The Little Farm Company – Larraine Segil's Books, Recipes, Products, Children's Music & More!

Background:

We love whitefish – and its so easy to make and has a clean feeling about it. This is just about the quickest meal I can make that is elegant and healthy. Cooking the potatoes in the microwave helps a lot – I actually used left over baked potatoes from the day before, and some tomatoes and peppers from our Little Farm of course, to throw this together.

Ingredients:

1.5 pounds of Whitefish center cut

4 Yukon potatoes cooked in microwave

3 peppers sliced and cleaned

One onion chopped

1 tbsp of Marjoram fresh or dried

1 tbsp of Basil chopped fresh or dried

2 tbsp Olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste

1 tbsp of butter

1/4 cup of green peas fresh or frozen

Juice of half a lemon, and lemon slices for serving

1 cup of chopped red and yellow tomatoes – cherry tomatoes are best but any will do

Preparation Time: 15 minutes

Cooking Time: 15 minutes

Directions:

1. Chop and slice all vegetable ingredients while potatoes, cut into quarters. are cooking in microwave ( about 5 minutes)

2. Saute the onion until translucent in half of the olive oil.

3. Add the sliced and diced peppers and tomatoes, and cooked potatoes

3. Add the herbs, marjoram and basil and salt and pepper to taste.

4. Mix all the ingredients and add the green peas last. Heat and let all the tastes merge together nicely.

5. In the meantime, heat a non stick frying pan with the rest of the olive oil and butter, and when bubbling, but not brown, add the fish cut into serving sized pieces (4). 6. 7. Squeeze the juice of half a lemon over the fish and let the fish cook for about 3 minutes on the one side until it begins to brown, then carefully flip it over and cook another 3 minutes on the other side.

8. Serve in a pretty platter, and arrange the vegetable mixture on each side of the fish pieces and add lemon slices on each plate if desired.

Tilapia baked with Tomatoes and Herbs

Background:

When I am tired at the end of a long day, I look for a fast tasty dish to make. This one is great since its healthy and fast. I like to cook the fish in the oven not the microwave, since that gives the brown rice time to cook properly. If you cant be bothered to wait that extra 20 minutes for the rice, use the microwave for the fish and instant rice for the side. The cilantro adds a lovely contrast and Mexican touch to this dish – but some people do not care for it. Remember you are the boss in your kitchen so you can add or subtract ingredients as you wish! The photos are of the brown rice, with the fish, sauce and vegetables on it, a delicious one course meal.

Ingredients:

16 ounces of any fish ( tilapia, tuna, halibut, salmon)

Chopped tomatoes ( about 6)

Chopped Onion ( 1 large)

Chopped Chives 1/4 Cup

Olive oil 4 tbsp

Juice of one lemon ( remove pits)

Paprika (1 tbsp)

Chopped garlic (2 cloves)

Cilantro ( optional -only if you like it)

Salt and pepper to taste

Brown Rice 1 cup

Shallots 2

Chicken Stock ( Better than Bouillon is great)

Water to make up the chicken stock

Preparation Time: 30 minutes

Cooking Time: 15 minutes

Directions:

1. Chop onion and garlic and saute in 2 tablespoons of olive oil for a few minutes until translucent.
2. Add the spices and mix for a minute; add tomatoes and chives.
3. Pour half the mixture into a ceramic serving dish that will fit into a microwave and add the fish cut into four serving pieces; pour the rest of the sauce on the mixture.
4. Place in the microwave on medium for about 5-7 minutes until the fish flakes easily and tastes cooked. OR you could place the dish in the regular oven at 400 degrees for 20 minutes or until bubbling and fish flakes easily and is cooked.
5. While the fish is cooking, fry the chopped shallots in another 2 tablespoons of olive oil until translucent.
6. Add the brown rice and fry for 30 seconds, then add chicken stock mixed with water ( use the right amount of water to cook the amount of rice you are making as indicated on the rice packet).
7. Reduce heat to low and simmer for about 30 minutes or until the liquid is absorbed and rice is soft and cooked.
8. Take the dish with the fish out of the oven, and sprinkle chopped cilantro on top if you like it. and serve with steamed white rice.

Salmon ( I cooked this with my eldest grandson – isn’t he gorgeous?)

Soy Ginger Salmon with Mushrooms, Snow Peas and Udon Noodles

I cook the ingredients separately, but them pile them all into the same dish so that it is easy to eat and clean up!

Ingredients:

1lb of Salmon ( i use organic wild salmon – but it is not necessary -since it is more expensive and I reckon about half a pound of salmon per adult helping  since you know that Salmon and Meat reduces in weight once cooked by about 20%. So half a pound will end up being about 6 ounces which is a large but not unreasonable portion.

1 cup of snow peas or regular peas if you cant find snow peas

I packet of Udon Noodles ( any kind of angel hair pasta is fine if you cant find Udon)

1 cup of sliced raw mushrooms any kind

1 Tbsp plus 1 teaspoon Olive Oil

Salt and Pepper to taste

6 Tbsp Low Salt Soy sauce ( or regular if you cant find low sodium)

1 Tbsp of Ground Ginger

OR  you could use a commercially prepared Soy Ginger Salad Dressing or Marinade if you can find one easily

Preparation Time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 10 minutes

Directions:

1. Put a pot of hot water onto the stove and bring to a boil with a pinch of salt.
2. Salt and pepper the salmon pieces and lay them aside.
3. Mix the ginger and soy sauce with a teaspoon of the olive oil and put half over the salmon.
4. Wash the mushrooms and slice them; clean the stalks off of the snow peas and wash them and set aside.
5. Place the rest of the olive oil in a pan and bring to medium heat – then place the salmon pieces skin side down if they have skin and cook until you see that the cooked part is about 1/3 of the total thickness of the salmon piece then turn it over and do the same on the other side. You may have to turn twice more so that all four sides get seared but do not overcook. Some folks like their salmon more on the rare side – its really up to you – but overcooked fish ( more than about 6-7 minutes) is not as tasty. Remove the salmon from the pan and put it into a small casserole or serving plate with some depth.
6. Place the mushrooms into the pan with all the salmon juices and cook them until they have reduced to about half their size – then spoon them over the salmon pieces.
7. Now the water should be boiling so place the udon or other noodles into the boiling water – follow the instructions on the packet – normally boil the noodles for about 4-5 minutes until tender ( some folks like them al dente which is not soft all the way through – I don’t).
8. While the noodles are cooking put the snow peas into the frying pan and add the rest of the marinade to what’s left from the salmon and the mushrooms in the pan, and cook them gently so that they are covered with the sauces.
9. Drain the noodles – and let them sit for a minute so that they have no more water dripping off them, then pour them over the Salmon Mushroom mixture.
10. Now add the snow peas with their delicious sauce on top of that. Mix the sauce and snow peas with the noodles and mushrooms that are on top of the salmon gently with a fork lifting the noodles up and down a bit, but not mixing the salmon along with it.
11. Serve making sure that each serving has the salmon on the bottom the snow peas, udon and mushroom mixture on the side and garnish with one snow pea on top of the salmon for effect.
12. If you cant eat right away – this can be refrigerated and reheated gently the next day. This works for leftovers – so it may be a good idea ( depending on the size of your family and your budget – to double the recipe).