Friday, January 29, 2010

Spiced Rock Fish with Carrot Puree and Gingered Beets

Last week, I stopped by our Wednesday farmers’ market to see what looked good and what might become inspiration for our weekend meals. It was the carrots and sweet potatoes that caught my eye. Fresh, bright orange carrots, just pulled out of the ground have a crunch and sweetness that makes their distant, plastic-bagged cousins seem completely unrelated. The carrots I bought last week came from Johnson’s Backyard Garden, and it was an enormous and gorgeous bunch of carrots. I remembered reading about a carrot puree and eventually found it in Sunday Suppers at Lucques. That puree was part of a meal including harissa-spiced fish and gingered beets, and Suzanne Goin wrote that it was all inspired by carrots. She once had an abundance of fresh and delicious carrots and came up with this meal to highlight them. That sounded pretty perfect since I was in a similar carrot situation.

In the book, the dish is prepared with snapper fillets, but as I stood before the fish counter last weekend, the rock fish had a shinier and happier look about it. I went with the rock fish, and regarding sustainability issues, rock fish and snapper rate about the same. However, I’m kicking myself now that I realize I could have purchased snapper from a local source at the Saturday farmers’ market. Next time. The first step in preparing this meal was making harissa. Dried ancho chiles were rehydrated, cumin seeds were toasted and crushed, and canned tomatoes were cooked until reduced. All of those items were added to a food processor along with garlic, hot smoked paprika, cayenne, vinegar, and salt and pepper. Once pureed, it was harissa. Remember those sweet potatoes I mentioned? For another meal, they were made into oven fries and served with some of this harissa, and that was an excellent pairing. For this meal, the harissa was coated onto the fish which was left to marinate in the refrigerator for a few hours. Meanwhile, the beets were roasted, and the carrots were chopped. With such fresh carrots, I don’t actually peel them. I wash them and pull off any root fibers, but leave as much of each carrot intact as possible. The carrots were steamed with some cilantro stems while chopped onion was sauteed. The steamed carrots were added to the onion and allowed to caramelize a bit before that mixture was pureed with olive oil. The roasted beets were skinned and then tossed with a vinaigrette of shallot, jalapeno, garlic, ginger, mint, cilantro, lime juice, and olive oil. The fish was to have been grilled, but I pan-sauteed it instead.

There are times when a vegetable puree can be reminiscent of baby food, but this wasn’t one of them. The sauteed onion and caramelization added depth, and the hint of cilantro and olive oil prevented the puree from being too sweet. The earthy beets in vinaigrette were a bright and tangy contrasting flavor to that of the puree. And, the main attraction, the fish, was the star of the meal. The harissa had flavored the fish well, but since most of it was scraped away before cooking, what remained was subtle, smoky savoriness. This was one of those meals that I couldn’t believe I had whipped up in my own kitchen and that it was so easy. I love going out for great restaurant meals, but I’m always delighted when a meal seems that good at home.





25 comments:

  1. Absolutely beautiful. I love the flavors. Harissa is a wonderful ingredient.This looks as pretty as it would be tasty (i just know it is).
    *kisses* HH

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  2. That looks wonderful. I'm going to have to try out that puree with the carrots I get from our Johnson's CSA share.

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  3. mmm...harissa. kudos for making your own and not taking the easy way out. i'm sure it was far superior to whatever is available in the store. this is stellar meal, lisa, and as usual, i'm quite impressed. :)

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  4. Beautiful! and such lovely flavours! Love harissa.

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  5. A very interesting dish! Lovely colors and flavors!

    Cheers,

    Rosa

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  6. That looks like a fancy restaurant dish! I'd like to book a table for two on Saturday night for it. ;)

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  7. You had me on this ginger beets Lisa. Never had rock fish, but soon I will after seeing your delicious creation.
    Cheers,
    elra

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  8. One of the great things about this dish is the color. I think it's so important for food to look good as well as taste good. You did a super job, Lisa. I love every part of this dish and think the pureed carrots far better than the way I often serve them--in a souffle. Which is a pain to make.

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  9. Lisa, everything you cook and bake is absolutely mouth watering, and the photos spectacular. I haven't had much experience with rock fish, but your carrot puree and gingered beets are both definitely something I'd like to try, perhaps with cod.

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  10. I love it when fresh veggies can inspire a dish. The hue of oranges and sweet potatoes has that effect on me as well. What can I say, I love orange food.

    This puree sounds fantastic, especially with the smoky/spiciness of the harissa. The perfect accompaniment to this beautiful fish.

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  11. I love the caramelization you described! Lovely dish!

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  12. Absolutely divine! You really can cook!

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  13. That does look like a restaurant-quality meal! The combination of flavors sounds perfect to me. Lovely photos, as well!

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  14. What an absolutely beautiful meal! This looks heavenly to me : )

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  15. Love the gorgeous colors in this dish and your presentation is beautiful!

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  16. Beautiful and colourful dish. I love harissa but never tried it with fish so I will definitely remember this the next time.

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  17. What a gorgeous meal - it looks like something you'd get at a trendy restaurant - yum!

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  18. The flavours are outstanding...like a symphony. Truely delectable meal Lisa...WOW!!

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  19. Your presentation looks like eating in restaurants.

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  20. Lisa, this is a wonderful meal that you whipped up from what was available at the Farmer's Market. The colors of the beets, carrots and fish really bring the eye appeal of this dish up another notch-damn, healthy too.

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  21. The whole meal screams layers and layers of flavor...just beautiful.

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  22. I don't think I've ever had rock fish, sounds delicious and you're right, the carrots are beautiful. And I love your idea for the vinaigrette for the beets, for a beet-maniac like myself, this will surely come in handy - mint and ginger and lime juice, yum

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