Seared Mahi-Mahi over Green Pea Puree with Lemon-Garlic Orzo

I have been trying to get a nice crust on a piece of fish for years. Every restaurant in the universe seems to manage it no problem, but for some reason I could never pull it off. Finally I discovered the tricks: Teflon, plenty of oil, a very hot pan (#1 and #3 may combine to cause cancer or kill your household pets with lethal fumes - enjoy tasty seared fish at your own risk). In any case, once you get the hang of it, it turns out to be very easy. Salt and pepper the prettier side of the fish. Get your pan really hot, with a few tablespoons of olive oil to coat the surface, then set the fish down on the nice side. If it doesn't sizzle and pop and burn you a little you didn't do it right. Don't touch it for at least a couple of minutes. Once it's cooked a little more than halfway through (you can kind of gauge this by looking at the exposed edge of the piece), turn it over. Nobody wants accidentally raw fish, but it's much better to serve it on the slightly rare side than the overdone and dry side. Take it off the heat and plate. The fish actually takes very little time so you should probably do it last.

First, start the puree. This is easy. Sweat some onions and green onions in a little butter with salt and pepper until softened up a bit. Throw in some green peas. Fresh would be great, but if like me you only had half a bag of freezerburned old frozen ones, that's fine. Add enough water to cover the peas, and give the whole thing a stir. We want to cook the peas, but barely - color is the real key here, and overdone peas turn into army green mush. Once they're done, take them off the heat, cool them down a little, and blend until smooth. Adjust the seasoning and texture as needed by adding a little liquid. Water would be fine, lemon juice or a few drops of vinegar if you want some brightness, salt if it needs more flavor, etc. I actually added some buttermilk because I had some in the fridge and I love the stuff. It added some sourness and some creaminess and a certain little "Hm, what is that?" character to the mix.

Cook the orzo in salted boiling water. Sautee garlic and shallot in a little butter, with salt and pepper to taste. I always burn the garlic but I bet yours will taste better if you don't, so keep an eye on it. Throw in some chopped fresh parsley* if you have it (don't buy a whole bunch just for this though), then add a splash of white wine and a squeeze of lemon juice. Cook that for a minute, then add in the pasta and toss to combine. Put some more parsley if you like it and still have it (especially if you went out and bought parsley just for this).

[*Curly parsley tastes nasty and as far as I can tell only exists as an ugly garnish for boring food at diners and steak houses. I would love to engineer a boycott to destroy the annoying curly parsley industry. In any case: buy flat-leaf parsley!]

Pour the puree out into a shallow bowl or deep plate (or pretentious bowl/plate hybrid you bought because you are the type of weirdo who posts pictures of his dinner on the internet). Spoon a serving of the pasta across the puree, then rest a piece of fish on top of that. I garnished the fish with a little slice of lemon peel, a parsley leaf, and some pink Australian sea salt.

Slow-Roasted Pork Belly; Parsnip Gnocchi with Leek-Rosemary Butter; Wilted Baby Spinach Salad

First, a word about pork belly. Some people hear "belly" and think they're going to get organs, but, not to worry, pork belly is just bacon that hasn't been smoked or cured yet (that being said if you're not eating offal you should be). It's got a ton of fat, so you have to cook it for a long time to render out a lot of the grease. The end result is a rich, tender little piece of pork with some awesome crispy skin on top. You can't find pork belly in most American supermarkets, but it's in most Chinese groceries.

Preheat the oven. My thermometer is broken, or maybe my oven is broken, so I'm not actually sure exactly what temperatures I used. Therefore there's going to be a lot of "til it's done" in this recipe and not a lot of "X degrees for Y minutes." In any case, if your oven is working, you want it at about 325 or 375, depending how much time you have (lower and slower is better but it will be edible if you cook it quicker). I cut about a 3"x2" chunk from the end of the slab of belly, scored the skin side to expose the fat, and rubbed with plenty of salt and a little black pepper and cinnamon. Put it skin side up on something that will allow the fat to drain - a roasting rack is great, but some carrot sticks stacked into a little rack works just as well. It needs to cook for at least an hour at 375, preferably two or more at 325.

Once the pork is cooking, you can start the gnocchi. Boil, steam, or roast a couple parsnips until they're done through but not yet mush. Grate them on the smaller holes of a grater (microplane would work too if you have one) until you have a pile of parsnip mush. Add an egg yolk per about a cup of parsnip, and a pinch of salt and nutmeg. Obviously if you salted the parsnips when you cooked them the first time, you don't need a lot of salt now; if you didn't salt them before, be generous. Mix around the egg and parsnip until it's well-combined, then fold in a little bit of flour at a time until you get something resembling a dough. Don't overwork it or you will get chewy gnocchi. Flour a work surface and roll the dough out into a long log about a half inch thick and cut into squarish pillows. If you want ridged gnocchi you can roll them on the back of a fork. Set those aside until the pork's about done, then drop into boiling salted water until they float, which should be just a few minutes. In a separate pan, melt some butter and saute some chopped leek and rosemary until soft but not browned. Drop in the gnocchi, turn up the heat, and don't touch it for a minute - we want to brown the dumplings a little. Once you get some color on the gnocchi, turn the heat way down and put aside for a minute while you get everything else ready to go.

For the vinaigrette, combine a bit of real maple syrup (I try to find an excuse to put this in basically everything), cider vinegar, orange juice, and coarse dijon mustard. Whisk with a little salt and pepper. Take a little of the melted pork fat from your roasting pan and whisk in. (If you're feeling more cardiologically responsible than I was, feel free to use olive oil instead.) Toss with a handful of baby spinach and let the acid and warm bacon grease wilt it down a bit.

Let the pork rest for a few minutes before you cut into it, then slice in half - the crispy skin can be a little tough, so you might have to put your back into the slice. Rest the belly on top of the gnocchi, and set salad on top of that. Dust a little ground clove and a little orange zest off to the side of the plate (those didn't make the picture, but they look cool and taste good to dip the other stuff into).

Macaroni and Cheese with Brie, Truffle, and Rosemary

pasta. brie. truffle. rosemary. shallot. breadcrumbs. parmesan. nutmeg.

Sautéed Portobello Mushroom; Roasted Garlic Gnocchi with Tomato-Basil Cream Sauce

portobello mushroom. basil.

roasted garlic. potato. flour. tomato. garlic. basil. cream.

Spaghetti and Meatballs Marinara

spaghetti. meatballs. marinara. chopped basil.

Spaghetti Carbonara; Roasted Fennel

roasted fennel.

spaghetti. pancetta. parmigiano-reggiano. black pepper.