Fish – Page 8 – Writing With My Mouth Full

Cote-d’Ivoire: Tilapia with Alloco

This recipe was very close to my heart because Filipinos fry plantains and fry fish, too. It’s always cool to find out that a country so far from the Philippines have the same way of serving an ingredient. Esther told me that this recipe is a very famous goute, or a small meal eaten between 3 and 6pm, in the Ivory Coast. (That’s merienda to the Filipinos.) Her recipe included one Maggi chicken bouillon but I used homemade chicken stock instead. I grew up with Knorr bouillons in our cupboard and know that it has a lot of salt so I decided to skip it even though the African store in my neighborhood sells them. I wanted the dish to be flavorful without using artifical ingredients. The stock gave the sauce some flavor and at the same time kept it from drying up. In New York City, it’s impossible not to find plantains in any bodega. You can certainly substitute plain bananas but they’ll fall apart when frying, so if you do, try to use the firmer ones.

Ingredients:
1 tilapia, cleaned
3 yellow ripe plantains, halved and then sliced lengthwise
1/2 cup chicken stock
1 large tomato, roughly chopped
1 medium onion, roughly chopped
red pepper powder
salt, oil

1. Make the piment d’alloco, or thick, hot tomato sauce. In a saucepan over low fire, heat some oil and sautÃ© onions. Add tomato and simmer until thick, about 20 minutes. Slowly add chicken broth to keep it from drying. Season with salt and red pepper. Set aside.
2. Prepare the alloco. Using a skillet, heat some oil and fry plantains until both sides are lightly browned. Remove to a plate lined with paper towel.
3. Rub salt all over the tilapia. Using the same skillet, fry the fish in hot oil until both sides are golden brown. Serve with the plantains and pour over tomato sauce.

Swordfish with Braised Endives

The Dr. was on call so I knew I had time to make dinner before he comes back from the hospital. I stopped by the Blue Moon fish stand at the farmers’ market on my way to work and bought a couple of swordfish steaks. I’ve been buying fish from them because they also give me fish heads for free to make stock. Lately, I go up and check what’s on their blackboard and buy the kind I’ve never cooked before. We caught a swordfish when we were vacationing in Panama but we let the bugger go because he was so small. Notorious for being elusive, it’s a good fish to catch for sport. The FDA warns about high amounts of methylmercury in them so it’s been adviced not to eat them more than one serving a week. But oh, they make an excellent dinner with a bottle of white wine and they can make a very tired doctor happy.

Ingredients:
2 swordfish steaks, sliced about 1/2-inch thick
2 bulbs of endive, leaves separated
6 slices of bacon
a handful of cherry tomatoes, cut in half
2 garlic cloves, minced
juice of half a lemon
2 tbsp butter
1 tbsp sugar
parsley, finely chopped
salt, pepper, olive oil

1. Marinade swordfish in a shallow dish with the garlic, lemon juice, salt and pepper and olive oil. Make sure the fish is well-coated. Cover and chill in the refrigerator for about 20 minutes.
2. Braise endives in the meantime. In a deep skillet, bring 1 cup of water, butter, sugar, a pinch of salt and pepper to a simmer. Add endive in one layer and braise them, covered, turning wedges over once in a 10-minute period. Remove lid and increase heat to medium-high, then cook until all of liquid is evaporated and endive is caramelized, about another 6 minutes. Transfer to a serving plate.
3. Place swordfish on a baking sheet with the tomatoes and broil in the oven for about 20 minutes or until fish is tender and cooked through, turning over once. Place on top of the endives.
4. Cook bacon in a skillet until golden brown and crispy while the fish is in the oven. Transfer to a plate lined with paper towel and drain. Chop roughly and sprinkle all over fish with the parsley. Serve with lemon wedges.

Roasted Sea Bass with Fennel Tomato Salsa

I schlepped in the pouring rain to stop by the farmers market and order my turkey for Thanksgiving. After I put my name down for an 11-pound bird, I noticed the Blue Moon Fish tent. There were a few people standing in front waiting to be helped so I squeezed my way in to see what the commotion was all about. They were giving away fish heads and bones for stock. I waited for my turn and got my own but I also ended up buying a $6 whole sea bass. Blue Moon hails from Mattituck, New York and they specialize in wild-caught fish. But I didn’t even stay long enough to ask what kind of sea bass it was. The Dr. said it would be a black sea bass because that’s the type most often caught in the east coast.

