Tastē Tuesday: Fish has always been a bit intimidating to me. It has never been one of my favorite food groups...until I became married to a man who loved fish and under the auspices of how healthy it is, insisted we eat it once a week. Going from a once a year fish consumer to a weekly one has taken some time...and a few arguments! Living near the water for the past seven years, I must admit I am converted. Nonetheless, walking up to the seafood department and seeing an entire fish laying there with its eyes bulging out me still kind of makes me uncomfortable. I prefer to slide on over to the nice fillets and just pick out a couple. Thanks to a cooking method I discovered, I can now prepare an entire fish, leaving the cleaning and gutting to the seafood clerk of course! Having prepared this dish multiple times now, I cringe at the memory of a trip to Greece where I turned down the freshly caught and expertly prepared fish just because there was no way my dinner plate was going to have an entire fish laying on it. I hope that if you have always stopped short of this seafood culinary adventure, this inspires you to take a leap into the ocean and try something new :). | The best thing about this recipe: one fillet (each fish provides two fillets) is only 140 calories. This a great start to a healthy dinner! | Salt-Crusted Bronzini Serves 2-4 Adapted from Wegmans with a few modifications of my own. Ingredients: 6 sprigs fresh thyme, divided 1 small lemon, thinly sliced & divided 4 fresh bay leaves, divided 2 whole bronzini, cleaned & gutted (striped bass and snapper also work) 6 egg whites 3 cups Kosher salt Cracked black pepper Instructions: Preheat oven to 450 degrees. 1. Place 3 sprigs thyme, lemon slices, and 2 bay leaves in the cavity of each fish. Set aside. 2. Whip egg whites with electric mixer until soft peaks form; gently fold in salt and season with pepper. 3. On a baking sheet large enough for both fish to lie flat, spread a piece of parchment paper (very helpful for post-dinner clean-up). On top of the parchment paper, divide one-third of the salt crust to form two "beds" for the fish. Place fish on top of salt crust; be sure fish sits completely on top of the crust. 4. Cover each fish with remaining salt crust, spreading with a spatula. Bake 20-25 minutes, until internal temperature reaches 130 degrees. Let rest at least 2 minutes. 5. To serve, crack salt crust with back of spoon and remove the crust, dust excess salt off with a pastry brush; discard. Peel off skin, if desired (it slides off of the fillet quite easily). Using a flexible spatula, run along the spine to separate the flesh from the bones, starting at the head. Remove the top fillet from the bones with spatula and place on a plate. Lift bones out in one piece. Remove the other fillet from pan with spatula. Tips: *Watch out for small bones that may remain in the fillet. *After you remove the fish from the oven, reduce oven temp to 180 degrees and warm plates while filleting the fish. |
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It's Wednesday - be grateful Monday is in the rear view mirror, do something today that you will thank yourself for tomorrow, look forward to Friday with joyful anticipation! When it seems you are being tossed around in the storms of life, grab onto the one Rock that will not be carved by the Earth's waters. Deuteronomy 32:4 “He is the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he.” When we come to grips with just how imperfect our world is, the human spirit is, and our human bodies are, it is then that the awesomeness of God’s perfection can be so clearly felt. This one verse has five phrases – each a golden nugget to cling to. “He is the Rock” – “The Hebrew word for "Rock" indicates firmness, stability, and faithfulness.”* Despite the rollercoaster of life, God is unchanging. He provides the one thing we can always count on when circumstances are out of our control. Even when we get mad at the challenges life has dealt us or mad at God for allowing our precious loved ones to suffer from sickness, disability, or death, he remains faithful in his love for us. “His works are perfect” – this world has standards; what we should look like, what we should wear, what we should be capable of doing, etc. God created each one of us, and his works are perfect, even if we are told they are not. When we first learned our baby had a heart defect, we were told it was extremely serious, and we could terminate the pregnancy. This life, according to the medical community, was not perfect and could be thrown away. But, Austin is God’s work and is therefore perfect. Don’t let the standards of this world cloud the perfection that God has created in each one of us. “All his ways are just.”- life is unfair. Sometimes it seems that life is fairer to others than to us. When our spirits are downtrodden remember that although we may not see it, we can trust that God is a just God and ultimately his ways will be revealed. The last sentence, “A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he” reaffirms the truths from the first sentence. God is ever-faithful, never-changing, always perfect, right and fair. We can trust in God. These qualities give us the confidence to believe in his ultimate good despite our current pain. * http://bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Topical.show/RTD/cgg/ID/695/Rock-as-Symbol.htm Devotions can also be found under "The Important Stuff." |
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