with cheddar, tomato, lettuce. Yummy picnic in a panorama of beauty. Wish I had taken a picture for you folks.

Stuffed sole, finally.

Benjamin has been talking about stuffed sole for weeks now. I haven´t accomodated him since I had envisioned rock hard fillets from the deep freeze at the grocery store. However, today, I´d planned a Mushroom Courgere for dinner but walked by the seafood dept to see gorgeous Dover Sole Fillets on sale. Not only did they glisten invitingly but the fishmonger told me they were fresh, never frozen and wild caught. Yum. Out went the vegetarian dinner plan.
I had no idea what to stuff the fillets with so I started playing with some veggies. An idea formed in my head of a fine mince of onions, garlic, mushrooms, peppers and morphed into a great breadcrumb stuffing. The fish was poorly filleted, so I had to mangle most of them to get the bones out. I made stuffed sole out of only 3 fillets. The other 6 fillets were layered into a pan to make a fish pie of sorts with the fish on the bottom and the stuffing as a crust. Into a 350 degree oven for 20 minutes.
I whizzed some onions, celery, carrots, mushrooms, and garlic in the food processor, intending to saute these veggies to add to my rice salad which I will bring to a potluck tomorrow night. However, I realized only 2 minutes before the sole was done that I hadn´t made the lemon sauce I had planned. Too little time to make a roux and a bechamel sauce now! I looked down at the veggies sauteing in my cast iron fry pan and decided to add some tomato sauce and turn it into a tomatoey sauce for the sole. Some portabello marinara and tomato paste went into the pan. A few glugs of white wine. And the urge hit me for a creamy tomato sauce. So in went a can of low fat evaporated milk. I simmered the sauce for a few minutes and it was divine! Kind of a cross between an Indian Butter Chicken sauce and a Paneer Tikka Masala sauce. So sweet yet I hadn´t added any sweetner - all the sweetness was from the organic red onion and organic carrot.
Meanwhile I chopped up some local organic curly kale and steammered it til just wilted. Stirred in some butter, lemon, bragg´s and pepper for a simple delicious sauce. This meal was so good!