Today I was at Whole Foods and got so many wonderful fresh foods. I chose the Mahi Mahi for dinner and picked up a mango to make a salsa to go with it. Years ago, before kids, we used to shop regularly at Hay Day (now Balducci’s) and once got their tropical fruit salsa to go with Red Snapper. Since then we’ve been making different combinations of fruit salsas for certain fish. I love the firm sweet-tartness of mangos, but sometimes we add cantaloupe, honeydew and /or pineapple. With a little red onion, cilantro (try mint if you hate cilantro), lime juice, orange juice, hot pepper (habanero goes nicely with fruit, but be careful as they can be extremely hot. Use a surgical glove as I previously suggested so you don’t burn your eyes later if you forget you’ve got hot pepper juice on your fingers!), it makes such a great topping for fish, pork or chicken. We add the hot peppers last, so that we can separate some for the kids, then have ours as hot as we’d like. Prepare salsa before the fish or vegetables as it should sit in juices and pepper — for the flavors to come out. Basmati Rice, green beans and beet greens rounded out the meal.
I try to always buy my beets with the greens attached, but they don’t always sell them that way unless they’re really fresh. I lop the greens off the top the day I purchase them but the roots (beets) can stay another day or two. Chop the greens with stalks attached into one inch strips and steam until wilted. You can do this anytime during the meal preparation, as you will reheat when it’s time to serve. You also probably want to leave the leafless stalk for a juicer if you have one (unfortunately right now I don’t). Once you are ready to serve, just reheat in sauté pan with pat of butter, pinch of sea salt and fresh ground pepper to taste. (You’ll see a pattern here with veggie preparation). Beet greens are similar in texture and color to chard but less minerally and sweeter. My kids really love them.
For the Mahi-Mahi preparation: cut into approximately 5-6 oz size portions, discarding any bloodline (the dark colored section in the middle of the filet), then season with sea salt and pepper. On high in a sauté pan get canola oil (or other mild vegetable oil) hot then add the Mahi-Mahi and reduce heat to med-high. Turn over when fish is nice and golden brown. Reduce heat further to med-low so it’s not getting blackened, but cooking through. It is a bit messy with the splatters, but it only takes a few minutes to cook this way. If you are cooking rice, time the rice and when you see there’s 8 minutes left, it’s a perfect time to cook the fish.
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