The Seattle Times recently touched on two spicy condiments that you may or not have heard of. I'd guess more people are familiar with Sriracha. It's a staple in a lot of Thai and Vietnamese restaurants, often right on the table, in place of ketchup. Speaking of which, I often skip ketchup with my french fries, but when I do use it, ninety-nine times out of a hundred it's mixed with Sriracha.

If anyone has had a spicy tuna roll at their local sushi place, often the spicy tuna is nothing more than the bits and scraps of the tuna not used for sashimi chopped up and mixed with Sriracha. When I saw that, a light bulb went off in my head and I decided to use it in my next tuna salad. My super quick go-to snack is now just canned tuna, Sriracha and a little mayo on multi-grain Saltines. I'm sure it could be expanded to have some cilantro and minced shallot, served over some mixed greens and topped with some crispy lo-mein noodles and crunchy wasabi peas for a fancy (yet still simple) lunch.

The aforementioned Seattle Times article includes a recipe for Sriracha Glazed Chicken Wings. I'm sure the recipe could be adapted to use boneless thighs, and served with julienne carrots and snow peas tossed with a little sesame oil and rice noodles for a quick and tasty dinner.

They also discuss the lesser known but equally tasty Middle Eastern condiment harissa, including a simple recipe for making your own. I've experimented with several recipes, and found a short cut was to use the ground chili paste you can find in most Asian markets. Toasting whole seeds and grinding them yourself will go a lot farther in flavor than soaking and processing your own chiles. Even if you do process your own chiles, you would be doing yourself a favor to toast and grind your cumin and coriander seeds yourself. An inexpensive coffee grinder works well for grinding your own spices. Also, if my memory serves me, many versions also contain caraway in addition to the cumin and coriander.

If your looking for how you might experiment with using harissa, a popular dish I had on one of my menus was harissa glazed baked salmon with a cous-cous, black olive and feta salad.

With my love across the Atlantic, I was slipping into bachelor mode – fast food, sandwiches, lots of eggs. So walking into the kitchen to make yet another sandwich, I fought the urge and fish stew quickly came to mind. I made a quick assessment of the pantry and fridge. Garbanzo beans, a can of whole peeled tomatoes, a bulb of garlic and not much else for such a dish, I decided to make a quick trip to the market to round out the ingredients.

A pound of firm white fish, a nice fennel bulb, a bunch of organic celery, a green pepper, sweet onion and a large can of whole baby clams later, I head home to throw together a big pot of fish stew to hold me over until the little lady returns, and stave off the fast food.

The baby clams were as much for background flavor as anything, certainly if you have some seafood stock stashed in the freezer (I have shells from shrimp and lobster in the freezer, just haven't made any stock yet and wasn't feeling that adventurous) certainly you could just use that. I've never had any luck with commercial fish bouillons, but if you have one that works for you, certainly that can augment the stew as well. Bottles of clam juice can be used in a pinch as well. Likewise, additional seafood could be added. Certainly shrimp or squid would lend themselves to the flavors of this dish as well.

I diced the onion, green pepper, half the bulb of the fennel, 3 stalks of the celery (including tops) and 4 cloves of garlic and tossed it all in a couple of tablespoons of olive oil in my trusty enamel coated dutch oven. I big pinch crushed red pepper, and a few bay leaves round out the first phase.

Saute the vegetables over medium high heat until the vegetables are softened, but not mushy. Next add the tomatoes. I prefer to drain off the juice first into the pot, then crush the tomatoes by hand. I also like to add some filtered water to the can and swish it around and add that to the pot as well. Finally add the whole clams and their juice to the pot, as well as the garbanzo beans (I added roughly a cup and a half) bring to a simmer, cover and cook another 15-20 minutes to let the flavors develop and finish cooking the vegetables.

After 20 minutes or so, you can cut the fish up into chunks, depending on the type of fish, I tend to cut mine into pieces about the size of a die. This way, they will cook through, but hold their shape. I prefer chunky, and since it's more a stew, chunks seem more appropriate. However, again, we are improvising, and it's all about your tastes and preferences. There is no right or wrong. Just keep in mind, the smaller the pieces, the less time the fish needs in the stew, otherwise it will disintegrate anyway.

Before adding the fish, check for seasoning. Certainly salt and pepper, salt will be dependent on the type of stock, broth, bouillon clam juice, etc. I also like to add a little acidity to help round out and balance the flavors. A little dry white wine, or in my case, a few splashes of sherry vinegar, and some fresh ground pepper was all I needed.

Lower the heat on the stew, add your fish, and chop a few tops of the fennel, roughly 3 tablespoons, give or take depending on your tastes. I'm a fennel addict, and like the contrast of the slight anise flavor of the fresh tops, especially with tomato and fish. The bulb tends to sweeten as it's cooked, so the fresh tops round the flavors out nicely.

Depending on the size of chunks you cut your fish in, 5-8 minutes should be sufficient at low heat. Recheck seasoning, and your stew should be ready to serve.

