Tuna Toast

Slow Roasted Tomato & Goat Cheese Crostini + Arctic Char With Lentils

The main subject of this post is the fish, so let's get the crostini out of the way, shall we?

This appetizer is simple to slap together, but it does take a bit of planning since the cherry tomatoes take about 2 hours to slow roast. Just cut each tomato in half lengthwise and toss in a bowl with a bit of olive oil, salt, pepper and thyme; lay them cut side up on a baking sheet. Top each with a thin slice of garlic, and roast at 275 for 2-3 hours until they start to shrivel up and most of the moisture from the tomato is gone. Smear some goat cheese on slices of toasted baguette and top each slice with some of the tomatoes. You can drizzle a bit of balsamic glaze over the top if you like. Eat with wine, or champagne, or just...eat.



Ok, now on to the main event!

My food-blogger-brother-from-another-mother Dylan has been telling me about McCall's Meat & Fish Company in Los Feliz for months. I've read about it on blogs and have heard they carry amazingly high-quality meat and fish, all picked and cut by the two proprietors. After reading Dylan's love letter to McCall's, I couldn't put it off any longer and made my way to the small shop on Hillhurst, and came home bearing two beautiful, perfectly trimmed and shiny pieces of arctic char. I'll add that it took me awhile to decide what to buy, since McCall's also had grass-fed Argentinian beef, gorgeous thick-cut bone-in pork chops, glimmering pearly-white sea scallops and fatty, sashimi-grade hamachi, to name a few. I felt the way Carrie Bradshaw must feel while perusing the shoe department at Barney's, although I did resist the urge to bend down and tell one particularly handsome rib-eye steak, "Hello, lover," because that would have been, um, weird.

Fish that fresh begs you to not screw with it, so I just sprinkled on a bit of sea salt and black pepper and seared it in a smokin' hot pan to get the skin nice and crispy. I brushed the thinnest coat of a dijon and clover honey mix before finishing it off in the oven. Here it is, in all it's glory, sitting on a bed of lentils, asparagus and spinach:

It was incredibly moist, flaky and oozing with good fish fat and the skin was basically like fish bacon- yuuumy. J and I just kind of looked at each other like, holy cow, but didn't want to stop eating in order to talk, so we just kept eating. The quality of McCall's fish is leaps and bounds higher than even that of Whole Foods, and we won't insult them by mentioning any other grocery stores since those aren't even in the same class.

My only regret is that I didn't visit McCall's sooner and am eager to try the rest of their meat and seafood. If you haven't been yet, run and see what goodies they have today. It changes based on what's fresh and seasonal, so you know whatever you bring home will be delicious.