Island antidote to the big dark

We are in the time of year where there's only about 8.5 hours of daylight. The trendy term these days is "the big dark". The typically stormy weather on top of the short days makes coffee consumption skyrocket and the desire to leave the house plummet. It's truly a struggle not to make like a bear and hibernate.

Unsurprisingly, it's when warm, rich, carb-laden comfort foods sound most appealing. 

Not an easy time to jump back on the low-carb bandwagon.

I headed to the grocery store with a number of low-carb friendly meals in mind. I'm notoriously bad at shopping ahead, but if I don't, I am way more likely to succumb to the siren song of the Grub Hut.  

It wasn't on the list, but Town & Country had some really nice looking ahi on special. It's hard not to buy whatever their fish/seafood specials are, because they move a ton of it so it's always in great condition. 

A dish that Tom invented one trip to Hawaii came to mind. I don't recall exactly what he did, but it definitely involved the fish "marinating" by covering it with a lot of sliced fresh ginger. Beyond that, the details are fuzzy, but it was a good memory of warmer, brighter times.

Just what I needed today.

I sliced a bunch of fresh ginger and made a marinade with Coconut aminos, Dijon mustard, and a little Sesame oil. It tasted remarkably sweet...though the coconut aminos claim to have little sugar. Hmm. I stuck the sliced ginger to the ahi steak and poured the marinade over the top. After letting it sit at room temp for about 20 minutes, I flipped it & tried to coat the sides.

Meanwhile, I brought a pot of water to boil for the broccolini, and basically repeated the marinade & added some chicken stock to make a sauce. 

My usual process for broccolini (and other veggies) is to bring the water to a boil, toss in a liberal amount of salt, add the veggies, slam on a lid, pull it off the heat, and let it sit for ~4 minutes. Then strain/offload until you're ready to plate.

The sauce got dumped in a small skillet & reduced, then I turned the heat down to low.

Next up was the fish. I scraped the ginger off and rolled it around in the marinade to coat, then seared it in some olive oil in my little "nonstick" Le Creuset skillet. It's not very slick--not a great egg pan. But it's great for this sort of thing. Gave the fish a quick sear and offloaded it to a plate.

Finished the sauce with a little butter and some chopped green onions. Cracked some black pepper over the fish and sliced. 

It's still cold and dark...but at least dinner reminded me of Hawaii.

Fingers crossed the third time's a charm and mom & I actually get to go to Maui in April.