Cooking with the Dutchess:
By Hanneke Eerden
I have to admit I’m more a meat-lover than a fish-lover. And I really try to eat fish at least once a week, but for some reason in the winter time it’s just tough to follow that option versus eating it during the summer. What I like most is a whole fish on the grill, stuffed with some herbs and lemon, or cedar-planked salmon from the grill. Oh how I wish it was summer already!
Many years ago, when I was just a little Dutchess, I went fishing with my Dad a few times. I didn’t understand what was so fun about fishing (and I still don’t) and besides, he never took the fish he caught back home. You have to know, my Mom will never eat fish, she really dislikes it. It’s already tough for her to watch a gold fish swimming in a little fish bowl! Every time Dad came home after fishing, my Mom asked: “and, did you catch anything?”and the standard answer my Dad gave: “no nothing, guess we’ll have meat for dinner today”. And meat it was for dinner!
So maybe it’s because I’m not used to eating fish as a regular meal, but the fact is… I just like meat more. When I go out for dinner, I will never order fish. And if I really had to, I’d have to order a fillet, because nothing is worse than dealing with the bones when you’re eating with others!
There is one fish I like in particular, and it’s a real delicacy over here in The Netherlands, it’s raw herring. Cleaned (yes, without bones) and served with some onions and pickles. It makes such a delicious treat! Have you ever eaten raw herring? I know foreigners believe this is one of the most difficult things to eat when they visit our country. They’re not used to eating raw fish, but maybe that will change over time, since the interest worldwide for sushi is booming. And sushi is also raw fish, so there’s still hope! I also know herring can be used in various recipes, but the weird thing is that I don’t like it then. Maybe because it has its own particularly flavor, salty with a bit of seawater to taste. I guess it’s just one of those things that you either love or hate, there’s nothing in between.
What doesn’t help in making fish more popular (for me) is the price. Fish is more expensive than meat. I mean good sustainable fish. Fishermen are now able to catch more fish than ever before because of modern technology, and this has caused a serious threat to the population of various fish. There are now two options remaining: 1. You can buy fish that has been caught by fisheries who work in a sustainable way or 2. You buy fish coming from the so called fish farms.
When I buy seafood, I try to buy wild fish. That’s not easy to do. You need to know exactly what fish have been caught in what area of the world etc. There are simple pocket guides for that, but I’ve hardly ever checked those, or just forgot to take it with me when I go buy seafood. Plus in addition to that, the guides change every month, so it’s tough to keep up with the changes.
The place where I usually go for seafood has a perfect system: they place tags in red, yellow or green with the fish. Red means “avoid”, yellow stands for “best alternative” and green means “best choice”. The tags give you a way you can decide right away which fish to choose or, maybe more importantly, which not. My only problem is that I always wonder why they still sell the red tagged fish? I guess there’s still a long way to go.
After telling you that fish tale….The recipe I want to share, this time with you, is a recipe using salmon.
As always ~ Bon appétit
Oriental Salmon
The ingredients:
2 salmon fillets (preferably with the skin)
2 spring onions, sliced into pieces of ½ inch
2 cups sliced shiitake mushrooms
5 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
5 tablespoons dark soy sauce
10 tablespoons water
cornstarch
Brush the salmon with some olive oil and season them with salt en pepper. Transfer the fillets to a hot grill pan and add the spring onions and mushrooms. Drizzle some olive oil too on these too.
In a separate small (sauce) pan bring the vinegar, soy sauce and water to a boil and stir in some cornstarch to make the sauce a bit thicker.
When the salmon is done (about 7 minutes, depends on the thickness of the fillets) put them on a warm plate, add the mushrooms and spring onions on top and drizzle some of the sauce over it.
I served it with mashed potatoes with garlic.