Menemsha Blues

On the western end of Martha’s Vineyard, in the village of Menemsha, you’ll find Larsen’s, a fish market started in 1969 by an offshore fisherman. It’s the kind of place where you can get freshly shucked clams and oysters, and smoked bluefish when the blues are running.

If you visit, you may want to stay until sunset — watching the sun set is a Vineyard tradition; some people bring chairs and wine (Menemsha is dry). You can eat on the beach or on the jetty, the kids catching crabs and fishing while you applaud the view, what with bluebloods by land and bluefish by sea.

Smoked Whitefish Pâté with Fresh Figs, Gorgonzola Dolce, and Local Honey

Makes 20 hors d’oeuvres

Although I don’t think of the highly perishable fig as New England grown, there is a fresh fig cult in Connecticut, where people grow them in their yards, sometimes taking them into the garage for the coldest part of winter. If you can’t find them at farmers’ markets, they’re usually available in grocery stores during the late summer and early fall.

Ingredients

Instructions

  1. 1. To make the pâté, combine the cream cheese, lemon juice, chives, shallots, and salt and pepper to taste in a bowl and beat until smooth. Add the fish, and stir to combine. Covered and refrigerated, the pâté will last 4 to 5 days. Bring it to room temperature before serving.
  2. 2. To assemble the appetizers, place the fig halves skin-side down on a platter. Top each with a tablespoon of pâté, then a teaspoon of Gorgonzola, and a drizzle of honey on top.

“When your draft exceeds the water’s depth you are most assuredly aground.”

—Lindsay’s Maritime Law

Panko-Crusted Skillet-Cooked Haddock with Red Beans and Rice

Serves 4

A member of the cod family, haddock is open for fishing year-round, though it is typically caught from May to November in Massachusetts, just like its pollock and cod cousins.

Red Beans

Haddock

Instructions

  1. 1. To make the beans: Heat the olive oil over medium-low heat in a large skillet. Add the garlic and sauté until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the onion and sauté over medium heat until soft, about 10 minutes. Add the beans, wine, tomato paste, and oregano, stirring to combine. Lower the heat and simmer for 20 to 30 minutes while you start the fish.
  2. 2. To prepare the fish: Preheat the oven to 425°F (220°C). In a dry cast-iron skillet, spread the breadcrumbs in a single layer and bake until golden brown, about 5 minutes, stirring once or twice. Place the crumbs in a wide, shallow bowl and toss with the parsley, oil, butter, salt, paprika, and pepper. Brush the skillet with oil. Press both sides of each fillet into the crumbs, and then lay the fish flat in the skillet. Press any remaining crumbs on top of the haddock. Bake 10 to 12 minutes, or until the fish flakes when lifted with a fork. Serve on a plate with lemon wedges.’
  3. 3. Stir the beans one last time, season with salt and pepper to taste, and serve with rice and the fish.

No-Flip Flounder with White Bean Ragout and Spinach Salad

Serves 4

Halibut is the largest of the “flat fish,” or flounder, family, reaching upward of 400 pounds. Everyone’s probably had the experience of flipping fillets that broke apart into a mess. If you don’t want to flip out, pan-fry on one side to crisp the skin and then finish the cooking in the oven. Fillets under an inch thick get the best results, but this technique also works with thicker cuts of halibut or cod. The ragout and salad fill out an otherwise singular presentation.

Bean Ragout

Spinach Salad

Fish

Instructions

  1. 1. Rinse the beans in a colander and place in a large bowl. Cover with 2 inches of cold water and soak 12 hours or overnight in the refrigerator. Drain and rinse well.
  2. 2. To prepare the bean ragout: Place the soaked beans in a large pot, cover with 2 quarts cold water, and add the bay leaf, thyme, and garlic. Bring to a slow boil over medium heat; boil for 5 minutes, and then reduce the heat to low and simmer until the beans are tender, usually 1 to 11⁄2 hours.
  3. 3. Transfer half of the beans and the remaining cooking liquid to a blender. Remove the stopper from the lid to let steam escape, and place a dishtowel over the top to prevent a hot mess. Return the purée to the pot and mix with the whole beans. Season with salt and pepper to taste and keep warm.
  4. 4. To prepare the spinach salad: Toast the pine nuts in a small, dry skillet over medium heat until golden, about 2 minutes. Remove from the pan and set aside. In the same skillet, cook the bacon in olive oil over medium heat until thoroughly cooked, about 4 minutes. Add the shallots and sauté until crisp, about 1 minute. Watch carefully, and do not allow the shallots to brown. Remove the bacon and shallots with a slotted spoon and reserve separately from the pine nuts. When the oil has cooled for 2 minutes, whisk in the vinegar. Season with salt and pepper to taste and keep warm. Wash and dry the spinach, and set aside to keep cool.
  5. 5. Preheat the oven to 425°F (220°C).
  6. 6. Remove any small bones from the halibut fillets and pat the fish dry. Season with salt and pepper on both sides. In a large, oven-safe skillet, heat the oil over medium-high heat until hot and almost smoking. Place the fish, skin-side down, in the pan. Direct the fish away from you in the oil to prevent oil splashes. Do not let the fillets touch or overcrowd the pan. Sear for 3 minutes without disturbing.
  7. 7. Place the skillet in the oven on the top rack for about 7 minutes to finish cooking. If your fillets are thick, they might need an extra minute in the oven. Remove the skillet from the oven and allow it to sit for a few minutes. The fish will continue to gently cook. It is done when it is opaque and has an internal temperature of 145°F (63°C).
  8. 8. Toss the spinach in a bowl with the pine nuts and 2 to 3 tablespoons of the dressing. Spoon the beans onto the middle of each plate and, using a thin fish spatula, gently place the halibut, skin-side down, on the plated beans. Top each serving with spinach and drizzle more warm dressing over all. Garnish with the reserved shallot rings and bacon pieces. Finish with a light sprinkling of sea salt.

Baked Haddock Fillets with Horseradish-Chive Potato Mash

Serves 4

This is a simple preparation, good year-round, but especially in deep winter when it’s too cold to go out on the deck and fire up the grill. You could substitute any firm white fish such as cod, halibut, sole, or grouper.

