Super Simple Sweet & Spicy Summer Salmon Salad

Friday, July 29th, 2011 | posted by mike

A little spicy, a little sweet works well with this rich, flavorful king salmon. Serves 4.

  • 1-11/4 lb. wild king salmon (or any other fresh wild or farmed salmon)
  • 10-12 oz. mixed greens
  • 1/2 of a large red onion – sliced thin and cut into 1 inch lengths
  • 1/2 pint cherry or grape tomatoes halved- use local tomatoes if in season
  • 1 T capers

You can add cucumber, avocado thinly sliced fennel, or whatever you like. We sprinkled some chopped fennel fronds on tops of ours.

Vinaigrette

  • ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
  • 3 T rice wine vinegar
  • 1 t finely chopped jalapeño
  • 1 T sweet chili sauce
  • Juice of ½ lime
  • 1 t finely chopped garlic
  • 1 t honey

Shake it in a ball jar

To prepare the salmon:

Pre heat oven to 400 degrees. Place salmon fillets skin side down on a lightly oiled sheet tray or baking dish. Sprinkle with Cajun seasoning (available at Monahan’s—it’s similar to Pruhommes Cajun Magic). Baste with Monahan’s Irish Whiskey Maple Glaze (pure maple syrup, Irish whiskey and a splash of our teriyaki marinade). I added ¼ t Wright’s Liquid Smoke to the glaze.

Bake for 10 min per inch of thickness or until fish is barely opaque in the center. Let cool.

To assemble the salad:

Portion greens, onion, tomatoes on plates and flake, in large chunks, the salmon over the greens. Drizzle with vinaigrette. Sprinkle with capers and fennel fronds.

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More Cool Summer Seafood

Friday, July 29th, 2011 | posted by mike

We’ve been offering up some pretty good summer fare for ya. Cool salads, ceviche, poke, sandwiches, soft crabs, and some nice grilled fish recipes.

For our lunch special the other day, we served a super simple roasted salmon salad. Sometimes trying to come up with lunch specials is a little tough. Often we plan specials ahead of time but usually we’re just inspired by all the fresh fish and available ingredients all around us at the market. Mornings are hectic, fish is being delivered, orders are being filled, there’s a few hours of setting up our displays, chowders and prepared items are made and lunch has to be prepped and ready for service at 11 a.m. Incredibly some days we don’t even know what the special is going to be at 10a.m. Today was one of those days. I looked across the case and a gorgeous, bright, beautiful, Washington troll-caught king salmon was saying EAT ME !

This fish was a bit pricy for a lunch special but I figured a nice 4 oz. serving over mixed greens would make a great summer lunch. A little spicy, a little sweet works well with this rich, flavorful salmon so I sprinkled some of our Cajun seasoning  (a cayenne, paprika and herb rub) and basted it with our Irish whiskey maple glaze. Baked and flaked over mixed greens with a simple light, sweet and spicy vinaigrette and a slice of Zingerman’s paesano toast and voila! The perfect hot July meal.

We baked the salmon but this dish would be great with grilled salmon too. You can cook the fish a day or two ahead of time and have it around for a quick meal or picnic. Leftover salmon, bluefish, mackerel, tuna or any other fattier, flavorful fish would also be great for this salad.

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Schwartz' Wild Gulf Shrimp Banh Mi

Thursday, July 21st, 2011 | posted by wendy

(Makes 4 sandwiches)

Here’s the recipe for the components  necessary for the sandwich…you can save them to use in other things like salads as well.

Pickled Carrots and Daikon Radish
1 cup warm water
¼ cup distilled white vinegar
2 T sugar
2 tsp Salt
½ pound carrots (grated through a medium fine grater)
½ pound Daikon Radish (grated through a medium fine grater)

Mix the water, vinegar, sugar and salt until the sugar and salt dissolves. Place the carrots and Daikon radish in a container and pour the liquid over. Let pickle for one hour. Can be stored in the Fridge for up to a week.

