More fish soup

I've been making this one a lot lately...

Cod, salmon
Tiny shrimp

Butter
White wine

Leek
Yellow onion
Celery root (or celery stalk or celery seed)
Carrots

Thyme
Oregano
Parsley
Red chili
salt
pepper

Chopped tomato
Bay leaf
Optional: fresh chopped basil and cilantro
Wild rice, or Milk + flour for thickening
Lemon

Saute vegetables in butter (leek, onion, celery, carrots). Add spices and herbs and stir them in a bit so they soften. Add water, white wine, shrimp, tomato, and a bay leaf. If you feel like fresh basil and cilantro, add it now. If you're going with wild rice instead of milk, add the rice now, too. Bring to a boil, then turn down and simmer. *Secret ingredient alert*: a teaspoon of sugar at this point is surprisingly effective for bringing out the other flavors... shhhh!

Rice option: Let the rice cook until tender (30 mins or so).

Milk option: simmer for 30 mins or so to let veggies cook and flavors blend. Then mix a little flour in a glass with cold milk, and pour into soup to thicken. Simmer another few mins.

Final 5-10 mins: Add the salmon and cod, and let it gently poach just until cooked.

Remove from heat and serve with lots of lemon juice!

Palak paneer

This one requires getting ahold of some paneer: you can usually get it at international food stores (asian, indian, etc). I think I saw it at Trader Joe's once, too, so maybe it's becoming more mainstream in the States. :) 

• Oil for frying, or ghee 
• Paneer 
• Lots of greens + Mostly spinach + Optionally: mustard greens, fenugreek leaves + Optionally: fresh mint, fresh cilantro 
• Onions 
• Chilis 
• Ginger 
• Tomato 
• Garam masala (for example, like so.) 
• Coriander 
• Cumin 
• Yogurt or cream 
• Lemon 

Fry paneer in a little oil on high heat, until golden and kind of soft and spongy. If you've never fried paneer, don't be shy! It would probably burn before it melted, so don't worry about it melting all over your pan. Just turn up the heat and go at it. Make sure it gets soft on the inside and golden/crispy on the outside. You really don't want hard paneer. 

Remove paneer, turn down the heat, add a little more oil. Saute spices, onion, chili, ginger. *Pro tip*: optionally puree these in a food processor before adding to the pan. Makes for good texture and even flavor distribution. 

Once the other veggies are soft, add greens and chopped tomatoes and let them cook down to mush. Add a little yogurt or cream: enough to give it a good consistency, but not so you'd make it cream-based. At this point, you can puree it all to give it a smoother texture. 

Add salt, pepper, and any additional spices to taste. I usually find myself adding more garam masala at this point, and often extra cinnamon or extra chili powder. Just spice it until you like it. 

Add back the paneer, and let it all simmer a little longer to heat the cheese and let the flavors blend. 

Top with lots of generous squeezes of fresh lemon before serving. Serve with rice.

Lemon poppy seed cake

I don't usually like cake. But this turned out pretty good! Nice 'n' moist, and lemony. 

Wet

• 3/4 cup white sugar 
• 1 c butter 
• lots of vanilla 
• 3 large eggs 
• 1/4 cup milk 
• squirts of lemon juice 

Dry 

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 
• 1 teaspoon baking powder 
• 1/4 teaspoon salt 
• 3 tablespoons (30 grams) poppy seeds 
• 1 tablespoon grated lemon zest 

Mix wet as usual, but be sure to: add eggs one at a time, and add the lemon juice after everything else is mixed together (to avoid curdling the dairy -- it also emulsifies, though, so that helps!). 

Mix together dry. Add dry to wet in batches, beating well. You can add the lemon zest to the dry first, or add it as a final step after everything is beaten together. 

Butter and flour a loaf pan. Bake 350 F / 175 C for 40 - 50 mins (time varies a lot. Just watch it!)