Tarragon, Seafood Paragon

 

Photo from Tarragon, King of Herbs
(by someone even more impressed by this herb than I am)

When thinking of seafood options for the weekend (and into Monday, it turns out), I decided to go to Kyler's Catch with some specific recipes in mind. The fish there is always so good that it is easy to do what is easiest -- very simple preparations that foreground the fish (or shellfish) itself.

But in the spirit of Nueva Receta, I sat down with For Cod and Country, which we have cited just a couple times since purchasing it for our seaside weekend house a few years ago. I remember learning of the book on public radio, but I do not think it was as long ago as author Barton Seaver's 2011 interview with Leann Hanson. The book is a paradox: a chef who is deeply concerned about the overharvesting of fish endeavors to teach us to enjoy fish sparingly -- avoiding some imperiled species altogether, and getting the most out of the fish we do use by maximizing both flavor and land-based ingredients.

Many of the recipes appear more ambitious than I was feeling this weekend, but I did find two that seemed to meet the effort-outcome balance I was hoping for. One is a grilled salmon with tarragon butter; the other is a crusty halibut preparation that Pam will be making tomorrow.

The salmon recipe is unusually simple for this book -- it is one of those recipes whose title conveys almost the entire story. I softened butter, and mashed it together with finely chopped tarragon and orange zest, along with black pepper and a small amount of salt. Seaver suggests grilling the salmon (skin on) over high heat to get good grill marks, and then to transfer it to a cooler area of the fire. All I could picture was losing half the salmon through the grill grates, and the Big Green Egg provides only very uniform heat. So I opted to heat the grill to 400 and simply bake the salmon -- I actually used milder Arctic char -- on the griddle inset. Once this was cooked through -- about 12 minutes -- I transferred it to a plate and dabbed the butter mix on it. The result was simply scrumptious.

Meanwhile, I had cooked some brown rice, mixing a bit of the tarragon butter into it partway through the cooking process. This was a delicious accompaniment. Author Seaver suggests that tarragon is a perfect pairing for many fish; I expect to be testing that theory!