It's not that I don't love you anymore, just through a myriad number of reasons I haven't been blogging. First there was Christmas so I was away for a week and a half with Julie's family. While there though I made Chili and Mac and Cheese (sorry no photos), but I've already blogged about my Chili (same recipe almost), and the Mac and Cheese was simple so I didn't feel like writing it up. When I make it a little more decadent I'll post that.

Then we got back and I was tired and didn't want to cook so we ate out a lot. I made some meals but I didn't take any photos and mostly they were done before (a tagine here, an "okay" cashew chicken there). I just didn't feel like it.

But tonight I made dinner for Karen (Julie's friend from high school and co-worker) and it was delicious. If I do say so myself.

Bluefish braised with root vegetables and a tomato-mint chutney/salsa/whatever. I cubed fennel, carrots, sunchokes, and potatoes, smashed some garlic cloves and minced a shallot. Caramelized the fennel and carrot over high heat in some olive oil, and then added the shallots and garlic when they were nice and caramel. I parboiled the potatoes, and then placed everything in a shallow baking dish. After that I deglazed the sautee pan with some white wine. Then put a whole bluefish (gutted, scaled and cleaned) on top of the veggies, stuffed with the fennel fronds, mint leaves and lemon slices, and mixed in washed kale and chopped fresh oregano. Added the wine, then veggie stock until it was nearly covered, brought to a boil and placed in a 210 degee oven, nearly tightly sealed. I cooked it until the fish was done. How did I know it was done? It was flaky and tender and still moist but no longer translucent. Then I took the fish out and pulled the fillets off, strained the veggies from the liquid and reduced the liquid down to a nice sauce and mounted it with some butter.

I served it topped with a relish/chutney composed of diced tomatoes, rinsed diced sun dried tomatoes (packed in oil), rinsed capers, black olives, minced garlic and a healthy dose of mint.