Whitefish in Ginger Sauce with Spinach

I may or may not have mentioned that my boyfriend Richard cooks, too. Having learned to cook while living in Japan for a couple of years, the food he makes tends to be Asian, or at least Asian-inspired. Also it's generally really good. Vegetables cooked just beautifully, with flavorful but light (as in, non-greasy) sauces and a nice balance of meat or fish, tofu, vegetables, and of course rice. I'm always surprised by the seemingly effortless marriage of savory and sweet in most of these dishes, and am pleased to have the opportunity to share one with you. I got him to write it down for me before he forgot, for this was certainly an on-the-spot creation for dinner the other night. I liked it so much I seriously considered making it for myself the next day. It was inspired by a handful of Vietnamese recipes he'd been reading, if I recall correctly.

If you don't have these sauces on hand, know that they're only $3 or $4 a bottle and are available in most grocery stores, and they're really nice to have on hand for the sake of variety. The marinades you can whip up with sriracha hot sauce, nam pla fish sauce, sesame oil, mirin, rice wine, etc, are always, always delicious, in my experience. Lucky for me, we've developed quite a collection. Note that the fish sauce smells funky if you're not used to it, but I promise it tastes good. Have faith in me, k? I won't feed you anything nasty. I'm too picky an eater for that.
Sriracha is known as "cock sauce" among some friends of ours, due to the crowing rooster on the bottle. It's way more fun than saying "sriracha." Try it.

He also made green beans sauteed in a sweet sauce with crushed sesame seeds, but the recipe is written in Japanese so unfortunately I can't share it with you until he has time to translate it for me. Doh!

Whitefish in Ginger Sauce

1 large fillet of whitefish or tilapia
3 tbsp fish sauce
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp sriracha
1/2 tsp lemon juice
1 tbsp freshly ground ginger, not powder
2 shallots, minced
1 to 2 tbsp vegetable oil
1/3 cup water
about half a bundle of fresh spinach, stems removed


In a large bowl, whisk together the fish sauce, soy sauce, sriracha, lemon juice, and ginger. Place the fish fillet scales-up in the marinade and set aside.
In a skillet over high heat, sautee the shallots in the oil, stirring occasionally, until the shallots are soft. Shove them aside with your spatula to clear the center, leaving some oil. Place the fish scales-up in the middle of the pan and sear it for a minute or two. Set the marinade aside and stir the shallots a bit so they don't burn. Flip the fish over, add the marinade and 1/3 cup water and stir with the spatula. Shove the shallots closer to the fish and lay the spinach in the skillet on top of everything.
When the spinach is shriveled and soft, and the fish is opaque, remove from heat and serve with rice, drizzling the remaining marinade over the fillet.

This fish goes very well with some sake.

Pork Chops in Mustard Sauce

I made pork chops on a whim recently, because I'd only made them once before and done such a bad job of it that I wanted to make a point of doing them well. I browsed through some recipes in a coupe of my cookbooks, and got a sense of the sorts of things that go into marinades and sauces and the methods of cooking pork, and threw this together with what was in my pantry. It got rave reviews as it was eaten, so I thought you might like to try it. It's really easy, and really tasty. As you can see I served it with stuffing and string beans sauteed in garlic.

Pork Chops in Mustard Sauce
Serves 4
Prep a few hours ahead, Cooking time 15 minutes

4 pork chops
1 tsp Dijon mustard with lots of seeds
½ cup apple cider vinegar, or more to taste
1 tsp mustard powder
2 tsp sage
2 tsp honey
½ tsp thyme
½ tsp coriander
dash of salt
dash of ground black pepper
4 to 6 cloves of garlic, smashed and chopped
¼ cup sherry
1 tb butter
¼ cup water

Mix all but the butter, sherry and water in a wide flat dish and marinate the pork chops in this, covered, for an hour or more, or as long as overnight.

In a large skillet on medium-high heat, place the pork chops as close to the center as possible without touching each other and press them down to the pan to ensure maximum contact. Do not pour the marinade in the pan yet.
After cooking for 5 minutes or so on one side, flip the chops and press them again, adding the sherry, butter, and half of the marinade. Cook for 5 minutes covered then check for doneness by cutting into the middle of one of the chops. Once the chops are cooked through, remove them to plates and add the rest of the marinade and a little water to the skillet, scraping and stirring to incorporate the browned marinade from the chops' initial searing.
Pour over chops and serve immediately.