All throughout my childhood the only type of fish we ate at home was fillet of sole and even that was a rarity. “Don’t choke” my mother would blurt, just as the fork would hit my lips. I remember looking at my brothers across the table thinking “How can a person choke on a piece of fillet of sole?” Eventually, the lack of exposure to fresh fish combined with the potent effects of a mother’s anxiety, left me fish-phobic. Anyway (thankfully) I happened to marry a man that adores fish so, as an adult, I finally Iearned to appreciate all kinds of seafood. And now, when I polish off a whole roasted fish, leaving nothing but a pile of bones, I’m particularly proud. Even more importantly, when I see my kids do this, too, it assures me that I didn’t pass my inherited childhood fears of choking onto them. (I guess this is part of what’s called “evolutionary enlightenment…” ) Of course, I have a ways to go. If you saw my “routine” when attempting to swallow a pill larger than an aspirin, you’d shake your head in disbelief. Yep, Just like Mom….

Anyway, I will admit that, for the uninitiated, being presented with an entire fish can be a bit intimidating. “Where do I start?” is usually the first thought. Then comes, “is there anything I shouldn’t eat–like the eyes?” And then comes that bossy internal bellow “be careful of the bones!”

I’ll talk about eating a whole fish in a minute–but for now, let’s stick to cooking it, which is really easy.

Roasting a whole fish, whether it’s several pounds which will feed a few, or an individual fish, meant to serve just one, this is a very healthy choice for a main dish and it’s doable, even after a busy day out in the world.

Technically, in a bare-bones way (no pun intended), all you do is season the fish, inside and out, with salt and pepper then rub the skin with a lubricant (extra-virgin olive oil is a good choice). And then, just before roasting on a shallow baking sheet, in a very hot oven, you’d add a good squeeze of fresh citrus juice (lemon, lime, orange or grapefruit). There are a million ways to elaborate on/alter the flavoring ingredients using different herbs, mustards, vinegars, cold-pressed oils, vegetables and/or a wide range of other ethnic ingredients.

Ok, let’s talk about how I seasoned last night’s Branzino. I bought two whole fish (about 1 pound each, weighed before gutting). I asked my fish-monger to scale and gut each fish and to remove the gills. I also asked for the head and tail to be left intact (although you certainly could ask for the head to be removed–chicken!). After rinsing and drying each fish inside and out, I used a sharp knife to diagonally slash each side of each fish two or three times (I do it three or four times in larger fish) in the chubbier mid-section (about an inch apart). Slashing not only helps the fish to cook evenly but it’s also a way to force some of the seasoning mixture past the skin to flavor some of the flesh. Keep the slashes shallow, though, just through the flesh. If you go too deep you can splinter the skeletal structure, making the flesh, once cooked, seem more bony. (Although this is no big deal, the Jewish mother in me made me feel obligated to mention it…)

I laid the fish side by side in a nonreactive dish (9 x 13-inch Pyrex is good) and I seasoned both fish, inside and out, with Kosher salt (you could use sea salt) and black pepper.

Ingredients for last night’s fish: I decided to make a vinaigrette-type mixture: I mixed several cloves of minced garlic (about 6) with 1 tablespoon of whole-grain Dijon mustard, 3 tablespoons of strained fresh lemon juice (I juice several lemons at the start of each week and, after straining, I keep the juice (about 3/4 cup) in a small screw-top jar, in the fridge), a generous teaspoon of crushed red chili flakes, a handful of chopped Italian parsley (you could also use chives, cilantro, basil…herbs like that). Then I whisked in 2/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil (actually, I used my Garlic Confit oil, which is usually in the refrigerator) and, after seasoning to taste with salt and a generous amount of freshly ground black pepper, I poured this over and inside each fish. Here’s what the seasoned fish looked like….

Seasoned Whole Branzino

Here’s an optional embellishment: Because I had some raw, sliced fresh leeks in the fridge (leftover from the previous night), I decided to sauté them in some butter (you could use olive oil) and, once softened, seasoned with salt and pepper and being allowed to cool, I stuffed the leeks into the cavity of each fish. Take a look:

Branzino, stuffed with cooked leeks.

