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Halibut Steaks Poached in Curried Coconut Milk with Golden Beets and Onions

That’s quite a title, eh?

I’ve mentioned in previous posts that I’ve been trying to “Eat Primal,” and while it’s true that I haven’t had a single french fry, piece of bread, grain of rice or tortilla chip in about two weeks solid, I am not about to eat underwhelming food.

Tonight, for dinner, I knew two things: I had some golden beets in my fridge that needed to be cooked and I really was craving seafood of some description.  I had told myself that I would do something with the beets as a side but upon skimming through my cookbook, How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman, I was inspired to poach these halibut steaks with the beets and onions and all together.

I did not, however, have fish stock, as Mr. Bittman requested, nor did I really want to do the poaching with carrots and celery (I had some of those last night).  I did, however, have a whole mess of coconut milk, golden beets and onion.

So here’s what I made.  It’s really an amazing dish, surely deserving of a more illustrious night than a Monday, and sure to impress your friends.  It isn’t that difficult but will involve a bit of prep. You also will want to invest in a digital thermometer for this kind of cooking: if you overcook the fish, it will flat-out disintegrate.  Done gently, it is succulent and firm, with an amazing sweetness.

This is the one I own. Do yourself a favor and spend the $20 bucks. Your meat will thank you. Really.

Ingredients

• 2 halibut steaks, about 1.5″ to 2″ thick
• 1 can coconut milk
• 3 golden beets, diced
• 1 medium sized sweet onion, diced
• 1.5 teaspoons curry powder
• white wine
• coconut oil (or other cooking oil)
• sea salt

Tools

• Large skillet
• Casserole dish (enough to hold the steaks and plenty of liquid and veggies)
• Digital thermometer with cord

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350-deg F.
2. Dice your beets and onions to about 1/2″ cubes
3. Heat your oil in the skillet and add onions and beats, cooking until onion is translucent (don’t worry about those beets, they’ll get cooked through eventually).
4. Beets should start to share some of their color with the onions and there should be a decent fond forming on the bottom of the pan.  Deglaze with about 1/4-cup of white wine, scraping up the fond from the bottom of the pan.  Let the liquid cook away and get absorbed into the veggies.
5. While veggies are simmering, salt your halibut with a little of the sea salt (just a light dusting).
6. Now add your curry powder to the veggies and another 1/4 cup of the wine.  Add your can of coconut milk and stir, blending together. Bring liquid to a boil: the whole thing should now be a beautiful saffron color.
7. Turn the burner off under your coconut milk and veggies. Get out your casserole dish and ladle a few spoonfuls of liquid and veggies into the bottom.  Place your steaks on top of these veggies, then ladle the remaining liquid over the top.  You should have enough to just cover the steaks.  If they’re not covered completely, this is still okay.  Just make sure you ladle some liquid over the tops.
8. Place casserole dish in oven and skewer one of the steaks in it’s thickest part with your digital thermometer.  Set the timer to go off when the steaks reach 140-deg F.
   Note: If you don’t have a digital thermometer, shame on you, but the poaching will only take about 20 minutes.
9. When the timer goes off, remove the dish from the over and let it rest.  The temp will go up to about 145-deg F after it is removed from the oven.  This is “done” for fish and seafood. Any hotter than that you’re just doing the fish an injustice, not inconveniencing any parasites which already bit the dust around 140 or so.
10. Remove the steaks gently from the liquid with a spatula, spoon, tongs or all three: they will be slightly fragile! If you left the skin on the steaks you will want to remove it before plating (or you can eat it, too: I’m sure it’s tasty; I chose not to).
11. Place the steaks on a plate, add the veggies with a slotted spoon, then ladle enough liquid onto the plate to suit you.

Enjoy!  These are phenomenal: I’m getting hungry again just thinkin’ about ‘em.

Mock-aroni Pie

Eating like a cavegirl is paying off: I’ve lost five pounds in about a week. It’s amazing that I’m eating so well and losing weight: I’m not hungry and I feel very healthy.  I have lots of energy and I’m happy in general. Today I had a serious craving for a snack but I called my sponsor and that craving went away (after I had a boiled egg as a snack instead).

So over the weekend my mom and sister were in town visiting and we got to talking: this whole Eating Primal thing is fine, and it seems to be working for me, but can we use this newly found ambition to eat differently and think about food differently to find something else to apply it to? Perhaps, remaking a dish that we love into something more “healthful?”

