Good morning DFO!

Spring approaches for most of you. Us folks out here in Southern California are still in the fucking winter doldrums. Still gloomy and still cold. We’ve had maybe 2 decent sunny days since fucking November and six consecutive months with measurable rain. The fucking fuck is that?

Best I can do is to keep the kitchen warm. 

Tons of sporting action going on now with the NBA and NHL playoffs and baseball is in full swing. 

Knock that shit off back there! I like baseball. The new rules are the shit too. Games zip along at a good pace, stolen bases are up, the ball is put in play a lot more. All told it’s a lot more fun to watch. If truth be told I’ll be watching early regular season baseball more than early playoff basketball. I’m old like that.

OK, enough preamble, let’s get after this recipe shit. 

Welcome back to part 2 of our “All things nuts” experiment.

While not going as full-on insane as we did last week, nuts will again be prominently featured today..

I’m going to show you that you can make something ridiculously tasty with those damn Brazil nuts that everyone leaves in the bottom of a can of mixed nuts.

We’re not stopping there though, we’ll also be using some almonds (TWICE!) in our prep today.

We’re full of fucking nuts up in here!

Still don’t understand the hate for Brazil nuts but what-the-fuck-ever. We’re fixing that today by making them into a beautiful, delicious and versatile pesto!

Now, what should we do with that pesto?

How about we do a pan seared cod fillet with a coating made from mixed panko and almond slivers?

Huh? How ’bout that?

Maybe some rice pilaf with homemade chicken stock and a spinach salad?

What do you think?

Sounds goddamn delightful to me and I’m driving this dinghy.

Away we go!

We’re going to begin by making the mixture that will be the crust on our fish. No recipe, just me winging it and flinging it.

We start with a food processor and some almond slivers, probably 1/4 of a cup.

Give them a pulse until course and chunky. Probably 3-4 pulses. Do the same thing with the panko. We don’t want to turn the panko back into flour we just want to break it down enough where it will make a good coating.

Combine with the crushed almonds and set aside for a bit.

Since we’ve already dirtied up the food processor let’s build the pesto.

recipe inspired by Food and Wine.com

Brazil Nut Pesto!

1/2 cup coarsely chopped flat-leaf parsley

1/4 cup Brazil nuts, coarsely chopped

2 tablespoons water

1 large garlic clove, chopped

2 teaspoons finely grated lemon zest

5 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Salt and freshly ground pepper

First thing is we need to crush up those damn Brazil nuts. Give ’em a smash first. Get therapeutic with this shit. SMASH! I actually used the back of a skillet and whacked the bejesus out of them a few times.

See? The plastic baggie kept the nuts from flying all over the damn kitchen. Dump them crushed nuts into the food processor.

Now that you’ve got your nuts, you’re going to need a little citrus…

Just the zest today. If you’re someone who likes a squeeze of lemon on their fish, well shit! Now you’ve got lemon. I’m not a lemon on fish kind of guy. If you get your fish prepared correctly the fuck you need to add lemon for?

Of course you’ve got your lovely parmigiano reggiano directly from Italy courtesy of our good friend 2 Pack.

Grate it up and set it aside for just a bit.

You really want to take a bite of a piece of that cheese here.

Go ahead, it’s worth it.

See? Isn’t that shit incredible?

DAMN!

Our pesto today will be using parsley instead of basil. Parsley gives it a bit of a peppery note while basil is more floral.

How bout that? Food nerd talk!

After a few chops, get the parsley into the bowl of the processor. You can toss the chopped garlic in there too.

We will now have everything except for the cheese and the olive oil in the food processor. Pulse a few times.

Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add in the water, then the parm joins the party.

Place the lid on and while the processor is running, not pulsing, start slowly drizzling in the olive oil until you reach the desired consistency. 

Season this to taste with the salt and pepper. Cover it up with plastic wrap and put it in the fridge until everything else is ready.

Pro tip! Make this ahead the day before!

Once again we’ll be making a familiar spinach salad and using a homemade vinaigrette. Reflect back a couple of weeks when we did the Peperonata for the details. I used balsamic vinegar this time rather than red wine vinegar and it shows in the color.

