This week has been a hectic one, and I haven't cooked as much as a usually do. But one thing I have cooked (several times) in the past two weeks is this recipe from Mark Bittman's "The Minimalist" column in the New York Times. Like so many Minimalist recipes, this one has few ingredients, few steps, takes little time, and is so, so good.
Go to Bittman's video demonstration here to watch him prepare xec ("check"), a citrus salsa from South America. You'll love it on fish, but will soon be asking yourself how it sounds with any number of other things. Enjoy!
Maya Citrus Salsa (Xec) With Red Snapper Time: 15 minutes
1 orange
1 small grapefruit
1 large lemon
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves
1/2 habanero or other chili, seeded and minced, or to taste
Salt to taste
2 tablespoons oil
4 red snapper fillets, 4 to 6 ounces each, preferably skin on (and scaled).
1. Heat oven to 450 degrees. Cut orange in half horizontally and section it as you would a grapefruit; do this over a bowl to capture all its juice. Remove seeds and combine flesh and juice in bowl. Repeat with grapefruit and lemon. Stir in cilantro, habanero and salt.
2. Put oil in a nonstick or cast-iron skillet over medium high heat. A minute later, add fish, skin side down; season top with salt. Cook until skin begins to crisp, 3 or 4 minutes, then transfer to oven. Cook another 3 or 4 minutes, or until a thin-bladed knife meets little resistance when inserted into thickest part of fish. Serve fish with xec, immediately.
Yield: 4 servings.
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3 comments:
Citrus plus heat-dang, I like the sound of this. What else have you tried it on?
kath and i both love mark bittman. his recipes are soooo simple.
What else have I tried it with? Besides fish, just tortillas at this point. And, to by honest, I've had it by itself more than once.
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