A stew like this on a warm summer evening could certainly be served by itself, with a simple salad or some crusty bread, or some combination there of. If I were to pour a glass of wine, I'd probably opt for a viognier, or a light pinot noir.

Well, as the week winds down, I wanted to enjoy a nice dinner with my muse, so after a failed trip fishing in the morning, I head to the market. Some nice looking bay scallops and small white shrimp seemed just the ticket. I had some fennel bulb left over from the Moroccan shrimp, so I decided to grab a couple of lemons and make a broth. A can of artichoke hearts, and some perfect pencil sized asparagus rounded out the dish.

As normal, angel hair pasta is the de facto pasta around my home, and, as normal, I like to get the water going right away, as I will use the same water to blanch the asparagus as well as cook the pasta. This asparagus is so tender and thin, it could actually skip the blanching, but since I want to make things quick, I'll give a quick trip to the boiling water anyway.
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Well, summer's coming to an end, at least in regards to schedules, meaning the homestead is getting back to normal and my muse is back to work molding the minds of the next generation. So I wanted to make something different, but nice, as her work days are long starting the year. We had seen the local grocer had shrimp on sale, and she remarked how she's been wanting some. Easy enough, I'd start with that. I wanted something that wouldn't be too labor intensive, as my day had been full as well, so cous cous is always a great quick side. So I thought, hmm, what else. I new I had some limes just itching to be used, and kept that in the back of my mind. A tour of the produce section revealed some nice yellow tomatoes and fresh fennel, as well as broccoli on sale, so I threw them in my basket and headed home, to figure out how to finish the dish.

I wanted to keep the cous cous simple, so just the requisite equal parts dry cous cous and boiling water, with a little salt, a tablespoon of olive oil, and a little powder vegetable base was all I needed. I've mentioned before, I use a base I get at the health food store, but any base could work. Also, Swanson sells both a canned vegetable broth as well as box of organic vegetable broth. Those could be substituted for the boiling water. What's nice with this side is it's served at room temperature, so you can do it first, cover it, and just let it sit until your done with the rest of the meal

I still wasn't sure what I wanted to do with the shrimp, but I started the vegetables nonetheless. I wanted to highlight the sweetness of of fennel bulb, so along with some sliced onion, I sliced half the bulb and began cooking them slowly over medium heat in olive oil. As with onions, as they caramelize, they sweeten, so I just let them cook, stirring occasionally. Meanwhile I blanched the broccoli, and diced the yellow tomato, as they would be added at the end, seasoned with salt and pepper, and that would complete the vegetable.

While I was finishing the vegetables, it hit me what to do with the shrimp. Since I had the cous cous, which is Moroccan in origin, and the flavors of the vegetables were very Mediterranean, why not carry that out with the shrimp and do a harissa lime butter? Harissa is a Moroccan spice blend in the vein of curry, as it's a mixture of ground spices, with the addition of red chile paste and garlic. I didn't have a red chile paste of sorts, so I sort of improvised by using Sirracha for that part of the flavor. Sirracha is the garlic chile sauce you often see in Vietnamese and Thai restaurants. For the harissa, the predominant spice is caraway seed, along with coriander and a little cumin seed. A touch of white pepper, a quick spin in the spice (coffee) grinder and it's good to go. Figure 1 tablespoon of caraway, 1 tablespoon of coriander, and half a teaspoon cumin. I juiced the two limes, had a 1/3 of a stick of butter cut into pats, and the shrimp was ready to prepare. A medium hot saute pan, with a touch of olive oil, and you're ready to add the shrimp. Quickly add the ground spices, a few dashes of chile paste, or Sirracha in this case, and stir/toss around the shrimp to coat. As the shrimp are almost cooked, but not quite, add the lime juice. Let simmer a minute or two, and then add the pats of butter, stirring them in to emulsify with the lime. Adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper, maybe add a little chopped fresh parsley, and remove from the heat. To serve, I simply mound the cous cous in one corner, the vegetables in another, and then spoon the shrimp and sauce onto the remaining portion of the plate. A dish such as this with a little heat, a little sweetness from the lime and fennel, would be great with a Riesling or Gewertzaminer. A crisp Sauvignon Blanc could work as well. Enjoy!

Well, mark that experience up to bad judgment, but what was I thinking getting a job in a country club? I should have known when they used the words "fine dining" and "bargain to our guests", that they where not serious about putting out the best food possible. I just didn't want to believe the generalizations about country club food. Live and learn.

Couple the failed job, and add into that the blistering heat, and odd schedule the household has been under, and you get very little cooking, and very little writing. Until today. I had a craving, a fairly odd one for me, to have fettucini alfredo and shrimp. Rarely do I cook anything other than angel hair, and almost never do I do cream sauces, especially in the middle of summer. Perhaps it was a way of nature telling me to fill up before the hurricane, but there was no turning back, off to the market for the fixings.
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