Fish Tacos in Quarentis

No fists, but two women got in a fight this morning in line at the garden center. It escalated quickly, as Ron Burgundy would say, after one super annoying lady ("the Enforcer") yelled at the lady ("the Beleaguered") ahead of me to move up and stand on her assigned square. Seems the Beleaguered had more social distance than the Enforcer thought she should have. There were, like, ten people in line but no matter what, the line wasn't moving until people left the garden center, so it didn't really matter how spread out we were, as long as we complied with the distancing thing.

There was nothing enjoyable about witnessing the obscenity-laced fracas (which eventually petered out with the Beleaguered apologizing to everyone in line for completely losing it on the Enforcer, whilst the Enforcer continued to try to bait the Beleaguered) but it was notable to see people behaving badly after so much tip toeing, niceties and polite deference. Maybe it's that I work for a company headquartered in Minnesota but lately even drivers in Chicago seem friendlier to each other, people everywhere seem to be cutting each other slack, and we've all been forced to surrender some individual freedoms for what our local elected officials have determined to be the good of the group. Do I sound conflicted about the present arrangement? To quote the Vampire Weekend's Harmony Hall song I like so much, "I don't wanna live like this. But I don't wanna die."

Anyhoo, my news feed informed me that people are cooking more seafood with a bravery I usually only summon for parties where I have friends to cook with. Feeling some shame for the pedestrian nightly meals I've been turning out, last night I picked up (and put down, and picked up again, much like when contemplating use of my hair straightener: "Should I? Do I have time? Will it come out well?) a WHOLE snapper. In a miracle of availability and perfect ripeness of supporting ingredients (butter lettuce, mangoes, avocados, corn on the cob, fresno chilis and cotija), and the last of our stash of El Milagro corn tortillas remaining unspoiled, fish tacos were a go. And while no one else wanted to touch the fish, advice was proffered, the grill was lit, and and my first born and I assembled an array of sides for an incredibly colorful and delicious dinner.

I was nervous about cooking the whole fish but there's really nothing to it but fresh lime, a splash of neutral oil, salt and pepper, and then a hearty redux of same on the platter once you pull the fish off the barbie. Want to give it a go? This amount served three (but would serve two more generously):

• 1.75 pound whole snapper - rub in and out with a bit of oil, salt, pepper and fresh lime and grill about 5-6 minutes each side (I used my stainless steel grill basket thing). When done, place on a platter with more oil, salt, pepper and fresh lime juice
• Guacamole: 2 ripe avocados, some finely chopped yellow onion, jalapeno, cilantro, salt, and lime
• Spicy Mango Salsa: 2 small yellow mangoes, finely chopped red onion, red bell pepper, jalapeno, green onion, fresh lime juice
• One head living lettuce - optional, if you like the lettuce-wrapped thing
• Freshly charred corn tortillas - I just zap them on the open flame of my range
• Shredded cabbage - tossed with fresh lime juice, salt and pepper

Serve with this, my favorite summer salad.

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On Blackened fish, Kid Rock, and Summer Plans

I'm embarrassed to admit that I first heard about Walleye from Kid Rock in that All Summer Long song that took to the airwaves a few summers ago. Walleye is native to the Midwest, unlike yours truly, and is frequently served panfried. I saw it yesterday at Whole Foods and it looked lovely, so I brought it home and mixed together a quick blackened spice rub (see below), grilled some veggies on the side (just peppers and onions), and made a quick salad from the abundance of greens in my CSA sack.

This is a good time to promote the Chicago Lights Urban Farm, the good folks behind my summer salad share. I'm really pleased with the produce, and the farm itself is a little oasis in the city. This week, my share included Nero radishes, which are big, black, beautiful - and spicy! Whoa baby. If I were French, I'd slather a baguette with unsalted Plugra and top it with Nero slices. Chef Dominique Tougne was serving radish and butter aperitifs at Chez Moi last summer and they were delightful. Click here for Saveur's directions for making your own.

