Bonjour + Hola

Preparing a delicious yet healthy meal requires four words: patience, innovation, creativity, and focus. Cooking is typically my time to relax by making my favorite go-to recipes. But sometimes, you want to kick it up a notch and try something new and creative….plus it is nice to have a fellow cook in the kitchen! Earlier this month, I decided to call in a professional named David Nayfeld, who is a Sous Chef at one of my absolute favorite restaurants in New York: Eleven Madison Park.

I met David and his father recently over barbecue in Brooklyn, and thought it was a wonderful idea to have him come over and show me how to cook a dish that appears complicated, but is healthy and easy to make at home. David proposed to teach me how to make a citrus edamame salad topped with a striped sea bass – it was so fabulous! Here is what you need to know to make it for your next dinner party, date, or just a yummy dinner at home…

Ingredients:

1 lbs center cut striped sea bass fillet

1 bag edamame beans

1 grapefruit

1 blood orange

1 cara cara orange

4 scallions (green onion)

1 oz Tarragon

White balsamic vinegar

Olive oil

Salt

Honey

Directions:

Segment all of the citrus {note: when picking the citrus make sure it feels like a water balloon, and that there is juice in it – typically, I picked the incorrect ones, but David worked around it!}, and get all of the membrane off the pieces

Mix the grapefruit and oranges together in one bowl {the different colors are so beautiful!}

Put a big pot of hot water on the stove {note: “blanching” means cooking quickly in boiling water}, and put in a ton of salt – you want it to taste like saltwater!

Chop two sticks of scallions {make sure to put a towel underneath the board to make it sturdy}

Put the edamame in the salt water for less than a minute, drain it, and rest under a bit of cold water

Take off the edamame skin and put into a separate bowl

Cut the green part of the scallion off diagonally, and put into tap water to make the onion taste disappear. It also makes the scallion turn into cool shapes!

Mix the edamame and citrus together, and top with white balsamic, honey, and olive oil {from a separate bowl already marinated together} – season it all with salt!

Put the chopped scallions into the edamame salad, and keep the water out of it because it dilutes the flavor!

Add 1 oz of tarragon to the edamame salad

Heat up a pan on the stove for the striped sea bass {it needs to be super hot!}

Make sure the fish is very dry to create the crust appearance {note: the key to buying fish is that when you feel it the fish shouldn’t feel slimy. If it smells fishy it’s not good because ironically fish is not supposed to smell fishy, but should smell like seawater. Also, it should be firm, and tell people behind the fish counter that you do not want the belly or the skin because they are making you pay for extra weight that you don’t need!}