Fish with Beets, Bacon and Balsamic and Meyer lemon Crepe Cake

If you never hear from me again on this blog, Jim has killed me. Tonight I came into my office with a glass of red wine, set it on my desk that was loaded with papers, and it did not stay upright. I will have to say that red wine is chilling on light grey carpet, but the abuse I suffered verbally tonight was totally uncalled for. I can’t begin to tell you how many spills I have cleaned up around the dining tables that have been left by the dinner Sommelier. But here is dinner tonight. Possibly it is the beets that caused the bad humor. I like beets, Jim could do without them.
Last night I did not blog about my strawberries as I did not make them until I had finished. I have these wonderful big strawberries. I warmed some chocolate chips in a little heavy cream and rolled the strawberries in them. They were ok; I probably should have added some vanilla.
Today was all Martha which means my back is in pain. I originally wanted to make her Shad Roe with Beet, Bacon and Balsamic. She aired this on her TV show on Monday and I was at the market on Wednesday. They said the shad season was over. I had already loaded my basket the other 10 ingredients Martha called for so I looked for something that had the same shape as this was a salad compose. I chose long thin pieces of cod. Serves 4

4 medium red beets
4 medium golden beets
1 fennel bulb, sliced
2 garlic cloves
1 apple, quartered
6 sprigs fresh thyme
2 fresh bay leaves
½ C plus 3 T EVOO
½ C AP flour
Salt and pepper
4 pieces of shad roe (I substituted the cod)
8 slices of thick-cut apple wood smoked bacon
3T butter
Salt
¼ C assorted coarsely chopped herbs, parsley, tarragon, chives
1 C Frisee
¼ C balsamic vinegar
Place the beets in different pots according to color. Make sure that after all is added that you have pots big enough to cover the contents by 4” of water. To each pot add ½ of the first 5 ingredients. The directions say to simmer for 35 minutes. Mine took about 55 minutes. Drain separately and disregard all but the beets. Peel and cut into quarters. Place in separate bowls and then mix in 2 T of EVOO, salt, and pepper in each bowl. Cool.
Next cook the bacon in a skillet. When finished set aside the bacon and retain only 3T bacon greases. Add 1 3T of EVOO and the same amount of butter to the skillet. Put the fish or shad into a container with ½ C AP flour and add salt and pepper. Add the fish to the skillet. Cook to 135 degrees. It does not take long.
In the meantime, rinse and chop the Frisee. Place on the plates. Add the quartered beets and the bacon. When the fish is done place on top and sprinkle with the EVOO/Balsamic mixture.
Jim hates beets but said he liked it. But that was before I spilled the wine.

We have not had the following yet, but I made it because I had left over lemon curd that I made from the angel food cake leftover egg yolks.

Meyer Lemon Crepe Cake
3/4C AP flour
1/2C sugar
¼ t salt
1 ¼ C milk
3 large eggs
1/2t vanilla extract
Mix the above ingredients and place in the refrigerator for 2 hours or overnight. Lightly coat a crepes pan with butter. Do not expect the first 3 to turn out. I have a very old French crepe pan. I also have a non-stick pan the same size. I still use the old French crepe pan. Keep adding butter to 6T as you make each crepe. Heat the pan, add the butter, and add about 2T of batter. Swirl to fill the bottom. Cook to brown the bottom and flip. Cook the other side and place on a plate. I put wax paper between each crepe. You need 15 total.

Meyer lemon mousse
Add IC of whipped heavy cream to lemon curd. For the lemon curd recipe go to http://wwwmarthastewart.com , if you did not make the one on my blog.
So next place a crepe on a plate, top with about ¼ C of the lemon/crème mixture. Keep doing this until you use all the crepes or the lemon/crème mixture up. Slice in wedges and I am serving with my strawberries.

Jim served a 2007 Viansa Estate Carneros Chardonnay, Cento per Cento. Of all the wines that Jim has shipped in from CA through wine Clubs, Viansa is my favorite. This one was wonderful.