Swordfish stew (and other food news)

Saturday was a good day for food. I hardly cooked all week, so felt like I had some serious pent-up culinary excellence to let loose. We started the morning with a trip to the farmer's market to pick up our farm box, and then returned home to make chocolate chip pancakes. During the afternoon, I made rye bread. Turns out if you're out of molasses, it tastes great made with brown sugar. I used that to make myself a snack of rye bread, butter, sliced radishes, and sea salt, which apparently is a thing. I still don't love radishes, but this was actually delicious. Maybe it was because I had some unusual white radishes, which are milder than the bright red kind you usually see at the grocery store. Still don't think I'll be seeking out radishes much in the future, but if I ever end up with a bunch of them, I will set to work on some rye bread immediately.

This all leads to the piece de resistance of my day in the kitchen, the namesake of this blog post, the jester of Tortuga: swordfish stew. I found this recipe in the New York Times years ago and Mom used to make it before The Great Oil Taboo. I decided to make it when I fortuitously had three ingredients I rarely purchase: swordfish, olives, and grape tomatoes. What, you may ask, lead me to have random, unspoken-for swordfish in my fridge? Well, I made one of my monthly-or-so hikes to Whole Foods on Friday and picked up some "Whole Catch" frozen fish. That stuff is so good! It's only $8 for 12 oz and, unless you're busting the bank and getting the best stuff, it's just as good as fresh fish.

As an FYI: the recipe calls for making this dish 24-48 hours ahead and allowing it to marinate in the fridge that whole time. I made it 6 hours ahead this time and it tasted exactly the same.

So without, further ado, Swordfish Stew:
Thaw 12oz swordfish. Season with salt and pepper.
Place fish in a (preferably heavy bottomed) sauce pan. It should fit snugly but not be all crammed up in there.
Cover with 1/2 yellow onion, thinly sliced; a generous handful of olives; about a half pint of halved grape or cherry tomatoes; 2 bay leaves, and ~1t dried oregano. Drizzle w/ 3T EVOO.
Let marinate in the fridge for 24-48 hours (or 6 hours... whatever.)
Take out of the fridge ~1 hour prior to cooking to warm to room temperature

Here's the pan all ready to go:


Cook, covered, for ~1 hour on low heat, or until the swordfish is cooked through. (We have to put our gas burner on the very very smallest flame possible to get a low enough temperature to prevent burnage & stickage).
Remove from heat and allow to sit for 30 min (or just eat right away, like we did... again, whatever.)
Serve on top of garlic bruschetta. This is how you make that:
Marinate 1 clove minced garlic in 2T EVOO for 5-10 minutes
Brush the mixture onto a thick slice of bread (we used rye... see above)
Broil 1-2" (keep an eye on it--bruschetta burns fast)
Serves 2-3.

The resulting stew is delightful--warm, filling, flavorful. We enjoyed ours with sauteed spinach on the side.



Remember to save a piece for your cat!