Dennis and I did some recipe testing tonight, trying out our ideas for fish cakes, seafood stew and "pots de creme" (pronounced po du krem in French), or as I like to call them, chocolate pots of cream! :-) Maybe pots of chocolate cream would be more accurate... At any rate, I haven't tasted the dessert yet- they get baked in the oven for a while, then need to cool and be chilled since they're served cold, so I'm just banking on the fact that Dennis has saved me a pot or two. Cross your fingers!

So the fish cake appetizer, which could also be a crab cake or a cake made of some other seafood scraps depending on the day, was quite tasty, although in the recipe we used there was no call for bread or egg, which typically creates the binder for the fish product, so they tasted pretty much just like a seasoned fish fillet would. Not that that's a bad thing, but there wasn't much "cake" to it, that chewy texture that you might expect.

This recipe simply called for:

• minced fish (their suggestion of a few quick spins in a food chopper worked beautifully since firm white fish can be difficult to work with), sprinkled with salt and pepper
• fresh herbs (we used chives in lieu of parsley or cilantro)
• a dash of olive oil, depending on the quantity you're preparing

We simply made small patties of this mixture and pan friend them, taking care when flipping them since they're more delicate than the more cakey variety. Yum! Oh yes, instead of a mayonnaise based aoili, which is commonly served as a dipping sauce with these things, we made an incredibly simple and delicious cucumber yogurt sauce which I thought was the perfect compliment to the fish cakes, sort of Greek style.

Dennis whipped this up in about two seconds since he's made it before:

• 1 big scoop of plain yogurt, maybe 2/3rds of a cup
• 1 scoop (half a cup?) of shredded cucumber (use the food chopper, or at least a grater for this too)
• the juice of one slice of lemon, or about 1/8th of the lemon
• a pinch of dill

I finished this up right out of the bowl after the cakes were gone!

Next, we put together a seafood stew based on a combination of two different recipes. Depending on what you put into it fish-wise, it will have different flavors- we used halibut and rock cod, plus clams and mussels, but pretty much anything will work. We've found that there are many ways to make the stew base and that can yield very different colors and flavors- the Italian cioppino which is very popular is a little more tomatoey, while the Mexican sopa mariscos is spicy and more neutral colored. Our stew turned very yellow, mostly due to using saffron, but also because we used a yellow onion, a yellow tomato, a sweet yellow pepper, a hot yellow pepper, and white wine! Go figure.

It was also pretty easy:

• sautee onion and garlic in olive oil in a large pot
• add spices such as saffron, thyme, nutmeg, and bay leaves (most oceanfront countries have created a "fishermen's stew" somewhere along the line, so the spices called for can vary widely)
• add chopped leeks, peppers (sweet and/or chili), and tomatoes
• add fish/shellfish towards the end, cover with about 1 cup of dry white wine, and let simmer just until the fish is cooked and the shellfish has opened up

That's it! Here's a photo of ours- we garnished with fresh chives. It was really delicious, though Dennis correctly noted that it tasted kind of like a paella without the rice, which makes sense since one of the recipes was inspired by Catalonia, an "autonomous community of the Kingdom of Spain" to quote wikipedia. We'll have to come up with a slightly different recipe so it doesn't taste just like our seafood paella!

And for dessert, the chocolate pots de creme also proved fairly easy to make (simple, pure and delicious was definitely the theme of the night). Our only problem was the explosion of the sweet egg mixture all over Dennis and his countertop while using his electronic whisk, an incredibly handy but somewhat dangerous hand held appliance! It sent me into such convulsive laughter that I almost dropped the contraption entirely, but Dennis, although covered in splatters, saved the day by covering my laughter-induced weakness. I did mention he's a chocolate freak, right? He'd do pretty much anything to save a pot of chocolate cream, much less 6 of them!

Anyways, here it is:

• 2/3 cup whole milk (we used soy)
• 1/2 cup whipping cream
• 1 tablespoon orange liqueur and 1 teaspoon finely grated orange peel (if you want an orange-chocolate flavor)
• 4 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, in any form
• 4 egg yolks
• 3 tablespoons sugar (we substituted honey as an experiment)

Just bring the milk, cream and liqueur to a simmer on the stove, remove from heat and add the chocolate, stirring until fully melted and smooth, then stir in the egg and sugar mixture which you need to whip together separately. We tried substituting honey for the sugar, but I accidentally thought it called for a full cup of sugar instead of just 3 tablespoons (based on some directions for making candied orange peel that printed on the same page as the recipe) so we put in WAY too much honey. Luckily, since it was honey and not sugar, Dennis said the pots were still edible though a bit too sweet. After everything is combined, pour the batter into souffle cups or ramekins, place in a baking dish, fill the dish with water until it comes about halfway up the cups (we're guessing this is to promote more even or gentle cooking), and bake at 350 for about 40 minutes. Let cool and then chill for a few hours or overnight. Enjoy! Maybe with a dollop of whipped cream or creme freche on top and some fresh fruit garnish.