Food: Mahi Mahi with Cream Sauce

Last night my awesome cousin-to-be Sara came over, and I decided to do a variation on a recipe I saw once for Mahi-Mahi with cream sauce.  I didn't want to have asparagus and bell peppers with it, though, so I decided to do garlic orzo and sauteed spinach.  It turned out delicious, oh me oh my.

For the cream sauce (which makes plenty enough for 4 filets and then some) you need:

• 1 quart heavy cream (see what I mean?)
• 2 tablespoons Old Bay seasoning
• 2 teaspoons Cajun seasoning (I used Penzey's but also recommend Dinosaur BBQ's Cajun Foreplay)
• 1 can crab meat (I used Bumblebee white crab), drained profusely and pat dry

First, reduce the cream until it coats a spoon.  At first I was confused by this because when it's cold, it coats a spoon.  Turns out when it's hot, it doesn't.  So, wait until it's hot to see if it coats a spoon or not.  Whisk in the crab meat and seasoning and taste it.  Try not to drink it.  It's that good.  Keep it warm while you cook up the fish.

To cook the fish, I simply sauteed it, unseasoned, in extra-virgin olive oil.  I'm thinking of baking it next time with a little seasoning on it (perhaps seasoned salt and pepper), but it was just fine as it was with the cream sauce on it.  You want one filet per person.

While I was cooking the fish, I boiled the orzo according to the package directions and drained it.  Then I added some olive oil to the pot, 3 or 4 cups of fresh spinach, and a few cloves of minced garlic (I think 3). Once the spinach was almost cooked, I put the orzo in and stirred to coat it.  Had to add a little extra olive oil, but I tried to stay conservative with it because I didn't want it to interfere with the cream sauce.

While this dish seems simple enough, I thought it required some fancy plating.  So I put down some of the cream sauce on the plate, laid a small bed of orzo, and put the piece of fish on top and then drenched the piece of fish with cream sauce and put a small sprinkling of fresh chopped chives on top.  It looked so pretty that I'm really angry with myself for not taking a picture of it.

But it received rave reviews from Sara and "fine" from my husband, who has only ever exclaimed over food once in his life.  I also thought it was delicious, and am enthusiastic to try it again.