What’s In Season?

By Barbara Kobsar | Illustrations by Charmaine Koehler-Lodge   Spring is all about green with fresh leaves, new shoots, dainty blossoms, and crisp pods of all sorts coming to the farmers’ market for us to admire, ponder, prepare, and enjoy. Spinach is ubiquitous through every season, but I enjoy it most in the early spring…

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Sea Palm Fettuccine with Pumpkin Seed Pesto

From Send Me to Seaweed Camp!   From Tanya Stiller’s newsletter: “Seaweeds: A Forager’s Guide to the West Coast’s Wild Sea Vegetables.” When soaked in water, sea palm fronds expand from thin, crunchy sticks to long, flat bands—like fettuccine—that you can dress up with your favorite sauce, like this tangy pumpkin seed pesto. If you…

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Oysters Nickerfeller

    This recipe from Table with a View: The History & Recipes of Nick’s Cove by Dena Grunt (Cameron Books, 2021) is a house special at Nick’s Cove. It calls for a bit of shredded cow milk cheese. Dena says the Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese Company Toma (a semi-hard, mild cheese with a waxed rind) is…

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Charcoal-Grilled Wild King Salmon with Cherry Tomato-Basil Relish

From Fish Forever: The Definitive Guide to Understanding, Selecting, and Preparing Healthy, Delicious, and Environmentally Sustainable Seafood By Paul Johnson with photography by Karl Petzke (John Wiley & Sons, 2007) Serves 4 as a main course The flavor of fresh wild salmon grilled over charcoal, the tang of cherry tomatoes, and the aroma of fresh…

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Spaghetti Col Sugo di Baccalà

Spaghetti with Salt Cod and a Spicy Tomato Sauce Recipe from My Calabria by Rosetta Costantino (W.W. Norton & Company, © 2010) reprinted with permission Serves 4–6 ½ pound boneless, skinless salt cod ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil 2 large garlic cloves, halved 1 28-ounce can Italian San Marzano tomatoes, broken up by hand,…

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Reel In a David Lance Goines Poster with Your Salmon

      When you add a poster by David Lance Goines to your art collection, you’ll be helping Monterey Fish Market help their employees during the COVID-19 pandemic furloughs. The prints were published by St. Hieronymus Press of Berkeley on January 22, 2020, and 25 have been signed by the artist. Cost: $175 (signed)…

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Misoyaki

From A Fish Monger You’ll Want to Hug By Kai Wada Roath Ι Photos by Austin Goldin   At JP Seafood, I often buy butterfish (aka black cod) for this Japanese/Hawaiian dish, which I fell in love with years ago at the historic Manago Hotel on the Big Island. Since the Manago keeps their recipe…

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Fish Tacos with SeaSlaw from FreshCatch

There is something magical about crispy, beer-battered flakey fish topped with a delicious seaweed salad wrapped in a warm tortilla,” says Jessy Ryan, “co-flounder” of FreshCatch, one of the Bay Area’s forward-thinking community-supported fishery companies. FreshCatch operates as a collective of single-vessel businesses that fish along the West Coast with a vision of making sustainability…

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Salt Cod & Potato Cazuela

From César Turns Twenty by James Mellgren with photos by Cherie Azzopardi Recipe reprinted with permission from César: Recipes from a Tapas Bar by James Mellgren and Olivier Said, Ten Speed Press, 2003 This is one of the oldest dishes on the César menu. It has garnered legions of fans, and the few times it has…

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Mikan Tilapia

From the story For the Sake of Saké By Serena Bartlett This recipe is a wonderful light summer salad that brings out the flavors of the mizuna (Japanese mustard green) with citrus and the crispy fish. Mikan is the Japanese word for orange, one of the handful of words I’ve managed to remember after living there…

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Two Oyster Recipes from Hapuku Fish Shop

From the Hapuku Fish Market The recipe for Oysters Rockefeller was created over a hundred years ago at Antoine’s restaurant in New Orleans, still in operation today. Because of the butter in addition to the oysters, the dish was considered so rich that it had to be named after the richest man in America—and at…

