Category Archives: Fish/shellfish

May 23, 2013 · 6:46 am

Sardine and avocado sandwiches

IMG_2500

I am never one to turn down a good sardine recipe, something I owe in part to my Irish heritage. (Both my grandfather and Sean’s grandmother were fond of piling them on Saltine crackers as a snack, and Sean and I like eating them in all sorts of dishes, so through this small population sample, I’ve deduced that people of Irish descent must like sardines.)

Yesterday I found a recipe for Alton Brown’s open-faced sardine and avocado sandwiches, which he apparently ate in massive quantities to help him lose weight a few years back. While I don’t think I could live off of this sandwich, it was satisfying enough for dinner last night–and super tasty.

As much as I love both sardines and avocados on their own, I had never thought to put them together. It is BRILLIANT! The creamy avocado tempers the oceanic brininess of the sardines just enough. Plus, the syrupy zing from the sherry vinegar combined with bright lemon zest and grassy parsley liven up the flavors of the canned fish.

Use a good-quality bread with some heft and flavor of its own for the sandwich. And be warned: If you don’t already love the flavor of sardines, I don’t think this sandwich will change your mind. It’s definitely sardiney, which is exactly why I loved it (and why Penny followed me around for an hour after dinner was over).

Note: Alton’s recipe calls for incorporating oil from the sardine cans into the mixture, but I prefer the flavor of a fruity extra virgin olive oil.

IMG_2498
Sardine-avocado sandwiches
makes two open-faced sandwiches

    1-2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
    1 tablespoon chopped parsley, divided
    1 1/2 teaspoons sherry vinegar
    1 teaspoon lemon zest
    Freshly ground black pepper
    1 tin sardines packed in oil (King Oscar or Matiz Gallego), drained
    1/2 large ripe avocado
    2 thick slices good-quality sourdough or whole wheat bread, smeared with olive oil and toasted
    Sea salt, to taste
    2 slices lemon, for garnish

Method: In a small bowl, mix the olive oil, half the parsley, the vinegar, lemon zest and black pepper. Add the sardines and stir. Let the mixture sit for 15 or 20 minutes so the flavors meld.

PS I like King Oscar sardines best. The Cento ones were a bit mealy (but all that had at the store).

P.S. I like King Oscar sardines best. The Cento ones were a bit mealy, but all that were available at the grocery store.

Halve the avocado and remove the pit. Smoosh the flesh in one half with a fork and spread it evenly onto the bread, then pile the sardine mixture on top, smoothing it out with a fork. Dribble any remaining dressing over top and garnish with the remaining parsley. Season with a sprinkling of sea salt and a squeeze of lemon.

4 Comments

Filed under Fish/shellfish, Lunch, Sandwiches, Weeknight cooking

Tagged as , , , , , , , ,

April 13, 2013 · 2:47 pm

Tuna melt

IMG_4557

I’ve always had a soft spot for tuna salad sandwiches. I love that people a mile away know when you’re eating one and that you carry a faint tuna smell around with you for the rest of the day, reminding you what a great choice you made for lunch that day. After many years of tinkering, I have settled on what I consider to be the perfect tuna salad recipe, which combines celery, capers, scallions, grainy mustard and mayo. I like my tuna salad to have a little crunch and a lot of brininess.

Whenever I make tuna melts, I prefer them to be open-faced, so the cheese gets a little blistered under the broiler. This also makes it easier to add hot sauce, which Sean and I like to do with abandon. Don’t use water-packed tuna if you can help it. Oil-packed tuna has a much better consistency and texture than the water-logged stuff.

IMG_4554

Open-faced tuna melts

    1 8-ounce can tuna packed in olive oil, drained
    1 stalk celery, minced
    2 large scallions, minced
    1 tablespoon drained capers
    1 teaspoon whole grain mustard
    2/3 cup mayonnaise
    Salt and pepper, to taste
    3 large slices country or rye bread (about 1/2-inch thick), lightly toasted
    3 ounces sharp Cheddar, grated
    Tapatio or other hot sauce, for serving

Method: Preheat the broiler on high. In a bowl, break up the tuna a little with a fork.

IMG_4541

Add the tuna to a large bowl with the celery, scallion, parsley, capers, mustard and mayonnaise. Mix until combined, making sure everything is coated in the mayo. Taste it before seasoning with salt and pepper, since the capers are already salty.

Place the toasted bread slices on a sheet pan. Top each with a third of the tuna and 1 ounce of shredded cheese.

IMG_4547

Place under the broiler for 2 to 3 minutes, checking frequently, until the cheese has melted and become bubbly. Remove and allow to sit for 30 seconds before slicing each tuna melt in half. Serve immediately, with a few varieties of hot sauce for dribbling. Serves 2-3, depending on hunger level.

IMG_4551

3 Comments

Filed under Fish/shellfish, Lunch, Sandwiches

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , ,

November 27, 2012 · 7:18 am

It’s time for soup

I don’t have a great back story for this soup recipe. I wish I did because the bubbling pot of richly colored ingredients pictured above seems as though it should house a really fascinating narrative. But all that happened was I woke up last Sunday to a 35-degree Chicago morning and decided I’d spend the afternoon making soup.

