If you wish

Here's more Marc Johns

Just because ...

... it's so beautiful.

An open-faced salmon sandwich with mustard and little else.
The work of Marcus Samuelsson via Steamy Kitchen, where all the elements of the dish are spelled out.

Pre-summer is off to a fine start

What a brilliant holiday Monday. The weather was spectacular, and if this is any indication of how the summer’s going to unravel for us, we’ve got happy summer days ahead.

We’ve also got a Sabrosito cooking demonstration coming up very soon. Watch this space for an update or ask me about it when you’re in the shop next.

In the meantime, from Pistachio, here’s this week’s recipe: stewed haddock with tomato and basil.

Steph writes:

I was thinking Mediterranean, and when Laurie recommended haddock, it hit me. I rarely eat haddock, which is criminal, really. It’s so versatile, meaty, delicious and doesn’t have to be handled with kid gloves, which is why I thought of stewing it.

To feed four, you’ll need about 1 ½ pounds of haddock [depending on appetites], a 100-ounce can of good quality whole tomatoes, some fresh basil, a half onion finely diced, one clove of garlic stuck w/a toothpick so that it can be hauled out later and extra virgin olive oil.

In a wide pan about 2” deep, saute the onion and garlic in olive oil over medium heat, until soft. Strain the can of tomatoes, reserving the liquid, and mash the tomatoes with your hands.

Add the tomatoes and liquid to the onions, with a few torn leaves of basil. Season with salt, pepper and maybe a few cracked chilis for some fresh top notes to this dish, or more chilis, if you and your guests like it hot.

Simmer slowly, uncovered; 20 minutes should do it; the stew will be have tightened up but should reduce to a puree. [This can be done ahead of time, even the day before, even in batches for the freezer, so that you can pull out a stew and bring on a meal super fast on a busy weeknight.]

When ready to cook, heat the oven to 400 F. Bring the tomato stew to a boil on top of the stove. Pour the stew into a baking dish. Place the fish [cut into eight equal-sized pieces; they’ll be about three ounces each and cook faster in smaller pieces], add the fish in a single layer, evenly spread out. Dab each piece of fish with a dot of olive oil to make a delicious, moist seal while it cooks, and bake for about 7 to 12 minutes.

What are we drinking with this, Glenn?

I’m thinking Portugal, a vinho verde. The wine is delicate, earthy and has a slightly greenish hue. The grapes are picked young, before a lot of sugar has been allowed to develop, which gives the wine some natural acidity and some mild effervescence, and which is going to make the flavours of this dish shine. Some more detail about our vinho verde here.

Glenn Barley is an agent with Stem Wine Group.

This is my favourite place to start with fish

Raw. When the fish is fresh, there's nothing better. And no, you don't need a sashimi knife, but it wouldn't hurt.

And yes, your knife has to be sharp. This is a great blog post for sharpening your knife, but don't feel you have to do it yourself. Nella does a great job here in Toronto. But it helps to know how to keep the edge Nella gives you.

Once that knife edge is ready, think about how you want to go: slivers, so thin you can see the knife blade through the flesh, or straight-ahead slices, like bread, because hey, you just want to get down to eating already.

I'd like to encourage you to try the oblique-style of slicing, the way you might diagonally slice a baguette to give you a four-inch-long slice of bread when the baguette itself is only three inches around. The sliver-slice of fish will be a kind of facoletto, Italian for handkerchief, see-through, delicate and lovely.

Lay the slices loosely, with easy folds along a plate. Season with coarse sea salt and some freshly ground black pepper. In a small bowl on the side, combine one tablespoon of grated ginger, four drops of fish sauce, a splash of rice wine vinegar, a splash of lime juice, a splash of sesame oil, 1/2 a thai chili and one tablespoon of fresh, chopped cilantro.

Just before serving [this is a great starter before a piece of grilled steak, roast chicken, leg of lamb, or even a simple home-style pasta], spoon on the vinaigrette and serve with a salad of frisee, splattered with chopped scallions and dressed with walnut oil and fresh lime.

Which fish? Salmon never disappoints, in my view. Halibut and grouper are great, too.

For wine pairings, I always turn to my favourite wine guy, Glenn Barley, an agent with Stem Wine Group.

Says Glenn: An Ontario white comes to mind for this dish. It's most powerful element is the sesame oil -- nutty, earthy, roasted. Cave Spring's Chenin Blanc 2007 has an oily, flowery richness that brings the sesame oil to mind, but is different enough to make a good complement. This VQA wine also has a slightly herbal aspect, which pairs well with the cilantro's top notes.

And while waiting for the main course to cook, here's a cool interactive fish site. Use your cursor and get in on the action.

By popular demand

I get it again and again. My customers are tired of cooking fish the only way they know how. They'd like to try some new dishes, but don't know where to start. I suggest starting here.

I've asked food writer Stephanie Ortenzi, who used to cook for a living, to come up with a weekly way to do fish differently, or ways to do fish better.

Take it away, Steph.