4/1/2023 0 Comments Broiled bluefish![]() ![]() This simple recipe is not only outstanding, but versatile you can cook any firm-fleshed fish in this way. ![]() ![]() Does it matter which is tastier, the potatoes or the fish? Who cares? Go for it! Fame and glory or even appreciation comes seldom enough for the home cook. I sometimes use two baking dishes and twice as many potatoes with the same amount of fish to provide more of these “delectable bits.” My family has almost come to blows over these browned potatoes. ![]() Marcella says, “These are the most delectable bits, so save them for yourself or for someone you like nearly as well.” Serve piping hot directly from the casserole dish, scraping up browned potatoes stuck to the pan. Loosen the browned potatoes from the sides of the dish and replace with unbrowned potatoes from the dish bottom. Remove the dish from the oven, and using a spoon, baste the fish and exposed potatoes with some of the oil in dish. Salt and pepper liberally and return the casserole to the oven for 10 minutes. Mix the remaining olive oil, garlic and parsley and pour over the fillets. Remove the dish and place the fillets, skin side down, on the potatoes. Arrange the potatoes evenly over the bottom and sides of the dish, place it in the upper third of the preheated oven, and bake for 15 minutes. Mix the potatoes with half the garlic, half the parsley, half the olive oil and a liberal amount of salt and pepper in a 16×10-inch casserole dish, preferably enameled cast iron. Peel and slice the potatoes thinly (about ⅛-inch thick). “The World’s Best Bluefish Recipe” 2 bluefish fillets (skin on, about 1 lb. What more could you ask for in a recipe? Baked Bluefish with Potatoes, Genoese Style (for 6) I have written of the recipe almost annually for the past eight years because I think it is important for the reputation of the bluefish as a culinary joy, and for you and your reputation as a culinary treasure to your friends and family. This recipe is not my own but came from Marcella Hazan’s More Classic Italian Cooking, published by Knopf in 1978. In fact, they will greet you with open arms and thank you profusely, especially if you convince them to prepare the bounty you have provided in the following manner, using what I call the world’s best bluefish recipe. If you follow my instructions, you will have a fine, generous gift for friends and neighbors, who will no longer hide when they see you coming with “fresh” fish. I then gut the fish as soon as possible, usually while still at sea. Evaporation from the wet sack will keep the fish cool for as long as the sack remains damp. As soon as it is bled out, I put the fish on ice or in a wet burlap sack, if ice is not available. (The name “priest” for the chosen bludgeon is apt, for it applies the “last rites” to the fish.) I keep a bucket half-filled with water into which I put the fish after cutting its throat, to keep most of the blood off of the boat. Large blues over 6 pounds should be dispatched with a “priest” or club of some sort applied vigorously to the top of the head before you make the bleeding incision. Do this carefully, for the sharp teeth and strong jaws and pugnacity of a bluefish will make short work of the flesh on a finger or thumb! I speak from experience. This is simply, though dangerously, accomplished by making an incision just behind the point where the gill covers come together on the underside of the fish. Some people ignore this fish until they reach the dock, where they unload the spoiled fish to generously give it to their friends and neighbors, who soon learn to dislike the noble fish.Įvery summer I write to exhort my readers to bleed each bluefish as it comes aboard. Then the fishermen must talk over the action before finally getting to the now-dead fish cooking in the boxes or festering in the sun. Fishermen often catch blues quickly and in large numbers when the beasts are surface feeding, and in the excitement of the moment, the fish are thrown to the deck or put in boxes and forgotten until the commotion of the blitz is over, the tangled lines are straightened out and the gear is overhauled. These negative reactions are always about fish that were poorly handled when caught. The bluefish is disliked by many for being oily or “fishy-tasting” and even repellent when cooked. Respected by all as a magnificent fighter, it’s a dangerous fish to handle, and when properly dealt with, delicious to eat. Well, I know one creature that is never boring, either to catch or to eat, and that’s the much-maligned bluefish. It is difficult to write column after column without getting both repetitive and boring for the reader, to say nothing of boring for me, but why should you care about my boredom? ![]()
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