Caramel Coated Catfish

This was a different fish dish for Fridays. I looked up more recipes and this is a Vietnamese specialty. There are many versions. This was very tasty – sweet, salty and a bit sour and spicy. Mmmm!

I also researched making caramel. The original recipe called for cooking equal amounts of water and sugar until golden brown. All that happened was it took forever for the water to boil away and I was left with hard lumpy sugar in the pan. Just start with melting the sugar to a golden brown.

Be sure to have all ingredients ready. When the sugar gets to the right point, you will need to act quickly.

Serves 4 - 6

1/3 cup water

2 Tbsp fish sauce

¼ tsp granulated onion

2 Tbsp chopped garlic

1/4 tsp ground black pepper

1/3 cup sugar

1 lb. catfish nuggets, trimmed to large chunks

1 tsp sugar

1 Tbsp lime juice

Dash Sriracha sauce to taste

Mix 1/3 cup of water with the fish sauce, granulated onion, garlic, and black pepper in a small bowl and set aside.

Heat 1/3 cup of sugar in a large heavy skillet over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until sugar turns deep golden brown.

Gently stir in the fish sauce mixture and bring to a boil.

Add the catfish. Cover, and cook the catfish stirring occasionally, until the fish flakes easily with a fork - about 5 minutes.

Scoop the catfish to a plate, cover, and set aside. Increase heat to high and stir in another teaspoon of sugar and the lime juice. Bring to a boil and simmer until the sauce has reduced.

Return catfish to the pan and toss to coat with sauce.

Serve over rice or noodles. I served this over stir fried rice noodles and vegetables.

Adapted from: http://www.thanghung.com/special-recipes/ 

By Gail Foley

A long time ago, and far, far away, I was a teen working at J.L Hudson’s Department store. I learned to make my first casserole from Joanne, one of the ladies I worked with in the wrapping department. It was with some excitement, we would have a ladies’ night at her house and cook. This casserole is so rich and creamy with the salty flavors of tuna and the tang of the olives. It is a favorite even with those who don’t like tuna!

I don’t remember the origins of this recipe. I suspect it might have been from Kraft for the cream cheese. The closest recipe I found on the WWW is linked below. It was published in Sheila Metcalf’s, The Tuna Cookbook, in Jan. 1972, but I was making it two years earlier, in 1970. The original recipe did call for one can of tuna, but we always felt it was better with two cans. And the more olives the merrier! We didn’t bother with chives or the breadcrumb topping.

Serves 8

8 oz wide egg noodles

5 Tbsp butter

5 Tbsp flour

½ tsp salt

¼ tsp pepper

2 ½ cups milk

8 oz cream cheese, cubed

2 cans tuna (white solid albacore in water), drained and flaked

1 cup pimento stuffed green olives, sliced

6 oz (1 ½ cups) muenster cheese, grated OR sliced

Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly coat a 2 quart (or 2 one quart) baking dish with canola oil spray. Cook noodles according to package directions.

Make white sauce. Add cream cheese and stir until melted. Stir in tuna and olives.

In prepared baking dish(es), layer ⅓ sauce, ½ of the noodles, and ½ of the Muenster cheese. Repeat. Top with remaining ⅓ sauce.

Bake for 30 minutes. Let set five minutes before serving.

This makes a full meal with a side salad, steamed broccoli or another fresh vegetable.

Eat one casserole now and freeze the other for later. Cool it and wrap well with saran wrap and foil..

Close to original recipe: http://www.recipe4all.com/recipe/Tuna-Romanoff-3290/

Tuna Romanoff

Tuna Romanoff

Serves 6

8          oz                    Flat egg noodles

2½       cups                 Medium white sauce

8          oz                    Cream cheese

1          (6 oz) can        Tuna; drained, flaked

½         cup                  Green olives; pimiento-stuffed, sliced

2          Tbsp                Chives

6          oz                    Muenster cheese; sliced

1          cup                  Bread crumbs

2          Tbsp                Butter; melted

Cook noodles according to package directions and drain. In saucepan, heat white sauce and add cream cheese, which has been cut into cubes. Cook and stir until the cheese has melted. Stir in tuna, olives, and chives. In a greased casserole, make layers of sauce, noodles, and Muenster cheese slices, starting and ending with sauce. Toss bread crumbs and butter together and sprinkle over casserole. Bake at 350°F for 30 minutes. 

From: The Tuna Cookbook, Sheila Metcalf, Doubleday, Jan 1, 1972

Seafood Combination with Sugar Snap Peas

It is our family tradition to have fish on Fridays. This probably comes from living in a Polish Italian Catholic neighborhood as a child. My Dad worked a second job delivering pizzas for Roberto’s Pizzeria. They served the most fantastic fish and chips on Fridays!

Anyway, we love seafood and I keep my eyes peeled for bargains because it is generally pricey. Last fall and again at Christmas, the IGA had a real deal on Red Argentinean Shrimp - $4 per pound! These babies are jumbo – about 20 per pound. I had never heard of them before, so did some research before buying. They are a relatively new industry. The flesh is especially tender and sweet almost like lobster. They peel easily and must be deveined. They cook very quickly and get tough if cooked too long. And they were usually selling for $12 to $15 a pound!

