Back in the Kitchen: A Sekiu Fishing Haul Meets a Modest Garden Harvest

Back in the Kitchen After Ten Days Away

Last night I was finally able to get back into the kitchen and whip up a real dinner, my first in about two weeks that didn’t just mean heating something up courtesy of Chef Mike. We’d spent ten days away from Paso Robles, up on the Olympic Peninsula in the tiny town of Sekiu, population 24. Our rental house sat right on the Salish Sea, just 18 miles from Victoria Island, Canada. The trip itself was amazing, but we also came home with a bonus we hadn’t planned on: nearly 10 pounds of fresh, caught fish, including salmon, halibut, sablefish, and black rockfish. We didn’t expect it, but our host was kind enough to part with the haul.

This Season’s Garden: A Bit of a Letdown

Coming home also meant facing the garden, and I’ll admit I’m a little disappointed with this year’s results. Looking back at all the seedlings I started with, and comparing where things stand now to the last few summer growing seasons, the gap is hard to ignore. The tomatoes are way down this year. I’m only getting two varieties, compared to four last year, and there hasn’t been a single volunteer popping up in the tomato bed this time around. The zucchini plant has had its own struggles too. It needs constant watering just to keep going, and even then it usually ends up partially sunburnt by the time it’s ready to pick. It hasn’t been a total failure, but I had higher hopes for what the garden would give us this summer.

Still, the Garden Delivers

Even with a smaller harvest, the garden still comes through when it counts. Last night I used our Cherokee purple tomatoes and Armenian cucumber in a salad, and both were fantastic. The tomato in particular was incredibly juicy and bursting with umami flavor, the kind of depth you just can’t get from anything store-bought.

Pan-Seared Rockfish with Lemon Butter Bucatini

For the main course, I pulled out a portion of the black rockfish we’d brought back from Sekiu. After defrosting the fillets, I patted them dry and seasoned both sides simply with kosher salt and ground pepper, getting them ready to pan sear in avocado oil. While that came together, I boiled bucatini for about nine minutes to al dente, planning to finish it in a butter, garlic, and lemon pan sauce once the rockfish was seared. A splash of starchy pasta water went into the pan too, which helped create an emulsion that clung to the bucatini beautifully.

Plating a Simple, Fresh Dinner

I plated the lemon pasta with the seared rockfish fillet on top, finished with a scattering of Italian parsley, and served it alongside a small romaine salad with our home-grown tomatoes and cucumber. All in all, it came together as a quick, simple dinner built around fish caught on our trip and vegetables straight from the garden. One note for next time: the lemon can get overbearing fast. I juiced a single lemon but only ended up using about half of it, since it was already bordering on too acidic once paired with the richness of the butter.