Ingredients

Horseradish-Chive Potato Mash

Instructions

  1. 1. Preheat the oven to 425°F (220°C).
  2. 2. Place the fish fillets flat in a buttered baking dish. Whisk the lime juice, mayonnaise, garlic, salt, and pepper in a small bowl and brush the mixture over the fish. Sprinkle with breadcrumbs, then drizzle with butter. Bake until the fish flakes when tested with a fork, about 20 minutes.
  3. 3. To make the potatoes: Put the potatoes in a large pot of salted water and bring to a boil. Simmer until tender, about 20 minutes. Drain, return to the pot, and add the oil, sour cream, horseradish, chives, and salt. Mash until smooth.

“I had awakened at five and decided to fish for a few hours. I rowed the dinghy out to the boat on that lovely foggy morning and then headed around my side of Martha’s Vineyard into the heavy waters of West Chop. Up towards Lake Tashmoo I found the quiet rip where the flounders had been running, put out two lines, and made myself some coffee. I am always child-happy when I am alone in a boat.”

— Lillian Hellman

Flounder Fillets

Serves 4

This is a good winter dish to bake in the oven — it cooks quickly, doesn’t leave a smelly residue, and is easy enough to prepare for company. Pop it into the oven during cocktails. Any white fish will do. In terms of vegetables, use what’s in the refrigerator: mushrooms, yellow peppers, etc. It’s a flexible, healthy, tasty dish.

Ingredients

Instructions

  1. 1. Preheat the oven to 500°F (250°C).
  2. 2. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onion, bell pepper, celery, and garlic, and sauté until soft. Add the thyme and salt and pepper to taste. Add the tomatoes and cook, stirring, for 5 to 10 minutes, or until the juices evaporate a little. You don’t want the mixture to be runny.
  3. 3. Spread four sheets of foil, each roughly 12 by 12 inches, on the counter and spray lightly with cooking spray. Lay each fillet flat on a foil sheet, placing it halfway down the sheet. Top each fillet with the onion mixture and fold the other half of the foil over the fish. Crimp all three sides, taking care to get the air out of the pouch.
  4. 4. Lay the foil packets flat on a baking sheet and bake for 12 to 14 minutes, depending on the thickness of the fillet. Put a packet on each plate and let diners open the foil at the table.

Chipotle Fish Tacos with Cilantro

Serves 2

Setting sail as the wind breezed up after lunch, we’d head to the Vineyard, Naushon, Cuttyhunk, or one of the other Elizabeth Islands. After a day of brisk sailing, we’d toss anchor in a protected harbor. Someone would drop a fishing line off the stern of the boat and, if lucky, catch a fish. Hauling up a flounder, Dad would say “Dinner!” He’d cook the fish simply: dredged in flour and sautéed in butter, with garlic if we had any, and lemon. One small flounder will serve two prepared as tacos.

Ingredients

Instructions

  1. 1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C).
  2. 2. Wrap the tortillas in aluminum foil and warm in the hot oven for 8 minutes.
  3. 3. In a medium bowl, whisk together the mayonnaise, chipotle sauce, lemon juice, and cilantro. Add the cabbage and jalapeño, and stir to blend.
  4. 4. Combine the breadcrumbs, salt, and pepper on a plate. Pat the flounder dry with paper towels and dredge through the crumbs, pushing them into the fish. Heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add the fish and fry over medium heat, flipping once, until golden brown and crunchy on both sides. Set aside on paper towels.
  5. 5. Working quickly, put a portion of the fish, along with the cabbage mixture, in a warm ­tortilla and top with chopped tomato. Garnish with a squeeze of lime, sour cream, and salsa, if desired.

Fish Food

Fish is brain food. It’s easy to digest, and it’s a low-fat source of high-­quality protein. Most seafood contains omega-3 fatty acids (obtained from algae and phytoplankton), which fight chronic disease and are important to a healthy diet. The American Heart Association recommends that adults eat at least two 3- to 6-ounce servings of seafood per week, which not only helps your heart, but your brain, circulation, teeth, skin, eyes, and immune system. The fish in our cold waters — salmon, tuna, halibut — are particularly good. Be smart, eat more fish!

Gefilte Fish

Serves 8 as an appetizer

Sometimes called a pescatarian meatloaf, gefilte fish is an Ashkenazi Jewish appetizer made from a mixture of ground, boned fish such as whitefish, pike, or carp. This popular culinary staple became a punchline for Catskills comedians: (“What kind of cigarettes do Jewish mothers smoke?” “Gefiltered.”) My cousin Donna’s grandmother remembers fish swimming in her bathtub before the holidays at her apartment in the Bronx. To prepare the holiday meal, her mother would grind the flesh of a freshwater fish with other ingredients to form the patties.

Ingredients

Instructions

  1. 1. Place the quartered onions, quartered carrots, celery, tuna, and whitefish in a food processor and pulse a few times until you have a uniform mixture with visible bits of each item. Do not overprocess. Add the eggs and pulse again. If you prefer it sweet, as in southern Poland, add the sugar. Add salt and pepper and enough matzo meal to make a somewhat stiff consistency. It will be sticky but hold its shape. Refrigerate for 1 hour.
  2. 2. Fill a large pot with a tight-fitting lid with water and bring to a boil. Add 2 teaspoons of salt, the onion slices, and the sliced carrots, bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and leave the carrots and onions to simmer. You will use the ­carrot slices as a garnish later.
  3. 3. Remove the fish mixture from the refrigerator and make a mini test patty. Put the patty in the simmering water; if it holds its shape, then the mixture is the right consistency. If it breaks apart, add more matzo meal to stiffen the fish mixture.
  4. 4. When ready to cook, form the patties into oval shapes, about 3 inches long. Gently place them in the simmering water, touching but not on top of one another. Be sure that all the patties are submerged in the water; add liquid if necessary to just cover. Simmer, covered, for 45 minutes. A rolling boil may agitate the patties, causing them to break apart. Gently shake the pot occasionally to prevent sticking.
  5. 5. Remove the pot from the heat and let the fish patties rest in the water for 15 minutes. Use a slotted spoon to carefully remove the patties and drain.
  6. 6. Arrange the fish patties on a platter and adorn each with a sliced carrot for decoration and tradition.
  7. 7. Refrigerate until cooled. The patties can be held in the refrigerator for a few days. Serve with prepared horseradish.

“My grandfather once told her if you couldn’t read with cold feet, there wouldn’t be a literate soul in the state of Maine.”

