Simply shad

Have you ever heard of shad?  It is a fish.  I had no clue.  A wise man at work told me about it though.  He likes good food.  Let's just say we have good talks.  He nicely shares recipes he and wife deem yummy.  Last week he let me in on the shad secret.  It's in season right now and boy is it good. 

Every weekend Mr. J tells me the same thing when I ask him what he wants at the grocery store for the coming week.  "I don't know" is the typical response.  Normally it is followed by some random very difficult dinner idea or simple lets have something fun.  "Fun" means new and unique.  Most of the time this really puts me out.  That is hard to accomplish every week, given time, money and availability of food constraints. 

But shad is new!  New = unique.  Plus Mr. J loves fish.  Perfect.  I trekked to the local fancy dancy fish market to see if they had it.  Low and behold there it was and only $9.99/LB.  Perfect!

The wise old man at work also gave me a recipe.  Broiled Shad. Pretty simple.  Yep, I can do that.  Even better though is that when we have these "fun" meals Mr. J really gets into the cooking part.  Thus, Sunday night Mr. J whipped me up some broiled shad.

Broiled Shad

From wise man at work

(He gave me a photocopy.)

Ingredients:

6 Tbsp butter, cut into small pieces

2 1/2 LB shad, filleted but with skin left on

salt

pepper

lemon wedges

For the record, we halved the recipe for only 1LB of shad, and only used about 2 Tbsp of butter.

1. Preheat the broiler to its highest point.

2. Choose a shallow, flameproof pan that can go from stove top to oven.

3.  Heat butter till melted.  Dip shad in butter. Turn to coat both sides thoroughly.  Salt and pepper to taste.

4. Broil fish skin side down, about 4 inches from the heat for about 4 minutes.  Remove from oven and baste with butter in pan. Return to oven and bake for about 3-4 additional minutes until done. 

The shad will be done when the flesh is opaque and flakes easily when gently prodded with fork.

5. Serve with lemon wedges.

I am telling you this is the simplest fish dish ever.  I am always a bit skeptical about fish. I have a thing against white fish.  I cannot mouth haddock for my life.  I am salmon and tuna kind of girl.  This fish was delicious!  It was not as meaty as tuna but much more filling than your typical white fish.  The over all texture though was incredibly light and delicate.  Basically this will be a weekly occurrence until the fancy dancy fish market stops carrying it.  Thank you wise man at work!