This is a recipe for those days you want to eat well and not spend a whole day in the kitchen. I can almost call this a fast food meal, and anything I classified in my “less than 30 minutes” category can be called “fast food”, now 30 minutes is fast to me, of course comparing to some frozen meal you throw in the microwave, might not be. Of course everything is subjective. But since we are comparing this to homemade meals, and nothing else, this is definitely fast food.

You can substitute tuna with any other white fish, and quinoa with rice, but quinoa being very nutritious, it’s always good to add it into a regular diet.

Lately, I have been using brussel sprouts mainly shredded mixed with other vegetables and I really like them this way. It’s one way among others to prepare them. If you serve them whole as a side dish, may people tend to be reluctant and un-excited to eat them. Shredding them, make their flavor more subtle and friendlier and less intimidating to certain people.

Ingredients for 4

For the tuna

• 4 tuna steaks
• 1 small green bell pepper
• 1 small red bell pepper
• 1/4 red onion, finely chopped
• 2 scallions, chopped
• 1tsp chives, chopped
• 3 tbs olive oil
• juice of 1 lemon
• 1 tsp tabasco sauce
• one pinch of cayenne pepper
• salt and pepper

For the quinoa

• 1 cup quinoa
• 2 cups vegetable broth
• 1/2 onion finely sliced
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• 3/4 lb brussel sprouts, shredded
• about 12 cherry tomatoes, cut in half lenghtwise
• smoked paprika
• salt and pepper

Preparation

For the relish

Broil peppers under broiler on all sides until the skin darkens. Remove from oven, let them cool, then remove seeds and peel. Cut in small cubes. Add the remaining ingredients and mix well.

For the quinoa

Steam quinoa in a medium size pot with vegetable broth for about 20 minutes. Heat olive oil in a pan, brown onions. Add tomatoes and garlic and stir for a few minutes. Then add shredded brussel sprouts. Mix well to combine all ingredients, then add paprika, salt and pepper.  Cover with a lid and let it cook for about 10 minutes, until sprouts are tender but still green and with a tiny crunch. When quinoa is cooked, add to the pan. Mix well for a few minutes to combine all ingredients.

Grill tuna steak on a skillet, Add salt and pepper and serve with two tbs relish on top and quinoa on the side.

It’s quite a fun way to eat lentils…lentils are very versatile and I think not popular enough especially since they’re highly nutritious. I have rarely seen them in restaurants other than in soups. In France they’re considered rustic, something you would eat during winter and with smoked sausage or meat. I like them with smoked fish like salmon or trout, it tones down the smokiness of the fish (if the fish is too smokey like my salmon, actually this salmon was too smokey and salty). Here I like the combination of a hearty rustic ingredient with a more elegant and refined one. I have always loved contrasts. They’re unexpected, interesting and always leave you a feeling of wanting more.

Lentils and spinach are among the ingredients French kids have a hard time eating, if you ask any kid in France what they don’t like to eat, they’ll probably say, j’aime pas les lentiles et j’aime pas les épinards! but obviously I don’t want to make this a generality.

You can also combine fresh salmon with smoked salmon, then you would need to cut both salmon in cubes. Here I striped the salmon since I only used the smoked kind.

Ingredients for 4

For the lentils

• 200 g lentils du Puy
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 carrot
• 1/2 onion
• 1 celery stick
• 1 clove
• salt
  

For the lentil vinaigrette

• 1 tbs hazelnut or walnut oil
• 1 tsp cider vinegar
• 1/2 tsp whole grain mustard
• 1 shallot, finely chopped
• 1 tbs parsley, finely chopped
• salt and pepper

For the salmon marinade

• 4 large slices of good quality smoked salmon, cut in strips
• 1 orange
• zest of 1/2 orange
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 1 tsp olive oil
• 1/2 tsp dill, chopped
• 1/4 tsp fennel pollen
• 1 tsp capers, chopped
• Piment d’Espelette
• Pepper

Preparation

In a pot of water cook lentils with clove, onion, carrot, celery, bay leaf and salt and cook until lentil are tender but not mushy. Drain and remove the cooked vegetables from the lentils and set aside. In a mixing bowl, prepare vinaigrette mixing all ingredients together.

