Whole Food

It's not easy for a city-dweller -- especially a single person -- to find, let alone cook, a whole animal. We only get access to fragments of the animal: chicken breasts, sliced bacon, lamb chops, or fish fillets neatly packaged in styrofoam and plastic wrap.

So when the opportunity arises to cook something from end-to-end, it turns an ordinary repast into something momentous.

Oddly enough, my friendly local butcher has a respectable fish counter beside his display of pork ribs, steaks and chicken feet. The colorful rows of yellow-tail snapper nestled on crushed ice caught my eye. The flesh was bright and their fishy frowns were leavened by clear, shiny eyes. As the butcher scaled and cleaned my snapper, he asked if I already picked out my wine to go with it.

As is often the case, I didn't have a recipe in mind when I did my groceries. Furthermore, I've never cooked this fish before. I Googled for recipes, even contemplated salt crust roasting like my Mom would, but ultimately decided to let the fish cook au naturel. The Food Network's "The Wild Gourmets" may have influenced me: if roasting a fish on a stick over a camp fire is perfectly adequate for a great meal, then why fuss with stuffings or marinades?

I did dress up the fish after baking it in the oven (around 30 min. at 400°F). I fought off the cats pawing at my legs while carefully removing the flesh in large pieces from the pinbones. I put two generous dollops of home-made ketchup on a plate, nestled the fish on top, then added bocconcini (fresh mozzarella) pearls and cherry tomato halves. I drizzled lemon-infused olive oil and balsamic vinegar, then finished the dish with dried basil, salt and pepper. It was a nice, light meal.

Note: I can't rave enough about the merits of making your own ketchup. Not to knock commercial brands like Heinz (which is a reliably good product and a classic mainstay of diners and burger joints), but home-made catsup is intensely flavorful in a way you might not expect. A small spoonful of this stuff is all you need to give your burger the sweet/acidic punch it needs to complement the fatty goodness of the beef. I made my batch using Michael Smith's recipe in "Chef at Home".