Blowfish tails recipe: a springtime Greenmarket discovery

The seafood display at our Bay Ridge seasonal Greenmarket (Walgreens parking lot at 95th St and 3rd Ave) really caught my eye this past weekend. It was beautifully arranged and much more varied than usual. I noticed some appealing-looking little fish cuts in one corner and learned they were blowfish tails, and only available for a limited time. The guy behind the table gave me 3 to try and on the walk home I daydreamed about the spices I would use on them.

As soon as we got home I set to work sautéing several small bulbs of fresh spring garlic in plenty of grass-fed ghee. Then I added the tails and sprinkled on sea salt, ground ginger, cumin, and just a tiny dash of cayenne powder. According to the fish vendor's instructions I turned the tails once during cooking, and of course seasoned the other side as well. It as clear when they were done: the color of the fish had changed and there was a nice crust.

The results: unbelievably delicious! My mouth is watering as I type this and I can hardly wait to buy more tomorrow.

Salmon roe gems

I recently discovered that Whole Foods sells wild salmon roe in small jars for $11. When we consider how important fish eggs were in traditional cultures for children and pregnant/lactating women, I feel the expense is justified though it's hard to swallow the environmental implications of eating anything from as far away as Alaska. A small jar can last a few weeks, and we will not be eating this regularly, though I hope in the next few weeks to find some good sources of wild roe from local anglers/fishmongers, and save it in some way to last throughout the year. (Traditionally, it was dried for preservation. It can also be frozen or canned.)

I enjoy mine on crackers with raw milk sour cream, while Oliver eats his mixed with sour cream, from a small bowl using his very own little spoon. He eats this with great gusto!

The saturated fat in the cream works synergistically with the mono-unsaturated fats in the fish eggs to allow for optimal absorption of all the available nutrients (we see this instinctive wisdom in traditional dishes, like the Greek spread taramosalata, which uses cream and roe). Just the color alone is a feast for the eyes -- in more ways than one!

Preparing for the week

I will be honest with you here: eating well does require commitment, time, and planning ahead. I probably spend 2 hours per day preparing food (this includes 3 meals and sometimes packing a lunch for Hugo), and this doesn't include planning and shopping or cleaning up. I could do it more quickly, but I enjoy my time in the kitchen with Oliver playing at my feet, so I do things at a somewhat leisurely pace. I realize, of course, that I am pretty spoiled to be able to take time preparing healthy meals from fresh ingredients, but most of the things I make are far from elaborate and with a little prep work on the weekend it's possible to enjoy delicious meals all week without too much labor.

The picture above shows seeds (all beans, nuts, and whole grains are really seeds) of various kinds soaking in water and either salt or whey. Soaking neutralizes phytic acid in whole grains and de-activates enzyme inhibitors found in all forms of seeds. Soaking also renders seeds of all kinds more nutritious and digestible. For this week I am preparing the following:
1) black beans (which must be soaked with something acidic, like whey or lemon juice -- 2 tbsp. per cup of beans, and enough water to keep the beans covered as they swell)
2) peanuts (soaked with plenty of water and 1 tbsp. sea salt for about 4 cups of peanuts; later I will toast these in the oven for about 12-24 hours at 140 degrees, and make them into peanut butter with some coconut oil and sea salt)
3) quinoa (soaked with whey or lemon juice: 1 tbsp. per cup of grain. The longer you soak quinoa the better the results when it's cooked! Five days is great, but it should be at least one day.)
4) brown rice (also should be soaked overnight with lemon juice or whey: 1 tbsp. per cup of rice)

Other tasks for the week include:
-washing, chopping and taking the lettuce for a spin in the salad spinner
-cutting up the cantaloupe and melon
-making stock from the leftover chicken bones of last week's roasted chicken (I use carrots, celery, and onions for this, plus a big pot of water and 2 tbsp. raw apple cider vinegar to bring the minerals out of the bones and veggies). When the stock is done I will season it with sea salt and strain everything into freezer containers to be used later (such as, when cooking the beans and quinoa). I will also reserve the cooked carrots from the stock to use in the stuffed peppers.
-making bean dip after the beans are soaked and cooked (I use sour cream and spices and mix everything together in the food processor)
-making ice cream
-making salad dressing
-making peanut butter (when the peanuts have been soaked and toasted)
-marinating the tuna (rinse & pat dry the raw fresh tuna; then slice as desired and marinate in 2-4 tbsp. lime juice and an optional 2 tbsp. whey -- the bacteria found in raw lime juice and liquid whey will crowd out any dangerous bacteria on the raw fish so that it will be totally safe to eat. It also begins invisibly breaking down the tuna which makes it much easier to digest and absorb.)

I will also make mayo at some point this week, and chicken liver & onion pate (recipe to follow at some point soon!). Stay tuned for stuffed peppers with quinoa, and khoresh bademjan later in the week.

Please share about what you will be cooking (and/or eating) this week. What types of food preparations do you do early in the week so that you can eat well all week long?

