A New Take on Tuna Salad

My cooking challenge for last week was to prepare a fresh and flavorful fish dish. My husband wanted this dish to reflect the bounty of the season and to be tasty, because he generally thinks fish is bland. (I don’t agree, but that’s another story.) He suggested a flavorful sauce.

The combination of fresh and flavorful got my mind working, and I came up with a salad. But not an ordinary salad. Rather, I wanted a composed dish that would showcase tasty produce surrounding a really nice piece of fish, all dressed with a tasty vinaigrette, which works really well on both fish and vegetables. I hit upon doing a version of a salade Niçoise, but with a twist: no olives (because I don’t really like olives). Thomas Keller’s Ad Hoc at Home has a tuna Niçoise recipe that is both gorgeous and easy to make; that would be my template. Leafing through Ad Hoc at Home‘s many vinaigrette recipes, I spotted the one I wanted: bacon vinaigrette! The bacon would taste great on a thick tuna steak and on the vegetables I wanted to accompany it: new potatoes, green beans, cherry tomatoes and avocado.

The vegetable platter.

The best part about this dish is that it is very easy to prepare. The most important step is the shopping, as this dish relies on finding the freshest, tastiest produce and cut of tuna available. It can also adapt to the season. I suggest visiting the farmers market or local co-op and buying whatever looks fresh and beautiful. As for cooking the vegetables, I simply blanched the green beans and steamed the potatoes until they were tender. I then cut everything up and apportioned it on a pretty platter.

As for the tuna, this challenge gave me a chance to explore the best local markets for buying fish. While my regular co-op does a great job of supplying local, organic chicken, bacon and sausage, it doesn’t stock a large selection of fish, and they never have tuna. The grocery store I usually shop at has a fish counter, but I am suspicious of their sources. Their tuna in particular often tastes a little fishy, and it’s a little too red, if you know what I mean.

That meant I had to go further afield. Because I left my shopping so late in the day, I chose to head over to Whole Foods rather than trying out Fresh Market, which is a little farther away. I normally avoid Whole Foods, because the experience of shopping there could easily be the tenth circle of Hell, in my opinion. Starting with the parking lot, which is poorly designed and always jammed with cars fighting for the spaces. Once you’re inside, the food is so gorgeous and artfully laid out, but you have to contend with people jamming the narrow aisles with huge carts and cutting across your path. I feel like a bumper car whenever I go inside. I could stand it just enough to go back to the fish counter and pick out a gigantic, gorgeous tuna steak. I couldn’t even handle ducking over to the bakery for a loaf of bread before my patience snapped. (I do have to give kudos to Whole Foods’ cashiers and fishmongers, who are just as friendly as they can be, unlike their clientele.) The trip was worth it, though, because just take a look at this fish.

The tuna.

Fish this good only requires a little salt and pepper for seasoning and a brief pan-searing in a thin film of olive oil. To judge doneness, watch the edges. You want just a thin sear on both sides. Remove it from the pan and slice thinly for serving. A one-pound steak was plenty for my husband and I, with leftovers. (My toddler refused to partake, of course.)

All that’s left is the dressing, which is also very simple. For two servings, cut 2 slices of bacon into 1-inch pieces. Fry over medium heat until crisp on the outside, then transfer to paper towels to drain, reserving the bacon fat in the pan. Combine 2 tablespoons champagne vinegar, 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard, and ¼ cup olive oil with salt and pepper to taste in a blender. Pour off the bacon fat into this mixture and blend until it is well emulsified. Stir in the bacon pieces and spoon the vinaigrette over the vegetables and fish to serve.

The whole salad.

I feel like this wasn’t too much of a challenge, since it was so easy to prepare. But I think this only goes to show that even the simplest dishes can be the most rewarding, if you take the trouble to find truly excellent ingredients. I would definitely make this salad again and again.

For the next challenge, I am tasked with making an Asian noodle dish. Since I’m still on a light and flavorful kick, I’m thinking Japanese. I hope you’ll join me.

Leftover Fish, Leftover Potatoes

You may have one or two pieces of fish left over from making crusted cod. Here’s what I did with my leftovers the next day. I toasted sandwich buns and spread them with tartar sauce. Add the fish and voila! A tasty fish sandwich for lunch.

