The environmental impact of eating fish concerns me, and I have been contemplating how to present a discussion here on such a complex topic. I have researched fish farming and tried to understand which species I might eat with a clear conscience. I have not come up with clear answers, so it is difficult to advise others what to do. I have added a “links” section on this blog, where I will add links to websites that I think offer us helpful guidance about sustainable eating practices. Today I added a link to the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch program. It lists which seafoods to avoid, and which ones are best to eat with a green conscience. The site also provides an app you can add to your mobile device so that you can access it easily while you shop. According to Seafood Watch, Pacific Flounder and Sole are o.k. to eat, but we should avoid the Atlantic species, except Summer Flounder. If we all have discussions with the owners and managers of the seafood shops we support about the sustainability of the fish they carry, they will remember our concerns when they decide what to purchase from their suppliers, so we are doing a little bit to help our planet. Today I am posting a recipe for a simple but delicious fish dish. I developed this recipe in an attempt to recreate a most delicious culinary experience I had at a restaurant in Costa Rica where the fish was very fresh and delicious, but simply prepared. You could substitute any white fish in this recipe, but you need to cook thicker fish for a longer period of time than flounder and sole. The rule of thumb in cooking fish is 10 minutes per inch of thickness. By the way, it is important that you cook the freshest fish you can buy. It makes a huge difference in how tasty the end result is! I generally cook fish the same day I purchase it for that reason.
2 lbs. flounder, sole or other white fish
2 cloves garlic, crushed
extra-virgin olive oil
1 tsp. Herbs de Provence
1/4 cup chopped parsley
juice of one lemon
sea salt and pepper to taste
Preheat oven to 475 degrees. For easy clean-up, cover cookie sheet or jelly roll pan with 2 layers of aluminum foil. Spray olive oil on pan. Rinse and pat dry fish, then lay in single layer in pan. Sprinkle sea salt and pepper over all, then crushed garlic. Drizzle olive oil over the fish and rub evenly over all, spreading the crushed garlic as evenly over all as possible. Sprinkle Herbs de Provence over fish. Bake for 10 minutes (longer if fish is thicker than sole: approximately 10 minutes per inch of thickness). Before serving, sprinkle chopped parsley over fish and squeeze the juice of a lemon over all.