Roasted Shad with Potatoes and Garlic Broccoli Rabe with Pine Nuts

Never had shad before? It's a tasty, flavorful fish native to the U.S. and found in salt water. It's fairly regional, to the mid-Atlantic, and only pops up in stores for a couple months a year. However, early spring is the time to find it! Right now shad (and shad roe...sacks of fish eggs) should be available at a nice, upscale grocery. I highly recommend searching it down so that you can try this delicious fish while it's available. It has a darker color, almost similar in color to blue fish when cooked, and has a light but definitive taste that means very little is needed to make this a delicious meal.

In the recipe below I simply roast the shad with some potatoes and onions. I add some cumin for flavor, but also largely let the natural flavors of these products characterize the dish. I also sauteed up some broccoli rabe, always a delight, with some garlic and pine nuts to truly round out this meal.

Difficulty: easy
Time: 1 hr
Cost: $23.67



Roasted Shad with Potatoes
Time: 1 hr

Ingredients:
2 lb small red potatoes, chopped into bite-sized pieces
1 sweet onion, chopped
2 tsp olive oil
2 tsp cumin (ground)
1 lb shad (de-boned)

Get your oven pre-heating to 400 degrees.

Grease a 9x13 glass baking dish with cooking spray. Prepare your potatoes and onions (do not peel the potatoes) and put them in the glass baking dish. Drizzle the olive oil over top and toss until evenly mixed. Add a little more than half of your cumin to the potatoes and onions and toss well again.

Bake your potato mixture for 30 minutes.

Remove the potatoes from the oven, but keep the oven heating. Place the shad over the top of the potatoes, skin-side down. Sprinkle the rest of your cumin evenly over the fish. Bake the entire dish for another 20-25 minutes or until the shad is cooked and the potatoes are tender.

Garlic Broccoli Rabe with Pine Nuts
Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:
2 tsp olive oil
1 tsp butter
4 cloves garlic, minced
3 c broccoli rabe, cut into 2" long pieces
2 tbsp pine nuts

Heat a pan over medium-high heat. When the pan is hot, add the olive oil and butter, swirling to coat. As soon as the butter melts, add the garlic. Saute for 1 minute, stirring the entire time. Add the broccoli rabe. Saute for 5 minutes.

Remove from the heat and add the pine nuts to the pan. Stir until evenly mixed and then serve immediately.