Barbecued Blackened Rockfish

While shopping the other day at Costco, I came upon a package of wild caught rockfish. We were going to buy the farmed salmon, but after having seen the Salmon Confidential Documentary my brother linked to on Facebook, we opted for the wild caught rockfish instead.

My first thought was to fry the fish, but the ease of sprinkling on some spices and putting it on the barbecue prevailed. I keep a jar of spice rub in my pantry that I used on my Easy Oven Baked Chipotle Wings recipe, used that, and added a sprinkle of Old Bay seasoning, dried oregano and thyme for the blackening spices. I think a seasoning the rockfish with lemon pepper and paprika would be good too.

I barbecued the fish on the low heat setting for 5-6 minutes on each side, or until the fish has a little color--I don't like it to get too charred.

Simple as that!

The rockfish was served on a bed of blanched kale--we bought this big bag of baby kale at Costco too--and have been putting it in everything. I'm surprised we've almost finished the whole bag!

I prepared the kale by boiling about an inch of water in a pot and adding a few big handfuls of kale, turning the kale with tongs until it was just wilted. It took about 1 or 2 minutes, then I removed the kale to a small colander to cool, squeezed the excess water out of it and gave it a rough chop before plating. The taste reminded me of eating the tsukemono my grandmother used to make when I was little, from turnip and daikon greens--a little bit chewy and not unpleasant. Eating a little bit of the kale with a bit of tsukemono--Japanese pickled vegetables--was delicious.

The barbecued blackened rockfish was garnished with a bit of chopped chives and served on a bed of blanched baby kale with a bowl of brown rice, lemon wedges, and some tsukemono.

Itadakimasu!

***

In my Perfect Hard Boiled Eggs post, I showed you a photo collage that we had made into a 2000 piece jigsaw puzzle for my mother-in-law.

She finished the puzzle relatively fast, not taking the 9 months (or so) that it took to finish her first puzzle of this era--she quit doing puzzles for about 20 years--and now spends a big chunk of her day contemplating the pieces. It's amusing to see her sometimes using her fist to pound in a piece because, "some time it doesn't fit right".

This puzzle was fun for the whole family to work on since everyone was in it--and it's enjoyable to sit around the table with Obaachan, reminiscing about the events in the photos while perusing the pieces. When you make your puzzle, set the dpi to 300--this one was 180 dpi and it came out a little grainy and the colors not vibrant.

Obaachan was so happy to have her puzzle done and hanging in her kitchen's eating-area. She looked at the puzzle and counted 12 pictures of herself (not counting her hand in the upper left) and said, "I won't be lonely anymore."

Turns out my husband likes to do puzzles too--I had this one made for him for Christmas. The colors look much better in 300 dpi. Putting the puzzle together on a piece of foam core posterboard makes it easy to move around if necessary.

Here's the original photo.

I haven't tried any other puzzle companies--you can find pages of them online. I liked Venus Puzzle because once I got my photo quality up, the puzzle came out much better, and I liked the shape of the puzzle pieces. Sometimes the puzzles we've done have really strange shaped pieces. 

Obaachan has about 15 puzzles completed, all stacked on top of the other on posterboard, and has been working on them for the past three years. I think she likes looking at all of them with a feeling of accomplishment. She says they keep her going even though each one is, "so, so hard," and each current puzzle is, "hardest one."

No printable recipe.

Grilled Fresh Trout

You may have caught our fishing trip to the Eastern Sierra earlier this week--the one where my son Rick caught the big trout.

Rick immediately thought of Jichan, his grandfather, and how much he thought Jichan would enjoy eating this fish.

Jichan loves fish.

We didn't camp this time, we stayed in a hotel in Bishop.

They've got a Fish Cleaning Room there--sink, disposal, scale and freezer to store your fish until you leave.

Yesterday I grilled the fish.

Sometimes simple is best, so I used salt and pepper to give them a little seasoning and put the fish on the barbecue.

I used the low setting and grilled them until the meat in the cavity was cooked, then flipped them over, about 4 minutes on each side.

