Good Fish_ Sustainable Seafood Recipes From the Pacific Coast - Becky Selengut [6]
SEASONED RICE WINE VINEGAR: I use this ingredient a lot throughout the book. This is a convenience product made of rice vinegar that has some salt and sugar in it. If you have plain rice wine vinegar, just lightly heat it and dissolve some salt and sugar in it to taste. Seasoned rice wine vinegar makes the simplest dressing ever: just toss it with cucumbers, carrots, sesame seeds, etcetera—no oil necessary.
SHISO: Shiso (also known as perilla) is sometimes called Japanese mint. You can find it at Japanese or Asian markets. Substitute with spearmint.
TAMARIND: Tamarind is sold in several forms: dried in the pod (in the produce section of some stores, especially Mexican markets); as a paste, with or without seeds; and as a thin concentrate. To remove seeds and sticky pulp, rehydrate the paste or pod innards in a small amount of hot water, then push the tamarind through a sieve. For use in recipes, one teaspoon paste is the equivalent of one tablespoon concentrate. Tamarind—in one form or another—is becoming very easy to find these days, but if you’re having difficulty, lemon juice works fine in a pinch.
TOOLS OF THE TRADE
CAST-IRON SKILLET: I love cast iron so much, I wrote a dorky poem about it.
ODE TO A CAST-IRON SKILLET
Carry that weight and think of your foremothers
Who never needed gym memberships—if they
could even imagine them.
Heave that iron and fight osteoporosis; your skillet
is a healer, a weapon, and a tool.
Only in modern times could we cast aside cast iron
In favor of flimsy fry pans with deeply etched scars.
Heft that pan! Sear that scallop! Bake that cornbread!
Carry that weight and think of your foremothers
Who never had those little flaps of skin under their arms.
FILLETING KNIFE (1 AND 8): Your knife need not be expensive or fancy, but it should be ever so slightly flexible to help you maneuver around delicate, curved rib bones. I think one in the range of seven inches is good for working with both small and larger fish. I like to use a larger knife (1), sometimes called a scimitar knife, to fillet whole salmon or albacore.
FISH SCALER (3): Like pin boning, fish scaling is a job that fishmongers are happy to do for you, and for many reasons, you should be happy they are happy to do it. It’s a messy job, and I know from experience that despite submerging the fish in a sink of cold water (highly encouraged), those scales tend to go everywhere, including onto your skin, where they become one with you. However, you might find yourself needing to scale a fish that was caught by someone you know, in which case this nifty tool will come in handy. Place the fish in a sink of cold water, wear an apron, and then run this tool from tail to head, grabbing and pulling off the scales. You can use a spoon if you don’t have a fish scaler handy (not as effective, but still workable).
FISH SPATULA (7): Sometimes it all comes down to the right tool—and a fish spatula, with its thin, metal, slightly upturned edge, really helps gently flip or transfer a delicate fillet or whole fish.
FISH TWEEZERS (6): Fishmongers are usually happy to remove pin bones from salmon, trout, or char if you ask nicely, but sometimes they don’t take enough care and can snap them in half or tear the flesh. The pin bones that run through a salmon or trout fillet can be brittle, and it takes some finesse to remove them (go to www.goodfishbook.com to watch me demonstrate the technique). If you decide you want to try it yourself, you’ll need a pair of fish tweezers. In a pinch, I’ve used clean needle-nose pliers (5) or even kitchen tongs to remove pin bones.
LABRADOR RETRIEVER: Feel free to substitute another breed or any mutt. Nothing is more effective at cleaning a kitchen floor than a dog. Ours is a canine Zamboni, efficiently wet-mopping our floor with