Tuna salad with tahini

Slate, the online magazine, recently published an article called Mayo-phobia: Why Do Some People Hate Mayonnaise So Much?  Even more compelling was the tagline on their home page:  "Why do Jews have a problem with mayonnaise?  It begins with Milton Berle."  As this article makes clear, aversion to mayonnaise is not confined to Jews.  About 10 years ago, an article in The New Yorker discussing Pret-a-Manger  (subscriber access only) thought it was an American phenomenon, and noted that sandwiches sold in the chains British stores were far more mayo-heavy than what would sell in the US.

Be that as it may, my son, Harry, hates mayonnaise and avoids most foods that contain it.  This meant that he would not eat tuna salad or sandwiches.  While this is not necessarily a great tragedy, given the state of the fisheries and levels of mercury in tuna it is still a convenient quick lunch on occasion.  Fortunately, he discovered an acceptable way to eat tuna while spending much of the winter of 2010-2011 hiking in the Negev -- tahini.  Tahini is relatively indestructible, so it is better and safer to hike with container of tahini than an open jar of mayonnaise.  With canned tuna, some water and lemon, you have a pretty good sandwich filling.  I have adapted it a bit more, and we have it all the time now:

Tuna salad with tahini

Ingredients

• 1 generous tablespoon tahini paste
• 1/2 small lemon
• water, about 1/4 cup
• 2 cans tuna, preferably packed in olive oil and drained well (or even vegetable oil;  oil packed tuna is less fishy and dry than water packed)
• optional additions: 1-2 hard boiled eggs, chopped; 1 rib celery,  chopped fine; 1/4 green pepper, chopped fine; chopped scallion or 1 tablespoon finely chopped red onion; tablespoon capers well rinsed; 1/2 preserved lemon peel, rinsed well and chopped
• salt and pepper (white, red or black) to taste 

Method

1. To make the tahini dressing, put the tahini in a one quart or larger bowl; squeeze the lemon through a sieve or your fingers into the tahini.  Stir together with a fork, and you will notice that the tahini will stiffen.
2. Begin to dribble in the water very slowly, stirring all the while.  The tahini will continue to stiffen, and will then loosen and turn into a creamy texture.  You will use about 1/4 cup of water, though the quantity varies with the tahini and the solid/oil ratio in what you scooped out.  The texture should be like a thick sauce.  (If you have ever had prepared tahini, you will know what to expect.)  The process will probably take less than a minute.
3. Mix in the tuna, add whatever optional ingredients you want, bearing in mind that you will need less salt if you use things like capers. We generally make it with eggs, celery, red onion and green pepper.  I also like it with parsley.  The capers and preserved lemon make for a more special salad.
4. Serves about 4 -- use as you would any standard tuna salad, but you will probably enjoy this a lot more.

Shad charmoulayit

Charmoula is a North African seasoning paste used for fish.  The version that I use most often is by Paula Wolfert and contains garlic, cilantro, parsely, paprika, cumin, olive oil and salt.  Typically, the fish is coated with the charmoula and  is cooked slowly  in a tagine, a kind of casserole, for a long time with vegetables and, if you are lucky, preserved lemons.  It is one of the world's great dishes, but it does take time.

This recipe is my own quick take on fish with charmoula.  I doubt that this is an authentic recipe. I also doubt that the word charmoulayit means anything in any language though it is my attempt at creating a Hebraicized  Arabic adjective.  Rather than cooking it long and slow I have used most of the charmoula seasonings in a very fast saute.  Shad is in season, ever so briefly, so I enjoy it while I can.  It is very rich but otherwise relatively mild, and though my wife claimed not to care for shad,  the spices cut through some of the richness quite nicely and she liked this.  (It is also cheap, only $9.99 per pound at Citarella's.)  I have also used  butter rather than olive oil and added capers and preserved lemon peel.   I left out the garlic since it can burn when cooked quicky on high heat, but you could add a clove or two.  Prep takes about five minutes, cooking another five. What could be bad?

