Some More Dishes With Fishes
As we mentioned a few months ago in our first "Dishes with Fishes" post, we've been eating a lot more fish lately - mostly because of the fantastic quality we get from Catalina Offshore Products.
Here are some dishes we've made with our recent purchases at COP.
Pan-cooked Grouper with Sesame Noodles
In the past, we've generally made this dish with salmon. We haven't been eating much salmon lately, so we gave it a try with grouper and it was fantastic! Grouper is fast becoming one of our favorite fishes.
Black Bass with Corn and Caramelized Onions
This dish is from the Balthazar Cookbook
Halibut with Garlic Sauce
We got this recipe from CAB Cooks and it is a good one. While she uses red snapper, this rendition was done using halibut and we've also made it with sea bass.
Sculpin with Coriander-Lime Butter
Not the beer, the fish. The coriander-lime butter was an experiment that turned out really well.
Grilled Swordfish
Just a straight-up grilled piece of fish. When you have a quality source product, you don't need to do much to it. The tomatoes and lettuce in the salad were fresh from our garden (yay!).
Rock Cod with Gnocchi "Worms" in Tomato Sauce
The rock cod went beautifully with Mario Batali's Basic Tomato Sauce - which has been our go-to house red sauce for about a decade now. The gnocchi were from a recipe at La cucina di Cristina, and they added a fun textural contrast.
So inspiring, everything looks fantastic! Could you share the recipe for the Pan-cooked Grouper with Sesame Noodles? I have got to try the halibut with that garlic sauce.
ReplyDeleteLooks like the garden is doing great! I was just thinking about how I'm going to try to expand my veggie garden next season.
Hi Carol - the recipe for the sesame noodles is from a Williams-Sonoma cookbook that is out of print. You can find a modified version of it here.
ReplyDeleteThe original recipe calls for egg noodles, which is what we use. We also use a bit less of both the vegetable and sesame oil.
Oh the Black Bass w/ corn looks amazing. How did you prepare the bass? I am terrified of oven roasting/pan searing/any cooking for fish b/c i'm always afraid of over cooking it. Is their an 'easy' way to do it?
ReplyDeleteHave you ever had Chilean Sea Bass? That was my favorite growing up and I know it's rare to see the CSB around these days. Do you think COP would have it - or is there something comparable to the chilean?
Your fish dishes look simply wonderful. Nicely done.
Hi Faye - one really nice thing about the Balthazar Cookbook is that they are very explicit about their fish cooking techniques. It is one of the reasons we really like the book. In this case, the method is really simple - a little salt and pepper on the fish and then cook in a medium-high pan with a few tablespoons of oil in it. 4 minutes on one side, 3 on the other.
ReplyDeleteWhile Catalina does sell Chilean Sea Bass, we instead purchase the sea bass they get from Baja. Very tasty fish.
omg, major food porn....i can't even remember the last time i had fish....gonna have to give cab's garic sauce fish a shot this weekend.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely give the fish with garlic sauce a go - it's a winner.
ReplyDeleteWe usually buy seafood from Point Loma Seafoods, as its just down the street. I've heard good things about Catalina Offshore Products, though, and I'm itching to try it out.
ReplyDeleteAny thoughts on how the two compare in quality?
Hi Andy - I can't comment on PLS specifically, since we have never purchased fish there. We used to buy our fish from the Fishery in PB and El Pescador in La Jolla. Since we started buying from COP we haven't been back to either.
ReplyDeleteCatalina has a better selection of more local fish at better prices and the quality has been just outstanding. I can't recommend them highly enough.
Great post, thanks for reminding me to try Catalina Offshore Products, I too have bought from Point Loma Seafood for years. With all these great fish recipes, I need to go shopping!
ReplyDeleteI found the Catalina Offshore a little hard to use. So it has a regular, retail operation?
ReplyDeleteThanks, Tiffany!
ReplyDeleteNat - it depends what you mean by "regular, retail operation" :-) Because they are primarily focused on mail-order and local restaurant trade, there is no glass case with their wares displayed. They take you back (make sure you have closed-toe shoes) and show you what they've got. If you know what you want, you can also phone in an order and then pick it up.
Seriously great stuff Mike! Like Sawyer said, I can't remember the last time I had any fish recently. Inspired to cook some! Thanks.. :)
ReplyDeleteThanks, Dennis! The secret for us to eating more fish was to make it part of our routine. We go to Catalina Offshore about once a week and get whatever looks good.
ReplyDeletecatalina offshore is much cheaper than point loma...and at least as good
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