Little is better than a spectacularly fresh piece of fish that’s been grilled to perfection, like this halibut. Perhaps I’m just easy to please. All it needs is a bit of salt and pepper and the gentle licks from the barbecue’s flames. But when topped with a fruit salsa, such as Papaya Salsa, all the neighbors from blocks away can hear my whoo-hoos.

It’s that damn good.

We based our recipe on our Mango Salsa and substituted with Papaya, either are delicious. Here’s a simple recipe:

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I stare at food all day. At least recipes and photos of food. Some days I get the “cooking bug” and want to rush home to whip up the various dishes that inspired me, others times I just get a bit overwhelmed by it all. When that happens it’s either a quick stop at the market to pick up a roasted chicken or heading home and yanking something out of the freezer.

Last night was an “I’m-too-tired-to-cook-and-we-don’t-have-anything-in-the-fridge” kind of night. So Barnaby took charge. He opened the freezer, pulled out a bag of edamame (soy beans) and some sashimi-grade albacore tuna, and looked at me and said, “Oh, there’s always something in the freezer.” My contribution was putting rice and water into the rice cooker, pushing the “Cook” button and pouring us glasses of wine. That’s about all the energy I could muster up.

True to Barnaby’s form, he produced yet another fantastic meal in no time flat. He boiled the edamame, then pureed them with a bit of white miso and mirin.

He gave the tuna a quick sear on both sides, then sliced it thin and laid it on top of the rice. For added color and flavor he sprinkled it with a bit of furikake.

Healthy, delicious and quick! All I had to do was drink my glass of wine and wait!

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There are three things that us Pacific Northwesterners have in our DNA: coffee, micro-brewed beer and salmon. Just before the Copper River Salmon season starts we’re like junkies in need of a fix. As soon as this beautiful salmon is available we race to our favorite fish monger, reach deep into our pockets, and shell out the big bucks for this delicious fish.

Ahhhh….

This variety of salmon originates from the Copper River in Alaska, a nearly 300 mile long wildly rapid river that dumps into Prince William Sound. The long and chilly river make it an Iron Man Race for the fish that grow into robust creatures with high levels of body fat and natural oils. The result of their physical effort: one of the richest and tastiest fish in the world. Its beautiful red color and firm flesh make this a must-eat at least twice (if not three times) a week in our household. The freezer is also stocked full of it!

Last night we gave the fillets a simple seasoning of salt and pepper, then grilled them for a brief time on both sides, keeping the centers nice and medium-rare. Barnaby whipped up a healthy version of a béarnaise sauce using olive oil instead of butter (gasp from the French!) and we placed it all on top of fresh linguine. With truffle oil drizzled over grilled asparagus and a butter lettuce salad on the side, we were in Copper River Salmon business.

Click below for a classic béarnaise sauce, but don’t be afraid to make it more heart healthy by substituting olive oil.

More photos of Copper River Salmon found here:

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I love my job. I get to talk and write about food all day. I can spend hours chopping, slicing, dicing, stirring, then carefully plating, styling, photographing my creations. But sometimes, like many of us, I get home and simply lack the energy to create a delicious meal, despite my earlier-in-the-afternoon daydream about the fabulous meal I would whip up once I was back in my kitchen.

Last night was one of those nights. And to top it off I knew any cooking would then require cleaning – something I just wasn’t up to.  The perfect solution? Oven-baked fish. Healthier than pan-fried, no grease splatter on your stove and only one dish to wash.

We took out our fresh Pacific cod, grabbed some panko and mixed in a little seasoning from a new-to-me company Amazing Taste. The various seasonings, which also happen to be Amazingly Inexpensive, can be used as marinades or rubs and we chose the rub direction. We decided on the Malibu blend of black pepper, onion, garlic and paprika; a nice combination for our fish. We coated the top of the fish with the seasoned panko and threw the pan in the oven. With the quick addition of some lemon zest and a big green salad on the side we had ourselves a meal!

Easy and delicious. Just what I needed after a long day (I even managed to clean the pan).

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I’ve started smoking. No, not cigarettes, but food. I wrote before about the electric smoker I gave Barnaby for his birthday in December and we’ve been going crazy throwing down various meats and fish on the grill: mangalitsa pork, trout, skirt steak, shrimp, scallops. Next on the list is cheese: provolone, mozzarella and cheddar.

Last night we tried a new preparation: cold smoking. Traditional cold smoking requires cooling the smoke before applying it to food, however, that’s both difficult to achieve and requires special equipment. Our version of cold smoking is much easier: toss a piece of frozen fish on the grill and let the smokin’ begin.

