February 11, 2013  Dinner – Mahi mahi baked in aluminum, Sweet potato, and asparagus

Breakfast – granola with ½ of a fresh kiwi and mango yogurt and milk

Lunch – PPI sushi cooked in dashi and aka miso broth with Vietnamese rice vermicelli, fresh spinach, daikon slices and minced fresh shallot.  The PPI octopus, salmon and tuna may have been a little old because I am having a bit of a stomach ache at 3:00 am.

Dinner – Mahi Mahi baked in aluminum foil with diced red bell peppers, mushrooms, tomatoes and onion and drizzled with a little white wine and 2 or 3 small pieces of butter.

This is one of our favorite fish dishes that I experienced for the first time when I visited Harold and Suzette in Puerto Vallarta around 1996.  It was a specialty at Roberto’s Restaurant, located a block west of the bus station near the national highway at the south end of town on the main road out of the center of town.  Roberto’s would use whatever fish was fresh that day, usually red snapper, mahi mahi or dorado.  I have always loved the dish and it is similar to techniques found in French and Swedish cuisine for baked fish.  If the pocket is properly sealed the fish is always tender and fragrant with the flavor of the vegetables and white wine.  In this night’s dish the white wine we used was Spanish Viura.  You can add vegetables to your liking.  Suzette did not include mushrooms in her packet, for example.  The vegetables and wine and butter make a delicious sauce as they combine with the juices of the fish as it bakes.  Suzette baked the dish for 45 minutes in a medium oven.  It is always fun to open the sealed aluminum and smell the aroma/bouquet of the ingredients when the steam is released.

Suzette also baked the two organic white sweet potatoes ($1.29/lb.) we bought at Sprouts Market yesterday, where we also bought two bundles of fresh asparagus ($1.49/lb.), the 1 ½ /lb. of fresh Mahi Mahi ($5.99/lb.), granola, eggs ($1.49/dozen), and a bundle of green onions ($.79).   We only used 1 lb. of the mahi mahi, so we have enough for fish tacos on Tuesday evening.

We also steamed seven slender fresh asparagus stalks for each person and after slathing our potatoes with butter, we ate a delicious hot dinner.

We drank the rest of our open bottle of Cameron Hughes Rosé (Costco $9.99), a French Rosé from Nimes, that is light on fruit flavor but long on that elegant refined absence of flavor that is so characteristically French.

Bon Appétit