A variation on this recipe came from the second cookbook I ever bought: The Soup Bible, a cookbook plucked off the clearance rack at a Barnes & Noble in Madison, WI when I was 19. I liked the idea of making pasta alla vongole (pasta with clams) into a tomatoey soup. The end result was wonderfully flavorful and meal-worthy, deepened with Italian herbs, red wine and briny clams.

The above photo is a bit self-congratulatory for me, but I just love these little pasta shapes. They’re perfectly bite size and give the soup enough heartiness to warrant a meal by itself.

Hooray for soup season.

Clam and pasta soup

    2 tablespoons olive oil
    1 large yellow onion, minced
    Salt and pepper, to taste
    3 cloves garlic, minced
    2 tablespoons chopped basil, plus additional for garnish
    2 tablespoons chopped parsley, plus additional for garnish
    1 teaspoon fresh oregano
    2/3 cup dry red wine
    1 teaspoon sugar
    14-ounce can crushed tomatoes or tomato puree
    3 cups good-quality vegetable or fish stock
    3/4 cup tubetti or other small pasta shapes
    5-ounce jar or can of clams in natural juice

Method: Heat a Dutch oven over medium high heat and coat the bottom of the pot with olive oil. Add the onion, salt and pepper and sauté for about 5 minutes, until soft and translucent.

Add the garlic and herbs and cook for 1 to 2 more minutes until fragrant. Pour in the red wine, and cook for 2 minutes until slightly reduced. Add the sugar, tomatoes and stock. Bring the mixture to a boil, then simmer, partially covered, for 10 minutes.

Add the pasta and simmer for another 10 minutes, stirring frequently to make sure the pasta doesn’t stick, until the pasta is just al dente. Turn the heat down to medium low, and add the clams and their juice. Cook for 3 to 4 more minutes to heat the clams and allow the flavors to combine. Don’t boil the clams or they’ll become tough.

Top the soup with additional chopped parsley and basil and serve. Serves 6. Note: This soup is even better on day two, but don’t keep it much more than two or three days.

4 Comments

Filed under Fish/shellfish, Pasta, Soup

Tagged as , , , , , , , , ,

August 29, 2012 · 6:45 am

Dinner date for one and a half

Sean is out of town this week for work and Penny and I have been on the couch watching a lot of girly TV as a result. We also have been ordering books from Amazon.com for a little late summer reading, including Nancy Silverton’s Sandwich Book, Julia Child’s My Life in France and James Ellroy’s American Tabloid.

Still, I have about a dozen bell peppers from the CSA in my fridge that stare me down every time I open the vegetable drawer. Stuffed peppers? Too lazy to make them. Ratatouille? Way too lazy to make it. Peppers that can be roasted on an open flame without dirtying a pan, served with a side of torn bread? Ahhh, perfect dinner for a lazy couple of gals.

You can omit the anchovies if they make you cringe, but I think they add this great, briny punch to the otherwise mellow, sweet flavors of this little salad. Tear off hunks of bread, scoop up the pliable strips of pepper and anchovy, and sop up a little garlicky oil. Heavenly.

Roasted sweet peppers with garlic and anchovies

    2 medium whole bell peppers (red and yellow)
    1 clove garlic, very thinly sliced
    Extra virgin olive oil, as needed
    1/2 cup torn basil leaves, divided
    Salt and pepper, as needed
    4 anchovy fillets, quartered
    Crusty bread, for serving

Method: Place the bell peppers directly over the flame of a gas-stove burner on high heat or on a grill. Roast the peppers, turning them with tongs, until blackened all over.

Place the peppers in a large ziplock bag and set aside to steam for 15 or 20 minutes. Peel the peppers, discarding the blistery skins. Remove the stems, seeds, and ribs, and cut each pepper lengthwise into strips.

Toss the peppers in a bowl with the garlic and about 2 tablespoons good-quality olive oil. Sprinkle with half the basil and set aside to marinate for an hour, or up to 2 days in the refrigerator.

Just before serving, toss the peppers with the remaining basil. Arrange the peppers on a platter, and lay the anchovy strips on top. Drizzle with a little more olive oil, and serve with torn hunks of crusty bread.

3 Comments

Filed under Appetizers, Fish/shellfish, Weeknight cooking

Tagged as , , ,

August 10, 2012 · 5:21 pm

Fish tacos in the setting sun

“Marge, we should make tacos!” This is the reply I get almost every time I ask Sean what we should make for Sunday dinner.

“But, Seeeaaaan,” I moan. “They’re so much work.”

I don’t know why I fight him so often on this. It’s probably partly because we are within menu’s reach of lots of delicious, authentic tacos in Chicago. Why go through all that work when you can buy them for less than $2 apiece? But this time I agreed, with a plan to tackle the elusive fish taco.

After much deliberation, I decided to grill the fish instead of frying it. Mahi mahi is very meaty, so it’s great on the grill, and the avocado crema provides just enough decadence that you really don’t miss the fried fish.

