‘Blue Food’ cookbook champions fish, other seafood for any meal

“Seafood belongs in all places at all meals at all times,” Seaver says.

The two — in collaboration with the ocean food advocacy nonprofit Fed by Blue — have combined for “The Blue Food Cookbook: Delicious Recipes for a Sustainable Future,” part cookbook and part educational resource to help make food from oceans, lakes and rivers less confusing for many people.

“Seafood, categorically, is a food that needs a little help getting into more people’s diets across more demographics,” says Seaver. “That was the intent of this book — to be inviting, but also to give people a sense that, hey, maybe it’s time to look anew at seafood.”

The two use “blue food” to describe the category, which embraces more than just ocean food but also freshwater animals, as well as algae and marine plants. The authors argue that picking blue food doesn’t have to be baffling, expensive or hard to cook.

“There’s so much confusing information out there,” says Zimmern.

Labels don’t always help

Is wild caught better than farmed? Is fresh better than frozen? Zimmern and Seaver discuss the pros and cons of each, but that’s not really what they care about. The labels don’t always help: Thanks to technology on trawlers, frozen fish can be fresher than unfrozen.

More important: Where is your fish from and was it sustainably caught?

“The Blue Food Cookbook” stresses that the fish at the center of any dish can be swapped out with a similar animal in the same family. If there’s no fresh, good-looking haddock at the store, try halibut or pollock.

The authors say consumers may be shying away from buying fish and marine plants because of blaring headlines about depleted oceans, labor abuses,antibiotic use and radiation. They argue those issues are dwarfed by what’s happening on land with chickens, cows and pigs.

“To be very clear, there’s a lot that we yet need to get right about seafood. But there is so much that’s also going right currently, so many innovations that we’ve created that have really opened the door to this new perspective. And that’s what Andrew and I seek to celebrate,” says Seaver.

The 145 recipes in the book go from high-brow caviar to a humble tuna noodle casserole, and bounce from North African flavors to Nashville hot catfish. One dish — a panzanella — seems to perfectly encapsulate their approach; it takes frozen, pre-made fish sticks and adds heirloom tomatoes, fennel and onion to make a new twist on a rustic Italian salad.

Zimmern recalls fondly when, in his childhood, Mrs. Paul’s frozen fish sticks started to appear, and he would dip them in mayonnaise and ketchup mixed together. “It was one of my favorite things ever,” he says. He may have become a James Beard Award-winner but he doesn’t look down on the often-derided cafeteria staple.

“Anytime we have a meal that doesn’t rely on a Big Ag version of beef, pork and chicken, we’re making a vote to save our planet,” Zimmern says. “If America ate another seafood meal a week, we would be doing such a benefit to our economy.”

Dueling recipes

The book includes cooking techniques; tips on buying fish; and must-have pantry items. There are recipe sections for bivalves, small silver fish like sardines, preserved and canned seafood, seaweed, flaky white fish like cod, the salmon family, meaty dense fish like carp, steak fish like swordfish, fillet fish like branzino, and shellfish and cephalopods, like octopus.

The authors offer dueling recipes for crab cakes, linguini with clam sauce and clam chowder, playfully laying out their cases for why their version is supreme.

“We both firmly believe there’s no one way to do something that’s right,” says Zimmern. “And in an effort to sort of poke fun at all of those other chefs and food writers who were like, ‘No, this is the only way to do X,’ we decided that we’re going to have multiple versions of the same things in our book.”

As for breakfast, the authors look to ideas from Japan, China, Thailand, India and even England, where smoked herring is traditionally eaten. It’s not so foreign a concept; in New York, salmon lox on a bagel is a common breakfast.

Seaver even suggests bringing seafood in for lunch at the office, an idea often considered too smelly. “There’s plenty of chilled seafood dishes in here that don’t need to be microwaved to piss off the whole floor.”

A recipe for Fish Stick Panzanella from ‘The Blue Food Cookbook’ elevates a frozen staple

By The Associated Press undefined

Fish sticks can be elevated with a touch of class by pairing them with fresh ingredients like heirloom tomatoes. A recipe from “The Blue Food Cookbook” transforms the classic fish stick into a dish inspired by panzanella, a rustic Italian salad. Instead of bread, crunchy fish sticks take center stage. To make this “Blue Food Cookbook” dish, prepare the fish sticks until extra crispy. Whisk together mustard, olive oil, vinegar and salt for a vinaigrette. Toss tomatoes, onion, fennel and arugula with the vinaigrette. Serve with warm, broken-up fish stick pieces and a sprinkle of pepper.

FISH STICK “PANZANELLA”

Fish sticks, like any other frozen, breaded product, conjure up visions of a utilitarian meal. But there’s no reason fish sticks, which really can be very tasty, can’t be lent a little class by pairing them with marquee ingredients, such as fresh-from-the-vine heirloom tomatoes.

Panzanella, a rustic Italian salad made of chunks of yesterday’s bread brought back to life with the juice of fresh tomatoes, herbs and crunchy sweet onions, is a perfect starting point for changing one’s mind about fish sticks.

Serves: 4

Ingredients:

12 ounces prepared breaded fish sticks

2 tablespoons whole grain mustard

1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1/4 cup red wine vinegar

Salt

1 ½ pounds heirloom tomatoes, cut into 1-inch pieces

1 red onion, thinly sliced (about 1 cup)

1 fennel bulb, thinly sliced (about 1 ½ cups)

4 cups arugula

Freshly cracked Black Pepper-Fennel Blend or black pepper

Directions:

Prepare the fish sticks according to the package instructions, adding a minute or two additional cooking time so they are extra crispy.

Whisk the mustard, oil, vinegar, and salt to taste in a large bowl to make a vinaigrette. Place the tomatoes in a separate bowl, drizzle with a few spoonfuls of the vinaigrette, and season with salt.

Combine the onion, fennel and arugula, in the bowl with the vinaigrette and toss. Remove the fish sticks from the oven. Cut or tear each stick into pieces roughly the size of croutons (about 3 pieces per fish stick). To serve, place the fennel-arugula mixture onto a platter or plates and top with the seasoned tomatoes and the warm fish stick pieces. Sprinkle with pepper-fennel blend.