one fish, two fish, white fish, new fish

"I'm about to be a pain in the ass"... was the prefacing warning I provided Eddie, my fish monger @ the P Street Whole Foods (apparently the highest volume Whole Foods in the company)...on a Saturday afternoon. I can't help it. When I have an interesting idea...I need action! I don't want to just sit around and wait for another time to research whitefish. Luckily, my fish guy is awesome, and got my eight 2-ounce portions of every single whitefish they had in the case. Here's the lineup:

Black Cod
Pacific Cod
Chilean Sea Bass
Tilapia
Trout
Monkfish
Swordfish
Catfish

The mission: learn taste/texture contrast between all of them, with minimal variables involved. Lightly seasoned with s&p, grilled on the grill pan in as natural a state as possible. So, with the assistance of my harp-playing buddy Nadia, the games began.

official setup

grill pans are awesome

My notes are as follows:
Catfish - not very fishy, flaky, thin, dry
Pacific Cod - flaky, fairly dry, not fishy
Black cod - very thick flakes, buttery/oily
Monkfish - dense, not flaky, rather sponge-like, moist (although not oily)
Trout - very flaky, thin, dry but meaty
Tilapia - fairly flaky, but moist. Medium flakes. light fishy flavor
Swordfish - steaklike. good flavor, absorbs salt well (assuming it'll absorb anything quite well). thick
Chilean Sea Bass - Large flakes, buttery, mild flavor

Memorable quotes from Nadia: "I want to make a salad with trout. Something like a chicken salad." "I'll save my opinion on monkfish for later."

Sure, this experience was certainly not to determine a "wishfish winner," but this a competitive society. :) Swordfish took the cake by far. Chilean Sea Bass is way overrated, and trout somewhat underrated. Monkfish won't be found on any future plate of Nadia's, but I may experiment with that ugly duck if I happen to feel frisky.

Recommendations on what to analyze next?

Sweet Potato Hummus Showdown

Confession. I totally fell in love with Soupergirl's sweet potato hummus (For those of you local to DC...she has a store somewhere by the Takoma metro stop, but I catch her at the DuPont farmer's market every Sunday). Silly her, though....for placing an ingredient list on her containers :) People like me will definitely try to duplicate....and one-up :) Here it goes:

roasted sweet potato
tahini
garlic
onion
sweet paprika
olive oil
lemon juice
salt & pepper

Of course, there are plenty of variables here. How much of each? Is the garlic roasted or raw? What about the onions? What kind of sweet potato (which the overall flavor is hiiiiighly dependent on. If the sweet potato isn't very sweet, there's a huge flavor difference, taking you from a sweet-ish dip to fairly savory). And...what does she use to mix everything? Assuming not a Vitamix, as hers has a fair amount of texture to it. Whenever I run mine through the Vitamix, smooth and silky becomes the default.

soupergirl (left), me (right)

Results? Try it yourself. Experiment. I had about an even split on "whose is better?" amongst friends (in a blind taste test, of course :) Want yours a little sweeter? Maybe a dash of cinnamon and a touch of honey? More savory? Load up on the garlic. Even toss in some chickpeas if you want a more "authentic" hummus. Or...you can get really wild and crazy and give Japanese sweet potato a whirl. Check this out:

Beware with the Japanese sweet potato, though. It tends to get rather gummy in hummus form. My next attempt at this will either include more olive oil, or some chickpeas, to smooth out the texture. It was fabulously creamy mashed potatoes while still warm after roasting, but when cooling off...insanely gummy (although still delish!)