Spring is here and with that, lots of seasonal foods on our San Francisco Food Tour of North Beach\Little Italy and Chinatown.
That means things like asparagus and berries, but also things like great seafood coming into the markets. This year is supposed to be an exceptional year for salmon. We catch salmon right off of the coast. When it??s fresh like that, I like to saut? it quickly. I liked starting off with a little olive oil. Next, I??ll quickly saut? some pine nuts. Since, I??ll saut? the salmon right afterward, the trick is to saut? the pine nuts until they just start to turn brown. Don??t wait until they are actually brown. Since, you??ll be saut?ing the salmon later, if you saut? the pine nuts until they are brown right now, by the time that you are done with the salmon, they will be black. After the pine nuts start to brown, I??ll saut? the salmon for about a minute skin side down, flip it and saut? it the rest of the way until it??s done. That way, the skin comes off really easy when it??s served. You can tell when the salmon is done, when it flakes apart with a fork.
On our San Francisco Food Tours, we can tell if something is fresh or not. Fish is one those easy things to tell if it fresh. In simple terms, if you can smell it, don??t buy it. Shellfish should always be closed and unbroken. For seafood, if it not fresh, there really is no way to fix that. If it??s already been filleted, I ask to smell it, if you're not able to do that look at the eyes, they should be clear, and the fish should be bright.
Fresh food is the core of how we eat here. Once it??s fresh, the challenge is not to cover it up. That is what makes a great meal.