This is the internal conversation I’ve been having with the weather lately:
Me: “Why is it still so cold here in Montreal? I just got back from Tucson and you weren’t cold there. It feels very unfair.”
Weather: “You chose to live in Montreal.”
Me: “Are you telling me I should marry an American for a Green Card?”
Weather: “If you really don’t like Montreal winters…”
Me: “I would just prefer it to be, in general, a little less awful from, say, December to April. Why do Montrealers stay in Montreal, complaining about the awful weather, when it’s so beautiful and liveable and rock climbable year-round in other places? Are we ignorant? Or stubborn? Or have an incredible sense of denial?”
Weather: “Shrug.”
Me: “Well, at least today is bearable. I can bike without gloves. But it’s a long ways from the 30˚C bliss of the desert.”
Weather: “…”
Me: “P.S., Weather, why doesn’t Montreal have good grocery stores full of affordable organics and sustainable fish like Tucson does? It’s a desert there, for goodness sake, but there are a handful of amazing places with oodles of grass-fed beef and a nutritional policy to not sell gatorade. Because I’d really like to make more recipes from the La Mer cookbook, which is sold at a fish store of the same name in Montreal, but even the Poissonerie La Mer is generally just too darn expensive and the quality – though high for Montreal – can’t compete with big cities in the US, or even Toronto or Vancouver.”
Weather: “That’s a great question.”
Me: “See, I made this really simple tile fish fillets recipe with saffron-orange sauce and fingerling potatoes last month (except I made it with grouper, because it was more about the sauce than the fish, and the recipe said I could replace the tile fish with grouper, angler, swordfish, albacore, mahi-mahi or shark – only a couple of which are sustainable, depending on the type, origin and fishing method) and I feel as though my Japanese friend would have wrinkled my nose at the bland fish, whether I’d used tile fish or not.”
Weather: “Maybe you should have bought Nordic shrimp and eaten those with or without a saffron sauce instead? Those are in season now.”
Me: “Good point, weather.”
Weather: “Or, maybe you should have splurged on halibut or black cod?”
Me: “But should I have to, Weather? Why can’t I get high quality, sustainable, flash frozen or fresh haddock from the east coast? There’s enough of it. And the stuff sitting in the grocery store near my place is not putting in the effort.”
Weather: “This is exhausting. You’re exhausting. Move to Tucson.”
Me: Okay, thanks, Weather.”
Here’s the recipe. Buy the best fish you can find. Make sure it’s sustainable. Have a conversation with the person in your grocery store about sourcing better fish. Then relax about the politics and economics and just enjoy the freaking orange-saffron sauce, which is just fine. This recipe is adapted from Jean-Paul Grappe’s version with tile fish in La Cuisine de la Mer, a collaboration by that chef and the ITHQ. It’s about $40 and you can buy it at the fish market. My photos are ugly because I did a second version without fish stock and kept the orange sauce and potatoes separate to serve to a vegan invitee to my dinner. So I’m sorry for my photos but not for my vegan friend who got to eat saffron potatoes with a vegan butter sauce but no fish stock.
Thick Grouper Fillets with Orange-Saffron Sauce and Fingerling Potatoes
Serves 4
4 skinless fillets of sustainable grouper (about 5 oz each)
6 small oranges (or 3 large navel oranges)
1 1/4 cups fish stock (you can buy it or make your own by simmering the fish skins, head and bones from when you get your groupers filleted and skinned in a couple cups of water for 30 minutes. Or simmer some frozen shrimp and then strain the liquid.)
a pinch of saffron
3/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp black pepper
1 lb fingerling potatoes (or as many as you want), whole or cut in half if large
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley, to garnish
Supreme 2 of the oranges, keeping the juice.
Heat the Earth Balance or butter in a skillet over medium-high heat. Sear the orange supremes for 15 seconds on each side. Pour the contents of the skillet into a small bowl.
Squeeze the juice of the remaining oranges into a large pot along with the reserved juice from the supreme-ing step, the fish stock, saffron, salt and pepper. Add the potatoes and simmer for about 7-10 minutes, or until they’re easily pierced with a fork. Remove the potatoes from the pot and keep them covered to stay warm. Bring the pot to a simmer and reduce the liquid by half. Taste the sauce and add salt as needed.
Add the fish to the pot and reduce the heat to medium low. Cover and poach the fish for no more than 4-5 minutes. The fish should be just about to flake. It’ll cook completely by the time you get it onto a plate.
Plate it with the potatoes and the segmented oranges and pour a little sauce on top. Quickly. Before you overcook the fish like I did. Good job you.
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