My husband went fishing with the boys recently and brought back the biggest filet of Striped Bass I have ever seen. I’d never cooked Striper before… I’m not sure if I had actually ever tried it before, so up first was researching what the fish is like. Stripers are found all along the Atlantic coast and are anadromous, meaning that they are salt water fish that migrate to fresh water to spawn. Like salmon. It’s a white, flaky fish so I decided to use the recipe I use for cod or haddock, complete with Ritz crackers. The texture of the fish, while flaky, was more firm than cod and haddock – I don’t know if the difference is from the fact that it was swimming in the ocean about 12 hours before eating, but I really enjoyed the texture. Swordfish is my favorite fish and it’s pretty meaty, so it makes sense that I would prefer the striped bass to cod or haddock. To go with the fish I made some rice pilaf and sautéed squash.
CSA produce used:
- Zucchini
- Summer Squash
- Fresh Onion
- Fresh Garlic
- Fresh Thyme
To make the fish I first crushed up half a sleeve of Ritz crackers, a half a stick of melted butter, and plenty of fresh chopped thyme. Then, I splashed a bit of white wine in the bottom of a baking pan and placed the fish in the pan. I sprinkled the fish with salt and pepper and then topped with the cracker mix. I squeezed half a lemon over the whole thing and it set to bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes, until the fish flaked with the fish spatula.
While the fish was cooking I made the squash saute. This is one of my favorite ways of serving zucchini and summer squash. I just sautéed chopped fresh onion and garlic in olive oil until the onions became translucent and then added the sliced squash, sautéing until the squash gets ‘melty’, about 10-15 minutes, and seasoning with plenty of fresh thyme. Dried oregano or basic Italian seasoning mixes are good additions too if you don’t have fresh herbs on hand.
Verdict: the fish was out of this world, I will choose the striped bass if available over cod or haddock when making baked fish in the future. This was a really nice, easy meal to end the weekend.
csa chronicles 