I have been enjoying the fish counter guy at Madison Market. He’s not exactly cheerful, but he’s helpful and informative and he’s yet to steer me wrong. But after a Christmas Eve mention of Mutual Fish, a rather well known local institution for, um, fish, I decided it was time to get out of the supermarket.
I needed to run to Ballard so a stop at Fisherman’s Terminal was right on the way. And for all the years I’ve lived in Seattle, I’ve never bought my fish right off the boat. That’s still true. It must have been too late in the day – we scoped out the pier a little and couldn’t find anyone selling, though there were signs up for weekend sales. It was a bitter cold morning, so maybe the crews had found themselves a warmer place to be than the damp pier – and who could blame them?
Instead of getting my fish from the boat, I opted for the fish market right there at the terminal. It took me a while to decide. The salmon looked incredible and was a great price, but I’m trying to diversify. King Crab? Maybe some clams, for a change? I asked the young guy at the counter. “The swordfish looks really good today and it’s fresh,” he said. 13 bucks a pound, though… oh, what the hell. I was cooking for guests and it did look really nice.
I covered the fish steaks in caramelized red onions, olive oil, and crushed garlic. Then they went under the broiler for maybe ten minutes, turned over at about four minutes, just when they started to brown. I served them on a bed of pasta and topped them with a few spoonfuls of tomato stewed with basil – we were lucky, I had the last jar of summer tomatoes still in the freezer, so the flavor was a million miles from canned. The fish was very moist and dense, not chewy at all. Perfect.
Fish facts
Swordfish is a troubled fish. Apparently it was quite popular a few years bac – you found it on menus everywhere, grilled up with some kind of salsa or stuffed in to your fish taco. I even read a recipe that was a suggested alternative if you were suffering from “swordfish fatigue” – which I certainly am not. This popularity could well have been the cause of overfishing – though apparently the stocks have recovered, thanks to fishery policies.
But Oceans Alive gives swordfish the no go for a number of other reasons – the fish are suffering from mercury poisoning and swordfishing adversely affects other marine populations. Reading up has made me think that swordfish won’t be in regular circulation on Fish Wednesday. Ignorance is bliss when it comes to swordfish.
[tags]Fish Wednesday, swordfish, cooking, seafood[/tags]