Sunday, July 31, 2005

For the Chick of the Crib

(Sorry, I've been reading Manolo's Shoe Blog. Hys-ter-i-cal0.)

Don't sue me if my calories and carbs are off.

This is modified from a Molly Katzen recipe, Caribbean Fish In a Packet from MOOSEWOOD COOKS AT HOME.
Caribbean Fish In a Packet -- AK Style
*1 bottle caribbean sauce from Wegmans (look in your best grocery store's sauce/bbq section for something similar. It's mango-ish, not spicey at all.)
*aluminum foil
*fish fillets or steaks -- about 3 oz per person served. Adjust the rest to taste.
*olive oil
*1 small vidalia onion, sliced
*fresh cilantro (about 2 Tbsp)
*1 lime (or 2. or 3.)
*minced chile pepper
*a sweet pepper chopped (I prefer yellow or orange or ANYTHING other than green, but last week, green is what I had)
*salt and black pepper
*Preheat oven to 350.
*Tear off a large square of aluminum foil for each person.
*Use a pastry brush to brush on olive oil lightly in the center of each foil packet. OR lightly spray olive oil from a pressurized can OR use non-stick aluminum foil.
*rinse the fish and prepare the veggies
*place in the center of each foil square one piece of fish, some of each of the veggies (I adjusted to taste -- more fish for me, less chile for the kids, that kind of thing -- you can fold the foil creatively later to "mark" the packets), and a bit of salt and pepper. Divide the sauce up over the packets. It's okay to be generous. Squeeze the lime over each pile of stuff in each packet. Fold up as tightly as you can, place in oven. Cook 30 - 45 minutes (you can also cook at 450 for 20-25 minutes, but I like cooler, slower).
When done, give each person a small bowel of rice, have them open the packet (or open it for them -- the packets actually cool to touch fairly quickly, but the insides don't), and pour out the contents onto the rice. Mix well with a fork (this breaks up the fish, spreads it evenly throughout the rice, and makes it all less "fishy" for families that are less fish friendly).
Total calorie count is around 350-400 calories depending on how much rice you use. It's got a great protein count (about 22 grams) and about 30% of the calories are from fat. Before rice, it's about 10g of carbs.

PSA:
Fish flesh has varying amounts of Mercury. The US RDA of mercury is NONE. Mercury in your food = bad. There are a few sites online that will give you some honest info about fish -- I like the ones that are more honest than the EPA and less honest than the sites that tell you to NEVER EVER EAT ANY FISH. A few have little printable forms you can take with you to the grocery store so you can compare what's on sale and looks and smells right to what could potentially cause irreversible damage to your central nervous system. And you know what I'm discovering? The stuff is more expensive than red meat!

But I really like fish so I go on clutching my list and shopping carefully.

3 comments:

Amy said...

Alaska, that is my All Time Favorite Cookbook. I recommend the Sweet Potato Salad and the Mexican Tomato Lime Soup.

Yummo!

The Crib Chick said...

LOL...I love it; the Chick of the Crib.

I dig the Manolo, too.

Thank you for this recipe, and Mr. Crib Chick thanks you. My fish repetoire is sorely limited. I know what you mean about the mercury...

And that link, to the knitting site! What fun! I do so long to be a knitter. ::Sigh:: Maybe soakers will be what gets me out of my 'This takes too darn long' mindset, and makes me push through and FINISH something.

The Queen said...

The thing to keep in mind with soaker pants is that they are butt ugly (ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. I kill me.) just laying there not on a baby. When you put them ON a baby, especially the soaker shorts, they are the most adorable thing EVER. I got manifold compliments whenever I took the twins out in public in their soaker shorts. (And somedays you need that, kwim?)

Amy, I'm pretty sure you're the one who recommended the book to me. It wasn't a hard sell because I already had her Enchanted Brocolli . . ., and her kids cookbooks (one of which has the best pizza crust on the planet), and Sunday's at Moosewood which is a bit over my head.