she cooks…he cleans

This is more of a product review, perhaps, than a recipe.  When I was shopping for fish, I noticed that Whole Foods had grouper that was already covered in a marinade of some type…and it looked pretty tasty.  Since I wasn’t buying to cook on the same day, I asked what they used for the marinade so I could do it myself later.  They were using Cindy’s Kitchen Sweet Chili & Lime Marinade…conveniently placed right there in the produce section beside the fish counter.  I had already discovered Cindy’s Roasted Garlic Caesar Dressing (which is way yum), so I picked up a bottle of the marinade to take home.

Once home, I had to taste it (5 second finger-in-the-bottle rule) and it was spicy, sweet and citus-y as you would expect from the name, plus had a nice ginger flavor.

Here’s what we put together with it –

• 1 1/3 pound of red grouper filets
• Cilantro for garnish
• Lime wedges, for serving

Around 2 hours before dinner time, I put the fish in a glass baking dish and poured around 1/3 a cup or so of the marinade over the fish.  I coated the fish well with the marinade, then covered it with cling wrap and stuck it back in the refrigerator.

When ready to cook, take the baking dish out of the oven and set aside while the oven preheats to 400F.  Stick the dish in the oven (uncovered) for around 15 minutes, depending on the thickness of your fish.  Check on it occasionally and shake the pan to keep the sauce from burning.  Bake until the fish flakes easily.

Remove from the oven…sprinkle some chopped cilantro around, give it a good squeeze of fresh lime juice, and there you have it!

Here is the finished product right before consumption, served with oven-roasted carrots.

If you can have music to cook by, how about music to marinate? Indeed!

In the past few years I’ve become a big fan of old time and jug band music, and just got a great collection of it:

Memphis Jug Band with Gus Cannon’s Jug Stompers. This is some seriously wonderful stuff, urban blues featuring guitar, kazoo and yes, a guy blowing on a jug. Bizarre and completely original, jug bands have provided material to everyone from Pete Seeger to the Dead.

Now, for music from this century, we spun this lovely 70s live recording from house favorite Nina Simone:

It Is Finished features the best version of Steppenwolf’s “The Pusher” you’ll ever hear, as well as a great interpretation of the Everly Brothers “Let It Be Me”. I had the good fortune to see Nina live not long before she passed, and records like this bring back good memories. Like the delicious grouper, Nina Simone is spicy at the same time as being oh so tender…