Arctic Char
“Arctic Char,” the sign said. I was standing in the fish market and looking a bit sideways at a fish that was shaped like a trout but was nearly the color of wild salmon. “Is that the char?” I asked the fishmonger. “It looks like a cross between trout and salmon!”
“That’s exactly what it is,” she answered. “It’s related to both and tastes somewhere in between. Would you like to try one?”
A foregone conclusion! My two favorite fish are trout and salmon…and now I have three favorites, because just as the fishmonger said, char tastes like trout (except richer and more buttery) and like salmon (except not quite as gamey). Char filets are slim like trout and therefore cook a bit more quickly than salmon…and like its cousins, char is wonderful eaten cold the next day, or served alongside eggs or avocado, or tossed into a salad. The only seasoning I added was a bit of fleur de sel sea salt — that’s all it needed. Being a fairly fatty fish and coming from cold climates (“Arctic” char), char is also a good source of omega-3s. Its skin is even pretty: a somewhat-whimsical palette of silvery grey flecked with pink spots.
To prepare this 3/4 pound of char, I simply rinsed the filet in cold water, then placed it on an aluminum-foil-lined pan and stuck the whole thing into my toaster oven. (I’ve found that 3/4 of a pound of fish exactly fits into the oven tray.) Whether you’re using a regular-sized oven or a toaster-sized one, bake it at 350 degrees for 15 minutes and then flake the flesh with a fork to see if it’s done; when it is, the flesh will turn opaque and will easily flake apart.
I heartily recommend trying char if you can find it. It’s all the rage in Canada, Scotland, Iceland, and many other northern-lying countries, and for good reason! Any well-stocked fishmonger should have some char nestled in amongst the trout and salmon counters.
Enjoy!
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Tags: arctic char, char, fish, salmon
