Dessert By Candy

An Extravagant Cut Of Fish

I am late to the swordfish party. As much as I enjoy seafood of all kinds, I am not very adventurous when it comes to cooking fish at home. The cooking itself is simple enough. Most cuts of fish are best served simply to let the flavour shine. What stops me from exploring is cost. A dinner for two featuring sustainably caught fish can easily cost me $20 for the fish alone. At the fishmonger, swordfish steaks definitely take up a place of pride as Dorie Greenspan wrote in Around My French Table. Thankfully, they are in season right now and I was able to get a gorgeous 200g piece under $10.

Another cost saving tip I learned from Greenspan is that rather than cooking the inch-thick swordfish steaks on a grill, the French prefers to serve thinner portions seared in pan. That’s music to my ears because I could stretch that fillet into a dinner for two by simply slicing it in half. With all other ingredients readily available at home, my swordfish dinner is unexpectedly affordable and elegant. Even the description of the dish sounds restaurant-worthy: Pan seared swordfish served with caper rosemary vinaigrette, frilly herb salad, and lentils with sundried tomatoes and black olives.

Eat My Greens

I’m a huge fan of vegetable and quite capable of filling my tummy with ridiculous amount of them in every meal. For this reason, juicing holds little appeal to me. Why would I sacrifice all that interesting texture? Why would I need to mask the vegetal flavours with sweet fruit? Why gulp when I can chew? Vegetable is beautiful and delicious in their own right. I want to enjoy them in all their green (red, yellow, purple or brown) glory.

For similar reason, I yawn at pureed soup. They are not unlike the savoury cousin of your morning glass of green juice—one dimensional. I prefer soup that is hearty and chunky with multitude of flavours. Therefor, it was a complete surprise that I fell head over heels for this creamy Green Gazpacho from Yotam Ottolenghi’s Plenty.

P.S. Not Too Much

Last weekend I “celebrated” the one year anniversary of my first concussion. In the last twelve months, I fought hard in my rehabilitation, addressed my body alignment issues, learned to skate again, and trained to be strong once more. Then it all came crashing down with a second concussion and a still unresolved ankle cyst. That is more than enough material to inspire some soul searching.

When I started inline speed skating in 2006, my life revolved around daily workouts, annual racing calendars, and multi-year long term training goals. I was not aware of it at the time, but somewhere along the way, I transformed from physically active individual to highly disciplined athlete. Oddly enough, I did not see myself as the latter. I only thought I exercised a bit more than most people so that I could do well at races (and enjoy hearty meals yet not turning into a whale). Being competitive is fun. Achieving goals is fulfilling. I love that feeling of wanting something so badly that I force myself through fatigue and disappointment to ultimately triumph. In hindsight, that obsession is a quality shared by many athletes.

Baby Step

I cooked a lot last weekend, quite unexpectedly. It all began with two glistening sides of wild caught sockeye salmon fillets that I bought on Friday. Wild salmon season is upon us and I gladly take advantage of the high quality and low price. Of course it fits right in with my omega-3 and antioxidant rich diet. After a month of experimenting with a more restrictive form of anti-inflammatory diet, I cannot say my ankle inflammation is getting any better nor do I feel any differently in general. The lump is so big now it is beginning to interfere with my daily activities. I will meet with an orthopaedic surgeon this week to discuss my options.

Like any dietary regiment, I do not expect to see changes overnight. One approach to anti-inflammatory diet is to maintain an overall balance that leads the body to produce more anti-inflammatory chemicals. Rather than totally abstaining from certain food such as grains and starchy vegetable, I will only eat them in moderation and always bear in mind to offset them with some anti-inflammatory superstars. It doesn’t mean I’m going to have cake, pastry, and bread everyday. But I welcome the return of whole grains, beans, dairy, and sweet summer fruit to my menu. Cold water fish, ginger, allium, nuts, and spices will continue to play significant role in my diet. Keeping that in mind, here is my menu of last Saturday night’s family dinner.

Salmon (Again?!) Dinner

Baby Kale & Mango Salad with Guacamole Dressing

Roasted Sockeye Salmon & Grapes on Fennel

Strawberry Rose Yogurt Icebox Cake

On The Road

It is hard enough to maintain healthy eating habit while traveling, let alone following restrictive diet rules. This weekend I head out to Middle Of Nowhere with an hour flight followed by six hours road trip. It isn’t so long ago when planning my travel provisions is all about portability and taste. Now, I need to consider food that I should eat more of and those I should avoid. It is a juggling act.

Complimentary hotel breakfast is awesome if I don’t mind loading up on bread, instant oatmeal, banana, sweetened yogurt, make-your-own waffle, overcooked scrambled eggs and bacon. I can potentially pick up a few avocados from the grocery store but I decide to go with something different. One good thing about staying in budget hotel is that the room is usually equipped with mini fridge and microwave. Although chia seeds are not particularly anti-inflammatory, they are certainly packed with nutrition. Chocolate Raspberry Chia Pudding is a great breakfast option.

