Progress doesn't taste good.

Tag Archives: Kill


by 2 Comments

Halibut Chile Verde over Polenta

So. Life.

Anyway, I finally have halibut in my freezer. There was a several-year gap without halibut due to fishing season, time, small children, and other priorities. We used to have halibut all the time but since moving to Sitka, it’s a bit tough to get. But thanks to the good will of a friend, there is a halibut in my freezer again.

However, halibut is very much boneless skinless chicken breast. I do not dream of a simple poached chicken breast any more than I dream of gently poached halibut with a sissy sauce of herbs and white wine. There is a place for all of that, and that place is where people pay upwards of $26/lb for halibut.

I am also a Working Mom so I like dishes in 9×13 pans and leftovers.

So I ended up here, with a halibut chile verde over polenta. The chile verde takes some notes from the rajas recipe in The San Francisco Chronicle Cookbook Volume II (SF Chron) (Bauer and Irwin, 2001) and the pork chile verde in the Bon Appetit cookbook (Fairchild, 2006). The polenta is also from the SF Chron cookbook, but lightened because I at least pretend to support cardiac health in my house.

Halibut Chile Verde over Polenta

Halibut Chile Verde

6 poblano peppers (Or pasillas, or anaheim peppers. I live in southeast Alaska so I take what I can get)
1 tsp cumin seeds
1-2 T oil (I use olive oil but vegetable or whatever is fine)
1 large onion, thinly sliced
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 jalapeno or serranos or whatever, seeded and minced. (I don’t do this because I have toddlers and they can’t handle spice yet. but you do you!)
couple of tablespoons of white wine (optional)
1 cup-ish chicken broth
1 pound halibut, cut into 1-inch chunks
1/3 cup sour cream
1/2 cup (or more if you like) grated queso fresco

roast poblanos over an open flame or broil them in the oven. Place them in a bag to steam, remove skin and seeds then slice into long strips. Toast cumin until it smells good then grind it up (feel free to substitute ground cumin here but then hang your head in shame). heat oil over med-high heat in a large dutch oven. Add onions and allow them to develop a fond on the bottom of the dutch oven. Add the garlic, toasted cumin, roasted peppers, and any minced jalapeno/serrano you have. Let that get nice and toasty. Deglaze with white wine and stir up any brown stuff on the bottom of the pan. Add chicken broth (deglaze with that if you are skipping wine) and stir. Lower heat to med-low. Add halibut and stir gently. Fish releases a lot of water but if your mixture looks too dry add a bit more broth until it looks like a nice, thick stew. remove from heat after all of the fish looks opaque. You don’t want to over cook here because you are going to bake this whole thing in the oven.

Polenta (modified from the SF Chron cookbook Volume 2):

1 cup water
1/2 cup milk (or heavy cream if you want to indulge)
1 tsp salt
1 cup polenta
1 tsp dried oregano
1/2 cup grated Queso Fresco (or Mozzarella if you life in a queso fresco-free place)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Combine water, milk, and salt in a sauce pan, place over high heat and bring almost to boil. In a separate bowl, combine polenta, oregano, and cheese and stir to combine. Stir into hot liquid, making sure there are no lumps and everything is incorporated. Pour into 9 x 13 pan. Bake for 10 minutes, stir then bake for 25 minutes longer. My oven runs hot so I usually let it go for about 15 minutes or more–the top should be golden and polenta should be springy.

Lower heat in oven to 325. Ladle the chile verde over the polenta, dot with sour cream and sprinkle cheese over the whole thing. Bake in the oven until everything is heated through and the cheese is melted and bubbling (20-35 minutes depending on your oven).

This whole thing can be made in advance and cooked the next day. It also reheats reasonably well for a fish recipe.

This has become one of my favorite things to do with halibut. It is way WAY easier than enchiladas and my kids mostly eat it.

No, there isn’t a picture because I do not have that kind of time and this photographs about as well as a cheese-covered dish in a 9×13 pyrex can. It is tasty, I promise.

References

Bauer, Michael and Fran Irwin. 2001. The San Francisco Chronicle Cookbook Volume II. Chronicle Books.

Fairchild, Barbara. 2006. The Bon Appetit cookbook. John Wiley & Sons.

Of course there are references. I am A Scientist.

 


by Leave a comment

Waiting

Last Saturday my husband left for the Fairweather Grounds. A patch of ocean over eroded volcanic cones 50 miles off shore. It is a remote place in a remote place. There is no shelter from storms or anywhere to anchor at night. (You just turn your boat off and drift. Just thinking about this is unsettling.) I am single parenting our two toddlers and working at my regular job. And our satellite phone doesn’t work when he is out there.

This is a stupid sim card boundary thing but still. Typically, he calls me at night for about 2 minutes when he is out fishing. It is a small, bright light in a day full of kids who throw food and refuse to put on their socks. With him out there, on Fairweather, I don’t even have that to look forward to.

When he is out, I am rarely more than 6 inches from my phone. I sometimes delay taking  a shower because I’m afraid of missing his call. I spend the entire evening willing my phone to ring or to get a new email. Messages are short; usually number of fish, basic weather, and I love you. My whole marriage distilled into one sentence.

