I confess that I generally prefer my salmon raw, with a dab of wasabi. Perhaps with a little droplet of soy sauce. This whole pregnancy thing, though, has put a major damper on my sushi habit so for the time being, cooked salmon it is. The origin of this recipe is a little weird — it’s something I remember my mom doing. Normally not so weird, except that she exclusively cooked Cantonese food except for this and italian sausage and pasta, both of which she made pretty sparingly. Weird, right?

Whole Foods had some fresh wild Alaskan sockeye salmon, a best choice according to the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch list, when I cruised by the seafood counter today. I asked the fishmonger for a 5 oz. portion from the tail end of a fillet and into the basket it went. I prefer the tail end because it’s typically a little fattier and the bonus is that it cooks faster because it’s a touch thinner.

Anyway, this recipe is a cinch and perfect for a night when you really don’t feel like cooking. 10 minutes in the oven (for well-done salmon, per conservative American guidelines for pregnant women) and you’re done. You could eat it as/is, dress it up with a mustard-thyme vinaigrette, or use it in a sandwich. The possibilities are endless!

Baked Salmon with Dill and Butter
- serves 1 -

1 – 5 oz. portion of salmon, skin on
2 Tbs unsalted butter
Dried Dill
kosher salt

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

2. Rinse and pat the salmon dry, and place the salmon skin side down on a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil. Season the salmon with a pinch or so of salt. Divide the butter into 4 equal pats and dot the salmon with the butter. Sprinkle approximately a teaspoon and a half or so of dill on the salmon.

3. Put the salmon in the oven, uncovered, for 10 minutes for well-done. If you prefer yours medium rare, I would start checking it at around 8 minutes.

4. Let the salmon rest for about a minute once you pull it out of the oven and move the meat onto a plate using a spatula. You’ll find that some of the skin may stick to the foil, so leaving it on the fillet and lifting the meat from the skin after it’s cooked makes your life easier because you don’t have to worry about meat sticking to the foil.

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Getting the fish and grill ready

Cedar plank salmon, before and almost-after

Cedar plank salmon, zucchini, peach, and avocado. Yes, grilled avocado. Try it.

Cedar Plank Salmon
– serves 2 –

1 cedar plank
2 6oz. salmon fillets
1/4 C dijon mustard
1/4 C maple syrup
salt and pepper

1. Soak the cedar plank in water for an hour. While the plank is soaking, heat up your grill. If you’re using charcoal, put the coals on one side only, so you have half the grill with direct high heat, and half with indirect heat. If you’re using gas, turn on half your burners.

2. Season the salmon generously with salt and pepper. Mix the mustard and maple syrup and brush a heavy coat on the salmon.

3. Put the plank over the hot part of the grill for about 2 minutes, just until it starts to smoke.

4. When the plank starts smoking, flip the plank over, and put the salmon directly on the plank, still over the hot part of the grill. Cook for about 5 minutes. The plank should really be smoking now.

5. Baste the salmon again with the mustard-maple glaze. Move the plank over to the cooler part of the grill, then put the cover on the grill. Depending on the thickness of your fish, it will take anywhere from 10-30 minutes to cook through. Check it every 5-10 minutes, basting with the glaze each time, until it’s cooked to your liking. Even if you normally like salmon on the rare side, you might want to give this a few extra minutes to get more of the smoke flavor.

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Okay, I’m new to this whole cooking thing, so I had never heard of pistou before. Like all things French, I figured it would be something incredibly complicated and fattening, albeit delicious. I was right on only the last part. A pistou (as described by Wikipedia) is typically a cold sauce used as a condiment in the Provençal region of France made from garlic, fresh basil, and olive oil, sometimes with a hard cheese, such as Parmesan or pecorino. The ingredients are crushed and mixed together with a mortar and pestle (pistou means “pounded” in French). The only difference between pistou and pesto is that pesto includes pine nuts.

The pistou in this recipe is unusual, in that it replaces basil and garlic with dill, green onions, and pistachios. Served with salmon, snow peas, and orange peppers, this is a bright, colorful dish that is perfect for Spring.

Salmon with Dill-Pistachio Pistou
Adapted from Epicurious.com

Ingredients:
1/3 c. chopped fresh dill
1/3 c. finely chopped green onions (about 2)
1/2 c. shelled natural pistachios, toasted, finely chopped
1/4 c. plus 1 1/2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 orange bell peppers bell peppers, cut into 1/2-inch strips
1 lb. snow peas, trimmed, strings removed
1 garlic clove, minced
1/4 c. water
4 6-ounce salmon fillets

Preparations:
1) Mix dill, green onions, pistachios, and 1/4 c. oil in medium bowl. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Pistou can be made 2 hours ahead. Let stand at room temperature.