— Marilynne Robinson

Salmon, “King of Fish”

Atlantic salmon are intrepid voyagers, making an epic journey to migrate from fresh­water streams and rivers out to the North Atlantic to feed and back up New England rivers in the spring to spawn where they were hatched. An Atlantic salmon might be born in a Maine river in May and found off Newfoundland by late July.

Easy to catch and delicious to eat, they were caught by Native Americans and Europeans, but continued to flourish through the 1700s. In colonial times, Atlantic salmon swam in every river north of the Hudson, and the “king of fish” became a symbol of abundant wilderness, swimming in clear streams. As early as the 1800s, however, they became extinct in several big rivers (the Connecticut and the Merrimack, among others) due to pollution from textile mills, overfishing, timber cutting, and weirs and dams that blocked their natural pathways.

Today, although the industry is improving, environmental impacts are still a problem for this popular fish. Overfishing, acid rain, environmental changes, dams, warming sea-surface temperatures in the Gulf of Maine, and other disturbances have reduced wild salmon stock to dangerously low levels. They remain extinct in 84 percent of New England rivers, and commercial fishing for the species is prohibited, although effort is being made to restore them to their natural habitat.

High in heart-loving omega-3 fatty acids, Atlantic salmon have been raised in hatcheries since 1864, but have returned to Maine more recently through aquaculture, where they are spawned in freshwater hatcheries and grown out in floating net pens alongshore. Wild salmon is another choice — richer and more deeply flavored than farmed. In the absence of wild Atlantic salmon, choose wild Alaskan salmon in season (May through September, when they spawn), which are fit, fat, and flavorful before charging upstream to reproduce. Out of season, the best choice is frozen wild salmon.

Grilled Salmon with Tomato-Basil Relish

Serves 4

Salmon is a full-flavored oily fish loaded with protein and omega-3 fatty acids. You could substitute mackerel, bluefish, herring, or striped bass in this recipe. Or choose wild Alaskan salmon.

Salmon

Relish

Instructions

  1. 1. Prepare a medium-high fire in a gas or charcoal grill. Brush both sides of the fish with the sesame oil, and then sprinkle the flesh side with the rosemary, and salt and pepper to taste. Squeeze the lemon over the fish and grill until it flakes with a fork, 4 to 6 minutes per side.
  2. 2. While the fish is cooking, assemble the relish: Combine the tomatoes, olive oil, vinegar, basil, garlic, and cumin in a small bowl. Stir and season with salt and pepper to taste.
  3. 3. Serve the fish hot off the grill with the tomato relish on the side.

Salmon Tacos

Serves 4

My friend Monica Helm has a terrific palate. Combine that with a zest and critical inquiry that she applies to most subjects that cross her path, and you’ve got a terrific recipe developer. We were shooting the breeze one day over lunch, and she told me about this awesome taco recipe, which she perfected with her brother.

Ingredients

Instructions

  1. 1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C).
  2. 2. Toss the cabbage with the mirin in a small bowl.
  3. 3. Whisk together the mayonnaise, Tom Yum paste, and lemon juice in another bowl.
  4. 4. Wrap the tortillas in aluminum foil and warm in the oven for 10 minutes.
  5. 5. Dip the salmon in coconut milk, then roll in the breadcrumbs. Put the oil in a skillet and heat over medium heat, until rippling, then sear the salmon on each side until golden brown and crisp, 2 to 3 minutes per side. Transfer to paper towels.
  6. 6. To assemble each taco: Lay the tortilla flat and spoon a thin layer of the spicy mayonnaise on one side. Add a portion of cabbage, salmon, and 3 thin slices of avocado. Squirt with lemon, sprinkle with salt, then roll up and eat.

Big Fish

You’ve caught a fish and boned it, and now you have an enormous fillet. (Ok, maybe you’ve gotten a nice big one at the market.) No matter — grilling a big 31⁄2-pound fillet is ridiculously easy. I did it in the mountains on New Year’s Eve, and my friends looked aghast, coming at me with a cutting board and knife to chop it into neat fillets before I headed to the grill on the porch. Don’t bother (and don’t remove the skin either). Whether it’s halibut, salmon, or steelhead trout, simply brush both sides of the fish lightly with olive oil (or grapeseed oil, or whatever is handy), spray your grill grate with a nonstick oil, prepare the grill, and cook the fish 5 minutes per side, grill cover down, or until the fish is opaque and flakes easily. It’s that easy.

Atlantic Salmon with Grilled Corn and Upland Cress Salad

Serves 4

Let’s face it, fish can be intimidating. Some of it looks darn weird. We worry about mislabeling. It’s easy to overcook. It’s as bad as company after three days. Fear not with salmon — it’s the poster child of the sea. Salmon has oily flesh that stays moist when cooked. Thick and suitable for filleting, it converts even the most suspicious meat eaters. It’s a pretty pink color. It’s incredibly good for you. And the skin is edible — crispy salmon skin is like a potato chip from the sea. Just remember to scale it.

Ingredients

Instructions

  1. 1. Prepare a medium-hot fire in a gas or charcoal grill. Roast the corn until charred, turning frequently, 7 to 8 minutes. Let cool and then, using a serrated knife, cut the kernels off the cobs.
  2. 2. Toss the corn in a bowl with the basil, onion, salt, vinegar, olive oil, sesame oil, and the pickled ginger. Add the cress and toss gently to coat.
  3. 3. Reheat the grill. Brush the salmon with grapeseed oil, season with salt and pepper, and grill over medium-high heat, covered, for 5 to 7 minutes per side. Divide the salad among four plates and top with the salmon.

Cedar-Planked Salmon

Serves 4

A plank of salmon makes a beautiful statement and is easy to cook. The soaked plank releases moisture, causing the fish to steam gently. Moreover, the fragrant cedar smoke helps cure the outside (further locking in the moisture) and the salmon will pick up the woodsy flavors from the cedar. As a further enhancement, try soaking the plank in wine or cider instead of water. Be sure to use an untreated cedar plank, available at many hardware stores. Planked salmon is tasty served with Old-Fashioned Cucumber Salad.

