Comfort food, indeed!

Okay, okay, there's only so much orange juice your heroine can drink in a 48 hour period.

There's a pound of sablefish in the refrigerator that's not going to last much longer.

A pound or so of organic new and German butter potatoes from last week's CSA delivery.

A pint of cream from my truffle adventure.

A Google search for "sablefish" + "potato" + "cream" nets this "comfort food" preparation. A cursory glance through the ingredient list... check. I've got almost everything. I toss aside the neon-wrapped loaf of ramen noodles I'd set out for dinner, roll up my sleeves and get to work.

First, the potatoes. I decide not to peel the red potatoes -- just scrub them well and toss them in the pot. Peel the German potatoes to reveal their buttery soft yellow flesh and quarter them. Add three smashed garlic cloves, a pinch of salt and leave them to boil away.

Moving on to the fish, I improvise a bit -- mixing a generous tablespoon of miso paste in with the butter and spreading it across the fish fillets. I've found inspiration in this recipe, but I'm still feverish and miso is one of the most restorative ingredinets I've ever worked with. Add a splash of leftover Viognier, and into the oven they go.

I prepare the mustard sauce as directed, using Mendocino Mustard's "Seeds and Suds" variety for both its palate-stimulating and sinus-clearing properties. Plus it made the sauce a rich yellow color.

The final result? I'm quie pleased. I was confident I'd enjoy the flavors but wasn't sure how the dish would plate -- a lot of white with touch of yellow? In the end it plated beautifully -- shades of yellow and white sprinkled with rich reds, greens and golds.

Comfort food. Delightfully simple yet at the sme time slightly indulgent comfort food. That looks pretty on a plate.

Moe over oatmeal. Make room orange juice. There's a new comfort food recipe in my repetoire.

Technorati Tags: Recipes | Comfort Food | Seafood | Sablefish | National Blog Posting Month 2006