As for leftover mashed potatoes, you can freeze them, but I always turn them into breakfast patties. I stir in one egg, some grated cheese, herbs, maybe some onion and a handful of bread crumbs. Form the potatoes into small patties and coat with more breadcrumbs. It’s helpful, but not required, to firm the patties up in the freezer for a few minutes. Shallow-fry in a little hot olive oil until golden-brown. These patties are especially good topped with a poached egg or with flaked, smoked salmon mixed in.

Crusted Cod with Wilted Spinach and Mashed Potatoes

This week’s challenge was an open-ended fish challenge, i.e., make fish tasty for someone who doesn’t particularly care for it. I have been told I will see more of these challenges as the year progresses. This first time, I decided to play it somewhat safe with a crunchy baked whitefish.

The results? My husband thought this dish had a lot of flavor and that I rescued fish from its major flaw: blandness. He gave it a 7/10, but placed it below the last two dinners, because it was still fish. I devoured my portion; I am a fish eater, and I thought everything on this plate worked particularly well together. My toddler gave it a thumbs down, though, and even went so far as to spit his fish out on the table; he did inhale all the spinach, though, which was definitely a big surprise!

I chose cod fillets for this meal, but any similar whitefish would work. Halibut is another good choice for diners who aren’t wild about fish.

Cod is easy to cook and not too fishy of a fish, so it pleases almost everybody. Unfortunately, it doesn’t have a lot of flavor. Although I didn’t want to fry it, I knew that encasing it in a crunchy topping would make the fish much more palatable. But I needed more. I consulted a few cookbooks and finally settled on combining the cooking technique from Thomas Keller’s Ad Hoc at Home wild cod recipe with the flavor suggestions from a similar recipe in High Flavor, Low Labor by J.M. Hirsch.

The recipe called for the fish to be slathered with a “secret sauce,” a mixture of ketchup, mayonnaise and mustard. That may sound a little gross — it did to me — but once I tasted it and realized it was a pour man’s approximation of remoulade sauce, I knew I was on to something. I added more flavor to the panko crumb topping: lemon zest, parsley and Parmesan cheese. If you are not familiar with panko bread crumbs, they are traditionally used in Japanese cooking. I chose them because they are light, crunchy and brown well. I recommend that everyone makes them a pantry staple.

Finally, I paired the fish with some favorite sides so nobody went hungry: garlicky wilted spinach and mashed potatoes. I almost always serve mashed potatoes with fish, particularly if there aren’t many fish lovers at the table. Those who find fish too light can fill up on yummy potatoes, and besides, I like to mix the flaked fish in with the creamy goodness. I’ll post my tried-and-true recipe for mashed potatoes tomorrow.

Crusted Cod with Wilted Spinach

Yields: 4 servings

For the fish:

• 1 pound cod fillet or similar whitefish fillet
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Olive oil
• 2 tablespoons mustard
• 2 tablespoons ketchup
• 2 tablespoons mayonnaise
• 1 cup panko bread crumbs
• ½ cup Parmesan cheese, grated
• Zest of 1 lemon
• 2 tablespoons parsley, minced
• Lemon wedges to serve

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

Cut the cod fillet crosswise into 4-6 even portions. Season with salt and pepper on both sides. Blend together the mustard, ketchup and mayonnaise in a small bowl. Brush this mixture on each side of each fillet. In a shallow dish, combine the bread crumbs, cheese, zest and parsley. Dip each fillet on both sides into the bread crumbs, pressing down to make sure they adhere.

Heat a generous amount of olive oil in an oven-proof pan large enough to hold all of the fillets over medium-high. When the oil is very hot, add the fillets and let brown for 1 minute. Carefully flip them and let brown 1 minute more.

Transfer the pan to the oven to finish cooking the fillets, which can take 10-15 minutes, depending on their thickness. The fillets are done when they are opaque all the way through and flake easily. Serve with lemon wedges on the side.

For the spinach:

• 8 ounces baby spinach
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• Olive oil

While the fish is cooking, wash the spinach and dry it. Heat a small amount of olive oil in a pan over medium with the garlic clove. Add the spinach and toss until it wilts, about 2-3 minutes. Serve alongside the fish.

Challenge #3: Fish!?!

