Mexican Style Fish And Some Advice About Being Macho

 

Red Snapper, Veracruz Style 

This dish captures the flavors of  the  indigenous, ethnic Spanish and Afro-Cuban influences in this area of Mexico. The snapper is covered with a tomato sauce and the capers, and jalapeño peppers provide an extra bite. Serve this dish with white rice. The recipe is a modified version of one  found in Bon Appetit.

Serves 6

1 28-ounce can diced tomatoes in juice, well drained, juices reserved
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 cup finely chopped white onion
3 large garlic cloves, chopped
3 small bay leaves
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1/4 cup chopped pitted green olives
2 tablespoons raisins
2 tablespoons drained capers
6 4- to 5-ounce red snapper fillets

Place drained tomatoes in medium bowl and crush them to a coarse puree. Drain again, reserving juices.

Heat oil in heavy large skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion and stir 30 seconds. Add garlic and stir 30 seconds. Add tomato puree and cook 1 minute. Add bay leaves, parsley, oregano, garlic and 1/4 cup reserved tomato juices. Simmer until sauce thickens, about 3 minutes. Add olives, raisins, capers, and all remaining reserved tomato juices. Simmer until sauce thickens again, stirring occasionally, about 8 minutes. Season sauce to taste with salt and pepper.

Preheat oven to 425°F. Spread 3 tablespoons sauce in bottom of 15x10x2-inch glass baking dish. Arrange fish atop sauce. Sprinkle fish lightly with salt and pepper. Spoon remaining sauce over. Bake uncovered until fish is just opaque in the center, about 18 minutes. 

An Excerpt From My Newest Book On Cats

In a male-dominated environment, things are very macho, and you can't show weakness

Hyder Akbar

Macho Guys Finish Last

We live in a culture where we have to be strong—macho. When in doubt, send in the police and the military. If the police are needed in a civilian action, be sure they are well-armed with shields, tear gas and items needed to subdue the crowd. The United States Army has been providing military weapons to local police forces, so it is not uncommon to see armored vehicles, bayonets, grenade launchers and .50-caliber ammunition as part of the police arsenal. In recent years, there have been peaceful demonstrations and the police have treated the participants like they were enemy combatants. In some cases, the police have tear-gassed or pepper-sprayed the protesters, and beat others with clubs.

Often we see scenes on cop shows where unarmed civilians are on one side and the police are on the other, carrying shields and weapons, or we see twenty armed policemen with battering rams and shields racing into an apartment to arrest one individual. It seems in a civilized society, the police would negotiate, but here—no way. In our media and in real life, the police have to be macho.

Bringing this closer to home, on January 5, 2011, the Monterey County Sheriff’s SWAT team descended on the property of a 31-year-old father of four. They drove an armored vehicle into his yard, and a team of paramilitary enforcers surrounded the property with the intent to extract the man or kill him if necessary.

The Sheriff’s Department mistakenly believed that this man may have been a suspect in a non-fatal shooting. However, he was not involved in the shooting and was unarmed in the house. Officially, the police were just going there to execute a search warrant on the property.

In the execution of this search warrant, the SWAT team launched a military-style operation. With their troops in position, they demanded surrender through a “thunder hailer” megaphone. The man remained in his home, so the raid team broke his front window and threw a flashbang grenade into his living room. The grenade lodged itself between two couches and quickly caught them on fire. The flames then led to a nearby Christmas tree and escalated to the ceiling.

An officer holding a fire extinguisher immediately halted his attempts to extinguish the fire when they saw someone in the home. SWAT officers drew their weapons and pointed them at the man, who was standing in his smoky living room, wearing only shorts and holding nothing in his hands. They refused to put out the fire or help the man leave the house.

The man succumbed to the toxic smoke filling his house and died of asphyxiation in his bedroom, leaving his four children without a father. Later, the Sherriff called the actions of the deputies heroic, and the family eventually settled their suit against the county for 2.6 million dollars. The deputies were never punished for their behavior.

This whole macho thing is reinforced by the courts. You receive what you believe to be an unwarranted traffic ticket, and you decide to fight it. In Santa Clara County, CA, a letter comes with the date and time of your court appearance. The commissioner who will hear the case is on a raised platform. First, everyone promises to tell the truth. Then, the commissioner will ask defendants one at a time how they want to plead: innocent, guilty or no contest. If you plead guilty, the commissioner will suggest traffic school and, of course, you have to pay the fine plus more money to attend the school. For a fee of $30, you can have extra time to pay the ticket; for $35, you can do an installment plan. If you don’t show up, then a $300 service fee is added to your fine. A fix-it ticket costs $25.00, and the same amount is due if your ticket is dismissed. This moneymaking operation is in full swing. Those people pleading innocent will be scheduled for a trial.