Back to the Walleye...I enjoy panfried fish, though prefer to do the panfrying myself. The last time I ate Walleye was at a restaurant around New Buffalo, MI, the panfrying was too aggressive. To create a good blackened seasoning, I consulted James Peterson's Fish and Shellfish cookbook and ended up following his recipe. Here it is:

JP's Blackened Seasoning
1 T dried thyme
1 T dried oregano
2 t salt
1 1/2 t cayenne
Several turns fresh ground white pepper

To cook the fish, I set my cast iron pan over a medium high flame to heat. Then I mixed the spice rub on a long platter, rubbing it all together and smashing up the dried spices with my fingers. Next I transferred the Walleye (the fishmonger removed the skin for me) to the platter, dousing one side with olive oil and turning to coat both sides of the fish with olive oil and the dry rub. Then I cut the fish into serving size pieces (I made them small-ish, so each person would have 2-3 pieces, but cut as you wish). With the pan now nice and hot, I added a tablespoon or less of canola oil, and tipped the pan around to coat the bottom evenly. I added the fish and cooked it for about 4 minutes on one side and about 2-3 min on the other side. To determine if its done, test one piece to see if it flakes - just cut off a corner and peek. Serve immediately.

What else am I up to this summer? Well, I'm going to pick up where I left off with my winter Algebra class thru Coursera (or retake the course entirely, as might be required). I'm also brushing up on my French via Duolingo. The latter allows for fierce inter-family competition, the likes of which we've not seen since Super Mario came to the Wii. I'm also looking forward to some serious cooking. Here's a taste of what will be coming out of my kitchen this summer:

- Sriracha-glazed chicken skewers (already had these and they were fabulous)
- Singapore chili lobster (this is going to be an adventure)
- This Ciopinno;
- Slate-griddled Porterhouse steaks with Roquefort;
- Miche, my lastest favorite bread. Get yours at La Fournette which produced a Blackhawks Miche, pictured here, upside-down;
- Breakfast Crepes with Peaches, Cinnamon Sugar, and Raspberry Jam;
- Half sour pickles (one of my favorite pickles!)

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Yes, Virginia, Copper River Salmon is All That

Alright, the marketing plan can take some credit. But the Copper River Salmon*, which makes its debut this time of year is fantastic. We had it tonight (from Whole Foods for $24.99/lb) along with roasted cauliflower, early season corn on the cob, Baby Romaine dressed with Champagne vinaigrette and  Tortone, a new loaf from Little Goat that was said to contain garlic and mashed potatoes, tho the garlic was MIA. The crust was crunchier and the crumb was gummier than I expected. It didn't disappoint, per se, but it didn't appoint either. It was, essentially, a forgettable loaf.

If an elephant eats a Tortone in the woods and considers it the most forgettable loaf of bread he's ever eaten but then a tree falls on his head and he experiences post-traumatic amnesia, does it mean he forgot about the Tortone or that he was physically incapable of accessing its memory? Or did the Tortone even exist in the first place?

But back to the salmon. I grilled it**, with just a pinch of my beloved Mendocino Seasoning Sand. I'm not too hawkish around the grill. Dinnertime demands multitasking (which I now understand to mean doing lots of things, poorly), and tonight was no exception. While the salmon grilled I was prepping some pastries for an event tomorrow, giving a lecture on the lesson behind a homework assignment, and brokering a laptop-sharing agreement between two hostile parties. The muffins came out well, nothing else. Anyway, you do want to be hawkish at the grill when Copper River is cooking because 1) it's bloody expensive and you don't want to ruin it, and 2) what makes Copper River Salmon so darned tasty is the fat. Omega 3s will light up your grill and torch your fish. My grill was alight when I checked on it, but the fish was fine. I flipped it and moved it to a cooler part of the grill and left the hood up so I could keep an eye on things.

* If you don't know what Copper River Salmon is, the short story is that it's wild salmon from a super cold river in Alaska. Is it better then other wild salmon from cold rivers in Alaska? I couldn't say.  Want a longer story? Check out:
The Copper River salmon craze: How the race began - The LA Times Fresh Copper River salmon lands in Seattle - King5.com

** Grilling method for salmon: I always grill salmon with the skin on a preheated grill for ten minutes, then grilled skin side up for about 5-6 minutes with grill lid down, then skin down for about 2-3 minutes (in this case with grill lid up, though usually I close it). I like the flesh to have an hombre interior - a little darker in the center. If you must, flake off a corner to observe the interior to determine doneness. Build your poke-test skills by gently pressing on the cooked surface. Proteins will firm up as they cook - the firmer they are the more well-done. Serve on a platter, family style.

