Sunday roast: marinated swordfish stew

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Looking at the slab of swordfish, I had an inkling of what Captain Ahab had for supper

Swordfish was once my go-to summer fish. A hot grill and a deft sense of timing - plus a spoonful of mango salsa, chunky pesto or Dijon cream - was all it took to hit the spot. Ka-boom, target acquired and destroyed.

What happened? I have my suspicions. For a few years, all I could get my hands on were steaks that were about an inch thick, frozen in ice shells.

Let me back up a step: I never buy thawed-out seafood at the supermarket any more. Too often the quality of my purchases have triggered my consumer rage reflex, to tragic consequences. My probation officer suggested that in the future, it might be better for everyone concerned if I just ask the seafood counterperson to go back in the cooler and get me product that’s still frozen solid.

So that’s what I did: I got swordfish-sicles. No more elderly seafood. Now the problem was, the slabs went from underdone to cottonball-dry faster than you could say “Rachael Ray must die.” Maybe the cutting and freezing in such thin pieces leached out moisture, or altered the molecular structure. If my life was a Miami CSI episode, I’d find out.

All I know was, I stopped buying swordfish. Why pay $11.99 a pound when I can think of the Buffalo Bills and be sad for free?

Then there was last week. An article in The Washington Post, by Domenica Marchetti, suggested that moist, delectable swordfish could be had by pan-roasting a thick slab that had marinated in the fridge for a day or two.

Preposterous. Impossible. I had to try it.

The missus came back from Wegmans with a three-inch-thick hunk of swordfish - three and a half pounds in one great slab. Look at the size of that thing, I thought: Shamu is gonna be pissed. Plus at $16 and change a pound, it doesn’t blow my socks off? Shamu’s gonna have company.

I didn’t have fresh oregano or fresh bay leaves, but I have dried bay leaves, a lovely pot of Italian basil starting to take off, and my trusty rosemary bush on the windowsill. I used more garlic and more onions - perching my piscine blockbuster on a bed of onions at the suggestion of Mike Andrzejewski.

The recipe calls for a quart of halved cherry tomatoes, but I used grape tomatoes, plus half a can of whole peeled Italian plum tomatoes.

I slathered the swordfish in extra virgin olive oil and vigorously dusted it with fresh ground black pepper, kosher salt and dried oregano. Plopped it atop the onions in the bottom of my Le Creuset. Stretched plastic wrap over the top of the pot to keep the garlic in, and refrigerated it for a day and a half.

I assure you there’s fish under the foliage

I warmed up the pot on top of the stove, 10 minutes over medium heat. I’m not sure why I thought that step was important, to be honest. Maybe because the author cooked hers on the stovetop and I was oven-bound.

I put the pot it into a 350 F oven. Checked it a hour later with a probe thermometer. It registered 135 F, so I took the pot out and set it on top of the stove to rest. Served it with a big spoon, for the juices.

For all my cooking, I experience relatively few moments of pure, unalloyed wonder. Tasting this fish, I caught one.

Talk about a lovin’ spoonful

So moist it was hardly solid, but not underdone. Shot through with the flavor of fresh herbs and bay leaf. Rich as custard, but still savory and musky, especially toward the skin. The tomatoes and the fish conspired to make a fine sauce in the bottom of the pot, begging for potatoes, rice or pasta to smother. Marchetti suggests serving it over bruschetta, which sounds like a fine idea.

We’re making it again this weekend. I had to ask my brother and his family to come down from Toronto and stay with us to justify the expense. He has two little kids, and I have to sleep on the couch. It will be well worth it.

Marinated Swordfish Stew
Inspired by Domenica Marchetti, The Washington Post

3 pounds swordfish steak, at least 1.5 inches thick
1 quart cherry tomatoes, halved
3 large onions, in quarter-inch slices
1 cup, more or less, canned Italian plum tomatoes
1 cup Kalamata or Gaeta olives, pitted and crushed
1/2 cup fresh basil leaves, packed, or other favored fresh herbs
3 tablespoons fresh rosemary
10 cloves garlic, crushed
3 dried bay leaves
1 tablespoon dried rosemary
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
Fresh ground black pepper and kosher salt

Rub the fish with oil and coat with salt, pepepr, and dried oregano. Put half the sliced onions in a heavy ovenproof pot, and place the fish on onion bed. Scatter the rest of the ingredients around the fish, aiming for contact that will flavor up the beast. Cover the pot with plastic wrap, if you don’t want to stink up your fridge, and let rest under refrigeration for 24 to 48 hours, or thereabouts.

Set oven to 350 F. Place pot inside and roast for about an hour. A thermometer reading of 135 F signals doneness, or you can just nick and peek. Remember: You can always cook it more, if you so desire.

When you’re cleaning up the table after a meal and you’re already having a discussion to nail down the fate of the leftovers? That’s a pretty good meal.

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