Fish & Code and Code & Fish

Somehow I deleted an entire blog post that had been saved from earlier this evening. Here's the replacement.

Tech -- it's already Week 6 at Hackbright! We've finished the formal curriculum and are beginning our projects, which is really exciting. I'm happy with the project I chose & have already had an awesome time storyboarding, mapping and creating my data model. Had an energizing meeting with my mentor where she pointed out small gaps in my data model and potential clusterf*cks to avoid -- SO HELPFUL! I continue to be absolutely blown away by the calibur of the teachers, alum and other mentors.

Yes, there are FOUR kinds of oysters here.
If you ask, I'll tell you where to get 'em!

Food/Life -- Had another insanely busy but awesome weekend. I managed to squeeze in a bikram class each day before I had to tutor, which keeps me calm, balanced & pumped full of endorphins, and is a minor foil to sitting in a chair all week. Was regaled on Saturday evening with a lovely bouquet of flowers & a few dozen oysters from my husband (aka the sweetest person I know) to celebrate my Hackbright halfway point. Then we explored an Asian strip mall in Milpitas and discovered a pretty respectable (ie, actually *Japanese*) sushi place. We had whole mackerel sashimi and I so wish I'd taken a picture of their gorgeous presentation! Rows of beautifully folded sashimi slices, with the fish body curving around them and seaweed salad accents, topped with a pile of shaved green onions & ginger. After you eat the sashimi, they deep-fry the carcass karaage-style and you eat it like a cracker. A hot, crunchy, greasy fishmeat and fishbone cracker... Heaven :)

On Sunday we made smoked albacore tuna salad to sample for the folks at Three Stone Hearth on Wednesday (Hackbright friends might recognize it as my Monday lunch). It's really good. Here's the recipe:

Smoked Tuna Salad (4-6 servings)

Ingredients

• 8-10 oz smoked tuna loin, chunked
• 4-5 radishes, diced
• 2 celery stalks, diced
• 1 medium shallot, finely diced
• 1 dill pickle, diced
• 1/2 cup parsley, rough chopped
• 1 tbsp mayonnaise or mayo substitute
• 2 tbsp plain yogurt (I use 2%)
• juice of 1 lemon
• fresh black pepper

Instructions:

Combine first 6 ingredients in a mixing bowl; stir to combine well. Add mayo, yogurt & lemon juice and fold mixture to thoroughly incorporate the dressing into the salad. Stir to less to keep the tuna chunky; more if you like it mashed-up. Sprinkle on some fresh black pepper to taste and refrigerate before serving.

Quick & Easy Fish Soup

Tonight we had a surplus of black gill rockfish on our hands, along with some fish stock, veggies, and very little time. We threw together a soup pretty quickly that ended up being delicious!

Here's what was in it:

• 1/2 lb rockfish fillets
• 3 cups stock of your choice
• 2 tbsp citrus juice (orange, lemon, lime, etc)
• 1/4 cup white wine OR 1 tbsp sweet vinegar
• 1 carrot, diced
• 1 celery stalk, diced
• 1/2 cup frozen peas
• 1 cup frozen spinach
• 1 shallot OR 1/2 cup onion, diced
• Olive oil

Here's what we did:

In a saucepan on medium heat, sauté onion, carrot & celery in some olive oil for about 5 minutes. Add stock, wine/vinegar and citrus, bring to a boil on medium-high heat. Add peas & spinach, stirring to mix well and maintaining the boil. Add fish; cover and reduce heat to low. Simmer for 5-7 minutes, until fillets begin to form visible flakes. Serve immediately.