{"id":5017,"date":"2015-08-16T00:23:24","date_gmt":"2015-08-16T00:23:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/food.hoggardwagner.org\/?p=5017"},"modified":"2015-08-16T00:23:24","modified_gmt":"2015-08-16T00:23:24","slug":"dorade-minutina-tomato-and-cucumber-salsa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/food.hoggardwagner.org\/?p=5017","title":{"rendered":"dolphinfish; minutina; tomato and cucumber salsa"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Dorado_Schlaff650\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Becca Schlaff Dorade <\/em>oil on canvas 36″\u00a0x\u00a060″<\/p>\n

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I forgot to put the SD card back in the camera after uploading the last batch of my pictures to the computer, so\u00a0unfortunately there are no\u00a0photo images of\u00a0his meal. \u00a0Instead I’ve located the painting above as a stand-in for the main focus of the meal, and I managed to save some phone images of some of the vegetables while they were still at the Greenmarket.<\/p>\n

Dolphinfish<\/a>, perhaps the males especially, with their prominent square foreheads, are among the most spectacular-looking finned creatures in the sea. \u00a0In addition, they are apparently among the most plentiful, at least among fish of their size.\u00a0 They are also absolutely delicious, which brings them to this blog.<\/p>\n

Maybe it’s the New England in me, but I don’t like using the name, ‘mahi-mahi’ on this side of the continent, so I will continue to refer to this\u00a0creature\u00a0as a\u00a0‘dolphinfish’, or ‘dolphin’ (or, in cookery, as ‘dorade’, or ‘dorado’, the name by which online sources say Europeans have come to know it, at least in their kitchens and on their dining tables).<\/p>\n

After writing all of that, I will confess that I remain confused about the\u00a0freedom with which the name ‘dorade’\u00a0seems to be thrown about on the other side of the Atlantic, at least according to the Wikipedia entry for ‘mahi-mahi’. \u00a0In Europe, Dorade actually seems to be a form of bream, and not the ‘common dogfish<\/a>‘.<\/p>\n

All of which reflects the fact that, like most fish species,\u00a0dolphinfish\u00a0are both blessed with, and easily confused through, the use of\u00a0many names. \u00a0Today\u00a0most people in the western hemisphere know it\u00a0as mahi-mahi, a rather cute-sounding Hawaiian name (meaning ‘strong-strong’, possibly an allusion to the fish’s sturdy\u00a0appearance as much as its fighting spirit when hooked). That\u00a0tag\u00a0was\u00a0apparently broadcast\u00a0beyond the central Pacific by merchandisers who wished to avoid the common\u00a0confusion of the sport and commercial fish with a\u00a0beloved\u00a0mammal [yeah, you’d thnk..]. \u00a0 They share\u00a0the name because, it is said, both creatures have a habit of swimming\u00a0alongside boats.<\/p>\n

Finally, when it comes to the word, ‘dolphin’, my imagination is\u00a0never very far from\u00a0the graceful creatures that appear so frequently\u00a0in\u00a0classical design and architecture.\u00a0I mentioned this in my first Food Blog post about preparing dolphinfish<\/a>. \u00a0But of course\u00a0I would love them for that alone.<\/p>\n