This week’s dinner (In 4 Parts)....balsamic infused kale; sauteed sweet potatoes; pan seared red snapper with basil spice rub.

Post 1-4

Some Thoughts...

This was one of those dinners that developed over the course of the day. It started with the formation of some pretty ambitious plans-I was to make dinner for my two siblings. The social intricacies of the three of us together are probably too complex to get into in this forum, suffice to say that we collectively cause more raucous than the oldest and most crusty British parliament members. In any case, my sister had just returned from a trip, and I jumped at the opportunity to make us all a delicious meal.

I found the kale and the sweet potatoes in my vegetable drawer, and decided on red snapper. It was a stroke of luck that I also found a huge amount of basil sitting in my fridge.

Looking at these items, I made a few decisions off the bat: First, basil is a very effective spice when used in a pesto-like spice mixture. I decided the garlic, basil and nuts could really infuse the whole fish with flavor.

Second, with the savory plan for the red snapper, I decided to embrace the sweet elements of the potatoes (which is hard not to do), and add some sweetness to the kale (the balsamic vinegar reduction). I probably would have done this anyway to counter the slight bitterness of kale.

Third, no matter what I did with these ingredients, I knew dinner would end up being texturally homogenous. I did my best counter each ingredient’s natural tendencies. I chose to add a fried factor to all three dishes in order to counter the natural softness of each dish.

These kinds of primary thoughts pretty much solidified my menu. Other choices later were almost all improvised. My choice to roast the garlic in the kale was a deliberate effort to replace garlic’s natural bitterness with a subtle and smoky sweetness. Roasting garlic for 20-30 minutes before using it in a dish can often bring a new dimension of flavor, and curtail the possible harshness. I find that when I make cold dishes (I will eventually put up my recipe for eggplant dip) roasted garlic works particularly well.

I made this dinner last Monday, and it was light, healthy (despite the butter), and delicious. In the spirit of home cooking, I encourage you too improvise...but please, let me know how your experiments go, I am always open to try something new myself.

Enjoy cooking and eating this dinner. As always, if you have any questions, comments or stories about making these or similar dishes, I would love to hear them.