For all the effort I’ve made in the last few years to eat local produce, hormone-free dairy, grass-fed beef, etc., I have been a little slow in switching to sustainable seafood—mostly because I don’t cook seafood that often, and I forget to check out which fish are O.K. until after I leave for the market.
But lately, I’ve felt an extra dose of guilt (probably due to my friendship with Rachel Sohn, an ocean-watchdog extraordinaire) when buying maybe-not-so-responsible seafood. So I’ve started to do my fish homework before I buy and find recipes based on more sustainable choices. Choices like bluefish: an omega-3-ripped, pungently flavored, Atlantic swimmer dubbed a “Good Alternative” by the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch.
The only downside to bluefish is its hallmark fishiness—all the recipes and articles I’ve read on the species feature equally strong flavors like bacon and lemon to tame its fishy flesh. I gravitated toward the latter this week, finding a recipe for Broiled Bluefish Filets with Fennel Mayonnaise on Epicurious.com. If you are a fennel lover, compulsive mayonnaise spreader and/or ocean groupie, you’re going to love this dish.
Since I’d never cooked bluefish, I (almost) stuck to the simple recipe that combines mayonnaise, toasted fennel seeds, garlic, salt and lemon juice. Just smear the mayonnaise on top of the filets and broil for eight minutes—the short cooking time will keep the fatty fish moist and tender. My only changes: I made a little extra mayo (which was rich and ably cut through the fish funk), was heavy-handed with the lemon juice and threw in chopped fennel fronds for good measure and beauty.