Buying Fish

Buying fish can be challenging, or I mean fresh fish. We are lucky to have two fishmongers in our area within an hour’s drive: Santa Rosa Seafood and Anna’s Seafood in Petaluma. Both places offer the freshest fish. My family and I eat fish twice a week. I shop weekly at Santa Rosa Seafood. I go with a few recipes in mind and then I select what they are offering that day.

My kids love shell fish, clams, mussels, oysters, shrimp, crab, and lobster. They also enjoy swordfish, branzino, halibut, sea bass, mahi mahi, and other white fish. Sockeye Salmon is a favorite as far as Salmon go. My husband and I love tune so we will get that for ourselves and make Salad Nicoise.

Fish is pretty easy to cook. We love to grill fish and make taco’s or with grilled vegetables. When grilling whole fish, the best thing to do is to stuff the cavity with fresh herbs, citrus, garlic and/or onions. We then tie it with kitchen twine and the skin gets crispy and the inside tastes tender and delicious. I find a sauce of some kind makes the fish better. For lighter fish a warm lemon juice and butter works seasoned with salt and pepper. For a more robust sauce with a heartier fish a Romenesco or Chimichurri. I also grew up eating a lot of Filet of Sole. My grandmother would make a sauce with Best Foods Mayo, fresh or dried Tarragon, salt, fresh ground pepper, seasoned rice vinegar, dijon mustard and a touch paprika. This sauce compliments most fish as well as a dip for artichokes, asparagus, or for a crudites.

Cedar and alder planks are delicious when soaked in water, white wine or saki and then place salmon on to grill. The flavor from the wood and the soaking liquid adds so much flavor to the fish.

Fish also goes well with grains, pastas and soups/stews, paellas, and more. My husband always whips up fish stews in the Fall/Winter/Spring. He does tomato/white wine broth, fish stock/wine, or just a simple vegetable broth with lots of fresh herbs, garlic and shallots.

Get creative and like chicken you have an open pallet, experiment and use flavors that appeal to you. For summer cooking when grilling fish I like to use lots of citrus, cilantro and throw a jalapeno in there to give the flavor some depth.It doesn’t make it spicy but there is a kick on the finish.