The shock never gets old I ♥ it, but what I ♥ even more than impromptu entertaining is the fact I predominately get to use ingredients I wouldn't normally buy. I can't tell you how much money I have saved over the years by testing out recipes using ingredients & spices I have literally discovered at a friend's home, free test kitchens... cha-ching.
This is such a great culinary secret of mine & I can't express enough how cool it is. My Philly girl Andrea is dating my best friend Kenny, who is Korean, loves food & is a sucker for home cooked Korean meals. Andrea prior to dating him was grilled cheese sandwiches, fettucine alfredo from a box & pizza delivery (she's still a size 3/4!!! grrrrrrrrr, I must cut her!)
When she fell in ♥ she really stepped up her culinary game, she even has a VAT of Kimchee in the fridge... awesome. So now she has all these cool spices & always has chicken & fish in the freezer. She went off to school & let me hang at her house to catch up on all the Food Network show's I missed, damn you Bush for making me cut off my cable! I got to finally check out 5 Ingredient Fix with Claire Robinson.
I like her, she's super approachable, her food is simple yet flirty, she looks healthy & not emaciated like the skinny chefs & her personality is fun & fresh & not frighteningly loud or big to cover the fact the heavier chefs are, well heavy! Ooh & I ♥ that her set has a real fridge.
So, I wanted to say thank you to Andrea & seriously... I wanted to raid all those cool spices I decided to make Ange dinner to come home to after school.
I'm a crunch girl, but I didn't want to fry anything. She had a bag of these super cool salt & pepper seasoned Pistachios. Honestly I've only had Pistachios in Baklava or as a garnish to a dessert so when I thought about breading some fish with it I swear I thought I was brilliant! She had Salmon, Tilapia & Chicken breast in the freezer.
I decided to go with the really delicate & juicy Tilapia I wanted the flavors of the Pistachios & spices to pop. I added lime juice, soy sauce, butter, garlic, sesame oil, oregano & Korean vinegared red pepper paste. I didn't need any salt & pepper because the Pistachios were already beautifully seasoned with them, the black pepper was really spicy I loved that!
She didn't have a food processor so I got to chopping, thank God the bag was from Costco because I ate so many as I chopped them. For the pasta I used some white American cheese she had (the only cheese that was available) butter, oregano & lemon zest... YUM! 16 minutes later dinner was ready.
I almost did a back flip it was so good & now is in my repertoire. I really thought I invented this, couldn't believe I have never had this before. I try to come up with a name for it. I always google potential names because I don't want to have the same name of a dish as another cook.
Lo & behold on my search I find that I just reinvented the wheel... bummer. I'm not the first to rock the Pistachios with fish BUT mine was the only one with a Korean feel, I feel good about that. Now to come up with a name... "the pressure of coming up with a name" QUICK what movie is that from?
I decided to pass on the Lemon Pepper seasoning after I crushed the peppery pistachios & swapped for garlic instead
