Whole Rockfish

We went down to Half Moon Bay today to buy fish straight off the fisherman's boats.  In addition to a salmon, we got a couple little rockfish creatures that you're apparently supposed to bake and consume as a whole fish.

The first step was a backyard de-gutting exercise:

 

Next, we baked it with thyme and garlic.  We were somewhat inspired by this wacky video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6BAkvsTW4I

And voila, final table side presentation:

Strong Fish Stock

We went to Half Moon Bay this morning and bought several whole fish directly from fisherman on boats.  We called the salmon 'George' and J. proceeded to fillet it in our back yard:

This generated a lot of tasty looking bones and fish scraps, so we were inspired to make this:

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Strong-Fish-Stock-105266

It appeared that our stock was not as strong as we were hoping for, perhaps due to the large amount of water that was required to cover the bones in our wide pot.

The stock is currently sitting in our freezer, awaiting a perfect use case.

Carrot Raisin Muffins

One of our cooking goals is to make at least one recipe from every cookbook-like entity we own.  Issues of 'Sunset' magazine count as cookbook-like entities for the purpose of this goal.

When the April 2013 issue of Sunset arrived, I was disappointed to see its heavy focus on gardening, with reduced food sections.  Who cares about gardening?  Thankfully, it also had this muffin recipe, so we're able to meet our goal and use some of that whole wheat flour that's been taking up fridge space!

http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/miracle-carrot-muffins-50400000127223/

They turned out quite well, although a couple more min of baking would not have hurt.

Remade on:
2013-5-17
2014-5-18

Veggie Bacon Frittata

Random weekend morning inspiration.  Loosely based on this:

http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/artichoke-leek-fontina-frittata-10000001622435/

Our substitutions:
- slightly antique chard leaves instead of leeks
- red pepper instead of artichokes
- no fontina

It spent about 8 min in the oven & turned out quite tasty!

Remade on:
2015-03-30 for a backyard group brunch

Steamed Artichokes a la Darya

We were driving back from Monterey after J. got his scuba certification there.  It's almost a tradition to stop by the produce stands on the way back.  We loaded up on hyper-local Castroville artichokes, and Darya was kind enough to tell us what to do with them:

http://summertomato.com/how-to-make-and-eat-a-perfect-steamed-artichoke/

Remade on:
2014-05-03 with a different artichoke varietal (from N.'s coworker's garden), served with garlic aioli:

Tuscan Pork Belly

From the pork belly obtained in J.'s pig butchery class:

http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/24814/tuscan+roast+pork+belly

We shortened some of the steps, like the marinade time.  It came out a bit tough for pork belly, but still tasty.

Hearty Chicken Curry Soup

N. randomly found curry power in the office's kitchen:

We had a bag of Bob's Red Mill Grains & Beans soup mix lying around.  Recommended on its back was chicken curry soup:

 Naturally, we added chard and used celery as an onion substitute.

Recipe:
http://www.bobsredmill.com/recipes_detail.php?rid=1686