Suzette is starting to work on her next menu for the Bistro. Ann Sesler, the Bistro's Executive Chef, had decided to put a fish dish on the menu and Suzette suggested that I look at the menu and make suggestions. Ann had suggested a red chili battered tilapia filet and I much prefer trout so when I went to Pro’s market at around to shop to get the early bird specials, I checked the fish department. There were no trout out in the display area, so I asked the attendant if they had trout and he went to the refrigerator and brought out a hand full of fresh trout. I bought the four nicest ones ($2.99/lb.) and about 1 lb. of calamari to see if we could replicate yesterday's Ristra recipe. There was no potato flour, so I bought a box of rice flour along with some of my usual ingredients such as ham and onions and Anaheim
At dinner time I suggested that we try the red chili dusted fried fish recipe, so Suzette tossed some medium Chimayo red chili in a bag with some of the rice flour and we coated the trout and then after I cleaned the squid and chopped them into ringlets, some of the squid with the rice flour chili batter. Suzette then fried them and I opened a bottle of Spanish La Montanana Viura and we made a tartar sauce with mayonnaise and sweet pickle relish and the juice of about ¼ lemon.
The trout’s meat was tender and delicately white and the skin was crisp. So that was a success. We did not think the dish had a sufficiently picante chili flavor though. The calamari were not as crisp as at Ristra and other restaurants, so they must be deep frying them at the restaurants at high heat. We could only sauté them in oil in a skillet and they did not float and absorbed more grease, so were greasy, but they were still delicious.
The asparagus were a little over the hill so they turned out to be a bit soggy also.
Some nights, dinner is an experimentation and reason to get rid of old ingredients.
Bon Appétit
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