Ingredients

Instructions

  1. 1. Soak the cedar planks in water for 2 hours. Remove and wipe down.
  2. 2. Prepare a medium-hot fire in a gas or charcoal grill. Brush one side of each plank with olive oil. Place a few dill sprigs in the center of each plank (on the side with the olive oil), then 3 slices of lemon, then the salmon. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Place 2 more sprigs of dill on top, and then a few more slices of lemon.
  3. 3. Lay the planks on the rack of the grill, turn the grill down to medium-low, and cook for 20 minutes, covered. While cooking, check the cedar periodically; it will burn around the perimeter, but should not burn where the fish is. (It’s good to keep a squirt gun handy in case the salmon catches fire — or your cat gets ambitious.)
  4. 4. For a dramatic presentation, bring the salmon on the planks to the table. Serve with a bowl of cucumber salad.

Cedar- planked salmon and spicy cucumber salad

Crispy Roasted Fish with Gingered Fig Chutney

Serves 4

You’ve reeled in a good-looking snapper, flounder, or striped bass. Now what do you do with it? Roasting it whole, with the bones in, will make the meat even more succulent and infuse the fish with flavor. (Think of the difference between grilling boneless chicken breasts and those with the bone intact.) Serve with Gingered Fig Chutney (recipe on facing page).

Ingredients

Instructions

  1. 1. Preheat the oven to 425°F (220°C). Cut three crosswise slits (1⁄2 inch deep) through the skin on one side of each of the fish. Pat the fish dry. Using aluminum foil, line a shallow baking pan large enough to hold the fish, and arrange the fish next to each other in it.
  2. 2. Combine the olive oil and garlic and brush on the fish, inside and out. Season inside and out with salt and pepper. Place the tomatoes, half of the lemon slices, most of the fresh herbs, and a bay leaf in each of the fish cavities. Place the remaining lemon slices and herbs on top of the fish, and roast, uncovered, until the skin is crisp and the fish flakes easily with a fork, about 30 minutes.

Gingered Fig Chutney

Makes 1 cup

I know a woman who grows subtropical fig trees in Connecticut and enjoys their sweet fruit each fall. She doesn’t even bring the plants indoors in the winter — she just bundles them up in a winter wrap. This chutney is a good accompaniment to roasted fish (and pork or lamb), it’s delicious spread on a turkey and cheese sandwich, and it’s so good that I’ve been known to stand in front of an open fridge and spoon a little right out of the jar.

Ingredients

Instructions

  1. 1. Combine the onion, ginger, and jalapeños in the bowl of a food processor and blend until the pieces in the mixture are the size of rice. Spoon the mixture into a skillet and add the lemon juice, lemon zest, raisins, apricots, vinegar, brown sugar, cardamom, salt, and cayenne, and cook over low heat for 1 to 2 minutes.
  2. 2. Add the figs, bring the mixture to a slow boil, and stir until the juices thicken. Remove from the heat and allow the chutney to cool completely. Refrigerate before serving.

Ode to Fish

Bake it

Braise it

Fry it

Broil It

Poach it

Marinate it

Steam it

Eat It Raw

Grilled Shark with Avocado–Sweet Corn Relish

Serves 4

Upon graduating from college, unlike most of my career-driven classmates, I moved to Mount Desert Island and waitressed for a few months. As the cold weather descended and the tourists departed, the boats started heading south for the winter. When asked if I’d like to crew on a boat delivery south, I didn’t hesitate. The second day out, the captain reeled in a Cape shark, which we grilled off the stern that night. The fish in English “fish and chips,” Cape sharks are delicious, with lean white meat, a firm texture, and a sweet mild flavor. Halibut is another good choice for this recipe, or you can substitute hake, flounder, salmon, swordfish, or pollock.

Relish

Instructions

  1. 1. To make the relish: Combine the avocado, corn, tomatoes, onion, jalapeño, salsa, cilantro, olive oil, lemon juice, salt, garlic, cumin, and pepper in a bowl.
  2. 2. Prepare a hot fire in a gas or charcoal grill and oil the grate. Rub the shark with grapeseed oil and season with salt and pepper on both sides. Cook 3 to 5 minutes per side, until the fish is opaque in the center. Place the grilled fillets on individual plates, and spoon relish on top of each fillet.

New Bedford

“Nowhere in all America,” wrote Herman Melville in Moby-Dick in 1851, “will you find more patrician-like houses, parks and gardens more opulent, than in New Bedford.” Today the former whaling capital of the world is a city with a past, a commercial waterfront tangle of ice houses, fish houses, docks, vacant mills, bars, and boat engine manufacturers, with the smell of brine in the air.

Old-timers remember Carmine “Fish” Romano, the mafia crime boss who ruled Fulton Fish Market in New York until he was convicted of racketeering in 1982. With a 12-year federal sentence, Romano was banned for life from working at Fulton, which had been run by mobsters since the 1920s. Romano had also run a bar off the South pier at Fulton, where he’d take care of the New Bedford guys who delivered fish; upstairs he rented space to Local 359 (United Seafood Commercial Workers Union). A member of the Genovese crime family (a codfather!), Romano got early parole and ­married a gal from New Bedford, moved up to Massachusetts, and resumed working in the fish business until his death in 2011.

For years the New Bedford docks flowed with “shack,” a waterfront tradition of cash paid for fish and scallops, its name derived from the wooden shacks that fish buyers set up on the docks decades ago. Shacks and nightriders — boats that came in at night and were met by a guy with a truck and cash — are a thing of the past, and the old time fish buyers with names like Breezy and Doggy are gone. Urban renewal hasn’t been kind to the city — a highway bisects the historic district from the waterfront, which pumps money into the local economy but is walled off from it.

Crystal Ice — an ice vending machine under the bridge — runs 24 hours a day to service the scalloping. The National Club, a seedy fisherman’s bar where I wrote my first newspaper story in 1978 (about a snake charmer named Tina who performed with a live boa on Friday nights), still exists, though you won’t find it on Facebook or even in the phone book.

Though the scallop industry is booming, those who work here are cautious — they remember when the commercial ­fishing industry collapsed in the ’80s. There’s much talk of the Magnuson-Stevens Act (originally the Fisheries Conservation and Management Act of 1976), which governs fisheries management in the United States, a direct response to overfishing and the desire to protect ecosystems.