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Feast of the Seven Fishes

  The Trend and the Tradition By Cheryl Angelina Koehler | Illustrations by Iris Gottlieb  “Food trends start here,” a friend with a deep knowledge of San Francisco Bay Area food culture once said. But in a recent conversation, we came up with at least one trend that seems to have started on the East…

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Stuffed Calamari with Celery, Raisins, and Pine Nuts

From The Feast of Seven Fishes  This simple and satisfying calamari dish, courtesy of Rocky Maselli, executive chef at A16 Rockridge, works as an antipasto or as a main course.    Yields 6 servings 12 calamari, cleaned and tentacles cut away to use separately ½ cup plus 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil 2 cloves garlic,…

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Salt-Cured Ahi Tuna Tataki

From  The Feast of Seven Fishes  Recipe by Chef Rick Hackett of Bocanova Look for this appetizer on Bocanova’s Christmas Eve Feast of the Seven Fishes menu. Chef Hackett says to sear the tuna in a light flavorless oil such as grape seed oil, so as not to detract from the flavor of the salt-cure…

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Bucatini with Dungeness Crab

From The Feast of Seven Fishes  This amazingly rich and luxurious pasta dish comes from Rocky Maselli, executive chef at A16 Rockridge. It’s simple to prepare and offers a great way to showcase Dungeness crab. Chef Maselli says that if you take the time to buy whole crabs and clean them yourself, you can collect the…

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Pan-Fried Oysters

From Seven Stars of Winter by Jessica Prentice   Oysters are best freshly fried, so this easy-to-prepare recipe is perfect for an informal gathering where you can cook, serve, and eat all at once. While it’s often recommended to coat all the oysters in the batter before heating the fat and starting to fry, I…

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Seared Bonito with Ginger, Garlic, and Chives (Katsuo No Tataki)

From Japanese Farm Food Reprinted with permission from Japanese Farm Food by Nancy Singleton Hachisu, published in 2012 by Andrews McMeel Publishing. In Japan, bonito (skipjack tuna) season starts in spring with lean, clear-flavored flesh and ends in fall with fatty, darkly flavored (and colored) meat. I love both seasons, but I particularly like to…

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Ceviche with Avocado and Preserved Lemon

From the East Bay Avocado Back in 2013 when she gave us this inventive ceviche recipe, Caterina Rindi was busy turning excess backyard lemons from neighbors’ yards into preserved items, which she traded and sold at popup markets. Caterina is one of the founders of Shareable.net, an online magazine that covers the people and projects bringing…

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Branzino Sotto Sale

  Whole Salt-Baked Sea Bass with Herb Lemon Sauce Recipe from My Calabria by Rosetta Costantino (W.W. Norton & Company, © 2010) reprinted with permission Roasting a whole fish buried in salt is a cooking method common all over Southern Italy. Surprisingly, the cooked fish isn’t excessively salty, but it is exceptionally moist, much more so than…

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Gulf Shrimp Sauté

  From the story Scott Miller’s Market Hall Courtesy of Scott Miller, executive chef of The Pasta Shop and Market Hall Foods After the Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster, wild Gulf shrimp is still being harvested, and every purchase of Gulf shrimp helps the livelihood of people who are sustained by this industry. 1 pound…

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Local Halibut in Albariño Crazy Water

  From Gather Restaurant in Berkeley Serves 4 1 pound local halibut, cut into 1-inch cubes 12 fresh mussels ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil 3 whole shallots, thinly sliced ½ bulb fennel, thinly sliced 2 Calabrian chiles (or other hot Italian chile), thinly sliced 2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced 3 tablespoons high quality tomato…

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Salad of Tuna and Shellfish with Bottarga

  From a 2006 story on Monterey Fish Company     This recipe comes courtesy of Jon Smulewitz, chef/owner of Dopo in Oakland, California, who says to adjust quantities of seafood, lemon, and salt according to personal preference. Serves 6 1 pound fingerling potatoes 3 medium-size fennel bulbs, julienned Salt 2 pounds PEI mussels 3 pounds…

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