Something smells fishy

Once upon a time we went fishing with Joe. Well, really we went fishing with Joe and his dad. Joe's dad was a tug boat captain, and is now a harbor pilot, you don't get much more nautical than that. He has the Pudget Sound memorized! If anyone knows where the elusive fish hide, it is this man. He's better than the fish finder, that's for sure.

When we went, we caught many a fish, and only have a little left. The reason we still have fish left is because Joe and his dad package whole fish together. Giant fillets, stacked together. This means that we can BBQ it, been there, done that, or I have to make a ton of food, and my hubby doesn't really like fish very much. I think if they packaged less fish in one pouch it would be less intimidating.

I made civeche, and that was good, fun, but I think I prefer whitefish to salmon. I'm not going to tell you about it, except that I used a hot pepper from my garden and an onion that I grew myself.

If you don't know, I will tell you what civeche is. It is raw seafood mixed together with spices and vegetables and lime juice.

If you are going to make civeche make sure everything you use is very, very fresh. There's no real wrong way to make it, it's just raw seafood throw together with some other basic ingredients. I know it sounds weird, but when you put the meat into the lime juice it really does cook. Chemistry, it's cool. Just because there's no heat being applied doesn't make the meat uncooked. It looks cooked, it has the same texture, and when it's hot out, it means that dinner is really easy to make.

I made this great civece salad, my husband didn't like it. It's everything the dieting woman needs, low cal, low fat, easy, tasty... it isn't very filling on it's own as it turns out.

The next day, I made something that I reserve for low carb times: coconut curry. Coconut milk is so bad for you it's mind boggling. In one cup there can be as many as 750 calories, depending on the brand you buy. If I make anything with coconut milk I make sure that I use a light type and I don't put much in. I also make sure that I'm not carbo loading as that's a recipe for bigger pants.

That aside, I do love curry. I make mine with a paste that I purchase pre-made at one of the many pan Asian grocery stores I love so near and dear to my heart. It comes in a plastic tub and costs about a dollar. You open them up and move the paste from a sealed bag to the tub for storage. It's great, the flavor is good and it's easy to adjust the amount of spice/flavor. They come in all sorts of varieties too, maussauman, red, green, yellow, panang, etc.

I found out that salmon makes for great curry at a wonderful little restaurant called Ruby. They make the best cocktails, fresh and tasty. The food is also quite good, with a pan Asian flare.

When you look at the photo you might notice that I have my curry on noodles, these are shiritaki noodles. Traditional in Japan, they are normally made from yams and have a very low calorie content. This particular type, from House Foods, have a little tofu in them. There are 40 calories in one pouch of noodles. I can have my dinner and feel like I'm really getting a normal sized portion for a very small number of calories. You can get them most places now, I've even seen them at places like QFC, a Kroger chain. The real trick to using these is to drain, rinse, and boil them for a bit, and drain them well again before you cook them in your sauce.

Being that I had a giant pile of fish to finish up, and I can grow my own onions I went to work at made a great green curry.

Salmon Curry

Ingredients:

1-2 lbs salmon, cut into cubes
1 diced onion
minced garlic
minced ginger
1 bunch beet greens cut into strips
2 carrots cut up
1 C. shredded cabbage
2 potatoes cut into cubes
1 C. light coconut milk
1 C. water
1-3 Tbs. green curry paste
salt and pepper

Method:

Spray your pan with cooking spray. Cook the onion, garlic and ginger for 5 minutes.
Add the coconut milk, water and curry paste, cook this for 5 minutes, turn the heat to medium and add the vegetables and salt and pepper. Cook for about 15 minutes or until the potatoes are almost tender. Add the fish and stir in. Cook 15 minutes or until your fish is firm, and done. Serve over rice, serves 4.