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Rockfish Meunière on Whole Wheat Pasta

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A fillet prepared à la meunière and served on pasta is one of our favorites when cooking with firm, delicately flavored white fish. We modify the traditional recipe, which means “miller’s wife” (descriptive of the flour this method employs) by using olive oil instead of butter and by skipping the lemon and butter finishing sauce.

Our three favorite methods for preparing fish, in no particular order, are as follows: sashimi – raw, thinly sliced fish dipped in a soy sauce and wasabi mixture; shioyaki – fish salted and then broiled or grilled; and à la meunière – dredged in seasoned flour and pan fried. These three preparation methods are the epitome of simplicity, emphasizing the freshness of the fish rather than sauces or seasonings, and can be accomplished in even the most bare-bones of kitchens. While they won’t adequately cover every species of fish (some species do well only when poached, and a few others shine best when deep fried), they are good methods to have in one’s repertoire.

A collar – the meat just behind the fish’s head, including the pectoral and ventral fins – is a good candidate for meunière. Pictured is the collar from a two to three pound yelloweye rockfish.

Each cooking method works particularly well with certain species of fish. Chinook salmon, for example, is a superb fish for shioyaki and a much underutilized sashimi fish. Yellowtail and other tuna are excellent served as sashimi. When you think of meunière, think of fish that is white, firm but not dense, and mildly or even delicately flavored. Some of the best candidates are sole, flounder, greenling and Pacific rockfish in the genus Sebastes such as black rockfish, copper rockfish, yelloweye and so forth.

Rockfish à la Meunière on Pasta for Two

Ingredients:

  • two fish fillets 1/4 to 1/2 pounds each (110 to 230 grams), cleaned, skin removed, rinsed and patted dry with paper towels. Do not use a thick cut of fish for this. The fillets should be fairly thin – less than an inch thick (2.5 cm) as opposed to using part of a fillet from a large fish.
  • 1/3 cup semolina flour. (All-purpose or other flour is fine, but semolina will result in a very pleasant additional crunch and fuller texture to the finished fillet.)
  • 1/2 tablespoon herbs de Provence, plus 1 teaspoon herbs de Provence, separate
  • 1/8 teaspoon sea salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon freshly cracked pepper
  • 3 to 6 cloves of garlic, sliced thin
  • 2 tablespoons pine nuts (optional)
  • 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
  • olive oil for frying
  • enough pasta for two servings
Directions:
  1. Cook pasta according to directions. Drain off water, return to pot and toss with about 1 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil and 1 teaspoon herbs de Provence. Set aside. (Or do this simultaneously while cooking the fish.)
  2. In a plastic Ziplock bag, or in a mixing bowl or on a plate, mix together the flour, 1/2 tablespoons herbs de Provence, salt and freshly ground pepper.
  3. Thoroughly dredge the fillets in the flour mixture and set aside on a plate or cutting board. Left over flour can be used as a bed for the fillets.
  4. In a frying pan large enough to hold both fillets, add olive oil to about 1/8 inch depth. Heat over medium to medium-low until oil causes a pinch of flour to sizzle.
  5. Position fillets in pan making sure they do not touch. Cook uncovered over medium to medium-low heat for about 3 to 5 minutes.
  6. Carefully turn the fillets over. Add garlic slices and pine nuts and continue cooking for 3 to 5 minutes. The first few times you cook fish this way, you may have to break the fillets apart to check for doneness as it will vary depending on thickness, type of fish and cooking temperature.
  7. Place pasta on dinner plates. Remove fillets from pan and place on pasta. Use a slotted spoon to separate garlic and pine nuts from oil and sprinkle on fish and pasta.
  8. Serve hot with freshly grated Parmesan cheese.

We served the pasta and fillet with a side of fish collars, also prepared à la meunière, and brussels sprouts sliced in half, seasoned with salt and pepper, and pan roasted. This is a simple yet elegant meal that can be prepared in a galley, on a camp stove, or in virtually any kitchen.