This recipe serves two and you could double or triple it, but some things like shad are too good to share.

Shad charmoulayit

  

Ingredients

• 12 ounces to 1 pound boned filet of shad
• 1/2 teaspoon each sea salt, ground cumin, paprika and Aleppo pepper
• Peel of 1/2 preserved lemon, pulp removed and shredded
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 tablespoon capers, rinsed.
• Small handful chopped fresh coriander, well rinsed and chopped

Method

1. Cut the filet  in half crosswise to make it easier to turn.  Pick out any bones that remain if you can.  (If you can't, don't worry about it, they will come out much more easily onces the fish is cooked.)
2. Rub both sides of the fish with the salt and spice mixture and set aside while you do the rest of the prep. 
3. Spray a medium nonstick skillet with vegetable oil spray if you want, and the heat it on medium.  Add the butter and let it melt.  (If you want garlic, I would add two crushed cloved here and let them cook in the butter on low heat for a minute or two to season it, then remove.)
4. Heat the skillet on high, and add the preserved lemon peel.  Cook for about a minute and add the fish, flesh side down.  Cook for two minutes.
5. Flip the fish and add the capers and cilantro.  Cook for three minutes skin side down.
6. If you don't trust me that the fish is done, test it with a fork or knife.  Transfer to plates with the juices and serve.  This goes very nicely with roasted fingerling potatoes, a crusty baguette, or toasted Turkish pide bread. A New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc or a Sancerre are good wines to serve with this.

Salmon with miso and black sesame seeds

This is a riff on my salmon with wasabi peas , in which the fish is slathered with a combination of white miso, ginger juice and mayonnaise, which is in turn topped with ground wasabi peas.  This is the dish that Maya's friends always request when they come to dinner.    Here, dark barley miso gives the fish a much richer flavor, and the black sesame adds crunch, flavor and a dramatic appearance.  I would say, a bit reluctantly, that I prefer this to the old version.  It is easy to double or halve, but 2 pounds of fish will serve 4 very generously, with there likely being some left over for lunch:
Salmon with miso and black sesame seeds:

Ingredients

• 2 pounds salmon fillet
• Salt
• 1 generous tablespoon mayonnaise
• 1 scant tablespoon dark red barley miso
• Togarishi (Japanese pepper and spice mixture) or cayenne pepper
• 1/4 cup black sesame seeds (I find that they work better if they are not already roasted)
• oil for greasing the baking pan

Method

1. Sprinkle the salmon with salt and set aside, ideally for an hour to come close to room temperature.
2. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
3. Oil a bake and serve dish that will hold the salmon snugly, and put the salmon fillet in it.  (You may also like the dish with foil which will make it much easier to clean.
4. Combine the barley and the mayonnaise in a small dish.  The quantities are approximately, and add more mayo if you want to make it easier to spread.  Add about 1/4 - 1/2 teaspoon togarishi if you have, otherwise a generous  pinch of cayenne.  Spread it over the fish.  If it doesn't cover it, make more of the miso mayo mixture. You can use a rubber spatula for spreading, but it works much better if you use your fingers.
5. Sprinkle the fish generously with the sesame seeds so that they make a thick coating.
6. Put the fish in the oven and bake 15 minutes (a bit less if it is thin, a bit more if it is thick or very cold).
7. Remove and serve hot or room temperature.

What kind of salmon?  Farmed salmon works fine here and is a lot cheaper, but it is most wonderful with wild salmon.  Because it is leaner and thinner, I find the wild salmon tends to cook faster.  You could also make this with arctic char. 

How long do I cook it?  For me, less is more but some folks like their salmon nuked.  I tend to like it medium and 15 minutes would be more than enough especially since it will continue to cook if you let it rest and come to room temperature.  A lot about the cooking time depends on the thickness and temperature of your fish, the size of the piece, and the temperature of your oven.  If you test it in the center and there is some slight resistance, it is medium, and if it flakes easily, it is well done.

