seared sea bass

The last four Bon Appétit magazine cover recipes I’ve cooked have turned out really, really, really, really well.  Flavorful, photo-worthy, and all four recipes worked on my very first attempts.  I broke my cardinal rule for BA’s April cover recipe “Pan-Roasted Hake with Potatoes and Green Sauce“, and pan-seared fish in our kitchen.  We live in an 1100 square foot loft.  Our bedroom is the upstairs “loft” part of the condo and sits directly above the kitchen.  If I sear fish, I smell fish  throughout our tiny condo.  It’s not pleasant.  Anyway, the Bon Appétit April cover looks so beautiful, I decided to break cardinal rule #1.

I will begin by stating, I did not like this recipe.  I found the juice sauce to be overtly sour (is a tablespoon of vinegar too much vinegar for 1/3 a cup?) and overall visually and tastefully unappealing.  Once the sauce was put on the plate it immediately began to separate and totally did not look like the silken smooth emerald green of the above cover photo.  (Maybe I need better photoshopping skills?)  I know it’s not just me when The Hubs silently eats his 4 ounce portion of fish then promptly returns to the kitchen to make himself a turkey sandwich.  While we both did not care particularly for this recipe, I will state, however, I learned two things:

1. You can make veggie juice at home without a juicer

2. Chive blossoms are edible.

I’m not posting the recipe but click on the above listed link if you feel like giving it a whirl.

My Whole Foods fish fellas let me down because I couldn’t find hake or cod with the skin left on, so I opted for one of my favorite fish, sea bass.  At $29.99 a pound (!!!) it’s an extravagant delicacy.  To make your sea bass, salt it, then heat olive oil over medium high heat in a non-stick pan and begin searing, skin side down first, for about 5 minutes per side.  I also did not have ramps or green onions but I grabbed some chives off the deck that have resurfaced for the season.  Many of the chives had flowered (I’ve been lax cutting them back, I know).  A quick search on the internet revealed the chive blossoms to be edible and a pretty garnish to my plate.

beautiful blossoms

Here’s my tactic of home-juicing without a fancy juicer.  Instead I used my fancy food processor.  I imagine a regular blender or a stick blender would work too.  Rough chop all the veg you want to have in your juice and add it to your chopping machine.  I paid $6  yesterday for a 12 ounce juice mix of carrots, apples, ginger, with just a touch of beets.

Blend until the veg is a coarse paste, you will probably have to scrape down the sides a few times during the blending process.  Using a spatula, scoop the veg paste into a metal mesh sieve placed overtop a large bowl.  Push at the veg paste to force the juice through the sieve.

The juice will be frothy and free-flowing!  Screw you $6 juice bars!!!

the juice is loose!

I’m hoping May’s cover has something to do with grilling.  It’s 80 degrees in Nashville today with a cool breeze and I feel like searing grill marks on everything!  Cheers!