flounder and swordfish, tomato with basil

This is a piece of flounder and a piece of swordfish that was frozen, excess fish from a previous bouillabaisse. The two pieces were thawed then poached in hot olive oil that never exceeded 150℉ / 65℃. Okay FINE! The temperature got up to 165℉ / 74℃ but that was only in one spot and I quickly stirred it around and it went back down lower than 150℉ / 65℃. Both pieces cooked surprisingly fast. The oil was never so hot that the fish couldn't be turned with fingers holding the fish so the tongs could slip under. Seemed a little strange. The interior of the fish reached 135℉ / 57℃.

Chopped parsley was tossed into the onion sauce off the heat. 

I could have been more refined about this sauce by processing the onion or possibly by grating it instead of dicing it. But I am cooking for myself over here and not trying to impress anybody with refinement. There is only lemon and oil, salt and pepper. Nothing at all exotic like lemon grass, star anise, or nam pla, whatever that is. 

*looks up nam pla*

Oh, fish sauce. I guess it's not that exotic. 

The sliced tomato with basil was seen on the cover of Jean-Georges book Cooking at Home With a Four Star Chef. Mark Bittman coauthor. I suppose it should be noted the four stars are awarded by the New York Times, not Michelin. 

I did not read the recipe for the tomato although I did notice other photographs of it inside the book when I flipped through. Seemed simple enough by appearances. Oh! The chef's version of the tomato is sitting in a puddle of some kind of green sauce. That's probably important. 

This book is neato-mosquito packed with lots of great ideas. Everything looks simple with just a few exotic ingredients. I bought the book used at a discount on Amazon. I only paid a few dollars for it, possibly six or seven, I forget. Whatever, it was totally worth it. Not everything is photographed. there are a lot of great color photographs of about half the recipes, maybe less. There are more black and white photographs of chefs at work and artistic restaurant snaps of things going on that interested the photographer. It's a bit frustrating because all of that extra black and white photography stuff is unattributed. The photographer is attributed but not the subject. The reader has no idea where these things are taking place. I should say the flipper-througher has no idea, maybe all that is explained in the introduction which I haven't read yet. 

coriander seeds These are regular coriander seeds found in the spice section of any grocery store. These particular seeds are from the bulk section of Whole Foods, but they could be anything. When these particular seeds were smashed, they tended to break into hemispheres. That did not happen the previous time I smashed coriander seeds. That time the seeds broke into irregular pieces with approximately the same amount of debris. I have no idea how old these seeds are but they appeared to be breaking apart on their own. They separated with very little effort. I got the impression they were exceedingly dry and possibly old. So, there seems a big chance the seeds might not germinate. This is June 1, 2011. You'll see these photos again if the seeds germinate and if the plants grow.  Each round coriander pellet is actually two seeds. That is why two plants emerge from the same spot when the pellets are planted without breaking off the outer shell. The outer shell tends to delay germination. You can see how that would spread out germination across a season and possibly even across seasons.  The smallest sauce pot I own was used to press the seeds. The pot was rolled over the seeds with slight pressure. That's all it took to break these particular seeds apart. When the pot stopped rolling as if on ball bearings, then pressure was stopped, the surface tilted to cause whatever round seed remaining to roll off, then those separated seeds were smashed apart too.  All the seeds and all the extra debris was spread evenly over the top of wet dirt and gently pressed in then covered loosely with damp dirt. No attempt was made to sort through for proper seeds. The pot was covered with plastic kitchen wrap to hold in moisture.