In the Chinese Calendar, where #8 is a number of good fortune, this is a very lucky day. My Taiwanese friend is getting married. The Beijing olympics started today. And Gabriel slept until 8am.
After a year of wakeups between 5:30 and 6, today we got a glimmer of hope and I wanted to share that with you. I made him french toast with apple butter to celebrate and we watched the opening ceremony of the Olympics. He clapped at the amazing spectacle, shouting YAY!!!!
A recipe Last night I made a variation of Bonnie Stern's cumin couscous-covered halibut, except I subsituted tilapia and millet (I was out of couscous and I could not find any nice halibut filets). I served it with a corn and mango salsa. It was awesome. (originally printed the National Post)
HALIBUT WITH COUSCOUS CRUST • 3/4 cup (175mL) couscous • 3/4 cup (175mL) boiling water • 1 tsp (5mL) ground cumin • 1/2 tsp (2mL) salt • 1/2 cup (125mL) all-purpose flour • 2 eggs, beaten • 6 halibut or black cod fillets, about 4 oz (125g) each and 1" (2.5cm) thick, skin removed
1. Place couscous in a shallow baking dish. Combine boiling water with cumin and salt. Pour over couscous. Cover tightly for 15 minutes. Fluff with a fork. (if You are using millet, you need to cook it like rice - boil, reduce to low heat, cover until water absorbs) 2. Place flour in a shallow dish and beaten eggs in another shallow dish. 3. Dip fish in flour, then egg, then pat into couscous. Refrigerate until ready to cook. 5. Heat oil in a large skillet (I use my cast iron pan that transfers nicely to the oven). Cook fish 1 minute on each side. Transfer to a preheated 425F (210C) oven and bake 15 minutes or until just cooked through. (10 minutes for Tilapia) 6. Serve on greens drizzled with vinaigrette. Makes 6 servings.
Corn and mango salsa: I had some leftover corn that i de-cobbed, added chopped mango, chives, cucumber, mint and basil. You can add some lemon or lime juice to this if you like.
Instead of salad, I served this with green beans, fried with mustard seeds. Everything was super-crunchy and textured.
This is a lot of dishes, but it is surprisingly quick to make. Do it!
