Hot and Fiery Kitchen Experiment

My cooking desires seemed to have fired up lately.  I'm not sure if it's a result of all the good food I had in Maine...or a result of the high amounts of money spent and stomach pains that came as a result of so much eating out.  I think it's a mix of that and I happened upon a new website recently on Google +,  The Gracious Pantry.  Seeing all the tasty recipes on there has made me remember how much fun it was to cook good food and how easy it is too.

Well to that point, this weekend presented me with an excellent opportunity.  1. I had a $30 groupon to spend at a local butcher that was about to expire and 2. My cycling friend offered me up some fresh peppers from his garden before our ride this morning.  When life brings you fresh produce and access to good meat...FEAST it is!

I was literally excited all day about this dinner.  It was an uncharacteristically productive Sunday and I spent a few hours after my bike ride working at the coffee shop, getting things done. But really my mind was on dinner..counting down the hours.

So finally 6:25 rolls around, I had passed the final hours with a movie on Netflix and I think..."okay, it's time".

SO thus I share with you the story of my adventure tonight trying to create Peppered Garlic Swordfish with Roasted Pepper Farro pasta!

The guy at the butcher really sold me on the swordfish..I really went in with no idea what I wanted.  I had to spend $30, so I grabbed a few other random ingredients as well. 

Step 1: Gather the ingredients

About 3/4 lb swordfish steak, home grown peppers, lemon infused olive oil, garlic, lemon , farro pasta and a Pineapple Coconut Mango seafood sauce

Step 2: Prepare the peppers for roasting

It's best to start with the peppers.  Because roasting takes about 20-30 minutes and then you have to wait for them to cool so you can remove the skin.

I had no idea how hot the red peppers were.  So after reading recommendations online I decided to take no chances!  But, lacking latex gloves..plastic baggy was the next best thing

 I cut each of the peppers in half and removed the seeds..this proved a little difficult for the smaller peppers but not as hard as when some Jalepenos as the seeds are a little bigger.

In hindsight I'm not sure why I added seasoning because the skins were going to be removed eventually but I coated all the peppers in lemon juice, olive oil, pepper and garlic salt

Once the peppers were oiled and seasoned I stuck them on a baking dish in the oven at about 425 degrees.  Then I turned up the music on my Pandora and went to work on my next step.

Step 3: Prepare the Swordfish

Oh the mighty swordfish!  Apparently a very large fish..so was my steak.  I really have little experience cooking fish, especially this particular fish and on this particular scale.  I was set for the adventure though!  I chopped the smaller end of my red pepper into fine pieces along with a clove of garlic and rubbed the swordfish down with that + pepper and the lemon infused olive oil.  Wrapped it in tin foil and went back to enjoying my Pandora and sipping my beer 

The decorated Swordfish

I was checking my peppers periodically but they seemed to be spontaneously ready.  I yanked the suckers out of the oven and had my first bit of nervousness.  They looked pretty well done and I didn't oil the tin foil so they were a little stuck too.  But I managed to remove them and place them in a covered bowl so they could steam and cool.

Not so pretty when they first come out

As those sat, I let the oven cool a little bit to 375 degrees and then stuck the Swordfish in.  I also lit the fire on some water for the Farro

Never had Farro before, it's a rather bulky tough looking pasta, but surprisingly cooked pretty fast

Step 4: Peel the Roasted Peppers, Stir the Pasta..take a drink of beer and dance around to random Pandora music.

Not sure why I'm talking in steps..I'm really in the zone at this point..I pull out the peppers and the skins are really easy to remove.  The red peppers I find don't really have a separation so I just cut those up and stick them with the roasted green peppers

Step 5: Frantically Google "How do I know when Swordfish is done?"

I checked my swordfish after 20 minutes..still seemed a little dense..no real flaking..checked it 5 minutes later and I really couldn't tell if it was close to being done.  So I looked up several websites and decided after about 30 minutes that it was done enough and took it out.  I think the trick is to take it out when it seems like it's ALMOST done, but not quite.  Apparently it cooks more after it's removed anyway.   Because I had wrapped it in tin foil to keep the moister in, there were a lot of oils seeping around..so after it cooled a bit I dumped off the oil and scrapped off some of the fat that had bubbled to the surface (just for appearances sake really).  

It's hot and juicy!!

Towards the end I started feeling like I was on one of those food network cooking shows.  I realized my pasta wasn't really done all the way so I quickly threw on some more water and boiled it a little longer, while adding some garlic to olive oil in a saute pan.  Plus taking the swordfish out at the same time I didn't tend to the cooking garlic so burnt garlic it would have to be.  I quickly threw the pasta in a colander, tossed in a bowl, dumped the peppers and the burnt garlic with the oil, FRANTICALLY stuck a slice of the swordfish and portion of pasta on a plate and realized SHIT there's a hole! I need something else.  I SWUNG the fridge open and grabbed a cuc, quickly sliced it, threw it on the plate with some tomatoes, grabbed the camera...and took a picture :)

Annnnd...it was delicious :)

ANNND...leftovers :)