Gone Fishin'

Today a friend of mine talked about a great flood.  No, not the great flood story that is told by nearly every religion.  This story is much shorter and has already brought me much peace.

This gal, Peggy, we’ll call her because that’s her name, talked about a day when the rains poured down and her basement was flooding.  The water crept higher and higher.  She could have run around pulling out her hair, yelling “We have to stop it!  What do we do?”  Instead, she went to a party and had a blast.  When she got home, the water had receded and she got busy cleaning up the damage.

I’ve been sick with a mild but persistent flu most of the week.  A three day headache decided to join in on the action and brought a friend: laryngitis.  I’ve been flooded with pain, misery and sleeplessness.

So instead of running around yelling (which I can’t do anyway since I lost my voice), “What should I write?” I’m going to follow Peggy’s lead, put up my sign: Gone Fishin’ and go get some mackerel and salmon and make the healthiest meals.

Baked Mackerel

and

Salmon Soup

Soup stock

4 c. water

1 fresh mackerel, cleaned

Half a large sweet onion, cut into 3 or 4 pieces

3 cloves garlic, peeled and cut in half

1-2 inches fresh ginger root, peeled and sliced

2 stalk of celery

2 large carrots

Salt and pepper to taste

Now I’m going to give you two recipes since we have two fish.  Tonight let’s have the mackerel and save the stock for tomorrow night.  First, remove and rinse head and tail of mackerel and add to your pot of water and veggies.  Filet the mackerel, which isn’t easy, so good luck.  Add the skeleton to the water.  Let’s bake the mackerel today with some tamari sprinkled on it at 375 degrees for 15 minutes.  Serve that on rice and add more tamari as needed.  Yummy. 

Now, to prepare the stock for tomorrow night, boil for at least an hour until the vegetables are very soft.  Strain in a metal colander, pressing the veggies down to get the most of the flavors.

Add the following ingredients in order:

2 chopped medium sized red potatoes

1 stalk of celery, sliced

juice of ½ or more fresh lemon

dried or dill fresh, finely chopped

more salt and pepper if necesselery

When everything is tender, add about a pound of fresh, never frozen sockeye salmon, cut into bite sized pieces.  Remove from heat; it cooks up fast.

Oh, my heart will be so full of the good oils from two nights of the best fish!  I’m hoping this will give me back my voice so I can start yelling again.