I’ve recently started eating healthier and that means there’s little to no red meat and a whole lot of spinach. Some things take some getting used to but the biggest thing for me to remember is that I still need at least 30 grams of protein a day and there’s only so much peanut butter I’m going to put on my whole wheat toast in the morning.
So fish has made a huge resurgence in my diet. I like pretty much all kinds of fish anyway, especially if I’m out for sushi. Of course, I have to take care of my bank account too so cooking at home is the best way to go. I’m not exactly Gordon Ramsay and I do like variety so it’s a great reassurance that I can always refer to whatever new cookbook comes around. This time it’s Fish On by Okotoks-based author Ingrid Baier. She was raised in Port Hardy on Vancouver Island, so she knows a thing or two about eating the catch of the day. She has all of the bases covered here, from lobsters to oysters to scallops to salmon and halibut.
With much zeal I tackled the lemon prawn kebabs. I’m a big sucker for shrimp so this was an easy first step, mostly because I had all of the ingredients already. Because Baier is a culinary artist, her other recipes delve into spices like coriander seeds and cognac, two staples of which I don’t have a steady and ready supply. The lemon prawns, on the other hand, are pretty straightforward and incredibly delicious. I substituted the white wine for cooking wine, but I still liked it. The blend of garlic, lemon, wine and sea salt made a mouth-watering flavour that had me salivating during the whole process. I grilled the prawns with olive oil too, a personal favourite. To be honest, the meal was meant for four but it ended up serving me double portions two times.
This is a pretty smart effort from a first-time cookbook writer. There was a lot that I liked about the whole package, such as how she included a suggested pairing for each recipe. I didn’t have any white burgundy for the prawns, unfortunately but a beer worked nicely. She also went the extra mile to discuss basic cooking methods for different kinds of seafood. I always thought that you were supposed to drop live crabs into boiling water. Cruel, yes, but that’s what I believed. She writes that this actually cooks the taste of the viscera into the flesh and that’s enough knowledge to prevent me from ever doing it. I can’t imagine enjoying the taste of crab viscera.
She also goes into detail about sustainable seafood, referencing www.seachoice.org for consumers to make informed decisions. According to this site, Dungeness crab from the Canadian and American Pacific is the best choice in terms of environmental impact and sustainable fishing. From this whole enterprise I’ve learned that eating fish and seafood is indeed healthy for people, and tasty too, but it’s also important to consider where you’re going to get your fish from.
