Bigger Fish to Fry
Do you ever feel like making something really big out of something really little? Ever get the urge to take the virtually insignificant and find a way produce an end result of pomp display? Sometimes it just feels good to climb a hill and die on it, to make a big deal out of nothing, and even get a little attention out of it, I think you all know what I mean. But don’t worry, I’ve been a witness AND participant myself lately.
To offer you an example you may be able to relate with, and my 10-year-old son will kill me for publicizing this, last week he had a little accident (he fell into some soft grass while playing ball with friends, bruising nothing more than an ego). Suddenly, his eyes were twitching from “the pain” and he felt very “dizzy and tired.” As a matter of fact, the “headache” he was experiencing was so bad, he talked daddy into driving him to the Emergency Room to get “concussion X-rays.” As it turns out, he ended up leaving the ER just before getting admitted, stating that he was “feeling much better, and maybe just a movie and ice cream would help” Now, I can’t be sure, but I’m thinking that this near-death experience may have been a tiny bit exaggerated to save a little face??
In the Relish world, my “little” sabotage of late was taking a decent bottle of chardonnay and a beautiful chunk of Italian Pecorino and making dinner out of it. You’re thinking, “awww, how nice…she treated herself to a chilled glass of wine and nibbled on cheese and grapes, maybe even flipped a dollar at Trader Joe’s for a wedge of 72% dark chocolate.” NOPE. The buck didn’t stop there – I decided to take my two ingredients and turn them orchestrally, methodically, neurotically into a 20-ingredient French Bouillabaisse over the next four hours! You see, someone had challenged my culinary competence, and I was about to show them…show the WORLD (or at least my kids) what I could do with my cast iron!
How good it felt to make the 30-minute drive to Whole Foods and walk through the Fruit de la Mer section, carefully select fresh-caught fillets of Sea Bass and Monkfish …then watch the fish guy carefully wrap them up, along with a pound each of clams, mussels, scallops and prawn into pretty parcels for me. You’ll also understand that to mosey-on-over to the herbs and spices only to procure a beautiful batch of large-leaf thyme and 2 grams of Moroccan Saffron rivaled any romantic walk down a Provencal cobblestone abbey. ANYway, after sautéing, reducing and “happy simmering” (we never boil, remember?), I don’t mind telling you that the delicious outcome of this manual labor surely showed them!! All 3 of them. Especially the 8-year old who had corndogs instead.
The moral of the story is, life offers us millions of little daily details, and its up to each us to make something, anything, out of them, and sometimes, contradictory the general suggestion that there are ‘bigger fish to fry’…its just okay to make a mountain out of a molehill…so tonight, why not try constructing an Herbed Duck Caesar Salad out of a sardine and see how it serves up?
INGREDIENTS
Extra Virgin Olive Oil (this doesn’t count as an ingredient)
10 cloves fresh garlic, chopped well, but not minced
1 white onion, diced
1 lb. pork chorizo, removed from casings
1 Tbsp fresh thyme, chopped
2 large cans (24+ oz.) stewed, diced tomatoes
1 bottle white wine (chardonnay, sauvignon blanc…)
3 quarts chicken or fish stock
1 ½ tsp. chili flakes
1 ½ tsp. cayenne pepper
A pinch of saffron threads
1 lb. Sea Bass or Halibut, cut into 1” cubes
1 lb. clams (make sure all are closed before cooking)
1 lb. mussels (“ ditto “)
1 lb. uncooked shrimp or prawn, peeled & deveined
½ cup green olives, chopped
½ cup capers
14 oz. artichoke bottoms, chopped
14 oz. artichoke hearts, chopped
1 Tbsp. Sea Salt
1 lb. uncooked linguine
INSTRUCTIONS
In a large pot (preferably a ceramic-fired cast iron like Le Creuset or even a copper pot), sauté the garlic and onions in about 2 Tbsp. of oil over medium-high heat until caramelized, about 5 minutes.
Add the chorizo and brown the ingredients until fully cooked.
Add the thyme, tomatoes, wine, stock, chili flakes, cayenne and saffron and bring to a boil. Immediately turn the heat back down to medium and “reduce” the liquid down a quarter way . In other words, let it gently bubble (called a “happy simmer”) for at least an hour, until about ¼ of the liquid has evaporated.
Add the fish & shellfish & pasta and continue cooking on medium/med high for another 30 minutes or so, gently stirring occasionally to keep the pasta separated. Make sure the pasta is fully cooked before the last step!
Gently stir in the olives, capers & artichokes, and salt to taste. Usually about 1 Tbsp. Sea Salt is sufficient. Bring back up to a boil then quickly remove from heat.
Serve immediately with a piping hot Baguette or Sourdough round.