I could only think of roasting it so I also bought a couple of fennel bulbs and bunches of herbs before I walked to the subway to go straight to work. I was juggling to hold my umbrella, my purse and the goods in my half-wet tote bag. At dinner time, I opened a bottle of Chardonnay from Lamoreaux and roasted the fish I stuffed with lemon, onions garlic and rosemary. While it was cooking, I made a bowl of salad. The Dr. stopped by after a long day in the hospital. He confirmed it was indeed a black sea bass and also gave me a nod for a wonderful rainy night meal.

Ingredients:
1 whole black sea bass, scaled and cleaned with head and tail intact
1/2 red onion, sliced into thin rings
1/2 lemon, cut into thin rounds
a few sprigs of fresh rosemary
2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
salt, pepper, olive oil

For the fennel tomato salsa:
1 fennel bulb, chopped
3 medium tomatoes, diced and seeded
1 red bell pepper, julienned
1 yellow bell pepper, julienned
1 red onion, roughly chopped
a handful basil leaves, torn
a handful mint leaves, torn
red wine vinegar
salt, pepper, olive oil

1. Prepare the salsa. In a small heated skillet, let the fennel sweat to soften them. Toss for a couple of minutes and let cool. Combine all of the ingredients in a large bowl and toss to mix well. Let sit at room temperature for 30 minutes before serving.
2. Preheat oven to 400Âº. Rinse the fish under cold running water to make sure the cavity is clean of any entrails and pat dry with a paper towel. Stuff the cavity with the onion rings, lemon rounds, garlic and some of the rosemary sprigs. Put some in the head as well. Make small slits on the body to insert more garlic.
3. Place the fish on a bed of rosemary branches set in a large roasting pan. Rub the fish with the olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast the fish until completely cooked through, about 40 minutes. Transfer the fish to a large platter and serve with the salsa.

Related post/s:
Fresh fish from Blue Moon

Korea: Jjorim Fish Stew

Simmering meats or fish for a long time is what Koreans call jjorim. Usually a soy sauce-based marinade is used to make jjorim stew. This is Nabi’s mother’s recipe but she’s adapted it to make a vegetarian version with tofu. I copied and used both fish and tofu and it turned out to be the perfect bowl to nurse during a rainy day. I julienned a carrot and a radish while I roasted a small sweet potato. I put them all together in a pot with some firm tofu, poured over the soy sauce marinade and topped them with a beautiful cod fillet. The saltiness of the soy sauce evaporated when I put everything into a low simmer; I turned off the heat when the fish was white enough to look tender.

Ingredients:
1 1-pound black cod fillet
1 package of firm tofu, diced
1 small daikon radish, julienned
1 medium carrot, julienned
1 small red onion, thinly sliced
1 small sweet potato, roasted, sliced
1/2 cup vegetable stock
5 tbsps soy sauce
2 tbsps white wine
1 tbsp maple syrup
2 tsps red chili flakes
a small knob of ginger, peeled, thinly sliced
1 garlic, minced

1. Mix and stir all the liquid together with the maple syrup, ginger, garlic and pepper flakes to make marinade.
2. In a Dutch oven, layer all the vegetables and tofu. Pour the marinade into the pot. Add the vegetable stock. Top with the fish.
3. Cover and simmer for about 15 minutes. Top with roasted seaweed.

Seared Cod with Fennel and Celery

Adapted from The North Fork Table & Inn, Long Island, using wild striped bass

Ingredients:
1 1/2 pound of cod fillet, slice into 3 steaks
3 stalks of celery, chopped
a small fennel bulb, chopped
1/2 cup of piquillo olives, pitted, finely chopped
red wine vinegar
olive oil

1. In a skillet, let the celery and fennel sweat in low heat. Remove from heat when celery is tender enough. Transfer to a small bowl.
2. In a separate bowl, combine vinegar and the olive oil. Add the olives and whisk until desired consistency. Dress the vegetables and let it stand.
3. Prepare the fish. Preheat oven to 350Âº. In the meantime, heat some olive oil in a frying pan and sear the cod until a nice brown crust has formed on one side and it moves easily away from the pan when gently pushed with a spatula. Turn and brown the other side. Transfer the fish in the pan to the oven and bake for no longer than 7 minutes, just enough to cook the inside. Serve fish on top of the vegetables and top with leftover olives.