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Jim Coleman Cooking Tips

Fire-Roasted Salsa

If you like to make some salsa at home - try this trick to create a smoky, roasted flavor. I like to take all the ingredients for my salsa - onions, Chiles, garlic, and tomatoes and roast them whole on the grill. First peel the onions and garlic. Let all the ingredients get charred all over. Take the stems off the Chiles and tomatoes, and lightly puree the ingredients in a food processor with cilantro, cumin, salt and pepper. This salsa has a great, roasted flavor.

Grilling Seafood

Grilled seafood is an excellent and healthy choice for a BBQ party. You should use fish that has a firm texture, unless you're planning to grill a whole fish. For filets, I would recommend salmon, tuna or swordfish. If you like to marinate your fish, only marinate the fish for about an hour, otherwise the fish will start to taste like seviche! I don't use foil when I am grilling fish, make sure the grill is very hot and clean. Set the oiled, skinless filet on the grill and don't move it around too much. After a few minutes, turn carefully using a spatula. I like to season the fish when I take it off the grill, because otherwise, the seasoning makes the fish stick to the grill. If you're grilling shrimp, put them on a skewer so it is easier to turn them. If you're grilling lobster, split them in half, crack the claws, and grill them shell-side down the whole time, otherwise, the tail will get done and the claws are still raw.

Lemon Grass

And on to our quick cooking tips for the week - lemon grass adds a wonderful citrus flavor without the acid usually associated with lemons - the flavor comes from the oils within the stalk. You can buy the long stalks at many stores and markets, and they are actually very easy to use. The key is to bring the essential oils out - you can steep the stalks in water or whatever liquid you are using. First smash the stalks with the back end of a knife and then steep for at least fifteen minutes. Remove the stalks. Or you could finely mince the bottom part of the stalks and add them to your dish. If you're making lemon-grass vinaigrette make sure you let it sit for a while so the flavor can permeate. I love to make lemon-grass ice cream - just add smashed stalks to your vanilla custard while you're heating it and let it steep. Remove the stalk before you put the mixture in your ice cream maker.

Butterflying

Butterflying is a great way to roast whole chicken because the thigh and leg meat takes about the same length of time to cook as the breast. Normally, the leg meat of chicken tends to be overcooked by the time the breast meat is done.

Wild Rice

Wild rice is not really rice, it's the seed of a grass. When you prepare it, forget everything you know about cooking rice, because it's not the same thing. Wild rice is native to North America, and Native Americans were eating it long before settlers brought white rice here. Here are a few things to keep in mind: One cup of dry wild rice will make three cups of cooked wild rice. Usually, when you cook rice, you use two cups of liquid for each cup of rice. Wild rice cooks more like pasta - cook it in lots of boiling water with some salt.

Cook the wild rice until the grains pop open, the cooking time differs depending on where the wild rice is from, but it will take at least 30 minutes. I like to serve wild rice with fowl or wild game, and it's very easy to form wild rice into little cakes.

Seafood

general rule for baking or broiling fish is 10 minutes per inch of thickness at 400-450 degrees F, turning the fish halfway through the cooking time. This rule does not apply to microwave cooking tips or frying.

Fish less than 1/2-inch thick do not have to be turned.

If fish is cooked in a sauce or foil, add 5 additional minutes to the cooking time.

The cooking time for frozen fish should be doubled.

Seafood with low fat content -- like grouper, flounder and tilapia -- should be basted when cooking with a dry heat method such as broiling and baking.

Fish is done when the flesh becomes opaque and flakes easily at the thickest part.

Most fish will continue cooking for 1 to 2 minutes after being removed from the heat, so plan for this in the cooking time.

Broiling:

Place fish, one-inch thick or less, 2-4 inches from the source of heat.

Fish thicker than 1-inch should be placed 5 to 6 inches away from the heat.

Seafood with low fat content -- like grouper, flounder and tilapia -- should be basted when cooking with a dry heat method such as broiling and baking.

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