So the next day, I was feeling a lot better - Benjamin and I hadn't been fighting over what we wanted to do all day. We mutually decided that what we wanted to do was sit in his playpen, play with his toys, read to him, and cuddle him. I have to give it to him - the kid is already a convincing arguer. He made it clear that the day before, I had tried to do it my way, and it had been soul-crushing... so why not try doing things his way? Wouldn't that work better?
What I had wanted to say was "Assuming that my goal in life is either 'housewife' or 'baby life support system', yes, that works better." What I actually said was, " Chapter One. The Bride. The year Buttercup was born, the most beautiful woman in the world was a French scullery maid named Annette." All in all, I've had worse days.
When dinner time rolled around, I thought "I still have a bunch of fish left over. I still have a bunch of rice left over. I think I can fix the problems that I had yesterday, and I have a wonderful and supportive wife who is okay if we have the same dinner two nights in a row for the sake of a good blog post." (Which is true. I almost never get hit these days when dinner isn't good enough.)
Again, I wish that I could overstrike in the title bar, because while I had plenty of red snapper and tuna, I was a little short in the salmon department. (The tuna had been decidedly inferior as sushi tuna, but it looked like great cookin' tuna.) The red snapper was a filet, the tuna was a small steak with some sushi-sized pieces left over.
So, I went about fixing the mistakes of the night before. I prepped the fish first, then took a fifteen minute break. This time, rather than using fresh garlic, I used powered garlic with some garlic salt to boot, and threw in a tiny bit of the Kala Namak salt along with the turmeric. I gave the fish a good rub on both sides and threw it back in the fridge while I started on the rice.
The rice was fine last night, so I didn't really feel the need to make any changes. I cooked it for slightly less time than I did last night, because... well, because I had an idea. Rice gets fried, rice goes into a prep bowl, and rather than getting another cooking vessel dirty I just kept the wok on the heat. Besides... I had an idea.
Measure out a half cup of coconut milk; add some pepper and the chiles. By now the fish has had a half hour to get used to its new life partners, turmeric and garlic. Wok is hot again. It gets some oil; the fish gets two minutes per side. I decide to get fancy and try to keep the little bits of tuna higher up on the wok so they don't scorch. My success was decidedly mixed. Between sides, I dropped the heat a bit - it would still be hot enough to sear the second side, but would bleed off a little bit of heat before the coconut milk.
Now, last time, the coconut milk had boiled immediately, and I had poured water in to prevent it from burning, which washed out the taste. This time, I was ready for it. My idea was this; coconut milk goes in. Coconut milk starts boiling. Now, I took a handful of the rice and tossed it in the pot. Between the lower heat, the rice, and me realizing that this is what happens to coconut milk, everything works out perfectly. The fish gets about five more minutes cooking in the milk, then I toss in the rest of the rice. (I'm going to mix it up with the sauce the second I get it to the table anyway, so why not just do it in the pot?)
I need to learn to be a better food photographer if I'm going to be doing this for a year...
This looked delicious on the plate, but that picture kinda looks like a fairly unappealing, undifferentiated lump to me. Oh well. Do either of these pictures look any better?
These are the same picture... for the one on the bottom, I let the computer's auto image correct feature mess with the brightness and everything. Notice the hot pepper right in the middle of the fish... that got removed right after I took the picture. Anyway, feedback on the pictures is appreciated.
For the record, here is the final recipe that I made.
Ingredients:
1 cup day old rice
.75 tsp turmeric, or enough to give the rice a yellowish cast
1 small onion, chopped mediumly
Peanut oil
Slightly more than a pound of tuna and red snapper
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
Some more peanut oil (it was already out)
1/2 cup coconut milk
A few grinds fresh pepper
One hot asian chili
Combine the turmeric, garlic powder, garlic salt, and kosher salt in a bowl, and rub in on the fish. Set the fish aside for a half hour at least.
Heat the wok, put in two tablespoons of oil or so and spread it around. It will of course pool back up; don't let this discourage you. When the oil is at "fry" toss in the onion. Cook it for about two minutes, or less if it's getting burned. Duh. Toss in the rice; fry for about five minutes, moving constantly. Remove the rice to a prep bowl, wipe out the wok, and put it back on the fire.
Reheat the wok. While it is warming, measure out the coconut milk and add the pepper and chili. Put some more oil in the wok, and fry the fish for two minutes per side. In between sides, turn the heat down to medium. When the second side is done, add the coconut milk. Lift the fish so that the milk can get under and around it. When the coconut milk starts to boil, toss in a bit of the rice to absorb some of the heat. Cook the fish for about four minutes, or until it starts to flake. Toss in the rest of the rice, mix well, and let cook for one more minute. Remove to a plate, eat, then write a blog post about it.
Tomorrow: Vegetarian Mulligatawny Soup
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