Variations:  If you are cooking more than one piece of salmon, try one this way and one topped with wasabi peas.  You can also use the white miso and mayonnaise spread with a topping of roasted white sesame seeds.  One particularly attractive way of doing it is to use a large fillet, and top half (the long way) with the black sesame seed and the other half with wasabi peas or white sesame seeds.  It is easiest to do this if you work with one half of the fillet at a time and keep the other covered with wax paper.

One of the world's best salmon dishes: Salmon buglama

As Passover approaches, my thoughts turn toward gefilte fish, which of course means "stuffed fish."  So why are the fish balls in the jar called gefilte fish?  They are the stuffing without the fish, cooked separately. My grandmother, who made the best gefilte fish that I have ever had, referred to the fish balls as kneidel, the same term she used for matzo balls and actually cognate with the French quenelles.  Her gefilte fish was mamish stuffed.  She would take the stuffing, and stuff pike, carp and whitefish steaks, with the skin still on to hold the stuffing in, as well as the heads and cook them in the fish broth along with some kneidel for those who didn't want to deal with the bones.  My grandfather and uncle were both fishmongers, and one of the signs of adulthood in my family was your graduation from kneidel to stuffed fish heads.   Given all of this, no one in my family is willing to eat gefilte fish out of the jar at a seder.  Likewise, no one is willing to make it how my grandmother did, and even if they were willing, no one knows how because no one took the time to learn the recipe.  

So what do we do?  We serve salmon buglama, a recipe which I adapted from Darra Goldstein's The Georgian Feast .   I switched her safflower oil , likely a holdover from Soviet era agriculture, to olive or walnut oil, and handle the onions differently.  Otherwise, the recipe is pretty much the same, with the exception that we serve it cold as well as hot.  During the year, we usually have it hot with new potatoes zapped with garlic, and then eat the leftovers cold for lunch the following days.  However, on Pesach we have served it cold for at least 10 years as our fish course, and people demand it every year.  It is very easy, and you can prepare it a day or two in advance. The quantity below will serve 4-6 as a main course, and be enough for small portions for 8-10 as an appetizer.  You can increase the quantities proportionately.  It is most attractive if you cook and serve it without disturbing the layers.

Salmon buglama

Ingredients

• 2 pound salmon filet (wild is best, farmed is acceptable), skin removed and cut into cubes the size of stew. (they may do this for you in the fish store, save the skin if you want and see below)
• 1 medium to large onion, halved and sliced thin
• Cilantro, washed well and chopped, up to one cup
• 1-3 lemons, sliced thin with seeds removed.
• 4 to 8 bay leaves, depending how much you like them (you can find and use fresh bay leaves on Pesach if you have compunctions about dried herbs and spices)
• 2 large tomatoes,  sliced thin, or the equivalent in smaller tomatoes.
• Olive oil, or substitute walnut oil if you want
• Salt and pepper.

Method

1. In a deep skillet with tight cover , drizzle a little oil and lay half the onion.
2. Put the salmon on top of the onion, season with salt and pepper, top with cilantro and remaining onion, and drizzle with a bit of olive oil.
3. Layer in order the lemon, bay leaves and tomato, season with more salt and pepper and drizzle with oil.
4. Cover tightly, bring to the boil, turn heat down and simmer gently for 15 minutes, or a bit more if necessary.  Don’t open the cover and don't test the fish by disturbing the layers, but if the cover is nice and hot and the tomatoes lightly cooked, it is done.
5. Serve hot or cold.

What to do with the skin?   If it breaks your heart to have them throw out the skin at the fish store, have them save it.  Brush it with oil on both side or spray it with oil spray, sprinkle with coarse salt and spices to taste (cumin and not pepper is a nice combo), and broil until crisp.  This has a potent smell, so either do it the day before your guests arrive, or make sure you know them very well.