So after much discussion we settled on a family favorite, a dish chock full of carbs and, by proxy, sugar: the Macaroni Pie. Cheese, noodles, more cheese, milk and eggs. It’s a simple dish but I was sure we could make it just as awesome, but with less sugar and carbs.

Enter spaghetti squash. As a stand-in for noodles, this beauty has been at this for ages, but I couldn’t find any overt references to any “macaroni” pie on the Internet.  My mom and I felt very pleased with how this little dish came out. It’s spectacular as a side, and even though it requires a bit of a time investment, it’s a special-occasion dish in my family anyway, so the little extra prep work is alright. And, I suppose, so are the savings on the carbs!

This stuff is insanely rich.  I suggest trying a few different kinds of cheeses to layer the flavors. I really enjoyed it using Parrano cheese and a raw cow’s milk sharp cheddar. Mmm!

Ingredients

Overall cooking and prep time, about 2 hours.

• 1 medium spaghetti squash
• 1.5 – 2 cups shredded cheese (i like sharp white cheddar!)
• 2. cups heavy cream
• 2 eggs
• butter (to grease the casserole dish)
• salt and pepper

Directions

1. To prepare the spaghetti squash, cut in half, lengthwise and scoop out seeds and membranes.
2. Preheat oven to 325-deg F.
3. Place cleaned squash cut side down on a tin-foil-lined baking sheet.  Prick the skin of the squash so some steam can escape and place into oven on baking sheet. Roast for 45 minutes.
4. While squash is roasting, grate cheese.
5. Once squash is roasted and you can handle touching it, use a fork to scrape the strands of the squash along its insides.  Place strands in a bowl and set aside.
6. Grease a deep casserole dish liberally with butter, all the way up the sides and all over the bottom.  Preheat over to 350-deg F.
7. Layer the squash and cheese in the greased casserole dish.  Squash on the bottom, then cheese, then squash, then cheese, then squash, then cheese.  Your last layer should be cheese.
8. Whisk together two eggs and the heavy cream.  Season this mixture with salt and pepper (about a half-teaspoon of each or less).  Pour this mixture over the layered cheese and squash.
   Note: When you tilt the dish, you should see a little liquid move to the edge.  If you don’t see any, you might want to top off the casserole with a little extra cream.
9. Place casserole into oven and bake for 40 minutes, checking regularly.  If the top starts to brown but the mixture is still jiggly, loosely tent tinfoil over the casserole and let it continue to bake.
10. When ready (could take up to an hour or more, depending on the depth of your casserole dish) the consistency should be firm with a little jiggle, a little looser than quiche.

Eating Like a Cavegirl

For the last several days, I’ve been trying something: The Paleo Diet. Well, sort of. I could really call this The Bibi Diet, as my friend Bibi at work has been eating this way for about two years and looks fantastic. She’s also serving as a guru for a few of the ladies I work with and me in our forays into primal eating.

She started explaining how it works (eat only things that we’re evolutionarily designed to eat: meats, fresh veggies, fats, nuts and some fruits) and it seemed to be something I could get on board with. Oh by the way, bacon (sans nitrites) is encouraged. Score.

My attempts at eating this way have been bolstered partly by my struggle with my weight for all my life but also by my family’s predisposition for being overweight and getting diabetes. Eating this way puts your dietary sugar in very low numbers, daily, and the protein and fiber keep you satisfied.  Sounds like a winner to me.

I’ve been at it since this past Tuesday and I’ve already lost three pounds.  Who’s to say if that’s real weight that can stay gone or water weight, but I plan on sticking with it for a bit longer.  I can honestly say that I have not been hungry at all and the only craving I’ve had was during a few stressful days at work when I wanted a Diet Coke so bad I had to call one of my fellow cavegirls over to talk through the craving.

Tonight I’m making arctic char with a side of spaghetti squash au gratin (a recipe I’m trying to perfect for my dad since he loves mac-n-cheese but shouldn’t have too much of it). As an accompaniment we’ll have a red lettuce salad with fresh tomatoes and a lemon and shallot vinaigrette.

Sounds like a decent way to eat, doesn’t it? I don’t really miss the starchy, sugary stuff at all. We’ll see how it goes.