Lunch

Salmon salad with avocado.

Preparation time: 10 minutes

This is a high protein meal, starting with a 7.5-ounce can of Alaska salmon mixed with diced onion, capers and mayonnaise. One can is enough to make two hefty, man-sized portions.

Slice 1/2 ripe avocado into wedges and peel. It requires no dressing. It is perfectly delicious and wholesome as is.

Mercury content in fish is always a concern. But fish from the Pacific and specifically canned salmon from Alaska have been found to contain relatively low levels of mercury compared to other fish, such as tuna. (Pacific albacore have less than Atlantic albacore.) Where carnivorous fish are concerned, the bigger the fish, the higher up the food chain, the higher its mercury content is likely to be. Shark and swordfish are especially high in mercury. In any case, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration recommends no more than 12 ounces of fish low in mercury per week. Women who are breast feeding, pregnant or planning to become pregnant and young children should be especially cautious about any fish they consume.

Like other oily fishes, Salmon--the wild-caught variety, as in Alaska--are particularly good sources of omega-3 fatty acids. Avoid farmed salmon.

Avocado is a great food, especially if you are looking for beneficial fats. Half an avocado contains 153 calories and 14 grams of fat, 63 percent of which is monounsaturated, the same as olive oil. Avocados contain more protein than cows milk and are an excellent source of omega-3 fatty acids as well as potassium, a valuable thing if you are on a diet low in carbohydrates.

A Final Flurry of Pickling

It's been a race to get my Pickling Powerpoint ready for presentation at the local historical society this morning. Lots of pickling and photos of pickles. I think we have enough pickles to last us through the winter. Some of the best pickles are the easiest, such as these Middle Eastern-style pickled turnips with beets. They simply marinate in a big jar with a vinegar brine, taking on a pinkish hue from the beets harvested from our garden. We brought some of these pickled turnips to a recent presidential debate party and everyone fell for them--even those who normally don't like turnips. (Well, they hardly taste like turnips after they've pickled.)

Some non-traditional pickles fall into the category of "quick." These fresh chunks of pineapple are tossed with mint leaves, then submerged in a brine made with cider vinegar, brown sugar, cinnamon and fresh cranberries. They can be eaten almost immediately. Pack them into pint jars and stash in the fridge. They'd be a great condiment for the next pork roast, no?

To demonstrate the classic method of pickling with alcohol, I made these pears preserved in Calvados. I have fond memories of bicycling through Normandy (a lifetime ago, it seems) where everything is made of apples, from the crepes to the cider to the brandy. Calvados is highly refined. Another local branch water--chouchen--is sweet and extremely potent. I'll be saving these sultry looking pears for a special occasion, perhaps a holiday dessert buffet.

These are red onions drenched in a brine of vinegar, chipotle en adobo, garlic, orange zest and mescal. Very easily assembled, this condiment is ready to consume the next day but will keep indefinitely in the refrigerator. I see it in a taco stuffed with pork carnitas, or perhaps on the next barbecue sandwich.

These pickled mushrooms remind me of our wedding, back in the last century. My wife and I made most of the food ourselves--mostly pickles, cheeses and other preserved foods that we were able to start weeks ahead, then present on a grand buffet with a basket of assorted breads. It was just the thing for a backyard October feast.

When you are growing your own food--sometimes more than you can possibly consume--pickling presents itself as a vital option. We had four jalapeno plants that produced an abundance of peppers. I recently pulled the plants to create a new garlic bed and found myself looking at two pints worth of peppers. Preserved in a vinegar brine, they will make a nice condiment for spicy foods.

Finally, I am occasionally reminded that you can pickle almost anything, including meats and seafood. Pickled pig's feet, corned beef, pickled herring and of coarse gravlax, or pickled salmon.

The process in fact is extremely simple if you can get your hands on two or three pounds of salmon. Create a dry mix of coarse salt, sugar and cracked pepper and spread it thickly over a fillet of salmon, along with heaps of chopped dill. Make a sandwich with a second fillet, cover the whole thing with a sheet of aluminum foil and weight it down with a big can of hominy. Place in the refrigerator for three or four days, turning the salmon sandwich a couple of times daily. In the end, you will have delicious gravlax. Cut into thin slices and serve with black bread and your favorite, ice-cold vodka.

We are thinking we need to throw a pickle party. What do you think?

The Last Fish: Scandinavian Salmon Stew

A client ordered a last-minute dinner party for 10 and my wife found this tantalizing recipe for salmon stew in Houghton Mifflin's The Best American Recipes 2005-2006.

Turns out the dish originates right here in the District of Columbia at Kinkead's, widely regarded as one of the city's best seafood joints.

Normally we would pass over a dish so rich with cream and butter. For health reasons, our lipid of choice is extra-virgin olive oil. But we thought this would make a great impression on our client, a different kind of winter stew and a different way to serve salmon. Then at the last minute we received word that one of the guests was allergic to fish (yeah, right), so we had to rework the entire menu. They got beef Bourgignone instead. But we just had to try this stew.

Salmon has become the rubber chicken of the seafood world--so ordinary people easily tire of it. I was glad to find a different take on this overworked fish. Another primary consideration was utilizing a sustainable salmon, which may be no easy feat in all parts of the country. I immediately referred to the Monterey Bay Aquarium's "Seafood Watch" listings for on-line guidance.

