Tuna Steaks in Teriyaki Sauce

The original title of this recipe, as listed on the newspaper clipping it came from, is "Fish and Vegetables in Foil." AKA the most self-explanatory (and blah) name in the history of food, so I changed the name, but obviously not the recipe.

This week Judson is working his fingers to the bone on an illustration he did that's going to be featured in a magazine, so I've been on my own making dinners for us. This one is perfect for that because everything is prepped together so there's no worry that the sides will be done before the main course, or that everything is going to get cold because you forgot to preheat the oven. 

I guess the idea of cooking food in foil packets had to have been novel at some point, but it's still a foreign concept to me to cut out and preserve a recipe that is basically just "put all ingredients in foil then bake." Anyway, Eleanor thought it was worth cutting out, so I made it and we liked it. It's easy, cheap, and makes a great weeknight meal because the cleanup is practically non-existent. (Plus, you can cheat and buy your teriyaki sauce already made. Bam.) 

Some notes on ingredients: One of the rules of this project is that I make NO substitutions, to the extent that I am able. I've so far been able to find most ingredients that I needed, but that all changed today after trips to two different grocery stores looking for corn syrup brought me up empty-handed. I presume that back in Eleanor's day the lack of scare tactics surrounding high-fructose corn syrup meant that it was much more readily available for her than it is for me now. I don't know if corn syrup is just not available here in the UK, or more likely, if it's just not available at my grocery stores, but either way, I had to come up with a solution to make the teriyaki sauce listed below.

I ended up with Lyle's Golden Syrup, which I've mentioned before. It's a byproduct of refining sugar and kind of tastes like a cross between corn syrup and honey. We put it on sausage all the time at breakfast, and it's delicious. Also, it comes in a paint can, so it's one of my favourite weird British condiments for that reason alone. It worked great as a substitution in this recipe and if it's all you have on hand, go for it. Bonus: the logo on the can is a dead lion carcass filled with bees (it's a Biblical reference, but I fail to see the relevance, and, having worked in advertising for four years, I find it really strange their marketing team hasn't come up with a new logo that doesn't, you know, align their product with dead animals).

Last, I don't even like zucchini, but in the spirit of “don't deviate from the recipe,” I cooked up a zucchini and it was delicious. Tuna works great in this dish because it's an Asian-inspired set of flavours, so get tuna steaks if you can. Otherwise, salmon or any other firm, steak-y fish would be great, too.

The Verdict:

3 Spoons out of 5. It's good, but it's also simple and kind of boring. Definitely worth making on a night when you don't want pizza but also don't want to have any dishes to wash.

THE RECIPE:

Tuna Steaks in Teriyaki Sauce

THE INGREDIENTS:
FISH:

2 fish fillets or steaks (approximately ¾ lb total)*
foil
2 carrots
4 green onions
2 small zucchinis (courgettes if you're on my side of the pond)
1 small sweet pepper

THE DIRECTIONS:
Fish:

Preheat oven to 425F/218C.
Pat fish dry.
Place each piece of fish on an individual sheet of foil large enough to wrap all the way around the fish and veggies.
Slice all vegetables diagonally, divide in half and layer on top of fish.
Pour teriyaki sauce over each portion.
Bring the edges of the foil together and crimp them.
Place on baking sheet and bake 12 minutes per inch of thickness, until fish is just opaque (if using tuna, fish does not need to be opaque but should begin to flake when poked with a fork and should still be pink in the center).

*Original recipe calls for frozen fish, so if you want to go that route you definitely can. We used fresh tuna steaks and they were great.

 

Teriyaki Sauce:

2 tbsp + 2 tsp soy sauce
2 tbsp + 2 tsp white wine or vermouth
2 tbsp light corn syrup (or golden syrup)
¼ tsp ground ginger
¼ tsp garlic powder

 

TERIYAKI SAUCE:

Mix all ingredients together and let sit for 15 minutes or up to overnight.
Recipe scales up easily, but if you only need enough for two servings of fish, this will get the job done.

Lotus Blossom Lamb Chops

I've always been pretty iffy when it comes to lamb. I had a roommate who used to make the best ever lamb burgers for me, and that was awesome, but other than that I've never really had lamb that was anything to write home about.

Apparently Eleanor never did either, because there's only one lamb recipe in The Box, and it's buried in a collection entitled “Far Eastern Fling” that must have come from a bottle of soy sauce or something (and it's illustrated). But I promised to make all the recipes in The Box, so when I found out that February is Lamb Lovers Month (and, not coincidentally, the start of the Year of the Sheep in China), I figured now was as good a time as any to tackle lamb for the first time.

It doesn't hurt that Edinburgh was just hit with a cold snap worse than the whole rest of the winter has been so far... or that said cold snap aligned perfectly with Judson's busiest work week of the year. So when I got the “BUSIEST. DAY. EVER.” text one evening last week, I figured it was time to cook up some lamb chops, mix up a Moscow Mule, and relax by the fire...
But since neither of the two fireplaces in our flat are functional, we relaxed by the radiator with a thick tartan wool blanket.