2) Heat 1/2 T. oil in heavy large skillet over medium-high heat. Add peppers and sauté until beginning to soften, about 2 minutes. Add snow peas, garlic, and 1/4 c. water; sprinkle with salt. Sauté until vegetables are just tender and water evaporates, 2 to 3 minutes. Stir in 1 rounded T. pistou. Transfer vegetables to platter; tent with foil to keep warm. Reserve skillet (do not clean).

3) Heat remaining 1 T. oil in reserved skillet over medium-high heat. Sprinkle salmon with salt and pepper. Place salmon, skin side down, in skillet; cook until skin is crisp, about 3 minutes. Turn salmon and cook until almost opaque in center, about 3 minutes longer. Arrange salmon fillets over vegetables on platter. Spoon some pistou down center of each fillet and serve, passing remaining pistou alongside.

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Fish is good for you! It’s loaded with omega-3′s! It’s a lean source of protein! Eat a serving at least once a week! Do it…NOW!

Every now and then I wonder whether I’m eating enough vegetables, too much ice cream, etc. But for some reason I always feel such tremendous guilt when I walk by the fish counter without buying something. I want to eat more fish, it’s just that I seem to get a case of cook’s block when I try to figure out what to do with it.

One of my fallbacks when I feel that I need to make fish is to pan fry it with panko and top it with some kind of salsa. There are few things that don’t taste good when fried and crispy. Avocados and oranges are such a natural pairing and though it’s not pretty, it’s tasty. There’s something about the burst of freshness and sweet acidity when you bite into the orange pieces that’s just perfect. Served with a side of sugar snap peas, I feel healthier just looking at the photo.

Panko Crusted Fish with Avocado Orange Salsa
- serves 2 -

2 fish filets, approx 1/3 lb each (a flaky fish such as sole or tilapia)
1 small, ripe avocado, cut into 1/2″ cubes
1 navel orange, supremed and cut into 1/2″ cubes
all-purpose flour, for dredging
panko crumbs, for dredging
1 egg
water
salt
canola oil
lime juice (optional)

1. Mix the avocado and orange together in a bowl and season with a pinch or two of salt. Add a little squeeze of lime juice, to taste, if you’d like.

2. Rinse and pat the fish filets dry.

3. Heat a tablespoon or so of canola oil in a nonstick skillet over medium heat.

3. Place an amount (1/3 cup or so) of flour in one plate and a similar amount of panko in another. In a bowl, beat the egg with a tablespoon or so of water to make an egg wash.

4. When the oil is hot, dredge a filet in flour on both sides and shake off the excess. Then dip both sides in the egg wash, then finally press both sides in the panko. Slide the filet into the pan and fry until the bottom is golden brown, a few minutes. Flip and repeat. You can check the filets for doneness, but by the time the filets are golden brown, they’re usually cooked through.

5. Repeat with the other filet and top with the avocado orange salsa.

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Ah, heavy cream. It’s thick, delicious, and makes my arteries clog just a little every time I read the nutrition label. For a while, I was just making carbonara whenever I wanted a vaguely creamy pasta sauce. Eventually, though, I decided that not having a decent cream sauce in my repertoire just would not do and started tinkering around.

I experimented with a few alternatives, but eventually settled on evaporated whole milk for a few reasons:

• Convenience: I could store a few cans in my pantry and have it at the ready.
• Temperature: Since I would heat the milk, it made more sense for me to use something that was already room temperature rather than refrigerated.
• Ease: Since evaporated whole milk is whole milk with approximately half of the water removed, using it gave me a head start over using regular whole milk.
• Fat content: While my first knee jerk instinct was to use some form of skim milk, the truth is that you need some fat for the sauce to come close to a decent texture. Whole milk seemed like a level-headed compromise.

Below is my recipe for Pasta with Garlicky Shrimp and Spinach in a Sundried Tomato Cream Sauce. Long title! A few things to keep in mind as you’re making it:

• Curdling. Because of the lower fat content, evaporated whole milk will curdle if you let it boil. As such, it’s best to keep the milk just below a simmer as you’re reducing it.
• Milk skin. As the milk heats up, a skin will form on the surface. To prevent this, you periodically need to stir the milk as it’s reducing.
• Let the pasta finish cooking in the sauce. Doing so lets the starches in the pasta help to further thicken the sauce.