You are most likely to find something called "Atlantic salmon" in your local grocery, but don't be fooled into thinking this was caught somewhere out in the ocean. Salmon have been largely fished out of the Atlantic--the great spawns of yesteryear are a mere shadow of their former selves. Most Atlantic salmon now is farmed, and organizations such as "Seafood Watch" have farmed salmon high on their list of things to avoid.

Here is some of the warning text from "Seafood Watch":

Most salmon are farmed in open pens and cages in coastal waters. Waste from these farms is released directly into the ocean. Parasites and diseases from farmed salmon can spread to wild fish swimming near the farms.

One of the biggest concerns is the amount of food required to raise salmon in farms. It generally takes three pounds of wild fish to grow one pound of farmed salmon.

Segments of the salmon farming industry are improving their practices, but the environmental impact is still increasing because production has risen more than 400% in the last decade. In the market, there is currently no way to tell which salmon are coming from the more-sustainable farms, so for now we ask you to avoid farmed salmon and choose wild-caught salmon instead.

In addtion, Environmental Defense has issued a health warning for farmed salmon because of the pesticides and antibiotics used to control disease in fish farming operations. Again, "Seafood Watch": When consumers eat this fish, the residues from the chemicals may affect their health or interfere with medicines they’re taking.

A further envionmental concern is that domesticated farmed salmon can escape from their confinement areas during storms and breed with wild salmon,, affecting the wild DNA for future generations.

You may have read here recently about the sharp and mysterious declines in coho salmon spawns in California and Oregon. "Seafood Watch" continues to list wild-caught California and Oregon coho salmon as "good" alternatives. But the "best" choice by far, according to "Seafood Watch," is wild-caught salmon from Alaska, including coho, king, sockeye, pink and red varieties.

Wild-caught king salmon from our local Whole Foods is what we used for our salmon stew. To serve six, first cut 1 pound skinless salmon meat into 1 1/2-inch pieces. Combine 3 cups fish stock (we used a commercial variety) with 1/4 cup dry white wine and reduce by one-third over moderate heat.

Cut 3 strips bacon into thin strips and cook until crisp over moderately-high heat in a skillet. Drain the bacon on paper towels, then add 1 tablespoon butter to the bacon fat. Add about 2 cups sliced button mushrooms and 1 minced shallot to the fat and cook until the mushrooms are lightly browned.

Combine the reduced stock and wine mixture with 2 cups heavy cream in a sauce pot and bring to a bowl. Add about 2 cups diced Yukon Gold (or other boiling potato) and cook until potatoes are just tender. Drain out the potatoes and return the cream mixture to a boil to reduce further.

In a large saucepan over moderately-high heat, melt 2 tablespoons butter and add 1 small yellow onion, diced small, and 1 small leek (white parts only), washed and finely chopped, and 1 minced shallot. Cook a few minutes until the vegetables are softened, then stir in the bacon, the mushroom mixture, the potatoes and the reduced cream mixture.

Just before serving, add the salmon and simmer for 1 minute. Season with salt and ground white pepper to taste. Stir in 2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill.

Ladle the stew into wide, shallow bowls preheated to keep the stew warm and garnish with chopped chives.

I guarantee you will be licking the bowls before you are through. And if you weren't a salmon lover before, this might just change your mind.

Salmon with Spring Vegetables

Here's an excuse to use just about every Spring vegetable you can think of. Leeks, fennel, asparagus, artichoke, carrots--quite a crew.

The vegetables constitute a kind of hash upon which the salmon can be proudly displayed and served.

As for the salmon, I chose a wild-caught coho salmon from the certified-sustainable Alaskan fishery.

The coho salmon is not quite as thick and meaty as the Atlantic salmon. But these day I'm following the advice of the Seafood Watch program at the Monterey Bay Aquarium which has Atlantic salmon on its "avoid" list. Most Atlantic salmon are now farm raised. There are concerns about PCBs and other toxins in farm-raised salmon. Environmentalists worry that salmon farms pollute the surrounding oceans. And raising salmon actually consumes more fish than it produces.

(As if that weren't enough, farm-raised salmon typically have color added to make them pink.)

To make this dish for four persons, cut into medium dice or 1/2-inch pieces the following:

2 medium carrots
1 small turnip
1/2 cup peas or edamame
4 asparagus spears
4 cooked artichoke bottoms (I used canned)

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Cook, separately, the carrots, turnip, peas (or edamame) and asparagus. As the vegetables reach doneness (just cooked through, no more), scoop them out of the water with a spider-type ladle or slotted spoon and immerse in a bowl of cold water. Then strain the vegetables and pat dry with paper towels.

Meanwhile, slice a small leek thinly and dice one small fennel bulb. Coat the bottom of a heavy skillet with extra-virgin olive oil over moderately low heat. Add the fennel and leek, season with salt to draw out the moisture and cook slowly with the skillet covered. (A lid on the skillet will speed the cooking. You don't want to brown the vegetables). When the vegetables are tender, set aside to cool. Now toss the cooked fennel and leek with the other cooked vegetables, the artichoke bottoms and some chopped fennel fronds. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

For the salmon, use four 6-ounce filets, skin removed. Rub the filets with extra-virgin olive oil and season with salt and pepper, perhaps some ground fennel seed or your favorite spice mix. Heat a heavy skillet over a moderately high heat and coat the bottom with extra-virgin olive oil. Brown the salmon filets on both sides, in batches if necessary. Reduce the heat to low and cover the skillet until the salmon are cooked through (probably no more than seven or eight minutes total cooking time).

Serve the salmon warm atop the vegetables. Garnish with lemon slices and fennel fronds.