Frozen (!) tuna with peas, and soubise

My grandfather and my uncle were both fish mongers, and consequently, my parents are something of fish fetishists. They have an intimate relationship with the creatures of the sea and a deep and intuitive knowledge of their anatomy.  I can't decide whether watching them dismember a steamed fish at a Chinese restaurant was a lesson in marine zoology or performance art, but it drove away at least one of my brother's girlfriends. They remind me a bit of the aunt in Woody Allen's Radio Days (the first artistic fruit of his decades in psychoanalysis) who used to win prizes by identifying fish on various occasions, and they were and are almost Cantonese in their insistence that the fish that they eat be absolutely fresh.  Consequently, we always looked down on frozen fish and people who would eat it, and I was raised never to consume it.  It would be like buying polyester, or retail.

However, as it turns out, much of what is sold in markets is actually fish that was frozen on the boat when it was relatively fresh, and then defrosted before sale to the public.  And when you think about it, unless the fish is local, and caught on a day-boat, aren't we better off with frozen fish than with creatures that have been slowly decomposing as they make their way back to shore and market?  I realized this intellectually, but could never bring myself to actually buy fish that was frozen.  Trader Joe's and the recession changed that.  (I used to dislike Trader Joe's but I am re-evaluating the whole phenomenon.  But more on that another time.)  In the past few weeks we have tried their frozen cod, ahi tuna, and mahi-mahi, and all have been at least as good as what we have gotten at Fairway's fish counter, and much, much cheaper.  You just have to look for packages where the fish is solidly frozen and the plastic adheres well to the fish, showing that it hadn't defrosted at some point and been refrozen.  I am a convert.  I will still go to the farmer's market for local fish, and to the fish market for whole fish or a treat, but for everyday meals, the frozen stuff is better than acceptable.  Let it defrost, in the packaging, overnight in the refrigerator. 

I recently prepared tuna with peas and tomato sauce with frozen defrosted ahi tuna. My recipe is based on one that appeared in the New York Times back in 1990.  I have made lots of changes over the years, and I recently looked back at the original recipe and decided not to link to it because mine is far better.  The recipe goes well with rice, but having a spouse who is watching her carbs, I decided to make soubise.  Soubise is an old-fashioned French concoction that is part of stodgy dishes like Veal Orloff where rice cooks with lots of sauteed onions, some other seasonings, and sometimes a little liquid like wine or cream.  The rice absorbs the liquid that the onion gives off.  It is very tasty and very easy, and takes time rather than effort, and my version is much lower in calories than Julia Child's.  It is a great accompaniment to this dish, and a nice low carb side dish, if that is in demand in your home.  The amounts for both recipes will serve two generously.  The ingredients can easily be doubled or tripled to serve more.

Tuna with peas and tomatoes

Ingredients

• 1/2 to 3/4 pound tuna (no skin or bone)
• 1/4 cup flour
• salt and pepper
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 large shallot, finely chopped
• pinch of hot red pepper flakes (optional)
• 1/2 cup dry white wine (use they wine you are drinking, otherwise a vermouth;  we used a Verdejo)
• 1 cup tomato puree
• 1 to 2 cups frozen tiny peas, defrosted under cold running water

Method

1. Dry the tuna and cut into 1-inch cubes.
2. Season the flour with salt and pepper on a plate.
3. Dredge the tuna lightly in the flour mixture.
4. Heat the vegetable oil on high in a medium nonstick skillet, and add the tuna cubes.  Brown for 1-2 minutes on one side, turn over, then brown for another 1-2 minutes.  Remove tuna to a plate.
5. Pour the oil out of the skillet and add the olive oil.  Heat it on medium, and then add the shallots.  Add the hot red pepper if you would like.  Saute for 2-3 minutes until soft, and add the wine.  Cook for 3 minutes on high, and add the tomatoes.  Cook on high for about 5 minutes, or until the oil begins to separate indicating that you now have a sauce.
6. Add the peas season with salt and pepper, and bring the mixture to a simmer.  Add the tuna, cover, and cook on medium for about 3 minutes.  The tuna will be just barely pink in the center.  If you would like it more well done, cook it for another 2 minutes.  Serve at once.

