The Food Maven Diary
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The Smelly Salmon Problem & Fish in Red Pepper and Tomato Sauce
Shirley King was my guest on Food Talk today. Her book, Fish: The Basics, was just re-released in paperback, although a visit from Shirley doesn't have to be apropos of anything. She's a good friend, a good cook, and a good talker. I also depend on her superior expertise on fish. Her book is the first place I look when I need fish-buying or fish-cooking guidance.
The revelation of the day was that it is the quality and quantity of fat in the farm-raised salmon that we mostly buy that is responsible for the unpleasant aroma it mostly emits. In restaurants, friends have actually passed their plates in my direction to determine whether the fish they've been served is fresh or not. Farm-raised salmon, says Shirley, are excessively fatty and we both think that's the reason some, if not most, have such a strong aroma. I equate it with the unpleasant smell of lamb fat on certain cuts burning under the broiler. Indeed, a listener called to say that she only poaches salmon because cooking it with high, direct heat – broiling, sautéing -- always produces that bad smell. It's the fat, everyone, it's the fat. Perhaps nutritionally good fat but smelly fat.
Shirley says she's been seeing wild salmon from Alaska (salmon farming is done in the North Atlantic), and besides being a meatier, leaner fish, it doesn't give off that smell.
In a restaurant a few weeks ago, I finally ran into one of those mushy, muddy tasting farmed stripped bass Shirley is always complaining about. Then only a few days later I was able to order wild stripped bass at another restaurant. It was meaty and even with the taste of a charcoal grill, sweet. What a difference! Eating them practically side by side, as it were, you would never know they are the same species.
All this fish talk compelled me to make fish for dinner. Shirley and I agree that shopping for fish – getting great fish – is harder than cooking it. For me, this meant getting in the car this afternoon and driving to Cobble Hill, where I have been hearing there is a very good fish market. There certainly aren't any in Park Slope, except for the fish stand at the Saturday Greenmarket in Grand Army Plaza.
Fish Tales, at 191A Court St. (718-246-1346), was all I heard it was and much more. It's a veritable fish boutique. The fresh fish is beautifully displayed in and on disk-shaped ice cubes. The furthest thing from a rough and tumble fish market with clerks in white coats and rubber boots, the fish display at Fish Tales is as pristine and odorless as the best sushi bar and the owners, who personally wait on customers, handle fish filets as if they were precious jewels, which they practically are. The store carries prepared foods, too – I hear the crab cakes are good – has lobster tanks, and a huge selection of smoked salmons from around the world. On the way out, as a courtesy of the store, you can pick up colorful cards that describe various popular fish, offer nutrition breakdowns, basic cooking techniques, and a reasonably simple but stylish recipe. Plus, you're offered a free lemon as you leave. I'll be exploring this market more.
I bought a pound of Corvino, mainly because it's a fish I'd never heard of. It sounded likable. The owner/clerk, Larry, told me it was from the Gulf of Mexico and that it was a large flake white fish like halibut but more buttery, although not as buttery as Chilean Sea Bass. My slice was about 2 inches at its thickest, tapering down to about an inch; about 3 inches across and 6 inches wide. I cut it into two, approximately 3-inch square chunks.
I cooked it the way I cook many fish these days. I made a tomato based sauce and simmered the fish in it. I use fresh tomatoes, canned tomatoes, tomato puree; whatever I have around, even tomato paste dissolved in white wine or water. This time I had a can of authentic San Marzano Italian cherry tomatoes in the pantry that I've been wanting to try. I bought them at Coluccio, the wholesaler-importer in Besonhurst. Pomodorini di Collini, as they are called, are virtually impossible to buy in the U.S., so I suggest you use a 14 to 16-ounce can of plum tomatoes. I also happened to have some very sweet red peppers I needed to use sooner rather than later. So this is what I made. Simple, and very delicious if I say so myself.
Fish in Red Pepper and Tomato Sauce
Serves 2
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 medium red peppers, washed, cored seeded, ribs removed, and cut into 1/4-inch strips
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 small cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
Big pinch hot red pepper flakes
1 15 or 16-ounce can plum tomatoes, coarsely chopped
1 pound corvino or halibut, cut into 2 thick portions (or thick pieces of any firm, white fish)
6 to 8 leaves parsley, torn or snipped with a scissors into little pieces
In a 9 to 10-inch sauté pan with cover, heat the oil over medium-high heat until hot enough to make a pepper strip sizzle on contact. Add the peppers and sauté for 5 minutes.
Season with salt and add the garlic and the pepper flakes. Continue to cook, tossing constantly, for another minute.
Add the tomatoes and all their juice. Stir well, cover the pan and let simmer for 3 minutes Uncover the pan, stir well again and simmer another minute. If the sauce seems thin, cook it uncovered until thickened.
Add the fish to the pan and spoon some of the tomato sauce and peppers over the fish. Cover the pan and let simmer gently for about 15 minutes, turning the fish once. Add the parsley for the last minute. If the sauce is not thick enough, remove the fish when done and cook the sauce a few more minutes.
Serve hot in bowls.
Menu Note: You don't need a vegetable with this but you could serve boiled potatoes, or rice, or place the fish over a piece of toasted bread, perhaps rubbed with garlic and drizzled with olive oil. Or, you can make this into two courses, Italian style. Serve the sauce on pasta – ziti or penne would be good -- as a first course, then follow with a second course of the fish with a green vegetable; say, stringbeans.
