Hi all- meatless Fridays here for Lent. Normally we just would not be eating much but we have company from eastern Europe for 3 weeks until the 20th. They are fine with fish but man have we been doing the cooking. Pooped!
Meatless? I am happy I can get seafood!
Popeyes makes me happy this week.
Here’s a fish recipe that I posted a long time ago - I think it came from a Chesapeake Bay cookbook, and was intended for Bluefish; but it works well with any fish. The capers give it a very nice tangy taste :-)
Bluefish baked with Tomatoes and Capers
1/4 cup Olive oil
1 onion, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
2 T. chopped garlic
1/4 cup chopped green onions
1-1/2 lbs tomatoes, peeled and chopped, with juice (3 cups) OR 1 28-oz can chopped tomatoes
1 Cup dry white wine
3 T. capers, drained and chopped
1/2 tsp. dried thyme
1 bay leaf
Juice of 1 lemon
salt and pepper
4 Bluefish fillets, 6 to 7 oz. each.
Preheat oven to 375F.
In a heavy pot, heat the oil and saute the onions, celery, garlic and green onions until limp.
Add tomatoes, wine, capers, thyme, bay leaf, and lemon juice. Simmer 45 minutes, and season with salt and pepper.
Make a layer of 1/2 the hot tomato sauce in the baking dish. Arrange the fish on top. Spoon the remaining sauce over the fish.
Butter one side of a sheet of waxed paper that is cut to fit the top of the baking dish.
Place the paper, butter side down, on top of the dish.
Bake 20 to 30 minutes, or until the fish flakes.
Remove fillets to a heated platter. Spoon the sauce over, and serve at once. Good over rice.
We love fish! I was ordering fresh fish (walleye) from the Ojibwa Indians in Red Lake Minnesota, but it’s $15/lb, and I found one of the local grocery stores flies in fresh, never frozen fish almost every week, sometimes only $9/lb, depending on the variety. Years ago, when you bought frozen fish in the supermarket, it was sold in little rectangular one pound packages, and when you thawed it out, the fish was nice and moist. But for the last 30 years or so, everything is marketed as “flash frozen” , as if it’s a superior quality. But when you thaw it out, it’s completely water logged, because, if course, it’s been soaked in water before being frozen, the result being pretty tasteless fish. If you blot out all the water, you’re left with a dry, rubbery texture. But that fresh fish, is just like velvet, even if I freeze it myself, after buying it. The taste is wonderful! We’re in flyover country, so we don’t have the luxury of fresh seafood every day, like people on the coast.
Have any of you ever bought the Italian or Mexican salt cod that you have to soak for 3 days? I’ve always wanted to try it. Does it taste anything like fresh?
Dumb question about Lent: why is it so difficult to skip meat only one night of the week? Could you have meat at lunch on Friday? For brunch on Saturday? It doesn’t seem like a huge hardship. Whereas we Jews have to go 8.5 days without any grains or processed carbs except potatoes. I do understand that individuals can give up more personal desired foods for Lent too, so that makes it harder. But fish or no meat on one meal in the week seems like you guys got off easy! ;)