Cut salmon in stripes, mix all ingredients of the marinade and pour over the salmon. Mix well to coat the salmon. Let it marinade in the refrigerator for about one to two hours.

Place a small amount of lentil salad in the middle of a plate (you can use a rind to mount the salad) and top with some salmon stripes. Drizzle some extra marinade on top.

Grapes for me is the fruit that symbolizes fall, probably because of the harvesting of the grapes in France (vendanges).  Today, I wanted to feature a very simple French dish using grapes and combined with salmon, and this one turned out much better than it used to, probably because this time I cooked the salmon skin up and not down (touching the pan). So if you have some salmon and want to try something quick and new, this would be a good choice.

Usually, I do not combine fruits and fish, but it works very well in this case. The grapes don’t have a strong flavor, and their slight sweetness associated with the acidity of the wine and crème fraîche balances the dish very well.

You can use scallops instead of the shrimps, and substitute white fish to salmon.

I bet most of you must be getting ready for Thanksgiving with all the food preparation and planning, so this salmon would be perfect after you’re done with the festivities and the turkey. I know Thanksgiving is a huge celebration in the US, when the families gather and get together around a traditional meal. For us, it’s more like an opportunity to have a dinner with friends, since everyone is off, and right now I still haven’t figured out what I will have for dinner. I have absolutely no idea…I can always serve this salmon, and see the look on everyone’s face when instead of a beautiful golden the turkey, I bring out salmon. I don’t think I’ll have the guts to do that!

So if one of those nights, you’re up for quick, easy and delicious, voilà! you got your meal!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

Ingredients for 4

• 4 salmon fillets (or steaks)
• 20 shrimps, peeled and deveined
• 2 tbs olive oil
• 2 bunches white grapes, peeled and seeds removed
• 3 shallots, chopped
• 3.38 fl oz (or 10 cl) white wine
• 1/3 cup fish fumet
• 1 tbs crème fraîche
• salt and pepper
• dill for decoration

Preparation

Peel and remove seeds from grapes. Heat 1 tbs olive oil in a pan and add shallots. Cook slowly until soft. Add shrimps, let them cook both sides, then add grapes, wine and fumet. Let the sauce reduce to half. Add cream, salt and pepper.

At the same time, in a non stick pan, cook salmon in 1 tbs olive oil about 2 minutes on each side, or longer if you like the salmon well done.

Place salmon in a plate,  arrange shrimps and raisins, all around, then pour the sauce on top. Decorate with dill.

Thanks so much for all your kinds words on my previous post, you guys are really wonderful, kind and generous of your time. I do appreciate it a lot.

I think this dish is perfect for a tête à tête dinner (according to the dictionary, tête à tête is also used in English) to share with someone you care. I have been alone for about two weeks now, due to business trips of TP so I decided to have a tête à tête dinner with myself and I was quite happy about it.

Well, I think no matter what, you need to treat yourself as often as you can (that’s my theory on life) and enjoy anything even if you are by yourself.

My dog and bird are keeping me company…so temporarily being alone has some good sides and bad sides. You tend to enjoy the whole bed, no daily laundry, no mess around but then when you find a half mouse dead in your patio with just the tale and  legs, you have to figure out a way to clean it…I suspect the neighbors cats left it as a present.

After one hour of thinking how to remove it, I was embarrassed to ask my neighbor (the most adorable neighbors you can dream of) but I didn’t want to leave this mess in the patio and lacked courage to pick it up, so I had to tell them that Mr. Cat must have played too hard with a mouse again, so Gary cleaned it up for me. Thanks Gary!

We do use cilantro and coconut in French cuisine, even though it’s not really something you would use on a daily basis, and parsley is more frequently used than cilantro, those two ingredients are not unfamiliar to our cuisine. This fragrant pesto is delicious, the raw coconut adds a smooth finish to the dish. Oeuf cocotte is such a versatile dish and so much fun to eat. You can also use fava beans instead of the asparagus and white fish instead of the salmon, just play with it.