Congress “needs to hit the reset button,” the mayor of New Bedford bellowed recently, attempting to rebuild a fishing industry that’s lost 50 shoreside businesses since 2004 and 300 jobs since 2010. It’s been more than 20 years since 200 Chinese laborers were smuggled into the Whaling City aboard Lady Diane and loaded into a U-Haul, but New Bedford remains a gritty place, challenged by drugs, poverty, and unemployment.

“The docks are insulated from landlubbers by a dark seam of willful sinning which runs through the place, by a lingua franca as salty as it is blue, by arcane rites and rituals no less impenetrable to outsiders than the Mafia’s code and by the watermen’s fidelity to the sea — its gods, traditions and myths — and to each other,” observed Rory Nugent, author of Down at the Docks. “Around the world, working waterfronts form a confederation of seafaring tribes connected by a common heritage and workplace . . . . Pecking orders and systems of justice vary from port to port, each derived from hundreds of years of precedent, with the mechanics known to battle-scarred veterans and few others.”

“The waterfront is a tangle of contradictions,” wrote the New Bedford Standard Times. “It has been maligned and celebrated, it has brought the city riches and addictions, huge triumphs and massive problems. It still offers out the great promise of fishing anyone brave enough and smart enough to go and catch fish can will himself to a brighter future. The rewards from life on the harbor can be great — and the risks enormous.”

The days are long gone when the safety equipment on a New Bedford trawler consisted of some life jackets, a few flares, and eight strings of rosary beads, but according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, commercial fishing remains the most dangerous occupation in the United States.

Sole en Papillote

Serves 4

My go-to meal in the winter when I’m in a hurry, this is a no-fuss way to cook fish. The sole can be prepared several hours ahead of time and kept in the refrigerator until ready to cook. You can substitute another white, lean, firm fish such as pollock, haddock, halibut, or flounder.

Ingredients

Instructions

  1. 1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
  2. 2. Cut four 12-inch square sheets of parchment paper and fold each one in half, then open it up and put a fillet on one side of each crease line. Salt and pepper each fillet, sprinkle with garlic and olive oil, and lay the basil, tomatoes, and scallions evenly across the top of each fillet. Close the parchment and crease the edges of the three sides together in a narrow fold to seal.
  3. 3. Lay the packets on a large baking sheet and bake 10 to 15 minutes, or until the packets are puffed and golden. To serve, place the packets on plates and slice open with a knife, taking care not to get burned by the steam.

Wasabi Grilled Tuna with Couscous and

Serves 4

The best way to prepare fresh tuna? The simplest way. Let it shine. If you can’t find a mango for the salsa, substitute papaya or a summer peach.

Ingredients

Wasabi Sauce

Couscous

Avocado-Mango Salsa

Instructions

  1. 1. Prepare a hot fire in a gas or charcoal grill.
  2. 2. Lightly rub the tuna steaks on both sides with oil and season with salt and pepper. Grill the tuna 1 to 11⁄2 minutes per side, depending on preference; the center should be red or pink.
  3. 3. To prepare the sauce: Whisk the soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, honey, sesame oil, and wasabi powder in a small bowl. Taste, and add more wasabi if desired.
  4. 4. To prepare the salsa: Put the avocado, mango, onion, cilantro, chile, lime juice, olive oil, and salt in a bowl and toss gently to combine. Allow flavors to blend for half an hour.
  5. 5. To prepare the couscous: Toast half the couscous in a dry skillet over medium heat. Bring the stock to a boil in a medium pot, stir in all the couscous, cover, and simmer over low heat until the stock is absorbed and the couscous is tender, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat, fluff with a fork, and set aside.
  6. 6. Put the tomatoes, scallion, capers, and basil in a serving bowl. Stir in the couscous. Whisk the garlic, olive oil, lemon juice, and salt and pepper to taste in a small bowl and pour over the warm couscous, tossing to combine. Serve warm or cool, with a dollop of salsa on the side and small bowls for the dipping sauce.

Hemingway’s Nantucket

Although the mention of Hemingway conjures up deep-sea fishing off the Florida Keys, his first saltwater fishing experience was on Nantucket Sound. Growing up in a Chicago suburb, his mother (the granddaughter of a sea captain) had summered on Nantucket and wanted her children to experience the same pleasures and know their nautical heritage. It sounds like she also wanted a break, because she came up with an idea: each summer she’d leave her physician husband and five of her six kids, and head to Nantucket for a month. The year that each child turned 11, he or she would accompany her to Nantucket. Ernest’s turn came in 1910; it was the first time he sailed on salt water or marine-fished (he caught a bass and mackerel). He also met an old fisherman who told him a yarn about struggling to catch a swordfish.

Seared Gloucester Bluefin Tuna with Wasabi Dipping Sauce

Serves 4

Fishing charters are an emerging business that’s booming. Guys with a boat will take you out for a day of deep-sea fishing. Gloucester is one such place, ideal for bluefin tuna fishing expeditions due to its close proximity to fishing grounds to the north, east, and south, including Jeffries Ledge, Tillies Bank, Stellwagen Bank, and Cape Cod Bay. As one charter guy told me, “A successful day is a nice 200-pounder in the boat.”

Ingredients

Instructions

  1. 1. Mix the soy sauce, vinegar, ginger, wasabi powder, and scallion in a small bowl.
  2. 2. Lay out the tuna steaks, brush both sides with sesame oil, and then coat both sides with the sesame seeds.
  3. 3. Heat a cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat until it is screaming hot. Sear each tuna steak for 2 minutes per side. Set on a cutting board for 5 minutes, then slice and serve with the dipping sauce.

“I have made up my mind now to be a sailor’s wife, To have a purse full of money and a very easy life,

For a clever sailor husband is so seldom at his home, That his wife can spend the dollars with a will that’s all her own,

Then I’ll haste to wed a sailor, and send him off to sea,For a life of independence is the pleasant life for me. . . .”

— “The Nantucket Girl’s Song,” c. 1855

Oh, Buoy!

When Whole Foods removed bluefin tuna from its sustainable list, the guys with a rod, reel, and boat in Gloucester weren’t happy. People have been deep-sea fishing off Cape Ann since 1626. Is tuna overfished? It’s complicated.

Sleek and muscular, bluefin tuna are the fastest swimmers in the ocean. They’re a thrill to catch, prized by sport fishermen. They’re also a thrill to watch — a school of them might have a spectacular feeding frenzy off the point at Provincetown, then flick their tails and reappear hundreds of feet away in seconds.