Starting with frozen fish minimizes the amount of cooking so the result is a delicious smokey flavor and ever so minimally cooked – perfect for sashimi! We used a 1.2 pound sashimi-grade albacore tuna loin and smoked it over alder pellets for about an hour and a half. If you’re looking for a more fully cooked preparation, or you are smoking meat, then you can sear it afterward.

Our meal was Japanese-style; the tuna drizzled with a bit of ponzu sauce and served with rice, seaweed salad and yaki imo (grilled sweet potato). The smoked tuna would also be delicious in a salad, such as niçoise.

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The mild flavor of shark is a good foil for robust seasonings. Here we have used garlic, lemon and cracked pepper in copious amounts as we love all three. Quick cooking methods such as grilling or broiling are recommended to avoid overcooking which turns shark to shoe leather in no time.

It’s never a bad idea to keep a close eye on any shark, in or out of the oven!

Shark with Lemon, Pepper, and Garlic

Ingredients:
1 lb shark steak or fillet, serves 2-3
2-3 large garlic cloves, put through a press or chopped fine
1 /2  t cracked pepper, or to your taste
I T olive oil or lemon infused olive oil
Juice of half a lemon, fresh squeezed

Preparation:
Preheat broiler to HIGH setting
Prepare both sides of fish as follows:
Brush with oil or flavored oil
Add the garlic and pepper, spreading evenly and pressing in to adhere
Sprinkle with lemon juice

Place on broiler pan and set at least 6″ from the heat source to avoid burning. The garlic will burn quite easily if the heat is too high. Brush with more oil and/or lower heat to LOW broil setting if the color is getting too dark.
Cooking time will vary based on the temperature and thickness of the fish.

Serve with fresh lemon wedges and enjoy.

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Cooking “en papillote” simply means in parchment, and the method is not as tricky as the fancy name implies. Parchment paper and even  preformed parchment bags are available at many gourmet shops and online. We use a combination of foil and parchment which gives a double seal to the process and makes clean up quick and easy.

Here’s a variation we made from some fresh lehi, a type of snapper, and other ingredients we happened to have on hand. Experiment and have fun!

Snapper en Papillote With Roasted Red Pepper Salsa

Parchment paper, cut into 15″ squares, one per serving
Aluminum foil, cut as above

Ingredients:
For the fish
Snapper or other fish fillet or steak, 5-7 oz per serving
roasted red peppers from a jar or home roasted – 1 cup approx, cut into 4″ x 2″ rectangles or wedges
1 large shallot
olive oil for brushing the foil
salt/pepper

For the salsa:
1  C  roasted red pepper, chopped
1  C ripe avocado, chopped
3  green onions, chopped
1 tomato, chopped
1/2 C fresh  orange segments, seeded, membranes removed, and chopped
2 T juice from roasted tomato jar (optional)
2 T orange or mango juice
1/4 t hot sauce or to your taste
salt and pepper to taste
Combine all ingredients and mix.

Technique
Preheat oven to 475 degrees

For each serving/packet of fish:
Place square of foil atop like square of parchment
Brush foil with olive oil
Lay 3-5 rectangles of red pepper on the foil
Top with 2 tsps chopped shallot
Season fish with salt and pepper
Place fish on the prepared “bed” of pepper and shallot, skin side up if your fish has skin. The veggies should be under the fish.

To fold the parchment packages:
Fold the far top edge of the parchment towards you until the top edge meets the bottom, making a rectangle. This will “scooch” the fish forward towards you, but not to worry.
Starting at one end, fold up and crimp a couple of small turns, proceeding around until you have made the package into a half heart or half moon shape. Go back and repeat the process folding in towards the fish until you have crimped right around right up close to the fish. If the edges look as if they will come undone, press a rolling pin or back of heavy knife along the folds to convince them otherwise.

Place parchment packages on a baking sheet
Bake at 475 for 15 minutes

The packets should turn nicely brown and puff as they cook. The sizzle and smell should be lovely as well.

Cut open the packets, serve the fish vegetable side up, pouring the liquid from the packet over the top. Salsa goes on the side or passed at the table. We think it looks prettiest served with.

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TUGBERT is our 26-foot Nordic Tug recreational trawler, berthed in Marina del Rey, California, otherwise known as the watery part of Los Angeles. We have been enjoying a warm October and there is no better fair weather dinner in our opinion than fish cooked over a grill on a boat. Everything tastes better, for starters, and the propane fueled grills, which you will see everywhere clamped to boat railings, are actually serious cookers, which heat quickly and do a grand job on fish.

