A Weekend

Usually my older brother visits me on weekends, arriving Saturday evening about 6:00 and staying either until early Sunday afternoon or until Monday afternoon. (In summer, if he has Race Committee duty, he'll usually arrive after dinner on Friday.) At 9:00 Saturday evening, my younger brother calls from Japan, where he has lived since 1973, and we talk for about an hour.

During my major weekly shopping expedition on February 27, I had bought meat for a pot roast for Saturday dinner, and chicken thighs for Sunday. But by the time I had finished everything else I wanted to do on Saturday, February 2, and went to the kitchen to prepare dinner, I realized that there wasn't enough time to prepare, cook, and eat the pot roast before the phone call from Japan. I substituted the chicken. My brother went back to Boston Sunday afternoon, leaving me with a piece of beef which I had expected to provide dinner for two and leftovers for another meal for me. The best course seemed to be to save it for our dinner on Saturday of this weekend.

Strictly speaking, it's not weekend, but I attended the Boston Symphony concert on Thursday evening. But I blogged about it on Saturday, and that definitely was part of the weekend.

We had tickets for a concert of the Handel and Haydn Society at 3:00 p.m. on Sunday, so the plan was for my brother to go back to Boston after the 11:00 Mass on Sunday. I'd stay here and have lunch and meet him at Symphony Hall. But as the weekend arrived, there were predictions of snow and rain Sunday morning, and my brother decided to stay in Boston.

This created two complications. First, he would not be around for the pot roast this weekend, but I couldn't keep it for another week without freezing it, which I didn't want to do. So I cooked it on Saturday to provide my dinner both Saturday and Sunday. Second, I have the H+H tickets here. Usually my brother takes his ticket with him when h leaves for Boston at midday on Sunday. Since he wasn't going to be here, we had to arrange to meet in the lobby of Symphony Hall for me to give him his ticket. That meant that I couldn't decide to stay home if it was still snowing on Sunday afternoon. As it happened, the snow had turned to rain, and the roads were merely wet.

Since this was the weekend we shifted to Daylight Saving Time (Summer Time), I got less sleep than I might have on an ordinary weekend, and I was afraid that my tendency to drowse during afternoon concerts might be strong. I took a brief nap after Mass, and as it happened, the music was interesting enough that I was wide awake for the whole thing. The concert was very enjoyable.

Baked Stuffed Haddock

Most weeks, I have baked stuffed haddock on Wednesday. Peter, who was at Tanglewood with me in 2017 has asked for my recipe — which he helped me make while he was visiting me here. So here it is.

Baked Stuffed Haddock "Naturgesetz"

12-14 oz. haddock (or other whitefish) filet

8 oz. green pepper, zucchini, or summer squash

6 crimini ("Baby Bella") mushrooms

olive oil

butter

malt vinegar

Old Bay® seasoning

dried chervil

plain dried breadcrumbs

Preheat oven to 350°F. While oven is heating, put olive oil in a baking dish (mine is pyrex glass). It should cover the bottom of the dish.

If using zucchini or summer squash, cut off the ends, peel and slice it lengthwise. If using green pepper, wash it and slice either horizontally or vertically, discarding seeds, stem, membranes and white bulb to which seeds are attached. This leaves just the green part of the pepper.

When the oven is hot remove the baking dish and tilt it to coat the sides with olive oil about 1/2 inch up each side. Add the vegetable pieces, coating every surface of each piece with olive oil, and arrange them around the sides of the dish. Return the dish to the oven.

Wipe the heads of the mushrooms with a moist paper towel to remove any extraneous matter and cut off the stems.

Add about 4 teaspoons of butter, thinly sliced, to the baking dish and return it to the oven.

Lightly sprinkle the fish on with vinegar on both sides, then season the inside surface with the seasoning and a generous amount of chervil. Remove the baking dish from the oven and place the fish in it, seasoned side down. Season the skin side with the seasoning and herb. Turn the fish over and sprinkle the top with breadcrumbs sufficient to hide most of the herb.

Bake for 5-6 minutes. Meanwhile, slice the mushrooms horizontally (or chop them if space in the baking dish is tight).

Remove the baking dish and add the mushrooms, coating all surfaces with the butter/oil blend in the dish. Turn the vegetables, and return the dish to the oven and bake for another 5-6 minutes.

Remove the baking dish from the oven, turn the mushrooms, and return the dish to the oven. Bake for another 5-6 minutes.

Serve with rice or on toast points. Tilt the baking dish and use a spatula to scrape the oil into one corner, and pour it over the fish (and a bit on the rice).

Serves two

Notes:

Salt substitute or other seasoning may be used in place of Old Bay®.

Parsley may be used in place of chervil.

Chopped onion might be used instead of all or part of the vegetable.

The vegetables may be sprinkled with dried oregano (and celery salt) before putting them in the baking dish.

All measurements are approximate. Vary quantities to taste.

The cooking time depends on the thickness of the filet. The thicker the piece, the longer it needs. It should be firm, mist, and flake readily when done. If there are very thin ends, they can be folded under to approximate the thickness of the rest of the filet so they won't overcook. Flounder tends to be much thinner than haddock. I'd recommend giving it no more than 10-12 minutes and adjusting the procedure so that the veggies get at least 20 minutes (flipping when the flounder goes in) and the mushrooms go in with the flounder (and flip when 5 minutes remain).

The "skin side" of the filet is a bit smoother that the other side and often has a (completely edible) thin white membrane on some portion of it. The "inside surface" is more porous.

This recipe can also be used for shrimp or scallops (slice large scallops crosswise).

Baked stuffed haddock in baking dish with green peppers and  chopped mushrooms. The haddock filet was larger than usual and there wasn't enough room left for the mushrooms if I had sliced them as usual.

Toast points.

The plated dinner. Usually the sliced mushrooms are beside the fish, not on top of it.

Click on the photos to enlarge.