My husband is not a big fish eater, but for this week’s challenge, he asked for a fish dish that he would like to eat. He left it open-ended purposely, so the choice of fish and how to prepare it are up to me. I could go the easy route and get something I know he’d like, such as tuna. Or I could make it a bit more difficult and perhaps try a white fish. I guess I’ll wait and see what looks good at the market this weekend. Results will be up next week.

Roast Salmon: Simple & Healthy

It’s becoming harder and harder to incorporate fish into my diet. Due to worries about mercury, polluted fish farms and overfishing, I have really cut down the amount of fish I buy and eat. It’s not difficult to imagine that there may come a time when we eat no fish at all, other than those few species that can be safely and cleanly farmed.

I still buy Alaskan wild salmon from time to time, though. Wild salmon is much less contaminated than farmed, and salmon is the one fish (other than tuna) that everyone in the house will eat. It’s also very easy to cook. Usually, I buy one large fillet that will feed the three of us, probably leaving some leftovers for sandwiches the next day.

Roasting is a quick and easy way to cook salmon. Last night I basted the fillet with a mixture of one part honey and one part coarse grain mustard, then sprinkled it with salt, pepper and dill. I roasted it for 12 minutes or so at 400 degrees. Serve with some spring peas sauteed in butter and onions and a simple green salad, and you have an easy weeknight meal.

Pan-seared Salmon & Mashed Potatoes

I cooked a proper dinner last night. It was a simple dinner, and another one where I didn’t really need recipes, but that’s the best kind of dinner for a weeknight, I think.

The main course was salmon fillet, pan-seared in a little butter and olive oil with lemon slices and capers. This is pretty much my favorite way of cooking salmon fillet. Most of the cooking is done skin-side-down and then finished briefly on the other side. When it was done, I removed it from the pan and deglazed with a mixture of white wine and lemon juice. I spooned the reduced sauce and pan juices over the salmon to serve. This dish could have used more lemon; I was too skimpy with it.

Speaking of salmon, I see that Target has stopped selling farm-raised salmon. I imagine that many of you do not buy your fish at Target — I sure don’t — but I’m also sure that plenty of people do all their grocery shopping there, and salmon is a very popular fish. Farm-raised salmon is highly polluting, dirtying the ocean and the fish alike. Wild-caught is better, but only if done sustainably. Arctic char is a great alternative, but I never see it for sale. The truth is, it’s so confusing what fish we should and should not be eating at any one time. My reaction has been to reduce my consumption of fish altogether and to try to eat as sustainably as I can when I do choose it.

I think mashed potatoes go really well with salmon, so that’s what I made for a side dish. I used these lovely, large Yukon Gold potatoes I found at the market. I mixed the mash with sauteed mushroooms and onions, butter and a couple of spoonfuls of sour cream. It’s hard to go wrong with mashed potatoes.

How to Poach Salmon in the Slow Cooker

I recently discovered yet another use for my slow cooker: slow-poaching fish like salmon. This method actually doesn’t take that much longer than poaching fish on the stovetop. But it has several advantages over the stovetop method.

For one thing, you don’t have to pay too much attention to the fish while it’s cooking. You just need to check for doneness once you near the end of cooking time. There are no worries about the liquid evaporating away or the temperature being too high. The slow cooker regulates those things for you.

Also, the fish tasted much more flavorful and moist after being cooked in the slow cooker, for exactly those reasons. The temperature remained stable and didn’t get too hot, which is the primary difficulty when poaching. The fish was well submerged in the liquid and didn’t have a chance to dry out.

Finally, this is a really easy way to put fish on the table more often. And since it only takes about an hour — most of that hands-off time — you can easily prepare this recipe on a weeknight.

Slow-poached Salmon

Time to make: ~1 hour
Yields: 4 servings

• 1 cup water
• ½ cup white wine (the same kind you would use for drinking)
• 4 small or 2 large salmon fillets
• 1 slice yellow onion
• 1 slice lemon plus additional lemon slices for serving
• 1 sprig fresh dill
• coarse salt and pepper to taste

Heat the water and wine in the slow cooker on high for 20-30 minutes. Add the fish, onion and lemon slices, dill sprig, and salt and pepper. Reduce the heat to low and cook 20 minutes, or until the fish is cooked through. Serve the salmon with additional lemon slices.