Of course the fish has to be fresh. For that we head south to Alamitos Bay (near Long Beach) to the Sunday Farmer’s Market, well worth the investment in gas. Prices are cheaper than the chef-infested markets of Santa Monica and nowhere else has J & P West Coast Seafood. From the side of a chuck wagon style truck this gentleman improbably dispenses some of the freshest fish in the area week after week at, not low, but fair prices for the quality. The white sea bass ran us about $20 per pound, but this is a cut, which is all edible with no waste.

First we cut the sea bass into similar portions of like thickness. Next we generally brush with olive oil before applying a rub. Even though the white sea bass has a high oil content on its own, the oil disperses the rub evenly and helps it adhere rather than scrape off on the grill. Flush from a recent visit to World Spice in Seattle, we had variety of choices but soon settled on a an old favorite – Calico fish rub. This is a blend of sumac, Chinese chilies, whole black sesame seeds, red sea salt, and dill. It adds nice reddish color (that’s the sumac) to a plain white fish like the sea bass, and there is no need for salt or pepper. With the green dill weed the effect before cooking is Christmas on a plate! Grill and eat, couldn’t be simpler. You may encounter some bones but these are typically large and readily identified. This is a mild fish with a creamy finish similar to scallop or crab.

For the side dish we cheated and precooked the potatoes in the microwave to shorten the cook time on the boat. We cut the mostly cooked peeled potatoes into convenient chunks, combined with raw onion and a large shallot, drizzled with Meyer lemon olive oil, dotted with sea salt and pepper and wrapped in foil. Placed on the back side of the grill in its packet the potatoes finished cooking in ten minutes or so, roughly the same time it took to grill the fish. Times will vary widely depending upon the thickness of the fish, whether it is cold or room temperature, and the setting or flame on your grill.

White Sea Bass a la Tugbert

Side dishes:
Foil wrapped potatoes, onions and shallots
Large helping of sunset

Grilled white sea bass
1 lb fish steak or fillet cut into three equal portions (serves 2-3)
2 tsps olive oil
Rub of your choice, or salt & pepper – about 1 tablespoon
Brush olive oil on all sides and surfaces of fish coat with rub
Foil wrapped potatoes
One medium potato per person, microwave whole until fork inserts rather easily — prick potatoes several times with a fork prior to microwaving to avoid explosions!
Peel potatoes, and cut into 2″ cubes
One medium onion, peeled and sliced
One large shallot, peeled and sliced
1 tablespoon Meyer lemon infused olive oil, any flavored olive oil, or plain oil of good quality
Sea salt and pepper to taste
Toss all together and place on oiled square of aluminum foil. Top with a second piece of foil of equal size, seal and crimp edges.

This same dinner could be made on land, but we recommend buying a boat for maximum flavor.

Ron and Betsy and TUGBERT

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Recently we found some fresh black cod in the market. Black cod, also known as sablefish, is actually not considered a true cod. Where cod is light and flaky, black cod is plump and oily. When cooked, the result is tender and buttery.

I’ve enjoyed grilled black cod in Japanese restaurants many times, but had never cooked it myself, so we purchased two fish for a big family dinner we were preparing. We simmered it Asian-style in a delicious mixture of soy sauce, mirin (sweet rice wine), sake and ginger.

It was simple, beautiful, and even got big cheers from the kids.

Ginger Soy Black Cod

4-6 black cod steaks
1/2 cup soy sauce
1 cup mirin
1 cup sake
2 tablespoons fresh ginger, grated
Handful of green onions, chopped

Place the steaks in a large saucepan. Add the liquids and ginger and simmer for about 30 minutes.

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Don’t you get bored with plain old white rice? It can be a bit tiresome, can’t it? The other day Tracy told us about her kim chee rice dish, and I thought I’d also share one with you.

I like to call it rice confetti, but in Japanese this popular condiment is called furikake (pronounced foo-ree-kah-kay with a little roll on the r). Furikake is a brightly colored, flavorful mixture that you sprinkle on rice. It typically consists of tiny bits of dried fish (although there are veggie versions), seaweed, sesame seeds, salt, and a wee amount of sugar. Some of our favorites are salmon (sake), black sesame and salt (gomashio), pickled plum (umeboshi), and wasabi (Japanese horseradish). Check Amazon.com or your local Asian market for more delicious flavors.

Kinda like throwing a party for your rice, huh?

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