In an ideal world, my house would smell like Neimann Marcus. By the entrance of Neimann Marcus from Galleria is a huge Jo Malone section, hence the heavenly smell. I don’t have enough financial artillery to have Jo Malone candles all over this beast of a house, so that thought will just be tucked away in a folder in my mind labeled, “You Wish!”
Out of all the kitchen smells, fish is the one that I despise most. So all my fish dishes are usually grilled (outdoors) or as soup (heavy pot with an even heavier lid to trap cooking-fish smell). Here is one variation that doesn’t involve frying or sautéing fish. It’s called Fish En Papillote.
Roughy translated, fish en papillote means “fish in paper”. Fish, along with herbs and vegetables, is wrapped in parchment paper, then baked. This enables all the flavors to come together and saturate the fish. And because it is sealed, the cooking-fish smell is almost non-existent.
I am using Alaskan cod, but any white fish will do, lemons, sesame oil, fresh thyme, lemon pepper and garlic salt
Assemble ingredients in a big piece of parchment paper.
In order: coat with sesame oil, lemon pepper, garlic salt, drizzle with lemon juice, sliced lemon, thyme sprigs.pinch the edges of the paper like you would do with an empanada. Bake at 375 for 20 minutes.
There are many ways to seal off the paper. The whole idea is that it should be closed in so that steam does not escape.
Tear the paper open. No fishy smell!!! Just the herbs and lemon and the some hint of sesame oil.
This is fish dish is not only healthy; it is also nose-approved!!! Dinner is ready.
If you are among my dearest and loyal friends who follow this blog, you might note that I previously posted about falling off my low-carb diet horse last weekend on account of a very sinful Pasta Alfredo in Pasta Bella. What I failed to tell you was the overwhelming guilt I had after a few bites that I decided to just eat half. The waitress offered to box the remaining half but I firmly declined. Bad move. I have been thinking about that dish all this time…
It wont’s be in a couple of weeks before we return to Fredericksburg so I decided to just make my very own. I DVR’ed the two X-Files episodes that I missed so I need a great dish to watch it with.
Good news: my version, is a one-pot dish, pretty much like all that I cook. This blog should have been titled The Lazy Cook, but it was already taken.
Bad news: I am so falling off the horse for this one. This is not exactly a diet dish. Far from it. The only way this dish could land in Weight Watchers is if the serving is one tablespoon.
the cast of evil characters: half and half, heavy cream, parmesan, garlic paste and pasta.
Cook pasta according to package directions. I would normally use angel hair, but it looks like I don’t have it in my pantry so ordinary spaghetti will have to do. Cook al dente. There is nothing worse that soggy pasta…except gluten-free pasta! Haha.
D cleaned my cooking station. Everything was scrubbed and shined. Time to get it messy!
Make sure you get an extra cup of pasta water. This will come in handy should the sauce come out clumpy or goopy, water it down with the pasta water, problem solved.
Drain in coriander and wash with cold water. Dropping the temperature will prevent it from cooking further, thereby avoiding the soggy pasta
Now for the Alfredo sauce, you only need to remember that the ratio of milk to cheese is 1:2. In this case, I will be using 1/2C of half and half plus 1/2C of heavy cream = 1 cup, then have 2 cups of parmesan. You don’t’ have to use half and half, all heavy cream would be perfect. I mean if you’re the person who could use the calories, then more power to you. I wish I was you…
Start by melting the butter. Yes, there is butter, I didn’t include this in the picture of ingredients because I didn’t want to scare peopleStir in milk and cook in low heat. Add garlic paste. Fresh chopped garlic is even better.
You may season with salt and pepper. In this case, I didn’t. Because really? All this cream and cheese AND salt? Seriously, though. The parmesan has some saltiness to it. It’s really enough. Fresh-cracked pepper would be great though.
Piece de resistance — truffle oil. Forget everything I said about the cream, cheese and salt. Truffle oil is the game-changer. Add 1 tablespoon and tell me how it changed your life.
Here’s my Pasta Alfredo. Note the wavy bowl. I fell in love with wavy dishes when Villeroy and Boch came out with their New Wave design. A little impractical but oh-so-pretty. I was just talking to my dear friend Yassy earlier and we talked about having the need to enjoy our own company as we grow older, coz eventually we will end up being alone. So even as I eat this by myself (D is at work and B is in school), I treat myself fancy. I will change into pajamas and eat this while I watch the new X-files. Is that a great plan or what?
