Fish with Caper Salsa Verde/Pan-Grilled Pork Chops with Pineapple Salsa

This week may be a Cooking Light week--actually, I know it will be that type of week. The meals are usually pretty flavorful, and they're a quick fix on a weekday. And since I was feeling pretty crappy last night, you get two posts for the price of one--yay you!

First up, last night's Halibut with Caper Salsa Verde. Our grocery store was out of (or maybe never did have) halibut, so I thought I would go with cod. White fish is white fish, right? Yeah...not so much. Turns out I have alzheimer's when it comes to using cod in recipes. Because I've used it before, and it does not hold up well at all. It's great if you can hide the chunky pieces (i.e., in a fish taco or as a panko-breaded fish sandwich), but it definitely does not make for a pretty presentation on its own...although it's still totally edible. So, lesson: find the halibut! As visual evidence of the icky presentation of cod, I now present the following:

The caper salsa verde on this was great--we omitted the anchovy paste because, well, it's kinda hard to find anchovy paste in these here neck of the woods. But use it if you have the means to find it in your area. If you're not familiar with capers, I'm going to try to describe what they are without referring to Wikipedia or a dictionary, so you may want to cross-reference your resources. Anyway...capers are simply the buds of a prickly bush, usually found in a briny substance. They're small, but they're packed with flavor and particularly good paired with fish and can be found in chicken picattas in restaurants. Give them a shot if you've never tried them before--they're really essential to this salsa.

I also made some roasted fennel with this, which is very mellow and ah-maz-ing. I'm a roasted fennel virgin, but this was simple--just preheat the oven to 400 degrees and toss 1/4-inch slices of fresh fennel (remove the outer layers of the fennel bulb first before slicing) with one Tbsp. of olive oil and bake for 12 minutes; then toss with 2 tsp. shredded Asiago cheese and bake another 12 minutes. Congratulations, you've achieved perfection.

A salad with homemade ranch was another side--to make the ranch, I just mixed some light mayo, sour cream, milk, chopped fresh chives, a splash of distilled white vinegar, salt and pepper to taste. If you have buttermilk, the taste is better, but regular milk is a quick substitute.

Okay, NEXT....pan-grilled pork chops with grilled pineapple salsa. The husband told me this tasted good, but with a stubborn head cold lingering, I honestly couldn't taste anything except a bit of the pineapple and the heat of the jalapeno in the salsa.

At any rate, this was a simple meal that, once started, took 25 minutes. First up (after prepping the onions, pineapple and jalapeno for the salsa), I started one cup of jasmine rice (my rice of choice, but use whatever you want here) and 2 cups of water on boil, then covered and reduced the heat to low, cooking for 25 minutes. After covering the rice, I put down the red onions and pineapple slices on our grill pan. (Tip: cooking spray is not the ideal "oil" to use on a grill pan; you're more likely to end up with burned cooking spray than a flavorful grilled food; I use canola oil to coat the pan instead.) I let the pineapple/onions go for about 6-7 minutes on each side, or until grill marks were apparent. I pulled those off the heat and set aside to cool while I added some more canola oil to the heated pan and put down the pork. While those cooked on one side for about 6 minutes, I made the salsa as directed, then flipped the pork to cook another 6-7 minutes. By that time, the rice should be finished--just fluff and serve.