We bought some fish, intending to sushi it up for Passover. Because why not? Seriously, a bit of sashimi sounded awesome for dinner, with a nice salad, the Veggie Baker, and some white wine. And Matzah. Happy Passover.
I take out the fish to inspect it, before decreeing the final recipie mix, becuase I’ve been burned by bad fish before, and lo … the fish is okay, but it ain’t sushi quality.
There’s a different, I should note, between sushi grade fish and sushi quality. Just because something is sushi grade doesn’t mean it’s good enough to eat as sushi. Sushi grade is the best part of the fish. Sushi quality is when the sushi grade fish is aces. What we had? Was sushi grade and pan fry quality.
My SO wanted to bake it, but frankly fresh fish being baked is anathema to me, so I trimmed off the unsightly bits of fish and pulled out the gift from Taffy: James Beard’s New Fish Cookery.
I’ve been dying to use this, and in fact studied in over the week to make sure I knew what I was doing. I tossed the fish into a bowl, filled it with trimmed poblano pepper slices, olive oil and a vinegar/lime/salt/sugar mixture we’d whipped up, trying to make something soy sauceish, and tossed it in the fridge for an hour.
Techncially, this ‘cooked’ the fish on a chemical level. But I pulled them into a frying pan on high heat, browned it on both sides, and left to cool. It was too warm to consider this as a hot dish.
I will note, I overcooked the tuna, and it’s not as good to do this in the non-stick pan (I don’t have a Kosher for Passover cast iron pan, damn it), but once Passover is over, I’m going to try it again with the cast iron.
On the plus side? My guests liked it, and wanted to come over next time we cooked it. In fact, the whole meal went well. So, yay!
3 responses
Aww, that’s a shame about the fish. But I’ve never been impressed with sushi (old time deep-fried catfish man here).
Now, how does a cast iron skillet become kosher? Season with kosher oil? 🙂
FWIW, I bought a three pan cast iron set, found in the Walmart camping aisle, for $20 a few years ago. Still my fav frying pans. Makes food taste like what mom used to make.
Kosher Oil, actually is the right answer! Lodge Cookware has used only kosher vegetable oil, and is approved by the CRC. Which rocks, since I got new pans as a gift from my gran. What sucks is that the oil used was probably not for passover (and frankly since pretty much only butter and olive oil can be, you really can’t season a cast iron pan for passover).
Turns out that the fish woulda been okay if it’d been in the freezer or used that day, as we tried the same experiment again this week.
What sucks is that the oil used was probably not for passover (and frankly since pretty much only butter and olive oil can be, you really can’t season a cast iron pan for passover).
That’s not entirely true; I’ve never checked on soybean oil but it’s probably not permitted for Passover because it is kitniyot, but – surprise surprise – there IS such a thing as kosher for Passover peanut oil. You can also get Passover walnut oil (meh), and of course cottonseed oil (blech). I honestly don’t remember anything about canola oil, however.
We should drag you and Mrs. Ipstenu (whom we hosted for a lovely Shabbat!) to the football-field-sized Passover Market in Skokie, so you can see the amazing array of Passover goodies that will make either your mouth or your eyes water. 🙂