Well Done, Medium Well, Medium, or Rare....

If you have a hard time knowing when your meat is done to your liking, try this little trick!

Thanks to JB, for reminding me about this...

With your hand laid out flat, and the thumb brought in to the side of your hand, try feeling these spots that I've marked on my hand.

Well done will be hard or tight.
Medium well will have a little more give in it.
Medium will be way more squishy.
Rare will be really soft and squishy.

Before you start cooking any meat or fish, it's important to bring it to room temperature for about an hour.  Otherwise you will end up with cooked meat that's still really cold in the middle.  Not ideal!

Remember that when you've finished cooking meat and chicken, it needs to rest.  By doing this, the meat will release it's juices and then soak them back up again.  This way you won't end up with a plate full of blood, or dried out meat!  Bon Appetit!

Grilled Salmon with Seasonal Pomegranate Sauce...

Don't let this scare you, the sauce is simple to make, and once again it's easy!  Even me mate JB could do it! :-0)"

I served this dish with seasonal greens and roasted potatoes...

You decide on what you're going to serve with this.  I'm just going to tell you how to cook the fish and make the sauce.

Sauce for two:
1 cup white wine
1/4 cup fish or vegetable stock
Juice of one ripe pomegranate
1 tablespoon butter

Get sauce ingredients ready now!

If you're going to grill or BBQ the salmon, you can leave the skin on, otherwise take it off.  Cut salmon into portion size pieces and as usual season well with sea salt and black pepper.

Get your grill or saute pan hot, add oil if using a pan.  Now the trick here is to only turn the fish once, and to cook the presentation side first, and the skin side second!  Oil your grill and place the fish on hottest part of the grill, or place your fish in a hot pan with oil.  The only difference in cooking fish on a grill vs. a saute pan is you want to keep the fish moving a little bit, by shaking the pan once in a while.  Once you're comfortable that the first side is done and has some color, turn it and cook for about a minute or two, then finish in oven set at 325*.  This will give you time to make the sauce, but act quickly.

In a hot saute pan over high heat, add the wine and reduce by 2/3rds its volume, then add the stock and do the same.  Now add the juice and reduce until you have about four tablespoons of sauce.  Now turn off the heat and add the butter, and shake the pan in a back and forth motion, until the butter melts and you start to have a nice shine to the sauce.  You will know the shine when you see it, go with your gut!  Remove from the stove at this point, and sauce your fish.

Bon Appetit!

Fresh Berry Sauce For Fish Or Dessert

I just picked the very last of the strawberries, they were not quite ripe enough to eat, so I made a simple sauce with them.  You can use any kind of berry for this sauce which is great on fish!

Here's how:

Puree one cup of fresh berries using a blender.  If the berries have a lot of seeds, then you may want to strain the puree.  Heat a saute pan over high heat, and add one cup of white wine, and one tablespoon of Chambord liquor.

When liquid has reduced by half, add the berry puree, and reduce a little more.  Turn the heat off and add one tablespoon of butter and one tablespoon of honey, shaking the pan back and fourth.

Bon Appetit!

Rock Cod with a White Wine Butter Caper Sauce

Don't be afraid of cooking fish -- the secret is having a good, heavy, shallow pan, and having the oil or butter hot!


Recipe for two:
Two 1/3 pound pieces of fresh rock cod, skin removed
A good pinch or two of salt and pepper
1/2 cup all purpose flour
About two tablespoons olive oil for cooking

Sauce:
1/2 cup white wine
1/2 cup vegetable, chicken or fish stock
2 tablespoons capers, rinsed and dried
1 tablespoon butter

With fish already cut, cleaned, floured and seasoned, get your pan and oil nice and hot. Then add the fish, presentation (nice) side down, and shake it back and forth to keep it from sticking. Once it's seared the chances of it sticking are slight.

When it's cooked half way though, turn the fish with a good, wide, steel spatula and cook until it's almost done, then remove from pan, place on an oven plate, and finish in the oven.

Now wipe and/or scrape out your pan so it's free from bits of cooked fish, return pan to high heat. When pan is hot, add wine and cook until liquid is reduced by half, then add the stock and repeat the same steps. When you're happy with the amount of liquid, turn the heat off and add capers and butter, once again shaking the pan back and forth until the sauce has a nice shine. Do not add any heat otherwise the sauce will break.

Bon Appetit!