This combination is truly a harmonious blend of flavors, and a perfect little dish for a light diner en amoureux… or a diner for treating yourself!

Ingredients for 4

• 2 salmon fillet or 7 oz (or 200 g), diced
• 6 asparagus, cut in one inch pieces
• 1 shallot, chopped
• 3 tbs dry white wine
• 3 tbs crème fraîche
• 1 tbs olive oil
• 2 eggs
• salt and pepper

For the cilantro-coconut pesto

• 1/2 bunch cilantro
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• 0.70 oz (or 20 g) raw unsweetened coconut shredded
• 4 tbs olive oil
• salt and pepper

Preparation

For the cilantro-coconut pesto

Mix all ingredients in a blender.

Heat olive oil in a pan, add shallots and brown them. Add asparagus, wine, salt and pepper. Cover and cook until asparagus are cooked but still crunchy. Add salmon and cook for a few minutes. Add 2 tbs of pesto and stir for 30 seconds. Add cream and let it reduce a little.

Divide teh mixture into ramequins. Break on egg on top, add salt and pepper. Cook in a pre-heated oven until the yolks are runny and the whites still a little transparent. Serve with extra pesto on the side.

It’s been a while I ate mackerel…it’s one of those things you tend to forget it exists until you see it at the store. In France mackerel is a quite consumed fish, we eat it fresh and grilled, it’s considered a “fat” fish, well fattier than cod or sole and when smoked you can make delicious “rillettes“. Rillettes are a traditional specialty from France, they are somehow like a pâté or spread, but not as fine grind and with a more “thready” type of texture. They’re commonly made with pork meat that has cooked for a very long time in its own fat.  Other types of rillettes can be made with duck, goose, rabbit and even with some types of fishes. The most famous are Rillettes du Mans (Mans being a city in the Northern part of France).

Fish rillettes contain butter and even though less fattening the meat rillettes, they tend to be on the heavy side. I avoided all extra fat by adding yogurt which added creaminess. Mackerel being a naturally fat fish, I didn’t want to add extra fat in it. I am not a fat-free freak, but when it’s not necessary to add it, I avoid it.

For a nice snack or appetizer, I thought a little potato blini would complement the rillettes quite well. Again blinis are usually made with buckwheat flour and go marvelously with smoked fish, then nothing prevent you from twisting things around in the kitchen and add a different texture and flavor to the traditional blinis. You can eat this as a light meal or serve them as appetizers, they’re always appreciated in my house.

Ingredients for about 12 blinis

For the rillettes

• 7 oz (or 200 g) smoked mackerel
• 1 garlic clove
• 4 tbs plain yogurt
• 1/2 shallot
• 1 tsp parsley
• 1 tsp dill
• 1 tsp chives
• red pepper corn, crushed
• salt

For the binis

• 7 oz (or 200 g) potatoes, cooked and mashed
• 4 tbs flour
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 1/3 tsp baking soda
• 1 tbs olive oil

Preparation

For the rillettes

In a blender, mix mackerel, herbs, garlic and shallot. Taste to adjust salt since smoke mackerel tends to be on the salty side. Do not blend into a too fine paste, you need to have some texture and taste the mackerel. Add yogurt. In a mortar, crush red pepper corn and add to the mixture. Refrigerate for about one hour.

For the blinis

Cook potatoes in salted water, when soft, remove from stove and drain. Crush potatoes in to a fine puree. In a mixing container, add puree potatoes, flour, egg, milk, baking powder. Add cumin seeds and salt. Mix well to obtain a smooth mixture.

Heat olive oil in a pan, add one small amount of dough (about the amount of a tsp). Let one side cook, then flip it over.  Proceed until used all the batter. Spread with mackerel rillettes, top it with extra red pepper corns and herbs.