You remember the salad, this is the one with the spinach, strawberries, red onion and almond slivers.

Great shit. Super easy, incredibly healthy and you can alternate your choice of fruit.

Apples work fantastic here too, or plums. Fuck it, use what’s in season. Bet a fresh peach would be killer in here. Nut-wise, change that shit up too. Use macadamias or walnuts or pecans. Versatile, healthy and delicious. The fuck’s not to love?

You can also change your vinegars up. Personally I liked the balsamic better than the red wine vinegar but it’s your choice. White wine vinegar would work. Apple cider vinegar with apples instead of strawberries. Now you’re fucking thinking up in here! Holy shit have you ever used champagne vinegar? Fucking hell would that be good here.

You get the idea.

Toss the salad ahead of time but don’t “dress” it yet. We’ll do that last to keep everything from wilting.

Last step: Let’s get a look at our protein.

COD! Not a terrible price for it either.

Obviously any fleshy white fish would work. Halibut, tilapia, red snapper whatever.

They had cod. I like cod. Cod it is.

Make sure your fish is at room temperature before cooking.

We’re going to start our dish by dredging the fish. We will dredge first in an egg white bath* then into our panko/almond mixture.

*The egg white bath is a couple of egg whites and a splash of cold water.

Coat that shit up good. Both sides.

Let the fish rest for a moment to help the breading to stick. This would also be a good time to get to work on our rice.

We begin by browning the rice with some onion, garlic, salt, pepper and dried thyme. Our ratio today was 1/2 cup of rice, 1 cup of chicken stock, about a tablespoon of onion and a couple of minced garlic cloves.

Remember the random chicken stock we made a couple of weeks ago with the dismembered chicken bits?

Told you we’d get a chance to use it.

Once the rice has browned a bit, add in the cup of chicken stock.

Slap a lid on that pot, reduce to a very low simmer and set a timer for 20 minutes.

Let’s get back to the fish.

For pan sauté action I like equal amounts of butter and olive oil. Works for every pan sear/sauté application. Love this trick.

In goes the battered cod.

These will cook for about 3-4 minutes per side depending on the heat. Watch your ass on this step. Cod doesn’t like being overcooked. In fact one of these filets went a bit over and that shit toughened up like a motherfucker. We’re looking for light/flaky not dense/leathery here.

Give them a careful flip.

That’s looking pretty goddamn sexy right there.

If you timed this right, the rice should be ready just when the cod is ready for service. You don’t want the fish sitting around too long. Serve that shit hot!

Dress the salad real quick, toss to coat and get your pesto ready.

Plate it up! 

Be sure to get a dab of pesto on the plate as well as on the fish.

Here we are!

And a close up of the cod.

Friends! Oh, friends!

This is better than just good. This motherfucker is harmonious! It’s in perfect balance, each dish works perfectly on its own but when combined to create the entire plate? Fucking incredible. The fish is light, flaky with a crisp, crunchy coating. Add in the herbal punch of the pesto and you are talking symphonic shit up in this fucker.

That rice is dazzling. The homemade stock is the winning element right there. Add in the salad with the fresh ingredients and that garlicky, tangy vinaigrette? Fuck right off!

Not just healthy eating, but delicious, dynamic, healthy eating.

That pesto is a goddamn keeper. It’s got the tang from the lemon zest but the funky notes of the parmigiano reggiano are there to be fucking HEARD! You have the peppery, green notes of the parsley in there the subtle bite of the garlic. Awesome.

Know what? I had some leftover pesto.

You WILL see that show the fuck back up I can promise.

Perfectly balanced meal and perfectly delightful for your health.

You are welcome.

There we are!

Great stuff today. This was surprisingly easy to make without the end results belying the effort put in.

Make this one folks.

And eat your damn Brazil nuts! What’s wrong with you?

That’s it for today everyone.

Thanks again for being such an incredible bunch of folks. You really are the best.

Now you’ve got the whole rest of a Sunday to fuck around.

Get out there and have at it!

See you next week folks.

PEACE!