Yesterday my friend Susan and I went up to Vancouver's Granville Island Public Market where I needed to pick up some things I can't buy down here, and while there we each looked around for inspiration for last night's dinner. When there, I tend to buy fish, because I can often purchase fresh fish from other species that give us some relief from the ubiquitous halibut-or-salmon choice that's about all we have here in Bellingham.
The Public Market is a collection of independent vendors, four of whom sell seafood. The first three of the fishmongers we looked at basically had nothing but salmon and halibut, though one had frozen Chilean sea bass priced higher than another seller's fresh (local, diver) Qualicomm scallops. As if! So we pressed on, and at the fourth, there was finally something different and oh what a lovely difference: fresh, whole, arctic char. So fresh they were almost, as Mike Bowlin puts it, "still flipping". The cost was $10.99 a pound. I've probably only had arctic char twice before in my life--I rarely see it on restaurant menus and I've not cooked it before myself, but I have to say that the skin of this fish is the most beautiful of the non-tropical fish I've ever seen. Silver-green in color at the dorsal, paler toward the belly, smooth and scaleless, it's decorated with several rows of coral colored dots. It's a joy to handle and de-skin.
This member of the salmonidae family is related to both salmon and trout, and carries characteristics of both. Ranging in size from 2 to 5 pounds, they are found in the coldest waters and native to several areas on the planet including the Canadian arctic, Siberia, and Scotland. The flesh can be anywhere from pale pink to vivid red. I selected the smallest of what this seller had, a three pounder, and I was delighted when I got home to find it's color the most beautiful pale coral color.
For last night's dinner I baked a whole skinless filet at 300 F for about 25 minutes. I painted it with melted butter and placed several additional thin slices of butter on the fish to additionally self-baste during cooking, then moved it to a platter covered with wilted pea leaves with garlic, and topped it with a tarragon bearnaise and toasted almonds.
Trappings aside, this fish was truly the best fish I've ever had. The flavor's reminiscent of salmon but much much milder and sweeter, not nearly so in-your-face. The texture is remarkably flakey and delicate, and though each bite you prepare holds together on the fork it's so blissfully tender a fork glides through the fish like cake.
Bob had two helpings to my one, and there's enough left over for my lunch today, which I'll eat cold just squirted with lemon.
Tonight I'll poach the second filet in a court boullion.
If you ever see arctic char on a good restaurant menu, and if you've avoided it because you didn't understand it or thought it was a poor second cousin to salmon, or if you kind of like salmon but often find it too strong (like me), this is the fish for you.
Oh, and a bonus? On the conservation scale that has about seven categories from low to extinct, arctic char is rated in the lowest category. I'm not sure if there is such a thing as a fish that's so un-endangered it's not rated at all, but without further study that sounds good to me.
Okay, HEAVILY-TARRAGONNED bearnaise. Much, much more assertive than typical.