For a treat at Christmas, the IGA also had some frozen sea scallops for $6 a pound. I had a half pound left. Then for lent, Kroger had some especially nice looking squid at $2 a pound! It was a solid two pound block and I had to partially defrost it, break into quarters of half pound each, repackage and refreeze.

I picked up some packages of discounted vegetables at Kroger this week – Broccoli Slaw and Sugar Snap Peas with Carrots – for $1.49 per 12 ounce bag. I separated the peas from the baby carrots and yielded 2 cups of peas per bag.

The rest of the ingredients are pretty much my pantry regulars, except for the ginger. When I was visiting a doctor in Morgantown, I stopped by the Asian/Middle Eastern store. One of the items I found was the jar of pickled ginger.

I was thinking of a seafood combination in light sauce served at the Chinese buffet. I did an extensive internet search and two recipes came close - Seafood Combination from recipeslive.net and Shrimp with Snow Peas from rasamalayasia.com.

This dish was VERY tasty. I thought there would be leftovers. When I went to clean up after dinner, the wok was empty! The guys ate it all.

Serves 3 (Not 4!)

Seafood Group:

1 Tbsp. Sesame oil

½ cup Onion, large diced

9 jumbo (1/2 pound) Red Argentinean Shrimp, peeled and deveined

9 large (1/2 pound) Sea Scallops, butterfly cut crosswise

½ pound Squid, tubes and tentacles, cut crosswise in 1” slices
2 cups (4 oz.) Sugar Snap Peas
1 can (4 oz.) sliced Mushrooms, drained
2 Tbsp. sliced pickled Ginger

Rice:

¾ cup White Long Grain Basmati Rice

1 ½ cups Water

dash Salt

Sauce:

1 Tbsp. Cornstarch

1 Tbsp. Chicken base

1 cup Water

¼ cup Cream Sherry

½ tsp. Sugar

2 dashes ground White Pepper

2 dashes Red Hot Pepper Sauce (Like Habañero or Sriracha)

Vegetable Group:

½ cup Onion, finely sliced, lengthwise

2 cups (5 – 6 oz.) Broccoli slaw

1 cup (1/4 pound wedge) Cabbage, finely sliced, lengthwise

2 Tbsp. Sliced Almonds, toasted

1 Tbsp. Golden Soy Sauce

Early in the day, take seafood out of freezer to defrost. Here in West-By-God-Virginia there is no fresh seafood readily available, unless for a very dear price. Put the shrimp in cool water. Put the bag of scallops in cool water. I partially defrosted the squid in the microwave (10 minutes at 2 power) because it was still in a big (2 pound) chunk. I broke it into four pieces, repackaged three of them and put them back in the freezer. Put remaining ½ pound squid in a bag and thaw in cold water with shrimp and scallops.

Put rice on to cook first. See Foolproof Rice for my easy method. Cooks in 30 minutes overall. Keep covered on stove until stir fry is done.

While rice cooks, heat wok to high heat. Remove from heat and lightly coat with canola oil spray. Return to very low heat to season, while finishing preparation and organization of ingredients. Gather utensils and prepare ingredients. Set them out in small dishes or, my favorite – paper plates. The seafood rests on paper towels.

Toast the almonds on a baking sheet in hot oven or in a cast iron skillet on stove top. Stir and watch them carefully. They are quick to burn. Set aside.

Prepare sauce in a two cup measure. Put in cornstarch first and dissolve with a little of the water. Then add chicken base and stir to dissolve, adding a little more water. Stir in rest of sauce ingredients and set aside. Substitute 1 cup chicken broth for water and chicken base, if desired.

Stir fry the vegetable group first.  Heat wok to high heat and add 1 Tbsp. of sesame oil. Add onion, broccoli slaw and sliced cabbage. Stir and toss for several minutes. Add a couple of tablespoons of water and cover for a couple of minutes. Uncover, stir and toss some more with the soy sauce. Remove from pan when broccoli turns bright green. Set aside and sprinkle almonds on top.

Lastly, stir fry the seafood group. Heat wok to high heat and add 1 Tbsp. of sesame oil. Add onion and stir fry for about a minute. Add seafood, peas, mushrooms and ginger. Stir fry for a few minutes just until shrimp and scallops are mostly colored white. Argentinean shrimp and squid will toughen quickly, if cooked too long at high heat. Peas should be bright green. Add the sauce and stir and toss a few times until it starts to thicken. Turn off heat. Serve immediately.

Place a scoop of rice on plate, then a scoop of vegetables. Indent the vegetables and rice to make nests. Ladle seafood over all. Enjoy!

Adapted from:

http://www.recipeslive.net/ethnic-recipes/chinese-recipes/seafood-combination.html

http://rasamalaysia.com/shrimp-with-snow-peas-recipe/2/