The best thing about this recipe is how crazily specific it is. Some of the recipes in the box are so vague that they are literally just a list of ingredients (are these even recipes, or just grocery lists? I guess I'll find out when I get to them). And then there are recipes like this one, which explains how to marinate and cook the lamb, and then commands that it be served “with squash and fruit salad.”

Since The Rules state that I have to follow the recipes to the letter, I served these lamb chops with curry-roasted butternut squash and a sad “fruit salad” that was really just blueberries, a sliced banana, and a chopped up apple in a bowl with some lemon juice. Nevertheless, it was delicious.

Turns out lamb isn't exceedingly difficult, gamey, or pungent like I had always thought. If you've always been on the fence about lamb but have never cooked it yourself, give this recipe a try. The chops are tender, savoury, and the flavour has a great depth that doesn't override the natural flavour of the lamb. All this time I thought I didn't like lamb and it turns out I just don't like the spices it's usually paired with, or the sauces that usually drown it. I never take charge of cooking meat because it makes me nervous and sort of wigs we out, but even I could handle this one. There's no trimming the meat, hacking through bones, or any of the other weird stuff that goes along with most meat-based main courses, and since you likely already have some of the marinade ingredients in your cabinet, it's also cheap (squash and fruit salad optional).

The Verdict: 

4 Spoons out of five. It's delicious, affordable, and unique-- plus, if you're anything like us, lamb is a great change of pace from the usual suspects of chicken or veggies as a main dish. Skip the squash and fruit salad, and you'll be good to go. 

THE RECIPE:

Honey & Soy-Glazed Lamb Chops

The Ingredients:

½ c soy sauce
¼ c honey
2 tbsp rice wine vinegar
1 tsp pepper
4-6 lamb chops

Optional sides: squash, fruit salad, Moscow Mules for two

THE DIRECTIONS:

Combine soy sauce, honey, vinegar, and pepper, mixing thoroughly to dissolve the honey as much as possible.
Place marinade and lamb chops in a large bag or container with a lid and refrigerate for at least an hour.
When ready to cook, preheat oven to 375F/190C.
Drain marinade, give chops another generous grind of pepper, and roast for 10 minutes or until cooked through but still tender.

Spinach Salad with Bacon Vinaigrette

When I started this project, I separated the recipes into categories in hopes that I wouldn't get to the end of the project and somehow have ended up with nothing but 35 recipes for salad left.

There should have been no worries there. Of the dozen or so recipes behind the “salad” divider I created in the recipe box, only about three are lettuce-based. The rest? Mayonnaise, jello, or water chestnut based.* After my first week of cooking recipes from the box and accidentally choosing a lot of meat-centric dishes, I decided it was time for a salad. I chose one of the few veggie-based salads in the box, but it still has bacon in it, so healthy is relative.

Did you hear me? I said it has bacon in it, so here're your dinner plans for the evening. You can thank me later. Not only was this the easiest recipe I've made yet, but it was also the first one I've had help in cooking, which made it even better.

*sidenote here: water chestnuts? Really? My grandmother was a woman who had to put a note next to “garbanzo beans” on one recipe to remind herself to “look in the bean aisle for something that looks like hazelnuts” but she cooked regularly with water chestnuts??

The Verdict:

4 Spoons out of five. This is delicious, (relatively) healthy, and if you garnish it the way we did, it has the perfect mix of sweet, salty, bitter, and crunchy that I think every salad needs to be really interesting. However, the bacon vinaigrette only makes enough for a couple spoonfuls per salad, and we had to add a little oil and vinegar to keep the whole thing from being too dry. It's still being added to our rotation, though!

The Recipe:

Spinach Salad with Bacon Vinaigrette

THE INGREDIENTS:

2 heads little gem lettuce, 2 endives, or 3 handfuls of spinach, washed and well-drained
2-3 slices of bacon or 4 oz. lardons, cut into small pieces**
2 tbsp sugar
4-6 green onions, sliced
2-3 tbsp white wine vinegar, diluted with 1 tbsp water
Black pepper

A Blair Addition: Serve with sliced grapes, almonds, and radishes to bulk it up and add more sustenance. Also, I suspect it would be pretty great with a slice of goat cheese and a piece of garlic-rubbed toast.

**British bacon is nothing like American bacon and tastes way more like ham. If you live here in the UK and are making this salad, use lardons or pancetta as the grease from the pork is a necessary component of the dressing.

THE DIRECTIONS:

Dry the greens as much as possible and place them on two dinner plates.
Fry the lardons, pancetta, or bacon in a skillet until cooked through but still slightly tender.
Remove the pork from the pan with a slotted spoon and place on a paper towel to drain.
Turn heat to low and sprinkle sugar and onions on top of the bacon grease in the pan, scraping brown bits from the bottom all the while.
After onions have wilted and begun to caramelise, deglaze the pan by pouring the vinegar water into the pan and scraping up all the bits. (Watch your face during this step-- the vinegar will become steam and it doesn't feel great in your nose or eyes)
Pour the onions and the liquid from the pan directly onto each plate of greens. Greens will wilt slightly as you finish preparing the salads.
Sprinkle half the bacon onto each salad and give each plate a good grind of black pepper.
Garnish as desired (see above for the garnishes we chose) and enjoy!

Serves 2