While you wouldn’t mistake this for something that used heavy cream, it’s still tasty and a pretty decent substitute. Best of all, you won’t have to run extra laps at the gym for the next week. Win, win.

Pasta with Garlicky Shrimp and Spinach in a Sundried Tomato Cream Sauce
- serves 2 -

1/3 pound dried spaghetti
1 bunch of spinach (approx .5 lb), rinsed and drained
6 cloves of garlic, smashed
1 dozen large raw shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 dozen sundried tomatoes, packed in olive oil*
1 12oz. can of evaporated whole milk
olive oil
salt
thyme (optional)

1. Bring a large pot of water to boil, salt the water, and add the spaghetti. Undercook the spaghetti by 2 minutes from your normal timing. Drain the spaghetti and set aside.

2. While you’re cooking the spaghetti, heat a wide saute pan over medium heat with a Tbsp of olive oil. When the oil is hot, add 2 cloves of garlic and heat until fragrant, approx 30 seconds. Add the spinach along with a couple of pinches of salt and stir fry until the spinach is cooked. Taste and adjust seasoning. Remove the spinach from the pan and drain the cooked spinach in a colander. Wipe out the saute pan with a paper towel.

3. Heat the same saute pan over medium heat again with a Tbsp of olive oil. Add 2 cloves of garlic and heat until fragrant, approx 30 seconds. Add the shrimp and cook until the shrimp is translucent and cooked through, flipping once. Remove the cooked shrimp to a plate and season with salt. Do not wipe out the pan.

4. Add sundried tomatoes to the saute pan. You can add a Tbsp of olive oil from the sundried tomatoes to the pan if you think it’s too dry, but keep in mind that as the sundried tomatoes heat in the pan, they will release some of the oil it was packed in. When you start to smell the sundried tomatoes, add the remaining cloves of garlic to the pan and a sprig or two of thyme (if using). Cook for about 30 seconds more.

5. Add the evaporated whole milk to the pan and adjust the heat to keep it just below a simmer. Reduce the milk by about 1/3, stirring occasionally to prevent the dreaded milk skin from forming. This will take approximately 10 minutes or so, depending on how close to a simmer you keep the milk. As you’re reducing, you can use a couple of wooden spoons to break up the sundried tomatoes into smaller chunks. Season liberally with salt to taste.

6. When the milk has reduced, add the drained spaghetti to the milk and mix. Let the spaghetti finish cooking in the milk and watch the sauce to ensure it does not boil. If it does, the sauce will turn pasty. As the spaghetti absorbs the sauce, you should notice the sauce thickening a tad. When the spaghetti is almost cooked to your liking, add the spinach and shrimp to the pan and mix to warm up. Adjust seasoning and serve!

* If available, consider using sundried tomatoes that are packed in oil that has been seasoned with spices of some sort (italian or otherwise). It’ll give you a nice flavor boost and you can leave out the thyme in the recipe.

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Dungeness crab, or Cancer magister, is named after the town of Dungeness, Washington – which is named after a headland on the coast of Kent, England. This “master crab” is fished on the West Coast and lives in habitat ranging from the Aleutian Islands in Alaska south to Santa Cruz, California. According to Wikipedia, Dungeness, WA was the location of the West Coast’s first commercial fishery (1848).

Today, you should only get male Dungeness crab on your plate, in keeping with sustainable fishing practices.

The word “Dungeness” may have evolved from a French word meaning “dangerous nose.” Good warning to keep those big, strong claws far away from your shnozz.

Last week, a friend called in the crew to demolish more than a dozen of the biggest Dungeness crabs I’ve ever seen. We did a good job, but he had plenty of meat left over for crab cakes the next day.

In San Francisco, I like to buy live crab at the Asian markets in the Sunset or the Richmond – they do a brisk business so it’s fresh and the price is usually great. The crab season generally runs from November to April.

This foolproof method (see video) for steaming Dungeness crab results in moist, succulent meat flavored with salty, savory Old Bay.  Depending on the size of the crabs, you’ll need to steam them 15-20 minutes.

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I was out of town last week and happily had many delicious restaurant meals. The downside, though, was that by the end of the week I was feeling a tad gross from all of the rich food. While I did try to exhibit some restraint when ordering, it was really difficult to say no to a chocolate pithivier. So I didn’t. This scenario (un)fortunately repeated itself several times throughout the week, bringing me back to my original point: too much rich food.

So, like Dan, I embarked on my own week of healthy cooking. I haven’t gone so far as to have a vegetarian week because the meat lover who is my husband would have been cranky beyond belief. But the key word for the week has been “lite.”

