Mindylynn's Kitchen

It’s not secret that I love tuna, I love it raw and cooked every which way.  But growing up tuna was not something we EVER (and I do mean ever) cooked.  In my family tuna came in a can.  It’s rather sad but I never thought past that.  When I first saw tuna raw and in the flesh I was flabbergasted…I mean it was purple!!!  I was perplexed in my experience tuna was white and so dry that it had to be mixed in equal part with mayonnaise.  Well I’ve learned that tuna is a delicious fish, and properly cooked it in no way resembles the dry white flakes in the can.  The most important thing to realize when cooking tuna is that it should be seared and preferably rare on the inside (make sure you have a good quality fish so there’s no fear of…)  This is a recipe that was inspired in part by a delicious meal I had at a restaurant and in part by the finale of a season of Hell’s Kitchen. (more…)

This is a left over recipe. When I made my fish balls half the mixture was leftover so I made one LARGE patty, dipped it in the tempura and fried it. Then I refidgerated it. The next day I heated a teaspoon of oil in a frying pan and crisped up the outside. I toasted an english muffin and slathered on some skipper’s tarter sauce and finished it off with thinly sliced carrot, some baby spinach leaves and white onion. It was so good.

MMmmMM good! I was going to make fish and chips. Another of the hubby’s favorite (seeing a theme yet?) when he asked me to make him some potstickers…what? For those of you who don’t know my hubby and his legendary pickiness, this is as unsual request as a vegan asking for chicken. So I tweaked my meal planning and made some asian flavored tuna balls. They were quite good. (more…)

I’m obsessed with sushi, I mean seriously OBSESSED! I could eat it almost every day. There is an art to making sushi, but it’s fairly simple to make a yummy bowl to enjoy at home. If you are using raw fish make sure it’s extremely fresh, and should NOT smell like fish, but like the sea.

This is a single serving…because I’m the only sushi aficionado in the home.
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My husband LOVES fish tacos whenever we go out to Mexican food restaurants it’s what he orders. His favorite to date come from a chain restaurant (HORRORS!) called Acapulcos. This was my attempt at copying them. (more…)

I purchased an whole albacore tuna down at the docks. The average they had was about 13 pounds, which when cleaned leaves me with almost 6 pounds of fish. I was lucky enough that the fisher men filleted it for me so I only had to deal with portioning out 4 large boneless loins. I cut the loins down into 4 even portions about 1 pound each and froze them. The rest was irregular shaped end pieces that I decided to eat fresh.

Fish Tacos
Tuna Sushi Bowl
Fish Balls
Fish Sandwich
Sesame Crusted Soy Ginger Tuna

beef shank, slow cooked with carmalized onions and red wine. YUM! Serve with roasted potatoes or over polenta.

You’d think I was pregnant with the cravings I get…today it was tuna…mmhhmm…So, I toasted an English muffin, mixed up some tuna salad (mayo, mustard, worchestisher, hot sauce, pickles, salt, pepper, onion powder) a slice of harvati cheese (available at costco pre sliced) and toasted the 2 mini open face sandwiches. OH MY…I want another one just thinking about it.

Rememeber lady lovely locks?  Come on, the cartoon with the girls with long lovely bountiful locks of hair? Still not ringing the bell? she had pixies hiding in her hair that would help her save the day…no?  You must not have been a kid in the early eighties…bad style and weird (but great) cartoons. 
Moving on…this bagel is wonderful, and not at all an origonal, bagels with lox and cream cheese have been enjoyed for years…but here on the west coast it’s just not eaten very often.  and why the heck not?!?! it’s amazing.  I don’t keep cream cheese in the fridge that often anymore because I prefer marscapone (the italian version) but I’m sure either is yummy. 

One bagel (a good one from a bagel shop would deffinitely be a plus)
smear of marscapone/cream cheese
lotsa lotsa lox (cold smoked salmon, you know the kind that isn’t flaky)
thinly sliced red onion
dill
some fresh lemon juice
coarse fresh ground pepper

toast bagel (duh) smear on your creamy goodness (marscapone in my case) top with lox, load ‘er up, squeeze just a few drops of lemon juice, top with onion & dill and grind some pepper on top.  OOOOOOOhhh

*side note*
the lox (a.k.a smoked salmon) from costco is quite yummy and you can portion it out into sandwich bags and freeze it.  It gets a little bit mushier, but ins’t terribly noticeable.  YUM

I always hear people complaining about the “gamey” taste of lamb.  I think part of the problem is that commercial corn fed meat is extremely bland and flavorless.  So, when you taste meat that has any flavor it tastes off.   I hear the same complaints about grass fed meats.  I will admit that grass fed meats and lamb were an acquired taste…a quickly acquired taste, after a couple of dishes I was hooked.  This recipe plays with the gamey flavors of lamb and meld for a delicious dish. 

One boneless leg of lamb (I buy  mine at…costco)
1 1/2 cups of roasted garlic
1 individual portion (kiddie cup) of applesauce
1/3 cup of kosher salt
2 tsp. of apple cider vinegar

Mix all ingredients together to form a paste and smear over lamb.  Place in rotisserie until cooked to your preference.  I use a meat thermometer.