The Lush Chef

Libations used: 3/4 cup sake, 3/4 cup mirin...
Libations left over: Just enough sake left to do a shot and say Kanpai!"...
A good friend of mine has been fishing off the shores of Alaska and Mexico this past summer and catching oodles of amazing halibut, yellowtail and blue fin tuna.  And I'm lucky enough that this friend shares his bounty with us all!  I'd been wanting to make the Miso-Glazed Cod recipe from the Bite Me cookbook for a while, and decided to use the lovely halibut my friend caught me.  Any mild white fish is fine for this recipe, so use something yummy, fresh and seasonal if you can.  The marinade uses both sake and mirin, which is a rice wine similar to sake but lower in alcohol content and used frequently in cooking.

Miso-Glazed Halibut - serves 6
Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup sake
• 3/4 cup mirin
• 1 cup white miso paste
• 2 Tbs soy sauce
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• Six 6 oz halibut, cod or sea bass fillets

- In a medium sauce pan over high heat, add the sake and mirin, and boil for 30 seconds.
- Turn heat to low and add the miso paste and soy sauce, stirring until the paste is dissolved.
- Add the brown sugar and turn the heat back onto high, stirring until the sugar is dissolved.
- Remove from heat and let the marinade cool down to room temperature.
- Pat the fish fillets dry before adding into a large plastic bag.
- Add the marinade to the bag and seal.
- Let the fish marinate for at least 12-24 hours, turning the fillets in the bag occasionally to ensure they're evenly coated.
- When the fish is ready to cook, preheat the oven to 450.
- Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and coat with non-stick cooking spray.
- Remove the fish from the bag and lightly wipe off excess marinade before placing on the baking sheet.
- Bake for 6-7 minutes.
- Place the fish under the broiler for 2-3 minutes to get a nice glaze on top.

This past Sunday, I came home from the Farmers' Market with a fistful of my favorite mint from Maggies' Farms.  It's a special combination of chocolate mint, peppermint and spearmint (thank the bees!) and it's awesome in cocktails and desserts.  So of course, I needed to make a drink that would highlight it, and since August is National Rum Month, it had to be a mojito.

Rather than make a typical mojito, I decided to make use of all the lavender syrup I had in my fridge.  And because lavender pairs so nicely with lemon, I added fresh lemon juice instead of lime and balanced the sweetness with Fever Tree's Bitter Lemon Tonic Water.  It's a refreshing twist, and I think this just may be my new favorite way to make a mojito!

Lavender Lemonade Mojito
Ingredients:

• 2 oz white rum (I used Bacardi)
• 1 oz fresh lemon juice
• 1 oz lavender simple syrup
• 12 mint leaves, plus some for garnish
• 4 oz Fever Tree Bitter Lemon Soda

- In a shaker glass, add the rum, lemon juice, simple syrup and mint leaves and muddle.
- Add ice and shake.
- Pour into a glass and top with the soda.
- Garnish with a mint leaf.

About a month ago, my friend Justin made a couple of pitchers of a Kentucky Maid cocktail for a birthday party.  The man loves bourbon — one of many reasons why I'm glad he's marrying one of my dear friends next weekend!  It's a refreshing drink created by the legendary Sam Ross of Milk & Honey in NYC and now Hinoki & The Bird in LA, where there's a whole menu dedicated to Negronis (YES).  This libation is simple and smacks of summer with just some fresh lime juice, muddled mint and cucumber.  Perfection.  Justin, love you for introducing me to this drink, and here's to many more Kentucky Maids.
Kentucky Maid 
Ingredients:

• 2 oz bourbon (I used Four Roses)
• 1 oz lime juice
• 3/4 oz simple syrup
• 6 mint leaves, plus some for garnish
• 4 cucumber slices, reserving one for garnish

- In a mixing glass or shaker, combine all the ingredients and muddle.
- Add ice and shake, shake, shake.
- Pour into a glass and garnish with a mint leaf and cucumber slice.

Libations used: 2 or more Tbs of dark rum...
Libations left over: None, but you can swig from the bottle like a pirate...
When you have super ripe bananas, there's nothing better to do than make banana bread.  I had just gotten back from a quick trip to San Diego for a friend's wedding last weekend, and the few bananas I had left behind were definitely asking to be made into bread.  I was going to a concert later that night at the Hollywood Bowl, and had told everyone I was bringing dessert.  Joy The Baker's recipe for Brown Butter Banana Bread with Rum & Coconut seemed like the perfect dessert-like bread for a balmy summer evening.  Not only is there dark rum baked into the bread, but you can spread some on top when the loaf is done baking for some extra boozy goodness.  I think next time I make this, I may even add in some chocolate chips to really give it that dessert boost.  Either way, we all devoured this with plenty of wine and the hippie sounds of Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros wafting through the air — a perfect LA night.