Happy Copper River Salmon Season!

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Zen and the Art of Weeknight Cooking

A former neighbor, a lovely woman with money to burn, once explained to me the necessity of employing a cook. The timing of dinner preparation fell right smack in the middle of the time when her children needed her most. When kids come home from school they have a lot going on - homework, school projects, after school activities, play dates, not to mention (sometimes) wanting to tell you everything about their day, or air their grievances on a variety of subjects. My neighbor felt better about being present and engaged with her children than cooking for them. The part about employing a cook was unrelatable for several reasons (my inability to abstain from micro-managing included) but, even tho at the time my children were not school aged, I understood completely that when they were I would have to navigate the late-afternoon/early evening with a skillet in one hand and a science fair rubric in the other.

Tonight I had planned to make Asian Grilled Salmon Salad but even before I picked my children at the end of the day I knew there was no way that meal was going to happen. So I changed things up and made Teriyaki Salmon Bowls instead. And given the cool fall night we're enjoying, it was a better meal than the salad would have been. Here's what I did:

Teriyaki Salmon Bowls
No recipe. Just follow my lead.

The critical task was that earlier in the day I made it to Whole Foods and purchased a 1.25-pound farmed Norwegian salmon filet (skin on). They had King available but it didn't look great. Also, King is so darned big and I do like staying away from the bigger fish.

Back at home, between supervising and correcting school work, unsticking the mouthpiece from my daughter's trumpet, and collecting my other daughter from her after-school sports, I made a pot of rice. Brown rice would have been my preference but I made Basmati since it was already 6:30. I rinsed the filet with very cold water, patted it dry, and transferred it to a small baking sheet. I poured over it a tablespoon or so of my favorite teriyaki sauce (Veri Veri Teriyaki) and gently but intentionally stabbed it all over with a dinner fork. This makes me feel like a bad person, but my fishmonger says it makes for a good marinating practice. I preheated the grill for about 10 minutes. Meanwhile, I turned off my rice, fluffed it and replaced the cover. I chopped a green onion on the diagonal. I didn't have any broccoli, but I would have steamed some at this point. I also pulled out a jar of sesame seeds.

When the grill was ready, I put the fish on, skin side up, for about 5 minutes. I flipped it and cooked the other side for 2-3 minutes. It was perfect when I pulled it off. I slid the whole filet onto this beautiful plate my lovely friend Nora gave me and brought it to the table. And there, with the rice in its cooking pot on a hotplate on the table, ramekins with green onions and sesame seeds, and the jar of Veri Veri, we assembled our Teriyaki Salmon bowls: rice on the bottom, topped with salmon and the green onions and sesame seeds on top. The broccoli was missed, but I heated up some frozen edamame, so we had something green.

And that's it. This is one of those meals I make when there's really no time to cook. The time between starting and when we sat to eat was about 20 minutes. I hate giving times for things - I've done this meal before, so don't be mad at either one of us if it takes you longer. I cannot overstate the importance of setting a meal plan for your family for the week, and shopping to support the menu you write. I'll post on how my menu takes shape - and how the menu is shared with the family - later in the week.

Happy Monday.

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Smoked Salmon Spread (or, Put a Little Protein on that Giant Carb)

It's ill-advised for me to think about math too early in the day, but here's a pre-coffee postulation for you:  breakfast is a binary event. Win/lose. Carb/protein. Sugar/salt. You choose between an Omelette or Waffles. Well, you might order bacon with your pancakes, ye who just have to have it all. But usually I approach breakfast hungry for one - sugar/salt or carb/protein (win/win either way) - or the other.

A bagel with smoked salmon is one of my favorite things. This is exactly how I like it: the top half of a fresh onion bagel (not toasted, unless it's not fresh) with a thin shmear of cream cheese, a smattering of very thinly sliced red onion, a layer of smoked salmon, three not-too-thick slices of tomato, several turns of fresh ground pepper and a pinch of kosher salt or a few dashes of Redmond Real Salt. Having drained my coffee, it occurrs to me that you get a smidgen of protein with your carb here. But let's be honest, like 99% of the calories here are from the bagel.

