Two for One: An Oven Meal and a Great Soup for the Next Day

Turn on the oven to about 400-425 . Gather 1-2 sweet onions, a medium sized parsnip, about 5 carrots and a humongous sweet potato or two smaller ones. Cut up the onions in the shape that seems most artistic to you. I like skinny orange-section-like pieces. Toss those in olive oil and put into the oven a heavy oven proof pan. Repeat this with the peeled root vegetables in the order above, adding them one by one and turning the vegetables each time. You may want to make the parsnips a bit smaller, as they cook more slowly.

Then peel and chop a chunk of ginger root a bit bigger than my thumb and about 4 medium large garlic cloves. Toss about half of that on top of the vegetables along with a squirt of sherry about a tablespoon of soy sauce and some sesame oil and turn again. A little mirin or some teriyaki sauce may also be interesting but I didn't do that.

Leave the vegetables in the oven for about 15 minutes or when you figure they need about 8-10 more minutes to be perfect. Top with a chunk of thawed or fresh fish. sprinkle with the remaining garlic-ginger mixture, some paprika and again a bit of soy sauce, sesame oil and sherry and bake it for another 8-10 minutes. If you think it looks a bit anemic put it under the broiler for a couple of minutes toward the end but make sure not to overcook the fish.

Day Two (You can do this while the sous chef cleans the kitchen or you you can do it the next day)

Set the left-over fish aside and puree the left-over vegetables, gradually adding broth until you think the texture is about right. (I used the wand blender.) Put servings of the puree in bowls and microwave for a minute or two. Flake the left-over fish on top and microwave for another 30 seconds or so.

The Italian Version

The vegetables: onions, potatoes, mushrooms, green beans, tomatoes

The micro-chop: garlic and basil (remember to reserve some for the top of the fish)

olive oil and lemon juice and some wine if I remember correctly, probably sherry

The fish: 1 # or so of salmon and 3-4 shrimp and 3 scallops

I used the same process except that I chopped one of the scallops in small chunks and sliced each of the others into about three rounds before sprinkling on the vegetables. I peeled the shrimp.

When I made the soup I didn't puree but just further chopped the vegetables before putting them in the broth so there were no pieces larger than the end of my little finger. I added the flaked salmon and chopped shrimp and scallops just at the end.