Simple summer salad

Yesterday for lunch Oliver and I enjoyed some delicious canned salmon (wild-caught, from Alaska). Generally I prefer to source our foods locally, but we have been tightening our budget belt a little lately and so I have turned to high-quality canned salmon as a great option for healthy fish. Oliver had his salmon pre-chewed (by me) and mixed with a little raw butter and a tiny pinch of sea salt. I opted to spread mine in chunks over a big fresh salad of red leaf and romaine lettuces, with red onion, radishes, and cucumber (all from the Union Square Greenmarket, purchased Monday). A big leafy green salad is a delicious and budget-friendly summer meal with each huge fresh head of lettuce currently at around $2-3. I got mine 2-for-$5 at a small organic stand run by a Korean couple. I also included some crumbled raw milk cheddar from Central Valley Farm. For dressing, I used the classic vinaigrette I love so well and enjoy making so much (see my instructions here).

When buying canned salmon, look for the words "wild-caught" and "Alaskan." Of course, if this is cost-prohibitive just get the best you can afford. However, the Alaskan salmon is generally considered cleaner in terms of pollution, and of course you always want to buy wild-caught, even if you are on a tight budget, as farmed salmon are notoriously bad for the environment and not great for your health either. Try to get a brand that contains only fish, and perhaps a little sea salt. And be sure to serve the skin and bones (they are quite soft), which are delicious and highly nutritious as well!

Naturally you will want to round out this meal a bit, depending on your appetite, activity level, and taste. I opted for a toasted slice of whole wheat sourdough miche (from Bread Alone, an organic bakery at the USG which doesn't include yeast in their sourdough). I spread it thickly with raw butter (from Springwater Farm in PA), and also had a local peach for dessert. If you're still hungry, include a glass of kefir or raw milk next time with your meal, or slice a hard-boiled pasture-raised egg on top of the salad.

Please weigh in here: what do you like for lunch in the summer? What do you enjoy putting on your salads? Where do you get great local ingredients?

Make whey while the sun shines

To put it very simply, whey is the watery part of milk and is rich in lactobacilli (friendly bacteria which produce lactic acid). I use it to start many food-prep processes, including soaking oatmeal, lacto-fermentation, preserving homemade mayo, and preparing raw fish. Before I started buying whey through our buyers' club, I made my own from a container of plain organic yogurt. I use Seven Stars, which worked well, but you could use any kind -- just make sure it's unflavored and full fat. As a byproduct (or really the whey is the byproduct I suppose) you will also have a sort of homemade cream cheese which is delicious spread on muffins. I take my recipe (and most of my recipes) from Nourishing Traditions, by Sally Fallon. Here's what she writes:

"Line a large strainer set over a bowl with a clean dish towel. Pour in the yogurt, cover with a towel, and let stand at room temperature for about a day. The whey will run into the bowl and the milk solids will stay in the strainer. After a day, tie up the towel with the milk solids inside, being careful not to squeeze. Tie this little sack to a wooden spoon placed across the top of a container so that more whey can drip out. When the bag stops dripping, the cream cheese is ready. Store whey in a glass jar and cream cheese in a covered glass container. Refrigerated, the cream cheese keeps for about 1 month and the whey for about 6 months."

Planning ahead

I just referred to this week's menu, which is posted on the refrigerator, to find out if I need to prepare anything for tomorrow's meals. I am planning brown rice and baby bok choy stir-fry for dinner tomorrow night, with tamari (soy sauce), sesame oil, and about 1/3 lb. of wild Alaskan salmon (yes, shared between two people with good appetites! this is one of our ways of spreading our food dollars a little further). This meal requires defrosting the salmon, obviously, but perhaps more importantly, soaking the rice! Again, this is to neutralize phytic acid and enzyme inhibitors that are naturally present in most whole grains, seeds, and nuts. Soaking and sprouting are two great ways to fix these pesky problems. Like the oatmeal, I soak my brown rice (the short grain variety, which has a nicer taste and texture for Asian dishes) with the same amount of warm water and 2 tbsp. of whey per cup of rice.

Here is my bowl of 2 cups brown rice, 2 cups water, and 4 tbsp. whey. Not much to see really. It's best to let your grains soak at least a full day, or even longer. [Not long ago I made a fantastic stuffed butternut squash dish that incorporated quinoa and lots of veggies. I put the quinoa on to soak a bit too soon and it was in the water and whey for five days! Smelled a little odd, but I rinsed and cooked it and it tasted absolutely DELICIOUS. I have never been a quinoa fan as it has always tasted funny to me, but now I know how to make it taste better! The extended soaking definitely did the trick.]

Other recent preparations for future meals includes: saving all remnants of our turkey meals (bones, skin - everything that was not consumed) for making soup later in the week. I like to pop everything into a ziploc bag or plastic container and stick it in the freezer until I'm ready to use it, just so I don't have to worry about spoiling. This makes for easy and delicious homemade stock!

Scallops & Shallots

I enjoyed a delicious lunch today (warning: stop reading right now if you're currently feeling hungry!). As usual I spent about an hour in all between preparation, eating, and clean-up. Oliver enjoyed playing on the kitchen floor while I worked.

I have been making a concerted effort to eat more seafood -- a current favorite is wild sea scallops (the big ones), cooked until slightly brown and caramelized in a pan coated with melted butter and plenty of fresh lemon juice. I add a little sea salt, too, of course, and cook on both sides, only for a few minutes. Also enjoyed some whole wheat spaghetti (a special treat as I try to eat pasta only occasionally), tossed with shallots sauteed in olive oil -- yum! Steamed carrots with butter rounded out this meal. The scallops and shallots were from the Union Square Greenmarket. These particular scallops were some of the best I have EVER tasted. Not too shabby for a Monday lunch!