One day, with a need to bring something breakfasty to a meeting and a short supply of smoked salmon, I conjured up a recipe for salmon spread. Oh, it is SOOO good! And wonderful for a crowd because it takes some of the work out of layering process. I served it recently at a 60-person brunch along with a basket of sliced bagels and a platter of sliced red onion and tomato. No capers. Boo, capers. Anyhoo, I had a bit leftover and it made a nice little afternoon snack atop Triscuts.

Smoked Salmon Spread
Print recipe only here

INGREDIENTS
8 oz. cream cheese
2 T heavy cream
pinch kosher salt
2 T shallot, minced
1 tsp. fresh parsley
4 oz. smoked salmon, gently shredded

METHOD
Soften cream cheese in a mixer using paddle attachment.

Add cream and beat for another minute or so.

Add shallot, parsley and salt and combine briefly. Add shallot, parsley and salt and combine briefly. Add salmon and stir in by hand (or use mixer on lowest speed for just a few turns). Do not overmix.

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The Foods we Rinse

What do you rinse? Turns out I rinse all the wrong foods. Essentially, if you're going to cook it, you don't need to rinse it - any bacteria will be killed by the heat. If you're eating it raw, like veggies and lettuces, you should rinse. Other things, like rinsing starch off potatoes or rice, is a matter of personal preference, not health or hygiene.

Here's what I have been rinsing - and not rinsing - in the Pinch kitchen:

Rice: hardly ever, but like potatoes, below, the final, cooked product (for white basmati) is a little nicer when I've rinsed it first.
Lentils: never, and I have yet to find a rock in my masoor dal.
Lettuce:  sometimes, depends on the variety.
Potatoes: hardly ever, but I prefer how my oven fries taste when rinsed after cutting. But then they need to be dried well, and this is a a time sink, so I rarely do it.
Poultry: always. I buy organic, skinless, boneless chicken breasts and they feel slimy or slightly sticky out of the bag.
Fish: always, for approximately the same reason as chicken, above.
Beef: don't cook it often, but never rinse it. It doesn't feel like it needs rinsing the way chicken and fish do.

The foods I do rinse (fish, chicken breasts, even my Thanksgiving turkey) are foods that for which rinsing is not recommended on account of cross-contamination and the thing about killing them with heat. Why is it I have an easier time eating a dead salmon than the dead bacteria coating her lovely body?
See Safe Food Handling, from the USDA

The thing I'm most lazy about is lettuce. My feeling generally is, if it's got dirt on it, I'll wash it. I forget about bacteria on veggies because it doesn't gross me out the way bacteria on fish and poultry do. But it's bacteria all the same. It's hard to believe, in the age of antibacterial wipes and hand sanitizers, that a little water could rinse dangerous bacteria off our salad greens.

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On Fish as Food

Shopping and eating responsibly means eating with a small footprint, and not eating so much that your footprint gets too deep. It means supporting local growers who don’t use chemicals, prophylactic antibiotics or hormones. Thanks to farmers markets and consumer demand for information about how our carrots and pork shoulder were cultivated, it has become easy to stock our shelves with sustainable produce and meat. But being a responsible consumer of fish is not as easy. A 2005 ruling forced fish to be labeled by their country of origin but those labels tell us nothing about the methods used to raise or procure the harvest. Even the distinction of Wild when purchasing salmon doesn’t tell the whole story. How was it caught? How many other fish were caught (and killed) inadvertently at the same time? How far did it travel to reach your plate?

We turned our back on the ocean. The Food and Agriculture Organization estimates over 70% of the world’s fish species are either fully exploited or depleted. Yet I’m hopeful tides are shifting. All the reports from the Gulf of Mexico, depressing as they may be, are raising awareness about the health of our oceans. Writers like Paul Greenberg, organizations like Greenpeace and the Monterey Bay Aquarium, retailers like CleanFish, I Love Blue Sea, and SweetSpring Salmon are beginning to reach consumers. Even Target gets good marks from Greenpeace for selling sustainable fish. We’ve become a more educated, respectful and resourceful population with regards to what we harvest on land. It’s high time we take to the sea, and become good stewards of all our resources.

