Swordfish Steaks with Moroccan Spice Rub and Couscous

I have always wanted to travel to Morocco. There is something about the culture, the landscape, and of course, the food, that has always intrigued and allured me. Moroccan cuisine is exotic because of the delicate mix of intricate spices like cumin, cinnamon, coriander and ginger. But it is also a cuisine that is quite simple and readily accessible here in the United States. Couscous -- a Moroccan staple -- can be found on almost all supermarket shelves, and traditional dishes like tagine are slow-cooked stews that require little active cooking.

Argan oil is a lesser-known ingredient to Americans. Argan is a tree species indigenous to the deserts of Morocco. The oil that is extracted from the fruits of the tree is golden-hued and has a distinctively nutty flavor. It can be purchased at specialty stores and fine groceries. I first discovered it at the Marché Biologique at the Rennes Metro stop in Paris, and I've seen it at on occasion at the Columbus Circle Whole Foods in New York.

In some ways, French colonial influence has influenced Moroccan cooking -- though perhaps the influence is reversed. Many French restaurants have adopted Moroccan spicing to their dishes, all the while retaining traditional western preparations. The French love couscous, spices, and Moroccan patisserie and street food; some of the most popular carry-out places in Paris are the falafel joints, and almost every street has its resident North African kebab window. Moroccan restaurants are rife in Paris, especially in the Marais district, in the 3e and 4e arrondissements on the Left Bank. My favorite is 404 Restaurant Familial, where the sexy, dark décor, sumptuous food, and full-bodied Moroccan wines make for a delicious and authentic dining experience.

This recipe for Swordfish Steaks and Couscous is a very simple dish, made more interesting by a simple Moroccan spice rub. With its western preparation, it could very easily be found on a menu at a French restaurant. This meal is very healthy, low in fat, and an excellent source of protein and whole grain, if you use whole-wheat couscous. The toasted almonds and wine-soaked raisins make this light couscous side dish absolutely scrumptious and rich-tasting, especially with a touch of Argan oil. I recommend pairing this dish with a white wine like Joseph Druhin Macon-Village (2005). The white fruit flavors of apple, the crisp mineral tonality, and the hint of anise are perfect complements for the spices in this dish.


SWORDFISH STEAKS WITH MOROCCAN SPICE RUB AND COUSCOUS

Serves 4

4 Swordfish steaks
Olive Oil

For the spice rub
1 Tbsp Coriander
1 Tbsp Cumin
1 Tbsp Chile
1 Tbsp Brown Sugar
1 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground Fennel Seed
1/2 tsp ground Black Pepper

For the couscous
2 c Whole Wheat Couscous
1/4 cup Golden Raisins
1/2 cup sweet Marsala wine
1/2 cup slivered Almonds
2 c Chicken stock
2 c water
Olive oil
Salt and pepper, to taste


Mix all spice rub ingredients together in a large bowl. Brush swordfish steaks with olive oil, then coat fish in the spices, rubbing the mix over all sides. Set aside, and allow to marinate for at least 1hr.

Turn oven broiler to high. Place a cast iron pan in oven to heat up for about 15 minutes before cooking fish.

In a small baking dish, toast almond slivers under broiler until browned and fragrant. Set aside.

In a small sauté pan, bring Marsala wine to a boil, add golden raisins, and reduce to a thick syrup, until wine evaporates as much as possible. Set aside.

In a medium-sized pot, bring water and chicken stock to a boil. Stir in couscous, cover, and remove from heat. Let stand 5 minutes until all water is absorbed, then fluff with a fork, adding almonds and raisins, salt and pepper to taste.

Being extremely careful of the hot cast iron pan, take it out of the oven, and quickly arrange swordfish steaks before returning pan, with fish, directly under the broiler. The heat of the pan will help cook the steaks more thoroughly, and it will sear and caramelize the rub. Broil swordfish steak for 7 mins under broiler on one side, turn to other side for 4-5 mins if necessary. Swordfish will be done when it is white and opaque, and moist on the inside.

Serve swordfish atop a mound of couscous with a drizzle of argan oil. This meal goes well with vegetables such as zucchini, yellow squash, and asparagus, roasted in the oven in olive oil and salt and pepper. Serve meal with Macon-Villages, and finish with a plate of Moroccan pastries such as Gazelle Horns, a simple ambrosia of oranges, mint, and honey, and a soothing cup of Moroccan mint tea.

Bon appétit!

