[books] JAMES TWITCHELL - Adcult USA

Fully four versions of author James Twitchell appear in Adcult USA: he is alternately a snob and a cultural democrat, and in both guises he will be sometimes supercilious, sometimes warm. A little less of Twitchell altogether amid the scholarship and maybe the contradiction would not need resolving... oh well.

Mean populist Twitchell hates art critics, which seems to have led him to ignore throughout the book that apprehending art (or ads-- same thing, says Adcult) has any experiential element. Yes, sometimes people like ads in and of themselves; the Superbowl comes up several times to prove this point. Still, a Busta Rhymes fan who puts "Pass The Courvoisier" on repeat is never treated differently in Twitchell's analysis from a driver heading down a road that he does not realize will be particularly dense with billboards.

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[food] cashew-encrusted haddock with lemon-dill butter

I tried more mediocre nut-encrusted fish recipes before finding this one than I have with any other category of dish I set out to make something from. (Admittedly, that number isn't too large; I think there were 2 or 3 flops.) With a few changes in the main ingredients, this Epicurious recipe was fantastic. I like neither horseradish nor parsley, normally, but here they just... work. I'm totally making this for Thanksgiving.

4 6-ounce sea bass fillets [we used haddock]
1 cup fresh breadcrumbs made from crustless French bread [we used store-bought crumbs]
3/4 cup walnuts (about 3 ounces) [we used cashews]
2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) unsalted butter, melted
2 tablespoons prepared horseradish
1 1/2 tablespoons whole grain Dijon mustard
1/4 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese (about 3/4 ounce)
2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley
4 teaspoons olive oil

3/4 cup dry white wine
3 tablespoons chopped shallot
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup (1 stick) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces
1 1/2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill

Preheat oven to 350F. Butter 13 x 9 x 2-inch baking pan. Arrange fillets in prepared pan. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Mix breadcrumbs and walnuts cashews in processor. Using on/off turns, process until nuts are finely chopped. [Maybe because store-bought bread crumbs are so tiny, I prefer the texture you get by crushing the nuts in a Ziploc with a rolling pin. This makes the topping recognizably nutty rather than just a coarse paste.] Transfer to bowl. Mix in butter, horseradish and mustard. Stir in cheese and parsley. Gently press crumb mixture onto fillets. Drizzle 1 teaspoon olive oil over each. [I couldn't get this to go on in a remotely even fashion-- my drizzling technique is poor-- and I'm not sure what purpose it serves. Also note that if you use haddock, it'll probably be more like 2 tsp per fillet.] Bake until fillets are cooked through, about 15 minutes.

Boil wine, shallot and lemon juice in medium saucepan over high heat until reduced to 1/4 cup, about 6 minutes. [Unlike most recipe-site estimates of reduction time, this was about right!] Reduce heat to low; add butter, 1 piece at a time, whisking until melted before adding more. [Once I was impatient and just dropped the whole stick in to melt. It seemed okay.] Remove pan from heat. Stir in dill. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Preheat broiler. Broil fish until crust is golden, watching closely to avoid burning, about 2 minutes. [In my broiler, the top always burns a little and the thinnest bits on the side are undercooked. It's still delicious. I was surprised how many of the crumbs you can blacken without making it taste bad.] Transfer to plates. Serve fish with sauce.