Pan-Seared Bluefin Tuna

We were very fortunate yesterday to be given four fresh, local tuna steaks. The tuna was caught by harpoon off the coast of Massachusetts by a friend of a friend. Bluefin tuna are enormous and can reach over 900 lbs. Needless to say, the gentleman who caught the tuna had lots of excess meat and he invited us to come to his home to try some. He showed us photos of the process and the harpoons used. It was really fascinating.

So what to do with bluefin tuna? It is often found on sushi menus as sashimi because of its wonderful buttery-smooth texture. We were not able to have it immediately though. I thought of making tuna tartare or ceviche, but I didn’t want the delicate texture and flavor to get lost. I decided to pan-sear it, which was exactly what our friend had suggested.

Tuna and soy sauce really are close buddies and so I decided to make a lightly sweetened sauce using soy, sesame oil and brown sugar. It’s a very simple recipe, but adds a wonderful salty-sweet flavor to the tuna without overwhelming.

Pan-Seared Bluefin Tuna – serves 2

2 – 1/2 lb. bluefin tuna steaks
1 t sesame oil
1 t sesame seeds

Heat sesame oil in a large  skillet over a medium high flame. Place tuna steaks on the skillet.

Cook for 1 minute on either side. The outside should be just gray and the inside should still be ruby red.

Remove from heat and plate with Brown Sugar Soy Sauce (below) and garnish with sesame seeds.

Brown Sugar Soy Sauce – makes about 1/3 cup

3 T soy sauce
1 T sesame oil
2 T brown sugar

In a small saucepan, combine the soy sauce, sesame oil and brown sugar.

Over medium heat, whisk continuously to emulsify. Bring to a boil and allow to simmer 1 minute. Remove from heat.

Boiled Lobster

Seasonality is a wonderful thing. Along with all of the fantastically fresh local veggies this time of year, there are a few other things that are at their peak and lobster is one of them. Lobsters shed their shells in the spring and form newer, softer shells which are much easier to crack.

Fortunately for my family, summer is a big birthday season, which coincides perfectly with lobster season. It’s a tradition in my family to gather this time of year for birthday feasts of boiled lobster, grilled or boiled local sweet corn, potato salad and a nice green salad with fresh local vegetables.

For size, I like to stay within the 1 -1 1/2 lb. range, as lobster meat can get a bit tough once it hits the 2 lb. mark. Apart from being a healthy, low fat source of animal protein, rich in B vitamins and omega-3s, lobster is also incredibly easy to prepare. It’s literally as simple as boiling water.

Don’t be intimidated by lobster. My personal preference is to give them as much space as possible to cook, by either boiling them one at a time or in two separate pots, to ensure that they meet their end as quickly as possible. The water temperature drops with each lobster added to the pot, so if the pot is over-loaded, it will take longer to get back up to a rolling boil. Also, and this is just my own neurosis, if cooking one at a time, I like to place the cooked lobster on the opposite side of the room from the one about to go into the pot. Yes, I cook and eat lobster, but I’m not that heartless.

Once cooked, there is the issue of getting the meat from the shell. Don’t be intimidated. Busting into a lobster is not a delicate practice by nature, so don’t fret about getting your hands all lobstery. I recommend cracking the claws and knuckles with the dull end of a knife in the kitchen before serving. This helps excess water to drain from the shell and it also makes the meat easier to remove with a cracker and a pick at the table, just be careful of shards. For the tail meat, simply twist the tail off and open the shell by cracking the under side with your thumbs.  The best meat is arguably found in the claws and tail, though some meat can be found in the little legs and joints – also called knuckles – on the lobster’s body.

Lastly, don’t wear a bib.

Boiled Lobster - serves 2

2 – 1 1/2 lb lobsters
water
2 T salt per pot
1/4 C drawn butter

Fill one or two large stockpots about three quarters full with water and add the salt. Cover and bring to a rolling boil. Drop the lobster in head first, one per pot, and cover immediately. Boil for 15 minutes, lowering heat to medium halfway through. Remove the lobster from the water and allow 5 to 10 minutes to cool.

Remove elastic bands. To reduce the amount of water released when the lobster is served, crack the claws before serving. Place the lobster on a cutting board and using the dull end of a knife crack each claw and the two knuckle joints. Lift the lobster and allow to drain.

Serve with drawn butter.

Lemon Basil Redfish

One fish, two fish, red fish. No bluefish, but this week’s Fresh Catch was indeed redfish, or ocean perch. After many weeks of cod, which I do adore, I was thrilled when my favorite fish expert pulled a bag of big-eyed, red fish out of the CAFC cooler. Yay!

I made a dish similar to this with last week’s sole, using lemon and fresh basil. I loved the way it filled our kitchen with that fragrant, flowery basil aroma. It went well with the sole, so I decided to try it out with the redfish. The result offered that fantastic flavor and aroma of fresh basil, and the tang of lemon which added just the right amount of zing to the the fish.

Cape Ann Fresh Catch has a new season beginning on August 9th. I plan to join, mainly for the whiting – a delicate and seasonal white fish. I fell in love with fresh whiting from the share last fall and I was disappointed to find that’s not available fresh all year, and not surprisingly it is not as delicate when acquired from the supermarket freezer.

