Rejuvenated

I know I've been pretty quiet here over the past 10 days or so.  I manged to do something that I didn't think about at all when I started this blog, I filled my free allotment of storage space.  I was all set to make some more posts when the message came up to tell me that if I wanted to keep posting I'd have to pony up some dough.  I took the time while I was making a decision (that ultimately wasn't that hard) to take a little bit of a break.  I kept cooking, but decided not to post anything last week.  But now I'm back in the grove and have what little muse I had before back. 

Last night a cooked from a recipe that I had seen plenty of versions of in various restaurants on tv but had never tried to make myself, oil poached fish.  It was a really nice change up from the standard fish preparations.

 All the stuff, oranges, lemons, onions, fennel, bay leaf, parsley, olive oil and chilean sea bass.  The recipe called for snapper, but my local store never carries it.  It's frustrating that they don't have it in their regular stash because it's a delicious fish.  I know of places to get it here in central Illinois but that would require a 45 minute drive each way to Peoria.  The cook in my wishes I still made my monthly trips over that way for work, but my job responsibilities just don't allow for it.

 The fennel, bay leaf and orange zest went into about 3/4 of a cup of olive oil to fry very gently to form the base of the fennel salad that was served with the dish and flavor the oil that would become a part of the vinaigrette.  The veggies poached/fryed in the oil for about 15 minutes.

After the vegetables were done, I seasoned the fish with salt and pepper.  I added a bit more oil to the pan and poached the filets in the oil for about 15 minutes.  The picture above is the finished result.  For my first time trying this method of cooking the fish managed to come out perfectly.  Flaky, yet velvety on the inside.  The only downside to this method is I felt the fish came out a bit greasy.  I actually couldn't finish all the fish because I got that nasty, too much grease feeling in my stomach before I finished.

 The onions, orange juice, lemon juice, parsley and the reserved and strained poaching oil went together to finish the vinaigrette.

The finished plate.  Included in the salad were some orange supremes that I cut before hand.  Again, this was a fantastic dish, despite the greasiness of the fish.  White fish and citrus is a classic combo and this one did not disappoint.