For the Shrimp
2 T Sugar
2 T water
1 T Fish Sauce
1 T oil
1 shallot finely diced
2 cloves Garlic finely chopped
1 pound wild gulf shrimp
1 T Fish Sauce
½ tsp black pepper

Heat the sugar and water in a pan on medium high heat until the sugar caramelizes and turns dark brown. Carefully (it will splatter) add the water and Fish Sauce and stir over low heat until the caramel dissolves. Remove from heat and set aside.

Heat oil in a pan over medium heat. Add Shallot and Garlic and sauté for 3-5 minutes until soft. Add Shrimp, caramel sauce, fish sauce, and pepper and cook until shrimp is pink all over about 3-4 minutes. Let cool.

Assembling the Sandwich
1 Baguette
4 T Mayonnaise
1 t Soy Sauce
1 lb. large wild Gulf Shrimp (see above)
¼ cup pickled Daikon Radish (see above)
¼ cup pickled Carrots (see above)
½ cup thinly sliced Cucumber
1 bunch Cilantro
1 Jalapeno or 2 Serrano chilies thinly sliced (optional)

Cut baguette into four pieces and slice in half. Mix Mayo and Soy Sauce together in a bowl and spread on bread.   Divide Shrimp among 4 sandwiches, place the remaining ingredients on each sandwich and enjoy!

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Schwartz Concocts a Banh Mi Sandwich with our Wild Gulf Shrimp!

Thursday, July 21st, 2011 | posted by mike

When we opened our fish market back in ‘79 our staff was pretty thin. There were just a few of us and a key guy was “Schwartz.”

Mike Schwartz was a U of M student at the time and was working a lot of hours with us, considering he was a student. He had an interest in fish and cooking and already had restaurant experience behind him from his high school years in Livonia. From the start he helped us with recipe ideas for the market and even though Mike went on to become a lawyer and now a teacher, he still pops in to help out, make a prepared dish, or give some recipe ideas.

This past Tuesday Schwartz prepped an amazing lunch special for us. I’ll let him describe it for you along with the recipe. He used our wild gulf shrimp, which we think are the finest out there. The flavor and the firm ” snappy” texture is so much better than the soggy, limp farm-raised shrimp that shows up everywhere nowadays. We also like to support the U.S. fishermen and fishing communities .

I have been telling Michael (Monahan) that he needed to have a lunch special that was served cold. Well, the forecast for the Art Fair this week was HOT. So I thought I should try to get him to serve one of the most refreshing sandwiches around, Banh Mi.  This sandwich usually contains sliced pork or a pate of pork, but I was looking through some of my favorite food blogs and came across Banh Mi burgers on the food blog, Closet Cooking. I remembered that he had a shrimp Banh Mi sandwich a while back, so I searched the archives and found the recipe.

These fill the bill for a cool and refreshing meal on a hot day. There is some cooking, but that can be done ahead of time so that the stove can stay off in the heat of the afternoon.  The Caramelized shrimp will keep for a day or two and the pickled vegetables will keep for a week.

The trick to all of the fresh vegetables is to cut them thin enough. I use a mandoline for the cucumbers and the peppers.  For the carrots and daikon radish I use my Borner 4 sided grater which a julienne side that is just perfect for this cut.  If you use your coarsest setting on your box grater it is a little too large.  I would suggest slicing the carrots and Daikon on a mandoline and then cutting the slices into matchsticks.

As for some other variations,  you could substitute red pepper flavored rice vinegar for the white vinegar in the pickling part of the recipe.  You could also use Monahan’s Mustard Mayo dip instead of plain Mayonnaise (add the soy sauce to the dip). You could also substitute Monahan’s Salmon Burgers for the Shrimp. I would sauté the Salmon Burgers for 1-2 minutes each side before adding the liquid in that cooking step.

Mike Schwartz’ Shrimp Banh Mi is our recipe of the week. Enjoy!