Notes: The poached salmon can be served hot or cold. It also makes a good base for salads. I’m sure you can substitute other kinds of fish for the salmon in this recipe. Just vary the cooking time according to the thickness of the fish. My estimate is that it will take about twice as long to cook through in the slow cooker as it would on the stovetop.

A Buying Guide for Seafood That’s Safe for You & the Environment

It is not easy eating seafood these days. There are a number of health concerns, mercury being the number-one issue that has been in the news lately. Beyond that, you also have to worry about PCBs, pollutants and chemicals in your seafood. And if you care at all about the environment, there are a host of other worries: overfished species; fishing practices that harm other marine life; and pollution associated with fish farming. It’s enough to make you order a grass-fed, humanely slaughtered steak or organic, free-range chicken breast instead.

Still, I like seafood, and I want to keep on eating it. But I don’t want to carry a book with me every time I go to the grocery store or restaurant just so I know what fish is best to buy. There are no straightforward rules. Sometimes it’s best to choose wild, and sometimes you should choose farmed. Sometimes Atlantic species are out, but Pacific are OK. U.S. farms are often better than international sources, but not always, and the store often doesn’t tell you where the seafood is from, anyway. To make it more confusing, some species are regularly labeled as another type of fish; for instance rockfish might be sold as red snapper or sea bass.

To help cut through the confusion and make fish-buying simple, I have created a very short list of fish that I know is OK and that I want to keep on eating. If it’s not on my list, I don’t get it. This may prevent me from eating a lot of fish that is just fine, but it also keeps me from going crazy and giving up seafood altogether.

Here is my short list of “good” seafood (based on information from Environmental Defense Fund’s Seafood Selector and Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch):

• clams and mussels — Farmed is the best choice (and usually the only choice).
• crab – Dungeness and stone are the best choices, but crab is so expensive that it is an occasional treat anyway.
• farmed Arctic char – The taste reminds me of salmon, but it’s often hard to find in the store.
• farmed U.S. catfish — Surprisingly clean, this is a good choice for fish fries.
• farmed rainbow trout — Another good fillet option, if you can find it in the store.
• Pacific cod — A good all-purpose fish; note that Atlantic cod is a no-no.
• Alaskan wild salmon — Avoid farmed and Atlantic salmon.
• U.S. yellowfin (ahi) tuna sparingly – Yes, tuna has mercury, but this is the best choice, and I love tuna, so I eat it only once in a while.
• canned light tuna, also sparingly — Because I still need an occasional tuna fish sandwich.

Remember, when you buy fish, keep it on ice for no more than one day or buy it frozen. Fish that has been flash-frozen at sea is often fresher than fresh fish, which has likely been frozen and then thawed.

Fish I no longer buy

• halibut, mackerel, mahi mahi, shark and swordfish – Even though some species may be safe, I eliminated all of these due to mercury or PCB content.
• flounder and sole – These contain PCBs, are overfished, and the fishing practices damage the habitat.
• grouper, rockfish, sea bass and snapper — Some choices are fine, but many are severely overfished and may contain pollutants; since these species are often mislabeled, it’s hard to know what you’re getting, so I avoid them all.
• monkfish – Also overfished and harmful fishing practices.
• tilapia – A good choice, actually, but I don’t like the muddy, bland taste; also, you need to be sure of your sources and avoid tilapia farmed in China or Taiwan.

My general rule is: If it’s not on my short list, I don’t buy it.

What about shrimp?

I love shrimp, although I rarely buy it anyway, since my husband is allergic. Then I read an article in Gourmet that completely put me off eating shrimp. The shrimp that comes from international farmed sources — in other words, most shrimp — is highly polluted and full of chemicals that are banned in the U.S. Sometimes I wonder if my husband isn’t allergic to the shrimp, just highly susceptible to the chemicals in them. Also, I’ve noticed more and more that shrimp tastes muddy, mushy and just plain bad, which I also attribute to the pollution.

However, I will order shrimp in a restaurant if it is clearly labeled as wild-caught Carolina shrimp or U.S. farmed shrimp (primarily from Florida). U.S. lobster is generally fine, as well.

What about scallops?