Millefeuille can mean different things in French…Originally millefeuille is a traditional dessert sold in many bakeries, made out of two layers of crème patissière (custard) and three layers of puff pastry. It’s called millefeuille because of its many foldings of its puff pastry (which contains a lot of layers), obviously this millefeuille has nothing to do with sweets and custard but it does some layers too, so we call this a millefeuille (literally meaning thousand sheets).

After one delightful week of no fish and no seafood just vegetarian meals, I somehow found myself with a raw fillet of salmon left that I had from a previous dinner, which needed to be cooked, or would end up in the garbage, which is something that will never happen in my house. That would be sinful to throw away food in general and salmon even more so. After thinking and thinking about how to hide this fish in a dish, I finally decided to go with a millefeuille, because first of all it looks pretty, then you can barely see the salmon, so millefeuille, it was going to be! As far as artichokes are concerned, it’s one of my favorite vegetables, so I use them whenever I can.

Pomme de terre Anna is a traditional dish in French cuisine but most precisely Parisian cuisine, potatoes thinly sliced and cooked in the oven with a little melted butter and rock salt. They seem to have been created in Paris in the 19e century by the Chef of the “Café Anglais”, Adolphe Dugléré, who fell in love with one of its beautiful client Anna Deslions, and called them Pomme de terre Anna. Funny how love can boost creativity! They became since then a very famous potato dish! You can serve them as a side dish just in their cute round shape, but I love to play with food and today they were my toys.

Then to add the final touch, I made a jus de persil. I was hesitating between a jus de tarragon, then I figured I would leave the tarragon for something else, and parsley would go quite well here. Alors voilà, c’est fini!.. and this is definitely French no need to even think about it!

There are a few different steps in the process but it’s a fairly quick dish to make, so even if you don’t have too much time, it’s really worth trying it. It’s a delightful dish!

Ingredients for 2

• 2 medium size potatoes
• 2 medium size artichokes
• 1 heirloom tomato, peeled, seedless and diced
• 2 tbs butter, melted
• 1 tbs olive oil
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• 2 tbs white wine
• 1 tbs balsamic vinegar
• 1 tbs chives, chopped
• juice of two lemons (1 for the artichokes, 1 for the salmon)
• Fish fumet (or broth) (1 tomato, 1 branch celeri, 1/2 leek, thyme, basil)
• 1 small salmon fillet (would be enough for 4)

For the parsley jus

• 1/2 bunch Italian parsley
• 1/2 cup vegetable broth
• 1 tbs olive oil
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• salt and pepper (if needed)

Preparation

For the parsley jus

Bring 1/2 cup of broth to a boil, add parsley and cook for 30 seconds, remove from the pot and pat dry. In a blender, mix parsley with broth to make it into a very fine mixture. Remove from blender into a bowl, add 1 tbs olive oil, 1 tsp lemon juice, salt and pepper if needed.

For the millefeuille

Start preparing the potatoes. With a mandolin, slice potatoes, pat them dry. In a small ramequin or round silicon mold of about 3 inches diameter, place slices one on top of the other. Using a brush, spread some melted butter on top and sprinkle with rock salt. Cover with a silpat (silicon sheet) if using the silicon molds or with aluminum paper if using a ceramic ramequin. Also if using a ramequin, it needs to be greased first or the potatoes will stick on the surface. Cook in a pre-heated oven at 375F for about 30 minutes.

While the potatoes are cooking, trim the artichokes, cut the hard green leaves around the artichokes and the top, cut them in quarters then in small slices. Squeeze lemon juice to prevent them from staining. Heat olive oil in a pan, add garlic, stir, then add artichokes and wine. adjust with salt and pepper, cover and cook until the artichokes are tender.

Add tomatoes to the artichokes, cook for a few minutes, then add vinegar. Stir well and let the mixture cook for a few additional minutes. Add chives.

Poach salmon in fish fumet for about 15 minutes. Drain and using a fork, break salmon into small pieces. Add lemon juice, chives, salt and pepper

Assemble millefeuille. In a plate, place one potato piece, add one layer of artichokes, then add salmon. Proceed with another potato piece, artichokes and salmon. Sprinkle with parsley jus and serve some extra on the side.

