Gefilte Fish Terrine (sustainable)

Alaskan Halibut And Salmon Gefilte Fish Terrine (Sustainable)
(Adapted from NY Times, April 1998)

For more Insight into Gefilte Fish, see my dear friend Geoffrey's Blog:
Madliik. Gefilte Fishing

TOTAL TIME
1 hour 30 minutes (plus chilling time)


Ingredients
* 2 pounds line-caught Alaskan or Pacific Halibut fillets, skinned and boned
* 1 pound Wild Alaskan Salmon fillets, skinned and boned
* 3 tablespoons vegetable oil, preferably kosher for Passover
* 4 medium Spanish onions, peeled and diced
* 4 large eggs
* 6 tablespoons matzoh meal
* 1 tablespoon salt, or to taste
* 2 teaspoons ground white pepper
* 2 tablespoons sugar
* 1 tablespoon lemon juice
* 2 tablespoons snipped dill, plus more for garnish
* 2 large carrots, peeled
* Parsley for garnish

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Cut the fish into large chunks, and place in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse about 20 times: do not puree, but grind fine. Place in the bowl of an electric mixer.
2.Heat oil in a large frying pan, and saute onions until soft and transparent. Let cool.
3.To the fish mixture, add the onions, eggs, 2 cups of cold water, matzoh meal, salt, white pepper, sugar and lemon juice. Beat in an electric mixer, using the paddle attachment at medium speed for about 10 minutes. Add the dill, and grate in the carrots; mix well.
4. Pour the mixture into a greased 12-cup bundt pan or ring mold. Smooth the top with a spatula, and cover with foil. Place in a larger pan filled with water that is almost boiling.
5. Bake for 1 hour, or until the center is solid.
Cool for 5 minutes, or until mold is cool to the touch. Run a knife around the edges. Place a flat serving plate on top, then flip over, inverting onto the plate. If the mold doesn’t come out easily, give the plate a shake. You should feel or hear it give.
6. Refrigerate for several hours or overnight. Slice as you would a torte, and serve as an appetizer. Garnish with the parsley and remaining dill, and serve with red horseradish.

Gravlax, making it, slicing it, serving it

Serving Gravlax with Rye and Pumpernickel and Dill Sauce

3 pounds center cut, boned salmon fillet- split
1/4 cup gin, tequila, or aquavit

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup kosher salt

2 T. white peppercorns, cracked

1 large bunch loosely packed washed fresh dill, including about half the stems.

Mustard Sauce (below) and sliced rye and pumpernickel bread for serving.

Rinse salmon. Remove any of the small bones that you can in the fish, using tweezers.

Place both pieces of the salmon, skin down on a double layer of plastic wrap.
Sprinkle with gin.

Mix sugar, salt, pepper. Sprinkle evenly on the salmon.
Top with an even coating of dill.
Carefully put the two halves back together, so that the dill/sugar/salt mixture is sandwiched in the middle.

Cover tightly with plastic wrap, and then with foil, and if you like, put the whole thing into a plastic bag (the one the fish came in?) and close tightly.
Put the package into the fridge, and and weight with a plate or small cutting board, and a brick, or some other heavy object (cans?). The more it is compacted, the better the texture will be.

Refrigerate three or four days, turning it twice a day if you can, but I am not sure that turning it is really that important.

After curing process, carefully open up the package, drain off the liquid. Salmon will look like this.

Scrape off the dill mixture, and rinse salmon well. With skin side down on cutting board, slice thinly against the "grain", at a 45 degree angle with a very sharp knife (a sushi knife is ideal). Like this:

As you (slowly slowly) slice, using a sawing motion, arrange the slices on a platter, cutting off the skin as you go.
Fish will keep for about 10 days, well wrapped in the refrigerator.

Serve with Mustard Sauce:

1/4 cup light brown sugar, packed

1/4 cup dijon mustard,

3 T. fresh dill

Mix together, put in pretty bowl.

A Winter's (Fish) Tale. A Look at Sustainability, the future of the oceans, and What to Eat.

Hi there food-blogosphere! Amanda here! It seems these days that every time I turn around I discover that I’ve been eating meats I shouldn’t be eating, scrubbing with cleaning products that pollute the water or ordering vegetables from half way around the world. (Did you know that celery has a ton of pesticides in it? Oy!) It makes it hard to eat ethically without becoming a radical tree-hugging vegan. Lucky for us meat eating, cheese loving, egg devouring “normal” folks, there are plenty of organic, sustainable and guilt-free choices that we can make to avoid supporting environmentally destructive industries.

Lately, I have been exploring the 70% of our Earth’s surface covered in water. Until recently, the ocean often got neglected in discussions of environmentalism. But as it turns out, many of our fishing practices are even more harmful than the worst farming practices on land. If we are not more careful about the fisheries we support, we are at the risk of completely wiping out the fish that we love so much. (and if my kids can’t eat sushi in 25 years, I'm not going to bother feeding them at all…) So what can you do to eat more sustainably when it comes to fish?

1- Only eat seafood that comes from America. Patriotism aside, our fishing practices are generally more sustainably regulated than most other countries.
2- When it comes to SALMON, stay away from farmed. Your best bet is wild Alaskan salmon.
3- Try to eat line-caught fin fish and farmed shellfish. The staff at your grocery store’s fish counter should know where your fish came from and how it was caught. Whole foods is especially good at this!

If you’re confused, stick to MSC certified fish.  Those are the ones with this picture:

Look for this symbol when you are shopping for dinner.

Or if you generally eat out, check out this Seafood Watch pocket guide or free iphone app. That will tell you exactly what fish you should avoid and better alternatives.

I hope that you’ll consider thinking twice when eating fish because we only have one ocean and it’s a damn cool place.

Thanks for listening and now we will continue with our normal programming… mom take it away.

UPDATE:

PLEASE NOTE THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE THAT APPEARS IN THE NEW YORK TIMES MAY 3, 2011
Flip Side of Tilapia


CEDAR PLANKED SALMON

Prepared with natural red cedar, planked salmon is a slow cooking method that produces a wonderful aroma, delicate texture and rich smoky flavor.
Ingredients

Cedar planks (soaked in cold water for at least an hour)
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup bourbon or lemon juice
4 (6-ounce) salmon fillets
Freshly ground black pepper
coarse sea salt (maldon if available)
Method

Preheat grill.

Mix maple syrup and bourbon or juice together. Set aside.

Remove the planks from water and place on the grill until hot. Using tongs, carefully turn plank over and place salmon on the hot side. Place fillets on the smooth surface part of the plank, sprinkle with sea salt and black pepper. Brush maple syrup mixture over salmon. Cover grill. Cook over a medium to high flame for approximately 10 minutes or until done.