Soubise (this takes about an hour so start it before the tuna)

Ingredients

• 1 teaspoon to 2 tablespoons of butter
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 large Spanish onions, chopped (you should have about 4 cups)
• salt and pepper
• 1 heaping tablespoon to 1/3 cup white rice, preferably arborio or short grain (but the rice disintegrates, so you can use almost any white rice other than converted, minute rice, or basmati).  I used my lesser amount to show my moral support of the low-carbotarian.
• 1/2 cup milk (I use SkimPlus, Julia Child uses cream.  You can use whatever you want)
• 1/2 cup grate Parmesan or Grana Padano cheese

Method

1. Melt 1 teaspoon to 1 tablespoon of butter in a 2 to 3 quart pot with a cover.  Add the bay leaf and saute a few seconds.
2. Add the onions, a little salt and pepper, and saute for a few minutes until the onions begin to soften.
3. Stir in the rice, turn the heat down to low, and cook for about 45 minutes to an hour. Stir every 10 to 15 minutes, maintaining the heat so that the mixture remains at a low simmer.
4. Add the milk, raise heat to medium high, and cook until it is absorbed.  Don't worry if it curdles a bit.  Cook a few more minutes if necessary until the mixture is a puree the texture of a risotto and the rice is almost entirely dissolved.  
5. If you want to gild the lily, beat in 1 teaspoon to 1 tablespoon additional butter over low heat.  Not necessary, but good.
6. Stir in the grated cheese, check for seasoning, and serve.  This dish can be kept warm if needed, and even reheated in the microwave.

Avocado with fish

Avocado with fish, especially smoked fish or canned sardines, is a great food combo, and one which you don't encounter all that frequently. You may be served a ceviche with avocado, and Mary Feinberg often bring a wonderful sandwich of baguette with avocado and smoked salmon to shul potlucks. But there are a wide variety of easy dishes that you can make for yourself or company. You can cut avocado into wedges and wrap it in smoked salmon and fasten it with a toothpick. Try Mary's sandwich with or without butter. Or spread mashed avocado on whole grain toast and top with smoked trout and eat it as an open faced sandwich. Try avocado instead of cream cheese on your bagel and lox, or top pumpernickel with whitefish salad, avocado and tomato. Here are two easy recipes worth trying.

Smoked salmon with Scandinavian guacamole

I am sure they could do something with this on Prairie Home Companion along the lines of Ajua hot sauce. In any case, it is a very easy and delicious appetizer.

Ingredients

• 1 ripe avocado
• 3 finely chopped scallions
• small handful of finely chopped dill
• juice of 1/4 lemon
• Salt
• 4 ounces smoked salmon
• large whole grain crackers like Ryvita or Wasa, or sliced whole grain bread or toast, cut into smallish pieces

Method

1. Mash the avocado with the next four ingredients. Do this shortly before serving. Put in a bowl.
2. Arrange salmon on a plate. Top with a little more fresh dill if you would like.
3. Put the crackers or bread in a serving basket.
4. To serve, everyone spreads some guacamole on the crackers or bread, tops with salmon, and that's it.

Sardine and Avocado Sandwich

This is based on a recipe from Paula Wolfert's The Slow Mediterranean Kitchen. I am not sure what makes it slow or Mediterranean. It is based on a Canary Islands recipe, with sounds more African and Atlantic. It was adapted from a far more complicated recipe by Ferran Adria of El Bulli fame, so I guess that is the Mediterranean connection. It reminds me of a comment I heard once that most of her books, particularly the later ones, are a pastiche of recipes that Wolfert picked up doing research for travel articles. That having been said, most of her recipes are really good. I have simplified it still further so that it is a lunch sandwich rather than an appetizer. One of the joys of working at home is that you can have things like this for lunch. Just don't eat it before a business meeting, unless your meeting is with a cat food company.

