Go easy on me

So, here we go. First post.

By no means am I great writer and by no means am I a great cook. I probably don't have great grammar, I'm a terrible speller, and I often forget to capitalize words, like i. Regardless, I'll try my best and i hope you'll go easy on me.

I will admit though that over the past few years of learning to cook that I have found some great recipes on either the web or in various cook books. Generally most that I try come out great and my roommates, friends and boyfriend have enjoyed them a lot. So the point and vision of this blog is to share recipes that i've found and given a try. I'll post the original recipe, my review of it including successes or pitfalls, any additions or alterations, and hopefully a photo of the result. I'll also try to give an approximate cost, if i don't throw out the receipt before posting.

I'll disclose that while i love to cook, i'm often lazy. On a weeknight i don't want to spend time on recipe that says it takes much over a half hour or an hour max. Recipe times often don't take into account chopping time, me searching for my spices that i thought i had, re-reading the recipe, other distractions, etc. So there will rarely ever be a recipe here that takes 3 hours, unless maybe it's done in a crock-pot. (though i've yet to explore much crock-pot cooking). Disclaimer: A goal of mine is to occasionally spend time cooking a great sunday meal. You know, those great things like pot roast and those of that nature that just need to stew for many hours on the stove. My boyfriend will appreciate this, and maybe you will too. So okay, sometimes there may be more labor/time recipes.

I also have a tight budget for food. I try my best to cook cheaply, but it sometimes doesn't happen. Sometimes the recipe just calls for too many ingredients, or sometimes an expensive item that you just can't leave out. They say the key to cooking cheaply is to always keep a well stocked pantry. I tend to not do this. I buy what's needed for the recipe that i don't have. But recently when i scan through recipes trying to figure out what to make for dinner, i skip over the ones that have 10 ingredients or more (not including spices, unless i don't have that one). If i remember (as said above) i'll try to post the approximate cost of the meal.

So without further ado, here's what i made last night:

Halibut Puttanesca

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups tomato sauce
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 cup stuffed green olives, chopped
• 3 tablespoons drained capers
• 1/2 cup red wine
• 2 teaspoons anchovy paste
• 4 (5-ounce) halibut fillets
• Salt and ground black pepper
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh basil leaves

Directions

Add tomato sauce to a saucepan. Add garlic, olives, capers, wine and anchovy paste and bring mixture to a simmer for 5 minutes over medium heat. Meanwhile, season halibut on both sides with salt and black pepper. Add halibut fillets to sauce, cover and simmer 3 to 5 minutes, until fish is fork tender.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/robin-miller/halibut-puttanesca-recipe/index.html

My Review

I'll start with the changes.

• I used talapia instead of halibut. I believe it's cheaper, and i also didnt see halibut at the fish counter.

Note: I always use fresh fish unless otherwise noted.

• I couldnt find any anchovy paste. I was gonna be adventurous and try it, but i got tired of looking for at the store. It probably also saved me a good couple bucks as well.

• Since i couldnt find the anchovy paste, i used bottle tomato sauce labeled Puttanesca. It essentially had all the ingredients that i was gonna add to it, with the addition of the anchovy. I know from experience that most tomato sauces labeled with a "flavor" arent too strong tasting, so i felt confident that adding all the called for ingredients would only enhance the sauce and not overwhelm it.

• I used good olives. A&P and most good supermarkets now have an "olive bar" The olives seemed like they would be prominent in the dish, so i spent my money there. $4 for about a half cup of great marinated olives.

• For the capers i used the slightly larger ones, Capote Capers. I've had them before and know that i like them. Personal preference though. I believe they're comparable in price to the regular ones.

• I omitted the fresh basil for cost reasons and sprinkled in some dried basil to the sauce.

• Added about a 1/4 teaspoon of crushed red pepper to give a bit more kick.

Overall, i really liked this dish. I served it over whole wheat spaghetti to help soak up all the extra delicious sauce. The fish cooked perfectly and was tender and flaky. If you're prone to heartburn, you may want to take a pepcid with this one. It's got a nice kick to it from the garlic and red pepper flakes. It's also salty and briny from the olives and capers. Basically this dish tasted exactly like it should. I'd recommend using a full bodied wine for the half cup that's added to help balance the strong flavors in the sauce. And course, keep drinking the wine with the meal! I always follow the rule of cook with wine that you would drink at the table. If you wanted to bulk up the dinner even more, adding some veggies to sauce would work great too. If you're not a fish person, try it with chicken. It took no time at all to make and was a great monday night meal.

Sorry no photo this time since i thought of starting this blog this morning.

Approximate price (from memory): $14 for 4 servings, depending on how much fish you buy.