The Cook & The Coach Blog

Fish and Veggie Red Curry

8/17/2016

Laura loves curry!!! So what do you do when your wife loves curry, you make curry for her. Sometimes I'm all about doing things from absolute scratch. In the case of curry, it would be fantastic to toast my own spices then grind them fresh and use my mortal and pestle to make a paste. But let's be honest that takes time and energy.

Instead we found a pre-made curry paste, added in some fresh veggies and fish and a couple other ingredients and we had a delicious dish in under 30 minutes. This was my first time ever using fish in a curry and it turned out pretty great. If you are completely scared of fish or don't like the flavor, too bad, try it anyways. I think you will be surprised that the curry is the dominate flavor and not the fish, so it is a good way to give fish a try.

Feel free to add your favorite veggies to this dish. You don't have to use what we used, we just had these on hand and that is why we love curry dishes so much, because they are so versatile. You could also sub out the quinoa for rice or even zoodles or sweet potato noodles if you want to go grain free. The possibilities are endless. We hope you enjoy this one as much as we did.

Ingredients

1 lb of your favorite white fish, we used flounder but you could easily use cod, haddock, pollock, even walleye
1 tbsp coconut oil
2 large carrots, chopped into bite size pieces
1 large onion, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
2 cups fresh or frozen green beans
3 tbsp Red Curry paste from Thai Kitchen
1 tbsp coconut sugar, palm sugar, or brown sugar
1 15 oz can of coconut milk
1 1/2 cups of water
1/4 cup fish sauce
2 cups dried quinoa
1/4 cup fresh cilantro

Directions

In a large saucepan or dutch oven add the coconut oil and melt over a medium high heat.
Add the carrots, peppers, and onions and cook for 8 minutes.
Add red curry paste and cook and stir for 1 minute, then add the coconut milk, fish sauce, sugar, and water. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low.
This is where timing things out comes in handy. Depending on the type of grain; quinoa or rice, you should possibly start that before you start cooking any of the veg and curry sauce. For me I started the quinoa in our pressure cooker when I was cooking the veg. If you are doing it on the stovetop you might need to start sooner. When your grains have approximately 8 minutes left add your fish cut up into 1-2" pieces and your green beans or any other frozen veg.
Simmer the sauce with the fish and all the veg for that final 8 minutes with your pan covered. Try not to cook the fish for much longer than 8 minutes otherwise it will just start to fall apart.
Once your quinoa or rice is done, serve a couple large spoonfuls in the bottom of your bowl and top with the curry sauce. Finish with some freshly chopped cilantro and enjoy.

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Lemon Ginger Shrimp and Zoodles

5/5/2016

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Citrus and summer go hand in hand in my book. I know it isn't technically summer yet but the weather in South Alabama has felt like it is the middle of August. I'm sure if you were to talk to locals they would tell you how great the weather has been. For this Minnesota boy it's a different story. Temps were in the 80's everyday and the humidity was above 90% everyday. That's hot!

Being in South Alabama we had the benefit of getting some really good shrimp and it was cheap. This has definitely been one of the things that I've enjoyed about traveling so far, local food! Getting to eat food that was picked, farmed or fished recently is so fun and adds so much more flavor. We've tried to take in local markets wherever we are and get some fresh veggies and proteins, then fill in the gaps with some food from the big box stores.

I made this while in Gulf Shores, Alabama and it was super light and perfect for a warm day. We hope you enjoy it!! If you have a shellfish allergy you could easily leave out the shrimp and do a piece of baked whitefish.

Ingredients

3/4 lb of raw shrimp
1 large carrot cut into matchsticks
1 red bell pepper cut into matchsticks
1 medium onion cut into matchsticks
3 garlic cloves, minced
1" piece of ginger, peeled and minced
1 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup broth of your choice or water
1/4 cup lemon juice
3 small zucchini cut into zoodles using spiralizer
1 tbsp dried parsley or 1/4 cup of fresh parsley, chopped
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Prep all of your veggies ahead of time. Once you start cooking it goes pretty quick.
In a wok or large skillet add the oil then carrot, onion, pepper, ginger and cook for 5 minutes or until the onion starts getting a little translucent.
Add the garlic, parsley and shrimp and cook for an additional 3 minutes. Stir regularly.
Add broth, lemon juice, zoodles and toss for 2 minutes until everything is coated and the zoodles start to soften.
Season and serve! There will likely be some liquid in the bottom of the pan, feel free to drizzle your food with this or let it be.

