snapper

Okay, okay, okay. Okay, okay.

I get it! Some people are afraid to cook fish at home. But I can't really figure out why. My friend Dash of Stash who is an excellent cook even admitted some trepidation recently. In fact he and I have made a deal. I'll cook ribs on the 'cue if he'll cook something from the sea. So I have compiled some information to help him (and you) along that road.

Statistics show that people like to eat fish. Americans are now eating 30 lbs of fish (per person on average) a year in restaurants, but they eat half that amount at home. And of the home-consumed fish, half of that is canned tuna fish.

Now, unless my math skills fail me, that means people eat more than 3 times as much fish in restaurants than they do at home (if you exclude all that canned fish). It's like 10th grade PSAT's!

Sippity Sup Continues »

Ingredients:

4 t fresh lemongrass, minced (soft inner parts only)

4 sli scallions, white and pale-green parts only, thinly sliced

2 t fresh ginger, peeled and finely minced

2 T fresh cilantro leaves

0 freshly cracked black pepper

0.5 c asian fish sauce

0.25 c soy sauce

0.5 c canola oil

0 chili and/or sesame oil for drizzling (optional)

Directions

Combine the lemongrass, scallion, ginger, cilantro and black pepper in bowl. Pour fish sauce and soy sauce in a shallow baking dish and mix. Press cilantro mixture on one side of each fillet, forming a crust, and transfer to the baking dish, crust side up. Let stand 5 minutes. Heat the canola oil in a large nonstick saute pan over medium-high heat. Saute fish for 2-3 minutes crust side down, then carefully flip fillets over and saute for an additional 2-3 minutes, or until opaque throughout. Transfer to plates. Drizzle with a tiny amount of chili and/or sesame oils (optional)

Notes: