I love the fish counter at my local Whole Foods....Everything is so fresh!! The guys who work there are always able to answer my questions and are honest about where/when/how the fish were caught. I always opt for wild fish over farm raised... I like the idea that the fish that I am eating was once swimming happily in a stream, lake or ocean rather than in a tank somewhere.
I also appreciate the new system that the Blue Ocean Institute recently came out with to help to educate consumers on which fish is OK to eat from an environmental standpoint. They have a color rating system that ranges from Green (Fish are abundant and the fishing method caused little damage) to Red (Low abundance and the fishing method seriously harms other wildlife or natural habitats.) They also have a gray color which means the fish has not yet been rated. I really appreciate this and always take the rating into consideration before buying my seafood.
Enough tree-hugger ranting...
The other day I purchased a whole bunch of stuff, including a whole snapper and some fresh figs. I didn't know what to do with them at the time but after exploring my refrigerator at home, I decided to stuff the figs with cheese and bake the snapper in a lemon and garlic sauce. It smelled so good!
The figs were SO simple, and they look super gourmet and beautiful on your table.
I rinsed the figs (8 in total, 4 for me & 4 for the husband), dried them, then made two cuts perpendicular to each other from the top of the fig to about half way down.... you want to be able to stuff some cheese inside the figs, but not so much that it breaks apart or tears. I then stuffed probably about 1/2 tsp of goat cheese into each fig, and set them aside until the fish was almost finished baking.... I hear you can wrap the figs in prosciutto before baking them too... I am DEFINITELY trying this next time... Prosciutto could solve all of the problems of the world..... yummmm
A simple and easy recipe to follow for Roasted Figs
The fish was easier than I expected. The guys at the fish counter scaled and cleaned the Snapper for me, so it was all ready to go when I unwrapped it at home. I followed this recipe pretty much word for word and got fantastic results. I stuffed and coated the fish with sliced lemons, lemon juice, garlic, thyme, butter and seafood seasoning. I then wrapped the fish in foil and let it marinate in the fridge for about 3 hours.
The fish baked inside its foil wrapping (and on a baking sheet incase of seepage) at 350 for 40 min. The fish was moist, full of flavor and provided a fun, new way to cook fish.... plus it made for some good pictures before cooking, which somehow did not save to my camera :(
Husband Rating: 7
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