Fish Night

The usual crowd showed up for Fish Night this week – these are the folks we can count on every week. In addition to Husband and two adult daughters, we had neighbors Jack and Nancy and friend Hugo (names changed to protect the guinea pigs). It was great to see our neighbors at Fish Night because they are recently home from a vacation in Great Britain. They missed two successive Fish Nights, and we missed them. Daughter No. 2 is just back from an exhausting few days in New York, so we had lots of travel stories to talk about. Hugo brought a great bottle of white wine and a new (to us) CD to share, as he always does.

With our pre-dinner drinks, we munched on olives (from the Wegmans olive bar) and unsalted almonds. Then I served a tossed green salad with a simple vinaigrette dressing. For the main event:

• · Pan-Seared Prosciutto-Wrapped Flounder. I substituted flounder (rolled up) for the cod in this recipe because it looked better to me at the fish counter. The recipe calls for a number of Wegmans-specific ingredients that you don’t need – just substitute something similar. In fact, I used some of the Tomato-Vodka Pasta Sauce I made over the week-end instead of Wegmans Sweet Red Pepper Sauce called for in the recipe. Some people really liked this dish and some thought it was “ordinary.” It certainly made for a pretty presentation.
• · Mashed Potatoes and Celery Root -- just boil cubes of peeled celery root along with the potatoes and prepare as usual. I love celery root (also called celeriac), but it’s offbeat and not universally admired, especially when served by itself. In fact, I got a “thumbs down” on a raw celery root slaw last week. (I loved it!) But, I find that mixing celery root into mashed potatoes both disguises it and makes the mashed potatoes sweeter and tastier. Celeriac is an excellent source of vitamin K and a very good source of fiber. My guests loved this dish until a couple of guys learned they were eating celery root.
• · Peas – just plain old frozen peas – in fact, I think frozen peas almost always taste better than fresh peas (unless the fresh peas are eaten raw right off the wine out in your own garden), and they are just as healthy. I added a little mint to make them slightly less ordinary. Everybody likes peas; Daughter No. 2 took the leftovers home.
• · Slow Cooker Fennel Braised with Artichokes. This was an experiment. I found the recipe on the California Olive Ranch website. This company makes my favorite mid-priced olive oil. Fennel is another one of my favorite, slightly off-beat, vegetables, and I thought my guests might like it in this recipe. I knew I would and it’s so easy! Again, mixed reviews from the “corn and peas” guys.
• · Maple Cornbread was also a first-time use of the recipe (am I brave or foolhardy?) and is from the King Arthur Flour cookbook. I added a cup of frozen corn (thawed and pulsed a bit in the food processor). The reviews were mixed. Next time I will add a bit more maple syrup and more corn.

I don’t hesitate to purchase dessert for Fish Night or make something simple like cookies. But Daughter No. 1 bought some black walnuts at a farm market recently and she suggested that we use some of them in ice cream and the idea haunted me for the last couple of weeks. Black Walnut Ice Cream. While dessert was being served, Nancy went back to her house next door to retrieve her iPad so we could enjoy the pictures she took in England and Scotland (as well as some cupcakes she and Jack had bought at Lavender Moon in Old Town Alexandria -- delicious!).

Fascinating Fish Facts: According to a 2006 global study by a team of scientists from 12 academic institutions in five countries, all of the world's fishing stocks will collapse before mid-century, devastating food supplies, if overfishing and other human impacts continue at their current pace.

The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (a relatively conservative body), reports that over 25% of all the world's fish stocks are either overexploited or depleted. Another 52% is fully exploited, meaning that these are in imminent danger of overexploitation (maximum sustainable production level) and collapse.

Enough lecturing – I just wanted to explain why I try to be careful to make sure my fish purchases do not add to the problem – economic (when cod fishing collapsed from overfishing in Canada in 1992, 40,000 jobs were lost) or environmental (‘nuf said!). This is easier than you might think. The Monterrey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch puts out a great pocket guide that tells you what fish to avoid when at the grocery store or a restaurant. There is a pocket guide for our area. You can print the guide on your computer or order free cards that will be sent to you in the mail. The idea is to take it with you when you shop or dine. (I keep the guide as an app on my iPhone.)

A great National Geographic article on overfishing and its effects.

I see I’ve run on too long – new to blogging. I’ll do better next time.