Red Vegetable and Arugula Salad with Dijon Vinaigrette

After a week of holiday feasting, I found myself craving a simple, fresh salad -- but I had no time to make and enjoy one. In the New Years' rush to get back to the city, I had resigned myself to bringing a portable meal of apples and trail mix to share with Conor on the train. But ever the resourceful gourmet, Conor surprised me with a perfect salad of tangy, fresh arugula, which we shared en route, clanking forks as we took hungry bites from the same tupperware container.

This salad is a perfect concoction that is as satisfying for its simplicity as it is for its variety of flavors. Starting with a base of arugula, Conor then added roasted beets, sundried tomatoes, roasted red peppers, parmesan cheese, which the then dressed in a light dijon vinaigrette.

This is a great salad packed with vitamins and nutrients to kick off a healthy new year. Though it looks like a lettuce, arugula is actually a cruciferous vegetable in the cabbage and mustard family. Arugula is rich in phytonutrients, which may reduce the risk of several kinds of cancer, such as breast, stomach and colon cancers. Beets are healthy little powerhouses loaded with vitamins A and C, phosphorus, magnesium, calcium, and iron. Red beets are pigmented by betacynin, which is a powerful agent that fights cancer. Red bell peppers are full of color, which makes it a rich source of antioxidant vitamins A and C. Tomatoes too are loaded with vitamin C, and have gained attention for their high concentration of lycopene, which has been shown to reduce the risk of prostate cancer. Olive oil contains healthy, essential fatty acids, as well as high levels of vitamin E, which helps delay aging and also protects the ova to improve sexual health.

The salad is extremely simple to assemble, but I've over-complicated the recipe to teach techniques for roasting and "sun-drying" at home.



RED VEGETABLE AND ARUGULA SALAD WITH DIJON VINAIGRETTE

Serves 2

For the salad:
2 generous Handfuls of fresh baby Arugula
2 Red or Golden beets
1 Red Bell Pepper
12 Roma tomatoes
Mixed herbs (such as Herbes de Provence)
Olive oil
Salt and pepper
Parmesan cheese

For the dressing:
3 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
5 Tbsp White Balsamic vinegar
1 Tbsp Dijon mustard
Salt and pepper

Pre-heat oven to 450-degrees. Place beets with skin in a roasting pan, and roast in the oven for 45mins to 1hr. Remove beets, immediately place in an ice water bath. This will help pull the beet away from its skin. Peel skin and set beets aside.

While beets are roasting, cut Roma tomatoes in half, length-wise. On a small plate, mix together about 2 Tbsp olive oil, 2 tsp herbs, and salt and pepper, to taste. Rub all sides of tomato halves in oil mixture, and place flat side down on a baking tray. Roast in oven with beets for 10-15mins, until soft and deflated. Take out tray and turn all tomatoes over to flat side up and continue to roast for another 10-15mins, until flat. Place under broiler* at 450-degrees for an additional 5 mins on either side, until tomatoes are flat and shriveled, but not burnt. Take out and set aside.

Once beets are done roasting, turn on broiler to 450-degrees. (*This is a good time to put the tomatoes under the broiler.) Place roasted red pepper in a cast-iron pan or roasting pan, and position under broiler. Broil pepper until charred and mostly black, turning after each side chars to expose all sides to the broiler. Remove, immediately place in a ice water bath. Remove skin, and remove seeds from interior, being careful to retain the juice of the pepper in a mason jar.

All of the roasted vegetables can be stored in mason jars in the refrigerator for 2-3 weeks. Peppers should be stored with their juices; tomatoes should be stored in olive oil; beets can be stored dry or in olive oil.


Combine all ingredients for the dressing and mix together in a small bowl or cruet.

Toss together arugula, slices of beets, bits of tomatoes, and bite-size strips of pepper in the dressing. Portion the vegetables to your taste. Shave curls of parmesan cheese on top. Serve immediately.

Bon appétit!

New Year's (re)solution

Many of us will begin 2008 with noble expectations of self-betterment. With diet ads abound making every American regret his Christmas pudding, most of us will attempt to eat "better" and lose weight. Others will promise themselves to exercise more, spend less money, or quit smoking. Some will become seekers, hoping to find a better job, true love, or fulfillment in one's daily life. But by February, the winter doldrums will set in, and most of us will forgo the treadmill, buy a $12 full-spectrum lightbulb to ease Seasonal Affective Disorder, and plop down on the couch at home, alone, with a pint of Ben & Jerry's and an ashtray full of cigarette butts.

