Four Days of Fish

 

When David catches a fish, we're pretty picky about the ones we keep. If it's too large, we let it go. If it's too small, we let it go. Since we rarely use our freezer when we're underway, four days is about the maximum amount of time a fish can be kept in the fridge. If we have too much fish, we'll waste it and we hate that, so we let the big ones go. If the fish is too small, it's too much effort to clean it and clean up after for so little return on time investment, so we wish the little guys well and let them go. But, if the fish is the right size, about 5-6 lbs (2-3 kg) it's a keeper and depending on what's in the larder, we have four favorite ways to prepare it for four consecutive nights.

As soon as David cleans the fish, I rinse it and put it in Ziploc bags in the fridge. I get the sticky rice going and we have sushi for the first night. Day 2 is usually sesame-encrusted, seared filets. Day 3 is baked, stuffed fish. Day 4 can be chowder or fish cakes. There are variations on the theme, but we pretty much stick to this menu. There's no waste and we have four nights of fresh fish. Here's our recipe for Day 3 baked fish.

Day 3 Baked Fish a la Nine of Cups

Recipe Type: Main Dish

Author: Marcie Connelly Lynn

If you don't mind using the oven, this is a great tasting dish and baking offers a completely different approach to our usual fish preparation.

Ingredients

• 6 slices of stale bread, crumbled
• 1 clove garlic, minced fine
• ½ medium onion, minced fine
• ¼ tsp (.15g) sage
• ½ tsp (.3g) basil
• 1 tsp (.6g) Old Bay Seasoning
• 2 tbsp (30g) butter/ margarine
• ½ cup (120ml) white wine
• ¼ cup (60ml) olive oil
• Hot water as needed, about ½ (120ml) cup
• l lb (.5 kg) of fresh fish fillets
• 1 tsp (5ml) fresh lemon juice (or bottled)
• Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

1. Saute onion and garlic in butter until soft. Stir in sage and Old Bay. Add crumbled bread and enough hot water until the stuffing is a thick, moist consistency, tossing lightly with a fork. Grease or spray the bottom of a casserole dish. Lay the fillets on the bottom of the casserole and sprinkle with lemon juice. Divide up the stuffing and place on top of each fillet. Mix olive oil, basil and white wine and pour over stuffed fish. Bake in a 400ºF (200ºC) oven for 15 minutes. Serve with rice or a baked potato.
2. Variation on the theme – Sprinkle grated cheese on the top or add pre-steamed veggies like cauliflower, broccoli or carrots to the casserole … or both.

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Chowdah - Wicked Awhsome

This blog post was written and queued before Casey's death. If we stumble a bit over the next few days, please understand. Being back home in New England, it's hard to go to any restaurant or little diner that does not offer some New England chowder. For our non-American readers, New England is the region of the USA comprised of the six most northeastern states and known, among other things, for its “white” chowder, or if you're from Massachusetts like I am, it's called chowdah!

Let me explain that New Englanders have a tendency to pronounce “er's” as a's and ah's, hence chowdah, instead of chowder. We also manage to turn “a's” into “er's”, e.g. My sistah, Linder, wants some soder crackahs with her chowdah.

There's a rather emotional controversy about types of chowders beyond the traditional white, milk-based variety. New Englanders firmly believe other types of chowdah do not exist. Manhattan chowder, which is tomato-based and by dint of its name from New York, is just another soup, not a chowdah (and not very good according to some). Rhode Islanders have a distinctive thin, broth-based chowder (no milk) and although the state is part of the New England six, its chowder is not acknowledged as the real thing...unless of course, you're a Rhode Islander....er, Rhode Islandah.

We love chowders of all descriptions. They're tasty and make good use of any type of fish, seafood or shellfish we have available ... or not.

Chowdah - Wicked Awhsome

Author: Marcie Connelly Lynn

Here's our recipe for Any Fish Chowder/No Fish Chowder*. It's wicked awesome.

