superfitbabe

CASSIE, YOU DRINK?!

No, sillies, I don’t, and I never plan on doing so anytime soon. However, if I do ever have a little bit of alcohol, it’d probably already be cooked in something and I wouldn’t get drunk. Besides, I did make Baked Alaska when I was in fifth grade. Once I’ve learned about how dangerous alcohol can be in large drinking doses in terms of health, violence and psychology, I gave anything with an alcohol content a lot more scrutiny. The future me might beg to differ, but as of now, I aim to stay away from it as much as possible with the exception of the occasional glass of kombucha, which is made with yeast and bacteria and yields a very veeeeeeeeeeery slight alcohol content. Just not enough to get you hammer drunk unless you drink an Atlantic Ocean’s worth of it. And I would never reach for a second glass.

The other times I’d have cooked alcohol was when I’d eat the chicken parmigianas with white wine sauce, or most recently I’d have white wine sauce with any white fishes or other kinds of seafood. Since my love for Italian food has died down the past recent years, I have rarely ever voluntarily chosen to consume any white wine dishes. However, I was recently inspired by a homemade recipe my mother recreated in our own kitchen that tastes even better than from any European restaurant out there. If anything is homemade, it tastes better and connects you closer to the hearth.

I’ve really embraced baking my own granola, blending my own smoothies, cooking my own curries, and just trying to make more food at home in general. I do have a lot of healthy and vegan hotspots in mind to visit, but I’ve reduced my trips to eating out only twice or three times a week, usually with friends or just by myself if I want to visit a particular destination that nobody else wants to visit with me. I generally try not to go out on Fridays and Saturdays just because traffic is terrible, but the problem is that a lot of people have school or work during the week and can’t make the trip! That’s why I’m so grateful that school is over and work isn’t too overpowering in my schedule. You shouldn’t have to dedicate your life to working towards a better future when you deserve to live happily in the present.

Anyways, I’ve also been having trouble with my priorities. To be honest, it gets lonely when you have all of these destinations you want to visit and you don’t have a foodie buddy that’s also into healthy plant-based food as well. Going on websites that provide all kinds of festivals, meetups, and other group events have been so helpful for me because they force me to talk to other people and open myself up to strangers. It’s something that I really want to prepare myself for college so I can learn to get along with most if not all kinds of people. This also comes with the demands for being more flexible and accommodating, meaning that I do have to take a bite of pizza and stay up until midnight on some weekends, which are not fun for me. But hey, I got to loosen my rigidity somehow, someway.

So I’ve been going way off-topic from what we’re actually talking about, but this is one of my family’s favorite homemade recreations of a typical restaurant dish that we all love. As of now, cod has been one of my favorite types of fishes besides salmon, scallops, sole, sashimi, there really is no fish that I don’t like as of now, except for anchovies and sharkfin just because I’ve never had them before. I find that cod is the most mild base and therefore works the best with this recipe, but some great meats that would work with this recipe are chicken breasts, turkey breasts, pork chops, or if you’re vegan, large blocks of extra furm tofu or even tempeh would also work.

RECIPE

• 2 cups of low sodium chicken broth or low sodium vegetable broth (we used chicken broth)
• 1/2 cup white wine
• 2 tsp olive oil
• 1 tsp truffle oil
• 1 TBSP crushed garlic
• 1 large white onion
• 1 box of Trader Joe’s white cremini mushrooms
• 1/2 cup capers, canned and drained
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 4 cod fillets, each 3-4 ounces (defrosted if frozen)

PROCEDURE

1. Preheat the oven to 450F.
2. Heat a deep pan or large skillet on medium-high heat and spray with olive oil.
3. Finely chop the white onion and mushrooms.
4. Add the mushrooms, garlic and white onion on the skillet.
5. Pour in the chicken broth, white wine, capers and salt and pepper and stir carefully.
6. Turn the heat on low and allow the sauce to bubble and thicken.
7. Line a baking tray with aluminum foil and coat with a little more olive oil to make sure the fillets don’t stick.
8. Spread the cod fillets on the tray and carefully pour the sauce on top.
9. Garnish each fillet with a little truffle oil if desired.
10. Bake the cod for 12-15 minutes, more or less depending on the size of each fillet.

What is your relationship with alcohol? Do you go out to eat often?