This is such an overdue post, since this salmon has been one of my favorites for such a long time. I used to make a similar tartare with ahi tuna (or as we call it in France thon rouge, red tuna), but due to the extinction of wild tuna in East Atlantic Coast and Mediterranean Sea, I stopped buying it and consuming it. I think that’s the least we can do to protect the species. In France, many famous chefs such as Joël Robuchon, Gaël Orieux, Alain Ducasse and many others are committed to not serve Ahi tuna and other endangered species in their restaurants. According to the experts by year 2050, fishes will have disappeared from the oceans.

Sometimes I feel so guilty for consuming animal products, and definitely want to contribute more to protecting our planet, and maybe one day become a complete vegetarian…but I am not there yet.

I fall in love with wasabi oil, it’s one of those flavored oil that I barely use, most of the time flavored oils have an artificial flavor, but I found this wasabi oil (I don’t remember exactly where) that is incredibly tasty and enhances all kinds of fish tartares and gives it a crisp and fragrant Asian “note”, le saumon a une petite note asiatique!

There are many versions of salmon tartare, and many ways to prepare it, but this one is quite appealing and very pleasant if you like Asian flavors. The beauty of it, is it’s perfect when you have guests, you can prepare it ahead and refrigerate it, you just need to plate it at the last minute. Et voilà, c’est prêt! I think that’s what I’ll make for my Saturday night dinner party.

Ingredients for 2-3

• 5.30 oz (or 300 g) of fresh salmon, finely diced
• 1/2 avocado, diced
• 1/2 red onion, finely diced
• 1 tsp black sesame seeds, toasted
• 1 tbs ponzu shoyu
• 1 tsp soy sauce
• juice of 1/2 lemon
• 1 tbs wasabi oil
• 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper powder
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 1 tbs cilantro, chopped
• 1 scallion, finely chopped
• 1/2 daikon radish, thinly sliced
• sichuan pepper
• salt

Preparation

In a mixing bowl, combine salmon with all the ingredients except for daikon. Mix carefully all ingredients together. Refrigerate for about one hour.

Place daikon in a small plate and arrange salmon tartare on top.

Decorate with avocado, sesame seeds and cilantro. Serve with toasted baguette.

When two friends reunite around a huge pot of brodetto, it’s always a memorable evening…especially when both of them are craving fish and seafood.

I grew up eating brodetto, my mom’s favorite. The city of Fano in Italy and that particular region, being on the Adriatic Coast  is well known for their seafood dishes and brodetto is one of them. Brodo means broth so, brodetto being a diminutive, means small broth, the fish is not drowned in liquid nor in heavy tomato sauce, like some stews you can eat at some restaurants, there is enough broth to dip bread but it’s not soaking in it.

Brodetto is very famous in Marche region of Italy Usually for a traditional brodetto, you need at least 12 different kinds of fish and shell fish but mainly the kind you can only find in the Adriatic sea such as “triglie, “teste grosse”, “rospo”, “trofano”, etc… which I don’t know the equivalent in English. There was somehow a limitation of fish available so I somehow used fishes I could find but the brodetto ended up being quite delicious. You need extra fresh and top quality fish, that will make a big difference. The quality and ripeness of the tomatoes are also very important, so if you don’t have top ripe tomatoes, you can use imported can tomatoes such as San Marzano, but if they’re whole, you’ll need to crush them ino a purée.

I used balsamic vinegar, that’s why my broth is a little darker, nonetheless delicious, balsamic vinegar being a little sweet gave the broth a very distinct flavor. A clay pot is perfect to cook this type of dish, it allows all the flavors to infuse beautifully together.

For Italian speakers, you can read this website “L’Academia del brodetto” where they somehow explain the differences between brodetti made in different regions and listing the best restaurants serving brodetto, so in case you find yourself in Italy on the Adriatic Coast, you can go and try the best restaurants serving brodetto…of course if you are crazy about sea food like I am.

