Camacho Watcho

Last Saturday night Kyle and I decided to stay in. A good meal, a bottle of wine and a few games of Cribbage was on order for the night. Okay, I’ll admit it…I lost a few games to Kyle. I don’t like to admit it, but I did. However, this is highly unusual to “beat a Camacho girl at a game”, as Kyle put it, so he better relish in the victory…for now. Next time, I’m bringing my A-game.

The purpose of our night, however, was not for me to lose in Cribbage. Rather, we had stayed home to try some new recipes and to relax with a chilled glass of wine. I had picked up some Columbia Crest Riesling at Surdyk’s a few days earlier and decided to try it. I’m not usually a fan of Rieslings, but I have to say that I enjoyed this one. It was sweet (of course) but it was light enough that I didn’t feel like I was drinking a fermented piece of fruit like some Rieslings can taste. Overall I would definitely buy it again. It’s cheap ($8) and it’s a great wine to keep chilled for a hot summer afternoon.

We paired the wine with an appetizer of a quick oven pizza. I love these quick pizzas because you can make them so quickly and it’s easy to keep ingredients on hand. For this pizza, I took a tortilla (a wonderful cheater way of doing a thin crust) and topped it with sliced pear, blue cheese crumbles, fresh rosemary and raw walnut pieces. I baked it for 10 minutes at 375 and then drizzed honey on top before serving. Delicious!

I did a second appetizer course of sliced mushrooms with buffalo mozzarella, olive oil and herbs. This was broiled and then served with crusty bread to mop up the goodness. I had read about this recipe, but I didn’t have the oven proof platter necessary for broiling it correctly. I did like this dish, especially the olive oily mushroom residue at the bottom that we soaked up with the bread, and I’ll definitely have to try it again after I purchase a platter.

Our main course was halibut topped with basil-shallot butter. This is a recipe that I adapted from Bon Appetit. Instead of grilling the fish, however, I pan seared the fillets for a few minutes to get a wonderful brown crust on top and then finished them in a 450 oven to bake them through. I loved the crispiness of the fish and thought the basil-shallot butter added a lot of flavor. That being said I have had better versions of herbed butter than this particular recipe. I would consider trying this again substituting the basil-shallot butter for a different herbed butter topper, as I overall liked this dish, particularly the combination of textures with the crisp, flaky fish and the cool, rich butter.

I didn’t have my game on for the Cribbage, but that was after a good performance on the dinner. Staying in on Saturday night is sometimes just the needed thing.