Whaleboater's Salmon

Rowing Whaling City

One of the many advantages of my whaleboat hobby is that it brings me close to the New Bedford seafood markets on a regular basis, and there are few places in North America better for finding seafood. So after filling in with the Sireens on a crisp, beautiful morning, I headed over to Kyler's Catch, where I had picked up some delicious cod just a couple of days ago.

This time my mission was salmon, and though no wild salmon were on offer today, the organic farm-raised was offered at a good price, and was billed as "fishy" -- which is what I think fish should be!

We had decided to modify a rather complicated salmon recipe from Cod and Country, since we did not have the time or inclination to brine and smoke the salmon in the way Barton Seaver suggests. That will be a summer project, I promise!

Rather, we transformed the salad recipe he calls "Smoked Salmon Panzanella with Feta, Dill, and Grapes" into something we might call "Sweet Creamy Broiled Salmon with Cool Toppings."

Not extremely photogenic, but nicer than most. It looked better without the toppings, but certainly tasted better with them!

Turn to page 215 in Seavey's book (which I hope you will purchase if you love seafood and care about the sea) to learn what he would do with some wild-caught salmon and a couple days to prepare it. What we did was quite simple. I brushed oil onto a cookie sheet and put it in the oven (already at 350 because Pam was making her amazing cornbread) for a few minutes to warm it. Then I placed the salmon fillet -- skin-side down on the hot pan, and brushed oil onto the top. I then sprinkled it liberally with dill weed (the fresh dill suggested by Seaver would probably have been even better).

As the fish cooked for ten minutes, I whisked together equal amounts of plain yogurt, orange juice, and olive oil, along with just a smidge of salt. After 10 minutes the fish looked almost done, so I finished it by rebrushing the oil and then placing it under the broiler for 3 minutes. I did not char it -- just gave it a very nice texture. At our plates, we placed seedless grapes (cut in half lengthwise) on top of the fish, spooned the yogurt mixture over it, and sprinkled with crumbled feta.

In addition to the hot corn bread, Pam steamed some organic green beans that she had blanched and frozen during last autumn's harvest from our CSA at the Colchester Neighborhood Farm.

Paired with a rather ordinary red table wine, this was a delicious land-and-sea meal.