Thursday, February 07, 2008

Why I am the best husband ever

My wife and I have been trying to eat better, which of course means more fish....and virtually no beef...o.k, drop the virtually...no beef. I got this diet from a friend who is a nationally renowned endocrinologist...it actually works and it's not that hard to follow....but no beef, which sucks for me. You can eat chicken...just no skin. Turkey and other poultry is o.k., but chicken is best. No potatoes, rice or starches (that sucks, I know). No sugar...but for some reason chocolate is o.k. in small portions. Nuts are encouraged, especially almonds.

So anyway, I've lost like 7 pounds in about a month...I do swim a lot...2 miles a day, 4 times a week...so that helps too. But it's amazing how fast I started shedding pounds when I got on this diet.

Anyway...my wife has always struggled in the culinary arts. We've been married 7 years and she's come a long way, but believe me when I tell you it wasn't easy getting there.  Her culture tends to fry everything, which my stomach can't handle anymore.

We had some basic fish dishes which we liked to cook....Salmon and Tuna almost exclusively...but since I got on the diet we've been experimenting.

Tonight she went for a speckled trout dish from a recipe she got online. Here it is:

Looks harmless enough, right? 

It wasn't.

My God it was horrible. I sat down to eat before she did, with my son (who got tacos, dammit). She was pretty excited about it and served me up a really big chunk. I took one bite and....well....wow....between the acetic level from the lemons and the absolutely foul taste of what seemed to be week-old fish...I didn't know if I could choke it down.

"How is it?"

"mmmm.....uh.....(cough).....ok."

These are moments which try men's souls. I manned up....I dug in and finished the whole goddamn thing as quick as I could....before she could even sit down.

Right as I finished she sat down and took her first bite....and spit it out.

"Oh my God, this is horrible....how did you eat it?!?"

I just shook my head and downed a whole glass of merlot to get that frikkin' taste out of my mouth (red wine is ok too).

"Honey...you're so good to me...you didn't have to eat it."

But I did....and got brownie points to boot.

If anybody has any good fish recipes...send 'em my way.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

here's one of my favorites from Bob Blumer, the Surreal Gourmet:
Pepper-Crusted Maple-Glazed Salmon

Anonymous said...

Maybe the best husband ever could learn to cook! I've found that basic literacy skills can get you far with those cook books ... and have you tried tofu? Think of it as the other meatless white meat.

Jason Brad Berry said...

whatever

Anonymous said...

Ha! You da man, Dambala ...

Yeah, I've found it's pretty much impossible to make a decent seafood dish without fresh or properly-frozen seafood. You probably know this, but the Tues. farmers market is good for shrimp, Des Allemands catfish (the tasty small fillets @ $6/lb!), black drum and seabreem. This is super simple, but just lightly marinating it for 2 hrs to 1 day in some olive oil, garlic, cayenne, salt and pepper (you can also add a little creole mustard, thyme, savory or any other spice you fancy). Just pan fry (you won't need additional oil) it in a hot cast iron skillet or throw it on the grill. It goes with about any side dish, but it's really good served over a salad too (w/ pretty much any dressing). If you want to dress it up a bit, throw a bit of lump crab meat on top and serve with asparagus, corn or brussel sprouts, something like that.

In fact, I did the fish like that last night, except I added a bit of cumin, a little orange juice, lime and some chili powder to make some Baja-style fish tacos.

Anonymous said...

Yummm... saudade, you're making me hungry. Dambala, I'm not sure I'd wanna live without rice. :/

I'm thinking, while you're clearly in the running for "best husband ever" that you might also be braver than you are wise. I hope you didn't get sick. Sounds like bad fish.

I buy a spice called Herbamare. It's found in health food stores, maybe Whole Foods. I found some once in one of those tourist hot sauce stands in the Quarter. It makes everything delicious. Fish does well in the oven, under the broiler.

Mark Folse said...

As the hubby of a nice midwestern girl who's mother would never let her cook (or babysit, which made me the child expert from Day 1), you have my entire sympathy. I think you wife and mind should sign up for a How To Cook Fish class together somewhere.

Jason Brad Berry said...

Oludumare,

I thought you were a vegetarian.

Jason Brad Berry said...

Gonna try that one Saudade.

Mark, yeah my wife is Filipina...you'd think she knows fish, but she totally fucked this one.

One thing she did which her cohorts at work told her was a major no-no with speckled trout is that she left the skin on. Apparently that make's it really, really fishy.

Anonymous said...

oh shit. is salmon not a vegetable? actually i'm what you'd call a flexitarian, which is just a lame-ass excuse for a quasi-vegetarian.

We even have our own movement now apparently, at least according to MSNBC.

No red meat in my diet though, not for the past 5 years, and very little pork or poultry. But it's hard to live in NOLA and not eat seafood. that just seems un-new orleanian.

Anonymous said...

If you like spicy food, give this recipe a shot - it's my favorite fish recipe, and easy to make: http://www.cajunimages.com/Recipes/blackene.htm

The recipe calls for redfish, but when I first started making this out West where redfish is rare, I used red snapper or other white fish.

Another favorite of mine is salmon poached in white wine. Put a couple fillets in a skillet, add enough ~1:1 white wine (something fairly dry) and water to fill the skillet to about 1/2" deep. Sprinkle some minced garlic and chopped green onion on top. Bring just to a boil, cover and simmer over low heat until the salmon _just_ cooks (maybe 10 minutes). If you're not familiar with cooking salmon, you want it to just barely change from that reddish raw color to the pinkish-orange color all the way through, and the meat should flake easily with a fork. But be careful not to overcook it - my dad (a former chef) always said that when it comes to fish, if you're not sure - it's done.