Fish

Despite my love of Jewish food, I must confess I've never held a deep understanding of gefilte fish. Growing up, I'd stare at jars of those cloudy, floating Manischewitz members with a mixture of intrigue and disgust. What, exactly, was gefilte fish? I wondered. Did people actually eat that?

Now that I have the palate of an adult, I'm no longer disgusted, but as someone who's never tried gefilte fish, I remain intrigued. Gefilte is actually Yiddish for "stuffed," and this dish is really just white fish that's been chopped, seasoned with carrots, onions, and eggs, stuffed back into the skin of a fish, poached, then served chilled. Find out the story behind its creation when you read more.

From hot dogs to halloumi and wild leeks to watermelon, just about every provision can be made more delicious on the grill. My recent obsession is fish; a short grill takes its delicate flavor profile for a wild ride, imparting a char and an intoxicatingly smoky aroma that can't be replicated. Another reason to love fish on the 'cue: the versatile protein also works well in an extensive range of preparations. Here are five of my favorite methods with fish on the barbecue; to take advantage of them before Summer comes to a close, keep reading.

A crunchy coating on soft and flaky fish always takes me back to my childhood and those frozen boxes of fish sticks. That's why a recipe for fresh baked cornflake-crusted snapper seemed like the perfect way to re-create the nostalgic dish with a little more adult flair.

Set up stations for the flour, egg white, and cornflakes, and your family will be sitting down for dinner in about a half hour. To keep the meal healthy, I served it with a simple side salad. However, if you're in the mood for a nutritious variation on fish and chips, why not offer it with oven-baked sweet potatoes?

Pull out the box of cereal at dinner to get started on this easy seafood dish.

As someone who is constantly cleaning her kitchen, I really appreciate meals that require minimal cleanup or don't use a lot of dishes. One-pot meals are a great option, but even that leaves me with a dish to clean up. That's where parchment paper becomes my best friend. Cooking in parchment paper, or en papillote, is a simple, fast, and healthy technique. It works particularly well with mild white fish like cod.


I don't really have much experience cooking with fish, but I figured it'd be hard to go wrong with ingredients like Spring onion, asparagus, basil, ginger, garlic, and soy sauce. This Spring meal is so easily put together by preparing the vegetables and layering everything on a sheet of parchment paper.


For this incredibly simple recipe, keep reading.

When I get home late, it's easy to rush through making a dinner that's often not the healthiest. That's why salmon cakes are my new favorite: they take a mere 20 minutes to make, and they make a delicious but healthy dinner. The most involved part is giving your food processor a couple whirls to chop up the salmon and mix in the other ingredients. After that, it's a less-than-five-minute affair. I topped off the fish cakes with a little bit of sour cream and scallions just before serving, and noted to myself that they'd also make a great appetizer served atop crostini. For my most recent dinner, though, I served the fish cakes alongside a raw kale salad.

Keep reading for this incredibly fast and easy dinner recipe.

Vegans and vegetarians don't eat it. And pescatarians — who abstain from eating red meat and animal flesh — make the exception to eat it. All in all, it's hard to deny the health benefits associated with fish. Many types of fish are low in fat, high in essential heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids, an excellent source of protein, and packed with vitamins and minerals. It's safe to eat fish twice a week (up to 12 ounces), but it's best to choose different types of fish so you get a variety of nutrients.

As great as fish is, it's also good to know which types of fish to consume, as nearly all fish and shellfish contain traces of mercury. Expecting moms should stick to fish with mercury levels of one part per million (ppm) or lower. The rest of us can safely consume fish with mercury levels that average 5.5 ppm.

Here's a full rundown of the top 10 fish with the highest omega-3 fatty acids, the highest mercury content, and those that are on the Seafood Watch for best options for sustainability and unsustainable options that are best avoided.

Keep reading to view the top 10 fish chart!

Though the terms "smoked salmon" and "lox" are used interchangeably, they're in fact, not quite the same thing. Real lox (also called belly lox) refers to the midsection of a salmon that's simply been cured in a salt brine; consequently, it possesses a saltier flavor than what many of us associate with smoked salmon.

Part of the confusion arises from the use of the term "Nova lox" or "Nova salmon," which originally referred to the lightly cured and cold-smoked salmon that hailed from Nova Scotia.

Today, smoked salmon is often prepared using wild and farm-raised salmon from both the Atlantic as well as the Pacific — and modern-day usage of the term has further blurred the distinction between lox, Nova lox, and smoked salmon. Did you know the distinction between the two?

Source: Flickr User jeredb