Maybe it’s because I enjoying eating so much – but I really love to cook. I get a tremendous amount of joy from taking the time to assemble the right ingredients, properly time the coming together of multiple cooked items, and plating a meal in a way that looks as scrumptious as it tastes.
Leeks have an amazing aroma when cooked down and softened
When I cook, I like to go to the absolute basics and control the ingredients from the fundamental items. My tongue seems to be noticing how overly salted most prepared food is from the grocery store and cannot stand how this masks the flavor of the basic dish. I would rather control my seasoning throughout the cooking process, than to have some food scientist at Kraft find the right balance for prolonged shelf life and American’s palettes for salt as it’s own flavor.
Things that start with the fundamental ingredients just taste better. There are some things that cannot be replicated at mass-volume under factory conditions. Take leeks, for instance. Growing up, I would have never even seen a leek, let alone know how important it is to most soups. Now, they are a weekly part of my cooking ritual. The smell of leeks sweating down in a little bit of olive oil laced with some butter is a joyous event worthy of biblical-level songs. It is the basis for an assortment of tremendous soups that I make regularly and is such a critical part of the flavor profile – I can only wonder how it took me so many years to discover such a wonderful vegetable.
I enjoy baking bread, but have not yet found the magic to making anything beyond the basic white loaf
Freshed-baked breads also provide flavors that few stores can replicate. As I’ve tried the various techniques for producing a quality loaf, I’m always amazed at how simple the ingredients generally are. Water, yeast, flour, and salt. That’s it. But, when they come together in the right combination, it can create an amazing flavor-profile in your mouth. Bread’s balance of crispiness to the crust and softness to the center is as much about the enjoyment of eating as the flavor.
Tonight’s supper was no culinary masterpiece, but did contain a few staples for me. I like to start a meal with a mixed greens salad (organic, when possible), and dressed with a standard, homemade vinaigrette. I bought some salmon from the store and added some simple peas and a wonderful, in-season fresh pear. That was topped-off with a Surly Furious beer – which has a flavor that deserves a complete post all by itself.
But – based on the title of this post – I’d like to provide some further discussion about the salmon.
A simple meal - unfortunately tainted with some farm-raised salmon
Salmon is a fish that has a lot of things going for it. In general, it is considered a healthy fish to eat and is a recommended part of most dietary programs. But, there is a large range of options when purchasing this fish. A fundamental option is the choice between farm-raised and wild caught. There is not a question that wild-caught is the best choice from a nutritional perspective, but you also need to consider if the fishing practices are considered sustainable.
Farm-raised fish is the other alternative and the one most often showing up in stores. It tries hard to look like real, wild salmon but really comes across as a second-rate alternative. Since the farm-raised versions are not able to dine on the natural shrimp (which give the salmon its trademark pink/orange color), its flesh is dyed using colors added to the feed that make it look like natural salmon in the refrigerated section of the grocery store. Without the colorant, it would come across as a pale-grey fish and likely not sell. Instead, we are treated to meat that has more chemistry in it than can be found in a sugar-free Kool-Aid packet. It is hard to consider farm-raised salmon “natural”, but as an alternative to red meat, it is still an OK choice. It definitely loses much of its appeal after a little cooking tends to leech out some of the color.
When buying fish, I try to consider things beyond just a meal and look for choices that support either sustaining a natural fish population or healthy farming practices. The Monterey Bay Aquarium (one of my favorite in the entire world) maintains a current list of edible seafood and offers guidelines when purchasing. They emphasize which varieties are healthy to you and which are managed in a way that is sustainable both for the fish and its surrounding environment. Inevitably, the choices they recommend are often the more expensive options, but I find myself willing to pay the extra price knowing that this stuff is going directly into my body. It also seems selfish to eat something that is contributing to the demise of the environment or other fish species.
Keeping to the fundamentals of food is a worthy goal to have – especially when it involves seafood.