Ingredients for 4-6

• 1 large cod fillet
• 1 large sole fillet
• 1 lb mussels
• about 20 large shrimps
• 1/2 lb squid
• 12-16 crayfish (preferably whole)
• 12 large sea scallops
• 1 large onion, thinly sliced
• 6 tbs olive oil
• 1/2 glass white vinegar (I used balsamic vinegar)
• 5 well ripe tomatoes, seedless, peeled and crushed in a purée
• 3 tbs parsley finely chopped
• salt and pepper

Preparation

In a clay pot preferably, heat olive oil, then add onion slices and let them cook slowly until they become soft and almost caramelized, add garlic and stir, cook for 5 minutes without burning the garlic. Add vinegar and let it reduce. Add parsley. Mix well – Add tomatoes and let the mixture reduce and thicken.

When the sauce has reduced, add squid cook for 5 minutes, then add fish, let it cook for 5 extra minutes, and add shell fish at the end. Adjust with salt and pepper. The mussels are cooked last, after adding mussels, cover with lid and remove from heat when the mussels have opened. Mix broth carefully. The fish needs to be cooked but not overcooked. The vinegar will prevent the fish from breaking apart.

Serve in deep dishes with slices of country bread.

This recipe has been adapted from an Alain Ducasse‘s recipe, one of my favorite chefs…yes I know I keep repeating this and will do so anytime I prepare something from his kitchen, because I am such a huge fan of his.

The recipe has been modified a little in the sense that I needed girolles mushrooms, since I couldn’t find any and a drive to whole foods was not an option, I used shiitake. The other ingredients I did not use was the ham in the beurre d’herbes, so I did not add ham but I will add it to the ingredients’ list and people can either decide to add it or not. Other than that I followed the recipe “à la lettre” (meaning word per word).

I was offered this book called “La Cuisine de Ducasse par Sophie” a few Christmas back and once in a while and dig into it to try its wonderful recipes. They’re not too time-consuming but most of all, the recipes are focusing on flavors and simplicity.

Basically, any white fish with a dense flesh works in this recipe, so that when you serve it it doesn’t fall apart. The exciting part of this dish are really two things. Don’t you think that there is always an exciting aspect to a dish, either an ingredient, or a method of cooking, but just something? Here is the beurre d’herbes, and the garlic. Beurre d’herbes (herb-butter) is a mixture of herbs, nuts, condiments, citrus and of course butter “demi-sel” (so you need a good quality butter) and it is absolutely divine. It makes me want to make a jar of beurre d’herbes, cook it in the oven and eat it with a spoon. Then the garlic gloves have been “confites” meaning candied, slowly cooked for over an hour with herbs. The great thing about this garlic is that you can make a batch and keep them in a jar in the refrigerator and use them when needed.

Beurre demi-sel (half salted butter) contains between 0.5 g and 3 g of salt per 100 grams of butter vs. beurre salé (salted butter) contains over 3 g of salt per 100 grams of butter. Usually in those butters, different types of  high valued salts have been incorporated such as Guérande salt, Noirmoutier salt, fleur de sel, etc…In the US you can find Beurre D’Isigny as a demi-sel, whole Foods sells it. A great quality butter makes an incredible difference.

Tomato concassée is quite straight forward, concasser means to chop roughly, not in tiny pieces so that’s what happened to those tomatoes. It’s a common French culinary word used to describe how something has been cut.

