More Fast Fish

Fish seems to be the best meal when you are in a hurry - either before or after dinner. This one has a little more invested in the prep time, but virtually no clean up. It isn't the best dish ever, but it is very serviceable and goes with whatever is on hand.

Packet-steamed ginger fish
2 tb chopped cilantro
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tb grated fresh ginger
2 ts citrus zest
1 tb minced onion
1/2 ts kosher salt
1/2 ts coarse pepper
4 squares of aluminum foil
4 fillets firm white fish (snapper, cod, grouper)
2 tb lemon juice
2 tb olive or sesame oil
1 ts tamari
1 ts balsamic vinegar

Combine first 7 ingredients (cilantro through pepper) in a small bowl. Lay out the foil. Place 1/8 the cilantro mixture on each square, place a fillet on each, and top with the remaining cilantro mixture. Whish together the next 4 ingredients (lemon juice through vinegar) and drizzle 1 tablespoon on top of each fillet. Fold over the foil to seal the packets and place on a rimmed baking tray. Bake at 425 for 30 min. When fish is cooked through, remove tray from oven and open packets. Scoop fish off foil with a spatula, leaving bottom layer of cilantro mixture and accumulated juices in packet.

Fabulous Fish II

For some reason I have been on a seafood kick lately, even though it should be grilling season. Last night, short on time as usual, I made a quick and tasty halibut dish. It pairs well with any sauteed veggie, which can be made while working on the other items at the stovetop.

Halibut with tomato and garlic topping
4 halibut fillets (about 1.5 lbs total)
3 tb butter
4 cloves garlic, divided
1/2 c white wine
1 tb olive oil
1 c tiny tomatoes, chopped
2 tb lemon juice
Fresh chives, cut into 1" pieces

Season fish with salt and pepper. Melt butter in a large pan over medium-high heat. Add 1 garlic clove, smashed with a knife blade. Add halibut, top down, and sear 3-4 minutes.
Meanwhile, heat oil in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add 3 sliced garlic cloves and sautee until they begin to brown. Add tomatoes, a few grinds of peper, and lemon juice and swirl to mix ingredients.
Flip fish, add wine, sprinkle with parsley and cover for 8-10 min until cooked through. Fish may need to be cooked in two batches.
Serve fillets on a platter, topped with tomato-garlic mixture and fresh chives.

Spicy Salmon

Another great weeknight fast go-to recipe using our bulk purchased salmon!

Salmon with spicy tomatoes
2 salmon fillets
Cayenne pepper
1 c tiny tomatoes
1/2 c heavy cream
1 ts cumin
1/4 ts cinnamon
2 tb butter or ghee

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Sprinkle the salmon with cayenne, salt and pepper.
Add cumin and cinnamon to cream in a small saucepan. Dice or slice the tomatoes and stir in. Heat over medium, stirring occasionally.
Melt butter in a large ovenproof pan over medium-high heat. Place salmon, top down, into hot pan to sear in spices, about 3 minutes. Flip fillets to skin side down, spoon half of the tomato mixture on top, and place in the oven to finish. After 5 minutes, spoon remainder of sauce on top. Cook in oven 3-5 more minutes, depending on thickness, until done.

Salmon in Spring

Local it is not, but we found a place to bulk order wild caught salmon. That just leaves me with the task of figuring out some different ways to cook it. It turns out that one of the best things to do with a strong tasting - and delicious - fish, is to prepare it simply and match sides to it. Here is one example.

Leftover salmon served cold on top of slaw for lunch the next day.

Citrus Salmon with Sesame-Ginger Broccoli Slaw
1/4 c orange (or lemon) juice
1/4 c water
2 tb tamari
1 lb salmon (fillets or whole)
2 ts sesame seeds, divided
1 bag broccoli slaw
1/2 red pepper, cut into matchsticks
1/4 red onion, diced
2 tb chopped cilantro
2 tb sesame oil
1/4 c lime juice
2 ts ginger
1 ts orange (or lemon) zest
1 ts crushed dried red pepper

Whisk the first three ingredients together and marinate fish, skin side down, for one hour. Remove from marinade and place skin side up on a baking sheet. Sprinkle with salt, pepper and sesame seeds. Bake for 20 minutes at 450 degrees.
Dump slaw into a large serving bowl. Add pepper, onion and cilantro. Whisk together sesame oil through dried red pepper and pour over veggies. Toss to coat and sprinkle with remaining sesame seeds. Chill until ready to serve.
This dish is also great the next day for lunch: top slaw with leftover salmon and enjoy cold!

