NYU "Lose Smart" Challenge

Ingredients:

• 1 whole 2 lb.Fish or 2-8 oz Filets Farmed/Wild Striped Bass            
• 1/2 lb. Ramps or Leeks, Trim and Cleaned
• 1/2 lb. Spring Garlic, Trim, Slice                    
• ¼ cup English Peas, Shucked        
• 6 each Asparagus, cut 1” long
• 10 each Yellow Wax Beans, bias cut 1” long
• 1 can San Marzano Tomatoes, whole, drained
• 3 medium sized Fresh Tomatoes, if in season        
• 2 cloves Garlic, smashed
• 1 Tbsp Sherry Vinegar, Aged
• 3 - 1” slices Day old Bread, crust removed (Italian, Baguette, Ciabatta, Wonder)            
• ¼ cup Parsley, de-stemmed
• ¼ cup Almonds, Standard or Marcona
• t.t. Salt
• t.t. Pepper
• 3/4 cup + extra for sautéing Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Cooking Instructions:

Butcher fish into filets or buy from your local fish monger, 8 oz filets. Score skin side to insure that the fish does not curl up while cooking. Season Filets and reserve for Plating.

Prepare vegetables by rinsing them thoroughly in cold running water.

Ramps – Trim root ends and cut into 1” long pieces

Spring Garlic – Trim the dark green leaves, discard, and slice garlic bulbs

English Peas – Remove Peas from pods and blanch in boiling water, then shock in ice water

Asparagus – cut into 1” long pieces, blanch in boiling water then shock in ice water

Yellow Wax Beans – Snip stem end, cut into 1” bias cut

Reserve all vegetables for sautéing

Romesco Sauce

Take the bread and submerge in cold water, allow to soften, then squeeze out all the water. In a bowl or a food processor, combine bread, tomatoes, garlic, sherry vinegar, parsley, and almonds. Season with salt and pepper and puree ingredients. Slowly drizzle olive oil to create an emulsion. Reserve sauce in refrigerator until plating.

In a sauté pan, sauté vegetables and season with salt and pepper.

In another sauté pan, on medium high heat, put 2Tbsp oil, allow to slightly smoke and place fish skin side down. Cook for around 2 mins, then flip for an additional 2 mins.

Plating

Place Sautéed Vegetables in center of plate, Fish on top, and Spoon sauce around

Ingredients

• 1 oz Olive Oil
• 1 ea Marinated Halibut
• 3 ea Baby Bok Choy
• 1 T Olive Oil
• 3 oz Miso Glaze
• 2 oz Carrots
• 2 oz Edamame**
• 1 T Butter
• 1 1/2 cup Jasmine  Rice
• 5 ea Chives

Cooking Instructions:

1. Heat oil in Sauté Pan
2. Add Halibut and sear on both sides making sure to deeply caramelize. Place fish in metal pan and cook for 7-10 minutes to finish.
3. Place Bok Choy in water to heat.  Remove and place in hot sauté pan with olive oil to brown.  This may be done on Flat top.  
4. Add miso to sauté pan used to sear halibut.  Add carrots and edamame, and reduce
   slightly with butter.
5. Mound Rice in center of plate
6. Place Bok Choy over rice
7. Place Halibut over mound of rice
8. Spoon Miso Glaze over Halibut and between each piece of bok choy making sure to distribute pieces of carrot and edamame throughout dish. Garnish with chives over halibut

**Edamame is a green vegetable more commonly known as a soybean, harvested at the peak of ripening right before it reaches the "hardening" time. The word Edamame means "Beans on Branches," and it grows in clusters on bushy branches. To retain the freshness and its natural flavor, it is parboiled and quick-frozen. In East Asia, the soybean has been used for over two thousand years as a major source of protein. Edamame is consumed as a snack, a vegetable dish, used in soups or processed into sweets. As a snack, the pods are lightly boiled in salted water, and then the seeds are squeezed directly from the pods into the mouth with the fingers.

Ingredients (serves 4)

• 1 cup 1% low fat milk
• 1 cup water
• 1 cup quinoa,
• 2 cups fresh blackberries
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/3 cup chopped pecans, toasted*
• 4 teaspoons agave nectar

Use soy milk in place of low fat milk, blueberries, raspberries, strawberries any fruit you like dried , fresh or frozen may replace the blackberries, dark honey may replace the agave nectar, and walnuts. High in Omega 3’s may replace the pecans.

Cooking Instructions:

Combine milk, water and quinoa in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to medium-low; cover and simmer 15 minutes or until most of the liquid is absorbed. Turn off heat; let stand covered 5 minutes. Stir in blackberries and cinnamon; transfer to four bowls and top with pecans. Drizzle 1 teaspoon agave nectar over each serving. For more details and nutrition information, click here.

Ingredients (yields three servings):

• Whole wheat tomato basil pasta
• 12 oz pre-cooked whole wheat pasta
• 3 Roma tomatoes
• 1 medium yellow onion
• 1/2 tsp crushed garlic
• salt, pepper to taste
• 6 chopped fresh basil leaves
• 1/2 tsp tomato paste
• 2 tsp olive oil

Cooking Instructions:

• Cook whole wheat pasta in boiling salted water until “al dente”
• Drain and allow cooling at room temperature (do not use water to cool pasta)
• In a separate sauté pan place olive oil and allow to heat, add onions, garlic and Roma tomatoes
• Allow to cook, until onions become translucent (about 10 minutes)
• Add tomato paste, and pasta and allow to cook a further 5 minutes add chiffonade of Basil during the last minute of cooking and serve

Tip: The longer basil cooks the more bitter it becomes.

Healthy note: Once fresh tomatoes are cooked they release Lutein, an amino acid associated with good eye sight.

Bit of History: Fresh basil was used in Roman times and is of the mint family called, Ocimum basilicum. It is also a powerful antioxidant. It’s medicinal qualities have been known in Asia for thousands of years, and it is cultivated in 123 different varieties.