Next Recipe: Spice-rubbed fish with lemony rice

We have been holding on to the last package of halibut Stephen's dad caught in Alaska. These are like worth their weight in gold, so you have to be careful when you select a recipe for them.

Spice-rubbed fish with lemony rice

4 tsp unsalted butter
1 small yellow onion
1 garlic clove, chopped
1 cup basmati rice
1/2 tsp poppy seeds
1 TB lemon zest + 1 Tb lemon juice
2 cups low sodium chicken broth
1 medium zucchini, halved and cut into 1-inch pieces
coarse salt and ground pepper
1 # cod or other firm white fish cut into 4 fillets
2 tsp coriander spice mix

Coriander Spice mix
Stir in a small bowl:
1/4 cup ground coriander
1 Tb each: ground ginger, paprika, coarse salt
1 1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp ground pepper

In a med saucepan, heat butter over medium. Add onion and garlic and cook, stirring occasionally, until onion is soft, 4 minutes. Stir in rice and poppy seeds and cook one minute. Stir in lemon zest and lemon juice, broth and zucchini and season with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil over medium-high. Reduce to a simmer, cover and cook 13 minutes. Sprinkle spice on top of fish. Arrange fish snugly in a single layer, spice side up on top of rice, cover and cook until rice is tender and fish is opaque throughout, 5 to 7 minutes.

Here is my notes: (I usually don't make so many changes to my recipes, it just happens that I decided to make the last 2 meals late in the game and was not going to the store). I didn't have zucchini or basmati rice. I used spinach which I threw in at the end and wilted it and brown rice which changed the water amounts and cooking time- still it was really good. I didn't make all that spice rub, I am not good at using those up, so I lessened all the amounts and made enough for the fish. We had about 2# of fish, so I put just salt and pepper on some of the pieces and broiled them all on a cookie sheet together (no room in the saucepan plus steamed is not my favorite way to have fish). I rubbed a drizzle of olive oil over the fish fillets because you can imagine a dry rub broiled would be . . . really dry. Wallah! It was very tasty, enjoyed by all. The girls never fail to eat copious amounts of the halibut- maybe because it was caught by grandpa? Anyway, we usually run out of fish before they run out of appetite but I saved enough of the plain fish for fish tacos the next night. Those we had on toasted corn tortillas with pico de gallo and cabbage slaw- so delicious. What a nice way to say farewell to the fish. Thanks Steve! We talked about personally helping you fund another Alaskan trip . . .




(by the way, the cat was going nutso over the smell of the fish- here she is begging for some)