The fish can be stuffed, covered and refrigerated for several hours. Take the fish out of the fridge 30 minutes or so prior to roasting.

One more optional embellishment: I decided to make a savory breadcrumb mixture to sprinkle on top of the fish at the end of roasting. I always keep a stash of dried breadcrumbs in the freezer. I sautéed 2 cloves minced garlic in 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil (you could use butter) and, when the garlic was softened and fragrant (just about a minute) I stirred in a generous tablespoon of minced flat-leaf Italian parsley (you could use chives, basil or cilantro). And, although I didn’t last night, often I’ll add a little crumbled, dried oregano. I then stirred the garlic-herb mixture into a bowl holding a scant 2/3 cup of dried breadcrumbs and I seasoned the crumbs with salt and pepper. And, that’s that!

Here’s what the crumbs looked like:

Seasoned Breadcrumbs

Now, let’s get to the roasting: The most important elements to achieving savory results (other than using sound flavoring ingredients, of course) is to give the fish full exposure to dry heat (in a shallow pan), which is the definition of roasting, along with cooking in a super hot oven.

So, here’s how I set up to roast the fish: I took a large, round almost flat baking sheet (I use a black steel pan which encourages more heat retention, but any low, heavy sheet-pan will do. I lined my pan (as seen above, in the picture of the stuffed fish) with nonstick aluminum foil (I placed several overlapping sheets of foil on the pan and scrunched the sides to create a low border to keep any juices that might exude when roasting from spilling over, which would cause the oven to smoke). If you don’t have nonstick foil, just use regular aluminum foil, shiny side up, and grease the surface to prevent the fish from sticking. (If wondering, I don’t use parchment paper on the bottom of the pan because I roast fish at 500F which could cause the paper to burn.)

Cooking time will vary with the size of the fish. The goal is to cook the flesh just till cooked but still succulent and the outside (skin) should be deeply blistered and extremely sexy looking.

Timing: 1 to 1 1/4 pounds will take 17 to 22 minutes in a preheated 500F oven. A 2 to 2 1/2-pounder will take 25 to 32 minutes at 475F (the lower temperature will help the interior flesh to cook properly while allowing the exterior a bit more time in the hot oven without incinerating.

I roasted our fish for 20 minutes at 500F, then sprinkled the crumbs over the top skin of each fish and continued to roast for 3 more minutes, until the crumbs were golden.

Here’s din-din…

Roasted Branzino, Stuffed with Leeks and Topped with Breadcrumbs

Ta-dahh…

I'm so proud of my bones!

My mother would plotz….

Ok, let’s talk about how to eat a whole fish…

If serving a larger fish, divide each one in half or thirds (depending on the size) by driving a sharp knife straight down through the body. If you want to remove the head, simply cut it off, but first pull the sweet nugget of “cheek meat” out and place on one (lucky person’s) plate. An alternative is to seperate the top fillet of fish from the bones and divide the flesh. To do this, insert a sharp knife into the flesh, just on top of the spine. Ease the meat off the bones, which should come away easily if cooked properly (if too raw, the fish flesh will cling to the bones). After removing the top fillet completely, use the tip of the knife (at the tail end) to lift up the skeleton so it comes away freely. Use your hands to pick up and remove the skeletal structure. Portion the bottom fillet as you would the top and enjoy.

To eat individual fish, use your knife to ease the cooked fillet off of the skeletal structure. After eating the top fillet, either turn over the fish so the bones face the plate to enjoy the remaining flesh or lift off the bones, as described above. And yes, although I don’t, you can eat the eyes….

To serve whole fish to children: I suggest to always fillet fish for young children. Having said this, my kids have been eating whole fish since they were about 10 years old (and they do a better job than me!). Even after filleting, it’s a good idea to instruct children how to detect a stray bone. Tell them to, after putting some cooked fish in the front of their mouth, to use the tip of their tongue to move the fish around, looking for a bone. If one is detected, they should keep the food in the front of their mouth and calmly use their tongue to push the bone out past their lips. They should then use their fingers to pull the bone out of their mouth. It’s also a good idea to have a separate small plate just for the bones so that they don’t inadvertently get mixed with something else on the plate.

