Fishy, Fishy, Fishy, Fish

Posted on June 25, 2010 by admin

Choosing fish these days creates all sorts of decision making stress. The dilemma surrounds what not to buy—some fish might have mercury or PCB contamination and others are over-fished. So what to buy? There are lists online to help. Here are two: one here and the other here.

The other day my husband bought swordfish, a fish I never buy myself; I tend to stay away from large fish because of mercury. Tuna we eat more often than swordfish but still not as much as we used to now that we have children. I like tunafish salad sandwiches and adore sushi, but don’t have either more than once monthly. (Canned tuna has higher levels of mercury, so beware.) We probably eat swordfish once or twice a year. We figure since it’s so seldom that we might as well enjoy it when we do- and will only buy it when it looks so very good.

We grilled the swordfish and we served it with a choice of sauces: puttanesca and a lemon caper sauce; Forbidden Black rice; CSA rainbow chard; micro bok choy (really small bok choy); and CSA garlic scapes.

Start rice first. Forbidden Black Rice name comes from long ago when it was forbidden for anyone but the Emperor to eat. It becomes a deep dark purple when cooked and is a whole grain rice that is supposedly high in iron. We love the taste, and the boys love the color too.

Steam chard and bok choy and shock to stop cooking. Leave to side to finish later. Steam or blanch garlic scapes and finish on the grill.

My two eldest kids love capers and will pick them out of sauces to eat first. For the lemon caper sauce just a squeeze half a lemon over 3 Tbsp of capers and two pats of butter. I put it in the microwave for 40 seconds, stirred and served! So easy and quick. You can also do it on the stove. Just want to melt butter and warm capers.

Puttanesca sauce is really quick to make too. Just a little more chopping.

1 shallot or 1/4 white onion finely diced
1 large garlic clove chopped
1 plum tomato, seeded
3 anchovies or 1 Tbsp anchovy paste
Handful of green or black olives, pitted and chopped.
2-3 Tbsp capers
Black pepper to tasteHeat over stove until tomatoes have disintegrated.

Not every child will like puttanesca, but seeing that most kids like salty foods, some might surprise you! We serve the sauces on the side so our kids can control how much they would like of them and where they want it placed!

To prepare the swordfish put olive oil, salt and pepper on a plate, place one side in oil then turn until both sides are nicely coated. Place on hot grill and cook about 3 minutes on each side. (The cooking times vary depending on your grill and the thickness of the swordfish.)

Reheat the chard with touch of butter, salt and pepper. Reheat the bok choy with butter or canola oil, sesame oil and soy sauce as I’ve noted before.

Picnic and Barbecue Time

Posted on June 1, 2010 by admin

I find it really challenging to get kids to eat the healthier choices when we’re out. We had several picnics and barbecues over the Memorial Day weekend starting with my kindergartener’s class concert/family picnic. I made a quick lunch with leftover steak, egg salad, mixed greens salad and strawberries. The dessert table was full of blue jello cups, blue punch, cupcakes and very shiny marshmallow treats. I find it so hard to get the kids to eat anything healthy if other children are already on dessert, but they have to have some good things first before they’re allowed. I also try to get the kids to not pick the artificially colored desserts and choose the more “real” stuff like ice cream and cupcakes. Not sure that I’m on the right track but the color thing gets to me. I don’t serve my children dessert at every meal or every dinner for that matter, but I do give them some sometimes. And again, holidays and birthdays my rules get much more relaxed. They’re even allowed soda on those days (I try to get the ones without preservatives and artificial ingredients- like Virgil’s- if I buy any, which is next to never) but I serve them real juice or water if it’s available.

One of the parties we went to I brought my mother’s old standby rice salad with tuna. It’s such an unusual combination but so many people love it. Perfect for summer gatherings. My kids love it too! Maybe it’s the crunchiness and sweetness of the apple together with saltiness of the tuna and pickle.

Julia’s Rice & Tuna Salad

One and a half cups of white or brown rice (or 3/4 of each), cooled
One or two cans of tuna (depending on your taste preference)
1/2 onion chopped (I prefer red)
2 peeled and cubed tart apples, (Granny Smiths, Braeburns) soaked in a little water and lemon juice so they don’t turn brown
2 pickles cubed
2 chopped plum tomatoes –sans seeds if possible
4 hard-boiled eggs cut into large pieces (add last so they don’t break apart too much)
handful of chopped parsley
Tbsp fresh chopped basil or mint (optional)
vinaigrette or Italian style dressing
sea salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

Mix together and serve chilled.

I also have another great rice and fish salad that I adapted from Chef David Raymer’s chopped rice salad. You can make it with white fish or salmon or even canned salmon. Fabulous for left-overs!

Make it same way as above but without the apples, eggs, tuna or pickles.

Use the rice, red onion, tomatoes, chopped fresh basil, and vinaigrette dressing.

Add veggies-(select your favorite or what ever’s left over) like zucchini, summer squash, asparagus, cauliflower, broccoli and green beans (prefer haricot verte)—all chopped. Add handful of nicoise olives, several handfuls of chopped mesclun greens and 2-3 Tbsp capers. Really delicious! Not all my children will eat the olives but they love capers …and the salad in general.

Mahi-Mahi with Mango Salsa

Posted on May 25, 2010 by admin

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.

My Kids Really Eat This

getting kids to eat well in the real world

Tag Archives: fish

Fishy, Fishy, Fishy, Fish

Picnic and Barbecue Time

Mahi-Mahi with Mango Salsa