Don't Fear the Bluefish, Part Deux
When I first started blogging, I wrote a post about bluefish. In it, I claimed that I knew the ultimate way to cook bluefish: to have Jim do it. He let me in on his crisped-skin secret (scraping your knife against the skin to squeegee off any moisture before you cook) and it does indeed make a tasty bluefish, or any fish for that matter. We do this crispy-skin method for fish about twice a week actually, with salmon mostly now, and it always gets great results.
But despite how good that method is, I’m telling you today: I’ve found a better way to cook bluefish, with the help of Rick Moonen of Fish Without a Doubt, who advised me on the right pan (cast-iron), the right cooking method (broiling). The rest of the recipe came from my windowsill herb box. I used basil, parsley, with a few cloves of garlic and the zest of a lemon, to make an herb butter.
If you’ve never made an herb butter—with good butter and fresh herbs—then you are in for a treat. I use them all the time, with different herbs for different proteins: sage or tarragon for chicken, rosemary or thyme for steak, dill or parsley for fish, or I just use whatever tickles my fancy (or needs to be picked from the windowsill). I’ve never been disappointed with an herb butter and, after you start using them, you can’t stop. I tried using an olive oil, salt, and pepper rub on a chicken dish that I’d done before with a sage-lemon butter, and oh-man was that disappointing. So, don’t say I didn’t warn you.
Because once you try bluefish with herb butter, you’ll regret having it any other way. Succulent and fresh, this recipe will turn any bluefish-hater around. The bits of garlic in the butter get slightly burnt and give you that crackle-in-your-teeth contrast to the soft, buttery fish. Both the basil and the parsley stand out of their own, while working well together—the parsley woody and green, the basil sweet.
To cook it, you put a cast iron pan in the oven so it sits right under the broiler, and broil the empty pan for about 15-20 minutes, so that it gets smokin’ hot. Then you take the pan out (with good oven mitts!) and add a dollop of the herb butter. Place the bluefish into the pan, skin side down—it will immediately cinch up and contract—and then place a few spoonfuls of the herb butter on top of the fish. (It may look like a lot of butter in the picture—and it is, about 2 ½ tablespoons. Not all gets onto your plate but it helps to keep the fish moist when cooking. And if you’re really worried about it, bathing suit season and all, eat a smaller piece of fish.) Place the pan back under the broiler and broil for 3 minutes, then baste the fish by spooning the butter over it before putting it back into the oven to broil for another 2-4 minutes, until the fish is white throughout the fillet, yet still very moist.
To serve, put a piece of the fillet on a plate and drizzle some of the browned herb butter over it. Green beans quickly cooked then tossed with olive oil and lemon are the perfect accompaniment. Or some new potatoes on the side, little sponges to sop up the juices. Whatever you eat it with, I’m sure you’ll love it. Don’t fear the bluefish… just eat it.
Broiled Bluefish with Basil-Parsley Butter
serves 2
for the butter
- 3 tablespoons good butter, softened
- small handful basil
- smaller handful parsley
- zest of one lemon
- 2-3 garlic cloves
- 1 teaspoon salt
- black pepper
- 1 (16-ounce) piece bluefish, skin on
Put butter in a small bowl, softening in the microwave for 5 seconds if needed. On a cutting board, chop your herbs, garlic, and zest together. Add the herb mixture and salt to butter and mash up to combine. Season with black pepper
Put the oven on broil and place a cast-iron skillet in the uppermost shelf, or right under the broiler. Let the cast-iron pan heat for 15-20 minutes, while the herb butter’s flavors are melding.
Season your bluefish with salt and pepper. When skillet is smoking hot, take it out of the oven with good oven mitts and transfer to cutting board. Add a spoonful of herb butter to bottom of skillet then place bluefish skin side down in skillet. Transfer back to the oven and broil for 3 minutes. Remove skillet and baste fish with butter. Transfer back to oven and broil for another 2-4 minutes, or until bluefish is cooked through but still moist.
Serve bluefish with some butter drizzled on top and as much of the crispy herbs and garlic that you can pick up. Goes particularly well with lemony green beans.
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April 13th, 2009 at 6:49 pm
WOW – I am loving the flavor combination! The basil butter with the fish would be amazing. Great post
zesty
April 13th, 2009 at 7:26 pm
My 1st taste of bluefish was during a family vacation to Cape Cod….a meaty fish but light & flaky all the while. Bluefish is underated…nice post.
April 14th, 2009 at 10:06 am
I adore bluefish – I often just grill it. Would be lovely done this way too.
April 14th, 2009 at 10:28 am
see? now this is invaluable info. big time.
i just want to know how you found a man who knew to scrape the moisture off the fish skin with a knife. can i marry him too?
now i need to find bluefish…
April 14th, 2009 at 11:52 am
This looks great. I don’t think I’ve seen blue fish over in these parts, but will keep my eyes open. How is the wedding planning coming? It’s quite a process, isn’t it??!!!
April 14th, 2009 at 1:06 pm
Two great tips in one post, gotta love that! The cooking technique sounds perfect, and you are sure right about needing good oven mitts. I’ll certainly try this!
April 14th, 2009 at 2:09 pm
Bluefish used to be one of my favorites, but I literally never see it any more–not on menus, not in the fish store. Oh well….will try this on another fish, less blue.
April 14th, 2009 at 2:33 pm
I’ve never had bluefish, but would love to try it! I am very intrigued by the herb butter in the book though and was thinking about it a lot right after I flipped through it. It’s so easy to do and I bet it would be marvelous. Love so many of the sauces too. Thanks for giving another thumbs up on his stuff. I really need to get comfortable with the methods.