Yesterday, the Coast Guard had to rescue two fishermen from a boat that lost steering. In 12-25 foot seas and 35 knot gale. Thankfully, husband was anchored up in Lituya Bay–the closest, safest bay to the Fairweather grounds. As an Earth Science nerd, I can’t help but think about the landslide in the 60’s that caused a tsunami that washed a bathtub ring of trees out from the bay.

Oh, it’s called “Fairweather” because you can only fish it in fair weather. Or maybe it’s named after Mount Fairweather, a sloping behemoth in the Saint Elias Range that you see from the Fairweather grounds. Mount Fairweather was named by Cook because it was a nice day when he saw it. I mean, this total lack of creativity is probably why Alaska has about 759 “Salmon Rivers.”

But now it’s almost 10 at night. I haven’t heard from him so I will assume that he is fishing, making up for a lost day and a half at anchor. Maybe there will be a message in the morning.


by 4 Comments

Salmon Burgers. Better than they have any right to be.

Look, I know it’s been a year since I started this here blog. [Insert Excuses.]

Here is a recipe for something that allows me to eat salmon twice a week.

For those of you who don’t know me personally, which at this point in my blogging career is probably nobody, my husband is a commercial troller. Plus, we like to fish recreationally. So because half of the adults in our house catch fish, specifically Salmon, for a living + catching more fish for fun = a metric buttload of salmon in our chest freezer. “How is this a problem?” You may ask, because Wild Salmon is at least $8.99/lb where you live.

Because Salmon, no matter what VooDoo you do, always tastes like salmon. If you eat it twice a year, this isn’t a big deal. If you are trying to eat it twice a week, it gets old. Really. Fast. (If you are pregnant, married to a commercial troller who has to process 5-gallon buckets of salmon every week then you may dry heave while vacuum sealing that precious commodity.)

Hence my discovery of fresh/raw salmon burgers. They taste like salmon, kind of, but don’t feel like you are eating salmon. Plus the recipe is pretty versatile. Unlike several salmon cake/burger recipes this uses raw salmon that you then cook like you would a Red Meat Burger. It ends up with a better texture and isn’t a dry hockey puck of salmon+mayonnaise that can happen if you use cooked salmon. (Using up leftover salmon is a whole ‘nother discussion that I would like other people to chime in on.)

So here you go. This recipe doesn’t have exact measurements because it is based on chunks of salmon that get pulled out of the freezer. I adapted it from numerous versions available on The Interbob, most notably from Cooks Illustrated. If you have questions email me or leave a comment and I will try to help.

This recipe works without eggs because you turn those organized salmon proteins into a sticky mess that holds these things together. (Those are actual science words. I should know. I do science for a living.)

Basic Salmon Burgers

1 chunk of salmon pulled from your freezer, maybe 1 to 1.5 pounds (The fattier fish do the best with this so I suggest using King/Chinook or Sockeye.) Skinned then cut into 1/4-1/2 inch cubes.

1 shallot, cut into quarters

2-ish tablespoons mustard (I use Dijon but Western Family Yellow is ok)

1/4-ish cup mayonnaise

1/2 cup finely diced herbs (I use a mixture of chives and italian parsley because that’s what grows without any problem in my garden)

1/2 cup panko

Salt and Pepper to taste

Put the shallot into your food processor. Pulse it a couple of times until it is a coarse dice approximation. Add 1/4 of the cubed salmon. Process this into a pink-slime paste. mmm-mm Pink slime. Add mustard and mayonnaise and pulse until combined. (feel free to increase or decrease mustard and mayo for your tastes.)

Pink Slime

Whirrled up shallot and salmon

Add the rest of the salmon to the food processor and pulse a few times so that everything is mixed. Dump the salmon into a bowl and fold in herbs and panko. Add salt and pepper in whatever quantity you find appetizing.

Folding

Salmon, herbs, and Panko

Divide the mixture into evenly-sized patties. They tend to be 1/2 to 3/4 cup in size. Place on parchment-lined baking sheet, flatten, and place in the freezer for up to 20 minutes.

If U Care Parchment, because I really do.

Pretty patties already to go

Cook the burgers using your desired method. Grill is great, but also fried in butter in a cast iron pan is good.

Serve on bun of your choice with a fancy mayonnaise or whatever. I add capers, lemon, and parsley to mayonnaise. Stuff lettuce in there too so combat all the mayonnaise.

Oh, hey. Add a pickle too.

Look at that thing. Eat it.

I have doubled this recipe to have some burgers ready to go in the freezer for when I get home from work and don’t want to cook but am feeling too fancy for another Newman’s Own frozen pizza. It’s easy to overload a food processor, though, mine maxes out at about 2-ish pounds of salmon.


by Leave a comment

Why this name?

ImageI live on an island in Alaska’s panhandle with my husband and small child.   

Moving here more than 10 years ago ignited my pioneer/foodie spirit and I have been on a quest to kill, gather, grow, and preserve as much food as I could. Won’t you join me?

I’m from a place where you can grow tomatoes outside in the summer. Now I live in a place where I can grow tomatoes in my living room with a tremendous amount of effort.

The name of this blog is a play on a terrible bumper sticker found in America’s Last Frontier Resource Extraction State. I will post a picture once I find one. It is a simple white rectangle that says, “Cut Kill Dig Drill.”