So I’m a little obsessed with sustainable seafood. Maybe more than a little…I interview truckers, tour fish warehouses, record talks at seafood distributors, email Oceanwise reps, end up eating pickles at 11pm in apartments on St-Laurent, and most recently, end up driving around Montreal on a Saturday morning delivering boxes of fresh, ice fish from Nova Scotia.
I’m currently working on a radio piece of this experience that I’ll have here for download soon, but for now, just know that even though I should have been thanking my host that Saturday morning, she was the one thanking me with one pound of fresh wild haddock and one pound of fresh wild cod, caught by her father back in Nova Scotia the Wednesday before, processed Thursday, and shipped to Montreal the following day.
All that to say that it’s been a long time since I’ve had fish in my kitchen from Canada that I was ethically comfortable eating (frozen sardines are great but they come from far away, and Nordic shrimp and black cod exceed my budget. I really wish someone would sell local mackerel…).
So it basically felt like Christmas, but better. What to do with a pound of haddock??!! There were so many options. Haddock is not such a tasty fish all on its own, but I really wanted to taste the natural flavour of the fish, not cover it up. That meant my Indian recipes were out. I could bake it simply with potatoes, carrots, and thyme – one of my family’s standards, but I felt like having something drier.
I also had a pound of home-made baked french fries leftover from my poutine adventures, and what goes better with fries than fish? What kind of east coast-er would I be if I didn’t opt for the fish ‘n’ chips?
Haddock is the fish of choice out east so I went with that. (Cod is the fish of choice in British fish ‘n’ chips apparently, but the cod they use isn’t sustainable…This cod I was given was sustainable according to the Nova Scotia government who gave the individual fisherman his quota. The fact that he can’t reach his quota is a bad sign for the fish population, however…)
Haddock, on the other hand, is a much smaller fish that has a lot of babies really fast (unlike cod that takes a few years to mature and gets really, really big if you don’t catch it when it’s only a few years old) so it’s pretty sustainable. Enough ranting about fish. Here’s the lightened-up fish ‘n’ chips recipe.
There are two ways to mess this up. Because it’s going to be a pretty bland dish (the only seasonings are salt and pepper), you’re going to make sure you use enough salt. You can also use thyme, but what fish ‘n’ chips shop would ever use thyme? I also recommend deep-frying this if you’re a real traditionalist, but baking wastes less oil and you probably won’t burn yourself (unless you’re me. I can’t seem to stick my hand in the oven without acquiring a new scar…). The other way to mess this up is to use soggy or bad-tasting breadcrumbs. Bonnie Stern says to use whole wheat breadcrumbs but I say use white if that’s what you have. I ran out of breadcrumbs at the 1/2 cup mark and so I ground up some multi-grain cereal that kind of tasted stale, bitter and hollow. Not three adjectives you want to use when describing a fish dish, I know, but there are lots of good fish recipes that say to use cornflakes and they work out just fine. Besides, if Bonnie can get away with whole wheat I can get away with multi-grain.
Or so I thought…Next time I’m using all breadcrumbs or fresher cereal.
But you! You can do it better!
Oven-Baked Fish ‘N’ Chips (adapted from Bonnie Stern’s HeartSmart: The Best of HeartSmart Cooking
1 lb haddock fillets, skin removed
1/2 cup breadcrumbs
3/4 cup multi-grain cereal, crushed in a blender, or just crush them in a plastic bag by hand (or use another 1/2 cup of breadcrumbs)
1 1/2 tbsp oil (olive, vegetable, whatever you have that’s not too strong-flavoured
plenty of salt and pepper
Directions:
1. Wash fish in cold water and pat dry with paper towels. Place on a large baking sheet or roasting pan lined with parchment paper (not a casserole dish or the fish will probably end up kind of soggy. I also skipped the parchment and it didn’t seem to make a difference. The fish didn’t stick to the pan).
2. Preheat the oven to 425 Fahrenheit.
3. In a small bowl combine breadcrumbs 1 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp pepper (or about 8 grinds on a pepper mill), and the oil.
4. Pat evenly on top of fish and then carefully turn fish over to coat the other side. This causes a problem – one side is going to get a little soft and mushy while the fish bakes. So you need to make sure you breadcrumbs are really dry when you start out. If you’re making your own breadcrumbs from bread, toast it until it’s very dry and then blend it in a blender or food processor.
5. Put the fish in the preheated oven for 5 minutes. Take it out and very, very carefully turn the fish over in an effort to make the under-side crispy. It may or may not work, but it’ll be worth a try. Put the fish back in the oven for another 5 minutes, or until it flakes easily with a fork. If it’s all chewy and dry it’s over-cooked. It shouldn’t be translucent, but just a very, very light white colour. When you cut through the breading the fish really should want to fall apart.
I definitely recommend serving this with some lemon slices and tartar sauce, home-made mayo (it’s sweeter than bottled stuff and actually tastes like something), and traditional malt vinegar (not white!) for flavour. It is supposed to be bland, so sauce it up!
Serves four. Serve right away.
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