herbiehancock

My gardener and I aren't big restaurant people. Dinners seem rushed; often the food and service is mediocre and the noise levels are always louder than we like. (Gee, I make us sound old!) We usually save dining out for celebrations. But, when we celebrated our 3rd anniversary last month, we decided to stay home and cook a celebratory meal instead of going out, and I couldn't think of a better meal to make than Seafood Paella. Yes, this looks like a lot of food for two people! Leftovers became our lunch or dinners for the next few days, but it's so good we didn't mind. There are a lot of steps in making paella and it takes a while, but it's totally worth the time and effort. This took about 3 hours to prepare, so if you're looking for a quick dinner, this isn't it.  Making the sofrito is essential to the success of this dish. Using a box grater, grate halved tomatoes and discard the skin. Onion and seasonings are added to the tomato which is then cooked unti...

Happy Cinco de Mayo!  Cinco de Mayo celebrates the Mexican army's victory over the invading French army in 1862. One way to celebrate? With food, of course! I had planned on making salmon patties for dinner, so instead of my usual ingredients, I added some flavors of Mexican influence and here you go... Mexican Salmon Patties! The only thing that was missing was a margarita! PRINT RECIPE Mexican Salmon Patties 1 can salmon, drained 1 egg 1/2 cup sour cream 1/2 tsp lime juice 1/2 jalapeno, stemmed, seeded, and finely diced 1 rib celery, finely diced 1 T finely chopped cilantro 4 green onions, finely chopped 3 T crumbled Queso Fresco 3 T bread crumbs 1/4 tsp salt 1/2 tsp black pepper Combine all ingredients in a medium bowl and mix well. Shape into patties. Cover and refrigerate at least an hour. Oil for frying 1 egg, beaten Panko bread crumbs Dip each patty into the egg. Roll in Panko bread crumbs. Fry at 350F until browned on both sides. Serve with rice and garnish with sliced avoc...

Enter here for a chance to win a $65 certificate to CSN Stores! You may have seen these little boxes at the store and wondered what the salted codfish inside looked like. I forgot to take a picture, but it looks just like filleted and skinned dried fish! Since the fish has been preserved in salt, it must be soaked in water before using. The fish is simply covered with cold water and refrigerated for at least 24 hours. The water should be changed three or four times during that period. After the fish has been rehydrated, it's ready to cook. I used half the fish to make Portuguese Kale and Salt Cod  Chowder. I'll use the other half to make something else, so stay tuned.  Along with linguica and potatoes, the salt cod made a hearty and delicious chowder. I used homemade chicken stock for a rich flavor.  Have you ever cooked salt cod? What did you make? PRINT RECIPE HERE Portuguese Kale and Salt Cod Chowder  (adapted from The New York Times ) 1/2# boneless, skinless sal...

We are lucky to be able to fish for trout 10 miles from our home and I like to serve it at least once a week. We've had it grilled, fried and baked and now, poached. Trout are bony and I've become quite skillful in removing them. All it takes is a gentle hand, a good eye, and a little patience. I challenge myself each time to remove all  the bones, but one or two tiny bones always seem to get by. S ome people don't eat fish with bones, period. I can understand that because if I'm eating an egg and crunch on a bit of shell, that's it. I don't care if it's my first bite, I cannot eat another. Although I don't mind a fish bone or two, I suppose it's the same thing. This is the first time I've poached a trout and it was only because it'd been in the fridge for two days and I was afraid to leave it any longer. So, poached it was; de-boned and back into the fridge for this salad. This recipe would be good with smoked trout, too. This was good, alth...

When we lived in California, my gardener was busy at the grill four or five times a week all year long. We moved to Montana last summer and this continued... I usually made the side dishes and my gardener would grill the meat (chicken, fish, burgers, steak) pretty much every night. I had no reason to think that might change. December? Ha! Snow? Ha! Wind? Ha! My gardener could handle it... just fire up the grill and put those burgers on! If it gets chilly, just come back into the house to wait for them! Then December came. Then it snowed. Then the temperature dipped to somewhere below zero and the cold wind blew in from the north. One day my gardener said "Why don't you cook those fish inside tonight?" Who knew that it'd get that cold?? As a result we've been learning to cook and eat fish other ways than by grilling them. I've been looking for recipes for trout since we've been enjoying these and decided to stuff and bake a couple trout last night. I cut...