Ingredients

• ½ medium onion, chopped
• 1 Tbsp (15g) butter/margarine
• 6 medium potatoes, pared and chopped into bite-sized cubes
• 1 bay leaf
• ½ lb (¼ kg) raw fish or seafood, cut into bite-sized pieces**
• 1 cup (250ml) clam broth or fish stock***
• 1 cup (250ml) milk or cream

Instructions

1. In a soup pot, melt butter and saute onions till soft. Add potatoes, stock or broth and enough water to cover potatoes. Add bay leaf. Simmer until potatoes are nearly done. Add fish. Cook another 7-10 minutes (don't overcook the fish). Add milk or cream and heat through, but do not boil. Add salt and pepper to taste. Makes 4-6 servings.
2. And when there's no fish? We make corn chowdah by substituting a 15½ oz (425g) can of corn with liquid to the soup pot. Sometimes for variety, I add a can of corn anyway.
3. You can substitute canned clams or seafood if no fresh is available.
4. You can also add ¼ cup (45g) of chopped celery if you have it available.

Notes

Note that this is not the thick, pasty white chowder some restaurants serve. The thick consistency is the result of adding flour or other thickeners. The chowder will naturally thicken some once the potatoes meld with the other ingredients. If you like it thick, add some flour if you must.

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Bogged Down on Cranberries

 

I'll be darned if I could find fresh or frozen cranberries in Australia. They come canned, jellied or dried, but no fresh ones were to be found around the holidays and I really missed them. When the kids were little, we strung them with popcorn to make garlands for the Christmas tree. Fresh cranberry sauce was always served with our turkey dinner on Thanksgiving and Christmas. The piece de resistance though was Cranberry Pudding, a holiday dessert I've made since … forever.

It was with a certain amount of delight then that I noticed an Ocean Spray Cranberry Bog open to the public not far away from where we're living now. The sign announced “The Bog...at Patriot Place”. Well, Patriot Place is where the New England Patriots play football. The bog isn't too far away and I'm hoping the stadium wasn't built in the marshy areas in which cranberries thrive, though I'd guess, it probably was.

The bog, first planted in 1929, is surrounded by a half-mile nature trail with interpretive signs en route. We learned a lot about cranberries, cranberry growing and cranberry harvesting. For instance, it was originally called a “crane berry” because the flower resembled a sandhill crane. Cranberry growers rent beehives to insure that there are enough bees to pollinate the cranberry flowers. The freshest, ripest cranberries bounce and a bounce board is actually still used sometimes to sort out the best berries from the culls. You can never learn too much about things like cranberries. You never know when you're going to need all that trivia to write a blog post.

We enjoyed the walk on a warm spring's day. The bog was a reddish-green and not in flower yet. No bees in sight. The nearby fresh water pond was teeming with small fish and little turtles sunned themselves on rocks. We meandered along the bog's edge, over and up hills, through stands of trees with buds swollen to bursting, ready to open with a few more days of warm encouragement.

I remember trudging into the bogs and picking red, ripe wild cranberries in the autumn and freezing them whole in seal-able bags for use later in the season. This wouldn't have done me much good in Australia, I'm afraid (no native cranberries, no freezer), but the thought of having fresh berries again, warmed my heart.

Cranberry Pudding

Author: Marcie Connelly Lynn

Here's my recipe for Cranberry Pudding. It's easy and wonderfully good. You can substitute other berries (blueberries, blackberries) for the fresh cranberries if you must, but you'll have to fuss with the amount of sugar, so it's not too sweet.

Ingredients

• 2 cups (200g) of fresh cranberries, washed and cleaned
• ½ cup (100g) + ¼ cup (50g) of white sugar
• ½ cup (120g) chopped walnuts
• 4 tbsp (60g) + 2 tbsp (30g) melted butter or margarine
• 1 large, well-beaten egg (aha...same in metric!)
• ½ cup flour (50g)

Instructions

1. Grease a 9” (23x4cm) pie plate and place the fresh (or frozen) cranberries in the bottom. Mix ¼ cup of the sugar with 4 tbsp of the melted butter and the walnuts and drizzle over the cranberries. Mix together the flour, egg and the remaining sugar and butter and pour on top of the cranberries and nuts. Bake at 350F/180C for about 40-45 minutes or until the cranberries are bubbling and the cake-like top is golden brown. Best served warm with freshly whipped cream or ice cream, but it's great when it has cooled, too.

Notes

As an aside, though David loves cranberry pudding, he's also been known to say that “cranberries are a waste of good sugar”. Obviously, he's not a New Englander.

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