Ingredients for 6

For the fish and side

• 6 cod fillets or any dense white fish (about 6.34 oz or 180 g each)
• 8 tomatoes on the vine, seedless, peeled and roughly cut
• 10.50 oz (or 300 g) girolles mushrooms or shiitake
• 1 bunch basil (keep 12 leaves for decoration)
• 3 tbs olive oil
• 6 garlic cloves, candied
• salt and pepper

For the herb-butter

• 5.30 oz (or 150 g) butter, soft, demi-sel
• 1 oz (or 30 g) almonds, chopped
• 1 oz (or 30 g) walnuts, chopped
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• 1 tsp strong Dijon mustard a l’ancienne
• 1 thin slice ham (Jabugo or Serrano), cubed
• zest of 1/2 lemon
• 2 tbs mixed herbs, chopped (parsley, chives, chervil)
• salt and pepper

For the candied garlic batch

• 30 garlic cloves
• 1 sprig rosemary
• 2 sprigs thyme
• olive oil

Preparation

For the herb-butter

Mix lemon zest with the butter and all other ingredients.

For the tomato concassée and mushrooms

Heat 2 tbs olive oil, add tomatoes and let them cook at medium heat  until the water evaporates. Add salt and pepper. In another pan, saute mushrooms in 1 tbs olive oil at high heat for about 2-3 minutes. Add 15 basil leaves, chopped, salt and pepper and mix well.

Mix tomatoes and mushrooms and candied garlic. Adjust seasoning and keep warm.

For the candied garlic

Cover garlic with olive oil, add herbs and cook slowly for about 1h30 min in a small covered pot. When cooked, pour in a jar with the olive oil and place in the refrigerator for future use.

Finishing and presentation

Pre-heat oven at 240C on circular heat mode. Add salt and pepper to the cod fillets. Spread herb-butter on top of the fillets and cook for about 10 minutes. Place tomato-mushroom mixture in the center of plates. Add cod on top. Sprinkle with Fleur de Sel and basil and serve immediately.

I had a very little time for lunch yesterday since I had a doctor’s appointment early in the afternoon. I currently have no car, looking to buy one, so public transportation here I come…

I evaluated it would take me over one hour to get to the doctor, since I had to make a connection. I don’t know if any of you have ever taken public transportation in San Francisco, but some Muni lines are nice and clean and some others are packed, loud, people yelling, insulting one another and dirty…unfortunately I had to take that one. At that point, I wished I had a car…I think something should be done to improve the public transportation system and the quality of the streets. Better public transportation would help the environment and decrease the traffic.

Before my trip to hell, I found the perfect fast food plate. Honestly, this is fast food. It took me less than 30 minutes to put it all together and perfectly flavored and balanced. I like fresh herbs, and food that doesn’t cook for hours soaked in heavy sauces. I love fresh crisp flavors, and this fish dish fits that category. There are few simple ingredients such as lemon juice, herbs, etc…nothing too complex, so nothing overpowering to confuse your palate.

This dish smells and tastes comme la Provence with the fennel and lavender. This is perfect for one of those days when you don’t have too much time too spend in the kitchen but still want to eat a decent healthy meal.

Ingredients for 2

For the cod

• 2 cod fillets
• 2 tsp lemon juice
• 1 tbs olive oil
• lavender salt
• pepper

For the vegetables

• 2 fennel bulb, thinly sliced
• 3 potatoes, sliced crosswise
• 1 heirloom tomato, cut in half
• 1/4 tsp cumin powder
• 1 garlic clove, crushed
• 1 tbs parsley, finely chopped
• 1 tbs mint, finely chopped
• one pinch cayenne pepper
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 1 tsp cider vinegar
• 1 tbs olive oil + 1
• salt and pepper
• Fleur de sel for the tomato

Preparation

First prepare the potatoes. Drizzle them with salt, pepper, olive oil and cider vinegar. Place in the oven and broil on both sides until golden brown and cooked all the way through. While potatoes are cooking, grill the fennel on a grill pan. Add fennel to the potatoes.

Drizzle cod with a little olive oil, salt and pepper. Broil on both sides until cooked all the way through.

Grill tomatoes on grill pan.

In a small mixing bowl, mix olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, parsley, mint, cumin powder, cayenne pepper, salt and pepper. Pour on top of fennel, potato mixture and toss.

Add lavender salt on top of cod, drizzle with lemon juice and olive oil.

Add Fleur de sel and pepper on top of tomato halves and a little olive oil.

Serve each item in a plate.