Consumer awareness may be improving but there remain mixed messages about purchasing and eating fish. The AHA tells us to eat fish twice a week, that the benefits (improved heart health, lower incidence of certain diseases) outweigh the risks (contaminants like mercury, PCBs, and dioxins). The good folks at the Monterey Bay Aquarium advise we eat wild, not farmed fish, because of poor aquaculture practices harm native fish populations. Farmed fish frequently escape and spread disease among and compete for food with wild fish. The pens themselves pollute surrounding water with waste and excess feed. Further, a farmed fish raised in poor conditions, with poor feed and the use of antibiotics and hormones is just as bad as eating meat from a feedlot. And farmed fish require a lot of smaller fish to grow, resulting in a net loss in the ocean. Farmed Atlantic salmon, for example, requires three pounds of fish food (smaller fish) to yield one pound of harvested salmon, so a farmed Atlantic salmon consumes more fish than it provides.

So the Monterey Bay Aquarium (MBA) advises we purchase only wild Alaskan salmon. But if we’ve already overfished the waters off California and most of Oregon, and the demand isn't going away, aren’t we just on borrowed time if we continue to eat wild salmon from Alaska and Canada? And air travel from Alaska greatly increases our footprint. Indeed, it would seem if we’re meant to eat locally then we’re going to need to build some environmentally friendly fish farms in our inland cities. The MBA also fails to take into account that not all fish farms employ the same practices. Some farms are making a concerted effort to produce a sustainable, low-impact product.

A quick sidebar – the local argument is such an interesting one to me. Growing up in a household that appreciated both food and travel, we sought out the local catch wherever we found ourselves. Due to overfishing, this is becoming nearly impossible to do. In San Francisco, the birthplace of the locavore movement, Dungeness crab is practically the only wild creature left to harvest. Read about fish imports in the land of locavorism here.


In 2006 Science published findings from a four-year study and predicted the world will run out of seafood by 2048 if marine species continue to decline. Other scientists concur: consumption of wild fish is unsustainable; supply does not meet global demand. Farmed fish are the future.

So how do we become responsible consumers of farmed fish? The answer lies in knowing your fish farmer, or knowing the right questions to ask at your local fish counter or restaurant. Greenpeace has been quietly compiling a Supermarket Scorecard for the past four years. I was surprised by the results:

Best
1. Target
2. Wegmans
3. Whole Foods
4. Safeway
5. Ahold
6. Harris Teeter
7. A&P
8. Delhaize
9. Wal-Mart
10. Trader Joe's

The worst, from bad to worse:
11. PriceChopper
12. ALDI
13. Kroger
14. Costco
15. SUPERVALU
16. Giant Eagle
17. Publix
18. Winn-Dixie
19. Meijer
20. H.E. B.

An interesting side note to the Greenpeace report: when they started rating supermarkets, not a single one passed. In four years, grocers have shown willingness to improve, a very positive shift.

The Greenpeace scorecard is based on policy (on things like catch method, or low by-catch numbers), inventory (selling endangered/overfished species), support of conservation measures, and transparency (labeling). Taste and product quality, which are critically important to discriminating cooks and eaters, were not factors. Whole Foods, where I buy delicious fish, pledges they know where their fish swam, what they were fed, and what they weren’t fed. Read Whole Foods' fish/shellfish standards here.

In the end, the best a consumer can do is to make informed food choices and purchase foods that that are healthy for our bodies, the land on which we dwell and the seas we are still discovering.

What you can do:
1. Buy fish from responsible retailers. I didn't even know Target sold fish, but I'll take a look.

2. Know what species to choose and which to avoid (see #3, below) or ask your fish guy. My personal faves are: Farmed tilapia (tilapia are herbivores so they don’t have the net fish loss associated with carnivorous farmed fish), Rainbow trout (environmentally friendly to farm because they are efficient at converting feed into body mass, and because they are mostly farmed in Idaho and the US has done a good job keeping escape and pollution levels low), farmed Atlantic Salmon (my fish guy at Whole Foods promises me it’s sustainable. I hope he’s right.) I have yet to try US-farmed freshwater Coho Salmon. The MBA reports this variety eats less than farmed Atlantic salmon, and has lower risk of escape/contamination issues.