Crab cakes with mango salsa has been my fallback “lite” recipe for years. For some reason, I can’t eat a naked crab cake. Tartar sauce or aioli is usually my dressing of choice, but mango salsa provides a light, bright, complementary flavor without the guilt of delicious, creamy tartar sauce. Paired with a side salad, it makes an easy weeknight meal.

I generally buy my crab cakes at Whole Foods but if you’d rather make your own, the recipe for their crab cakes can be found here.

Crab Cakes with Mango Salsa
– serves 2 -

1 ripe mango, peeled, seeded, and diced
1 jalapeno, diced (seeds and membranes removed if you don’t want any heat)
1/4 cup finely chopped red bell pepper
1/4 cup finely chopped red onion
1 tsp minced garlic
1/2 cup rice wine vinegar, to taste
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh cilantro leaves
pinch or two of salt

2 crab cakes, for serving
1-2 Tbs canola or other neutral oil, enough to film the bottom of your pan

1. Combine all of the salsa ingredients in a non-reactive bowl and adjust the seasoning, to taste. The salsa can be made up to 1 day in advance and refrigerated in a non-reactive, airtight container.

2. After assembling the salsa, heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat. When hot, add the crab cakes and pan fry until both sides are golden brown and the crab cakes are heated through, flipping once.

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So how can you consume seafood nowadays without feeling like a total jerk? A few years ago we learned about the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch Pocket Guides, which helps consumers choose responsible seafood options when dining and shopping. It was nice and succinct but unfortunately, easily misplaced. So, we were excited to learn that the Aquarium now has a free iPhone App, which provides you with searchable and more up-to-date information.

But before recommending this app to you, we first wanted to field test it at the San Francisco Fish Company. Located in the San Francisco Ferry Building, they advertise themselves as a sustainable fish market. Thom has been there in the past and found the guys behind the counter to be friendly, knowledgeable, and chatty. Unfortunately, those guys had the day off when we showed up with the Seafood Watch App. When asked, “Has this ahi tuna been caught in an environmentally friendly fashion?” the fishmonger behind the counter stared at us for a while before replying, “I don’t even know what that means.” Okay… so much for that idea. I guess this experience serves as just one example of how difficult it can be to know exactly where your fish comes from and how it’s been caught — even when you’re someplace where they pride themselves on their sustainable options. In any seafood situation, your best option is choose to be an informed consumer and luckily we had our iPhone App, which confirmed that this tuna fit the bill.

So, with this choice piece of sustainably harvested fish we chose to cook up one of our new favorite dishes: Maple Glazed Tuna with Pear Potato Salad. It’s a simple dish to prepare with a delicious combination of savory and sweet flavor.

Maple Glazed Tuna with Pear Potato Salad
- Adapted from Epicurious.com -

Serves 4
30-45 minutes prep and cook time total

Maple Glazed Tuna

Ingredients:
1 T. Dijon mustard
2 T. maple syrup (use the good stuff – avoid imitation maple-flavored syrups)
Juice of 1 lime
1/4 c. olive oil
4 6-ounce tuna fillets
Salt & fresh ground black pepper

Preparation:
1) Whisk together the mustard, maple syrup, lime juice, salt & pepper, and 1 T. of the olive oil.
2) Marinate the tuna in the mustard/maple syrup mix for 30 minutes or so.
3) Sear the tuna on a grill or in a skillet over high heat for 30 seconds on each side (oil the grill or skillet first).
4) Place on top of pear potato salad.

Pear Potato Salad

Ingredients:
1/4 c. olive oil
1 lb. Yukon Gold potatoes, cut into quarters or ½ inch pieces
2 Bosc pears, cored, and cut into 1 inch cubes
1/2 red onion
1 to 2 garlic cloves, minced, depending on how garlicky you like your dishes
1/4 c. sliced, toasted almonds
1 1/2 t. curry powder
Salt & freshly ground black pepper
Juice of 1 lemon
4 c. baby spinach

Preparation:
1) Heat the olive oil in a large sauté pan over medium heat. Add the potatoes and sauté until golden (about 12 minutes). Thom likes to add a pat of butter to keep the potatoes from sticking to the pan.
2) Add the pears, onion, garlic, almonds, and curry powder and sauté for 5 minutes.
3) Remove from the heat and season with salt and pepper.
4) Toss the spinach with lemon juice and a little olive oil.
5) Place a few spoonfuls of the potato mix on top of the spinach.

