April 9, 2009

Pan Fried Wild Arctic Char with Asparagus and Three-Bean Salad


Like everyone else in the city, I'm ready for spring to stop putzing around and arrive already. Every time I think I'm going to get the ol' grill out, we get hit with another cold snap. When my sister-in-law came over to use my copy of TurboTax last Wednesday, I had visions of cooking a meal like the main course I served my mother on her birthday last July but Mother Nature had other plans. Desperate for food with a char (no pun intended), I pulled the grill pan out and flooded our apartment with smoke.

The meal was really straightforward but it still took me about an hour to prepare. For the bean salad, I grilled a few ears of corn and some red peppers and combined them with diced red onion, vine-ripened tomatoes and canned cannellini, black and garbanzo beans, over which I drizzled olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Once the salad was finished, I threw the asparagus in the grill pan and pan fried the arctic char. Once the fish was cooked, I threw together a simple white wine sauce with oso onion, garlic, lemon and butter. I used too much onion and garlic so the "sauce" came out a little chunky but it was still a tasty topping for the fish.

3 comments:

paul_k said...

dude,

keep removing the background from your photos of food. thats great.

HighDef said...

What is there an overstock on Arctic Char? We just picked some up at Whole foods the other day, and it was great. The guy described it as a mix between trout and salmon...kinda right

Alan Maginn said...

paul --- I actually just used my coffee table for a back drop. with the contrast between the table and the white plate, it really makes the food pop.

dan --- isn't it such a delicious fish? i found more bones than in salmon but otherwise, i thought it was very comparable. did you check out the skin? absolutely beautiful.