stacey . smoore . the staceyfish . 
Life in a Northern Town: the exploits of an ecstatic Alaskan
Lens: the adventures of a girl and her camera
I live in Alaska so getting wonderfully fresh seafood is not a problem. Most Alaska seafood requires next to nothing to improve its flavor and interest, so many of these recipes will be quick and simple to prepare and wonderfully light and fresh. For best results when grilling halibut, remove from heat when an internal temperature of 140 degrees is reached.
As I mentioned in the previous entry, since moving to Tucson, Cory and I have really gotten into grilling our dinners. I'm enamored of the ease of it all - after so long of being confined to a kitchen in a cold climate, making fairly elaborate meals, it's a relief to so some basic prep work and then hand off the food to Cory to cook it. The wonderful part is that we're not sacrificing any flavor or quality with the method.
Fish is our protein of choice as often as we can get it - not as easy as it sounds in the middle of the Sonoran Desert. Cory and I started enumerating our favorite fish tonight over dinner, and it turns out that Cory's favorite happen to be one his plate. We got especially hooked on it when we were in Hawaii a year and a half ago because, really, does it get any better than when it's fresh off the boat, raw, and prepared in a poke? If you can't get it that way, it's best prepared simply, with as little cooking as possible.
With that in mind, we set out to create something yummy that would complement not only the flavor of the fish itself but also the memories of our time on the Island. What we whipped together tastes fresh and light, with just the right texture between the rare ahi and crispy slaw and the sweet and tart flavors brought in by the salsa and lime. The avocado ties it all together and just makes everything better, just like it always does. Enjoy the tacos with the grilled veggies and a chilled dry white wine to tie together a healthy and satisfying summer meal!
Click here for the recipe for "Ahi tuna tacos with grilled broccoli and peppers" »
I just so happened to be wandering the aisles of New Sagaya today, lamenting my recent travels and the Martian death flu that resulted in me not cooking in a full two weeks, steadily depleting my frozen stores of homemade soups, breads, and lasagnas, and dreaming of making yet another Margherita pizza, and before I knew it I was in front of the seafood case.
*cue soft-focus light and an angelic choir singing*
It was a beautiful sight that greeted me.
Fresh (fresh!) red salmon! Not frozen, but fresh! And not any red salmon, but Copper River red salmon!
It had been so long since I had seen fresh red salmon, I must have started salivating right there. I quickly ordered a small fillet, kinda glad that someone had neglected to scrawl the price on the glass with a grease pencil.
And let's just say that it's a damn good thing I got paid that economic stimulus free money today. Yessiree, at $25 a pound, I'd better have had some serious cash on hand for that kind of extravagance. But I'm an Alaskan who believes that you've gotta get the seasonal seafood when the getting's good so I was more than happy to shell out.
But here's the real salmon snob coming out in me here: I don't understand the premium placed on Copper River salmon. I know that it's shipped all over the country to be served in fancy-pants restaurants and so the whole law of supply and demand dictates that that particular fish is going to be spendy. Despite that, I honestly think that regular ol' any-river-in-Alaska produces tastier - and more economically priced - sockeyes. But I'm only human and it was the first fresh salmon to be in a seafood case since September and I had a free six hundred bucks in my pocket! Right then, in that moment, I could afford to pay a premium for the first reds of the season.
It was in my oven less than half an hour after being dearly bought and it was in my tummy shortly thereafter. And it was yummy. Salmon season, how I love thee so!
Same recipe as last year, just with a new photo and a good story ยป
Many years ago I was very, very anti-fish. I eschewed that which went forward on no legs -- just fins -- preferring my critters to cluck or moo.
As I got older I started to get skeptical about my anti-fish rule. There were some species that were tasty, and swordfish is really the first actual fish that was prepared like a fish (i.e. not in stick form) that I would readily ate. A couple of years later we moved to Washington state and my parents fell in love with all the salmon there. I refused to eat the stuff, hating everything about it. At some point when we lived there I started to come around -- really, it's tough to resist fresh wild salmon, especially when it's prepared well like my parents do.
Before too long I was eating the stuff enthusiastically and my salmon-hating days were all but forgotten (in fact, I hadn't remembered that I used to hate salmon for a good eight years or so until I sat down to write this entry). But there was trouble in paradise -- I started going to college in Texas, the land of beef, where if a fish and a cow met they would probably annihilate each other just like matter and antimatter. So for many moons I was salmonless, refusing to eat that Atlantic and farmed pale facsimile of salmon.
After college I moved to Alaska though -- and soon re-discovered my favorite fishy friend. It's so abundant and readily available out here -- even in the winter -- that I soon started to look for different ways to prepare it. Don't get me wrong, sprinkled with rosemary and garlic and grilled is awesome, but there's more than one way to cook a fish. I needed something that would fit into my diet more easily (i.e. not just dinner) because I certainly wasn't eating enough of the stuff.
A couple of weeks ago I ran across an article on NPR's Kitchen Window that featured canned wild Alaska salmon. I was immediately intrigued and mentally filed it away. A couple of days ago I ran across a couple of cans of the stuff in the grocery store and the recipes could sense that their time had come.
So today when I was feeling pretty peckish for lunch, I mixed up the salad, pulled out some greens, and sliced into a fresh loaf of my favorite sandwich bread. First impressions? This salmon salad is superb -- it almost reminds me of a super-gourmet tuna salad, but with much better flavor and no mayo (and hence a heck of a lot less fat). To me, this is the perfect way to re-create a bad recipe: add a couple of very flavorful, very healthy ingredients (dijon mustard, balsamic vinegar, dill, and cranberries) and omit the unhealthy and untasty bad stuff (mayo, yellow mustard, egg yolks, and pickles) and replace one fish (tuna) with another that has less mercury and more omega-3s. You're left with something much better tasting and much better for you. If that's not a winner I don't know what is.
I hate to tell you this, but if you live anywhere that is not Alaska or Washington and you think you've been eating salmon, you've been lied to. That pale, flavorless fish dubbed "Atlantic salmon" that is farmed and sold all over the country is a very poor facsimile of the real thing.
This time of year in Alaska, salmon doesn't get any real-er. The reds are running and the prized Copper River salmon is in season. This wild fish is deep red in color when raw -- it's as deep in hue as a tuna steak but much, much brighter. Think Crayola red, and you're just about right. It has superb flavor unrivaled by its commericalized cousin. It's just asking to be grilled simply adorned and devoured.
It only comes around once a year -- get it while it's here!
Click here for the recipe for "Grilled Copper River Red Salmon" »