Tags: cooking branzino, cooking whole fish, fresh fish cooking, how to cook whole fish, how to serve whole fish

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No, no, this isn’t a blog about reducing the saturated fat in my cooking. I was just putting some thinly sliced prosciutto on a plate for our dinner tonight and I saw that there was a wide layer of fat surrounding almost every slice of meat which, to me, is not what I (or those at my table) want to eat so I simply cut it off with kitchen scissors. I’m writing about it because as I was snipping away I couldn’t help but think about all the snooty types who think they know everything about the dos and “don’t-dos” in the world of cooking and eating and about how they would hang me out to dry because I dared to remove the sacred fat. This also reminds me of how those same people (those I just mentioned) also get ALL bent out of shape when they see a cook rinse the skins off roasted peppers instead of allowing more of those acrid black specks to remain on the flesh. And let’s not forget when they (yup, the same folks) claim that “you can’t chop aromatics (onions, celery and garlic) a day ahead without sacrificing the integrity of their flavor!”… Sheesh.

With so much happening in the world, how can people get so upset over stupidness?

Listen, one of the greatest blessings provided by the art of home-cooking is that we all can (and should) custom make our taste, texture and esthetic experiences to suit ourselves and those we’re feeding. That’s the whole point!

So, this little note is just to give all of you non-snooty types a vote of confidence when you decide to cook according to who you are and what you want!

Go ahead—Cut off the fat!  

Tags: chopping vegetables, cutting fat, family cooking, personalized cooking, roasting peppers

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Is abundance, which is something that we all want, a thing or a feeling? I’ve been thinking a lot about that lately. I’ll bet many of you, too, might have also been tossing a question something like that around, with money being so tight and with the nose of the impending holidays pressing on the window. I mean, if “things” are a necessary prerequisite to being able to experience abundance, then it makes sense to think that we would (should) be forced to relinquish this experience when we have to live with fewer “things” because of outer circumstances that change.

Unfortunately, it’s this “common-sense” assumption that, I think, is at the crux of a problem that plagues many of us, me included, who like to live a life that reflects a tangible interaction with robustness and sensory lushness—both of which is what I’ve come to believe accurately defines what the feeling of abundance is and what’s at the heart of what we’re truly after. For me, it’s the spiritual essence buried within what a table bursting with aromatic, gorgeous foods symbolize; a life that exemplifies ones power to deliberately create a scene that evokes the feeling of fulfillment, and on several levels. So, what’s the problem?

Although the economy is a factor, I didn’t just start thinking about this. And, although I’ve had no trouble trimming the extraneous from my day to day existence, when I’m cooking, it’s different. I’m different. Since the kids have all been away at school, I’ve had a really tough time scaling down and adjusting my food purchases to reflect that I am now, on most nights, cooking only for Jon and I. Friends who’ve, over the years, experienced meals in my home would, I’m sure, laugh out loud since they know first hand (as do my children), that saying that I cook a lot of food is an understatement of huge proportion, regardless of how many people I’m supposed to be feeding. Trust me, though, no one ever complains. Who would complain about the opportunity to dive into the amazing look, scent and taste of a table sprawled abundantly with deliciousness? That doesn’t mean, though, that they don’t make some necessary adjustments….Some of my friends literally ”train” before dinner at my house; purposely not eating much and work-outing out extra-hard for two days!  Funny—we actually have one friend who always eats more than he can comfortably hold, and (like clockwork) this causes him to promptly have what’s become a ritualistic sneezing attack!

(OK, I do get a warped sense of satisfaction knowing that and, yes, I do love the look of abundance on the table, but I don’t like feeling captive to it; and I’ll admit that at times I do (but this blog is evidence that I’m seriously working on it…).

