Yummies: Volume 6

This year's Valentines Day may have been my best yet. My boyfriend was skiing in Tahoe all weekend, coming back to San Francisco Sunday evening. This was great, because it relieved all the pressure of spending some ooey gooey Valentines Day afternoon together, and I had the whole day to myself to do whatever I pleased. While some of my friends like to spend their Sunday Fundays going to bottomless mimosa brunches - which I too enjoy, but only on occasion - my ideal Sunday Funday is spent in my neighborhood and home, pretending to be a suburban housewife. Forgetting all together that many people were celebrating some silly Hallmark holiday, and instead taking in the beautiful weather on this Sunday afternoon, I mapped out my version of Sunday Funday: yoga clothes all day (minus the yoga thanks to my recent knee injury), coffee and sunshine on my deck, farmers market and some gourmet grocery store shopping, a walk to the park, cleaning the house, some Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations episodes here and there, doing laundry, getting a pedicure, a long shower, and preparing for an elegant meal with my boyfriend. Mind you, the preparation was very minor. This whole meal is easy to make and it takes very little time to execute. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did!


Seared Halibut with Green Beans, Tomatoes, White Wine Sauce and Orzo
(from Epicurious, but I've made some very slight adjustments - serves 2)

• 1/2 pound green beans
• Two 7-ounce halibut fillets, skinned and cut into chunks
  
• Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
• 1 tablespoons canola oil
• 1/3 cup Sauvignon Blanc or other dry white wine
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
  
• less than 1/4 cup unsalted butter
• bunch of scallions, white part only, finely sliced
  
• 1 tablespoon capers, drained and rinsed
• 15-20 cherry tomatoes, quartered
• 1 1/2 cups of orzo pasta, preferably wheat
  

Preparation (try to do all simultaneously so everything finishes at the same time):

• Chop tomatoes and scallions, and place in small bowl with capers. Season with salt and pepper, and set aside.
• Boil water for orzo. Add a teaspoon of salt. When water is boiling, add orzo and 1/2 a tablespoon of olive oil and cook for 8-10 minutes.
  
• Meanwhile, in a another pot of boiling salted water, cook the green beans for 3 to 4 minutes on high heat, until tender. Once done, drain and place them back in the pot. Cover and keep warm on simmer.
• Season the halibut chunks on both sides with salt and pepper. In a large saute pan, heat the canola oil over medium-high heat. Cook the fish for about 3 minutes, until lightly browned. Turn, reduce the heat to medium, and cook about 4 minutes longer, until the fish is opaque in the center and browned on both sides.
  
• Once everything is ready, place the orzo on warm platter. Top with green beans and then fish. Cover with aluminum foil, and set aside.
  

For the sauce:

• Add the wine and lemon juice to the pan you were cooking the fish in.
• Raise the heat to high and deglaze the pan by scraping up any browned bits of fish with a wooden spoon.
• Cook for about 2 minutes, then reduce the heat and stir in the butter, a piece at a time, to enrich and flavor the sauce.
• Add the scallions, capers, and tomato. Stir for about 2 minutes.
  
• Pour over the fish on the platter. Serve immediately.

Note: buy a decent bottle of Sauvignon Blanc to use for the recipe (I recommend Husch) and serve the remainder with the meal.


Apple Crisp
(From the Vegetarian Epicure)

• 3 large tart green apples
• 1/4 cup water1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3/4 cup flour
• 1/2 cup butter

Preparation:

• Peel the apples and slice them thinly.
• Layer them evenly in a glass pie dish sprinkle them with the water.
• Put them aside while you prepare the crust.
• Sift together the dry ingredients and cut in the butter until all is well combined. Sprinkle this mixture thickly and evenly over the apples. Don’t mix the two together.
• Cover the casserole and bake at 350 degrees for ½ hour, then uncover and bake another ½ hour. The crust will be crisp on top, and will have partly seeped down through the apples, flavoring them and binding them slightly together.
• Serve with Vanilla Ice Cream.

Note: you can make this a couple hours ahead of time and refrigerate it until an hour before you're ready to eat dessert, then bake as directed.