Fish (Halibut) en Papilloute

That's right! I got to cook fish in parchment paper. It was so cool! 

I've seen this technique before but I've never actually done it, and turns out - it's super easy! 

We had a lot of Halibut so we decided we would use that which worked out fine. We cut a giant heart out of parchment paper (apparently some of the boys had difficulties with that part while it seemed perfectly logical to just about all of the girls in class...). We rubbed half of the heart with butter and oil to coat it, layered julienne strips of red pepper, carrots, celery, and zucchini near the center of the half. we placed the raw halibut fillet on top of these vegetables. Sprinkled around strips of leeks, then topped the fish with 3 or 4 rounds of jalapeño and then lemon slices. Then we just folded the paper over and then folded the edges together tightly. We baked the envelopes at 450 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes.

Then there was the great unveiling! We cut open the paper pouches and the halibut was perfect and flakey! it was so simple I can't believe it. Why doesn't everyone steam fish like this? 

Braised Balsamic Steak

What's great about this dish is that it's one of those things that you start, then you walk away for an hour while it cooks. Read a book (if people still do that.. ) or something.

We started off with a 3lb cut of thick cut of beef (Chuck roast or Sirloin or something). We rinsed it quickly with water then pat it dry. We dredged it in seasoned flour then quickly seared it in a pan with 2tbs of smoking hot basing oil. Once all sides were nice and brown we took it out of the pan and set it aside. 

We turned down the heat, then added 4 large minced shallots and 4 tbsp of sundried tomato paste and sauteed them until they started turning golden brown. We deglazed the pan with 1/2 cup of dark red wine, then once it started boiling we added 1 1/2 cups of beef stock and 1/4 cup of balsamic vinegar. We brought up the heat a little, added the beef back into the pan, and covered it with a lid to simmer for an hour. I made sure to flip it every 20 or so minutes but besides that, it stays on the stove simmering with the lid on. 

After an hour the liquid in the pan was reduced nicely, we pulled the meat out, and let it rest for 7ish minutes before cutting into it. Its good meat. With a side of rice or mashed potatoes, this stuff soars. 

Roasted Baby Potatoes

When we made the rack of lamb we had some time to make roasted potatoes also! Of course I ate all of them in class so when I got home later with left over lamb I wanted to make more potatoes. 

I think I have a potato addiction or sorts... 

Anyways, I went to the grocery store (shout out to Wegmans!) and found a cool bag of mixed baby potatoes (yellow, red, and purple) I decided to try. I got home, quartered the potatoes, and coated them in olive oil, rosemary, salt and I think some thyme (I just raided my pantry for spices and didn't think too much about it). 

I threw them in a 400 degree oven for I believe 40minutes. Then proceeded to sit on the kitchen counter and eat half of them while doing homework. Not even a little bit sorry. If I gave up potatoes, I would probably drop so much weight but man would I be sad. 

Rack of Lamb

First time making rack of lamb though it wasn't my first time eating it. Lamb is awesome, I'm not gonna lie. I was pretty excited to get to make it and it turned out pretty awesome!

In terms of cooking we seared the lamb on all sides first. Then we packed on our herb mixture on the top of the rack (the not bone side). This herb mixture was 1/4cup of fresh basil leaves, 1/4 cup fresh parsley, 2tbsp minced fresh thyme leaves, 1 tsp minced fresh rosemary leaves, and 1 clove of garlic all processed in the food processor with 1/4 cup olive oil and 1/2 cup of grated parmesan cheese. 

We put the rack in a 375 degree oven until it reached an internal temp around 130 (ish.. sorry not to be exact..) 

When the lamb was around that internal temp we pulled it out of the oven and packed it with our breadcrumb mixture. This was 1 slice of white bread, 2tbs parmesan cheese, 1 minced shallot, 1 tbs olive oil and salt and pepper in the food processor. We put the lamb back in the oven and finished cooking it. (Internal temp of about 165)

The original recipe had us made the bread crumb mixture, then the herb mixture, then start searing the lamb so if that's the way you wanna try it. It works. Our lab came out the perfect done-ness with just enough rawness in the middle that the lamb was super soft and tender. We also made a side of roasted potatoes but I'll talk about that in the next post. 

Easy to say I love lamb. I wish I could have it all the time. 

A constant stream..

My wonderful trip to Ohio got cut a day or so short because RIT's men's hockey team made it to the championship semi-finals in Indiana on Saturday before classes started. So instead of driving to Cleveland and going home Saturday we went in the other direction up to Notre Dame College in South Bend and made it to the hockey game. 

Turns out we're kind of awesome and the men's team (seated 16th) beat the 1st seat Minnesota State so RIT played again Sunday night against Omaha. Of course we stayed. No matter that we were 8 hours away from school and classes started for a couple of us 10am Monday. Did I mention that the game didn't start till 7:30? No? Well yeah that happened. No big deal. 

Sunday rolled around and we were pretty excited for the game but until 6:30 when doors opened we had to entertain ourselves. We managed to keep the hotel room a little later and didn't get kicked out until noon so that was great. We went bowling (because spring break in Indi equals bowling, duh!) until around 2 or 2:30. We ran out of things to do so we just ended up going to a sports bar to hang out and try to catch another game of the championships. 

Jump to the four of us sitting in a small booth at 'Between the Buns' deciding what to eat. Then we came up with the great idea to just order appetizers and snack until the game on TV at 5. (This bar happened not to have ESPN U where the game was playing so we re-located around 5 for the TV game). Cue 3 hours of us making snacks stretch. It worked!   

Don't be fooled by the lettuce and tomatoes, we started off with loaded nachos which was smothered in layers of melted cheese and ground beef. It was so good. Aside from the fact that three of the four of us don't like black olives, it was an incredible bowl of nachos.

This lasted us awhile. Then we took a little break before round two. Mozzarella sticks, thick cut fries, and the biggest onion rings I've ever seen. These guys were basically onions cut in half and deep fried. They were crazy. The mozz sticks were really good too but I'm a sucker for fries so I'd have to say they were my favorite thing. 

Thumbs up to our last meal in South Bend. Way to go between the buns! See you next time (if there is one....)