Guerilla Kitchen in Aruba Part 1, or Pan-Seared Grouper with Couscous & Green Salad

Hooray! Vacation!

The "huts" are available to rent for the day, and are free if you grab them same-day. Thank goodness - shade is very necessary here.

 I realize I forgot to warn you all, but as you may know, the GK (meaning me, Genevieve) is visiting Aruba this week! I am here with my fabulously fun big sister Allie, and could not be happier about the whole thing. Thanks to my parents' investment in a Marriott timeshare many years ago, my Dad was able to offer Allie and I his hotel week this year. Obviously, this was very generous and we intend to make the most of our time here. There is much local food to try, and we intend to sample much of it, but Aruba is an island, after all, which means high prices on just about everything. This is especially true for the restaurants. Truthfully, cost was the motivation for us to cook some meals in our suite, but now that we've fully embraced it I think there is still much fun ahead in cooking and eating in the comfort of our hotel.

Last night, after a travel-weary but totally delicious experience with some Caribbean barbecue, we put together a few necessary breakfast items from a shop in the hotel: Just-add-water pancake mix, coffee, milk, butter and honey. (The honey was in lieu of maple syrup, which to be honest is what I prefer with my pancakes anyway.) This morning we had our pancakes before heading out to one of the big grocery stores in the area, Ling & Sons. This was surprisingly fun. The store carries many brands and products familiar to us Americans, along with some extremely foreign Dutch, Venezuelan and Portuguese items.

Our plan is to have breakfast in our suite, a few lunches, and a few dinners, so that we can save some money and still get a chance to taste (and cook!) local fare like super fresh fish, which is what we put together for tonight. After coming off the beach for a leisurely stay at the hotel pool (and, erm, pool bar), fish seemed like the perfect thing.

We made some iguana friends at the pool.

I have complete vacation-brain at the moment, which is probably to be expected. I say this because while I am very happy to tell you what went into these dishes, there won't be much in the way of ingredients or detailed instructions in this or future Aruban posts. But that's a pretty fair reflection of what I'm doing.

It's all very yellow to look at, but it was highly delicious.

I marinaded two grouper fillets in a combination of a basic Italian salad dressing, a little extra olive oil, a bit of salt and garlic & herb Mrs. Dash, adding a sprinkling of black pepper on top once the fish was coated with the marinade. I cooked them in olive oil (heated until smoking) for about three minutes per side, and served it with a piece of lemon. I made a yummy "toasted pine-nut" flavored couscous, and Allie made a lovely salad. And, because Aruba totally has the right idea and I totally do not understand any country or state in which it is unlawful to sell alcohol and food under the same roof, we enjoyed our dinner with some chardonnay.

The fish was extremely fresh, tender and juicy, and exactly what I had hoped for from a local catch. I wasn't sure at first how the pine nut couscous would be with the mild and lemony fish, but they ended up being quite tasty together - perfect counterpoints. We enjoyed it all and still have some beautiful swordfish that awaits us in the refrigerator.

Quote of the Day: All groupers are members the sea bass family, Serranidae, and are found in tropical and warm temperate waters world-wide. ~ FoodReference.com

P.s. Some of you may recall a resolution I made not long ago to limit my meat and seafood consumption for my own health as well as the health of the planet. But experiencing the best of local produce is also high among my priorities, and I can't ignore the abundance of beautiful fish caught right outside my window. So I won't! You could call this wishy-washyness, but I just call it smart.

Red Lentil Salad with Lemony Couscous & Avocado

In one distinct way, I am a very "granola" person: I am a freak for lentils. I love them as a side dish, in soups and salads, or cooked forever and mashed into a dip/spread. I am a big fan of beans in general, and lentils are among the most nutritious of them, beating out even my other favorite (chickpeas) for more protein and less fat per serving. The fat content in beans is nearly negligible, but whatever. I still love lentils. And granola.

The balsamic vinegar in the dressing conceals the natural red color of the lentils somewhat.

This lentil salad recipe is my attempt to mechanize a very odds-and-ends dish that I've tossed together approximately one zillion times. (This is the first time I've used red lentils instead of your basic brownish green variety, which will cook for more like 20-30 minutes instead of 5-10.) You can use basically any vegetables that you want to in this salad. Cucumber and celery are both good, as are fresh herbs, and you could also add Feta, which I sometimes do. Cherry tomatoes really are better for the salad format, but if you just don't have any around (I didn't) plum tomatoes are dandy too. And if couscous isn't your bag, you could serve this on a bed of baby spinach, which is equally delicious:

Ingredients:

1 cup red lentils, rinsed, any debris discarded

1-2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

2 cloves garlic, minced or pressed

3/4 cup bell pepper, any color, coarsely chopped

3/4 cup cherry tomatoes, halved, or 2-3 plum tomatoes diced and seeded

1/2 cup carrots, cut into matchsticks

1 green onion, thinly sliced

1/2 - 1 avocado, sliced lengthwise
Handful of baby spinach (optional)

Salt and pepper

Olive oil

3/4 cup couscous

3/4 cup water or reduced-sodium vegetable broth

The zest and juice of 1 lemon (a little pulp in the juice is ok)

1/4 teaspoon salt

Salad Directions:

1. In a medium sauce pan, bring about 4 cups of water to a boil over medium heat, and add lentils. Stir to separate and simmer uncovered for 5-10 minutes. (You want them tender to the bite, but not soft. Soft lentils are great for spreads, etc, but when their destination is a salad, you want to preserve more of the bean's structural integrity.)

