Fish and Fruit? You Whack?!

Really now, the meal was much more appetizing than this picture would suggest. Remember the poor zested grapefruit from that tasty yogurt cake? I couldn't leave the poor thing in its zest-less misery, so I had to run its skin through a mandoline until thinly sliced and then proceed to eat its flesh. It's just that I am George and the poor fruit is Lennie; it was better that way for everyone.

And what else can one do with thinly sliced citrus skin but candy it up? My original plan was to make risotto with it, but we had just finished a rather heavy risotto dinner made with the fat skimmed off of a very beef-heavey pot of chili. I wanted something lighter that would compliment the citrus flavor. Fish came to mind, particularly the fish fillets that I spotted in the freezer.

I am a huge seafood lover and eat it as often as I can afford to. The fish I ate growing up and later learned to prepare for myself were mostly whole steamed fish and I've never so much as entertain the idea of purchasing frozen fish fillets. The whole concept is foreign to me and the first time I ever cooked with it was probably the aforementioned fish candy. But I can never say no to free food, and we are left with a bountiful amount of frozen and canned food from the owner of the house.

Actually, the fish was delicious. I was a little skeptical of the recipe when I first conceived of it, but it definitely turned out better than I though it would. The key is to really slice that grapefruit skin thin and the triple blanching to get rid of the bitterness. More fresh parsley leaves wouldn't hurt either. The grapefruit and parsley flavor blended surprisingly well together and is very refreshing. We ate it with William's infamous mashed potatoes (which has more of whatever he can get his hands on than potatoes) and it was delicious. Next time I will bake it with a layer of homemade breadcrumbs on top for a crispy contrast to the texture of the fish.

BAKED FISH WITH PARSLEY AND CANDIED GRAPEFRUIT SKIN

• 1 lb. frozen Pollock fillets, thawed (I imagine other white fish fillets will also work)
• 1/2 cup Italian parsley leaves, packed (or about 1 cup loose leaves)
  
• 2 large cloves of garlic (or to taste)
• salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
• olive oil
• peel of 1 medium grapefruit, thinly sliced
• 4 tablespoons brown sugar, packed

Using a mandoline or really fine knife skills, trim the peel off the grapefruit and slice as thinly as possible. I used a mandoline and sliced the whole grapefruit on all four sides until all of the skin is off, with some of the flesh still attached, which is alright.

Blanche the grapefruit skin three times by bring to boil about 3 cups of water, dropping the skin in, and drain when mixture reaches boiling again. Repeat 2 more times. (This gets rid of the bitterness, as you can verify through taste test after each blanching.

After grapefruit skin has cooled, transfer to a bowl and mix in 4 tablespoons of packed brown sugar. Leave out overnight.

Combine parsley leaves, garlic cloves, about 1 tablespoon of olive oil, and salt and freshly ground pepper (1 teaspoon each or to taste) in a food processor and chop until well blended into a paste, adding more oil as necessary. (You can also do this in a mortar and pestle or hand chop it finely)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and lightly grease a baking dish large enough to hold all the fish fillets in one layer.

In the meantime, squeeze out the excess water in the fish, one piece at a time and arrange on the greased baking dish, take care to not over crowd.

Spread the parsley paste evenly over the fish fillets. Top off with the candied grapefruit peel. Bake uncovered for about 20 minutes.

Fish Candy

Again, please pardon the terrible picture. I should put out a disclaimer that though I am not much of a photographer, I don't think I am as terrible as these pictures would suggest. I make the best out of what I have to work with, which is a shitty camera to begin with coupled with a broken LCD screen and this is what we get.

We finished our second bag of flour today with pancakes for breakfast and cake for dessert after dinner. This means that we had consumed over 10 lbs of flour in two weeks time; even for us that is a record. I like to heat up maple syrup on the stove to serve with pancakes, and after we drowned our pancakes in syrup this morning, there was only about 1/4 cup of syrup left. Rather than storing it back in a jar for the next pancake breakfast (likely to be no more than two days from now), I thought I might use it to make a marinate of sorts.

I had mackerel fillets defrosting and ventured forth to cook it in the maple syrup. We had the fish with plain rice and the maple syrup lime marinate reduced to a thick sauce and was delicious. The lime and maple syrup blended really well together and created a sort of bitterness that was offset by the sweetness of the syrup. William proclaimed that it tastes like fish candy.

LIME AND MAPLE SYRUP PAN SEARED MACKEREL

• 4 fillets of mackerel (other fish will also work)
• thumb size piece of ginger, peeled and finely chopped
  
• about 1/4 cup of maple syrup (make sure it's real maple syrup and none of that Aunt Jemima stuff, no offense against Aunt Jemima)
• juice of 1-2 limes, according to your taste
• pinch of crushed red pepper
  
• sea salt (or kosher salt)
• fresh ground pepper
• vegetable or canola oil

Rinse fish fillets and drain. Place fillets on a plate and rub in salt and pepper.

In a bowl, mix in maple syrup, lime juice, crushed red pepper and ginger.

Heat oil in a pan over medium high heat, when oil begins to bubble, add fish one at a time. Pan sear fish about 4 minutes on each side, flipping when one side has browned. (My tendency is to always flip the fish too soon and they fall apart. The key is to have patience and flip the fish only once)

When both sides of fish has been browned, pour in maple syrup mixture and turn heat down to medium low. The mixture will reduce and thicken; turn off heat and serve when the desire amount of sauce is left.