Recipe: Salmon with Olive-Almond-Fennel Topping

Olives and salmon are a wonderful match. This simple, fast, bright-tasting topping can be thrown together quickly and is good on just about anything (well, not chocolate cake). Here, the salmon is pan roasted but it could just as easily be grilled or baked. And the topping is good with other fish, such as swordfish, halibut, sturgeon, sea bass, etc.

Recipe: Slow-Roasted Salmon in Dill

Brining fish? You bet. This recipe is a take-off from one created by Jerry Traunfeld, a leading Northwest chef. It’s very easy but plenty elegant enough to serve to guests. Brining does magical things to the salmon, changing the texture into a meltingly tender, moist bite of heaven.

Recipe: Salmon Tartare

Super-fresh fish like that sold by Cook’s in Menlo Park makes it possible to prepare “crudo” (raw fish)-type dishes. The flavors here are amazing; a mouthful of taste with no added fat/oil other than the omega 3s from the salmon. And it’s gorgeous to look at, too. Serve this as an appetizer or as part of a buffet. It’s so delicious, though, that you’ll be tempted to eat it for your whole meal. If you’ve got guests that simply won’t eat raw fish, it also makes some out-of-this-world salmon patties (just sauté in a little butter or oil).

Recipe: Pan-Roasted Blue-Nosed Bass with Fennel/Saffron Compote

Blue-nosed bass is one of the best meaty white fish varieties  around. Get it at Cook’s Seafood in Menlo Park. Its moistness and fine flavor stand up to accompaniments particularly well, particularly Provencal-type dishes. The fennel-saffron compote is indescribably delicious, tasting like the best parts of bouillabaisse, the famous fish stew of Marseilles, but in a different form. Halibut could be used instead of the blue-nosed bass if desired.

Crab Landing Delivers Coastal Views and a Huge Menu

Inside its walls of windows overlooking Pillar Point Harbor, Crab Landing features sushi, a raw bar, huge seafood menu, steaks and two cocktail bars.

The only guests who couldn’t find something appealing to eat at just-opened Crab Landing in Half Moon Bay would have to be penny-pinching vegans who disdain great coastal views. For everyone else, this huge new restaurant overlooking the fishing boats in Pillar Point Harbor and the sweeping Pacific beyond takes a greatest-hits approach to its offerings that is calculated to please the widest swath of diners. Its two levels contain an oyster bar, a sushi bar, two cocktail bars and a wine cellar while presenting a menu of popular seafood dishes from across the country and well beyond — in addition to signature cocktails (the lychee martini is a hit), soups, salads, steaks, prime rib and ubiquitous desserts. There’s also al fresco patio dining, where the edge of renowned surf spot Mavericks crashes in the distance.

Recipe: Quick, Easy Version of Nobu’s Miso-Marinated Black Cod

The most-imitated and most-famous signature dish of celebrity chef Nobu Matsuhisa deserves its fame because it’s just plain delicious. Here’s a link to his original recipe for those purists. Food & Wine recently published a simplified version, which I simplified (and improved, imho) further.

Nobu Spinoff In South Palo Alto

Jin Sho/Nobu’s Yellowtail with Jalapeno

Nobuyuki Matsuhisa – known just as Nobu – is the most famous Japanese chef in the world, running a slew of restaurants on several continents that deliver his delicious style of modern Japanese food to appreciative, well-heeled audiences. For Peninsula foodies eager to sample Nobu cuisine, air travel has been required. Until now. Two chefs from New York’s Nobu exited the Big Apple, bringing their experience, skills and many Nobu recipes to South Palo Alto. Happily, owner-chefs Ichiro Takahashi and Noriomi Kaneko set up shop at their new Jin Sho restaurant armed not only with Nobu’s cooking sensibilities but with considerable knowledge of classic Japanese cuisine.

Recipe: Wild Shrimp with Carrot-Mint Curry

This big-flavored dish with unexpected ingredients combines sweet, savory, tart and just a hint of spicy elements and is also gorgeous to look at. Although the delicious wild shrimp from the gulf that Pietro sells at the Palo Alto and Menlo Park farmers markets was the inspiration for this simple but elegant dish, it could also be made with shrimp/prawns from a good market – or seared scallops or just about any flavorful, white seafood. The shrimp cooking technique is based on something I learned eons ago in a Chinese cooking class that’s a super-easy version of the French en papillote method.

