floundering

So, we at 48 have been engaging in a Community Supported Fishery (or CSF, or Fish Share.) It's called Cape Ann Fresh Catch http://namanet.org/csf/cape-ann-fresh-catch We are splitting it with another household, so every other week or so we get, basically a few whole fish. We will also be getting shrimp, but that has not materialized yet.

This week, we got a whole cod, already gutted, and a flounder, not gutted. gina marie dealt with the cod, I took on the flounder. Sadly, I was in a rush and didn't take any pictures of the gutting and filleting. gina actually did the skinning.

Once that was done, the flounder sat in tupperware in the fridge for a few days. I was thinking of how to use it. I decide to do something inspired by my favorite fish dish that my Norwegian grandmother makes for me - I'm not sure on the spelling, something like "røkt kolje" røkt means smoked and kolje is a kind of white sea fish. I had a white sea fish, but it was not smoked. My grandmother prepares this in a butter sauce with carrots and hard boiled eggs, served with boiled potatoes. I was in a hurry and had no idea how to even make the sauce - so I winged it!


I put most of a stick of butter in a pan. Chopped a carrot, put it in the pan, and let it simmer. I sliced a couple of little farm share potatoes (purple and white) and put those in the pan. I added some salt and pepper. I let it simmer. I added some white wine, I turned the heart up a tad. I added some more butter. Than I popped the tiny flounder fillets on top (my skills aren't great so there was definitely some fish left on the skeleton.) then I let it cook for a while. Flipped the fillets, and let it cook a little more.





The meantime, I was hard boiling two eggs. emily, 48's other non-feline resident, advised me to boil the water, then add both eggs with a slotted spoon, then let barely simmer for ten minutes. I did that. butfor 11minutes. A quick rinse in cold water and I peeled them. Then I used my egg slicer (Norwegian invention!) to cut the eggs both ways.






then I served it on a plate, topped with eggs. It was good! very buttery. I think it could afford to be less buttery, but I hadn't wanted to risk it.

cod in packets!

So I was heading off to babysit the other day (lie, I was watching kids by the dozen on my couch, waiting for the kid to call me) the mom calls, and says: "max isn't coming home till later, but you can come make dinner now. I have some cod fillets for Jesse, and some steak for max."

I was like, "sure!" and then immediately sped to the internet. what would I do with cod? Cook's illustrated to the rescue! cod in foil packets with zucchini and tomatoes! I was lucky - this recipe is from the March issue! http://cooksillustrated.com/recipes/detail.asp?docid=18757

I am not one for quantities, but here's roughly what I did, in pictures and some words.

I sliced one zucchini into half rounds, put it in a salad spinner with salt, and let it sweat.

then I chopped about 12 cherry tomatoes in half, and diced two large cloved of garlic. I tossed those together in a bowl with someolice oil, salt, pepper, dried oregano, and just a few chili pepper flakes. You're supposed to de-seed the tomatoes, and they're supposed to be plum tomatoes, but, who's counting?

I am just making two fish fillets, so, I tear off four approx 12"x12" pieces of tin foil and lay them out.

next I take my "sweaty" zucchini out of the salad spinner and put them flat on a layer of 3 paper towels, and press down on them with a layer of three more paper towels. I probably should have let them sweat longer, because there was definitely still some moisture left in them.

I mounded half the now sorta dry zucchini in the middle of one piece of tin foil (dull side up) and half in the other. then I poured about a tablespoon of white wine on top of each of the zucchini mounds.

Next I cut the fish into two slightly rectangular pieces, (about 4 inches long?) and patted them down with a paper towel, although they weren't that wet to start with, and then put a little salt and pepper on each side. I laid each piece of fish on top of a mound of zucchini.

then I put half of the tomato mixture on top of each piece of fish.

Finally - packet time! I put the second piece of foil on top of the fish, and folded the edges over 3 times on each side.

Jesse wasn't ready to eat yet, so I put the packets in the refrigerator. when she was ready, I preheated the oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit, and I put the fish packets on a baking sheet. When the oven was hot, I popped them in the oven for 17 minutes. (I added two minutes because of the fridge time - usually it's 15 minutes.)

when they came out, I used a knife to open the packets *away from me* and slid everythign inside onto a plate. ta dah! (not so) instant meal!

Jesse ate the whole thing! success! There are several other packet fillet recipes, you could put most veggies in, I think, you just want to make sure there's not too much liquid in there.

global dining experiences

we recently opted to add our blog to VerveEarth, a sort of geographic blog project with a librarian's good instincts. this has got me thinking about what out blog has to say about living in cambridge, massachusetts - affectionately known as the people's republic of cambridge. probably not a lot. but it's interesting to think about the conclusions that one could draw about cantabridgians from our blog. which is why I posted this picture of gina marie kissing a fish sculpture. because that's what all of us do in cambridge: worship at the altar of seafood.

fisheaters

I have talked a lot about seafood with people recently. Mostly about who likes shellfish and fish and who's allergic to what and what that might mean. So I had it on the brain. Also, I miss Norway and fishing there.

As I was reading through one of our new blog links (see the lefthand panel here at leisurely breakfast for that) I noticed something interesting. The blog is Locavore Nation from the public radio show, The Splendid Table. A whole bunch of people in different places in the U.S. are blogging about their attempts to eat primarily locally. It's pretty good! How can you not love things from NPR/PRI/American Public Media?

As I was reading through the most recent posts, I noticed that two different bloggers referred to the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch Program. It seems to be a way to pick what seafood you are going to eat based on its sustainability, toxicity, and locality. Seems neat to me. So if you eat seafood and live on the east coast, check it out! There are also options for people who live other places there... but why would you live anywhere but here? (just kidding!)