One of my favorite summertime stops at Seattle’s U-District Farmers’ Market is the stacked boxes of seconds tomatoes along the west side of Billy’s Organics. Billy grows gorgeous tomatoes — heirloom, hybrid and cherry varieties — and I’m sometimes puzzled by the tomatoes that make it into the seconds boxes. Some are oddly shaped, or a little overripe, or cracked, but many look and feel perfectly fine to me… and they taste just as good as the firsts. As soon as we have freezer space again (a story for another day), I’ll be roasting, saucing and freezing those tomatoes for the dark, tomato-less days of winter. For the next couple of weeks, we’ll just enjoy them.
When I visited Billy’s on Saturday to pick up a few tomatoes, I discovered that he’d harvested the first of his peppers. I added a couple — one purple, one pale green — to my bag of tomatoes. We had several tiny fennel bulbs from our CSA box, and as I stood in line to pay for my produce, I began imagining Mediterranean flavors to go with the halibut from my friends at Wilson Fish.
Halibut braised with Mediterranean Vegetables
1 pound halibut, cut into 1 1/2″ chunks
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 garlic scapes, chopped
1 spring onion, sliced vertically (about 1/2 cup)
1/2 green pepper, thinly sliced (about 1/2 cup)
1 small fennel bulb, coarsely chopped (about 1/3 cup)
1 1/4 pounds ripe tomatoes, peeled and coarsely chopped, with their juices
1 - 1 1/2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
Freshly ground black pepper
Preheat oven to 425°F. Grind some black pepper onto the fish. Set aside.
Heat oil in a heavy, oven-proof skillet over medium heat. Add garlic scapes, onion and fennel. Sauté until onion is tender, about 5 minutes. Add tomatoes with juices, balsamic vinegar, and half of basil. Simmer until fennel is tender and liquid reduces slightly, about 5 minutes.
Nestle halibut chunks into tomato mixture. Bake until fish is opaque in center, about 15 minutes. Stir remaining basil into vegetable mixture and serve.
While the fish was braising, I realized that we had no cooked farro, and no homemade bread. I wanted something to soak up all the wonderful juices from the vegetables, so I caved, and we had non-local rice under the fish and vegetables.
Where’d it all come from?
Alvarez Organic Farm: onions
Billy’s Organics: tomatoes, pepper, basil
Local Roots Farm: garlic scapes, fennel
Sidhu Farms: strawberries (for dessert)
Wilson Fish: halibut
California: olive oil, rice
Far, far away: balsamic vinegar, pepper
Tags: 1 Comment
1 response so far ↓
Very sleek blog overhaul. And those tomatoes…..
They look like the tomatoes you could buy in France 20 years ago that had the most amazing flavour. Thrown into a big plate with a vinaigrette à l’échalotte and a big piece of baguette to soak up the juice. Like being in heaven.
The ugly ones are the best - go for the seconds basket every time.