Ingredients (for one largish slice of bread -- multiply as you will; I have 2 slices for lunch, some may only eat one)

• 1 slice whole grain bread
• 1 clove garlic (optional)
• butter (optional)
• 1/2 can sardines packed in olive oil (2 sardines)
• 1/8 - 1/4 ripe avocado
• a few shreds of red onion or scallion
• drizzle of sherry (preferred) or red wine vinegar

Method

1. Toast the bread. Rub it with the clove of garlic and spread lightly with butter if desired.
2. Spread with the sliced avocado.
3. Top with the sardines, filleted if you wish.
4. Top with onion or scallion and drizzle very lightly with vinegar.
5. Eat as an open faced sandwich.

Pre-Halloween Dinner, and Salmon with Wasabi Peas

I really wanted to make something that would fit in with a Halloween theme for the Friday dinner the night before, something like sweet potatoes with hijiki seaweed. The color scheme is right -- orange and black, and the hijiki looks like some kind of mysterious vermin. (The guest to whom we ultimately did not serve it said that she loved it, because it looks like worms and tastes like dirt.) At least it seemed like the perfect idea until I picked up a package of dried hijiki and saw the price: $18.94. It seemed like a lot for something that I was sure most of the people at the table wouldn't eat, so I decided to spend the money on better fish. For the seasonal touch, we had monster eyeballs for dessert. (Basically sugared peanut butter balls dipped in chocolate with M&Ms for irises -- the recipe was from Epicurious at http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Monster-Eyeballs-355109 which were lots of fun. We sent Maya (now in Wisconsin) a picture, and she was very upset that we made them without her. She taked Halloween very seriously.

For the main dish, we had Salmon with Wasabi Peas, which is always a big hit. This is my adaptation of a dish that some friends of ours serve pretty frequently, which is baked salmon topped with mustard and black sesame seeds, but, as they say in Yiddish without any modesty whatsoever, "fartaytsht un farbesert," or adapted (literally translated into a Germanic language) and improved:

Salmon with Wasabi Peas

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. Take a salmon fillet and season it with salt. I usually use a roasted Sichuan peppercorn and salt mix by Penzey's spices, but sea, kosher or even plain salt is fine.
3. Take 1 tablespoon sweet white miso and mash it up well so that it is almost smooth. Mix in 1 tablespoon mayonnaise until smooth. (This amount is sufficient for 1.5 to 2 pounds of salmon.
4. If you want (and you should) wash a small knob of ginger, less than 1 inch -- no need to peel. Grate it on the coarse side of a grater, take the grated ginger in you hand, and squeeze the juice into the miso-mayo mixture. Mix until smooth.
5. Spread a thin layer over the salmon. Don't overdo it, a little is plenty, and even though we are in a recession, you can afford to throw what is left away.
6. Take a handful of wasabi peas and whirl in a food processor (a smaller one works better here) or blender until the texture of bread crumbs.
7. Sprinkle evenly over the salmon -- not to thickly.
8. Bake the salmon for 10-15 minutes. Broil briefly at the end if you want it browner.
9. Serve hot, warm, or room temperature.

Notes

• The better the salmon, the better the dish. Wild Alaskan salmon is in season, inexpensive and was really good. This can also be made with arctic char. You can also use farmed salmon.
• How long does it cook? One day I will devote a blog posting to this question, but the answer is simple. It depends. In this case, on how cold the fish was when it went in the oven, the thickness of the fish, how much coating you put on, and the kind of fish. In my experience, wild salmon cooks faster and is usually somewhat less forgiving than farmed, but tastes better anyway even if it is a little overcooked.
• The inspiration for the miso topping in dengaku, a Japanese grilled tofu dish. To prepare the dish authentically, you make a sort of custard with miso, sake, eggs, dashi and seasonings. I just use miso, mayo and ginger juice and no one notices.
• One variation worth trying (I haven't done it yet) would be to broil the fish with the miso-mayo but without the peas.