John Dory versus Flounder

John Dory is a fish of the Eastern Atlantic, the Mediterranean Sea , and the Pacific Ocean. His scientific name, Zeus faber (Zeuse’s Blacksmith), places him at Olympus where the Gods of Ancient Greece once lived. His other name ‘St. Pierre’, or ‘Sanpierre’, also ties him in with the doorkeeper of the Paradise.

No wonder, then, that it is one of the most praised fish of Adriatic sea. If you want a perfect fish for poaching or boiling, it is the John Dory. This kosher fish has a flat body with a tall dorsal fin and a central black spot like a thumb print. It can be halachicly (credibly) identified and placed, without any delay, straight from the sea into the poaching pot for a classic Dalmatian leshada. Unfortunately, the fish does not live on this side of Atlantic. Filets of John Dory may be found on the market. Most imports comes from New Zealand. So, its trip from afar is nothing alike ‘from the sea to the pot” imperative for Dalmatian boiled fish.

I remember visiting my friend, a young physician who practices on a Dalmatian island where his family has been living for centuries. I joined him on a visit to one of his patients in a remote village. Our way led us along the curvy hip bones of the island coast. In one of the coves exclamated by a few red-tiled white stone houses and a pier for small fishing boats, my friend stopped to greet fishermen, long time family friends. They were delighted to see him and immediately offered to cook some freshly caught baitfish (gavuni). We couldn’t leave the needed patient waiting and had to excuse ourselves. However, the oldest fisherman insisted that we stop by on our way back.

We were back within the hour, just in time to see youngest fisherman tying his boat to the pier and bringing up a basket of fish. It seemed that the fishermen thought their original offer of bait fish was too humble for a doctor and they wanted to interest him in something better. Luckily, the young fishermen who went to pull out his net, caught a John Dory; a nice looking specimen of about three pounds. While it was boiled in a rush (so as to not make the doctor wait), we feasted on the simmered baitfish seasoned with nothing but a splash of olive oil and freshly crushed black pepper. Nothing could make for a better lunch than that. Nothing but a boiled John Dory. The feast followed the feast. The baitfish and John Dory were cooked the same way. Yet, their flavors were distinctive. Since we ate them with the heads and bones, Gavuni had a bold and pleasantly bitterish taste. In contrast, John Dory’s flesh had a delicate and sweet taste, with the subtlest hint of ocean. They complimented one another beautifully.

Yesterday, my local fishmonger brought in a fresh flounder caught off the North Carolina coast, a decent replacement for the unavailable Zeuse’s Blacksmit.

The moniker ‘flounder’ is associated with many species. Those caught of the NC coast are close cousins to the European flounder, one that lives in the Adriatic and is known by the name “Iverak”. Like the John Dory, it is a flat fish, but because it dwells on the bottom, it is flat horizontally and has both eyes on its upper side. Its scales, tinny but visible, can easily be removed without damaging the skin. Even better, it is halachicly kosher and can be cleaned easily at home. The price is affordable and the yield is much better then the 30-40% of John Dory.

I simmered my flounder in a large shallow pan with a few cloves of garlic, a bunch of fresh parsley, some dry laurel leaf, a few pepper corns and few drops of olive oil. Simplicity is Dalmatian cooking at its best, so I hope these instructions and the list of ingredients do not overwhelm you. Find your halachicly fishmonger, buy flounder, and proceed as above. Cook it yourself and you will not need my testimonial praises to the flounder cooked in the Dalmatian way. The skin will peel off easily once cooked and inviting white flesh will appear beneath. Make sure you have nice crusty bread to dip into the soup and crisp white wine to refresh your taste buds between the bites.

PS.
My friend from Dalmatia could not help but send me a photo of four small John Dory, basting "lesho" in a shallow pot that he was ready to share for lunch with his friends.

Cioppino

Last night I had cioppino in a local North Carolina seafood restaurant. In a large deep plate, there was an abundance of huge scallops, shrimp, oysters, white fish pieces and crab chunks, basting in a tomato broth. I could not finish it though I tried persistently, hoping that my taste buds would eventually wake up. At the end, when the feeling of satiety became unpleasant, I gave up.

