Lazy Sunday

Yesterday was another great day of resting, reading, and cooking. I practiced my fileting on some tilapia. I got some decent filets but left a bit of meat on the carcass so I might go get another couple of fish to practice some more today. They're pretty cheap - about $5 for two whole fish. Here's what I yielded:

I used the bones to make a fumet (fish stock) but I think it's closer to a vegetable stock. I should've gotten a few more fish before making the stock. It just wasn't enough bones.

For dinner last night I made chicken roulade with pan fried jalapeno polenta cakes (really they were made with corn meal though, it just sounds better and I would've preferred polenta) and a veloute sauce (which was really just gravy, I guess because I didn't technically use a roux). It was delicious. Unfortunately we ran out of white wine so I was forced to drink a chianti with it. What can I say? Life's rough. Here are the pictures:

Cooling the polenta

Roulade

Cooking the polenta

Cooked roulade

Okay, this next picture needs a little more explanation. I finished the roulades in the oven then took out the pan, set it on the stove to make the sauce, and told myself "this pan is hot, don't just grab it with your hand." So what did I do? I grabbed it with my naked hand not 30 seconds later. I should really listen to myself a little more. Anyways, I couldn't let a little burn keep me from finishing the job so I whisked butter into the sauce with one hand while running my other, burned hand under cold water. The wife got a good laugh out of it:

The finished product, minus garnish