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Cool Seafood Recipes for HOT Summer Evenings

Friday, July 15th, 2011 | posted by mike

The dog days of summer are upon us. It’s hot as heck and not all of us want to slave over a hot stove or grill. Quick, easy, healthful and tasty seafood salads are just perfect this time of year. And luckily, we have all the great seafood and fish on hand to put together a refreshing, simple dish that will be an ideal accompaniment to a glass of wine and a relaxing, sultry summer night.

It can be as easy as flaking some smoked fish over mixed greens with a simple vinaigrette. Poached salmon tossed with a little sour cream, yogurt, dijon mustard, lemon, chopped cucumber and fresh dill is perfect summertime fare. Try some boiled shrimp, lobster meat, or crabmeat and just add a touch of mayo, lemon, chopped celery and onion, maybe a little fresh tarragon and a dash of Tabasco, serve on a bed of lettuce or on a roll. Blacken a fillet of bluefish and serve it over a Caesar salad. Squid or octopus salads are always a hit. Simply boil (squid for 2 min.-octopus for 45 min.), cool, make a light oregano vinaigrette and serve with tomatoes and onions. Creating a great vinaigrette is a cinch. All you need is extra virgin olive oil and a good vinegar.

Pantry Essentials
Some of the essentials in our pantry are Thai sweet chili sauce, sriracha sauce, Thai roasted chili paste, Thai red curry paste, Thai fish sauce (nuoc mam), ponzu (a citrus, soy, bonito sauce), Kikkoman ponzu is available at Monahan’s, pickled and fresh ginger, mango chutney, dijon mustard, Tiger sauce and Lizano sauce (from Costa Rica). We use fresh fruits, lemons, oranges, mangos and lots of limes in many vinaigrettes. Curry powder, cumin powder and a good assortment of dried herbs (we buy fresh herbs and chiles as needed). You can go for the sweet and spicy or the tart and tangy. For seafood salads I usually use white or rice wine vinegar.

From there you can get as wild and crazy as you want. Just experiment and have fun with it! If you still don’t feel like cooking, we usually have a few seafood salads ready to take home at the market.

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The Ultimate Salad Nicoise

Friday, July 15th, 2011 | posted by mike

A true meal in itself. You can cook the potatoes, eggs and green beans in the same pot to cut down on cooking time and dishes. Salad Niçoise is a composed salad that looks gorgeous on a platter, and there’s lots of room for improvisation when it comes to ingredients (you can add roasted red peppers, feta, toasted walnuts, or other Mediterranean components). The following recipe is the classic style of southern France, but topped with seared, fresh, sashimi-grade tuna. Serves 4.

Ingredients for vinaigrette:

  • 1 minced clove of garlic
  • 1/2 t Dijon mustard
  • 1 1/2 T red wine vinegar
  • 1/4 lemon, juiced
  • 1 T chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
  • 1 T minced fresh tarragon
  • Salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

Ingredients for Salad:

  • Fresh baby greens, Boston lettuce or Romaine to line the platter
  • 1/2 lb. small new or fingerling potatoes, scrubbed and cut in half
  • 4 eggs
  • 1/4 lb. French green beans, stems removed
  • 1 lb. fresh sashimi-grade tuna
  • 1 T extra-virgin olive oil
  • salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • 1/2 pint cherry tomatoes, halved
  • 1/2 cup niçoise olives
  • 8 anchovy fillets
  • 1/4 cup capers

Whisk the vinaigrette ingredients together until emulsified then set aside for the flavors to meld.

Bring potatoes to a boil in a kettle of salted water. Simmer for about 10 minutes, then add the eggs. You can either steam the beans above the boiling water for about 5 minutes, or simply add them to the boiling water and cook for 3 minutes. In the end, you want the potatoes to be fork-tender and the beans to be slightly crisp. Drain everything in a colander under cold water, then put back in the pot with cold water and ice to shock and chill the ingredients.

Heat a heavy bottom skillet or cast iron pan over medium-high. Rub the tuna with olive oil and a bit of the vinaigrette and salt & pepper. When the pan is hot, sear the tuna for 2 minutes or so per side…you don’t want it to cook all the way through. Remove from pan and place on a cutting board while you compose the platter.

