Citizen Science: Week 2

Bluefish. I didn't have to read any further on my fish list this week to know what I'd be cooking. Bluefish is a very dark, meaty fish local to the East Coast. They migrate up and down the coast, from Florida in the winter to Canada in the summer, so their season here in Boston is long and wonderful.  I love bluefish, but it's not a popular species overall: considered too strong and "fishy" (a term that always befuddled me- shouldn't your fish taste like fish?) by most, it's still fairly inexpensive and not always easy to find. When we found it at Market Basket, the seafood manager gave us the full storyline of the fish, how his father used to fish it from the shore, how it used to be a "garbage fish" sold for 13 cents a pound, and people would bake it with mayonnaise to leech out the fishy flavor.

Cooking bluefish is similar to cooking salmon. It's firm and meaty and can hold up to a lot of spices or other flavors: we grilled ours with salt and pepper, and served it with some mango-pineapple chutney with sweet onion and chive. I also grilled some peppers and sweet onion to go along with it, and boiled some potatoes. Topped with a daub of chive butter, this was a fantastic meal.