Notes from Stella's Kitchen
AND SOME GOOD FISH IN BETWEEN
(Originally published in June 2005)
The nice cool breezes that float in from the Mississippi Sound in early spring are almost gone. They’re being replaced by the much warmer, humid breezes of summer with stickier, hotter days and balmy, still nights. Along with all this comes the saving grace that good seafood is once again becoming easily available. Now the cry is, I’m going fishing in the morning and see what I can catch for lunch or dinner. If luck, and the tide, is with me, I’ll catch a nice trout or a flounder or two and we’ll grill them for the day’s big meal.
It doesn’t have to be grilled and served hot. There are a lot of ways of serving seafood and enjoying it on a summer day. Think beyond the grill. Think about the fish served as a chilled dish. It is still fresh, still good and now it becomes refreshing as a light summer dish to eat and enjoy. Cold pasta is also good to mix with all that fresh chilled seafood will make it still more wonderful. Add to that some fresh vegetables and herbs from your own garden and suddenly life is not bad in the hot and humid south.
To combat the hot weather, I will begin making more and more salads and cold seafood meals to satisfy our appetite. Heavy soups, pot roast and the like can wait till the chill of winter sets in. Cold meals can be very versatile and include such things as salads, spreads, poached fish (see recipe) and, of course, chilled steamed crabs. I like steaming my crabs. The steaming allows the seasonings to permeate the crabs and make a tasty snack for the late afternoon or dinner meal. If you have just a few, serve them as a cold antipasti.
One of our favorite salad dishes is a cold pasta and shrimp salad made with bowtie pasta and lots of fresh ingredients as well as fresh shrimp. However, don’t let the “cold” fool you. I make it quite spicy. I suppose an indirect attempt at stabilizing the temperature inside your tummy with the temperature outside your tummy.
Another favorite dish is cold poached fish served with a tantalizing sauce. I’ve included three sauces. Try either of these that strike your fancy. Here again, the dish is cold, but is warmed up with a nice spicy sauce that enhances the flavor of the fish. Or, not spicy. Try a nice delicate mayonnaise-based sauce flavored with lemon or one of the many fresh herbs from your garden - tarragon comes to mind most of the time. Fresh basil will also do the trick. But, if you really want to take a chance and make it ‘warm’, a nice mango salsa flavored with fresh jalapeno peppers will send the flavor to the moon.
So, while the food may be cool in temperature, the accompaniment may be quite warm and tasty. So, it is the hot and the cold of it as you can see.
Try the recipes and experiment with the accompaniment. It will be a lot of tasty fun.
Bon Appetit!