Composing the platter
Line the platter with lettuce or fresh baby greens. Use a bowl to coat the individual ingredients (potaotes, beans, capers, tomatoes, olives and anchovies) in vinaigrette before arranging the separate ingredients like a dial around the platter. (We actually mixed all the ingredients together, but the classic version keeps things in separate piles so guests can choose how much of each ingredient to add to their plate.) Halve or quarter the eggs and arrange on the platter then slice the seared tuna and arrange attractively in the center of the dish. Drizzle the platter with remaining vinaigrette.

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Hawaiian Sashimi-Grade Tuna Makes a great Poke!

Thursday, July 7th, 2011 | posted by mike

Did you try last week’s ceviche recipe? Well here’s another fantastic summertime favorite—Hawaiian Poke!

Pronounced “poh kay” it’s loved throughout the islands but is still little known on the mainland. The word poke means to cut, slice, or section in pieces. Early Hawaiians seasoned raw fish with salt and whatever other seasonings that were on hand, such as different types of Limu (seaweed) or Inamona (toasted insides of kikui nut). Later when soy sauce, onions, chiles and tomatoes came to the islands, things started to get creative. Nowadays most pokes are soy sauce based with Inamona (we substitute toasted macadamia nuts), onions, sea salt, chiles, some type of Limu and sesame oil. Some people add toasted sesame seeds or oyster sauce or maybe a pinch of brown sugar.You can really create your own as long as you’re using a fish that’s sushi grade.

I first fell in love with poke on a buying trip to Honolulu back in 1980. After getting up at 4 a.m. to visit the Honolulu fish auction, which was amazing in itself, we headed over to the Tomashiro Market for a breakfast of raw marinated fish. The market was awesome, with loins of number 1 Yellowfin, Bigeye and Bluefin tuna laid out in rows the way we display lake perch. It seemed like they had a whole wall of different styles of Poke. I tried the Ahi (tuna) and Tako (octopus) and immediately realized why it is the national obsession. The clean fresh saltiness was like a sweet slap in the face from the Maui surf.

It’s no wonder  you can find Poke all over the Islands, even in the smallest little grocers and general stores. One of those small stores is the Fukushima Store in Haiku on Maui. George and Alice Fukushima have been running their shop for over 34 years (even longer than Monahan’s). The store is famous for their amazing bright red hot dogs, sashimi and sushi, and of course, poke. Their son Gene studied naval engineering at U of M and we were fortunate to have him at our market for a few years. Gene learned a lot from working with his dad— hard work, not wasting a thing and some good recipes, including poke.

It’s a little hard to make authentic poke without kikui nut or Limu, preferably Lipoa, but our version is pretty darn good. I spoke with Gene’s mom Alice earlier today and she said maybe George could send us some Inamona and Lipoa, but until then try this.

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Ahi Poke

Thursday, July 7th, 2011 | posted by mike

  • 1 lb. Sashimi grade tuna cut in 1 inch cubes
  • 1/4 cup Maui onions (or sweet onion like vidallia) chopped
  • 3 scallions finely sliced- use part of green part
  • 1/4 cup soy sauce- use Japanese it’s lighter salt than U.S. Soy sauce
  • 2 t oyster sauce (optional)
  • 1 t  brown sugar
  • 1 t sriracha chili sauce (or to taste)
  • Pinch of Hawaiian sea salt or kosher salt
  • 1 T toasted macadamia nuts finely chopped (toasted, see below)
  • 2 t toasted sesame seeds
  • 1 t sesame oil
  • A not traditional but nice addition if you’d like is to add about 2 T Wakame salad—coarse chop – available at Monahan’s

Roast Macadamia nuts at 300 degrees for 5 to 8 min. Until golden brown.

Mix all ingredients in a bowl, gently stir in tuna and refrigerate for about 1/2 hour. Serve as is or on romaine leaves or in lettuce cups.

Alice Fukushima says the new craze at their store is Ahi Poke on top of sticky rice on a Nori sheet.

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