Most Excellent Nachos

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A heavy skillet, a bag of your favorite tortilla chips, salsa spiced up with jalapenos, medium cheddar cheese and an already-roasted chicken from the supermarket are all you need for the best nachos you’ve ever had!

By the time we were finished cleaning fish yesterday, it was already close to five o’clock. Tired, hungry and in dire need of a beer (or three), we had J-Dock vacuum pack and flash freeze our fillets, absent-mindedly forgetting to set aside a piece of salmon for ourselves for dinner. We’d fished hard and filled our cooler, and neither one of us was keen to cook. “How about super nachos?” Barbra suggested. “We could get one of those roasted chickens at Safeway….”

“And a case of beer,” I added.

We already had everything else we needed: medium-aged Tillamook cheddar cheese, sliced jalapeno peppers, Newman’s Own salsa, and Mission tortilla chips. Here’s all there is to it.

Pick a heavy frying pan, one that heats evenly and won’t burn the chips. Pour in a little olive oil, turn the heat to low or medium low, and when it’s hot, put in a layer of chips followed by a layer of cheese, a few spoonfuls of salsa, a few jalapenos sliced thin or diced fine (cook’s choice), and a generous amount of chunks of roasted chicken. Lay down a second layer of chips, cheese, salsa jalapenos and chicken, cover the pan with a lid, and cook over low heat till all the cheese is melted. Add a couple dollops of sour cream or guacamole when it’s all done if you want, serve it right in the pan, and keep the beers coming. Pop in a movie and eat and drink more than you should.

I had a few black beans on hand and added those this time, but usually I make this with no beans. This dish is great without the chicken (or any other meat), too. Next time I make this, I’m going to use rockfish and see how that goes. Future experiments might include caribou, moose or ground black bear.

Silvers and Pinks (And Otters)!

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This curious fellow swam right up to our C-Dory, Gillie, to watch me rinse off a salmon Barbra had just caught.

Alaska. Every trip out on the water is a reminder that you could live here several lifetimes and never see it all. While sea otters are fairly common along the southern and central Alaskan coastline, we’ve never have one swim up to the boat. (Although, there were a trio that used to follow us as we walked the docks in Cordova.) This guy seemed genuinely curious – and maybe hopeful of a handout – as I rinsed off a Coho before putting it in the fish box on a recent excursion to Rugged Island in Resurrection Bay, near Seward. Meanwhile, floating on her back with a pup on her stomach, a mother otter watched us a little more guardedly and from a distance.

Fishing partner Bixler McClure got this shot of the otter coming over to investigate the boat. 

On any given sailing or boating trip out on the bay, you’re likely to encounter harbor porpoises, Dall porpoises, Orcas, whales, eagles, thousands of sea birds, leaping salmon, seals, sea lions and every once in a while you might spot the fin of a seven-foot salmon shark (they look very much like small great white sharks) cutting through the water. Bears come down to the beaches, and on rare occasions a wolverine might be glimpsed.

And, of course, there are the fish. Resurrection Bay lies between green-shouldered, snow-capped mountains – a dramatic backdrop. It extends over 10 miles before meeting the Alaska Gulf, and on many days the waters are nearly glass smooth, rippled only by a gentle breeze. On days such as these, the fishing is truly pleasant.
When the silvers (Coho salmon) show up – usually the run is in full swing by mid-July – the fishing is excellent, with six-salmon limits the norm. Skilled (or lucky) anglers often mix in a king or two, and after you’ve got salmon in the fish box you can switch tactics and target rockfish and halibut. There are bigger rockfish and halibut out in the Gulf – and more of them -, but if you stay with it you can find fish in the bay and you don’t have to deal with a long run.
The custom here is to take the fish out of your fish box and load them into a dock cart so you can wheel them up to one of the fish cleaning stations. Once we’ve filleted our fish, we take them to J-Dock to be vacuum packed and flash frozen. Fish cared for this way taste great even a year or more later.
 Below: Barbra got this watery photo of the otter swimming around Gillie.
Below: Three limits of salmon and a couple of rockfish, laid out, rinsed off and ready to take up to the cleaning station. This winter in Point Hope, every meal these fish provide will be a memory of our summer in Seward. These are the good old days.

