On Monday I started my regular 7-week summer gig(*). It requires me to be fully occupied between 3 and 6 on Tuesdays. I put out a cooler with ice packs for Cape Ann at 1:30, and left strict instructions with my family about waiting for the doorbell (after the first week, CA has been good about ringing it and leaving), bringing the cooler in, removing the fish from it, and putting it into the fridge. I then locked myself in my study – now repurposed as a zoom studio. One family member brought the cooler in too early, and another carefully placed the icepacks in the fridge. Later, when the doorbell rang frantically they were slow to go to the door, but CA – bless them – left the fish in their cooler at our door. Clearly I need to go beyond feeding my family a fish to teaching them how to recognize a fish.
Anyway, after I’d zoomed, I bathed the haddock in warm olive oil, thinly sliced garlic, red pepper flakes, lemon and parsley, and served it on rice sprinkled with very good sea salt.
(*) Nearly forget to add this: in the past the gig was physically in Harvard Square. On Mondays I’d eat my kebabs from the food truck, and later pick up CA fish from Harvest in Central.
I’m hoping this will keep some of the people happy some of the time. Meanwhile, if anybody cares about my happiness, they’ll lock the thread on the cooking forum as I’ve requested.
I give you cornmeal-crusted haddock with a buttermilk-infused tartar sauce.* This had a satisfying crunch from coarse cornmeal mixed into the dredging flour.
I can’t remember the last time I shallow-fried anything, so I riffed on a cornmeal-crusted fish recipe from Food & Wine. Making this also reminded me that a cheap splatter screen, while not perfect, cuts down on the mess.
*Buttermilk-infused tartar sauce: By which I mean I stirred a little of the excellent Kate’s buttermilk into mayo from a jar and chopped cornichons very small.
jarred Polish family salad (Belveder brand, $2 for 30oz at Ocean State Job Lot), drained, with mayo and ranch dressing. This makes a sort of pickly coleslaw which I like better than ordinary tartar sauce.
Another big Ocean State fan here. I keep their Belveder sauerkraut and the Baron garlic dill pickles in stock at home. I’ll have to try the Polish family salad now too. Although I am a mayophobe, and will probably just experiment with other dressings.
Week 1 of the new season was haddock as well. I had misapprehensions about re-subscribing, given that I’m going to be swamped for another 6 weeks and not able to bring in the fish, but I decided that a clear lecture to my family on what is fish and what is an ice-pack might help. I sat them down and said “Family: the ice-packs will be in white bags, and Cape Ann puts its fish in a green bag.” They’re quick learners, my family (they must get that from me), and they got the point.
The haddock was stored safely, along with my second choice this week of salmon. Seeing the white of the haddock, and the saffronish hue of the salmon I immediately thought (really, which of you wouldn’t?) of the colors of the Indian flag[*]. I supplied the green with a coconut sauce tinted with curry leaves, cilantro, dill, green chillies, and a touch of mint (OK, OK, you dragged it out of me: also shallots, onion, garlic, ginger. cumin, coriander and so on and so forth.) Not my best effort, but for a total of 30 minutes, not terrible.
[*] I take no joy in this – those colors, under the present leadership there, are only cause for deep sorrow. But I’ve some small hope that things will correct themselves in the future. Ditto the strawberry-cream-blueberry meltingpot I embraced with enthusiasm nearly 20 years ago, one that I hope will soon return to its original deliciousness.
It was redfish this week, with scallops as my second order. As I’ve said, this is an intensely busy time for me, so I haven’t the time for anything elaborate. I panfried the redfish with some cayenne, salt and potato starch. I dusted the scallops with a few flecks of urfa pepper and a pinch of salt and did them quickly (about 90 seconds on the first side and a minute on the other in brown butter in a nonstick pan[*]. Tiny squeeze of lemon in the pan to shovel out with the remaining butter in the pan on top of the scallops. Not bad, but only because – as so much fish cookery requires – I was lucky in getting the timing right. Twenty seconds too much and it’s the fish that’s cooked you (or, at least, your goose).
[*] I detest nonstick pans but they have three uses: (1) pancakes, (2) soft, custardy scrambled eggs, and (3) scallops (which brown in these pans without developing a crust).
Hake last week (they have about 5 or 6 things they rotate through) with salmon as my additional choice. I’m still in fastest-cooking mode, and I find panfrying fits my present constraints best. But I try to keep things interesting by dipping into my collection of peppers, seeds, etc., to use as a dry rub or as a topping. For the hake I used Curio’s Piment D’Ville Basque Chili, salt and my It starch of the moment, potato. Potato starch is sticky, like tapioca, but I like the crisp bits that get stuck to the pan. Scraped off and drained on paper towels, they make a nice crunchy, salty topping on the fish.
I panfried the salmon on a separate day, with just salt on the skin side, and salt and hint of Kashmiri chili powder on the the other. I panfried it skin side down till the skin started to crisp and brown, flipped and peeled the skin off what was now the top. Took the fish out of the pan, but left the skin in the pan, turning a few times so that it continued to crisp and brown. Crunchy salmon skin is a favorite in my family, and it gives bacon a run for its money. The salmon itself was close to raw in the center and I served it on warm rice sprinkled with shichimi togarashi, a few previously cooked veggies and a squeeze of lime. Not quite chirashi, but one has to make do with what one has on hand.
In Heart & Soul, Jacques Pepin has a recipe for broiling skin-on thick fillets. Slash the skin, rub it with oil and dry seasonings, broil skin up, do not turn. The skin is deliciously crispy. You could mistake it for chicken skin.
By the way @tomatotomato we’d talked upthread about Fly by Jing. Did you order anything from them. They faced all kinds of problems in June, but I just got one jar of their chili crisp today and their three-year aged doubanjiang. I used the bean paste in a pork stir fry. It’s got a lot of funk, and discernible beans, shreds of red pepper, etc.
Truly thank you. And I wish I had a helicopter to get me there.
