One of the reasons I decided to start writing this blog is to keep track of my cooking adventures. When I was working, the Husband and I had decided that it was a worthwhile investment for us to have a personal chef. Once every three weeks or so, he would deliver meals and sides we could stick into the freezer. As I’m sure you can imagine, this was not a cheap service and with neither of us working, it was the first thing that had to go. I still have some meals left in the freezer, but am hanging on to them for those nights I know I’ll need them.
So the long and short of it is that I have started cooking again. Earlier this week I made chicken soup with matza balls. For the very first time. It didn’t turn out too badly. The matza balls were great, and I intend to keep that recipe. The soup could use some more work so I’ll probably spend some time after the summer tweaking the recipe. I think more salt and less time so the chicken doesn’t practically disintegrate would be a good start. More dill, too.
Tonight I’m making cod. Panko crusted wasabi cod to be more precise. I would have made it with roast potatoes but I don’t have enough space in the convection oven, since it is just toaster oven sized. But damn we love that thing! When we replace the oven, I want a convection one. I hate, hate, hate turning on the oven in the summer. Considering it’s already in the mid-70’s……yech.
Recipe to be adapted from Epicurious’ posting from Gourmet, August 2006.
UPDATE: Dinner rocked! We have a new way to make fish. I cute the cod into 3 pieces and laid them out on a shallow baking sheet lined with foil. Preheated the convection oven to 400. Brushed the cod with a wasabi aioli that’s been hanging around in my fridge and then topped with panko crumbs. Turned them over and did the same on the flip side. Turn the convection oven down to 375 and put them in until the the thickest piece started to flake, which was about 16 minutes or so. Turn on the broiler and brown the panko to get it crispy, another 2-3 minutes.
Next time I think I’ll make my own wasabi sauce and use more wasabi. It really just needed some more kick.