Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Grilled Hawaiian Ono (Wahoo)

Does it get much better than a fat slab of grilled fish? I'd say the answer is no, especially when that grilled fish is fresh, wild-caught Hawaiian Ono.  AKA Wahoo, this fish is also caught around Florida and throughout the Gulf of Mexico & Caribbean.

The fish has a similar appearance to mackerel, and a rather similar taste and texture. The flesh is quite delicate as well; it holds up as a fillet but can easily be pulled apart and made into some epic fish tacos with a little cilantro, lime, and garlic, and some cabbage or lettuce leaves to wrap 'em up.

Sizzle, my pretties...


These fish are notoriously quite elusive and apparently little is known about their population numbers. According to the Monterey Bay Aquarium,

"Wahoo grows and matures quickly, so we think it can withstand concentrated fishing pressure. However, populations haven’t been adequately researched, and so we don’t know if it's being overfished."

They unfortunately are on the "potentially contaminated with mercury" list, so it is better to enjoy Ono occasionally.  Damn mercury!!
Can you say, yummo?

Friday, September 3, 2010

Wild Sea Scallops with Roasted Vegetable Relish

No matter how many times I roast vegetables in the oven, somehow I am still always surprised when I taste them and the subtle sweet taste pervades my mouth. It's as if vegetables are so hard-wired into our brain as having to be these pallid or bland foods that must be eaten more out of necessity than pleasure. There is something about oven-roasting- the way the caramelization slowly sets in and draws forth such a delicate yet delicious sweetness.  Be it beets, sweet potatoes, cauliflower or Brussels sprouts, oven-roasting gives rise to whole new dimensions within a vegetable.

Roasting veggies is so simple also.  Chop coarsely, toss in olive oil or melted butter, sprinkle on salt and pepper, maybe some chopped herbs such as thyme, oregano rosemary, and perhaps a little minced garlic.  Stick into a well pre-heated oven (375-400 degrees F), and let it go.  Stir it around a couple times, and in about 45 min you'll have a perfect meal or side dish.  So simple and so organic in nature, it would seem intuitive that humans have consumed vegetables prepared in this manner for many, many millenia.  

Zucchini, yellow squash, onion and tomato, thyme, salt and pepper.

I had some leftover roasted veggies, and I thought- this would make a wonderful base for a delicious and healthy relish to be served on just about any fresh grilled, broiled, baked meat or fish.  I threw these into my mini food processor along with a clove of fresh garlic, a small handful of fresh parsley, and some olive oil.  Voila!  Perfect roast vegetable relish.   Now, what to serve it on...

One food I particularly love but don't often eat are sea scallops.  They have such a unique texture and flavor, truly incomparable to anything else.  I like to call them the "water-chestnut" of the seafood world.  They hold up to a number of cooking applications, but I feel that searing in a hot skillet wins hands down.  Dry them well, lightly dust with salt and pepper, and place in a large, HOT skillet.  Be sure that the skillet is large enough that the scallops are not crowded; it is better to do them in batches rather than crowd the pan. Also, do not disturb them until they freely release from the firm metal grasp of the pan. Flip once, and cook until firm, but not hard.  Served with a side salad, truly one of my favorite meals!







Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Greatest Quotes on Paleo

"Consider this: If you were going to design a biological being and had three macro nutrients at your disposal, two of which possess 4 cals per gram (carbs and protein), and another that possesses 9 cals per gram (fat), more than double, which one are you going to design your being to run on fundamentally, with the others as back up? Which one of those does the human body store, sufficient to fuel operations for 2-3 months without any other nutrition? Carb stores (glycogen) can be completely depleted in two hours of strenuous activity. Think about it."  -Richard Nikoley of Free the Animal

"The diet-heart hypothesis, the idea that dietary saturated fat and cholesterol raise blood cholesterol and thus increase heart attack risk, is a half-century embarrassment to the international scientific community. It requires willful ignorance of the fact that saturated fat does not increase total cholesterol or LDL in humans, in the long term. It requires a simplistic view of blood lipids that ignores the potentially harmful effects of replacing animal fats with carbohydrate or industrial seed oils. Worst of all, it requires selective citation of the literature on diet modification trials." -Stephan Guyenet of Whole Health Source

"Let me be crystal clear about this: Anything that damages the gut lining (including bacterial, viral, and parasitic infections, as well as alcohol, grains, legumes, and dairy) can predispose one to autoimmunity, multiple chemical sensitivities, and allergies to otherwise benign foods... additionally, if your gut is damaged, you expose yourself to a host of chemicals that would normally remain in the intestines. This can lead to conditions such as multiple chemical sensitivity syndrome, which is regarded more as a psychiatric problem than legitimate medical condition." -Robb Wolf, author of The Paleolithic Solution