Fish on Fish on Guac

As you can see, I'm trying to sort a lot of things out. I'm not committing to a habit of posting every two days but I can understand why I'm giving that impression. However, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to acknowledge that I had a big come up today. My phenomenal older brother, EZ, who has been helping me look like slightly less of a moron with technology for my entire life, got me a Christmas present: the domain name www.kitchenassassin.com. That foxy URL now takes you to this here page. This heads up could have been accomplished in an intimate mass e-mail but I wanted to make sure that credit was given more publicly and thus, he is now bronzed on the very blog he helped promote. EZ, you are my best brother; don't ever forget that.

On a different note, I just came home from two glorious days in Tahoe.

Man, I love that place. I eat a lot of eggs, eat a lot of snow, and generally have a great time without fail. I had the privilege of commuting with two favorites: Morty and Sage. I will dedicate the following words (which will be intentionally more brief than the previous posts) to those lovelies.

First, let's talk Sage. She is not only a wicked good herb used to make delicious brown butter for ravioli, she is also the reason that I discovered I liked homoingredient cooking. Homoingredient? Yes. Same on same. Last September, Sage was moonlighting as our fourth roommate. As a result we would often find tasty bars of Swiss chocolate and the occasional bag of Hawaiian tropical salt water taffy. One night we were graced by Sage's culinary flare in the memorable first taste of one of my new loves: fish on fish. The story goes (and Sage correct me if I'm wrong) she was in the grocery store talking shop with a fishmonger when a lovely older man passing by interjected a recipe about what to do with a mild white fish. It was a few weeks later that Sage brought Halibut with Lox Sauce into our lives. It's a little crazy that this is so easy and so delicious. But that is why she is sage counsel to be sought.

2 fish fillets (7ish oz each)
1/3 stick of butter (plus a bit extra to grease foil)
Juice from 1 medium-large lemon
6 oz lox
2 Tbl fresh dill (optional)
pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 400. Melt the butter in a pan then add the lemon juice. Spread the pieces of fish into a baking dish lined with lightly greased aluminum foil. Brush the fish with a bit of the lemon butter from the sauce pan. Bake the fish in the oven for 5-8 minutes (depending on the thickness and size of the fish). This is just a kick-start for the fish, it won't be done. While the fish is cooking, cut the lox into small pieces. Add the lox to the saucepan with the remaining lemon butter and saute for one minute or until the color begins to mute slightly. Add the fresh dill and season with pepper to taste. When the fish is lightly cooked spread the lox sauce generously over the top of the fish. Bake for an additional 4-5 minutes or until the fish is done.

What do you call a fish with no eyes? Fsssshhhhh. Delish.

And onto Morty (proud owner of a new Husky toolbelt. Mort is neither husky nor a tool and yet he looks pretty sharp, and does a nasty booty drop, with that belt on his person). As I mentioned in the first post, Bearman (same as Mort for those not in the know) is part of the reason this blog exists in the first place. And I have to say that I feel no small amount of pressure to impress him, or at the very least not waste his time with my amateur endeavors. Last night was a great team effort on the dinner front. We were dealing with assemble-your-own-burritos; the in-house Tahoe dinner second most popular to take-and-bake pizza. We had purchased some avocados with the intention of having them as a burrito filling option; I got inspired to make guacamole as my contribution to the meal. As a side note, I think there is collective community energy to have a guac-off. I know Em is ready to bring the Dubin family's secret recipe to the table and I think a few others could be persuaded to try their hands as well. Needless to say, last night's guac was rendered as such:

2 avocados
1 medium tomato
2.5 Tbl. diced red onion
juice from .5 lime
1 tsp. balsamic vinegar
1/3 tsp. salt
1-2 Tbl. Ashanti Louisiana Hot Sauce (this was what I could find at the store for $.79 but superior hot sauces should be substituted) depending on desired heat

Combine all ingredients then dominate with the tines of a fork to puree to the best of your manual ability.

The guacamole certainly was nice to look at so I dipped a chip for Bearman and asked that he do the first taste. The interaction went something like this:

[Chip into Bearman's mouth]
[Crunching]
[uncomfortable pause]
Bearman: "Nais...."
Me: "Is it okay?"
Bearman: "That might be some of the best guac I've ever had."

Morton Robert Bearman III, you are my muse.