Fairly Fruitful Fish Feat

2008 Fetzer Pinot Grigio and Rainbow Trout: 5/5

2008 Fetzer Pinot Grigio: 85/100

There it lay, lifeless on the cutting board, staring up at me with it’s cold dead eyes. Constantly trying to push myself beyond my comfort zone in kitchen, I began flipping through the culinary rolodex of things I hadn’t done, when I stopped at F, as in fish.

As you can read, I have made fish before, but I always wimp out and buy the already prepared portions from the grocery store. Never have I actually bought an entire fish, and prepared it myself. Never, that is, until yesterday.

Flipping through the pages of my Better Homes Cook Book (just a side note: if there is any cook book worth having it is the Better Homes Cook Book. It’s easy to understand, there are tons of pictures, conversion charts, emergency substitutions, and none of the ingredients are ridiculously hard to find. Seriously buy it. It’s like $16). Anyways as I was flipping through, I opened to the fish section, and found a delicious sounding recipe for Red Snapper with carrots and fennel. http://www.bhg.com/recipe/seafood/red-snapper-with-carrots-and-fennel/

A while back I made a fennel and radish salad, a Top Chef recipe, and ever since then I have been looking for an excuse to use it again. So I thought, perfect, I’ll bone a fish, and get to use fennel. Now fennel is a beast of a vegetable, and is kind of broken down into three parts: the bulb, the fronds, and then the seed (although the seeds are usually sold separate in stores). The whole bunch of it tastes like anise, black licorice, but while the bulb can be cooked like celery, the fronds lend themselves better to salads. So as a side dish, I thought a mixed green salad with fennel fronds, raisins, walnuts, and a champagne vinaigrette would compliment the flavor profile of the fish.

Only one problem, the grocery store didn’t have any Red Snapper. The only whole fish in stock were rainbow trout and white fish. Now as I was reading from Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything, fresh fish, should not smell, their eyes should not be sunken in, and they should be a vibrant color, not translucent. With sunken red eyes, an a milk white discoloration, the white fish did not scream fresh, but the row of rainbow trout seemed to shine with an iridescence. According to the Better Homes Cook Book, rainbow trout is a bit more delicate tasting than red snapper, but would still soak up the flavors of the fennel and carrot nicely.

As Michael started on a milk chocolate malted milk ball cake to take over to my friend Lisa’s house later that evening, I unwrapped the brown paper concealing the fish. So, technically speaking, de-boning a fish is as easy as 1,2,3. If you do purchase an entire fish with scales from the grocery store, I would recommend asking the butcher to de-scale the fish for you, other wise you will be finding scales in your apartment until the end of the lease. First, make an incision along the backbone in front of the back fin. Second Make a second vertical incision just behind the gill. Finally slide your knife over the ribs releasing the filet. Sounds simple right? Well it wasn’t too bad. Even with my brand new incredibly sharp knife, the skin still put up a fight beneath my blade, but I was able to hack off two decently sized filets.

Sale tags lined the liquor isle like leftover confetti from a new years eve party, obviously the Dominick’s I frequent had not sold quite the amount of merchandise they were expecting for the holiday. Good news for me though, I was able to score a $12.00 bottle of 2008 Fetzer Pinot Grigio for 9 bucks.

Described as having notes of apple, pink grapefruit , and lime sorbet, I thought the lighter fruity flavors would compliment the delicacy of the fish, while bringing out the anise flavors of the fennel. With a beautiful straw color, this oaky Pinot Grigio looked to be a delicious match.

Living in close quarters with anyone requires a good deal of patience and compromise, and although Michael and I have a great working relationship, it is not without our fare share of “marital bickering”. Attempting to convince Michael to put the cake on hold for a minute so we could sit down and eat together, was harder than boning the fish, but with some persistence we both sat in front of our steaming filets, glistening greens, and smooth sweet potatoes.

Soaking up the delicious anise, onion, and carrot flavors, the fish was phenomenal. Flaky, fatty, and tender to the fork, each bite was bursting with a rick buttery texture, with complimenting al dente veggies. Providing a subtle bitterness, the salad played opposite the rich and creamy sweet potatoes.

Singing from the glass, the wine rang out with strong notes of pink grapefruit that yielded to smooth apple flavors. With an alcohol content of 13%, the body was the right match for the weight of the fish. Swishing a gulp around in my mouth, the wine resonated with the strong acidity of a fresh grapefruit, which cleansed the palate between each bite.

Seeming to bring out the complexity in the wine, the subtle fattiness from the fish masked the wine’s acidity, allowing me to experience the wine’s subtle lime and apple notes, with even a hint of fresh cut grass. In the same way, the wine’s acidity brought out the earthy flavors in the greens, with out tasting bitterness on my palate. Truly a great example of food and wine pairing.

As Michael rushed about the kitchen, piling cake layers, and mixing frosting, I polished off the rest of the wine. With a pile of dishes left in the kitchen sink, we left the apartment with feeling full and satisfied with a frosted cake and some party games for the evening. Bearing the cold I reminisced on yet another perfect pair.