3. Download and consult the Monterey Bay Aquarium's mobile or pocket guides.

4. Read and learn. Several compelling articles were a part of this research effort, including:

Farmed Fish, Food Fish; Wild Fish, Few Fish
Melissa Block, NPR

Tuna's End
Paul Greenburg, The New York Times Magazine

Farmed or wild fish: Which is healthier?
Elizabeth Landau, CNN

Is Fish Farming Safe?
Terry McCarthy/Campbell River, Time

Benefits of Fish Exceed Risks, Studies Find
Sally Squires, Washington Post

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Taste Test: Tonno Tuna

The pickles were quite nice, in case you were curious. I made them with about half the amount of sesame oil and a very generous pinch of chili flakes.

In other news, it was a good week for tuna sleuthing. All it took was a word from the family tuna expert. No, not a, "I know a guy..." kind of word. I live in Chicago. I know my own guy. The word in this particular case was tonno. When I added tonno to the "tuna packed in olive oil" Google search, it quickly produced some leads. Turns out Chicken of the Sea introduced a brand of Italian-style tuna a few years ago. The brand is called Genova.

Genova makes a solid light (yellowfin) and a solid white (albacore) product, packed in olive oil or water. I'm only interested in the olive oil ones. The solid light isn't terrible (it's actually the same stuff I tried a few months ago from my local Treasure Island. Chicken of the Sea's online product search says it's also available locally at Dominick's). The one I want, the solid white, is not available in Chicago (or Seattle, or Denver). It is, fortunately, sold across my ancestral grounds of Westchester County. Which means after our annual summer visit I'll be the annoyance trying to pass thru security with a case of tuna on my person.

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Staycation Crab Cakes on Mixed Greens with Red Pepper Sauce

In a summer of traveling vicariously, I’m cooking foods I’d eat if I were anywhere but stuck in the middle. This week it’s crab cakes, inspired by the Paul family’s east coast adventures.

My recipe for crab cakes is from Wolfgang Puck’s Adventures in the Kitchen cookbook. They are beautiful and decadent. With an almond meal crust and a red pepper cream sauce these are the classiest crab cakes I’ve seen. Atop a bed of mixed greens they make an impressive summer lunch.

Crab Cakes with Red Pepper Sauce
Print recipe only here

Serves 6

YOU WILL NEED
1 medium red bell pepper, cored, seeded and diced
½ medium yellow bell pepper, cored, seeded and diced
1 medium red onion, diced
1 jalapeño
2 cloves garlic, smashed
½ cup dry white wine
1 pint (2 cups) cream
1 ¼ # lump crab meat
3 cups mixed greens

for the crabcakes:
2 T olive oil
½ medium red bell pepper, cored, seeded and diced
½ medium yellow bell pepper, cored, seeded and diced
½ medium red onion, diced
1 cup cream
1 t jalapeño, finely chopped
2 t chives, finely chopped
2 t dill, finely chopped
1 t parsley, finely chopped
½ t kosher salt
Pinch cayenne
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 cup bread crumbs
1 c almond meal (found at Trader Joes or grinding almonds)
1 ¼ # lump crabmeat

for the sauce:
2 T olive oil
½ medium red bell pepper, cored, seeded and diced
½ medium red onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, smashed
½ cup dry white wine
1 cup cream
Juice of one lemon
Salt and pepper, to taste

METHOD
Prepare the crab cakes:
In a sauté pan , heat the olive oil. Add the onion, red and yellow peppers and gently sauté over medium-low heat for about 10 minutes. Transfer to a bowl and reserve.

In a small saucepan, heat cream and jalapeño and reduce by one-half (so that ½ cup remains). Cool.

Chop chives, dill, and parsley and add to pepper-onion mixture. Stir in cooled cream, salt, and cayenne. Stir in egg and ½ cup each breadcrumbs and almond meal. Gently fold in crab meat. Divide mixture into 12 crab cakes - about 2 ½ ounces each.

Combine remaining breadcrumbs and almond meal on a plate. Coat both sides of crab cake well. Place on a tray and refrigerate for 2-3 hours.

