Taking Shortcuts: Quick Braised Fish with Black Bean Sauce

So, Quick Braised Whole Fish with Black Bean Sauce. I've never cooked a whole fish before, and Tuesday night at 7 didn't seem like a good time to start practicing my fish cleaning skills.


Luckily our man Bittman provides a super quick variation with filets instead of whole fish. The whole thing is very easy, but I bet it would be a lot more full flavored with a whole fish. Basically you lightly batter and fry the fish in neutral oil just to brown it. Then you remove it from the pan, add some onions, garlic, Ginger and scallions. You let those all cook until the onions are pretty soft, then add some chopped onions (I used canned, which worked nicely) and fermented black beans that have been soaking in rice wine or dry sherry. Cook that all together a while and then return the fish to the pan to finish cooking for another five minutes or so.

Served it with plain rice and some salad. It's not the dark, gummy black bean sauce you're probably thinking of from chinese restaurants. This is something a little lighter, with a good amount of veggies. The only thing I wasn't crazy about was the batter on the fish, which after being braised turned into something almost like a paste--maybe I didn't fry it at high enough heat, I don't know, but I think the next time I'd skip the batter altogether and see how that works out.

Also, I now have a huge package of fermented black beans. Anyone have any suggestions on how to use them?

Tastes Like Chicken: Arroz con Pollo

No one knows for certain the origin of the term "Arroz con Pollo" or even what language it comes from, but many etymologists believe it means "Hot Ham Water." Today, it is used to refer to a chicken and rice dish which, again, no one knows the true origin of.

We do know this: It's easy, and it tastes great. I'm sick of writing that already, but it seems to happen a lot in How to Cook Everything. Anyway, this one's easy: sautee some onions in olive oil, add rice and coat with the oil, throw in some heated up stock and a pinch of saffron (tastes good; turns it that nice yellow), bring to a boil, turn down the heat, cover, and let cook for something like 30 minutes. It's done when the rice is done, and it takes as little effort as it sounds.

This is a winner right here. You may remember me mentioning my mom's recipe for rice, and that's similar in that you take onions, sautee in some butter, add the rice and sort of toast it a bit like you do here, then add stock and simmer it (covered! no peaking! my mother shouts from inside my head) til it's done. I dare say that this is a better way of doing the same thing, as the chicken gives up even more flavor than just stock. It's certainly more convenient in that way, though there's no accounting for nostalgia, which usually just trumps everything else. So while I'm not throwing away Reva's rice recipe just yet, this is certainly a similar method that yields similar, more chickeny results. Pictures to come.

Staple: Fast Tomato Sauce

This was the first template recipe of Bittman's that I mastered. I call it a template because, like the Five Minute Drizzle Sauce, once you master the technique, you can mix it up in an infinite number of ways. It's a special recipe to me, because even though it's one of the most ordinary meals known to man, if you can master making your own tomato sauce, your kitchen self confidence will see a tenfold boost. At least. Even more than when you make your own stock.


Originally, I made this out of the HTCE spinoff book, How to Cook Everything: Quick Cooking, which is a fantastic sort of training wheels version of the book. Anyway, basically you sautee some onions and garlic in olive oil, throw in some canned tomatoes, let it cook for a while, throw in a bit more olive oil toward the end to thicken it up, and you have a nice simple tomato sauce. It's not gonna change the world, but it takes no longer than reheating a store bought jar and it tastes a lot better.

From there, it's your call. I like mine with some carrot cooked along with the onions and garlic. This makes it a bit sweeter, and if you grate the carrot in the shreds just sort of melt away into the sauce. I also usually add tomato paste after I add the can tomatoes; it makes it a bit thicker and saucier. You like olives? Throw some in. Anything goes, really. In addition to all the improvisation you can come up with, there's a list following the recipe with something like 20 quick spins on the template. They pretty much all look good.


This week I thought I'd play with it beyond my usual two "variations" of grated carrot and tomato paste. I started with adding lemon zest in the sautee phase (though maybe I shoulda done this when I added the tomatoes. Anyway, I added the zest and skipped the tomato paste. Not on purpose. I just forgot. I also put it through the food processor so it was a little smoother and less chunky.

Then towards the end I added some pitted olives and half a jar of capers. The additions made the sauce a lot tangier than usual. It was pretty good; next time I won't omit the tomato paste (I like it thick!) and my olives, which were the mild green kind, were not optimal. Next time, Kalamata or something nice and salty like that.


Maybe the best part is the quantity; there's always some left over and it keeps pretty well in the freezer. So the next time I want tomato sauce, I'll just defrost, add some tomato paste (it's never too late!) and be good to go.