2. When lentils are tender to the bite, drain and allow to mostly cool at room temperature, then cover and chill for at least 1 hour. (See Cook's Note)

3. In a large bowl, whisk together balsamic vinegar, about 2 tablespoons of olive oil and salt and pepper. Add green onion, bell peppers, tomatoes, carrots, and any other veggies you're using.

4. Add lentils to bowl, and gently combine with dressing and veggies. Pour onto serving dish or serve individually, over the couscous, and top with sliced avocado.

Couscous Directions:

5. In your medium sauce pan, bring water or broth, lemon juice and lemon zest to a boil. 

6. In a medium bowl, combine couscous and salt. (If you are using regular-sodium broth, you may want to omit the salt).

7. Pour boiling broth over couscous and allow to sit 10 minutes. Fluff couscous with a fork before serving. 

Cook's Note: This time of year I like to cook my lentils and then chill them before making this salad. You can also do the warm-lentils-cool-veggies thing, but I think a similar effect is created with the cool salad and warm couscous. This makes about 4 servings.

 7 steps seems like a lot to me, because I'm lazy, but as you can see this is super easy and definitely not time-consuming. And so yummy! The salad can easily be a make-ahead, and would be delicious for lunch in a pita pocket, which is extra nice. I'm definitely looking forward to leftovers for lunch tomorrow. Of course, the avocado doesn't travel so well, but even without it this is a tasty, fill-you-up-and-keep-you-going meal.

Quote of the Day: Magnesium is Nature's own calcium channel blocker. When enough magnesium is around, veins and arteries breathe a sigh of relief and relax... Want to literally keep your heart happy? Eat lentils. ~ WHFoods.com

Couscous with Veggies, Chickpeas, Toasted Almonds, Herbs & A Little Spice

We are in the midst of a very ugly heat wave here in Philadelphia, which I will not bore you with the details of. Except that it is ugly, I am too hot, and I don't want to talk about it. Except to say that I would pay double the value of my student loans for a freak July blizzard. Which is a lot. Moving on.

They (the internet) tell me that whole-wheat couscous is popular amongst the vegetarian set, which I guess shouldn't really surprise me. It's easy to prepare, versatile in its seasoning potential, and can be loaded up with a ton of veggies and beans for a delicious complete-protein meal. So here is the version that I came up with tonight. I got a bit cavalier with combining flavors, so measurements are approximate:

Ingredients:

"2 servings" of whole wheat couscous; 3/4 cup before cooking

1 1/2 cups broccoli florets, cut small

1 1/2 cups chickpeas, canned and thoroughly rinsed or fully cooked

2 plum tomatoes, diced and seeded

2-3 good pinches paprika, to taste

2 teaspoons dried dill

1 tablespoon lemon juice, white wine vinegar or jarring juice from queen olives or something similar. (I used the juice from a jar of pepperoncini, which worked great.)
1-2 tablespoons dried parsley, or about 1 tablespoon fresh, coarsely chopped

A few fresh basil leaves per serving, torn

3/4 cup onion, finely chopped

1/2 cup toasted almond slivers

Salt and pepper, to taste

1 tablespoon olive oil

Makes 3 main-dish servings.

Directions:

1. Cook couscous according to package directions.

2. Toss with everything except the basil and almonds.

3. Transfer couscous mixture to plates or a serving platter, and sprinkle with basil leaves and toasted almond slivers - as much or as little as you want.

Cook's Notes: 1) Toasting almond slivers is easy: Toss one-layer's-worth in a dry frying or saute pan and cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, until toasty in color and deliciously aromatic. This doesn't take long. 2) Since I didn't precisely measure the liquids that went into this dish, I would say to start with a little and see how you like it. Of course, if you find that your couscous is a bit too dry, you can add a bit more olive oil and/or juice.

I know - paprika, basil, dill and broccoli - not the most common combination. At the last moment I wondered - what was I thinking? Well, I don't have an answer to that, but somehow this became a delightful combination. Brady hit the nail on the head - it's definitely different, but definitely delicious. The paprika brings a bit of the spice factor while the chickpeas add body and protein, the almonds add crunch and the whole thing is rather herby and delicious.

Couscous in progress. Yumyumyum.

There is probably no way to significantly mess this up. Diced bell peppers would also be delicious in this herb-spice-veggie combination, in addition to or instead of the tomato. It's super easy and also vegan! Everybody wins.

Quote of the Day: Couscous - the food so nice they named it twice. ~ Dale Denton, Pineapple Express (2008)