Roasted Branzino with Fingerling Potatoes, Chimichurri and Bread Crumbs + Cucumber and Radish Salad

I've been cooking a lot lately but haven't really felt like posting about anything until right now. Last night I made a reaaalllyyy delicious meal which I then turned into the best breakfast ever this morning (I'll be posting about that next).

First, I cut the potatoes into even pieces and coated them in salt, pepper and olive oil before roasting them at 400 degrees. Next, I prepared the stuffing for the fish. I sliced up a shallot, a bulb of fennel, some parsley stems and a meyer lemon and seasoned them in a bowl with salt and olive oil. I then seasoned the fish and filled each cavity with a handful of the fennel mixture. The fish were roasted at 425 degrees for about 15 minutes.

For the Chimichurri, I combined parsley, mint, tarragon and chives with a clove of garlic, salt, pepper, olive oil and sherry vinegar in a blender.

For the salad, I sliced some radishes and cucumber and then at the last minute tossed them with a little wild arugula, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper.

Finally, at the last minute, I toasted up some homemade sour dough bread crumbs in a little butter and olive oil with salt and some chili flakes.

Toaster Oven Challege Pt. 1 - Broiled Branzino with Lemon and Fennel + Green Bean Salad with Red Onion, Sherry Vinegar and Toasted Almonds

Not really being able to cook for two weeks was serious torture but we finally got gas today!! I did make a few good meals with my semi-trusty toaster oven though, and this was one of them. Pretty simple and straight-forward but tooootally delicious!

For the green bean salad - I sliced up a little red onion and tossed it with some salt and olive oil before roasting at about 350 degrees until tender. Next, I tossed the green beans in salt and olive oil and roasted those for 8-10 minutes. I chopped up a handful of almonds and toasted those for a few minutes. next I mixed everything together with a little sherry vinegar and a little more olive oil.

For the fish - This was suuuper simple to prepare. First I patted the fish dry with a little paper towel. I seasoned the fish with salt and olive oil. Next I sliced up a little fennel and some lemon and then stuffed it inside the fish, laying the leftovers around the fish. It was about 1.4 pounds and I broiled it for about 4-5 minutes on each side. Finally, I plated up the fish and sprinkled each serving a little salt and drizzled over a little olive oil and lemon juice.

Breakfast/Lunch In Paris

Greetings from Paris!! After 5 days in here, Lucas and I still hadn't had a chance to get to one of the farmer's markets, so this morning, we took a little walk over to the Marché des Enfants Rouge around the corner from where we're staying to gather some ingredients for a breakfast/lunch at home. We bought some baguette, a soft and very stinky cheese whose name I cannot remember, a perfect cantaloupe and some fennel, sucrine and lemon for a little salad.

Sucrine lettuce is one of my favorite things in the world. It's essentially baby lettuce heads but it has a perfectly sweet and slightly bitter taste to it. I love it served with oeuf mayonnaise (boiled eggs with fresh mayonnaise). Unfortunately, I've never been able to find sucrine back home so I try to eat it as much as I can while I'm visiting here.

So for the salad, I quartered up a few sucrines, sliced up a head of baby fennel and dressed them with lemon, olive oil and salt. This was a really simple, but still a completely perfect meal. yuuummm. We're heading to Amsterdam tomorrow and planning on doing a lot of cooking there so stay tuned for more updates in the next few days!