Vegetables and side dishes: Starches are great with fish and seafood. The French love to serve baguettes (those long tasty bead flutes). For other meals tiny boiled potatoes with the skins left on are great. For green vegetables, peas go great, so does zucchini, unpeeled and stir fried with some garlic or with mushrooms.

Salads and Salad platters: Tossed salads for fish meals are best when lemon juice is included in the dressing. Tart dressings are great to clear the palate. Sometimes it is even good to serve a plain salad with no added vegetable, especially when grilling.

What to drink with Fish: Except for those who avoid alcoholic beverages, it is traditional to serve chilled, light whine. Some prefer light and fruity whines. Another great drink is champagne, and some still prefer a great cold beer to go with their fish. non alcoholic drinks that go great include grapefruit juice, dry ginger ale and club soda. Anything with a twist of lime also goes great!

With fish centered dishes, there are many options!

Fish is a good bet nutritionally. We should all eat more of it because it is better for us in more ways than meat.

Protein: fish is higher in protein than beef! The average amount in fish is about 19 %, as compared to 15% in most beef.

Fat: Fish is extremely low in fat. Most fish contains fewer than 5% fat. The fattiest fish around is only 18% fat! On the other hand, on average beef contains 30% fat. The fat that fish does contain is unsaturated and polyunsaturated. These are good fats. They do not contribute to cholesterol. Some argue that this type of fat actually reduces cholesterol.

Carbohydrates and calories: fish contain absolutely no carbohydrates. Fish is both low in fat and low in carbohydrates, and has an obvious low caloric value

Vitamins and Minerals: Fish is high in vitamins, particularly vitamin A and D and is also high in minerals. Fish is also low in sodium.

Digestibility: Fish have very little connective tissue, this is why fish cooks so quickly, and also why fish flakes when it falls apart. This is also why fish is highly digestible.

Serves 4 to 6

Need

• 12 ounces fresh or frozen skinless fish fillets ( cod, grouper, or trout)
• 3 cups water
• 1 14 ½ ounce can vegetable or reduced sodium chicken broth
• ½ teaspoon ground cumin
• ¼ teaspoon garlic powder
• Several dashes bottled hot pepper sauce
• 1 10- ounce can tomatoes with jalapeno peppers
• 1 small cucumber, chopped ( 1 cup)
• 1 small yellow summer squash or zucchini, c hopped ( 1 cup)
• 2 plum tomatoes, chopped ( 1 cup)
• 2 to 3 green onions, sliced ( ¼ cup)

Thaw the fish if frozen. Rinse the fish. Cut the fish into ½ inch pieces

In a medium saucepan bring water to boiling; add fish. Cover and simmer for 3 to 4 minutes or until the fish flakes easily with a fork. Drain the fish; cove and chill.

In a medium saucepan combine the broth, cumin, garlic powder, and hot pepper sauce. Bring mixture to boiling. Remove from heat. Transfer to a large bowl. Stir in the tomatoes with jalapeno peppers, cucumber, yellow summer squash, or zucchini, plum tomatoes, and green onions. Cover and chill for 4 to 12 hours. Before serving, stir chilled fish into the vegetable mixture. Makes 4 to 6 servings

Nutrition: 124 calories per serving, 16 g protein, 12 g carbohydrates, 2 g fat ( 0 g saturated), 33 mg cholesterol, 677 mg sodium, 506 mg potassium.

This authentic Thai dish is sure to please!

Serves 2 to 3

Need:

• 4 cups fish or chicken stock
• 4 lemon grass stalks
• 3 limes
• 2 small fresh hot red chilies, seeded and thinly sliced
• 2cm a piece of fresh galangal, peeled and thinly sliced
• 6 coriander stalks, with leaves
• 2 kaffir lime leaves, coarsely chopped (optional)
• 12 oz monkfish fillet, skinned and cut into 2.5 cm
• 15 ml/ 1 tbsp rice vinegar
• 3 tbsp Thai fish sauce
• 2 tbsp chopped coriander leaves, to garnish

1. Put the stock into a saucepan and bring to boil. Meanwhile, slice the bulb ends of each lemon grass stalk diagonally into pieces about 3 mm thick. Peel off four wide strips of lime rind with a potato peeler, taking care to avoid the white pith underneath which would make the soup biter. Squeeze the limes and reserve the juice.
2. Add the sliced lemon grass, lime rind, chilies, galangal and coriander stalks to the stock, with the kaffir lime leaves, if using. Simmer for 1-2 minutes.
3. Add the monkfish, rice vinegar and Thai fish sauce, with half of the reserved lime juice. Simmer for about 3 minutes, until the fish is just cooked. Lift out and discard the coriander stalks, taste the broth and add more lime juice if necessary; the soup should taste quite sour. Sprinkle with the coriander leaves and serve very hot.

Smoked eel has become a very popular dish, and is seen on the most sophisticated tables.

Serves 4

Ingredients Needed

• 1 lb smoked eel fillets, skinned
• 2 large heads of chicory, separated
• 4 radicchio leaves
• Flat leaf parsley leaves, to garnish

For the citrus dressing

• 1 lemon
• 1 orange
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp Dijon mustard
• 6 tbsp sunflower oil
• 1 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
• Salt and ground black pepper

1. Cut the fillets diagonally into 8 pieces. Make the dressing. Using the zestier, carefully remove the rind in strips from the lemon and the orange. Squeeze the juice from both fruit. Set the lemon juice aside and pour the orange juice into a small pan. Stir the rinds and sugar. Bring to a boil and reduce by half. Leave to cool.
2. Whisk the Dijon mustard, reserved lemon juice and the sunflower oil together in a bowl. Add the orange juice mixture, then stir in the chopped fresh parsley. Season to taste with salt and ground black pepper and whisk again.
3. Arrange the Chicory leaves in a circle on individual plates, with the pointed ends radiating outwards like the spokes of a wheel. Take the radicchio leaves between the chicory leaves
4. Drizzle a little of the dressing over the leaves and place four pieces of the eel in a star shape in the middle. Garnish with the parsley leaves and serve. Offer the remaining dressing separately.