This sad relapse is the New Year's Burn-Out, the result of American society's go-go attitude of self-deprivation toward self-betterment. By going cold-turkey on holiday indulgences, we become wrapped up in a pattern of denying ourselves the very things that made us so jolly all December long. Many of these things became our crutches for Holiday Survival (mulled wine to ease awkward cocktail party conversation; Christmas cookies and sugar plums helped to stave off hunger while waiting for holiday meals; a cigarette taken outside to escape family arguments around the table). But come January 1, we are compelled to deny ourselves all of the wonderful foods we discovered during the holidays in the vain attempt to achieve perfection in the New Year and become conquerors of the New Year's Resolution Crapshoot.

Over the past few years, I have discovered something rather interesting. Like many 18-year-old-girls, I entered college with an intense fear of gaining the Freshman-15, and thus spent my first year living in New York City confined to the gym and bland salad bars, depressed and frustrated. Two years later I moved to Paris, where I spent four months without a gym and without salad bars, and I rediscovered -- of all the simple things -- the yolk of an egg. It was in Paris that I ate bread with every meal (white bread, no less), drank wine every evening, had butter smeared on almost everything, and ate chocolate every night before bed. And yet, much to the disbelief of my friends, I didn't gorge myself on croissants; all the while I lived in Paris, I had but one, and never craved the buttery patisserie. When I returned home, everyone was shocked and concerned: I had lost a considerable amount of weight without realizing it.

The weight loss wasn't because I had taken up chain smoking or starved myself; I ate all of my meals and snacked in between. Who wouldn't, when an entire city's philosophy is geared towards spending languorous hours eating and drinking in sidewalk cafés? I discovered the answer to what Michael Pollan in The Omnivore's Dilemma calls "the French paradox": "how could a people who eat such demonstrably toxic substances as foie gras and triple crème cheese actually be slimmer and healthier than we are?" Because the French invented the term "laissez faire" that we Capitalist Americans love to throw around. But, we regularly ignore the translation that the French use in their everyday lives: "Let it be: I simply don't care."

Here is where we come to the point: New Year's Resolutions are for sissies. They are cop-out ways of deluding ourselves into making our lives better. This year, resolve not to resolve anything. But do instead reflect on your personal goût, your tastes and what makes you happy. Forget about your crutches, and if you do have bad habits, kick them. But for your sake and the sake of all that tastes good, skip the diet and eat well.

Of course, there is a difference between eating healthy and not eating healthy. Eating out every night is unhealthy, as is eating at fast food restaurants and eating processed foods. So is not eating at all. Healthy eating is part practice and part philosophy -- but most of all, it's common sense. There is plenty out there to guide us toward healthy meals. When you think about what to prepare yourself, think healthy foods as tools to help you lose weight; think instead of foods to help you live healthfully -- ingredients that are good for the longevity of your body, and for the happiness of your soul.

But many of us need instruction and guidance, and so I will offer a bit of my own personal advice. I don't purport to be an expert on perfecting eating habits, but I do know about eating well.

1. Don't diet. Diets are about denial, and they are temporary. Everyone says "change the way you eat for life"; I would agree, but you should also change the way you think about food.

2. Food is a precious commodity (vegetable gardeners know how difficult it is to raise healthy crop), so treat it as such. Appreciate what you are eating, and for the love of food, eat real food that doesn't come sealed in plastic.

3. Vary your meals, experiment with new ingredients, and don't be afraid to use "unhealthy" ingredients in moderation. See what is available from local farmers, and enjoy the variety of eating seasonally. This is important to keep yourself interested in invested in eating well; anyone in their right mind would stop dieting just to get away from cottage cheese and melon.

4. Feed yourself. This implies that you should be aware of those things for which you are hungry. Are you craving chocolate cake? Well, that's probably because you like chocolate cake. Allow yourself to eat the cake in correct portion and measure, pace yourself, eat it slowly. Chances are, after you've enjoyed your cake, you won't crave another piece five minutes later, tomorrow, or maybe even next week. That one piece of chocolate cake saved you from slurping down Weight Watchers chocolate shakes that taste like styrofoam until you've finally satiated your craving for chocolate.

5. Always have dessert.


I will confess that I have made a resolution to myself: to keep up with my blogging. For everyone who has kept checking, thank you, and I promise that more is coming your way. Throughout January, I will give you some of my favorite healthy recipes, and I encourage you to send me some of your own.

So Happy New Year from me and from Goûter. As the French say before meals to encourage a healthy appetite: bon appétit!