Happy 4th of July to my American readers! Happy Friday to the rest of you! I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.
This week’s French Fridays with Dorie recipe was a delicious sounding tomato recipe. I did not make it. In a few weeks we can start harvesting garden tomatoes, so I will wait until then to make this dish.
Instead, I am catching up on some recipes from May and June that I hadn’t gotten to yet. Actually, I made two of these back in May but just haven’t written about them. The fish I made this past week. Let’s get to catching up!
Smoked Salmon Waffles
Smoked Salmon Waffles are a savory waffle meant to be served as a starter or a snack. The concept is pretty simple: basic waffle batter enhanced with smoked salmon, green onions, and chives.
These were good! Though they would have been better served as a starter rather than a main dish. These would be wonderful for brunch! In fact, the next day I reheated a leftover waffle and put a fried egg on top of it. Yum!
Pipérade Stir-Fry
Pipérade Stir-Fry is really just a dish inspired by the Basque Pipérade. Colorful bell peppers are sauteed until tender, then coated with red wine vinegar. After cooling to room temperature, the peppers are seasoned with thinly sliced red onions, garlic, piment d’Espelette, and salt and pepper. Dorie suggests these peppers are great with any kind of grilled meat.
I served Pipérade Stir-Fry with our first grilled steaks of the year (remember, I made this back in May). So delicious! The peppers really did go well with the grilled beef and we enjoyed this side dish very much.
Skate Halibut with Capers, Cornichons, and Brown Butter Sauce
So, this dish was supposed to be prepared with skate. I knew there was no way I was finding skate here in Reno, so I decided to see what looked good when I hit the fish counter. The wild-caught halibut looked good to me! (Actually, I tried making this dish a week earlier, but got seduced by the fresh and wild Copper River sockeye, and I didn’t want to mask the wonderful flavor with this sauce…)
This is a very quick and easy recipe. After the fish is cooked in butter on the stove, a sauce is made by browning butter and adding sherry vinegar, grainy French mustard, thinly sliced cornichons, and a few capers. Spoon it over the fish and eat!
This sauce was wonderful with the halibut. Don’t be afraid to try this recipe if you can’t find skate. I am sure it would work with any firm, white fish.
All of these recipes can be found in Dorie Greenspan’s wonderful book Around My French Table.
From Scratch 
You have been busy cooking. My family was afraid of the waffles so I was the only one that ate them. We all enjoyed the Pipérade Stir-Fry, I made fajitas with them. I did not make the skate yet but will try it with other white fish someday.
Happy 4th (belatedly)
I think the waffles were my favorite out of that trio. Although, the skate (insert substitute fish here) was great as well.
What a great catchup. My favorite of those three was the fish. I couldn’t find skate either, but it was the sauce that made that one special so I don’t think I missed much by substituting.
3 delicious catch up dishes! Glad you enjoyed them all, too!