I had some photos of preparing and cooking the fish, but somehow the memory card in my camera got damaged and I lost all the photos.

I only have these few, but the preparation is simple, just salt and pepper.

Before starting to cook the fish and after cleaning the grill, put some cooking spray or oil on the grill so the fish won't stick.

Since Rick wanted Jichan--and Bachan too--to eat the fish, I put it on a platter with some greens, lime wedges, a few clusters of mini tomatoes and gave them a call.

"Would you like some barbecued trout for dinner? I'll bring it over."

My mother-in-law's voice lit up, "Really? I can come over."

My mother-in-law is 88 years old. 

I would prefer to deliver it to her, but she wanted to come and get it herself since I was doing her such a favor by cooking the fish and giving it to her--she thought the least she could do is come over and get it.

She only has to drive one mile...but still.

When she came over and saw the big fish on the platter, she was so appreciative.

"Is THIS for...US?!"

This is the kind of Japanese meal my grandparents used to eat--fish, rice and fresh vegetables.

That's a big portion, they would eat half the amount of fish, and maybe add some sliced cucumbers or some tsukemomo.

Simple, fresh and delicious.

Itadakimasu!



***

This is a picture of my mom on her wedding day with my two grandmothers.

A long time ago my mother told me something that her mother told her.

Be nice to your husband's parents, give them your attention. They're older than we are. You'll be happy you did.

It's something I've always remembered and try to live by.

It hasn't always been easy, but now I feel like my mother-in-law is one of my biggest fans.

She doesn't like to cook and really appreciates that I do--and I bring her food.

She thinks that it was me that left a puppy in her yard for her to find and care for--but it wasn't me (really, it wasn't me!).

She likes that I come and help her with the difficult 2000 piece jigsaw puzzle she's been working on all year.

It's a secret that I have to remove the pieces that she pounds in to fit--and the pieces I remove are more than the pieces I place to complete the puzzle.

It's getting to completion though, little by little, the sky is all done now and the two areas on the right and left are slowly but surely closing.


When the times have been tough between my mother-in-law and I, I've thought about what my mother told me, and added a question of my own that I ask myself in difficult family times.

"What's more important--having a close family, or your own ego?"


Sometimes that answer isn't always clear, but it helps.


***

Barbecued Beer Can Chicken

Remember my friend Pam?

The one whose son Brock made the cinnamon rolls?

Pam's been telling me about her Barbecued Beer Can Chicken.

Apparently, Brock's been having dinner parties and making his mom's beer can chicken with great success!

 

Pam said it was super-easy to make--simply sit a chicken on a beer can in a foil pan and roast it in the barbecue for one hour.

I tried it the other day, and she's right!

 

It's super-easy and the chicken comes out really moist.

 

I bought these two whole chickens from Costco--they were $10.55. 

Pam said she picked some herbs from her garden for this recipe. 

I had rosemary, thyme and oregano in mine, so I used those.

 

I bought the least costly beer I could find and put some herbs in the beer.

Push the herbs all the way into the can.

Best pour a little of the beer out first--luckily I had the beer sitting in the foil pan.

Just the other day Pam mentioned that using a British ale works best and has a nice flavor.

 

I chopped the rest of the herbs--adding some parsley--and a couple of cloves of garlic, 

 

To mix with some butter. 

 

I added a little salt and pepper to the butter mixture. 

 

Then put a little of the butter mixture under the skin of the chicken.

I didn't use a lot of the butter mixture so I wrapped it up and put it in the fridge to use on something another day.

 

Rub the skin of the chicken with a little olive oil, salt and pepper. 

 

Put some herbs into the cavity of the chicken and sit the chicken in the foil pan with the beer can in the cavity.

I've seen a lot of kitchen gadgets lately that are made to cook the chicken sitting up like this--the beer can method works really well and is certainly not as costly.

 

I should have used a larger foil pan.

This one worked fine, but instead of sitting the chicken breast to breast, next time I'll sit them back to back--you'll see why in a minute.

 

I lit two of the four burners of the barbecue and set the heat to medium, which gave me a temperature of about 350 degrees F.