Recipe: Raw Bluefin Tuna with Yuzu (David Kinch)

(from me) Although I haven’t made this crudo recipe, I intend to. Everything David cooks is wonderful. All the Asian ingredients are available at Nak’s in Menlo Park, an excellent source for sushi fish as well. Cook’s Seafood in Menlo Park also has super-fresh tuna. To get the unique flavor of yuzu, one suggestion is to buy bottled yuzu at Nak’s and mix a little in with the fresh Meyer lemon.

Recipe: Crispy Black Bass/Salt Cod Ravioli/Mussel Broth (Mark Sullivan)

(from me) I haven’t tried this recipe but I’m sure it’s great, like all Mark’s food. The ravioli are undoubtedly wonderful, but they take a lot of work. A suggested substitution is to buy some high-quality seafood ravioli. Believe it or not, Sigona’s Produce (Stanford Shopping Center & Redwood City) has some really, really good frozen ravioli and I think there’s a smoked salmon version. Or choose one you like elsewhere. Serving fish in a broth vs. the usual sauce is a terrific approach that I’ve done many times. It’s less fattening, too.

Pietro’s Fish: What Comes After Wild Salmon?

Fisherman Pietro Parravano is understandably upset about the 2008 wild salmon crisis –fishing this season is prohibited – but he’s used this as an opportunity for creativity. The cheerful owner/skipper of Half Moon Bay’s Anne B and a longtime fixture at the Palo Alto and Menlo Park farmers markets is offering his throngs of customers some appealing choices. Even wild salmon (but not caught by him).

To read more about what Pietro has to say about the regional salmon problem, check out a recent piece in the Almanac.

Local wild king (Chinook) salmon used to comprise a lot of what Pietro caught and sold. Now he’s offering more line-caught local halibut – including hard-to-find and delicious halibut cheeks – and other choices like sablefish (also called black cod), sand dabs, pacific snapper, ling cod and some other items acquired through his fisherman connections.

Here’s a recent for-sale board from Pietro’s stand at the Palo Alto market, some notes on each fish and cooking recommendations.

Recipes for Pietro’s Salmon

Here’s an initial batch of recipes designed to make the most of the wild salmon (from Alaska) offered by Pietro Parravano, a fisherman who sells his wares at the Palo Alto and Menlo Park farmers markets. For overall ideas inspired by Pietro’s fish, see my earlier post (Pietro’s Fish: What Comes After Wild Salmon?). These salmon recipes vary from something easy for everyday to dinner-party dishes designed to compete with the conversation. Another excellent local source of fresh wild salmon is Cook’s Seafood in Menlo Park., whose wares are fresher than what I’ve found at other stores.

Make Your Own Crudo

Crudo — aka, raw fish combined with different flavorings — can be transportive. It’s irresistible for a starter and quite beautiful as well. Serve just a few bites per person.

Here are basic instructions on making my approach to crudo. I’m guessing at measurements since I made up these recipes. One thing about crudo: all types of fish won’t necessarily be “best” with the same accompaniments, which is why these recipes are a bit different. I’ve experimented with different accompaniments to the fish and imho, these work best with the specific fish mentioned. If I can find fresh mackerel, I’d like to make up a crudo recipe for that. No luck on the mackerel so far.

Lure: Killer Seafood with a Light Touch

The concept of pets often resembling their owners has a corollary in the restaurant world. Dining in an establishment run by an owner/chef, you’re likely to sample unusual, highly personal cuisine that reflects the passions and prejudices of one individual. For some chefs who spent their earlier careers toiling as an underling in someone else’s kitchen, executing someone else’s vision, the holy grail is to be The Boss in their own place. And some owner/chefs do look like their food.

Kaygetsu: Simply the Best Japanese

In Japan, they study the art of simple perfection, as seen in their translucent porcelains, exacting calligraphy and even in the three compelling lines of a haiku poem. This same rigorous esthetic is applied to dining. However, visiting a formulaic sushi bar and sipping cheap hot sake – the typical American’s exposure to this cuisine — is not the best example of the multi-dimensional sensory experience in which the Japanese excel. Rather, to find transcendent, authentic Japanese cuisine, look behind the Shell station in an out-of-the-way shopping center in Menlo Park. There you’ll find tiny Kaygetsu, which serves what many consider the best Japanese food in the Bay Area, if not beyond.