Gremolata: The Fish Buying and Cooking Game Created by Ruth Paget
This game is named for the Italian sauce gremolata. Gremolata can be used as sauce on top of fish made in a variety of ways, most notably on baked salmon.
Gremolata is made into a green, pungent cream by blending parsley, garlic, and lemon juice together. Fishmongers in France will often sell gremolata's ingredients and dry, white wine along with fresh fish. I first saw this retail combination in Trouville-sur-Mer across the Touques River from Deauville, France.
Gremolata sauce also tastes great on pasta, vegetables, and seafood. I especially like it on steamed clams and mussels and seafood salads. My mother-in-law often used this sauce combination on her homemade fish dinners.
Game Objective:
To buy the best quality fish you can afford and prepare it masterfully.
Materials Needed:
-The cookbook Foolproof Fish: Modern Recipes for Everyone, Everywhere by America's Test Kitchen
-Index cards
-Magic Markers
Game 1: Fish Buying Guide
Use index cards and magic markers to note the following buying vocabulary.
1-Fillets and steaks
2-Whole fish
3-Frozen fish
4-Sushi-grade
5-Sustainable fish
6-Buying in season
On the back of the index cards, write in your own words what the buying term on the front of the card means.
To memorize the terms, learn two at once. Then, do the next two. Quiz yourself on all the terms when you have gone through all the terms two or three times.
Have fun reading store labels on your next shopping trip.
Game 2: Fish Texture
Another item that America's Test Kitchen wants buyers to be aware of when buying fish is texture.
America's Test Kitchen identifies the following textures or groupings as important when buying, preparing, and cooking fish:
Write the following terms on index cards:
1-flaky, white fish
2-firm, meaty white fish
3-thin, white fish
4-salmon and char
5-oily, ocean fish
6-trout
7-monkfish
8-tuna
9-bivalves
10-crustaceans
11-cephalopods
12-tinned fish
On the back of the index cards, write the definition of the term on front in your own words.
To memorize the terms and definitions on the index cards, learn two terms at a time until you have gone through the 12 terms two or three times.
The texture of a fish offers ideas on how to cook it and adds to your ability to make a good fish purchase.
Game 3- Cooking Methods
America's Test Kitchen present nine different cooking methods for fish. Make index cards for the following terms:
1-roasting
2-broiling
3-baking
4-pan-searing
5-steaming
6-poaching
7-braising
8-frying
9-grilling
On the back of the index card, write the definition for the cooking term on the front of the card in your own words.
To memorize the cooking terms, learn them two at a time till you have gone through them all two or three times.
Once you know the fish texture in the previous game, you can predict the best cooking methods using what you have learned in this game.
Game 4: Fish Types
America's Test Kitchen provides a handy chart of fish types you can find at the store or fish market. There are 30 types in all. This game lets you put what you have learned in games 1, 2, and 3 together and link it to a fish type.
Refer to Foolproof Fish for the fish types and note them on index cards. On the back of the index card, use the chart in Foolproof Fish to note texture, cooking methods, and substitutes for each fish and quiz yourself until you have totally mastered those three elements.
Game 5: Reward
Read the recipes in Foolproof Fish and pick one or two to try making at home.
Note: In Salinas (California), you can buy fresh fish at Nob Hill Market or Star Market. Close to Salinas, you can buy fresh fish at Phil's Fish Market in Castroville or Phil's Fish Market in Moss Landing.
Have fun cooking!
By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
Click for Ruth Paget's Books
