“We are geographically well off in Montreal, sitting on the shores of the seafood superhighway that is the St. Lawrence Seaway. From the Gaspé Peninsula to Kamouraska, Montreal to Portland, Maine, the seaway has a tremendous influence on what we eat.” – Book One
Not an authentic keftedes recipe, but (a hugely popular) one I developed for my half pescatarian family. It combines the Greek love of fritters and meatballs with mustard sauce – a common addition to souvlakia or gyro.
When I was a child, my mom would serve us braised leeks drizzled with creamy vinaigrette. Even at a young age, I recall enjoying the buttery sweetness of the leeks. The recipe below is a great combination of those sweet, caramelized leeks and simply braised cod. The cod may be replaced with any fish fillets of your choice. Be sure to wash the leeks thoroughly by soaking them in a big bowl of water as described here, to remove all the grit hiding between its many layers.
The chewy, nutty brown rice that forms the base of our grain bowl was supereasy to make: We just poured it into plenty of boiling salted water and cooked it like pasta. While the rice cooked, we spread sliced carrots and shiitakes on a baking sheet and started roasting them in a hot oven and prepared pickled cucumbers to add crisp brightness to our bowl. When the vegetables were half-roasted, we cleared a space in the middle of the baking sheet and added four small salmon fillets, brushed with hoisin to boost their flavor and color. We mixed a portion of the pickling liquid with scallion-ginger oil and a bit more hoisin to make a potent dressing. We stirred some into the drained rice to ensure that every bite was flavorful. Topped with pickles, roasted vegetables, and salmon and finished with dressing and toasted sesame seeds, this grain bowl makes a satisfying hot dinner or a great packed lunch.
Persian Spicy Fish and Herb Stew | Ghalieh Mahi
Smoked fish has saved me on more than one, more than two, more than twenty occasions—it’s just that fast and easy to build a meal around. Think of using it anywhere you’d use jarred tuna: in a salad, in a sandwich, in cold pasta, or simply flaked and eaten with crackers.
Turmeric-stained chả cá Hà Nội is a superb and iconic dish from Vietnam’s capital. Finding supermarket ingredients to make this treat required creativity, because it typically features pieces of freshwater fish fillet marinated in a creamy, umami-laden mixture of turmeric, galangal (an edgy cousin of ginger and turmeric), fermented shrimp sauce (mắm tôm, a toothpaste-textured, mauve-colored umami bomb), and mẻ (a mash of fermented cooked rice).
Recipe introduction by Managing Producer Sally Swift as originally included in our Weeknight Kitchen newsletter:
This soup of pasta and clams is a Sardinian classic that’s all about simplicity. It relies chiefly on the flavor inherent in the soup’s two main ingredients: chewy, toasty spherical fregula, and arselle, the small, briny, succulent hard-shell clams found along the coast.
Recipe introduction by The Splendid Table Managing Producer Sally Swift: