Something Fishy Going On

I never used to like fish when I was growing up. I grew up in the heart of the big city in Michigan, and we didn't really get fresh fish. My mom made it for dinner a few times - fish of the frozen variety, unfortunately - and it just wasn't very good. Whatever the type of fish she made was, it always just tasted "fishy" and so I never came to appreciate the variety in flavors between types of fish.

When I moved with my husband to Florida, he encouraged me to try some fish. The only fish I really liked the flavor of, based on my experiences, was tuna; tuna doesn't really taste "fishy" to me; it has its own distinct flavor. So at a seafood restaurant, instead of ordering a burger or chicken fingers (which is what I used to do as a kid) I ordered the tuna steak. Wow, that didn't taste like any tuna I'd ever had!

Since then, I've tried all manner of fish and seafood. I'm still not terribly big on eating clams or oysters (not even fried!) nor do I care much for shrimp - although with shrimp it's not the flavor, but the bad things it does to my stomach. I am a sucker for lobster, though; I only ever eat it on special occasions since it tends to be so pricey.

Here in northeast Florida, though, we get a lot of fresh fish. There's a large variety of seafood restaurants that serve the local catches, in addition to "the usual" tuna, salmon or catfish. One of my favorite new things to do, though, is to get fresh fish from our farmer's market; the lady that sells fresh and frozen fish has fantastic prices ($10 gets you two good-sized tuna steaks, or fresh mahi mahi) and the fish is full of flavor.

A few weeks ago I got some tuna steaks, and discovered just how easy it is to broil fish!

Seasoned with salt & pepper, and coated in olive oil. Delicious!

I was pleasantly surprised at how easy and how quick it was to make the fish. It took all of ten minutes to broil the steaks (five minutes on each side, five hundred degrees in the broiler) and it was juicy, well-cooked, and soooo good.

Last week, I got some of the fresh mahi mahi from the market. I got three fair-sized pieces; two were a little on the small side, and perfect for lunch.

Mahi mahi, brown rice, and broccoli.

Since there was still a large piece of fish left, I decided I would use it in a pasta dish (oh how I love that pasta...) with a lemon cream sauce. I diced up some tomatoes, cooked some whole grain penne pasta, cut up the large piece of mahi mahi, combined it with the lemon cream sauce, and topped it with Parmesan cheese, to get this delicious dish:

What a great use for leftover fish!

Since I had no heavy cream on hand for the sauce recipe, and we don't keep cow's milk in our fridge, I made my own "cream" by combining 2/3 cup of vanilla almond milk with 5 tablespoons of butter. It actually worked really well for this recipe. One thing I also liked about the lemon cream sauce on top of this dish was the fact that the acidity of the tomato really brought out the lemon flavor in the sauce; it was a perfect combination!

Fish can be a very healthy option when added to a diet; it's supposed to be able to help prevent (or at least lower the risk of) heart disease, but it also helps to increase metabolism. Coupled with a dark vegetable of some sort, you get a really good boost to the metabolism - part of the reason why sushi is a good, healthy choice as well.

Just be mindful, if consuming fish on a regular basis, of the mercury content - and other potential toxins - in the type of fish. For example, tuna tends to have a higher mercury level; shark and swordfish are considered to be so high that they should be eaten only very rarely. The types and amounts of toxins (as well as nutrients) in a fish will vary depending on where the fish is caught (or if it is farmed) and what it tends to eat. It is generally stated, though, that the health benefits of eating fish on a regular basis still outweigh the risks.