I had cioppino before and I liked it. I was introduced to it on the Fisherman’s Warf of San Francisco which is close to the cioppino’s birthplace. Cioppino was created when Southern-European immigrants recreated their local dishes from memory but using the ingredients and infusing the spirit of San Francisco Bay’s North beaches. You could call it an Old World dish born again in the New World. Now it is an autochthonous American recipe as the Zinfandel is an autochthonous American wine.

It started as a fisherman stew concocted of the remains of daily catch in a fragrant tomato broth. Except onion, garlic and olive oil, all other ingredients were optional. Cooking liquid was sterilized with wine, red or white, whatever. It is not known neither when this dish got its present name nor where from the name came. Most likely, it came from Italian Ligurian ciupin, a name for another seafod dish. Other explanations exist, like the urban legend that cioppino was named after fishermen’s calls along the beach to chip in the fish for the common meal.

In the meantime, cioppino has become a tourist dish on the fisherman wharfs of both coasts and a star dish in seafood restaurants across the country. As it was always made opportunistically from what was available, nowadays when it is sold on the beaches and in the plains far from the coast, variety is its main characteristic. This is a similarity that it shares with all other fish stews and soups. Eaters must be equally open to surprises regardless if they order cioppino or bouillabaisse. And, most of the time you will get the same dish regardless what you have ordered.

I like the variety but cannot forgive misinterpretations. For one, if the fast food means the food that can be eaten with one hand while teletexting with the other, modern cioppino could be that. However, if the fast food means something concocted in a rush, that is not cioppino.

All good recipes for choppino – that is to say, recipes that stay true to the original methods of cooking the dish – call for simmering the base sauce for at least 60 minutes. This is especially important for tomato based sauces. I like tomato raw and will eat a tone of salads or gazpacho. But an undercooked light tomato broth tastes like water in which a tomato salad cup was rinsed. This is what “fast cooking” does to a great meal.

So let’s get to an understanding: the cioppino is a fish stew which includes Dungeness crab and shells. It is cooked in a fragrant tomato broth flavored with wine. Most importantly, it is slow cooked and although it could be eaten as a fast food, one should be ready to sit down and enjoy it slowly and in good company. The large quantities that an honest chef offered to me last night cannot compensate for the absence of flavor. Chops and chunks of seafood may be chipped in from various nets but they must become one through the warm love of wine and slow cooked tomato broth.

Black, sepia or tyrian risoto?

Cephalopods like octopus, squid and cuttlefish (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuttlefish), fair much better in an icebox than does fish. I have always few pieces of either kind in my refrigerator and can prepare it on a short notice. These sea animals share a common name „ink fish“ as they all have in common „inking“ , releasing a dark cloud when attacked. Most of their ink animals release when caught, but enough of it remains to be used in cooking a black risotto, arrozo nero or „crni rižoto“ ( risotto nero di sepia ) as it is called in Dalmatia.

The problem is that once frozen, ink loses its qualities as food coloring. Unless your fishmonger harvests and sells ink, you are stacked when trying to cook it black. In Italian food stores one can buy ink-colored pasta. That works pretty good for black pasta. Why not then use ink-dyed rice? Well, I am not aware that it is available. But I have found a natural black rice and I decided to try it with cuttlefish the very moment I discovered it.

This rice comes from China. It is one of heirlooms plants that produces non-glutinous short-grained rice. Its purple color comes from a natural pigment anthocyanin. Cooked black rice is of deep tyrian purple color, another color extracted from marine animals. In China it was known as emperors rice. Old Greeks knew about this rice and banned it because they believed it gives strength to their enemies.

Well, is the tyrian purple good substitute for black ink? In fact, only octopus has a black-black ink. Squid makes it blue and cuttlefish makes it sepia brown. Sepia is both another name for cuttlefish and a name for the cuttlefish ink used as a paint in painting and printing. So, we are on the good track. Let's cook!