I covered the barbecue and let the chicken roast for one hour.

 

I didn't baste them or anything, just let them cook in the barbecue.

I did go out and check the heat a couple of times to be sure it was at about 350.

 

The skin was nicely browned.

You can also make this in the oven.

 

But since the chickens sat breast to breast, the breast didn't brown, just the backs.

Not very pretty for a presentation--so when you make this, be sure to have a large foil pan, use two, or sit them back to back--then they'll be nicely browned.

I tried to turn them around about 3/4 of the way through the cooking, but it was too late to brown the skin on the breast.

The chicken was cooked, just not browned on the breast side.

 

The chicken was moist and flavorful.

If you slice it and serve it boneless, don't forget to save the bones for soup!

If you're wondering about those tiny tomatoes, they're growing out in my yard--they're volunteers and come back every year.

You don't get much of a biteful, but they're so cute!

Itadakimasu!

***

 

This is my friend Pam and her family.

If you've been following along, you may have met them before.

  

 I met them when we went to Yosemite when our kids were small.

That's Brock in the red jacket!

 

Pam and her husband Mark are a lot of fun.

 This photo was taken a few years ago at their Labor Day Beach Bash.

Here's Pam tending to her herb garden.

 

This might be my favorite photo of Pam, taken when her daughter graduated from college.

Pam can do it all.

Seriously, she can.

She cooks, bakes, decorates her home beautifully,  is smart, witty, nice, crafty, the perfect hostess, she's athletic, teaches high school English, gardens, plays the piano and sings.

She DOES do it all!

Oh!

I forgot one.

Pam is also a great friend.

Love you, Pam!

No printable recipe.

Oven Baked Pork Ribs

The Name Game.

These ribs frequently change their name.

First they were Chan's Ribs.

Then they became Karolyn's Ribs, then Sue's Ribs, then Dani Tucker's Ribs.

Maybe you'll want to make them and they'll become yours!

Want to see them a little closer?

How's that?

Start out with a package of Pork Loin Backribs.

I got these at Costco and they would easily feed 8 people.

Maybe more.

There's three racks of ribs in a package.

Start by cutting the ribs apart.

Then you're going to put them in a large pot.

Cover with water and bring to a boil, then turn the heat to low and simmer for 45 minutes.

Are you thinking--

You're going to wash away all the flavor?

That's what I thought at first, too.

I love watching the cooking shows were they show the ribs being cooked in a big smoker with a huge wood pile next to it and different kinds of wood chips soaked in beer.

I'm going to have to get Bryce to post his ribs recipe.

Make these ribs on the days you can't cook all day next to your smoker.

While the ribs are simmering, you're going to make the sauce.

Ingredients:

1 cup shoyu 

(that's soy sauce for the uninitiated)

1 cup sugar

1 cup barbecue sauce

pinch garlic powder

That looks like about a 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon.

Boil the sauce ingredients until the sugar has dissolved, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.

Skim the foam off the ribs and discard.

After 45 minutes, remove the ribs from pot and put them in a large roasting pan and pour the barbecue sauce mix into the roaster.

I use my turkey roasting pan.

As you're putting the ribs in the pan, coat them with the sauce.

And line them up.

After they're all lined up, use a turkey baster to baste the ribs. 

Tilt the pan in one direction so all the sauce runs to that side. It makes it easier to fill the baster.

Give them a good baste.

Don't worry, they'll get there.

Put them in a pre-heated 350 degree F oven.

Cook them for 30 minutes, basting again every ten minutes.

First 10 minutes.

They're starting to get there...

Give them their first baste.

This is after the second baste.

Baste them one more time.

And they're done!

We also had a side of macaroni & cheese, some crisp baby green beans and a garden salad.

And, of course, rice.

Rick & Jessica came over for dinner tonight.

Jessica said the ribs were fall-off-the-bone tender and...

(Wait for it...)

The best ribs she's ever had.

 Try them!

You have my permission to change the name when you give out the recipe.

(Insert your name here)'s Ribs

The Naaame Game.


(Shirley!)

No printable recipe for this one yet.