I have learned more about local fish and its seasonality in the past year of being a member of Cape Ann Fresh Catch than I have in my entire life, which has been spent on or near the coast of New England. This fact speaks to our dependence on supermarkets that maintain a uniform stock from coast to coast. I cannot count the number of times I’ve asked at our local supermarket fish counter where the lobster comes from, only to be told it’s just been shipped in from Canada, when I can see lobster traps from my window.

Anyway, CAFC’s new season starts on the 9th, and the application can be found here.

Lemon Basil Redfish – serves  5 – 6

5 – 6 redfish (ocean perch) – about 3 lb
olive oil
juice of 1 lemon
1 C basil, loosely chopped
1 t salt
2 T olive oil

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees

Meanwhile, watch the video. Remove the fins (which are sharp). Make an incision to remove the – how shall I put it delicately? Guts. Remove the gills and give the fish a rinse. I learned the hard way that it is a good idea to remove all of the black lining. Apparently this is important with ocean perch because it can have a bitter flavor. We didn’t scale it, but that would probably be a good idea.

Lightly grease a baking sheet with olive oil. Place the fish on the sheet, salt the inside, and stuff with basil. Drizzle with olive oil and lemon juice.

Bake for 20 minutes.

Serve whole – each fish is an individual serving. Just peel back the skin and watch for bones.

Ingredient origins: redfish – local waters, lemon – California, basil – Massachusetts, sea salt – Maine, olive oil – Italy

Lobster Stuffed Flounder

We are members of a CSF – a wonderful program that offers shareholders fresh fish, caught locally the morning of pick-up. It’s like a CSA, but with fish. This week’s catch was flounder – 12 fillets. In case you were wondering, that’s a lot of fish. Fortunately, I was hosting a pot luck dinner the following evening.

There are plenty of lovely ways to make flounder, but I decided to make roulades with a lobster meat stuffing just to kick things up a notch. Back in my pescatarian days, I was really big into fish stuffed with lobster, and much preferred its fancy-factor over a simply baked white fish – which is also great of course, just not as special-occasion-y.

Some recipes call for a great big list of ingredients for the stuffing. I like to keep it simple in order to prevent the lobster meat from getting lost, because if you’re going to throw in a whole crisper drawer, you might as well just use imitation crab meat (horrors!), and that would surely be less than stellar. Lobster meat is combined with just enough onion and butteriness to complement its sweetness, and thin flounder fillets make the perfect pouch for the stuffing.

I recommend using a glass or ceramic baking dish, which will keep the roulades warm after they have been removed from the oven.

In other news, for the potluck, my gracious friends brought a fantastic salad, chocolate cakes, bananas foster spring rolls, a white cake with fruit, pound cake with strawberries and perfect homemade whipped cream, and fantastically rich gluten-free brownies (Thank you ladies if you are reading this!), and we served my Roasted Pork Tenderloin, and a strawberry rhubarb pie that I improvised. A lovely, lovely evening.

Lobster Stuffed Flounder - serves 6 – 12

12 flounder fillets
1 C crushed buttery crackers
1/2 C mayonnaise
1/2 lb lobster meat (about 3 tails)
2 green onions, finely chopped
1 egg

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In a large bowl combine crushed crackers, mayo, green onion, lobster meat and egg.

Lay fillet flat on a work surface and spoon a compact 1/4 cup of stuffing onto the center of the fillet. Fold the sides of the fillet over the stuffing.

Arrange stuffed fillets in a buttered 9″x 13″ baking dish.

Bake for 25 minutes.

Serve to dear friends/ people who like fish.

Filo Fish Pie

I eat a lot of fish. In fact, we belong to community supported fishery. It’s great and there’s often a quite a bit left over. I developed this recipe during our winter share, when we had a good amount of excess each week and I wanted to create a decadent and flavorful dish with the leftover cooked fish. For some reason, when I think decadent, I always think flaky.

Briny and sharp, feta adds satisfying tang to white fish. Flaky filo makes this dish reminiscent of burek (though not nearly as rich and fantastic – it’ll be a mighty day when I have the chops to pull off burek).

Filo Fish Pie – serves 4 – 6

1.5 lb cooked (poached or baked) cod, haddock, pollock or another round white fish
1/2 lb filo dough (about 20 sheets)
6 – 8 ounces feta cheese, diced
1/3 C olive oil

If starting with fresh fish as opposed to leftover, begin by baking or oven-poaching the fish at 400 degrees for 15 minutes. If poaching, I recommend using a combination of 1/2 C white wine and 1/2 C fish stock.

Remove any skin or pin bones from the fish.

Brushing each layer of filo dough with olive oil as you go, layer10 sheets (or half of a 1/2 lb. package) into baking dish Depending on the size, the sheets may need to be folded or overlapped to line the dish. It’s not a huge deal if it’s not perfect. Despite how delicate filo is, it’s also forgiving in the end result.

Place chunks of the fish in the filo-lined dish. Top with diced feta.

Layer the rest of the filo over the the top of the pie, brushing each layer as before. Fold the edges up over the sides to seal.

Bake 25 minutes at 350 until golden brown.

Ingredient origins: Cod – Coastal New England; White wine – California; Feta – Maine; Filo – New Jersey; Olive oil – Italy