Snapper

This is my favorite fish dish in the book. Try it and you’ll taste why.

Thanks again, Ming Na!

While in Nice, I had lunch with Irene and Michel Weil at their charming house, with fig trees growing in their garden and nasturtiums on their deck. Although Irene quietly confessed to me that she wasn’t much of a cook, she treated us to a delectable and creative meal. It began with the last tomatoes from their garden served with a little olive oil, sea salt, and a sprinkling of fresh herbs, including mint, basil, and cilantro, from her garden; then we had a Mediterranean dorade royale (sea bream) with preserved lemons, tamarind, and ginger. Comté cheese brought from Michel’s native Besançon, fresh pomegranate seeds from the yellow pomegranates growing in their garden, raspberries, and fresh walnuts in the shell finished the meal, all attractively presented as only the French can do. When I asked about the seasonings for the dorade, Irene said that she loves the flavor contrasts of the preserved lemon, tamarind, and ginger.

Here I use boneless fish fillets with skin—porgies, red snapper, mackerel, bluefish, gray mullet, redfish, trout, or anything else of modest size. If the fillets are too long, I cut them into convenient 3–4-inch lengths so I can turn them easily in a frying pan. The spicy undercoat is made simply in a food processor or chopper, though you could chop finely by hand if you prefer. If you want to keep the meal simple, serve this fish with Potato Chaat and Spinach with Garlic and Cumin or a salad.

“Grandma-style” means the vegetables are cooked like a stew in a big pot until they’re soft and delicious. The vegetables taste better and better as you cook them down, and the broth tastes nourishing. This is one of the classic recipes I pull out in a pinch, and it’s always welcomed.

Sometimes we forget that there is more to Mexican food than our favorite enchiladas and puffy tacos. In fact, there are many specialty seafood dishes throughout the country, varying in style and preparation, yet equally delicious. Veracruz is a central Mexican city on the Gulf of Mexico, and it’s where many Spanish conquistadors landed when first coming to the Americas. Here, culinary traditions began to meld—not only Spanish but also Mediterranean, French, and Caribbean. The result is Veracruzano—Veracruz style. We love serving our version of this dish over a bed of fluffy quinoa, which is an excellent vehicle for soaking up the delicious juices.

Making a parchment envelope in which to steam a fillet of fish surrounded by aromatic vegetables may sound a bit fancy for just one, but cooking in parchment is actually one of the simplest and most effective ways of steaming, because it seals in the flavors. What a treat it is to have that golden-tinged, puffed-up half-moon of parchment on your plate, and then to tear it open and breathe in all the heady aromas. Moreover, you’ll have no cleanup afterward; just wipe off the Silpat mat and throw away the parchment after you’ve scraped and scooped up every last delicious morsel and its jus. If you want just one meal out of this, get about a 6-ounce fillet of flounder, halibut, salmon, red snapper—whatever looks good. Or, as I did recently, try tilapia, which is quite readily available these days and at a reasonable price. But bought almost twice the amount I needed, so I could play with the other half of the cooked fillet a couple of days later. I learned from Katy Sparks, whose book, Sparks in the Kitchen, is full of great cooking tips from a chef to the home cook, the trick of pre-roasting several slices of new potato so they can go in the parchment package. This way you have a complete, balanced meal-in-one cooked all together.

Steamed Uku Laulau with Ginger-Scallion Sauce Laulau is the traditional Hawaiian method of wrapping salted fish in taro and ti leaves and then steaming it in the imu. Later, the method was used for salted pork. In this recipe, we get much the same effect using ti leaves in a steamer. Like other snappers, the delicate flesh of the uku is best steamed. The Chinese-style sauce gives the perfect finishing touch without overwhelming the subtle flavors of the fish.

Other seafood may be used in this dish, including scallops, tuna, swordfish, squid, or monkfish. Fish with a relatively firm texture, like that of snapper, is the best choice. Select fish that is perfectly fresh, since the fish is "cooked" only by the acidity of the lime juice. Serve avocado slices as an accompaniment, and garnish the plates or platter with additional sliced tomatoes and sprigs of cilantro.

Editor's note: The recipe and introductory text below are adapted from Elizabeth Karmel's Web site, girlsatthegrill.com . I use this technique to grill one of my signature dishes, pancetta-wrapped trout. I stuff the fish with fresh tarragon, wrap it mummy-style in pancetta (uncured Italian bacon) and serve it with a simple mesclun salad for a winning meal off the grill.

Chef Michael Schlow of Boston's Via Matta created this dish. Serve with Schlow's Crunchy Green Bean Salad.

Fish stews abound throughout the Mediterranean and most evolved from the fishing boats themselves, as fishermen reserved the worst of their catch for themselves and cooked it on-board.

The olive-oil-glazed potatoes make a perfect accompaniment to this dish.

Annuska Angulo Rivero of Mexico City, Mexico, writes: "This recipe was originally for besugo, a fish popular in Bilbao but not easily found in Mexico. I use red snapper instead. Be sure to eat this with lots of good bread to mop up the sauce. Using a fruity olive oil makes this dish incredibly flavorful.