Fish for dinner

Seattle's location, on Puget sound and by the Pacific Ocean, gives us access to the best fresh fish from the waters off Alaska, Washington, and Oregon. One of my favorite activities on the weekend is to go shopping at Central Market in Shoreline, the town just north of Seattle. Their fish counter is one of the best in the region.

Recently, the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch moved a number of Pacific fish from the Avoid column, to the Good Alternatives or Best Choice. This is a result of effective management of the resources. More information about the recent changes can her found here and the Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch list for the Pacific can be found here.

Rockfish, a slow growing and slow reproducing fish, in one of these.

At Central, the Rockfish fillets looked and smelled extremely fresh, one came home with for dinner that night.

I made a compound butter with orange zest, tried desperately to make several suprêmes from a Clementine, lightly seasoned and dusted with flour the servings, and dinner was served. Plated with navy beans cooked in homemade chicken stock, sautéed spinach, and a wedge of winter squash.

Also, there are only two humans in this house, so any recipe I post that I make up, it's going to be usually for 2 people.

Compound Butter

1 tablespoon orange zest (about half an orange worth)
2 ounces (4 tablespoons) soft butter

Mix the ingredients together, and place in the refrigerator to harden. This makes more than you'll use for two servings of fish. Keeps in the refrigerator a week or more.

Fish

Serves 2

2 four ounce portions of fresh Rockfish
salt to taste
pepper to taste
2-3 tablespoons of flour
2 tablespoons butter
several Clementine suprêmes per serving, or one orange suprême per serving

Season the fish with salt and pepper, then drag through the flour to lightly dust them.

Over medium high heat, melt the butter in a pan large enough to hold the fish without crowding, and when the butter has finished sizzling but before it starts to brown, place the fish, former skin side up, in the pan. Let them cook for about 5 minutes or so, until the fish is well browned and about cooked halfway through.

Carefully flip, and cook until finished, about another 5 minutes.

Plate the fish, place a suprême or two on top along with a small nub of the orange butter. Enjoy!

Nota bene:

In the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch list, Rockfish has recently been brought back to the Good Alternative and Best Choice categories. Except, it's not that simple. It's for Rockfish that have been caught using hook and line. Alaska bottom trawled Rockfish it still on the Avoid list. I didn't have that factoid in my head when I bought the fish. And, Central tells you the origin, and sometimes method of its capture. The Rockfish they had - trawled. I will have a word with the fishmongers about that.

Also, what the hell does Nota bene mean? It's a Latin and Italian phrase that means "note well." In other words, PAY ATTENTION!