Savannah Sparrow

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Savannah sparrows (Passerculus sandwichensis) are common and widely distributed in North America. The distinctive yellow lores (eye stripe) is the best way to distinguish savannah’s from other sparrows with streaked plumage.

All across North America – including all over Alaska – savannah sparrows are a common sight in open fields and marshes and in low brushy areas. Mainly seed eaters most of the year, they include insects in their diet as well, particularly during the breeding season. Their song has been described as “insect like,” and although it has a buzz to it, the description doesn’t really do it justice. Listen for the notes of the savannah’s high, buzzy song next time you’re in an open area. They can be hard to spot in the low brush and ground cover they call home, but when flushed, they usually fly just a short distance and may perch to take a look around. About five to six inches from beak to tail, savannah’s nest on or near the ground, laying  four to six blue-green eggs speckled with dark brown in cup shaped nests. The sexes are similar.

Incidentally, the species name sandwichensis comes from Sandwich Bay in Unalaska, Alaska. This photos was taken at Potter Marsh, near Anchorage.

Leftover S’mores Ingredients? Bake a S’mores Cheesecake!

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After grilling s’mores for ourselves and our dock neighbors, we were still left with half a bag of marshmallows, a box of graham crackers, and a whole bar of dark chocolate. Such problems… Cheesecake was the answer to this problem!

Our galley kitchen is small. The counter space is measured in inches. Our pantry has just the basics. Our cookware and dishes are on the multifunctional and minimal side. We did outfit our little home with Denby dishes, which can be baked in. So, forget about the springform pan and the food processor in this preparation. What follows is how I made S’mores Cheesecake, galley style.

S’mores Cheesecake

Ingredients

Crust-

  • a little more than 1 cup of ground graham crackers. I ground the graham crackers using our coffee grinder.
  • 3 tbsp brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup melted unsalted butter
Cheesecake Filling
  • 8 oz. cream cheese, brought to room temperature
  • 2 eggs, also room temperature
  • 4 tbsp brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup of coarsely chopped dark chocolate bar

Topping

  • Marshmallows, quartered
  • 1/4 cup of coarsely chopped dark chocolate bar

Directions

  1. Mix graham cracker crumbs with 3 tbsp brown sugar and butter.
  2. Press into a well-buttered pasta bowl that can be baked (or springform pan if you are in a standard kitchen).
  3. In a medium-sized pot, beat eggs and remaining 4 tbsp. of brown sugar. I used brown sugar to add flavor in lieu of vanilla extract.
  4. Whisk in cream cheese until smooth. A mixer would have come in handy for this step. My arm was a little tired here.
  5. Mix in 1/4 cup of chopped dark chocolate. I did experiment with using a vegetable peeler to curl pieces of chocolate. Using a cutting board and a chopping knife was easier and turned out with equally good results.
  6. Pour cream cheese mixture into graham cracker crust and bake in a 320 degree F oven. My little oven may bake a little warmer than yours, so you may need to increase the temperature a bit.
  7. Bake for about 40 minutes, until the center is almost set.
  8. Evenly place marshmallows on top of cheesecake. Sprinkle with remaining 1/4 cup of chocolate. Bake for another 5 minutes, marshmallows should just be tanning.
  9. Remove from oven and let cool for about an hour. No matter how much Jack begs, tell him he can’t have any cheesecake until tomorrow.
  10. Refrigerate overnight. Fortunately, our camper is parked in the harbor parking lot and is equipped with a nice little fridge.

I was pleasantly surprised that we could pop the cheesecake out of the pasta bowl. I thought we were going to have to enjoy this dessert spoonful by spoonful. Who needs springform pans?!