Prepare the sauce:
Start the sauce closer to the point of service, or about 30 minutes before you plan to sauté the crab cakes.

Sauté pepper, onion and garlic in olive oil over medium-low heat for about 10 minutes. Deglaze pan with white wine and cook until 3 tablespoons of liquid remain. Add cream and bring to a boil.

Transfer mixture to a blender and puree until smooth. Strain into a clean pan. Add lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste and reserve, keeping warm.
When ready to serve, wash salad greens. Prep a sheet pan with paper towel to drain the crab cakes.

Working in one or two skillets heat olive oil over medium-high heat. Sauté crab cakes for about 4 minutes on each side, or until golden brown, avoiding over-crowding. Transfer to sheet pan to drain while sautéing all the crab cakes.

Plate greens and arrange two crab cakes per plate. Drizzle sauce over the greens and crab cakes. Enjoy immediately.

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6 Other Ways to Enjoy Pesto

The title introduces other ways since I've already covered my most common pesto preparation, Chicken Pesto Pasta with Haricots Verts.

On Monday I was planning to make salmon salad with pesto dressing. This fell apart when I ran out of prep time. But the dinner morphed into something we hadn’t enjoyed in awhile: roast salmon with pesto. I served it with a baby spinach salad and artichokes. It took me about 25 minutes to prepare and it was really good. Here are the components:

Roast Salmon with Pesto Sauce
Salmon – Rub with a bit of olive oil, salt and pepper and roast at about 375° for 10-12 minutes. When plating, top with a spoonful of pesto and spread evenly, allowing some of the salmon to still be visible around the edges.
Pesto
Steamed Artichokes
Baby Spinach Salad

Another dinner we haven't enjoyed in awhile is pesto pizza made on Alvarado Street sprouted pizza crusts. For a quick, healthy meal make a half batch of pesto (per one pizza crust), top with mozzarella and bake at 450° for about 5-6 minutes or until mozzarella is melted. If only I could persuade Whole Foods to carry the crusts.

I make pesto fresh every time because it doesn't retain its awesomeness once it has sat in the fridge. If you want to test that opinion and refrigerate your leftovers transfer the same to a small bowl, spread to make an even surface, and cover with a generous pour of olive oil. The oil will act as an air barrier and will help retain color and flavor. Cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap or a fitting lid. The items listed below make excellent use of any leftovers:

1. Make it into a salad dressing with romaine, chicken, jicama, and lots of salad veggies. For dressing take 1/4 cup pesto and add ½ cup olive oil and 1/3 cup fresh lemon juice, or more to taste.
2. Slathered crostini for an appetizer;
3. Stirred into Minestrone or other soup just before service;
4. Tossed with steamed green beans as a side dish

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Fish and Chips

Lifting one’s clear voice to the air is common in our house. We could probably record an entire album of silly songs. One such favorite is the oldie Fish and Chips and Vinegar. Join me in a rousing chorus!

Fish and chips and vinegar. Vinegar. Vinegar.
Fish and chips and vinegar. Pepper, pepper, pepper, salt!

Don't throw your trash in my backyard, my backyard, my backyard.
Don't throw your trash in my backyard, my backyard's full!

I cannot do the pepper, pepper part without a little head banging.

We’re having fish and chips this week. Fish and chips and vinegar. Fish and chips and vinegar and a big salad. And maybe that blackberry cobbler for dessert.

Heinz Malt Vinegar is the only way to go this side of the pond. The stuff in the right jolly jar that calls itself London Pub Olde English Malt Vinegar is just some junk from Piscataway and is not goode.

Here’s how we do Fish and Chips at Pinch:

Chips
Start the chips first because prep and cooking times are longer.

Preheat 1 or 2 baking sheets in the oven, set at 400°. If your sheet pans are not heavy duty (and warp in the oven) I wouldn’t preheat them. Just preheat the oven.

Plan on about one-two russet per person, depending on size (of person and potato).

Thoroughly scrub potatoes under running water. I don’t peel them, but I do trim the ends off and trim the long side to make a flat surface. It’s just easier to cut the chips that way.

