In praise of fishmaking money off HST
8 November 2005If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
I began eating a lot more fish when the price of beef rose 30-50% over the past few years. When Atlantic salmon, steelhead, haddock, cod and trout cost roughly the same as a decent cut of steak, I found myself eating a lot more fish. I like fish and its easy to prepare. Insofar as health concerns, fish has it all over beef. I can have a perfectly prepared piece of fish ready to eat inside 15-minutes using a Teflon skillet, a spatula, a little olive oil and some dry spice. The ease of stovetop fish preparation was such a revelation to the cat herd (the consensus: I didnt know fish could be prepared this easy, this quick and taste this good.) that I thought it might be of value to others in our little blog-o-spheric universe to pass along some preparation tips. Lets say you want to prepare a hunk of Atlantic salmon: the first step is to buy either filet (lengthwise) or steak cut. Either will work but I normally buy filet cut and use poultry shears to cut the fish to the appropriate pan length. I cut a 6 to 8-inch length and sprinkle Paul Prudommes Blackened Redfish dry rub on the surface. Place enough extra virgin olive oil or extra light olive oil in a deep, large Teflon skillet. Use barely enough oil to cover the pan surface. If the salmon has fish skin place the filet into the skillet skin side down. I use a relatively high heat and kick the temperature up to just below the oil smoke point. The smoke point on any cooking oil is when the heat from the cooking source begins to cause the oil to burn and evaporate. Olive oils smoke point is around 370-degrees you can literally see and smell the oil when the smoke point is reached.
Place the fish into the oil and give the pan a shake to break the fish loose from the surface. Turn the fish over after 2-3 minutes. My wife doesnt like fish skin so after turning it over I pull the skin off using tongs. Sprinkle dry rub on the skinless upside. After being heated the skin comes right off. Dont make the mistake of moving the fish around too much; Iron chefs like Batali and Flay suggest cooking a fish 70% on one side before flipping. I flip the fish one final time, this time onto the side that the skin came off. The final side takes a lot less cook time. The cooking takes 10-20 minutes for salmon depending on the thickness of the filet. When complete remove the fish, set it on a platter and let it sit for five full minutes. The fish continues to cook as it sits and this allows time to throw some fibrous vegetables into the hot pan oil. I thin-slice yellow and green peppers, Vidalia onions, garlic, diced carrots, celery and jalapena hot peppers. The little bit of olive oil and fish oil left in the pan, along with fish bits, makes a great flavor base for sauting fresh vegetables. Vegetables release water and the whole mixture turns out succulent and delicious and takes about as long to cook as the fish needs to sit. Bam! The fish and the vegetables are a perfect compliment to one another. When the vegetables are cooked, I like mine pretty well hammered, tilt the pan to one side and use the spatula to press the veggie mix to one side. This squeezes out excess water and oil. Place the drained vegetables on the fish platter and get ready to eat a taste delight. It is hard to comprehend that a meal this delicious is a diet meal of the first order. The same procedure works for haddock, cod and trout, though these thin cuts dont need near as long as the think salmon and steel head filets. Bon appetite!
Cashing in on Gonzo: Were you aware that Johnny Depp picked up the 2.3 million dollar tab for the elaborate, invite only, Bacchanalian rocket sendoff of Hunter Thompson ashes? Thats a lot of dough for a little private party held on the Woody Creek Colorado farm-estate of the famous writer. All kinds of celebrity A-list types, Washington politicians (the kind Thompson used to eviscerate) and newsmakers were in attendance. Thompsons outlaw status long ago turned chic and the outlaw outsider morphed into the ultimate insider who called 60-minutes Ed Bradley and Historian Doug Brinkley close personal friends. It was truly ironic that the little people were barred from attending the Gonzo rocket blast. Now its been revealed that a movie was made on the event and this film will be hitting the indie-circuit. It seemed Thompsons talent declined in perfect symmetry with the rise of his celeb status. At the height of his fame he became a ridiculous caricature of his Duke Doonsbury persona and would travel around the county appearing at college campuses for lectures. He would command $15,000 to $25,000 for an appearance and like some literary rock star hed drink an entire fifth of Chivas Regal onstage while mumbling quips and barbs incoherently. He was expected to exhibit bad behavior and would receive standing ovations from the little people. When the bottle of booze was empty the lecture was over. His late life crash-and-burn put me in mind of Truman Capotes late life failure to produce a single literary work worth the paper it was scrawled on. Thompsons talent (I loved the humor of his early stuff) dried up long ago, much like his idol Hemmingway. Both died at roughly the same age and both by self-inflicted gunshot wounds to the head. Thompson became celebrated as a personality and when he fell victim to his own fame he lost his passion and heat. Rather than write about people, places and events, he became the event. He traded in his literary voice for fame and fortune and obviously he made a big impression on Johnny Depp. RIP Doc.
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