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Tomatillo and Black Bean Succotash with Blackened Cod

3/12/2014

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So we’ve had a couple of busy days but we did try out a new Weird Veg on Wednesday this week. We chose tomatillos which I guess we have used before but mainly in salsas. Tomatillos if you have never had them are an interesting flavor. Although they look like a small green tomato, they have more of a citrus type flavor. It really added a nice little zing to this dish.

Tomatillos are a great source of Vitamin C and potassium. For their calorie content they also have a decent amount of fiber. When buying tomatillos I like to try to find ones that still have some of the husk on them and they should have a nice firm texture. Sometimes when you are buying veggies that aren’t mainstream you need to check them to make sure they haven’t been sitting there for too long. Once you get them home, peel the husks and give them a good wash, the outer flesh tends to have a sticky residue on them. Enjoy this delicious and fun Veg!

For the blackened cod that was just simply, 8 oz cod fillets drizzled with a little olive and coated generously with blackening seasoning. Depending on thickness you will need to cook between 10-15 minutes at 400 degrees.

Directions

3 cups chopped tomatillos, should be 5-6.
1 red onion, diced
1 red bell pepper, diced
2 large jalepenos, diced – feel free to modify depending on how spicy you like things
2 cups roasted corn
4 cloves of garlic, diced
1 can black beans, liquid drained
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
Juice of one lime
1 tbsp chili powder
1 tsp cumin powder
1 cup cilantro, chopped
2 tbsp olive oil, for roasting and sauteing
Salt and Pepper to taste

Ingredients

If you don’t buy roasted corn, you can do it yourself depending on the season, I prefer to do it on the grill and just grill whole cobs of corn until they start to turn slightly black. Otherwise you can do it in the oven at 425 degrees for 10-15 minutes.
After cleaning the tomatillos rough chop into bite size pieces, drizzle with some olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Roast in the same 425 oven for 6 minutes.
Meanwhile in a skillet, add 1 tbsp olive oil and sautee onion and garlic for 3 minutes, add red and jalepeno peppers and cook for an additional 5 minutes.
Add remaining ingredients, including corn and tomatillos. Toss thoroughly and serve!!!

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Flax and Corn Meal Crusted Walleye

6/10/2013

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Last night while I was finishing up my workout my dear chef of a husband whipped up some flax/corn meal crusted walleye with a dill sauce, roasted brussel sprouts and corn on the cob. Recipe for the walleye is below!

Ingredients

2 Walleye fillets – roughly 6-8 oz each
1/3 cup ground flax
1/4 cup corn meal
2 Eggs
2 Tbsp Olive Oil (could also use coconut oil)
2 Tbsp Plain Greek Yogurt
1/2 tsp lemon zest2 tsp lemon juice
2 Tbsp coarsely chopped fresh dill
1/8 tsp garlic powder
Salt and Pepper to Taste

Directions

1) Remove skin from walleye fillets an season with salt and pepper.

2) Prepare egg wash by whisking two eggs together and prepare breading by mixing ground flax seed and corn meal.

3) Dip fillets in egg wash then coat lightly in the “breading” mixture.

4) Heat up a large skillet with the olive oil until it begins to lightly smoke. Cook fillets approximately 5 minutes per side depending on thickness.

Preparing the Sauce
Mix together the yogurt, lemon zest, lemon juice, dill, garlic powder, and salt in a bowl.

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Pesto Crusted Salmon

6/4/2013

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This super easy salmon recipe was one of the first meals my hubby made for me when we first started dating….so it holds a special place in my heart We usually buy our salmon in bulk from Costco…I know, I know…it’s probably not wild caught. Get over it.

Basically it’s store bought pesto spread over a piece of salmon and baked at 425 for about 20-25 minutes.

The brussel sprouts are roasted at 425 for about 25 minutes as well. So the timing of it all works perfectly! With about 5 minutes left, throw a huge handful of spinach into a shallow sauce pan with some water to steam and put some pine nuts into a small pan to toast. Be careful with these…they’ll burn quickly!

Our absolute favorite way to cook pretty much any veggie is by roasting it. Just drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with sea salt, roast as above and BAM….even the person that hates every type of veggie will like them. Promise!

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Fish and Veggie Red Curry

Ingredients

Directions

Lemon Ginger Shrimp and Zoodles

Ingredients

Directions

Tomatillo and Black Bean Succotash with Blackened Cod

Directions

Ingredients

Flax and Corn Meal Crusted Walleye

Ingredients

Directions

Pesto Crusted Salmon