Make Room for Omega-3 Fish
Eat more salmon? Most diners have no trouble with that advice. Salmon—especially the prized chinook or king species—is particularly high in Omega-3s, the highly unsaturated fatty acids that researchers believe protect against heart disease. Chefs rarely have to work hard to sell salmon.
It's a bigger challenge, however, to introduce some of the other Omega-3 leaders, like herring, sardines, anchovies, mackerel, and sablefish. These full-flavored, oily fish may be largely neglected in American kitchens, but they are savored elsewhere. Best cooking methods include grilling, broiling, baking, smoking, and pickling.
A few popular preparations:
- Spaghetti with tomatoes, sardines, and fennel (Sicily)
- Sardinade (canned sardines puréed with black olives, capers, garlic, and olive oil/France)
- Sardines stuffed with breadcrumbs, pine nuts, and currants (Sicily)
- Grilled sardines wrapped in grape leaves (Greece)
- Pissaladière (tomato and anchovy pizza/Provence)
- Sardines or mackerel en escabeche (sautéed, then pickled with vegetables/Spain and South America)
- Bagna cauda (olive oil, anchovy, and garlic dip for raw vegetables/Italy)
- Marinated mackerel (cooked in a court-bouillon with carrots, then chilled/France)
- Grilled mackerel (butterflied, spread with mustard and grilled/France)
- Mackerel baked with tomato, onion, white wine, and bread crumbs (France)
- Mackerel sushi (Japan)
- Smoked herring on rye bread (Denmark)
- Pickled herring with carrots and onions (Sweden)
- Smoked sablefish with whole-grain bread (Eastern Europe)
- Smoked fish (sablefish, salmon, mackerel) with buckwheat blini (Russia)
- Grilled fish tacos (Mexico)
