Ten days of white seabass

A casual glance at the date of my last post will confirm that I've been slackin. At least I have a semi-decent excuse for neglecting the blogs.........FISHING! Yes, I'm back on the kayak and doing some fishing. Go check out The Overloaded Kayak to get the gory details. I've spent a lot of hours on the water of late. Some of that time has actually been successful. On Friday, March 12th, I caught a 46.5lb white seabass.

From The Overloaded Kayak Images

As you might imagine, filleting a large fish in a small kitchen is a pain in the keister.

From The Hollow Leg Diner - images

Just a little bit bigger than my (soon to be destroyed) cutting board.

From The Hollow Leg Diner - images

So what do you do with 20+ pounds of white seabass? That's what I was trying to figure out. After a long day on the water (9 hours+), a bunch of post-fishing tasks and filleting this beast, I was in no mood to cook much. In trying to get the head off I also accidentally cut my favorite cutting board in two. The last chop with the cleaver went through the spine and the board in one mighty crack. I ran out to Bed Bath and Beyond to get a new cutting board and then hit the store for some veg and herbs. Before I left I had broken down the spine into some manageable pieces. I loaded the carcass in my biggest stock pot and filled it with water. As I was out at the store, Lupe added some onion, garlic and carrots and brought the pot up to a simmer. By the time I got back, the remaining meat on the carcass had cooked perfectly. I removed all the meat from the bones and then continued simmering the stock. I added some parsnips and parsley and some seasoning at this time. The pot was kept simmering until it had reduced down quite a bit. It was after 2 in the morning by the time I took it off the stove and strained the stock. I took half of the stock and reduced it down until 10 in the morning. By that time I had a very concentrated liquid. I don't know if it was technically still a stock or a fish base. I'll call it a base. This went into ice cube trays. After the base had frozen, I vacuum-packed the cubes; two or three to a pack. I now have enough fish base for the rest of the year. The other half of the stock went into a soup. I sauteed some diced onion, carrots and parsnips. Once they had some color on them I added some asparagus stocks, cut into 1 inch pieces. I tossed in some Italian seasoning, red pepper flakes and a half a lemon for flavor. This was simmered until nearly tender and then I added the asparagus tips and then some parsley. When all the veggies were tender I returned the meat to the pot. I put some in a travel container for Lupe to take for lunch. I'm not a big fan of clear soups, but this was very good. The asparagus really made the soup. The fact that it was chocked full o' fish was also a plus. I served the soup with some big chunks of sourdough bread. Perfect.

Day 2 - grilled collar

I marinated the collar pieces and the belly in some teriyaki and sriracha. I added some extra mirin into the mix for basting. The collars and belly were grilled on the gas BBQ. I basted the pieces with the marinade every few minutes during cooking. I took the collars off when the meat had just turned opaque. Good stuff. I ate both collars by myself. I didn't mean to do that, but that's the way it worked out. Lupe was really hungry when she got home and didn't want to wait for me to finish my prep. She had a bowl of soup before I knew what she was doing. She assured me that she would have a little of the collar with me. I'm not sure if she was ready for the collar. She wasn't really digging the fact that I had left the fins on. By the time I was done grilling, Lupe was knocked out on the couch ( I had kept her up late the night before with the all-night cooking session). I put the grilled collars down on the kitchen counter and went to set the table for us. Each time I walked by the fish I would sneak a little piece. Before long, I had forgotten about setting the table and just camped out by the fish. Next thing I know, I had eaten all the fish. It was that good. I couldn't stop myself. That was probably the best fish I've ever had. When Lupe woke up to go to bed she asked me what happened to the fish. I was tempted to make up some excuse for eating all of it, but I couldn't. I just had to explain to her how good it was. "Sorry, Honey. I'm a pig."

Day 3 fish tacos

Most people use calico bass, sand bass or white fish for fish tacos. I don't think there is a law against using white seabass, but at $16/lb, most people don't. I figured it would make some damn good tacos. We were heading up to the in-laws for the day, so I took several vacuum packs of the WSB. As luck would have it, they were having a party for one of Lupe's nieces. Perfect reason to make fish tacos. I stopped by North Gate to get some things that I would need. While I was there I picked up 2lbs of shrimp. I wasn't sure how many fish tacos I could get out of the stuff that I had brought up with me, so I wanted to have something extra. We made a healthy, low-cal dinner for Lupe's parents before we started on the fish tacos. I pan seared some seasoned fillet pieces and topped them with a little salsa fresca. This was served with steamed broccoli. After that was done we got busy prepping for the tacos. The fish was cut into strips and seasoned with Mexican seafood seasoning and salsa. I made the sauce from mayonesa, crema agria, lime juice and seafood seasoning. Lupe thinly sliced a head of cabbage and red onions. I made a big batch of salsa fresca, cut about a million lime wedges and diced a half dozen avocado. When we were ready we set up the breading assembly line. Since the fish pieces were in a wet marinade, I wanted to dust them with flour first. From the flour they went to the egg wash and then into a bowl of Mexican seasoned bread crumbs and panko. The panko gave a very nice crunch to the finished product. The combination of marinating and using seasoned bread crumbs resulted in an extremely flavorful fish stick. In addition to the fish, we also breaded and fried the shrimp. These were absolutely awesome.