Some scallops are OK, some are not. I don’t want to keep track of which is which, and I’m not a huge fan anyway. I might order them in a really nice restaurant where I trust the chef to source them appropriately. The other reason I don’t buy scallops is that they are often treated with chemical phosphate to extend their shelf life and make them look better, which I think affects their taste and texture, and not in a good way.

What about oysters?

To tell you the truth, I don’t prepare oysters much at home. Oysters are something I’d much rather eat from a good restaurant that knows how to treat them right. Many farmed oysters are good choices, but again, it’s too much trouble for me to remember which ones are the best, since I hardly ever buy them. Wild oysters may contain PCBs but are OK to eat occasionally.

An Orange Marinade for Fish

Here is another example of a recipe inspiring me to create something new. The original recipe was for a yogurt-caper sauce to be served on roasted salmon. Well, my husband doesn’t like yogurt, and I find it a bit iffy to use in cooking, myself. But I liked the flavor combinations suggested by the recipe. A few modifications transformed it into a simple marinade with a lot of flavor.

I poured the marinade over seasoned salmon fillets just before popping them into a 425-degree oven to roast. (The rule of thumb for cooking fish is 10 minutes per inch of thickness; you can also make a small cut with a sharp knife to judge doneness by color — more opaque than translucent — and flakiness.) I served it on a bed of roasted winter squash that I also gave a squirt of orange juice for a lovely, orange-themed (in both color and flavor) dish.

Orange Marinade

Whisk together:

• 2 tbsp. olive oil
• 1 tbsp. freshly squeezed orange juice
• ½ tsp. orange zest
• 1 tbsp. parsley, minced
• 1 tsp. capers, rinsed and minced

Pour over the fish or meat to marinate. If desired, reserve a little marinade to drizzle over the dish before serving.

Sauteed Salmon with Baby Potatoes, Asparagus & Lemon Bearnaise

February is without question the dreariest month of the year. Despite being so short, the unrelenting sequence of cold, gray days that make up February always depresses me. To lift my mood, I was craving something that promised the sensations of spring. This dish, with spring vegetables drizzled with a sauce that looks and tastes like sunshine, certainly fit the bill. It was inspired not only by thoughts of spring, but also by a fantastic meal we had recently at local restaurant Rue Cler.

This recipe has a lot going on, so it might be worthwhile to enlist the services of a sous chef. If that isn’t possible, complete the steps in the order listed and keep the vegetables warm in a low oven while preparing the fish and sauce.

Sauteed Salmon with Baby Potatoes, Asparagus & Lemon Béarnaise

Serves: 2
Time to make: ~30 minutes

What you need:

• ½ lb. very small new potatoes
• ½ lb. asparagus stalks
• 1 tbsp. olive oil
• 1 tbsp. butter
• ½ lb. salmon fillet, sliced very thinly

1. Boil the potatoes until fork-tender, about 10 minutes, and set aside
2. Meanwhile, prepare the béarnaise sauce (recipe follows)
3. Blanch the asparagus with the tips sticking out of the water to steam until tender, about 1 minute
4. Slice the asparagus stalks into finger lengths and set aside
5. Heat the oil and butter over medium-high
6. Saute the salmon until browned and no longer opaque in the middle, about 1 minute per side
7. Arrange the fish and vegetables on plates and drizzle the béarnaise over all to serve

Notes: When I prepare this dish again, I will probably try dredging the salmon fillets in flour to get a little crust on them when they are sauteed.

Lemon Béarnaise Sauce

What you need:

• 2 scallions, thinly sliced
• ¼ tsp. dried French herbs
• 3 tbsp. white wine vinegar
• salt and pepper
• 1 egg yolk, beaten with 1 tbsp. water
• ½ stick butter
• 1-2 tbsp. lemon juice

1. Combine the scallions, vinegar, salt and pepper in a saucepan
2. Cook over medium-low until half the vinegar has evaporated, about 5 minutes
3. Off the heat, stir the egg mixture into the vinegar
4. Whisk over low until thickened, 5 minutes
5. Stir in the butter, one piece at a time, until each piece is incorporated
6. Add the lemon juice to taste
7. Keep warm over very low heat

Notes: If the sauce gets too thick or starts to separate, stir in an ice cube.