Gingery Creamed Kale & Cabbage

I never really understand the appeal of creamed spinach. My very limited exposure involves dark steakhouses, sizzling slabs of juicy steak, and garlicky mushrooms. No wonder the creamed spinach doesn’t stand a chance among such stiff competition. If I want to eat spinach, I can think of so many different ways that don’t mute the mineral tang with copious amount of butter and cream. Why oh why?

But of course, not everyone’s a fan of leafy greens. I understand that. When I came across Marcus Samuelsson’s recipe for Gingery Creamed Kale & Cabbage, my curiosity was piqued. He took the creamed spinach idea and used hearty lucinato kale and green cabbage. Instead of one dimensional richness of cream, he boosted flavour with turmeric and ginger. I wanted to taste the result so badly…until I saw 2 cups of cream and 1 cup of buttermilk at the bottom of the ingredient list. I decided to give this recipe a vegan makeover.

I Have No Grill

Every summer I bemoan the lack of grilling at my home kitchen. The month of May, food media drum up the excitement of summer with special features on grilling and I can only sigh in envy. That continues until the frenzy of Thanksgiving takes our attention from grilling to roasting. Luckily, with my current emphasis on eating fish, I discover that some grilling recipes adapt beautifully to a quick broil in the oven. This was exactly what I enjoyed last night for dinner.

I love it when my Sunday supper comes together like jigsaw pieces falling into place. First, there was a basket of sweet bell peppers I picked up at the farmers market. A lone eggplant and half of a red onion begged to be used too. This led me to the Marinated Pepper and Eggplant recipe in Suzanne Goin’s Sunday Suppers At Lucques. This cookbook organizes recipes by seasonal menus and the recipe is paired with California Sea Bass Kabobs with Charmoula. Coincidentally, swordfish was on sale at my favourite fishmonger. Both fish are firm flesh and meaty so taking advantage of the sale made a lot of sense. The only caveat? The recipe was written for the grill. I would need to adapt accordingly.

Nicer-With-A-Grill Fish Dinner

Asparagus Bundles with Smoked Salmon

Swordfish Kabobs with Charmoula

Marinated Pepper and Eggplant

All-About-The-Dip Shrimp Cocktail

Dips are awesome, so says my inner child who never grows out of the fun part of eating. The interactive part is obviously the draw. Line up a selection of dips and a selection of dip-delivery-options, the exponential taste combinations make me smile with glee. As much as I try to focus on food that are anti-inflammatory, I feel the restriction of avoiding bread, cracker, flatbread, cream cheese, sour cream, yogurt, tofu, and beans. How would I bind the dip? What am I going to dip with?!

I revisited some of my old recipes and it dawned on me how muhammara perfectly fits into my current preference for eating. This spicy sweet dip is packed with roasted red pepper, walnuts, Aleppo pepper flakes, smoked paprika, and garlic. The touch of pomegranate molasses adds a signature sweet tart taste to complement the heat. I reworked my previous version to make it gluten free and adjusted the ingredients slightly to make it more anti-inflammatory friendly.

Herb & Ginger Roasted Sweet Potato

Gingerroot is a key player in anti-inflammatory diet. Save for adding a chunk to the blender or juicer, how do I include it as part of a dish? Curry is my default choice but I would much rather eat it raw to preserve as much nutrients as possible. Yesterday I came across Yotam Ottolenghi’s recipe for Roasted Sweet Potato with Pecans & Maple in his first cookbook. His use of minced gingerroot in the vinaigrette inspired me to create my own version. I rejigged the proportion to feature a lot more ginger, a lot more herbs, a lot less sweet, a lot less oily, and a little bit more spicy. The result? I absolutely love my Herb & Ginger Roasted Sweet Potato!

Sweet Potato Fish Curry

The culinary challenge that comes with being on any specific diet is figuring out delicious menus while adhering to rules and limitations. For me, I try to focus my attention on making better use of ingredients I should eat plenty, rather than bemoaning about all the food I should avoid. Over the weekend, I filled my shopping basket with sweet potatoes, gingerroot, red peppers, leafy greens, avocados, frozen pearl onions, canned sardines, kippered kippers, pickled herrings, and of course fresh fish. Why the variety of preserved oily fish? Let’s face it, when I get home late, all I want is a quick lazy dinner. Eating a can of sardines in olive oil is quite possibly the easiest solution while still getting a super dose of omega-3 fatty acid. Besides, I happen to really like canned fish, especially hot smoked ones.

Weekend is also a great time to experiment. I came up with a dish heavily loaded with anti-inflammatory ingredients. My Sweet Potato Fish Curry is mildly spicy but decidedly healthy. The flavour is built upon cumin seeds, fennel seeds, gingerroot, garlic, turmeric, garam masala, and tomato puree. Rather than relying on any dairy, a bit of chickpea flour and sweet potato lend body to the sauce. You can make it with any firm flesh fish. I used plaice but salmon would be an even better choice.

I served the curry with kale salad and quinoa. I obviously avoided the quinoa but the boys enjoyed it with the saucy main course. Looks like this anti-inflammatory powerhouse will be on regular rotation at my home for the next little while.