April 14th, 2009 at 5:57 pm
until i saw, i definitely feared the bluefish, but now no more…
April 14th, 2009 at 6:10 pm
I had bluefish for the first time on Cape Cod too. It was great, but nobody got very much because almost the entire thing got eaten by an enormous poodle named Louis. And if Louis’ owner is reading this: Sure it’s thirty-six years ago, Paula and sure we still remember.
I love the idea of scraping the skin. Well done Jim.
My wife does salmon with Béarnaise sauce (instead of Hollandaise, I guess), but she just loves that stuff; she’d probably eat it on cereal.
April 14th, 2009 at 7:44 pm
You can never forget a thing like that… never.
Salmon with bearnaise—that totally defeats the purpose of being “healthy” eating fish (I can turn a blind eye all the butter we use, but bearnaise, I dunno.)
Jim, I think we need to do a post on the details of that crispy-skinned technique.
April 14th, 2009 at 7:46 pm
The first question I’ve asked any man I dated is: “how do you cook fish?” ;)
Ok, fine, but only if that means we’ll all move to NYC and eat out at Batali restaurants at least once a week.
April 14th, 2009 at 7:51 pm
Hope you can find stuff. And yes, a process; not sure yet how much I enjoy it. ; )
April 14th, 2009 at 7:55 pm
We get it a lot in Jersey, though it’s not a sustainable fish everywhere (we usually get to buy it from a hook and line fisherman, which is sustainable). You could try any other meaty white fish.
April 14th, 2009 at 7:56 pm
Thanks for stopping by. And yes, amazing—do try it.
April 15th, 2009 at 9:44 am
A good herb butter with fresh fish is amazing. Love your photos! (And congrats on your engagement!)
April 15th, 2009 at 10:44 am
Love the cast iron technique. I’ll have to try that.
April 15th, 2009 at 11:24 am
The title made “Don’t Fear The Reaper” pop into my head…I think seeing the “Don’t Fear” then “Blue” triggered it. And yum!
April 15th, 2009 at 1:08 pm
Wow, I’ve never even seen or heard of bluefish before! Where does it come from?
April 15th, 2009 at 1:44 pm
Thanks for asking, Hillary.
Taken from Wikipedia:
Bluefish are migratory marine fish, found worldwide in tropic and temperate seas, except for the eastern shores of the Pacific. On the western side of the Atlantic, their range is from Argentina to Nova Scotia. They are found off Africa, and in the Mediterranean and Black Seas. Bluefish are generally found in bays and sandy bottomed near-shore waters. Migrating fish may be encountered in as much as 200 foot (60 m) depths. Depending on conditions such as water temperature and atmospheric pressure, bluefish may be found nearly anywhere in the water column, from just above the bottom to just below the surface.
Bluefish are found off Florida in the winter months. By April, they have disappeared, heading north. By June, they may be found off Massachusetts; in years of high abundance, stragglers may be found as far north as Nova Scotia. By October, they leave New England waters, heading south. They are also present in the Gulf of Mexico throughout the year.
April 15th, 2009 at 1:46 pm
The song was in my mind a couple years ago when I wrote my first bluefish post. : )
April 15th, 2009 at 6:48 pm
may 4 – monday night
pick a batali restaurant
any one you want
i’ll get us a res
i’m in nyc that week
it’s my last free night
April 16th, 2009 at 12:48 am
Yum…yum…..yum….yum…yum……OK…I can’t seem to think of other words….
April 16th, 2009 at 4:15 am
I saw something on tv yesterday about how the Japanese are overfishing (blue-tailed?) tuna so much it will probably die out next year, but because it was on television I wasn’t really paying attention, so I can’t give you any more detail.
April 16th, 2009 at 9:49 am
It’s true. Bluefin tuna is severely overfished and it’d be wise not to eat any of it. Albacore and big-eye tuna are also no good. Isn’t it so crazy? that they could die out by next year. And then what happens? We don’t even know. It could change things. It could change things, man.
You can get a list of sustainable fish here: http://www.montereybayaquarium.org/cr/SeafoodWatch/web/sfw_regional.aspx
April 16th, 2009 at 10:55 am
It’s one of those songs I don’t listen to a lot but when I do…it gets stuck in my head for a long time.
April 16th, 2009 at 11:03 am
Awesome, that’s a day off for me! Emailing you now. :D
April 17th, 2009 at 10:41 pm
Bookmarking this recipe for sure!!!
April 22nd, 2009 at 7:18 am
[...] dish was found on caviar and codfish – and it drew me in. just a basic super hot broil with a compound butter. so, ok – compound butter. [...]
April 25th, 2009 at 1:51 pm
Damn. I miss blues. I am a Jersey Boy living in Calfornia and that is one fish that NEVER shows up here. It is one of the the best BBQ and grilling fish there is, and I do that broiling trick, too. Just don’t fry bluefish; it gets greasy (and you know I pronounce that word “gree-zee”).
If you get your hands on some more, make a tomato sauce with some lemon or vinegar to go with it; the acid goes real well with and oily blue. Works great with mackerel, too, which ought to be running your way right now. Check the boats at Pt. Pleasant or Barnegat…
August 3rd, 2009 at 11:01 am
[...] effortless, perfect meal is something that I’m in search of. I’ve got my broiled fish and green beans, and red-cooked pork belly with rice, and tava, but I’m always on the look-out for more, [...]
August 21st, 2009 at 8:01 pm
Broil it with butter and onion on top until crispy… flambe with gin to burn off any excess oil… it’s good to go.