We are getting skylights installed in our house, and for the past few days, there has been a massive hole in my ceiling while we try to come up with structural alternatives to having my roof potentially fall in. 
A huge hole in the ceiling means it’s pretty pointless for me to even try to heat our house as all the heat would rise right out of that hole anyway. Needless to say, I’ve been cold lately.
I was especially grateful when Dave invited us over for dinner this week as it meant getting out of my cold house and into his warm one. And we got a free homemade meal to boot!
Dave had told me in advance what he was making. I’m a picky eater and was not convinced that this was going to be a winner. He proved me wrong. It was one of the best meals he’s made for us. It gets five gold stars for aesthetics, too!
Dinner was shark (Dave will have to comment here to let us know specifically what kind – I forget!) wrapped in phyllo dough shaped, of course, like a shark. On the side was a balsamic reduction and pineapple slices topped with a pineapple salsa that was absolutely delicious with the fish.
Our salad was bitter greens with a citrus vinaigrette, cherry tomatoes, and macadamia nuts. In short, we had a little bit of Hawaii for dinner, which was a nice change from the 58 degree temps in my house!
This sure beats sitting at home huddled in a blankie trying to stay warm!
Here is a photo of our friend Amanda stabbing her shark! We were all a little hesitant to destroy Dave’s creation, but he told us that if we didn’t, he would be very mad because it was made to be eaten.
5 responses so far ↓
1 Chef Dave // Feb 26, 2010 at 5:17 pm
Here’s the original email I sent Paula when she asked what was for dinner:
“I was thinking of making fish “en croute”; fish filet wrapped in puff-dough and baked, basically. Typically this is done with salmon, but as I’m not a big fan of salmon I was going to try and find a firm white-fish to use instead. Swordfish or Mahi-mahi are likely to fit the bill, but it all depends upon what the fish market has that looks good. The fish I find will determine the sauce I use, but I’m leaning towards a citrus-based marmalade (something lightly sour – likely either orange or lemon – and prepared to provide a “mushy” mouth-feel to contrast against the crunchy/silky of the pastry.) For the veg, I was thinking about a bitter-leaf (arugula and the like) and toasted-nut (pine, hazelnut, walnut… not sure) salad with a sweet-citrus vinaigrette. The dressing would act as the bridge between the pastry and the salad while the bitter leaves would balance against the salty/sweet that will come from the fish and butter in the dough. The nuts would add a touch of savory into the dish with a light toasting.”
Mako ended up being the fish (yes; shark; but that’s still “fish”) variety. In this case, the Mako was line-caught in Hawaii. The whole Hawaiian theme basically came from that while I was at the store (food that grows together tends to taste good together.)
I picked up a Maui Gold pineapple to use for the sauce (which ended up being a salsa instead of a marmalade because I got tired of cooking things) and also as the citrus aspect of the vinaigrette (which end up having lemon-oil and white balsamic as well as the juice of the pineapple.)
I also had some toasted macadamia nuts sitting around that I knew would go good, so that rounded out the salad.
Paula forgot to mention that dessert ended up being an attempt to combine divinity (cooked sugar mixed with whipped egg whites, basically) with milk chocolate truffles. In the end, the two didn’t combine well, so we had to make-do with eating milk-chocolate truffle batter rolled in sugar and/or chocolate powder. Such a disappointment…
2 Dave Madsen // Feb 28, 2010 at 4:26 pm
What an interesting dinner! Dave’s “comment” is a blog in itself. Oh, by the way, I had piece of toast and some luke warm coffee for supper. Step 1: make coffee and let sit a couple of hours. Step 2: find some bread and toast it. Step 3: put some stuff on the toast.
3 Sully Trenz // Mar 6, 2010 at 12:50 am
Any way that we could get a recipe, for this delicious and intriguing meal??! That would be amazing and definitely something that I would try!!
4 paulawong // Mar 6, 2010 at 9:42 am
Sully – I’ll see if Dave can mentally re-create it and write it out for me.
If so, then I’ll post it down here. 
5 Chef Dave // Mar 7, 2010 at 5:02 pm
The fish was easy, really. The ingredients are the fish filets of your choice (salmon, halibut, mahi-mahi, etc.; any fish will work, really) and puff dough (which you can buy at most grocery stores from the frozen food isle.) The filets should be cleaned, deboned and skinned.
Preheat oven to 450F.
Roll out enough of the dough to cover the filets twice over. The dough should roll out to about 150% of its original size at most; don’t roll it out too much or else the butter will break through and the dough won’t “puff”.
Season the filets with a pinch of salt and pepper. Other seasonings can also be used, but aren’t required as most of the flavor will come from the butter in the dough.
Lay out a layer of dough on a floured cutting board and place the filets on it. If you are going for a fancy shape, leave enough room to cut it out. Otherwise, just leave about an inch in-between each filet.
Wet your finger with water and run it around each filet.
Lay a second layer of rolled-out dough on top of the filets and press the layers of dough together (the water should help seal the dough.) Try and prevent any air pockets.
Using a sharp knife, cut out each filet and place them on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper (or a silpat, or just use a non-stick cookie sheet.)
Place the pastries in the middle rack of the preheated oven and bake until the dough is a light golden brown. The fish will be fully cooked at this point and should register in the 120-150F range (or higher depending upon the thickness of the filet.)
The nice part about this technique is that the butter in the dough keeps the fish from drying out, so it’s a pretty fail-safe method.
The salsa was something like the following:
Pineapple-Mint Salsa
1 cup pineapple, small diced
1 medium shallot, minced
1/4 cup mint leaves, chopped fine
1 tbsp sugar (more or less, depending upon the sweetness of the fruit)
1 tsp red pepper flakes (or more if you like the heat)
1/4 cup white vinegar (regular white wine works fine, but a “flavored” variety, such as white balsamic, could also be used)
Salt and Pepper to taste (white pepper works best if you have it, otherwise go light on the blakc pepper.)
Combine and mix the above in a non-reactive bowl (plastic, etc.) and let sit for an hour or more in the fridge.
When ready to serve, strain the liquid (save that) and place a small pile (~2oz) on each plate.
The strained liquid from the salsa can be combined with an equal measure of mild oil (canola, for example) and shaken, then poured over chilled, bitter salad greens (I used a 50/50 blend of arugula and spring greens.)
Top the salad with macadamia nuts; which could either be lightly toasted in the over or not.
Leave a Comment