World travelers, they cross oceans chasing herring, mackerel, eels, squid, and other invertebrates, returning yearly to the Gulf of Mexico or the Mediterranean to spawn.

They are also delicious (especially from midsummer to October, when the fish have had a chance to feast on their favorite bait), which is part of the problem; though the Japanese have been enjoying sushi for over a hundred years, the market exploded when Americans caught the bug in the ’70s. It’s a lucrative catch.

Because tuna is an international traveler, it is managed (many say mismanaged) by the International Commission on Conservation of Atlantic Tunas, and since 2009 has been the poster child for extinction. When President Obama traveled to Japan in 2014 and (“how could he?”) ate raw tuna in sushi, it made world news.

However, back in New England, tuna caught in the cold waters off Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine actually gets decent marks for sustainability. Although large nets (called purse seines) are used to a limited extent in domestic bluefin fisheries, most tuna in New England are caught with rod and reel or harpoon. Purse seines aren’t necessarily bad — they were used by Stone Age societies to catch fish; what’s problematic is that these massive nets catch other species, along with juvenile tuna, which are then held in pens and removed from their ecosystem.

There is little chance that we’ll ever drive a species to extinction using fishing rods or harpoons. The best defense? Ask where your fish comes from, and insist on U.S.-caught fish. Otherwise, just say no.

Simplest Swordfish

Serves 2

Fresh swordfish is tender and meaty, more akin to scallops than to other fin fish. Whether you’ve reeled it in yourself, found a great fish market on Cuttyhunk, or been to the Mount Hope Farmers’ Market in Bristol, Rhode Island, swordfish is a late summer treat in New England. August (when the water’s warm) is the season for Atlantic harpoon swordfish — it’s when fishermen go out in small boats and harpoon the swordfish by hand. The catch is brought in daily and sold at local fish markets, delivering the fish from the sea to your plate in less than 24 hours. Low in fat and high in the omega-3 fatty acids that are good for your heart and eyes, swordfish grills up as easily as a steak.

Ingredients

Instructions

  1. 1. Prepare a medium-high fire in a gas or charcoal grill.
  2. 2. Coat the steaks with the oil and season with salt and pepper. Grill the steaks for 4 to 6 minutes per side (the time will depend on the thickness of the steaks), taking care not to overcook. Serve with lemon wedges.

Block Island Swordfish with Lemon-Fennel Butter

Serves 4

Around 25,000 years ago a huge sheet of ice a mile thick plunged down over New England, pushing a chunk of the mainland offshore, creating a string of islands that parallel the coast from New York to Massachusetts — Long Island, Fishers Island, Block Island, the Elizabeth Islands, Martha’s Vineyard, and Nantucket. Where Block Island sits, 13 miles offshore, was once frozen tundra, extending 70 miles farther out to sea. Indeed, fishermen using big nets to catch bottom fish off Block Island still occasionally pull up mammoth and mastodon molars. As the glacier retreated, all that melting ice created a great runoff of meltwater, forging deep rivulets that today are essentially underwater canyons off Block Island. Swordfishing is great in these deep waters.

Ingredients

Instructions

  1. 1. Heat the oil with 1 tablespoon of the butter in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add the swordfish and fry until just cooked through, about 6 minutes per side, depending on thickness.
  2. 2. While the fish is cooking, heat the remaining 4 tablespoons of butter in a small saucepan over medium heat with the fennel seeds and lemon zest. Cook 6 minutes, or just until the butter is on the verge of browning. Transfer the swordfish to plates, and spoon the sauce on top.

Cooking Fish

The general rule of thumb is to grill or broil fish 10 minutes per inch of thickness.

Harboring a Point of View

Cruising on a boat is a state of mind. When I was growing up, we went on overnight trips several times a summer, sailing to islands and harbors with great spots to fish, swim, explore, beachcomb, and gunkhole. Some were tony or honky-tonk summer resort towns, others were remote islands with an abandoned cottage or two. There are many beautiful harbors in New England — here are favorites from readers polled by Yachting magazine.

Boothbay Harbor, Maine The “boating center of New England,” with several marinas within walking distance of the village, and Monhegan Island a short sail away.

Edgartown, Massachusetts Elegant, patrician, with magnificent anchorages, sandy beaches, and picturesque whaling-captain’s homes.

Essex, Connecticut A charming spot with yacht clubs, gentrified marinas, and interesting cruising grounds at the mouth of the Connecticut River.

Mystic, Connecticut A stop for mariners, where you might just see the Charles W. Morgan (last surviving whaling ship) under sail. An old shipbuilding town that hasn’t lost its saltiness despite the crowds and busy interstate nearby.

Newport, Rhode Island A jaw-dropping harbor for boat watching, where you can sail a 12-Meter, learn about America’s Cup history, watch world-class regattas, and spiff up for the New York Yacht Club when it comes to town.

Portland, Maine A cool city by the sea and great boating location for boats of all sizes. Plus, there are more than 200 islands in Casco Bay.

It’s a great list, and I know I can only get into trouble by adding a few other favorites: the Thimble Islands, Galilee, Point Judith Pond, Dutch Harbor, Kickamuit River, Third Beach, Tarpaulin Cove, Marion, Onset, Cuttyhunk, Boston Harbor, Isles of Shoals, Matinicus Harbor, Brooklin, Castine, Stonington, Mackerel Cove, Frenchboro, Southwest Harbor . . . or as a friend from Maine wrote: “sticking with Penobscot Bay, which is the best of the coast of New England, for sure — North Haven and the Fox Island Thoroughfare, Stonington, Camden, Rockland, Belfast, and Dark Harbor. Venturing a little further downeast, Winter Harbor. To the south and west of the Maine coast, where I grew up, I’ll leave to someone else. Once you get to New Hampshire, it’s pretty much over.” Spoken like a true Downeaster.

Grilled Swordfish with Pasta and Summer Tomato Sauce

Serves 4

This no-cook tomato sauce is ideal on hot summer nights.