Have your frozen cuttlefish (1.5 to 2 lb) tow overnight in the vegetable compartment of your refrigerator. Clean it and cut it in a half-inch cubes. Cut tentacles also. Throw away parts of head containing eyes and tooth. Dice few cloves of garlic and one shallot and cook it in a pan with olive oil until it becomes fragrant (do not burn garlic or shallot). Add cuttlefish pieces and braise it on a low heat. Season with salt, sweet red pepper and ginger powder. Add minced parsley and a half cup of dark red wine going brownish (Postup). Allow for alcohol to evaporate and add a cup of black rice. Add fish stock or vegetable stock, or just a water and let it cook for 40 minutes. Add more liquid as needed. After 40 minutes add a handful of white rice and cook for another 20 minutes. Black rice will still be al dente but the cooked white rice will provided creaminess. Before serving, stir in a two spoonfuls of a cream.

Black risotto is now ready for serving. Enjoy nutty flavors of black rice imbibed with garlic and sea flavors, end its great tyrian-sepia color produced by anthocyanins, tannins and cream. Crisp white wine will keep your teeth unstained.

Where to find fish?

American markets are well supplied with fish. Of course, many kinds of fish used in Dalmatian cooking are local to Adriatic Sea. Refrigeration helps a lot. Squid and octopus you can find everywhere. For some dishes, they are even better if they were previously frozen. At least it helps with octopus. However, it limits somewhat your choices. I would never have a frozen squid grilled. Or, once frozen, squid or cattlefish ink is no more usable for ink seasoned dishes.
You can find also a variety of sea bass. Some of them are quite close to European sea bass. Dentex is hard to find. Red snapper is not close to it, although for some tastes it may be even more pleasing. Pink snapper is very close to "arbun". There are many other dissimilar species that tastes equally well as Adriatic fish. I promise to write about it in my future postings.
One of the great replacements for a small coral fish called "kanjac" is a coral grouper. I have a recepy in Croatian on my other blog (link on the top left). The most problematic is the freshness. The fresh and most prized fish is enjoyed "leso" or boiled in a small amount of water with a few cloves of garlic, a leaf of laurel, a few corns of black pepper and a spoon of olive oil. The only one that I dared to try that way over here was a kind of sole. It is so flat that it refrigerates very well and once defrosted smells of sea, exactly as you would like it for "leshada". I buy a one to one and a half pounder, put it in a shallow pan, just cover with water and with already mentioned ingredients boil it for ten minutes. Skin that gives a special flavor to a soup, comes of easily, bones fall off even easier.
For everything else of dubious freshness, use more of "New World ingredients"; tomato, onion and potatoes. You can cook either popara, a lite soup or brodetto, more like a stew with a lot of tomatoes and onions. Once I have mentioned ingredients, you would think you know how to do it. But wait! There is a few more lessons to learn. I will keep it simple. If you are not patient, then go fishing! With fresh fish you can never be wrong regardless how you cook it. Just do not overdo it!
Gone fishing!

Fresh Fish

A teacher went fishing with old local fishermen on his twenty-footer. They sailed of at dawn and before the sunrise they lowered the line with some hundred hooks. One hour later the teacher had to pull out the line under the direction of the fishermen. His back started to ache soon but he forgot it immediately when he landed first catch, a 6-pound dentex (zubatac). A few smaller fish followed and toward the end, another dentex, somewhat smaller than the previous one. Before they left home, teacher had just a cup of a marjoram “tea” and hard work made him already hungry. He started thinking about the early lunch (marenda) the moment he landed the first fish.

“Which one are we going to cook?”, he asked the old men, thinking of a great soup that could be made of a dentex. “The smaller one”, said the old men.

“Why the smaller?”, wondered the teacher. “That is the freshest one”, said the old men.

On the small boat there was just a small propane lamp and one pot. Not much ingredients besides few cloves of garlic, some parsley that old men pinched out of a pot on his terrace this morning, few peppercorns and a flask of olive oil. For salt they added some seawater to the pot. Still, teacher had the best fish ever.

“There are only two kinds of fish”, said the old men, “the fresh one and that other.”

And I nearly forgot this lesson.