Fish Matecumba (a refreshing and light fish dish)

Aileen and I first enjoyed this dish on one of our family vacations to the Florida Keys several years ago at a local place called "The Fish House". When arrived for our reservations, the place had line a mile long waiting outside. We now know why - their food was simple, but amazing.

Recipe Courtesy of The Fish House in Key Largo

Ingredients

• 2 cups diced tomatoes, seeded (from about 2 large fresh beefsteak tomatoes or 3 - 4 nice sized Italian plum tomatoes)

• 1/3 cup finely minced white onion (from about 1/4 of a medium Spanish onion - you can also use a yellow or a red onion in a pinch if you have those in your pantry)

• 1/4 cup capers (we actually don't like capers, so Aileen and I use green Spanish olives)

• 1/4 cup olive oil

• 2 tablespoons fresh basil, finely chopped

• 2 tablespoons lemon juice

• 2 tablespoons minced shallots (approximately 1 medium shallot)

• 1 teaspoon kosher salt

• A heavy pinch of black pepper

• Approximately 1 1/2 pounds of a boneless, skinless white fish fillets (such as cod, haddock, snapper, grouper, barramundi, or mahi mahi will work well)

• Additional lemon wedges for serving or garnish, if desired

Directions

1. Combine tomatoes, onion, capers (or olives), olive oil, basil, lemon juice, shallots, salt, and black pepper together and stir to combine.

2. Cover and refrigerate for at least an hour (or even 4 - 8 hours) - this will allow the flavors to nicely combine.

3. When ready to prepare the fish, position your oven rack so it's approximately 6 inches from broiler. Preheat your oven's broiler.

4. Place your fish fillets on a foil-lined baking sheet that has been sprayed with cooking spray. Season both sides of the fish evenly with salt and black pepper.

5. Broil fish on first side for approximately 4 - 6 minutes. (tip: place the side was the skin side upwards for this step.

6. Remove the fish from the oven and flip the fish over so the more attractive facing upwards.

7. Top the fish evenly with the tomato / onion / caper mixture.

8. Place the baking sheet back into your oven and continue broiling the fish until it is is done (about another 8 minutes depending on your broiler. NOTE: This will depend upon the thickness of your fish.

9. The fish should flake easily in the thickest part of the fillet when it is done.

As Always Best Regards and Bon AppetIT,

TheITGourmet

Lemon Chicken and Potatoes - It sure tastes Greek to me!

Recently, a good friend of ours gave us this recipe. It rapidly made it to "keeper" status and is making it to TheITGourmet.com blog to be shared to the interwebs! It's a very tasty recipe - especially the potatoes. I'm guessing the second time you make this recipe (it's that easy and good!) that you will increase the amount of potatoes you prepare.

Contributed by: Mary Adams

Credit to: Chef John from allrecipes.com

https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/242352/greek-lemon-chicken-and-potatoes/?internalSource=hub%20recipe&referringContentType=Search&clickId=cardslot%201

Some tips:

• We marinate the chicken 3 - 4 hours ahead of time - the recipe doesn't suggest this, but we think it helps to infuse the lemon flavor into the chicken better.

• We generally don't have just plain dried Rosemary in the house. However, we do keep Herbes de Provence (ours doesn't have Lavender), so I substitute that for the dried Rosemary.

• We cook the chicken in a separate roasting pan from the potatoes (this was a request / suggestion from MrsITGourmet and it seems to be our preferred way to make).

• Make sure you line your roasting pans with foil and and oil them liberally with some oil (e.g., Canola) or cooking spray.

As Always Best Regards and BonAppetIT!!!

TheITGourmet

NJ's Bests Cabelly COVID Crawl (Perhaps this a new weekly entry?)

Where did we crawl? Steve's Burgers (68 Passaic St, Garfield, NJ)

Category Burgers

Whose Pick Jeremy

Overall rating 6 Thumbs Up

Would we return? Yes

Okay - This time I'm not posting a recipe, but instead, I'm posting more of a review. In this case, Aileen, Jeremy, and I have started a new weekly blog post to help us get through the COVID Winter Blues?

How about - Cabelly COVID Dinner Crawl?

Tonight, rather than play the "Where should we order in from game?", we decided to venture outside of the borough (sticking with curbside / pickup distancing rules of course). We are trying to see if we can visit / discover some of NJ's "Best Of" restaurants within driving distance. This will hopefully allow us to break up some of the monotony of each week.

We have decided to follow a methodology by which each week a different family member gets to choose a different food category selection - and tonight we started with Jeremy.

What was on tonight's agenda? Jeremy chose hamburgers. After searching which local burger joint had the best burgers or sliders, there was one place that kept popping up in the searches - Steve's burgers of Garfield. So tonight at dinner time, we piled into the family truckster (read - Toyota Highlander) and popped Steve's into the direction finder (Waze is our electronic friend for this).

Within 35 minutes we arrived at Steve's Garfield location (we went to the Passaic Street location - there are three - but we don't have an G2 on the quality of the other locations). Warning - there was not much parking on the street - so please plan accordingly. Also - another tip - the place was busy. We placed our order when we were about 10 minutes from the restaurant. The very courteous woman who we spoke to told us that our order would be ready in about 40 minutes. She was also courteous to confirm we had called the Passaic Street location.

The three of us decided to try two of their "Homerun" combos and split among the three of us. This combo includes a burger, hot dog, fries, and a can of their private label soda (actually a bottle) for $10.95 including tax. One funny thing we notice immediately upon arrival was a huge banner hanging in front of the diner that read "Best Cheesesteak in NJ" - Well - not only is that quite the claim, but it put us en garde as to whether we had ordered the wrong item - hmmmm... Steve's Burgers has the best Cheesesteaks (well their menu actually claims they have the best burgers in Bergen County, so that settled our thoughts).

Here goes....

Let's start with the hot dogs. The hot dogs were some of your classic Sabrett all beef dogs. They were nicely grilled on the flat top and served with condiments that were fresh. The buns were nicely toasted on the grill as well. The dogs proved to be tasty with the nice "snap" and pop of taste - just good 'ole classic diner hot dogs.

The fries... The fries were fresh cut and thickly sliced. All in all, we enjoyed the fries but they weren't the highlight of the meal. I think sometimes fresh cut fries lose their zip when they get put into a takeout box. I think that was the case here - they were definitely fresh, but they were a victim to the steaming within the takeout container and bag. Also, I think we generally felt like the fries needed a little more seasoning. An ample portion of fries was provided with each order.

But, what about their burgers? Well, I can certainly say they lived up to the their great reviews and the "Best Burger in Bergen County" status. The meat was nice and fresh and had a nice sizzle and crispy taste from the grill / flat top. The burgers were nicely seasoned with salt and pepper and the toppings were fresh and tasty. One thing to note - their rolls were some of the softest and freshest burger rolls we've had in quite some time.

As Always Best Regards and Bon AppetIT!

TheITGourmet