Mediterranean Swordfish with Frilly Herb Salad – French Fridays with Dorie
This week’s French Friday’s with Dorie recipe choice, a delicious Mediterranean Swordfish with Frilly Herb Salad, instantly brought to mind our family’s supper table chatter when I was a kid. Throughout these impressionable years, my parents would unwittingly and not-so-unwittingly toss out those nuggets of advice, wisdom and “I think’s”, that helped shape the adult I became. But that was then, the Midwest in the Fifties and the Sixties. This is now. To lighten my load (those nuggets get heavy), it’s time to recycle and reboot. For now, just 3. Number 1 and 2, I’m on my own. The last, it’s Dorie to the rescue.
First, my father always told me to never, never buy a new car. “You lose too much value just driving it off the Lot,” he’d often remind me. “Always buy a good used car.”
Whether that’s still true or not, I wouldn’t know. My friends, colleagues and even my son-in-law, buy those sexy, sparkly new vehicles always advertised on Superbowl Sunday. I’m almost sure if I purchased a new car, paid cash, (always), and drove it off the Lot, the heavens would open up and rock and roll in despair. (2008, Lexus RX350, 79,351 miles, Used).
The flavorful, South-of-France-spiced marinade which lets Mr. Swordfish know that Life is Good.
Two: always soar with the eagles. Again, my father. Translated, that means get up early: 5 A.M. Since I hailed from a rural Iowa farming community where many of the area’s residents soared, it seemed the norm. To this day, if it’s 5 A.M., my inner clock still insists the day must begin……or guilt rares its ugly head. That eagle-thing has plagued me my entire life. I’m currently working on a new inner-clock of my own. Haven’t I’ve earned the right (I ask myself)? Six A.M. is a win. Six-thirty A.M. is hedonistic. Sorry, Dad.
Third, my mom gets the credit here. If you look out your window and don’t see water, don’t buy, order or eat fish. No ifs, ands, fins or buts. Growing up in Iowa, we ate well but never anything that swam. Those were different times, before fish was shipped properly, safely and maintained its taste. You could, of course, buy frozen fish fillets-in-a-box. As I said, we never ate fish. My husband, Michael, was a midwestern boy and obviously his mother had served him fillets-in-a-box. The result? As an adult, if it was spelled f-i-s-h, he flat-out refused to eat it.
Swordfish Steaks
I like fish but am a newbie at cooking it. Although I look out my window here, see only mountains, no water, there is fresh fish to be caught. Since moving back to Aspen, my good friend, Judy Boyd, a talented caterer, has introduced me to her favorite purveyors and helped me source food products. That’s how I met Jose, the fishmonger at our local market two blocks away. He supplies me with sweet-smellin’ fish. This week’s swordfish was no exception.
For this recipe and because we’re going to cook it in a skillet, Dorie suggests 1/2 to 3/4-inch thick steaks, about 5 ounces each. (Jose was doubtful about this. A grimace. A frown.) The marinade, a combo of rosemary, lemons, capers, chiles and olive oil, provides it with the fragrance and flavor of the Côte d’Azur.
“It does double duty,” Dorie explains. “It moistens and boldly flavors the swordfish, then it turns it into a sauce, so that every last drop of goodness is captured.”
To marinate the swordfish steaks, use a plastic bag, combine all the ingredients and refrigerate for an hour (or, four).
After marinating it for an hour (I did four), remove from the marinade to cook it in a skillet warmed with olive oil. You want it to be opaque in the middle – not rare – so cook at least three minutes on each side.To serve, heat the marinade and pour it carefully over the four servings of fish. Top each piece of fish with herb salad tossed in lemon juice and olive oil. Any veggie will work but green beans are my choice. This is a fabulous entrée to serve to your family or guests. So simple. So elegant. So you see, I am learning from the best. Dorie “does” fish very well.
I’m driving to California this week-end to help my granddaughter, Emma, celebrate her twelfth birthday. And, yes, I just checked, wearing clean underwear! (Thanks, Mom.)
To see how my colleagues swam this week, go here. To make this wonderful swordfish entrée, here’s the recipe.
Mmmmm I’m loving the way this sounds….this is a must try…have a great weekend with the girls. xoxo
I love your parents’ words of wisdom. I still get nervous about ordering fish in Indy unless it’s a high end restaurant…and I think my Iowa seafood experience was limited to fish sticks for the first 10 years of my life. Glad you enjoyed this one…safe travels!
Sounds like your folks did a pretty good job with your life lessons but I agree its time to stop soaring with the eagles:) I like to get up early but by early I mean 6ish! We’ve all learned so many new things with Dorie, haven’t we? Take care and I hope your weekend is enjoyable!
I see mountains too — so glad we can get great fish nowdays! 🙂
Those life lessons sound really familiar 🙂 My dad is well into his 80’s now and still gets up every morning ~5:00 and goes for a walk.
Enjoy your time with that beautiful grand-daughter of yours.
P.S. Those fish steaks look mighty good.
Skipped this one, but yours turned out great!
You must be the best dinner host. I love the topics you come up with. Parent’s words of advice. Well, my father was a bit of a dandy and drove a powdered pink cadillac in the 50’s always new. Last year was the first time in my life I bought a new car (I guess CT and it’s WASP’s rubbed off on me), because I couldn’t find a used Suburu Outback for a good price (folks hold on to these cars.) Yes, I’ve heard the same thing about eating fish, but where is the lake fish in these places? I know there are lakes in the Midwest. I guess I will always have to live on the coast. It is so in my blood to eat seafood.
I’m very impressed with you cooking fish and even eating it with your background. My husband has family in Illinois, and the anti-fish thing can be really intense.
Simple and elegant – perfect description of this week’s dish!
Mary, what a lovely post, studded with parental words of wisdom and your swordfish with that delightful salad looks wonderful and amazingly delicious! Love that very pretty dinner plate as well! I decided to skip this Friday since it was the last day of school yesterday (it was a very long school year this year – the start of the summer holidays always varies each year) and we wanted to take the kids on a lovely afternoon trip to amazing Cologne and I just felt like blogging about that instead…
Have a wonderful weekend visiting your granddaughet and celebrating her 12th birthday! Happy Birthday to Emma and safe travels to you!
Great post! Growing up in Seattle I had access to plenty of fresh fish and my Mom was not afraid to cook it. Since moving to Reno I have purchased fish less often, but I keep my eye out for fresh, wild fish and take advantage when it is available. Yours looks delicious!
Wow, Mary, that fish looks great! It’s interesting how food sourcing has changed.
Have a fabulous time with your granddaughter! xoxo
Do you suppose we are related? My father said the same things! My dad was also away from home a lot so maybe you came from his ‘second family’? lol. You have me thinking about eating fresh caught stream fish! Haven’t done that in a long, LONG time.
So funny about growing up in the Midwest and not having a clue about cooking fish – same here, it still scares me a bit but I’m learning and this sounds so good!
Fish was on our menu weekly, while I was growing up! I don’t know if it was because we lived close to the coast or because we were Catholic, and never ate meat on fridays. My grandfather and dad would go out on deep sea fishing trips every so often, and always brought back plenty.
This one was a hit in our house…glad you enjoyed it! Yours looks perfect!
Have a wonderful visit with your family! Happy Birthday to Emma! Safe travels!
What a sweet post. I also got nugget #1 from my father and am very happy with my 10 year old Saab, bought when it was only 5 years old. But my mother was a fish-loving, non-morning person, and I seem to have caught both of those traits. The only reason I would ever be out of bed at 5 would be if I had a flight to catch.