Bano Zulaikha: Asian Cod with Lemongrass Sauce

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From: Shane Ludwig <recipelists@wru.org>
Date: Thu, Feb 20, 2014 at 10:12 AM
Subject: [] Asian Cod with Lemongrass Sauce
To: recipes@yahoogroups.com

I generally have lunch in our company café. The food is good, generally fairly healthy, and not expensive. They usually have things like roasted or grilled chicken of some sort, or Caribbean shrimp wraps (SO GOOD!), or roasted pork loin stuffed with spinach, or meatloaf, or taco casserole (one of my favorites), and frequently some kind of fish with a fruit salsa (unfortunately, it's usually tilapia, which I do not like). Not always your typical cafeteria food, though. They also offer a salad bar, various sandwiches, burgers, veggie burgers, Philly cheesesteaks (really good ones, actually), etc.

The vegetable sides are usually really good - steamed asparagus or green beans or broccoli. Roasted brussels sprouts. Roasted tomatoes with basil. Okra (I love okra!). And they have made me a lover of kale, a vegetable I had never been fond of before. One of the complaints people have at work about the café is that they don't put enough salt in their food. Well, for me, it's perfect! I can eat it! It's perfectly seasoned, it's just not as salty as most of the unhealthy food Americans eat. BTW, fresh young kale, steamed in chicken broth, then tossed with roasted yellow bell peppers, and lightly seasoned is awesome!

And then there are days when Chef decides to experiment - like yesterday - Asian cod with lotus root and lemongrass sauce. Roasted asparagus and red onions with balsamic. Steamed vegetable medley (broccoli, cauliflower, carrots). Delicious! The fish was perfectly cooked, and OMG, that lemongrass sauce!

Chef Adrian is a great guy, always willing to share, so I asked how the fish was done. They seasoned it with salt and pepper, Chinese 5 Spice, wrapped it in nori, topped it with sliced lotus root, and roasted it. For the sauce:

The sauce is pretty simple - about 7-9 stems of lemon grass, 3 cups of heavy cream [OK so much for the healthy on this one :-D] and butter to finish. In a medium sauce pot, heat up 2 tbl of sesame oil, then add the thinly sliced lemon grass. Once the lemon grass has released its aromatics, add the cream and reduce by half. Turn the heat down then slowly incorporate the butter and finish with salt and white pepper.

So fish, a ladle of sauce over the top. Soooo good! It was so good I snapped a pic and posted it to FB. :-) Sorry it's a bit messy, it made it up from the cafeteria to my desk before being savored. :-D

https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn1/t31/1888821_10201698108995559_266880270_o.jpg

Most people got it over rice, but I skip the starches so had the steamed veggie medley instead.

Today's lunch, BTW, was sautéed yellow squash ; creamed spinach ; and "Athens chicken" which was boneless, skinless chicken breast, simply seasoned and grilled, then topped with a tb or so of a finely chopped mixture of onion, tomato, peperoncini peppers, feta, and kalamata olives. Really tasty.

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Shane Ludwig recipelists@wru.org
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