This recipe contains a lot of little steps, but none of them are difficult. And the end result makes the extra effort worthwhile (though I did manage to squeeze in a complaint or two about how many dishes we ended up with).

Wine pairing: I don’t normally suggest wine pairings for my recipes because I know so little, but I must give a little shout out to Red & White Wines in Bucktown for suggesting Petillant Vi d’agulla, a white wine made from Muscat grapes in the Penedes region of Spain, near Barcelona. It’s slightly effervescent, like having sprightly sea air in a bottle. I loved drinking it on the porch with these tacos as the summer sun set.

Grilled mahi mahi tacos

Pickled red onion

    1/2 small red onion, thinly sliced
    1/3 cup white vinegar
    1 teaspoon salt
    1 teaspoon honey

Avocado crema

    2 ripe avocados
    1 serrano chile, minced
    Juice of 1 lime
    1/4 cup chopped cilantro
    1/4 cup minced red onion
    2 teaspoons Mexican crema or sour cream
    Salt and pepper, to taste

Napa cabbage slaw

    1 cup finely shredded napa cabbage
    2 teaspoons lime juice
    2 teaspoons canola oil
    Salt and pepper, to taste

Tacos

    2 6-ounce mahi mahi fillets
    Canola oil, as needed
    Salt and pepper, to taste
    4 flour tortillas
    Avocado crema
    Napa cabbage slaw
    Pickled red onion
    Cilantro leaves, as needed
    Mexican crema or sour cream, for drizzling
    1 lime, cut into wedges
    Hot sauce, for drizzling

For the onions: Toss the onions in a bowl with the vinegar, salt and honey. Cover with plastic wrap and keep in the fridge for a few hours before assembling the tacos.

For the avocado crema: Scoop the avocado into a large bowl or mortar along with the serrano and lime juice. Smash it until it achieves a chunky consistency. Fold in the cilantro, onion and crema; season with salt and pepper to taste.

For the slaw: Toss the cabbage with lime juice, oil, salt and pepper to taste. Keep in the fridge until ready to assemble the tacos.
Putting it all together: Heat the grill to medium high. Spray the grates with nonstick grilling spray. Brush the fish with oil and season with salt and pepper. Grill over moderately high heat until lightly charred and cooked through, 8-10 minutes. Transfer the fish to a platter, and cut into a few large pieces.

To assemble the tacos, spread a dollop of avocado crema on each tortilla. Top with a piece of fish, a large spoonful of slaw, red onion, a few cilantro leaves and a drizzle of crema. Serve with lime wedges, extra crema and hot sauce.

4 Comments

Filed under Dinner ideas, Fish/shellfish

Tagged as , , , , , , ,

January 21, 2012 · 9:27 am

A deceptively simple, elegant fish meal

I often psyche myself out when it comes to preparing fish. I think the reason for this is that I eat it more often at restaurants than at home. Somehow, each time I take on a fish or shellfish recipe I have convinced myself that anything less than a chef-style presentation would expose me as a hack. Lightly crusty, salty exterior; perfectly flaky interior; gorgeous little sauce spooned over top with a delicate garnish? No problem. I don’t know why I do this to myself, but I’m sure it is partly responsible for the severe lack of fish recipes in my little inventory.

When cooking fish, it gives you a tremendous leg-up to go for the good-quality stuff. And try to find a few staple preparation styles you’re comfortable with. Fish cooks in almost no time, which makes it perfect for weeknight cooking in a skillet on the stovetop. You might have to screw up a couple to get it right, which is OK.

What I love about this dish is the potato crust acts almost like a little insulator, locking moisture into the fish. It also makes for a fancy presentation without too much effort.

Potato-encrusted tilapia with rosemary-scallion oil

    2 tilapia fillets
    1 large Yukon gold potato, very thinly sliced
    2-3 tablespoons rosemary, chopped and divided
    1 tablespoon olive oil
    1 tablespoon butter
    1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
    1/3 cup scallions, minced (green parts only)
    Kosher salt, to taste
    Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Method: Preheat the oven to 375°F.

Place the fish fillets on a plastic cutting board and cut in half to make four smaller fillets.

Season with salt, pepper and rosemary.

Top each of the fillets with enough slices of potato to completely cover the surface of the fish, overlapping each slice like shingles on a roof. Sprinkle the potatoes with a bit more salt, pepper and rosemary leaves.

Heat a large cast iron skillet over medium-high heat. Add the olive oil and the butter. When the butter is melted and the oil is hot add the fish, potato side down.

Place the skillet in the oven and bake until the fish is cooked through, 12-15 minutes. (Check the smaller half of the fillet first. It will only need about 12 minutes.)

While the fish is baking, prepare the oil. Mix the 1/2 cup olive oil with the remaining rosemary and the chopped scallion.

Remove the fish from the oven. Carefully slide a very thin spatula under the fish and potato and flip it onto a plate. You might have to rearrange the potatoes a little. Spoon some of the oil and herbs over each fillet. Serve immediately. Note: Add an arugula salad with Dijon vinaigrette and a warm, crusty piece of bread and dinner is served!

6 Comments

Filed under Dinner ideas, Fish/shellfish

Tagged as , , , , ,