Sauce

Instructions

  1. 1. To prepare the sauce: Combine the tomatoes, basil, garlic, oil, vinegar, olives, capers, pepper flakes, and salt in a bowl, and set aside for at least 30 minutes to meld the flavors.
  2. 2. Prepare a medium-high fire in a gas or charcoal grill.
  3. 3. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and cook the pasta until al dente, 8 to 10 minutes.
  4. 4. Meanwhile, brush both sides of the swordfish steaks with oil and season with salt and pepper. Grill for 3 to 4 minutes per side, or until just done.
  5. 5. Drain the pasta and toss with the tomato sauce and the Parmesan. Serve with the swordfish steaks.

Deep Sea Fluke Crusted with Jonah Crab and Beurre Blanc Sauce

Serves 4

This comes from the chef of one of my favorite restaurants. I had it in March — it was one of the specials — and I knew the owner had gone down to the dock and picked the fish right off the boat. You could substitute another thin fish, such as sole.

Beurre Blanc

Instructions

  1. 1. To make the beurre blanc: Put the shallots, lemon juice, wine, vinegar, sugar, and salt in a small saucepan over medium heat and simmer until the liquid is reduced to 2 to 3 tablespoons, stirring constantly. Whisk in the heavy cream and continue to reduce the liquid, about another minute. Remove the saucepan from the heat and start whisking in the cold butter a few cubes at a time until all the butter is incorporated. You will have a light and creamy butter sauce with a hint of lemon. Season with white pepper and store in an insulated thermos until ready to serve.
  2. 2. Dredge the fillets in the seasoned cornstarch.
  3. 3. In a small bowl, combine the breadcrumbs, crabmeat, butter, and lemon juice.
  4. 4. Preheat the broiler. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat, and then sear the fillets for about 11⁄2 minutes per side. Turn the fluke into a small casserole dish or sheet pan and top with the crab mixture. Place under the broiler until the topping is browned, about 1 minute. (If your sauté pan is oven-safe, you can skip the casserole dish and broil directly in the pan.) Transfer fillets to individual plates, spoon the beurre blanc on top, and serve immediately.

“Two weeks in, the days have a comforting sameness to them: mornings at the Bluff, afternoons at the Big Cove, evenings on the piazza. We live in our bathing suits. Our feet, callused from going barefoot all day, no longer cringe on the rocky shore. Rubbed by sun, wind, and water, our city edges are wearing away. I feel as weathered as driftwood, as smoothed as sea glass. When I woke this morning I couldn’t remember what day it was.”

— George Howe Colt

Fluke with Chipotle-Lime Quinoa

Serves 4

With a sweet white meat, fluke (which resembles a flounder) is a great-eating fish. It’s a bottom-dwelling flatfish that’s also called a summer flounder (no, it’s not a fluke) because they winter off the continental shelf and come into the bays during the summer months.

Quinoa Salad

dressing

Instructions

  1. 1. To prepare the quinoa: Rinse the quinoa several times, then combine with the vegetable broth in a saucepan, cover partially, and cook over medium heat for 10 minutes. Lower the heat, cover completely, and cook an additional 10 minutes. Drain the quinoa, put in a bowl, and let cool slightly.
  2. 2. To make the dressing: Whisk together the lime juice, lime zest, oil, garlic, chipotle powder, salt, and pepper to taste. Toss with the quinoa, and then add the scallions, cilantro, and cherry tomatoes. Toss once more gently and season to taste. The quinoa is delicious at room temperature or cold.
  3. 3. Pat dry the fillets, and season with salt and pepper. Heat a heavy, flat skillet over medium-high heat. Add the oil and butter, and then place the fillets skin-side down in the skillet and cook for a few minutes, until golden, gently agitating the pan so the skin doesn’t burn as it crisps. Flip carefully, and finish cooking through, about 1 minute. To serve (immediately), plate the quinoa salad and lay a fillet skin-side up atop each salad. Garnish with the lemon wedges and serve on individual plates, with avocado slices fanned over the quinoa and lime wheels on the side.

Flying Fish

When I hopped aboard my first boat delivery to the Caribbean and sailed down the Atlantic seaboard before heading out to sea, it was a seminal experience. Days and nights governed by four-hour watches, on and off, just like the eight bells in the ship’s clock in my parents’ living room. Waking up after my watch to find we’d drifted into a shipping lane on a moonless night and were only yards from a huge ship. My cousin asleep on deck until a flying fish leaped from a wave and slapped him on the cheek. Catching a shark. Eating it for days. Peeling away the wool layers as we sailed from a crisp October in Maine to a hot island in the tropics. Seeing shorebirds and then spotting land for the first time in two weeks. Landing in Virgin Gorda and running for ice cream and hot showers. Getting back on the boats again, and again.

After logging 25,000 sea miles delivering sailboats, I realized that — other than a well-­developed sense of humor — the best attribute one can have at sea is the flexibility to respond to changing conditions. A good lesson.

Crispy Sea Bass with Saffron Fennel–Roasted Tomato Compote

Serves 4

If you know a few tricks, fish is easy to cook indoors. With this recipe, you can substitute any white fish (or salmon) with the skin on for the sea bass — you’ll love the crackly-crispy taste.

Compote

Instructions

  1. 1. To prepare the compote: Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium-low heat. Thinly slice the fennel bulb and chop 1 tablespoon of the fronds; add to the skillet along with the saffron, garlic, salt, and pepper to taste. Cook until the fennel softens, about 15 minutes. Add the tomatoes, olives, and capers, and simmer for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Set the compote aside, keeping it warm.
  2. 2. Pat dry the fish. Line a plate with a thin layer of kosher salt and press the skin side into the plate to draw out excess moisture. Leave for 15 minutes, seasoning the top lightly with salt and pepper. Use a knife to scrape the salt and any excess water from the fish skin. Pat dry again.
  3. 3. Spread the grapeseed oil to thinly coat the bottom of a cast-iron skillet. Get the skillet good and hot over medium-high heat; it should be beginning to smoke. Sauté the fillets skin-side down, spaced apart, weighing them down gently with a lid or spatula, to prevent edges from curling up, for 1 minute. Remove the lid but continue cooking (don’t mess with it) until the skin is golden brown (I know, you’re going to need to peek at some point), and only the top is uncooked. The fish is now 75 percent cooked; flip and cook another minute or two. Top each fillet with the compote and serve.

Herb-Roasted Whole Black Sea Bass with Sesame Spinach

Serves 2

The angler in your family has caught a gorgeous fish, and you’re wondering what the heck to do with it. Simple: roast it. You could easily substitute red snapper. The prime season for black sea bass is late summer, when they migrate and spawn off New England.