I watched 37 trials. In 13 of the trials, the policemen did not show up. If the defendant hadn’t shown up, there would have been a $300 fine, but there’s no punishment for the police. Everyone was found guilty in the trials I attended, with three exceptions. One ticket was from 2007 and the officer had lost his notes, so he asked that the case be dismissed. In the second case, the officer sent a note that it should be dismissed in the interest of justice. In the last case, the woman was incarcerated when the ticket was issued, so obviously she could not have also been receiving a ticket on a light rail train. In every other case, the police had to win.

My cats have a better idea. As I have mentioned before, they stake out a mole hole or an area where there are birds and mice. Chubby will start and sit perfectly still for an hour or so, then the Mitzer will take her place. They understand the idea of cooperating. Suddenly, the cat on duty will pounce and successfully catch a small bird a mouse or a mole. Then, they bring the dead animals into the house as gifts. There’s no macho behavior involved. Cooperation is the key.

One time, there was a horrible smell in the house. I moved the piano and found a decaying mouse. Last week, there was a mole and a small bird under the dining room table. My cats cooperate with each other, catch the prey and then provide a gift to me. Not totally flawless, but it’s a great system.

Barack Obama understands the theory that my cats are using, and he has been the first president in recent history to choose negotiation and cooperation over military action. His Iran deal is the perfect example of this theory in action. Over the objections of Israel, the United States plus seven other countries cooperated together and were able to forge a deal so that Iran wouldn’t be able to develop nuclear weapons. In fact, during January 2016, Iran’s nuclear stockpiles were shipped to Russia. Negotiation proved to be much more effective than being macho. Unfortunately, Obama has been rebuked and hated by many of the people in this country. The gift he has given to the American people is not to be involved in another ground war.

Typically in negotiations, both sides come in with unreasonable positions and then, through discussion and sometimes workplace actions, both sides finally agree to a solution. This is the macho process where the leader of each side has to appear tough.

There is a better way, as Obama has demonstrated; it’s called interest-based bargaining. The first step in a negotiation is to break up the items into smaller pieces. Then, you start with the least controversial parts. Both sides look at what they really want and what they can give up until an agreement is reached on that issue. As they go up the ladder trying to solve more difficult issues, trust is built, and if all goes well both sides will reach a compromise on the main item. This method is far superior to the macho method. In fact, this method was used at Camp David in 1978 to sign a historic agreement between Egyptian President Anwar El Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menacham Begin. In life, we have to value teamwork and drop our macho stance.

As my cats have shown, being macho doesn’t get you much. Instead figure out what you really want, work as a team and make sure everyone is a winner.

A Dish For The Back-To-School Potluck and A Comment About Love

 Egg, Bacon, and Leek Pie 

     
The school year has begun and many places have a potluck to convince parents to help with 
the various activities held throughout the year. Since there is a natural competition especially
between mothers this is not the time to bring bean dip or take-out from the Whole Foods 
Market.  You can have everyone raving with this simple Irish pie from County Clare. Make
a second one for home use and serve it with a nice Syrah.

6 Servings

1 refrigerated piecrust (half of 15-ounce package), room temperature

1 teaspoon all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) butter

2 cups chopped leeks (white and pale green parts only)

1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

6 slices bacon, cut into 1/2-inch pieces

3 large eggs

2/3 cup whipping cream

1/3 cup milk

1/4 teaspoon salt and pepper

1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg

    Procedure needs to be followed at all times. The first step is to open the wine bottle 

and pour a glass. Now, you are ready to begin

      Preheat oven to 425F. Pierce crust bottom all over with fork. Bake until pale golden, 

about10 minutes. Set aside. Reduce oven temperature to 400°F.

     Melt 2 tablespoons butter in heavy, medium skillet over medium heat. Add leeks and 

parsley; sauté until beginning to soften, about 3 minutes. Spoon mixture into crust. Cook 

bacon in the same skillet until crisp. Using a slotted spoon, transfer bacon to paper towels and 

drain. Sprinkle bacon over leeks.

     Beat eggs, cream, milk, salt, pepper, and nutmeg in small bowl to blend; pour into crust.

 Bake pie until filling is set in center, about 25 minutes.

 And now a lesson about love from my cats--Samantha and The Mitzer

We are most alive when we’re in love.

John Updike

Chapter 6

Love Is Overrated

It starts when we are teenagers. We see someone that we like, and we can’t think about anything else. Our bodies tingle when we see this person. We can’t sleep. Our thoughts only focus on this special one. We become jealous because this individual can’t spend every waking moment with us. Even though it may be just physical attraction, we proclaim from the rooftops that we are in love and then proceed to do crazy things. This condition may occur several times during our lifetime and it is always hard to overcome. What is this thing we call love?