Sandhill Cranes with Chick: Potter Marsh, Alaska

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Driving to Anchorage from Seward recently, we spotted these sandhill cranes at Potter Marsh and decided to park the truck and walk out onto the boardwalk for a closer look.

Large birds are cool, and in North America, there aren’t many birds larger than Grus canadensis, sandhill cranes. Adults typically weight 8 to 10 pounds. The stand four to five feet tall and have wingspans of five-and-a-half feet to nearly seven feet. Sandhills are fairly common in the west, and in a few places can be viewed by the hundreds or even thousands. More frequently, they are seen here and there in pairs, in small groups, or as individuals.

The sexes are similar. Plumage ranges from drab gray to rusty brown. Aside from size, the most distinguishing characteristic is the red crown. (Click the photos for a larger view.)

We couldn’t quite make out what the adult bird is feeding the chick. Cranes are catholic in diet. Berries and seeds make up a large portion of their diet, but insects and other small animals figure in as well.

This chick will stay with its parents for 10 months or so – until just before next year’s breeding season when the parents will lay one to three eggs. Sandhills have a life expectancy of about seven years in the wild, but may live up to three times that long. Several subspecies occur throughout the U.S. and across the Pacific to Siberia. Accidentals have been reported in Europe.

Strawberry-Port Gallette with Sliced Almonds

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Delicious first baking experience in the galley of our boat, Bandon. Strawberries marinated in brown sugar and port wine stuffed into a simple crust filled our little home with delicious smells and satisfied my need to bake.

Our boat is equipped with a gimbaled stove, which pivots and swings to remain level in spite of waves and wind in the harbor. The stove houses a tiny oven, which is perfect for baking for two. I love to bake and have had an itch to make something with the  beautiful strawberries I kept seeing at the store. We hadn’t had strawberries since last summer! After thirty minutes of baking, the first experiment emerged from the oven a success. The only thing that would have improved this dessert was a couple of scoops of  vanilla ice cream. Next time…

Strawberry Port Gallette

Ingredients

  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • 2 tbsp granulated sugar
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 3 tbsp unsalted butter
  • 2 cups sliced strawberries
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar
  • 2 tbsp port wine

Directions

  1. In a small bowl, stir together strawberries, brown sugar, and port. Set aside.
  2. In a medium bowl, mix flour, granulated sugar, and salt.
  3. Cut in butter to flour mixture. I mixed this by hand, literally, until the butter was well incorporated.
  4. Add a bit of water to form flour mixture into a dough ball (I used about 2 tbsp).
  5. Roll out dough to an 8″ circle. I didn’t have a rolling pin, so I pressed out the dough into 8″ circle onto a well-buttered cookie sheet.
  6. Place berries in a mound on the circle, leaving a 1-2″ border. I reserved some of the sugar-port juice to sauté the sliced almonds.
  7. Fold the 1-2″ border over fruit, leaving the strawberries exposed in the center.
  8. Bake at 375 degrees F until golden, about 30 minutes.
  9. While gallette is baking, sauté almonds in reserved sugar-port juice.
  10. When baking is complete, remove gallette from oven and sprinkle with sautéed almonds.

Violet-green Swallow

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Violet-green swallows (Tachycineta thalassina) are common throughout the western U.S., Canada and Alaska. In flight, look for the distinctive white on the sides of the rump. When they perch, look for white cheeks with white extending above the eye to distinguish them from tree swallows (Tachycineta bicolor).

Depending on the light, violet-greens’ backs can appear to range in color from teal to metallic green to purple. This is the male, above.

Females’ colors, above, tend be a bit more muted than males. 

Look for violet-greens in open areas and semi-open areas where they feed on insects. They can be attracted to nesting boxes.

 

Orange-crowned Warbler, Potter Marsh near Anchorage

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Oranged-crowned warblers (Vermivora celata) are fairly common, but it’s rare to get a good look at these tiny, active birds. Even less common is finding an individual with an identifiably orange crown. 

Color is often the first thing we go to when attempting to differentiate among like species. The perplexing thing is that color is often misleading.