From The Hollow Leg Diner - images

As we fried the fish and shrimp, my sister-in-law Carmen warmed up a couple hundred corn tortillas. If you have never had fish tacos, this is how you make them. You put a piece of the fried fish on a tortilla, add some cabbage, a dollop of sauce, then top with onions, salsa, avocado and a squeeze of lime.

From The Hollow Leg Diner - images

Now that's a Baja-style fish taco. Good stuff. I don't know if they make shrimp tacos in Baja. If not, I will claim that recipe as my creation. Both were fantastic. I even got the certified authentic Mexican thumbs up from the family.

From The Hollow Leg Diner - images

Day 4 Burgers ( I didn't want to burn out on fish)

Day 5 Pan seared WSB with Fettuccine

I wanted to test the fish base to see how it would work. The fish was simply seasoned with lemon, pepper, Cayenne and smoked paprika and pan seared. Fettuccine was dunked as I worked on the sauce. For the sauce I sauteed onion, shallot and garlic with a little Italian seasoning. The pan was deglazed with white wine. Once most of the wine had reduced down, I added two cubes of the fish base and a little water to get the desired consistency. Once the sauce had tightened up a bit I added a splash of cream. I then drained the pasta and added it to the sauce. A couple of quick tosses and it was ready to serve.

Day 6 Pan seared WSB in a spicy salsa with asparagus

I wanted to try a Mexican twist on the fish this time. The prep was the most time consuming part of the whole meal.

From The Hollow Leg Diner - images

You can never have enough prep bowls and ramekins. The sliced onions were for the asparagus. Diced onions, jalapeno, tomato, sliced green onion, finely chopped cilantro, and minced garlic were all for the salsa. The fish was seasoned with a Mexican seafood mix. I started by giving the asparagus a quick sautee in a little olive oil. The asparagus was seasoned with some sea salt and fresh ground black pepper.

From The Hollow Leg Diner - images

Once the asparagus started getting a little color I tossed in the onion slices and a little minced shallot. In another pan I sauteed the diced onion, jalapeno and garlic. I used some ground chili, Cayenne, black pepper, sea salt and paprika for seasoning. After the onion and jalapeno were soft I added the green onion. Next into the pan was the diced tomato. Finally, two cubes of fish base and a little water. I turned up the heat and let it reduce down. By this time the onion in the asparagus had softened. I deglazed the pan with white wine and then added some chicken stock. I let this reduce uncovered as the asparagus finished cooking.

From The Hollow Leg Diner - images

The fish went in a separate pan for searing. I deliberately cooked the fish separately. I wanted the salsa to cook down quite a bit. The fish would have overcooked if I had tried doing everything in one pan. I seared the fish on each side and then tossed it into the salsa pan to finish cooking. This gave me the nice, crusty sear on the sides and allowed the sauce to penetrate into the fish. The fish was served with asparagus and some fettuccine (with some bay scallops added for texture).

From The Hollow Leg Diner - images

Day 6 Leftovers - I ain't proud and they're yummy

Day 7 Mediterranean WSB

WSB steaks marinated in olive oil and lemon juice with some Italian seasoning. Thanks to Yani for his tips on this one. I went Italian instead of Greek, but the idea was the same. I'll try the Greek style soon enough. I had just gone to Filippi's Italian Grocery in Little Italy to get some Cento San Marzano tomatoes and I felt compelled to do an Italian-style dish. I was dying to try Chef John's tomato sauce recipe and this seemed like a good opportunity. I made the tomato sauce and it lived up to expectation (Chef John kicks ass). The fish got a quick turn in the pan with a little olive oil and butter. I made some linguini to go along with the fish. The linguini was topped with a little of the tomato sauce and Parmesan cheese. I think I covered all of Italy with this one. I decided to use spinach for the veg. I sauteed some shallots and a little garlic and then deglazed with a splash of white wine. Two bunches of spinach were tossed in the pan and then I added some chicken stock. After the spinach had cooked down I threw in some toasted pine nuts. All in all, a very satisfying meal.

From The Hollow Leg Diner - images

Day 8 More leftovers (spent 11 hours on the water and was in no mood to cook when I got home)

I've got three steaks and three tail-section fillets left. The steaks are going to get the Yani treatment. Everything that he has posted on Big Water's Edge looks so good I have to try the Greek-style. The rest is going to be used for a Peruvian style ceviche.