In your back pocket.

Fork.  When flipping through my overly stocked collection of cookbooks to find a recipe for last night's meal, I toyed with the idea of making something quite fancy and elaborate.  Go to town, pull out all the stops!  But then I came across one of my favorite recipes from Ballymaloe's Cookery Course cookbook that I used in school.  It's one of the simplest, tastiest recipes and perfect for this Indian summer thing we're experiencing.  Olive and chili salsa served with a cumin-crusted fish.  I changed just one thing - I added tomatoes to the salsa for color, acidity, and texture.  Otherwise the olives can overpower a delicate fish.  And until my farmer's market stops selling gorgeous cherry tomatoes, I'm going to keep eating them by the handful.  The fistful.

As a side, I roasted some shishito peppers, a new favorite of mine as well.  One in ten is a spicy one!  With coarse sea salt and a squeeze of lemon they are an exciting and delightful snack.  I could eat a whole tray myself.

As we were finishing up dinner, the boy nodded and encouraged me to keep this one in rotation - a solid recipe is always a good thing to have in your back pocket.

I'm a jerk, no picture of dinner.  So here is some cumin.

Cumin Crusted Char 
with olive, tomato, and chili salsa


1 tbsp cumin seeds
2 fillets arctic char (or the fish of your fancy)
salt and pepper

Salsa
1 1/2 cup chopped kalamata olives
1 1/2 cup chopped cherry tomatoes
1/2 cup chopped parsley
1 chili (I used most of a large cayenne pepper)
1 garlic clove, crushed
3 tbsp olive oil
1 lemon (zest and juice)
salt and pepper

For salsa: mix all ingredients together.  Taste and season appropriately.  I used the juice of half a lemon, but you could use more or less based on personal preference.

Dry roast the cumin seeds in a sauce pan over medium heat until they become fragrant.  Be careful!  Don't burn them!  Grind them with in a pestle and mortar, or do as I did - use you're coffee grinder (after cleaning it well).  Season both sides of the fish with salt and pepper.  Dip the flesh side in cumin seeds.  

Heat a pan-grill over moderate to high heat.  Cook the fish in a little oil until crisp and golden on both sides and cooked through.  Serve with the salsa immediately.  

There she is

Glass.  Just as it's prudent to have a great recipe in your back pocket, having a go-to wine for any occasion makes for a stress-free evening.  This dish is a bit hard to pair with; some spice, lots of salt and acid, big flavors.  Yet, still light enough that you want to be drinking white wine.  My instinct was a richer, more full-bodied white, but not a sweeter riesling or heavily oaked chardonnay.  We went with a tasty wine from Friuli, in northeastern Italy. 

Made from one of the most famous white grapes from the region, ribolla gialla (Italians have a flair for naming their grapes like they would name fairytale characters), this particular bottle from Teresa Raiz is the 2009 vintage, and was perfect with the meal.  Tart apples and lemons and honey and straw come together for a softly rich, yet still vibrant wine.  As I said before, Italian wines can really round out the right meal, and this one did just that.  So now I have a recipe and a wine in my kitchen rolodex.  We'll be revisiting these often.

I have this one!

Play.  Quite literally, you should always have a journal in your back pocket.  Some blank pages to scribble whatever it is you scribble about.  I'm always making notes, doodling, recording.   I have a whole bookshelf dedicated to past journals, and while most are embarrassing to revisit, I'm very glad I have them.  Memories, ideas.  Most bullshit, but every now and then I find a kernel of interest.  So I keep writing.

For the past few years I've been buying journals from the same wonderful online store, Ex Libris Anonymous.  Not only has the customer service been impeccable and friendly, their books are brilliant.  How neat to have blank pages alternating with your favorite Nancy Drew classic?  And there are sooooo many to choose from!  And they are totally affordable, so you can buy a zillion.  I do, often.  And you should too. 


EX LIBRIS ANONYMOUS