Recipes Nine and Ten

I present to you Pan Fried Curried Cod (page 258) and Cilantro Lime Rice (page 96):

The ingredient list on this one is pretty short and sweet.

The only thing I had to buy special for it was the curry powder, because my old container expired a couple of years ago. Whoops! I picked up the cod a couple of weeks ago at Trader Joe's because my doctor told me to eat more fish. Obviously, I have not been doing that since this was still in my freezer. Whoops again!

These are wild Alaskan cod fillets. I have an app on my iPhone that shows me what fish is safe and sustainable to eat based on your region of the country. In this way, you can eat it a bit more responsibly. I live in the desert and my mom hates all seafood, so I'm a super novice when it comes to cooking/buying anything seafood related beyond shrimp. If you don't have an iPhone, you can download a little pocket guide to keep with you when you go to the store.

The directions call for you to put three tablespoons of curry powder on a plate and then to roll your fish fillets in it to coat them. I didn't think there were three tablespoons of curry powder in my entire container, and also, I was betting that method led to a lot of waste. What I ended up doing was lightly sprinkling the fish with kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, then liberally shaking the curry powder over it. I used my fingers to press it into the fish, then flipped it over and did the same to the other side until it was completely covered. I ended up using less than half of the container, and as you can see in the photo, that fish is pretty dang coated.

The whole spooning oil over the fish as it fried thing sucked. It was messy, I got spattered and burned, and there wasn't enough oil in the pan (I used about three tablespoons of olive oil and a generous pat of butter) near the end to do it right. I will say that I made this in my 3 quart All Clad d5 pan instead of the nonstick pan Jamie says to use, and it only stuck the tiniest bit. I used a fish spatula to lift and turn these though, so that cut through any parts that were starting to stick and nothing got left in the pan. My fish developed a nice crust, once again proving that good cookware is SO worth the money.

I had a pot of rice steaming on the stove (I refuse to buy a rice cooker) when it occurred to me that the curry flavor of this dish would go great with cilantro lime rice.

I had forgotten how good curry powder smelled! I remember finding a container of it in the cupboard when I was a kid and reading on the side that it was good to use on eggs, so I did. I ate them that way for about a year. There is a LOT of curry powder on this, but the yogurt really helps to cut that flavor a bit so I think it's essential to this dish. I used plain Greek yogurt. I also was totally right about the rice - the flavor of the lime goes so well with the yogurt and curry powder.

The baby, surprisingly, ate about 1/3 of his rice, then only would eat fish. He ate a third of the largest fillet which totally surprised me. Then he had some Chocolate Chex (not entirely wholesome but not terrible either) to round out his meal, haha!