Halibut with Cucumber Salad and Soy-Mustard Dressing

Here is one from our good friends at the wonderful Cafe Tor blog (http://cafetor.blogspot.com):

Seriously. I made this. You may be suitably impressed now.

This recipe comes from Food and Wine magazine and can be found online here. Provided the soy sauce is gluten-free (Bragg Liquid Amino Acids, revolting as it sounds, is a good choice) it's a nice dish for the dietarily challenged.

The key is taking what you have and making the dish your own. The original recipe is for grouper, but I used halibut. I do not have a mandoline and there was no way I was "folding" cucumber slices. (Although you do need to prop the fish up out of the dressing; a short stack of cucumber works, too.) There's a lot of latitude for personal tastes in Dale Gartland's dish, and that's what makes it a good recipe.

Prep time may be the only thing that stops people from making this. The dressing comes together in a snap. Do not fear the specialized ingredients — mirin is a sweetened cooking wine and used in teriyaki sauces (make your own gluten-free version), rice vinegar is a lovely low-acid vinegar for summer dressings, and white vermouth can be substituted for sake. The fish prep was easy. It's the vegetables that are tough.

A food processor with the right blade can crank out the carrot and radish easily. But the shallots, the garlic, the chile... That's some knife work. And cucumbers are essential, but don't do so well in the food processor. Cucumbers are water trapped by sunshine, so you MUST remove the seeds if you do not use a seedless cucumber or you will end up with a soggy wad of pulp. Nope, the veggies will take up most of the prep time. It's worth it.

You may be tempted to skip the sesame seeds and frizzled shallots/garlic. Don't. Pace yourself. Besides, frizzling is fun. In one pan, you can toast the seeds, then frizzle the shallots and garlic, and then use the flavored oil to cook the fish (pat the fish off so it's dry; makes for a better crust).

What is rewarding about Gartland's dish is the contrast of flavors and textures: soft and cool, sweet and crunchy, salty and green. If you skip any of the ingredients, you will undoubtedly make a tasty entrée, but you will miss out on the fun of discovering new combinations with each bite.

There are so many wonderful things in this world to eat. Don't limit yourself.

Pecan Pie - Six Degrees of Separation

It's said that anyone can be linked to the actor Kevin Bacon in six or less links. This can be true of a recipe for pecan pie. Here goes:

This website is dedicated to Ace DuMond, who has a twin brother named Mark, who is married to Sheri'. That's a couple of steps. Sheri's dad in Medford, Oregon has an aunt in Texas named Phoebe, who contributed this recipe. That's two more.

Speaking of Phoebe, the actress Phoebe Cates appeared in a 2004 documentary called "Retrosexual: The 80s" --- and guess who else appeared in the same film? That's right, Kevin Bacon. So there you have it, from Ace DuMond to Kevin Bacon in six steps. True, the Phoebe/Phoebe connection is a bit thin, but it's the best we could come up with under the circumstances.

And now, the recipe for pecan pie:

1/2 cup sugar
1 cup corn syrup
3 eggs
1 cup pecans
1 tsp. vanilla
1/3 cup butter, melted
1 premade 9" pie shell

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Mix together the sugar and syrup, and heat in a saucepan until dissolved.

Beat the eggs, then pour the syrup mixture slowly into the eggs, beating as you pour. Add nuts, vanilla and butter. Pour into an unbaked 9" pie shell.

Bake at 350 degrees for one hour.

Beef & Tater Squares

Another recipe from the Rhodes family in Medford, Oregon. This was a specialty of Sheri' Rhodes (now DuMond) back in her more "carnivorous" days.

1.5 lb. ground beef
1 cup soft bread crumbs
1 egg, beaten
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/3 cup ketchup
Pinch salt & pepper

3 cups mashed potatoes
1 cup grated cheddar cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Pat the beef mixture into an 8-inch square baking pan. Bake in preheated oven for 35-45 minutes.

Top with mashed potatoes and cheese. Bake for 20 minutes more and serve.

Asian Dumplings with Curried Coconut Sauce

Mark and Sheri' DuMond in Renton, Washington rarely make Asian dumplings. Why? For the same reason they almost never make ravioli or tortellini from scratch at home. It's a lot of time and work.

However, if you're up to the challenge and have the time, here's a recipe for some veggie-tofu dumplings that are pretty good. If you prefer meat instead of tofu, you can substitute lean ground pork or chicken.

Perhaps one way to make the process easier would be to invite several friends over for dinner and let 'em labor in the kitchen, doing the busy work of assembling the dumplings or shui mai.

Makes four to six servings depending on whether it's an appetizer or main course.

8 large dried shiitake mushrooms
1/2 lb. fresh spinach leaves
1/2 cup carrots, chopped
1/2 lb. firm tofu, drained and pressed dry with a towel
1 Tbsp. freshly grated ginger
1 Tbsp. dry sherry
1 Tbsp. prepared oyster sauce
1 tsp. sambal oelek (spicy red chile sauce)
1 tsp. dark sesame oil

Combine all these ingredients in a food processor. Pulse it a few times until you have a coarse mixture. (You don't want to run it too much or your filling will become to liquidy.) Chill the filling mixtured for a couple hours in the fridge. Meanwhile, make your sauce:

1/4 cup rich vegetable stock
1/3 cup canned coconut milk
2 scallions, finely minced
2 Tbsp. dry white wine
1 Tbsp. prepared oyster sauce
1 tsp. honey
2 tsp. curry powder
1/2 tsp. powdered galangal or powdered ginger

Whisk together all the sauce ingredients in a bowl and keep in the fridge until it's time to make the dumplings.

36 wonton wrappers
6 Tbsp. cornstarch

Scatter the corn starch across a large cookie sheet. Put a scant teaspoon of filling on each wonton wrapper. Fold the wrapper over filling to turn a square into a triangle. Press out as much air as possible. Using a fork, fold the edges over and crimp tightly and completely. (You don't want filling leaking out during the cooking process.) Store the dumplings on the cookie sheet while making the rest of them.

3 Tbsp. peanut oil

Heat the oil in a wide, flat non-stick skillet over medium-high heat. When the oil is hot, add the dumplings to the pan and fry for two or three minutes, until they're golden brown on the bottoms.

Pour in all the sauce, cover the pan, and steam the dumplings for a couple minutes more over medium heat, until they're firmed up. Remove the pan lid, put the heat back on high, and shake the pan around to keep the dumplings from sticking and to glaze them with the reducing sauce. Serve immediately.