The orange-crowned warbler’s orange crown is seldom visible. What birders typically see is a small, greenish-yellow-brown bird flitting through alders and willows. A warbler. But which warbler?

If you don’t see an orange crown, another tell is the complete absences of barring on the wings.

Orange-crowned warblers feed on insects, worms, nectar and berries. They’re ground nesters. What a thrill it would be to find a nest, tucked away beneath low-growing willows. When summer ends in Canada and Alaska and the Western United States, orange-crowns migrate to the southern U.S. and Central America.

We were lucky to catch this guy preening on an open branch at the edge of Potter Marsh, on the southern edge of Anchorage, Alaska. He stayed long enough for several photos. Before flitting off into the underbrush, he gave us one final view of his seldom-seen orange crown.

Rockfish in Sweet & Spicy Beans with Miso

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Yelloweye rockfish poached in miso soup with black beens, sweet corn and summer squash. The broth is sweetened with honey and spiced with a Jamaican-style rub for a little heat to balance out the sweet.

In Japan, I was served a dish featuring carp cooked in sweetened beans. It was good, though a bit sweet to my tastes. Later, I began catching kurosoi, a black rockfish (genus Sebastes) common in northern Japan. After broiling a couple of them, I knew I had a good candidate to try in a spicier bean dish.

Two pound rockfish such as this yelloweye are perfect for a whole-fish-for-two dinner. A small zucchini, cut in half, scored, drizzled with olive oil and seasoned with herbs de provence, makes a nice side dish. 

A variety of firm, white-meated fish work well in this dish. Any of the rockfishes in genus Sebastes, black seabass, small stripers, snappers and porgy (sea bream) would be good choices. Any leftover broth from this dish can be served the following day as an excellent soup.

Rockfish in Sweet and Spicy Beans with Miso

For two diners…

Ingredients:

  • One rockfish (or other fish with firm, white meat) weighing about 1 1/2 to 2  pounds with scales, gills and entrails removed.
  • 1 pound of black beans
  • 1 cup of red miso soup broth (make it a little stronger than usual)
  • 1/2 tbsp Jamaican rub or other spicy seasoning featuring hot peppers. Cumin and oregano may be included in the seasoning, or may be added separately.
  • Several cloves of garlic, chopped coarse
  • 1/2 sweet onion, chopped coarse
  • sweet corn (one ear’s worth – about 1 cup)
  • 1 yellow squash (summer squash), sliced into circles, circles cut in half (optional)
  • sea salt to taste (the miso will add quite a bit of salt)
  • freshly ground black pepper, to taste
  • hot chili pepper, sliced thin or chopped fine – just a little for additional heat (optional)
  • two tablespoons honey
  • two tablespoons olive oil
Directions:
  1. Thoroughly clean the fish, pat dry with paper towels, and set aside.
  2. Over medium-low heat, prepare the miso broth in a pan large enough to hold the whole fish (an oblong poacher works best for this, but any large, round pan that has a lid will do).
  3. Stir in the honey until dissolved.
  4. Add the beans, onions, corn, spices (including slices of chili pepper), olive oil and freshly ground pepper. Taste. Add salt and more spices, if desired. Cover with a lid and bring to a simmer.
  5. Add the fish, working it down into the broth.
  6. Cover with a lid and maintain a simmer, reducing heat if necessary, and cook for about 7 minutes. Using two spatulas, carefully turn the fish so that both sides are cooked in the broth. Add the summer squash at this time. Continue simmering on low heat for another 10 to 13 minutes. The fish will be all but falling apart when done. (Cooking the first side for a shorter time before turning the fish will mean that the fish is firmer and therefore easier to turn over.)
  7. Carefully remove the fish to a serving platter. Arrange beans and vegetables around the fish and serve piping hot.
We enjoyed this fish with a red table wine from the state of Washington. Syrah, Malbec, or Merlot would pair well with this dish.

And don’t forget a colorful seasonal salad!