Food That is Good for You

 

I just made a wonderful late night snack. I was with my wife about a week ago at a discount store that sells overstocks that large markets can’t sell.

We picked up a 10 pound back of Pollock loins for about 9 bucks.

I placed 5 of the loins into a non-stick pan on medium heat and put the lid on it. In about 5 minutes the fish had thawed since it released water as it started to thaw which in the medium heat pan gave us some steam which then just accelerated the rest of the thawing process as more and more fluid came out and became steam.

As soon as it was thawed I used some wooden utensils so I did not screw up the non-stick surface and broke up the Pollock loins into small pieces. I then sprinkled just a tiny pinch of ground celery seed on the fish, salted it and added butter to the pan.

I tossed it in the pan to make sure that everything was mixed properly. I then turned the heat to high. As soon as the temperature came up and things started sizzling nicely I added a little more butter, some more salt and then added lime juice. I tossed it again until things had mixed and the fluids had evaporated so I didn’t have a ton of juice left.

I plated it and it is fabulous. There are not a lot of foods that are as healthy or healthier than fish.

Technorati Tags: fish,lime juice,eating healthy,eating cheap

My Take on Ham and Bean Soup

 

Ham and bean soup is one of my favorites. I start by looking for a couple of nice sized double or triple smoked ham hocks. I do not want anything that was sugar cured. It needs to have been fairly intensely brined to work well.

Most recipes that start with dried beans tell you to soak them over night but I have a different method. I put the beans in the pot with the ham hocks as I am cooking them off for about 5 hours. It actually gives a rather surprising result.

Once the hocks are cooked off I pull them out and chop up the meat that was on them and brown up a little of the fat until it is nice and crispy and then put that back in. Then I add onions and carrots and let it cook for about 3 hours. I then add tomato juice and cook it for about another hour.

At this point the beans for the most part have actually pretty much dissolved so rather than chewing the beans they actually work quite nicely to thicken the soup.

Once it has cooled I put it in single serving containers and freeze it. The soup is awesome fresh from the pot but it becomes incredibly more awesome after it is frozen for a few days.

Anyone that likes bean soup should try this. It is REALLY good.

Technorati Tags: ham and bean soup,smoked ham hocks,soup