Rum & Coconut Banana Bread - makes 1 medium loaf
Ingredients:

• 12 Tbs of unsalted butter
• 2 cups flour
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3/4 tsp cinnamon
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 2 Tbs dark rum, plus more for brushing on top (I used Meyers's Rum)
• 1/4 cup plain yogurt or buttermilk
• 1 1/4 cup mashed bananas (about 3 medium bananas)
• 1/2 cup toasted coconut
• 1/4 cup untoasted coconut

- Heat oven to 350.
- Grease and flour a 9x5-inch loaf pan and set aside.
- In a small saucepan over medium heat, melt and brown the butter.  It will foam and crackle as it melts.  When the crackling is about done, the butter will start to brown.  Be sure to swirl around the pan as it browns, and then when it smells nutty, remove from heat.  Transfer the butter into a small bowl, so it doesn't continue browning and begin to burn.
- In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, vanilla extract, rum and yogurt.
- Whisk in the bananas.
- When the butter is cool, whisk that into the banana mixture.
- Fold in all the wet ingredients into the dry, thoroughly combining to make sure there are no pockets of flour.
- Fold in the toasted coconut carefully, trying not to over stir.
- Pour the batter into the loaf pan and top with the untoasted coconut.
- Bake for 50-60 minutes, until done.
- Remove from the oven and let the bread cool for about 15 minutes before removing from the pan onto a wire rack to cool.
- Brush the top with some more dark rum.

I had picked up a bunch of blood oranges last week to make this Boat House Punch, and had some left over.  So when I saw this recipe from Aida Mollenkamp for a Blood Orange & Thyme Paloma, I just couldn't resist.  Palomas are like a twist on margaritas, except there's grapefruit soda in place of the Cointreau.  I took a slight departure from Aida's recipe, by combining fresh blood orange juice and club soda instead of using San Pellegrino's Blood Orange Soda.  Either way is fine — I'm just a sucker for fresh juices.  

Blood Orange & Thyme Paloma
Ingredients:

• 12 sprigs of thyme with leaves removed and roughly chopped
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 2 oz tequila (I used Patrón Silver)
• 1/2 oz lime juice
• 3 oz blood orange juice
• 3 oz club soda
• Lime wedge and sprig of thyme, for garnish

- In a small dish, combine the thyme and salt, using your fingers to crush and combine the mixture.
- Run a lime wedge along the rim of the glass.
- Dip the edge of the glass into the thyme and salt mixture.
- Add ice, a pinch of the thyme salt, tequila, the lime and blood orange juices and club soda.
- Stir and garnish with the lime wedge and thyme sprig.

Libations used: About 1 cup of white wine and 1 oz of Grand Marnier...
Libations left over: About 3/4 of a bottle of wine, so pour yourself a glass, because these popsicles will need to freeze overnight...
There's no better way to get your fruit intake during the summer than through sangria, and my favorite kind to make during this season is with peaches.  Even better, sangria is the perfect libation to turn into popsicles!  This recipe from Daisy's World and Serious Eats uses a combination of stone fruits (peaches, nectarines, plums) and mango.  I used a Sauvignon Blanc, which pairs nicely with those kinds of fruits, and amped up the booze factor with some Grand Marnier.  You can also use Cointreau or any kind of orange-flavored liqueur.  Instead of peach and white grape juices, I used pear, but any white juice will be fine.  Not only do these popsicles make a fine dessert, but as a friend suggested, they'd be perfect for breakfast!

White Sangria Popsicles - makes 8 
Ingredients:

• 7 oz white wine (I used Fire Road Sauvignon Blanc)
• 1 oz Grand Marnier 
• 1 1/2 cups chopped fruit (I used a combination of peach, nectarine and mango)
• 1 1/4 cups pear juice
• 5 Tbs sugar
• 1/4 cup orange juice
• Pinch of salt

- In a medium bowl, macerate the fruit in the wine, and let it sit for about 20 minutes.
- In a small sauce pan over medium heat, add the pear juice and sugar, stirring constantly until the sugar is dissolved.
- Strain the fruit, saving both.
- Add the wine to the juice mixture.
- Add the orange juice and pinch of salt to the mixture.
- Fill each popsicle mold about halfway full with the fruit.
- Top with the juice and wine mixture, making sure to leave a little room at the top since the mixture will expand.
- Freeze overnight.

This past weekend, a group of us took our friend's boat out for the afternoon to relax, eat and drink just off the coast of Santa Monica and Marina Del Rey.  If there's a beach or a boat involved, you can bet that I'll be bringing a punch.  This Boat House Punch from Liquor.com was just screaming to be made because of it's name sake.  Plus, all of the citrusy ingredients made it perfect for day drinking.  There are so many of my favorite libations in this punch.  Aperol always goes well with grapefruit juice, and St. Germain has such a lovely floral flavor that blends nicely with gin and champagne.  Yes, it's faster to just buy juice and dump it in, but this punch will taste so much better if you squeeze everything fresh.  To jazz it up, I even juiced some blood oranges and used them for the garnish.  I hope there will more boat rides this summer, so I can make this punch!