Samantha needs to be loved. So, I’m sitting on my recliner and watching Jeopardy, totally relaxed with a glass of wine. All of a sudden, Samantha has to jump up and sit on my lap and purr very loudly. It’s so bad that when the Mitzer in sitting on my legs, Samantha will come and sit on my chest. Of course, when the commercial comes on, I decide to take a bathroom break, and I move the Mitzer to the couch without incident, but Samantha screams. This also happens when I’m sitting in my office chair—she has to jump up on my lap. At night, she has to sleep next to me. I sleep on my back and Samantha sleeps on my right side, facing the bottom of the bed. My hand sits on her back. It must be that she loves me dearly.

However, when I am not available during waking hours, she jumps up on my wife’s lap and the procedure is repeated. The cat always has to have someone touching her.

The thing we don’t understand is that when we have company—especially someone that doesn’t like cats—Samantha jumps into his or her lap. She acts like a cheap whore, and we are embarrassed. This behavior became so bad that we consulted an expert. The reason, it seems, is linked to another common cat behavior. When cats discover a new piece of furniture or enter a room for the first time, they will brush along the walls and go up, down, around, behind and underneath everything in sight. While the uninitiated might interpret this in-depth maneuvering as mere curiosity, the cat is actually marking its territory.

This territorial nature is also what drives cats to rub up against any and all visitors who enter their home. (They will also often go to the trouble of “reclaiming” their own people when they’ve been around other cats.) What might seem like a “welcoming home” ritual is, in reality, a way of making their owners and everyone else around them the cat’s personal property.

When I heard about this concept, I was devastated. I thought that Samantha and I had a very special relationship, but her affection was all about marking her property. We men are very aware that many women complain that their husbands treat them as objects, and so we take special precautions to keep this from happening. Now I know that is exactly how my cat feels about me. I don’t feel special anymore—I am just an object. However, my wife doesn’t feel this way. She is sure that Samantha is different from the other cats.

My wife has a strange view about love. On Monday night for two hours, she is glued to the television, watching The Bachelor or The Bachelorette. In these shows one woman (Bachelorette) or one man (Bachelor) has to whittle down a field of twenty-five men or women to find perfect love. For fourteen weeks we (not by choice, for me) watch as the main character reacts to persons of the opposite sex in some of the most romantic places in the world. The background music enhances the event, and at some point, the main character has kissed all of the contestants.

Finally, the group gets whittled down to the final four, and the production crews move to the hometowns of this group so that the main character can meet the families. There is a date, and the main character can take each of the four contestants into the fantasy suite where they spend the night without cameras. The main character then picks the perfect person, and at the last minute in some incredibly romantic place, the bachelor proposes to his future bride or the bachelorette accepts the proposal from the man that is left. The whole thing is so wonderful, and the chat boards are busy because everyone has an opinion about who should get the ring. This is a true affirmation that romantic love exists…until you look at the statistics.

There have been 19 seasons of The Bachelor and only two couples are still together. As for The Bachelorette, it has been on for ten seasons and only three couples are still together. This shows that something else was going on instead of true love.

My cats have the right idea: what looks like love may not be love at all. So, if you are a man and meet your “true love,” keep your wallet in your pocket until you are absolutely sure that it’s love.

Lean more about this  wonderful book.

A Summer Treat Plus A Little Advice

There's nothing like sitting on the deck with a nice Pinot eating Cerviche with Roasted Asparagus And Red Onion Quesadillas.  If a little humor is in order, then reading a chapter from Mellow Out--Lessons Learned from Household Cats would be great fun.

 Mexican Ceviche and  Roasted Asparagus And Red Onion Quesadillas 

This recipe comes from The Winning Certificate. The ceviche is made with scallops but halibut, red snapper, flounder, or swordfish can be substituted. The asparagus and red onion quesadilla is very easy to make and the Pinot Noir complements the spiciness of the lime cumin cream that is served with the quesadillas.

Ceviche

Serves 4 as a Luncheon or Supper Entree

1 pound bay scallops

8 limes, juiced

2 tomatoes, diced

1/2-cup onions, minced

1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil

1/8 cup chopped fresh cilantro

Rinse scallops and place in a medium sized bowl. Immerse the scallops in lime juice and chill all-day or overnight until scallops are opaque. 

Add tomatoes, onions, olive oil, and cilantro to the scallop mixture. Stir gently. Serve with tortilla chips.

I had to leave my guests alone with a large bowl of the ceviche and when I
returned, this was all that remained.

Asparagus And Red Onion Quesadillas

Serves 4 as a Luncheon or Supper Entree

1-pound asparagus, cut into 1/2-inch-thick slices.