It’s not that I don’t know that I should be making amount adjustments in my food purchases, especially now that it’s just the two of us, because I do. And I’ve been getting better but, whenever I’m about to talk to “Dom” my butcher or when moseying down the produce aisles, I still feel this very discernable tug of war going on inside my head. One side (the “big-girl” side) always asserts that it’s really and truly time to scale down. But the other side–the feeling side (dare I say, the scared side)—seems to, most often, win. The victor, the voice of vulnerability, always jabs back with a defense like “but you NEED three bags of spinach (which is what I buy when feeding six) because it cooks down so much”—or “a plate of four double-cut lamb chops wouldn’t look nearly as sexy on the table as a platter of six would—And we can always use the leftovers (which I have yet to do) …And don’t forget that Mango, the dog who will always stand by you even when your children get married, she loves those lamb chops!” I must say that Miss Mango has really lapped up in all of this!

Back and forth the voices spar: “Leftovers are one thing, Lauren, but this is just silly!” And then the other (clearly, the Jewish mother in me) will chime in with “Oh, you’ll buy less next time, remember that someone could unexpectedly stop by and it’s always (always) better to have too much than not enough.” It’s as if both voices use this (uninvited) inner chatter to shake me by the shoulders; one urging me to wake up (maybe grow up) and the other, wanting me to stay stuck –fearing the feeling of experiencing something smaller. Clearly, to me, smaller (at the table) means something very big. 

Yes, I’m onto something….

So, a few weeks ago, instead of continuing to snuff these voices out like some annoying telephone solicitation, I finally decided to stop rebelling and, instead, slow down and spend some time listening and learning.  (I’ve found that once I decide to figure things out, it’s not nearly as gratifying to resist responding intelligently to my “issues.”) 

I began to understand that the importance I’ve attached to my adult-ability to create a sumptuous scene whenever I want (regardless of how many people are able to interact with it) represents how I transformed my home-life as a child into something more wonderful, and that’s good. But, I also learned that I secretly felt that scaling down somehow equaled living with less joy which was (is) not something I’m prepared to do. So what did I do?  I hung on to an old version of my definition of abundance out of the fear of loss. With this realization, I became determined to start to make the obvious alterations to my every-day lifestyle and prove that “size isn’t everything.”

The other day, I finally pushed myself to buy only one chicken. You might be thinking “so what” but (TRUST ME) toting home one lonely bird in a bag was, for me, a really big deal. When I think about it (and believe me I do)…I haven’t bought only one chicken in probably 20 years! When the kids were home I would never leave the market with less than three chickens regardless of how I planned to prepare them.

So, on this night I cooked one chubby roasting chicken until crisp and gorgeous and then I sectioned the bird and arranged the pieces slightly overlapping on a plate (no, not on a platter). I also served two kinds of fresh vegetables, which is what I always do, but this time the amount was appropriate for just us. I also had on the table a bowl filled with wispy baby arugula leaves and another with some home-roasted red and yellow peppers, which I always have in the fridge. There was a plate holding a wedge of soft, creamy blue cheese and next to that were two carafes; one of balsamic vinegar and the other, filled with a favorite extra-virgin olive oil from Lucca. I heated up only half of a crusty Italian loaf, saving the rest for the next night to make garlic toast and intending to slice, toast and pulverize the rest into breadcrumbs. The table was set, the lights were dimed, the candles were lit and the wine was poured. Jon and I ate together and, as usual, had a great time.

That night I came away from the table seeing (and trusting) that the “size” of the platters had nothing to do with maintaining the feeling I so valued in my home. That treasures of the heart, when fueled by nurturing intentions, are not shrinkable. And that the excitement and joy I feel when creating and sharing a colorful, texturally diverse, aromatic and love-filled landscape is something I will never have to part with (and neither do you!).

Anyway, these days I’m anxiously awaiting my children who are coming home this week for Thanksgiving. So, once again, I get to lug out my big pots!

 I’ll soon be exploring and sharing more about the concept of abundance, the desire for success and about  what’s at the heart of both of those; the on-going pursuit of achieving and sustaining the feeling of happiness …

Until then, no matter how many there are at your Thanksgiving table, enjoy every minute!

Love to you and yours…

Lauren

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