A while back, we got a Groupon for the Clean Catch Fish Market in Charlotte and finally bought some fish with it.  We took home arctic char and black bass.



I'm not sure that I've ever made bass, so I didn't know how most people cooked it.  After a short recipe search, I landed on today's recipe, brought us from Anne Burrell from her Food Network Show, Secrets of a Restaurant Chef.  It's a fairly simple recipe that really cooks the fish well (by pan searing it) and gives you a really good meal that would be a good fancy-dinner-at-home meal in something like 15 minutes.


The only thing I'd do differently is that I might try to either season the fish better next time, or add some other flavor element to the fish itself- maybe a sauce or drizzle with the grapefruit juice.  The fish was cooked well- moist, flaky and tender- but it was a little on the bland side.  On a positive note with that, if you don't like strong fish, this is an ideal choice.

Seared Black Bass with Bitter Greens, Grapefruit, and Feta Salad
from Anne Burrell

recipe is written to feed four people.

Extra-virgin olive oil
Four 6-ounce black bass fillets
Kosher salt
5 to 6 cups bitter greens, such as arugula, dandelion, escarole, radicchio, endive or frisee
1/2 small red onion, thinly sliced
1/2 ruby red grapefruit, juiced
1/4 cup pitted gaeta or kalamata olives, slivered
2 ruby red grapefruits, supremed
3/4 cup crumbled feta

Coat a large saute pan with olive oil and bring to a high heat. Coat the bottom of another smaller saute pan with olive oil. Sprinkle the fish with salt on both sides. When the large saute pan is screaming hot but not quite smoking, lay the fish fillets in the pan, skin-side down. Do not crowd the pan, you may have to work in batches. After you put the fish in the pan, place the other small saute pan directly on top of the fish fillets. This applies gentle pressure to the fish and forces the skin to have contact with the pan and will create crispy skin. Cook the fish for 3 to 4 minutes and then remove the top pan. Shake the pan a little to unstick the fish. Use a fish spatula and flip the fish fillets and cook for 2 more minutes on the other side. Remove from the pan and serve or keep warm until the remaining fish is cooked.

In a large mixing bowl, dress the greens and red onions with olive oil and grapefruit juice and season with salt. Toss in the olive slivers and grapefruit supremes.

Divide the salad among 4 serving plates and sprinkle with feta. Lean a fish fillet on each salad. Serve immediately.

How to supreme any citrus- cut a bit off the top and bottom of the fruit, and sit it on a cutting surface.  With your knife, cut the peel off, cutting small sections straight down from the top.  Then, slice in between the membrane separating each slice of fruit to segment it.  Then you get a supremed citrus, or slices without peel/membranes.

...because when we're being good we still want something that feels like a treat.

If you're an all-natural, whole foods health nut, look away.  This little treat is going to horrify you, with its diet soda (phenylalanine!) and boxed cake mix.  These skinny cupcakes are not healthy.  If, however, you're not too worried about it, try this Weight Watchers idea.



Take a box of cake mix and a can of diet soda, and bake them into cupcakes.  That's it.  Easiest box mix ever.  They're still very moist and tasty.  What have you tried and loved?

Skinny Funfetti Cupcakes
from Weight Watchers

Makes 15-18 cupcakes

1 box Funfetti (or confetti) cake mix
1 can (12 oz) diet lemon-lime soda (Sprite, 7-up)

Preheat your oven to 350.  Line 2- 12 cup muffin tins with cupcake liners.  Pour your cake mix and soda into a medium-sized or larger bowl and stir (or mix with a hand mixer) until combined.  Pour about 1/4 cup batter into each cup, about halfway up the side.  Bake them 15-20 minutes, or until done.  A toothpick inserted should come out pretty clean.

For additional lower-calorie goodness, frost with your own frosting, reduced fat/calorie whipped topping, or whatever you choose.

Notes

• I used homemade frosting, which I found on Pinterest.  Recipe coming soon.  It was not in any way pretending to be low fat or healthy.  
• I mentioned these to a co-worker and she suggested mixing a box of chocolate cake mix and diet cherry soda.  YUM!

• I used 1 quart homemade turkey stock from a smoked turkey we ate at Thanksgiving dinner and 1 quart store bought chicken stock.  You can use chicken, turkey, or vegetable stock here.  
• I halved the orzo amount from the original recipe, and still felt like there was a lot in the pot.  Feel free to adjust based on how thick you like your soup.
• On the orzo (or any other soup with pasta)- pasta has the tendency to swell and become mushy in soups, especially when it comes to leftovers.  You can follow the directions above and your pasta will likely have a similar result.  It doesn't usually bother me in these thinner, shorter pastas.  If, however, you don't like how pastas turn out in soups, cook the pasta separately to desired doneness and then add it to individual bowls of soup.  
• I used a rotisserie chicken for this recipe.  My local store's rotisserie chickens are smaller but less fatty, and it takes about half the chicken to get the amount I want.
• I didn't use a slow cooker, but I imagine you could warm everything together, maybe not adding the chicken and spinach until the last 30 minutes to hour of cooking.

Green onions are sliced thin and mixed with just enough mayonnaise to bind them, and it's all slathered on the fillets.  The whole thing is then broiled and dinner is ready in something like 10 minutes flat.  Serve with a salad and roasted potatoes and you have a restaurant quality dinner that is completely in keeping with your resolutions...or your desire to not have another dish with 3 pounds of cheese or cream of anything soup.

Scallion Crusted Arctic Char
from Gourmet via epicurious.com
feeds 2-4, depending on appetite

4 to 6 scallions
1 tablespoon mayonnaise
2 (6-ounce) pieces arctic char fillet
preparation

Preheat broiler. Line rack of broiler pan with foil.

Finely chop scallions and stir together with mayonnaise. Pat fillets dry. Place fillets, skin sides down, on broiler pan and season each fillet with a generous pinch of salt and pepper. Spread scallion mixture evenly over tops of fillets.

Broil 3 to 4 inches from heat until scallions are slightly charred and fish is just cooked through, about 8 minutes.