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 large red onion, cut crosswise into 1/4-inch-thick slices and separated into rings

Eight 6- to 7-inch flour tortillas

1/2 pound pepper Jack cheese, coarsely shredded

1/4 cup finely chopped fresh coriander

1/2 cup sour cream

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon fresh lime juice

Preheat oven to 500°F. In a large shallow baking pan, toss onion with 1 1/2 teaspoons oil until coated well. Cook the onions and the chopped asparagus for 10 minutes shaking pans occasionally. Cook until tender and lightly browned,

Preheat broiler. Grease a large baking sheet and arrange 4 tortillas in one layer and divide vegetables, pepper Jack, and coriander among them. Cover quesadillas with remaining 4 tortillas. This can be done using two cookie sheets. Brush top tortillas with remaining 2 tablespoons oil and broil quesadillas about 3 inches from heat until golden brown, about 2 minutes. Turn quesadillas over and broil until golden brown, about 2 minutes.

Make Cumin Lime Cream while quesadillas broil. In a small bowl, whisk together the sour cream, cumin and lime juice. Cut quesadillas into wedges and serve with cumin lime cream.

I tried marijuana once. I did not inhale.

Bill Clinton

Chapter 5
No Guilt—Getting High Is Natural

The “do-gooders” want to restrict all of us from the pleasure gained from using drugs and drinking alcohol. They hover over us like parking officers waiting for the time to expire on the meter so they can issue a citation. In the San Francisco South Bay, there is a huge campaign during the December/January holidays called “Avoid the Thirteen.” Police agencies have teamed up to place roadblocks to ferret out drunken drivers. Along with this cooperation is a media blitz. In our small town, the headline in the local newspaper states, “Expect DUI saturation patrols on Friday.” The fear created is so bad than when someone sees a police car, panic sets in, even if that person hasn’t done anything. It’s a horrible way to live.

When the police catch someone under the influence, the cost is tremendous. Fines are paid to the court, fees are paid for education classes, interlock devices are installed, and the Department of Motor Vehicles has a fee for every step in the process. Plus, we continually see ads on television about the evil effects of drugs. These campaigns are relentless and are made to make people feel guilty. For me, it got so bad that when I had too much to drink in my own house, I felt guilty. Then I took a step back and watched the behavior of my cats. The guilt has gone away.

It’s springtime, and we make our annual pilgrimage to the nursery to buy seeds and seedlings for our garden. We buy tomatoes, lettuce, corn, zucchini, fava beans and eggplant. Of course, we can’t forget the cats, so we buy catnip seedlings.

Next comes the hard work of digging the holes, filling the space with planting mix and finally putting the seedlings in the ground. After we finish this arduous endeavor, we sprinkle the ground with water and then adjourn to the chairs on the deck to rest.

Samantha saunters up to the catnip and then goes about sniffing, licking, head shaking, body rolling and head and cheek rubbing as she partakes of the herb. Goodness, she is really putting one on. The effects usually last from about five to fifteen minutes.

After Samantha leaves, The Mitzer runs over to the catnip. Since the Mitzer is hyper, she can’t saunter up to anything—it’s always full speed ahead. She sniffs and rolls in the catnip. It’s like a marijuana or LSD-type response. Finally, when the Mitzer finishes, Chubby takes over and has the same experience. After getting “stoned,” the cats walk away and act perfectly normal. There is no remorse, no headaches, and no promises not to do this again.

The cats understand life, and they know that an altered state is just part of living. I used to have a difficult time with this concept, especially during the Christmas holidays. We buy and wrap presents, decorate the house and tree, attend lots of parties and spend forever finding the perfect picture for the Christmas card. Finally, Christmas comes, and it has been our tradition to have a themed buffet for family members and friends. We do this in the evening and the buffets have had Italian, Polish, Irish, Mexican, Greek and International themes.

I finish the cooking, put everything out and then pour myself a glass of wine. But not just any wine—my favorites are from the Santa Cruz Mountains. Some eighty small wineries produce wonderful Cabernets, Zinfandels, Pinots and a whole host of other reds and whites. I have talked to many of the winemakers; thus the wine is extra special.

The guests come, they eat and they talk, and I pour myself some more wine. Friends and extended family members open their Christmas presents, and I pour myself some more wine. Finally, the evening ends, and I pour another glass of wine.

The next morning, I wake up with a house in shambles and not feeling very well. In the past, I would have promised myself that I would never drink again. “Why did I get so drunk?” I would ask myself. “Why don’t I have more control?” I would feel guilty as hell. 

Internalizing the lesson I learned from my cats, this becomes the end of the story because I know it will happen again. My guilt is gone because I am modeling my cats’ behavior, and I have learned to enjoy the high, suffer the morning after, and then move on. Life has gotten tremendously better. I think I’ll have another glass of wine.

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