Ingredients

Instructions

  1. 1. Preheat the oven to 450°F (230°C). Use olive oil to lightly brush a baking dish large enough to hold the fish without crowding.
  2. 2. Combine the garlic, shallot, carrot, celery, tomato, and 2 tablespoons of the oil in a small bowl.
  3. 3. Rinse the fish cavity under cold water and dry with paper towels. Season inside and out with salt and pepper. Stuff the cavity with the vegetable mixture and the thyme, parsley, and rosemary sprigs, and place the fish in the prepared baking dish. Sprinkle the scallions over and around the fish. Drizzle the remaining 2 tablespoons oil over the top.
  4. 4. Roast until the thickest part of the fish is just firm and the skin is blistered, about 15 minutes. Drizzle with lemon juice. Transfer the fish to a cutting board and spoon the stuffing into a bowl; discard the herb sprigs. Lift out and discard the fish bones. Transfer the fillets to plates and spoon the stuffing on top. Drizzle the fillets with pan juices and sprinkle chopped fresh thyme and parsley on top. Serve with a mound of sesame spinach.

The Outer Lands

Twenty-five thousand years ago, the shoreline from Long Island to Cape Cod was covered by a glacier. The earth warmed, the glacier melted, and its retreat was like a glacial bulldozer as the land 20 miles inland cooled, then heated up, then cooled, then heated up again, then cooled, pushing the outer banks out to sea and creating a nearly connected chain of peninsulas and low-lying islands (essentially glacial deposits) that still exist today. These are islands of enormous beauty: from Long Island, Fishers Island, Block Island, and the Elizabeth Islands to parts of Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard, and Nantucket. Though spread over four states — with different politics, taxes, and school vacations — these “Outer Lands” are similar geographically, with dunes, kettle ponds, beach plums, and clams.

Toward the eastern end of this offshore archipelago, the Elizabeth Islands chain holds Buzzards Bay, an area coveted by sailors for its craggy shoreline and predictable southwesterly afternoon breeze. In the 1600s, Captain Kidd sailed here, using Naushon Island as a hideout after he raided ships in the Indian Ocean.

Halibut over Wild Rice with Spicy Cucumber Salad

Serves 4

Halibut can be baked, broiled, fried, grilled, or poached without complaining. Indeed, it’s an iconic New England flatfish — white, firm, flaky, not too oily — and a pure protein that’s been ridiculously overfished in the Gulf of Maine/Georges Bank region. Since the early 1900s, the Atlantic halibut population has been steadily declining, and, even though this is a New England cookbook, Pacific halibut is a more sustainable fish choice. I’ve nonetheless included a recipe for it, partly because you might bring one home from a day of fishing, and also because I remain optimistic that as more people think about sustainable food choices, commercial quotas will help manage the stock. Good substitutes include fluke, sole, flounder, wild striped bass, and cod.

Ingredients

Instructions

  1. 1. To prepare the rice: Rinse the rice and combine it with the water or stock and salt in a pot. Cover and bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce to a simmer and cook, covered, for 45 minutes, or until the rice is chewy. While the rice is cooking, prepare the cucumber salad.
  2. 2. Prepare a medium-high fire in a gas or charcoal grill. Spray the grill grate with nonstick spray. Rub both sides of the fish with oil, season with salt and pepper to taste, and cook over medium-high heat for 5 minutes per side, covered, or until the fish is opaque and flakes easily.

Note

Halibut dries out fast because it has little oil, so if grilling or baking it, marinate it or brush with olive oil.

Sea Salt

In colonial times, salt was the key to preserving fish, meat, vegetables, and cheeses, and exporting salt cod was big business. While early colonists made their own sea salt, the New England fishing industry really took off at the end of the 1600s when they started importing salt from the British Caribbean.

In 1767, English Parliament passed the Townsend Revenues Act, taxing a number of goods, including salt, just one in a series of events that led to the American Revolution. After the Revolution broke out, British ships patrolled Vineyard Sound and Buzzards Bay, enforcing the embargo on all shipping, and seizing boats, cargo, and crew. Cape Codders couldn’t get salt. Increasingly concerned about a nascent nation without salt, the Continental Congress in 1776 jump-started the industry, telling colonists they’d pay one-third of a dollar for every 80 pounds of salt (requiring 350 gallons of seawater) they could produce, and printed instructions to get people going on it.

Cape Cod and the Islands have an abundance of seawater, sun, and wind, and by 1800, windmills were a familiar site along the shore, pumping seawater into evaporation vats. (In many seaside towns, the local economy centered on whaling, shipbuilding, fishing, and salt making.) On the Vineyard, the first known salt works was running by 1778, and by 1807, it was the island’s second largest industry. Salt reached $8/bushel in 1783 and was shipped to the

West Indies, Europe, and down south in small coastal schooners. On Cape Cod, there were 658 salt works by 1837, producing 26,000 tons of sea salt each year. Falmouth alone had 1.8 million square feet of salt works; it was a short sail from Falmouth to New Bedford and Nantucket, where salt was in high demand for whalers preparing for long voyages.

The beginning of the end (one might say they hit rock bottom) was the opening of the Erie Canal and discovery of salt deposits around Syracuse, making inland salt suddenly available cheap. The death knell was canning and refrigeration, diminishing the need for salt-preserved foods. The last salt works of Falmouth was sold to developers in 1871 who built a summer resort hotel on the site — marking the beginning of a new industry (the railroad extended to Woods Hole in 1872).

Today, from Cape Cod to the Canadian border, artisanal salt makers are reviving the art of making sea salt, bringing the briny taste of the sea to the table with 100 percent natural salt with no additives or anticaking agents. You’ll find Kenyon’s in Rhode Island; Cape Cod Saltworks, Wellfleet Sea Salt, and others on the Cape; Martha’s Vineyard Sea Salt and Ambrosia Nantucket on the islands and Maine Sea Salt (near Machias) and Quoddy Mist in Maine (from the Bay of Fundy), to name just a few. Many have enhanced flavors, like Dulse Seaweed Maine Sea Salt, or Nantucket’s Smoked Black Lava salt.

“There must be something strangely sacred in salt. It is in our tears and in the sea.”

— Kahlil Gibran