Now, more than ever, I want to eat local food, don’t you? I think we have a need and a desire to cook better, lose weight and eat responsibly-read sustainable. I hope there’s an initiative for eating fresh, local ingredients in your area.
Here’s a typical day of shopping for fresh fish in my neighborhood. A quick note here-Orlando is in the middle of the state, it’s not always easy to buy fresh fish.
Monday morning. I went to the local grocery store, Whole Foods Market. My intention was to buy dinner and also to bring home a second seafood species to put in the freezer for another meal later in the week. I always look for shellfish-it freezes best, but that doesn’t mean I get what I want. This particular Whole Foods Market is not convenient for me, so I always buy a second seafood when I shop there.
The seafood case was packed with fresh, bright, shiny seafood, the way it’s supposed to be. I wanted swordfish. I was in luck. The swordfish on display had bright, red blood lines. The thick, dense flesh was white and firm. When I asked to smell it, I caught a whiff of the ocean, another great sign.
Whole Foods labels their seafood with eco-labels-green, yellow and red for best, good and avoid, respectively. I try to buy responsibly.
Swordfish sports a green label-high on the list for sustainable seafood species. I asked the fish manager if knew where this fish was caught, and was happy to hear that the swordfish was caught in local Florida waters, just east of Orlando, at Port Canaveral.
Now that my swordfish was wrapped and on ice (never leave the counter without a small bag of ice for transport), I spent a little time looking for my second seafood selection.
I was looking for a dense, firm fish; salmon, mahi-mahi, or even shrimp. There were several shrimp varieties, white, pink, rock. They all freeze well, too. Then I noticed stone crab claws were down in price (and made a note to self on that for future). But what caught my eye was the whole cooked dungeness crab. It was buried in a small vat of ice, it’s claws and eyes peeking out, just enough, as if for show. This is a great item for the freezer. It’s already cooked, so preparing it will be a snap. It will only need to be thawed, then steamed. It yields enough crab meat for a salad topping.
Back in my kitchen I prepared blackened swordfish with cauliflower puree and a small tossed salad.
Blackened Swordfish-Serves two
Directions and Ingredients List
This is an incredibly easy seafood dish to prepare. You’ll need six ingredients and three kitchen tools:
A stove-top-to-oven ten inch skillet, tongs and splatter screen.
Rinse and pat dry swordfish. Season with coarse sea salt, cover and refrigerate for thirty minutes.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Prepare the cauliflower puree (either steam it and use and immersion blender or food processor or microwave it) and a fresh salad. Keep the puree warm and cover the salad with a damp paper towel and refrigerate the salad until you’re ready to dress.
- One 8-10 ounce portion of swordfish, skin on, cut in two equal pieces
- Blackened seasoning to cover both sides of fish, about one tablespoon, or more for additional heat
- One tablespoon butter
- One teaspoon olive oil
- Lemon juice
- Chopped green onions or flat leaf parsley for garnish
- Crumbled Blue cheese (optional)
Heat the butter and oil in a skillet on medium high heat until butter melts, but does not brown. Note: Clarified butter will not brown, but it’s expensive. This will take several minutes. You want the pan hot.
Place the fish in the skillet and cover the skillet with it with the splatter screen and turn on the oven hood or open a window as the blackened seasoning will smoke. Sear for one minute on each side. Place the entire skillet (minus the screen) into the oven to finish cooking the fish. Finished cooking time depends on the thickness of the fish. Ten minutes per inch is the cooking rule. If you’re using the Blue cheese, place a small amout (a little goes a long way) on the fish one minute before you remove it from the oven. Ten minutes is total cooking time. The fish will continue to cook slightly once it’s removed from the oven.
Once the fish is in the oven, it’s time to dress the salad, pour the wine and light the candles.
Remove the fish from the oven, plate up (on a dark-colored plate for contrast) with cauliflower puree. Squeeze lemon juice on fish and garnish with chopped herbs. Serve immediately.
Enjoy!