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You can approximate most of the flavor and crunchy texture of fried fish in the oven though. The key technique in this recipe — using a flour and egg batter to hold the bread crumbs on, instead of just using egg wash — is straight out of Cook’s Illustrated. In the original recipe, CI instructs you to make your own seasoned breadcrumbs.

I don’t doubt their crumbs are flavorful — made with good quality bread, olive oil, and fresh herbs. But even though the breadcrumbs aren’t difficult to make, they more than double the time it takes to make the recipe. And that’s not even counting the extra dishes. I recommend replacing the homemade breadcrumbs with panko breadcrumbs for a grown up fishstick that’s simple enough to make after work.

Oven Fried Fish
— serves 2 —

2 six ounce skinless cod fillets*
1/4 C plus 3 Tbsp. all purpose flour
1 1/2 C. panko bread crumbs
1 large egg
1 tsp. prepared horseradish
4 1/2 tsp. mayonaise (light mayo works fine)
1/4 tsp. paprika
pinch of cayenne pepper
kosher salt

1. Preheat oven to 425°F.

2. Prepare the baking tray. Line a baking sheet with foil, then place a metal cooling rack in the tray. Spray the cooling rack with non-stick spray. Putting the fish on a rack like this, instead of directly on the tray, allows air to circulate and keeps the bottom of the fish crispy.

3. Make the batter. Mix the egg, horseradish, mayo, paprika, cayenne pepper, and 3 Tbsp. of flour in a wide, shallow bowl until relatively smooth and even in consistency.

4. Set up a three-stage breading station: in the first dish, put the remaining 1/4 C flour, put the batter in the second dish, and the panko in the third.

5. Pat the fish dry with a paper towel, season generously with kosher salt.

6. Dredge the fish in the flour, making sure to coat it all over. Shake off the excess flour and put the fish in the batter. Coat the fish in batter, and move to the panko breadcrumbs. Gently pat the crumbs onto the fish to make sure they stick.

7. Transfer the fish to the prepared baking rack and bake at 425° for about 20 minutes.

Serve with lemon wedges and tartar sauce.

This recipe is the most basic version. But you can add almost any kind of seasoning to either the batter or the breadcrumbs, or both.  In the picture above, I added some chopped cilantro to the breadcrumbs, and made a spicy tartar sauce.  The original CI recipe calls for chopped parsley and shallots in the breadcrumbs.

* If you want to increase the crunch-to-fish ratio, cut each fillet in half.

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Cod is a mild, flaky and delicate fish. My husband and I love cod but sometimes it’s hard to find true cod. True cod is Atlantic, not ling cod, black cod (sablefish) or rock cod. These types are totally unrelated to the cod family. Black cod is sometimes sold as butterfish because it has a high fat content making it “buttery” but a true butterfish is a called Pacific pompano. To the Chinese, black cod is known as “gopher fish” but of course it’s not a gopher. As you can see this is all very confusing.

We grill or pan sear most of our fish. However we’ve always wanted to try out a recipe with fish in parchment paper. One of our favorite “go to” cookbooks is the big yellow Gourmet cookbook (we just bought the green Gourmet cookbook). We flipped through the fish recipes and this one was perfect given we had all the ingredients on hand, and it was easy and healthy. The cod was flaky, delicate and juicy. You can definitely experiment with other seasonings (garlic, dill, basil, rosemary, tarragon, etc.) and vegetables (zucchini, leeks, carrots, etc.) as this is a versatile fish and technique. Enjoy!

Cod en Papillote
Adapted from from the Gourmet Cookbook
- serves 2 –

2 cod fillets
Salt and pepper
4-6 tomato slices
Handful of kalamata olives, thinly sliced
1/4 tsp Aleppo pepper
1 tbsp butter, cut into pieces
Zest from 1/4 – 1/2 orange
2 fresh sprigs of thyme
2 fresh sprigs of sage

Equipment Needed:
Parchment paper

1.  Preheat oven to 500 degrees F (rack should be in the middle).
2.  Cut two 12 x 15 inch parchment sheets. Fold each crosswise in half to crease, fold.
3.  Season fish with salt and pepper and place to right of crease on each sheet.
4.  Top each fillet with equal portions of tomato slices, olives, Aleppo pepper, butter, zest and fresh herbs.
5.  Fold left half of parchment over fillet, starting at one corner of crease fold edge of parchment over in triangles and follow in semicircle path around fillet. Smooth out folds as you go and tuck last fold under to seal completely.
6.  Heat large baking sheet in oven for five minutes. Put papillotes on hot baking sheet and bake for 9 minutes.
7.  Transfer packets to plates and slit top with knife. Tear to expose fish and slide onto plates, discard paper.

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