Red Snapper

Hello Guys!! I know I have been away for a while, but I am back! Although it felt like an eternity, I am finally moved to my new place and I have to say I love my new kitchen, it has lots of natural light which will be amazing for my food pictures!! Yay! I wanted to share with you one of the other dishes I learnt to cook at Calphalon. This Seared Red Snapper recipe with olive & capers tapenade is just amazing!! You have to try this one!!

Red Snapper with Tapenade

Ingredients:

4 fillets of red snapper
1/2 cup black sun-dried olives, pitted and roughly chopped
2 tbs capers
4 tbsp. flat-leaf parsley, chopped
4 tbsp. basil leaves, chopped
2 tsp. finely grated lemon zest
4 tsp. lemon juice
1 tsp. black pepper
4 tbsp. olive oil

Directions:

Prepare a rustic chop of olives with caper berries, herbs , zest, lemon juice, and pepper. Add oil in stream until incorporated into a loose paste.
Heat a frying pan Over medium high heat. Season fish fillets with salt and pepper.
Add oil to the pan and add the fish (non skin side down), once the oil is hot. Sear on the one side until white protein bubbles appear on the side of the fillet and it begins to feel firm. Roll onto skin side and top with olive mixture.
Cook through – another 1-2 minutes and serve immediately.

Quick Tip:

In case you get the skinless red snapper the way to make it non stick is to coat it with flour before cooking it.

Enjoy it with glass of white wine!

Seafood!

I met with my best friend "D" at the corner of King and Spadina for a cooking class last Friday. As soon as we got there we quickly reserved our sits, front row and all, so we could really see everything that was happening in the kitchen. I really liked the class, it was all seafood! and we were able to taste every meal the chef prepared. He was very helpful, and answered all our questions. When "D" and I left the culinary centre we were so excited we quickly planned to cook the recipes the next day!.. and we did!!..

A couple of weeks later I cooked an "impress me welcome dinner" for my parent who are just visiting Toronto this week! They have been reading my blog for a while and were expecting to see her daughter perform in the kitchen. Luckily she nailed it!

The menu included

Fried Calamari

Ingredients:

2 lbs. of clean Squid (cut into thin strips)

the juice and zest of one lemon

salt & pepper

1 cup of flour

a pinch of paprika, cayenne pepper, parsley flakes, garlic powder, chili flakes (and every other herb our spice you would like to add to the flour base).

Directions:

Have your squid cleaned and cut. On a separate bowl add all dry ingredients plus the zest of one lemon. In another bowl, have your squid marinated with pepper and lemon juice for no more than 5 mins or so. For the deep frying, I always use a porcelain pot, it will help with the heating process. One other advice is to never never deep fry without a thermometer, believe me it will make your life a 1000 times easier and healthier. Heat the oil that you are going to use for your deep frying until it reaches 375F and keep it there. Mix the marinated squid with the flour mixture and start the deep frying!! I made a homemade mayonnaise to go with it!..

Enjoy!