If you have a mandolin use it. I set it to about 4-5 mm thick and push my spuds through. Or cut by hand. First cut the entire potato into 4-5 mm slices, then cut the slices length-wise into chips, or french fry shapes.

As you work, place slices in a bowl of cold water, or in a colander in the sink. Periodically spray down the potatoes as you add new ones.

When they’re all trimmed, rinse them a few times until the water runs clear. Then drain and dry on a clean kitchen towel.

Add potatoes to a large mixing bowl and toss with 2 T canola oil.

Remove one hot sheet pan from the oven, spray with canola spray and spread an even layer of potatoes on top. Toss in the oven and repeat as necessary with the second sheet pan, if using.

Roast for about 20 minutes, then flip (use a thin metal spatula if you’ve got it and be gentle). You may want to rotate the pans for even heating.

Total cooking time will be about 30 minutes. You want the chips to get a little browned and blistered. When they seem good to you, remove the pans and transfer the fries to a plate or bowl lined with a paper towel. Sprinkle generously with kosher salt and serve.

Fish
Get a basic white fish that you like. I usually choose cod, plaice or tilapia. Halibut is a fine option, assuming you don’t have issues with halibut.

Anyhoo, rinse your fishie in cold water and pat dry.

Make a seasoned flour: 2 T flour, 1 T cornmeal, salt, pepper, paprika (or shake a good blended seasoning in). Dredge the fish in the flour - both sides - and reserve.

Preheat a large cast iron pan on medium-high heat for a few minutes.

Add 1-2 T canola oil and heat for a few minutes.

Gently transfer fish to the pan. Don’t overcrowd the pan – work in batches if necessary. Add more oil if you must.

Cooking time will depend on the variety and thickness of the fillets you choose, but plan on about 4 minutes on one side and 2-3 on the other. Unless it’s tilapia. For a skinny fish tilapia takes forever to cook.

When cooked through transfer to a plate lined with paper towels to drain. Let the towels pick up as much of the surface oil as it can in a minute or two, then serve.

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Among the Wildflowers Trout

I really like that Tom Petty song.

"You belong among the wildflowers. You belong in a boat out at sea. You belong with your love on your arm. You belong somewhere you feel free."

In 2005 we moved from this...

to this...

I didn't want to leave the mountains. But, with my love on my arm, I immediately fell in love with my new environs (the wildflowers helped, to be sure!). The biggest perk has got to be the diversity of city life, and the eating that goes along with it.

That said, a bunch of meals we started eating during our years in the mountains will be on the table for years. This is one. My kids are pretty picky. But they're pretty good about fish. And they both like trout. In fact, when we go camping we always eat trout on the first night. It's even better around the campfire.

The key (to the kids liking it) has to be the spices. They really do not like plain fish. On the occasions that I prepare it plain they scamper into the kitchen for a lemon - one lemon per kid - and drown each insufferable bite in lemon juice. Sometimes there's gagging. It's a different story when a dry rub (blended spices) is involved.

There are several dependable sources for quality blended seasonings: The Spice House in Chicago and Penzey's Spices both have fantastic catalogs, though nothing beats in-person tasting and smelling. Chef Paul Prudhomme's seasonings are available in most grocery stores (but you can't rip those open to smell). For this recipe, I use Hometown, a blend made out in Port Townsend, Washington. I stock up on it every time we're in Seattle. It can be found in Town & Country markets.

Hometown Trout
Print recipe only here

Purchase one trout per person (the children split one), looking for nice bright eyes or firm flesh. At Whole Foods, where I buy trout, the fish dude will 'top and tail' them for me so I don't need to deal with fish heads at home. Ick.

Preheat grill.

Rinse trout thoroughly in the coldest water - you want to do this with all your fish. Remember, they came from the icy depths. Many chefs will rinse saltwater fish in icy saltwater.

Pat dry with paper towels (both sides) and place on a large baking sheet.

Dust liberally with a good blended seasoning.

Grill skin side up for 2 minutes (on hight heat) and then flip using the biggest, firmest spatula you've got. Mine is stainless steel.

Cook another 2 minutes (check so see that it flakes easily) and serve. Lemons optional.

*Thanks to Kate for naming rights (she named it Hometown Trout after eating it) and Cousin John for capturing Chicago's wildflowers and skyline.

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