Yesterday was an unfortunate return to unseasonal weather, and gray to boot. Grilling just wasn't in the cards, but I had more fish from FreshDirect-- wild snapper, which wasn't cheap but 4 stars and listed "Great Right Now." I've been generally very happy with the quality of FD's seafood-- it's fresh and tasty and mostly wild caught. But I've had two recurring issues, namely scales and bones. The head-end of the snapper fillets had way too many bones, and while I realize some of the bones are hard to remove without wrecking the flesh of the fish, these were little ones that could be pulled with a tweezer. For $18.99 a pound I expect the pin bones to be removed, and there should be no scales at all. That's just sloppy.
But as I said the fish itself was terrific. Again branching off from Legal Sea Foods' cookbook, I steamed 2 7 oz. fillets in aluminum foil with some thinly sliced ginger, 2 sliced garlic cloves, a splash of white wine (I used some indifferent, leftover chardonnay that someone brought over a while back), and some fresh lemon juice. Wrap it in foil and crimp the edges to seal it and bake at 350F for 10-15 minutes.
WARNING: Be careful opening the foil, as very hot steam will vent out. Piercing the foil can vent the steam safely, but the downside is that if the fish isn't done, you now have holes in the foil.
I served this was a melange of roasted Brussels sprouts, carrots, green pepper and snap peas and more of that Delavenne Champagne I wrote about yesterday. Enough said...
I also made a lovely top round roast with port reduction that will be tonight's dinner. I'll leave that for another day.
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Saturday, May 14, 2011
Back on the horse (and out at the grill!)
In the Spring a young man's fancy may turn to thoughts of love, but I'm a little older and I've already found it so my thoughts turn to flame-charred hunks of food. It's grill season. And it also right now happens to be soft-shell crab season.
For those who aren't aware, Atlantic blue crabs molt their prior year's shell around now leaving just a soft, crunchy, edible coating. You can literally eat the whole crab, claws and all, and boy are they good-- breaded and fried, broiled, but especially grilled over a charcoal fire.
Last night I grilled soft-shell crabs and blackfish fillets, both top picks last week from FreshDirect (the blackfish seems to have sold out), and both were excellent. The simple preparation adapted from the Legal Sea Foods cookbook (which I recommend highly):
Dunk the crabs and fillets one at a time in the mixture and well coat them
Grill (or broil if you must)
Crabs should be grilled face up for 3-4 minutes then turned over for 1-2 minutes. They cook quickly. They are delicious served as is, but today's lunch was the last crab on a challah roll with avocado and ripe tomato.
The blackfish fillets will take 15-20 minutes to cook through, depending on thickness. The fish should be just opaque in the middle. Fish that's too flaky is generally overdone.
My wine recommendation? A dry white like Sancerre can't miss, but my personal choice is dry Champagne. We enjoyed the fish and crab last night with Delavenne Brut Rose, a 2010 gold medal winner at the Concours d'Epernay. Although brut, the tinge of raspberry gives slight sweetness in the finish offsetting the acid (lime), savory (garlic), and salt (fish) flavors of the meal. The Delavenne has displaced Veuve as my favorite Champagne, and I'm so glad I bought half a case when WTSO had it on sale a few months ago.
For those who aren't aware, Atlantic blue crabs molt their prior year's shell around now leaving just a soft, crunchy, edible coating. You can literally eat the whole crab, claws and all, and boy are they good-- breaded and fried, broiled, but especially grilled over a charcoal fire.
Last night I grilled soft-shell crabs and blackfish fillets, both top picks last week from FreshDirect (the blackfish seems to have sold out), and both were excellent. The simple preparation adapted from the Legal Sea Foods cookbook (which I recommend highly):
- juice of 1 lime
- 4 tbl olive oil
- 1 minced garlic clove
- pinch of salt and fresh ground pepper
Dunk the crabs and fillets one at a time in the mixture and well coat them
Grill (or broil if you must)
Crabs should be grilled face up for 3-4 minutes then turned over for 1-2 minutes. They cook quickly. They are delicious served as is, but today's lunch was the last crab on a challah roll with avocado and ripe tomato.
The blackfish fillets will take 15-20 minutes to cook through, depending on thickness. The fish should be just opaque in the middle. Fish that's too flaky is generally overdone.
My wine recommendation? A dry white like Sancerre can't miss, but my personal choice is dry Champagne. We enjoyed the fish and crab last night with Delavenne Brut Rose, a 2010 gold medal winner at the Concours d'Epernay. Although brut, the tinge of raspberry gives slight sweetness in the finish offsetting the acid (lime), savory (garlic), and salt (fish) flavors of the meal. The Delavenne has displaced Veuve as my favorite Champagne, and I'm so glad I bought half a case when WTSO had it on sale a few months ago.
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