Fabulous fish

We eat fish at least 2-3 times per week. Whether fresh from the store (meaning I forgot to defrost something for dinner) or taken from the freezer stash, we have plenty to choose from.
Something else in abundance and variety at my house are fresh herbs. I am always looking for more ways to get them into our meals - for seasoning (we try to maintain a low sodium intake), for nutrition (Did you know a teaspoon of thyme contains 10% of the daily value for iron?) and for health (Basil is used to treat irritability, fatigue, depression and anxiety!)
Here are two ways I have come up with to make bland fish great with fresh herbs and a few other seasonings on hand.

Ginger-mint baked fish
I usually use Rockfish for this. It will also work well with Red Snapper.
1+ lbs/2 whole fillets thin white fish
olive oil
1 tb chopped chives
pinch red pepper flakes
1 clove minced garlic
1 tsp orange zest
3-4 stems fresh mint
1 inch piece chopped fresh ginger
In a glass baking dish, drizzle fillets with oil and rub to coat both sides to prevent sticking. Sprinkle fish with chives, garlic, red pepper and orange zest. Strip leaves from mint stems and chop coarsely if large; sprinkle over fish. Top with ginger and bake at 375 until fish is flaky but still moist (about 20 min).

The fish will absorb the flavors of the herb and spice toppings while cooking, so if it's too much of a mouthful you can scrape some of it off before eating.

Coconut-crusted fish
Again, I usually use this with Rockfish.
1/3 c flaked coconut (unsweetened)
2 tb almond meal
2 tb parmesan cheese
2 tb fresh parsley
grapeseed oil (or olive if you prefer...grapeseed is lighter and doesn't interfere with the coconut)
ground pepper to taste
Put coconut, almond meal, parmesan and parsley in a chopper or food processer for a few pulses to combine and grind smaller. Put fish in a glass baking dish and coat lightly with oil. Top with mixture from chopper - you will have plenty to coat two fillets substantially. Top with ground pepper and bake at 375 until top begins to brown and fish is flaky.

Tomatoverload

You know that scene in Forrest Gump where Bubba lists every way to cook shrimp he can think of? The way my tomatoes are coming in, I think I might have to open up the BubbaGump Tomato Company. There's stuffed tomatoes, tomato fruit salsa, baked tomato casserole... You get the picture, now get the recipes.

I pick my tomatoes every 2-3 days and this is a typical harvest. The top two baskets are giant Chadwick Cherry tomatoes. From left across the bottom: Green Giant, Amish Paste and Margherita (in basket), Chancha red slicing, Sunsugar mini orange.

Fruit salsa
I make this as a summer topping for baked or grilled fish. We usually make it with a lighter white fish, such as rockfish, tilapia or sole, but you can put it on cod or halibut as well. The tomatoes I use are the little orange guys pictured at the bottom right in the picture above.
4-6 strawberries
1 kiwi
10-12 tiny tomatoes
1/4 red onion
1 tsp minced garlic
1 tb balsamic vinegar
fresh cilantro
Chop fruit, quarter tomatoes and dice onion. Stir together with garlic and balsamic. Top with chopped cilantro. Let marinate 30-60 minutes before serving. This makes enough for 2 large (like rockfish) or 4 small (like tilapia) filets.
Don't keep any leftover salsa, this doesn't save well.

Baked tomato casserole
This isn't much of a "casserole" per se, but it is a great quick way to use some tomatoes!
1 large green or yellow tomato (I use the Green Giants, bottom left in the picture above)
2 romas (in the plastic basket at the center of the picture above) or 1 red slicing tomato
2 tb almond meal
1/4 c shredded parmesan
fresh ground pepper
olive oil
In an 8x8 dish, put a little olive oil to cover. Layer 3-4 slices of green tomato and top with ground pepper. Layer red tomatoes, followed by remaining green tomatoes and more ground pepper.
In a small dish, combine almond meal and parmesan. Top tomatoes and bake @ 400 degrees for 15 minutes.
This makes 2 servings.