My gardener is also my fishmonger. I was happy when he stopped by the other day with these beauties which he caught while ice fishing. No, this isn't my gardener/fishmonger... it's a picture I found on a Google image search so you could see how much fun this ice fishing thing looks. If you look real close and use your imagination, you can see a smile on this guy's face. Fun! My gardener/fishmonger said he'd give me a discount on the fish if I'd clean them myself. With the tough economy these days, I jumped at the chance of saving a few pennies and asked him to put the rest on my bill. The first thing we do to get these babies cleaned up is to scale the trout. It's just a matter of taking a knife and scraping against the scales until it's clean. Next, cut right in back of the gills down to the backbone. Turn it over and same thing... cut right in back of the gills, but this time all the way through. If you're lucky, when you pull the head off the guts w...

This was our Valentine dinner last night. I made this based on this recipe but instead of the combination of spices that make up the blackening seasoning it called for, I used Old Bay Blackened Seasoning . Much easier! I sauteed half of a shallot and 8 ounces sliced mushrooms in a mixture of butter and olive oil. I added two Roma tomatoes, chopped and a little white wine. Then, the scallops were rolled in the blackening spices and sauteed in butter 3 to 4 minutes per side in another pan. I served this over pasta and grated some parmesan cheese over it. My Valentine said it was delicious and I agreed!

A commercial on the radio last week, complete with they-did-their-best Norwegian accents told of the upcoming Lutefisk Dinner at the First Lutheran Church in Havre . Lutefisk. I’ve heard of it but didn’t really know what it was and what I’d heard wasn’t particularly favorable. I mentioned it to my gardener. He didn’t know what it was either and didn't seem very enthused about eating it. Whatever it was. But, since we both love fish, how bad could it be? We decided we’d give it a try. We paid our $13 per plate and got in line in the church hall. As we passed the tables filled with people eating and talking and laughing, I eyed the plates of food and tried to figure out why everyone had potatoes, meatballs and cabbage on their plate, but no fish. We also saw a plate of tortillas on each table. Wait. Tortillas?? I said to my gardener, “We’re going to have to ask somebody about this, ‘cause this ain’t no barbacoa !” Sure enough, when we got to the servers, the first gentleman put chun...

Here's a quick and easy meal for those times when you're running late because of a meeting, or need to get dinner on the table before a soccer game! 1 (14.75 oz) can of salmon, drained 1 egg white 2 T mayonnaise 4 green onions, sliced 1/4 c bread crumbs 1 tsp Dijon mustard Freshly ground black pepper Some people take the skin off the canned salmon and take the bones out, but both are completely edible - and yummy! Those bones have lots of good calcium for your bones! Mix all the ingredients well. If the patties seem too wet, add more bread crumbs; if they seem dry, add a little mayo. They should be just the right consistency to hold their shape. Shape into patties and fry in a little olive oil until browned and heated through. (Remember... the canned salmon has already been cooked!) Easy so far, right? Well, this next part will be a cinch! Open a can of veggies (in this case, Italian Green Beans) and a handful of the packaged salad mix with your favorite dressing. Ice cre...

You are in for a treat! Who doesn't like a good tuna salad - either to pile onto a couple pieces of bread with a pickle on the side, or piled up on some crispy lettuce leaves with a couple slices of tomato! Ta-da! Here's my recipe for Chipotle Tuna Salad... and you can get it by clicking right here . Start with one 12 ounce can of solid white albacore tuna. Slice four or five green onions. Use the white and the green parts! . Open a can of chipotle peppers. You'll only need a few for this recipe, but the good news is that if you put the rest in a little plastic container, they'll keep forever in the fridge! Drain the tuna and add it to a bowl along with the chopped onions. Put 3/4 cups of mayonnaise into a food processor. My 3-cup Cuisinart mini-processor is perfect for this! Add the chilis - as many as you want depending on how spicy you're feeling. I use two (along with a little sauce) and I like things spicy ! Give the mayo and chipotles a spin until it look...