Fish Feast

When Steve and Charlotte Correia want to cook for a crowd at their Topanga Canyon home, they don’t roast a turkey or carve up a ham. They don’t grill a batch of burgers or dogs on a summer Sunday. When they entertain, the Correias cook a whole tuna.

Steve, a noted glass artist and bona fide member of the dressed-in-black L.A. art world, is the son of Manuel Correia, a retired Point Loma commercial tuna fisherman. Steve and his brothers and sisters grew up eating fisherman’s catch imbued with the spices and herbs of rustic Madeiran cooking. So it’s only natural for Correia to gut, clean and bake a tuna that his dad gets for a song from one of his San Diego fishing buddies.

Whether they bake the fish at home or roast it over an open fire on their annual beach camping trips, the Correias serve it with simple tomato, potato and green salads and lots of French bread--and don’t forget the tartar sauce. On special occasions, Steve’s sister, Patti, the designated baker of the old family recipe, brings a moist Madeira-style pound cake, rich with cinnamon, nutmeg, raisins, citrus and red wine.

It’s an easy meal that readily feeds Steve, Charlotte (a teacher), their three teenage children and a multitude of friends and relatives.

Of the best-known tuna varieties (albacore, yellowfin, bluefin, bigeye and skipjack), albacore is Steve’s favorite because it is lean and mild, with pure white meat. “It’s the only tuna that can be legally called white meat,” he says.

This is the local albacore season. Every July to October, the waters along the West Coast from San Diego to British Columbia are in just the mid-60-degree range that albacore like. The Western Fishboat Owners Assn. says 1999 looks like a good year for albacore.

The minute you walk into the Correias’ rose-bedecked cottage in Old Topanga, you feel the pull of the sea. Posters and paintings of seashells adorn the walls. A giant clam shell holds magazines. Even the reading lamp near the sofa is shaded by a large shell.

Steve’s early Tiffany-style art glass echoes the shapes and iridescent colors of the undersea world. The glass is everywhere, on tabletops and shelves in every room. Kitchen cupboards spill forth multihued tumblers and goblets. Here and there are scattered pieces of his newer, abstract optical crystal sculpture.

Steve started slowly defrosting one of the 25-pound albacore from the freezer two days before the party. Now he guts the fish and cuts away the head and tail, leaving an 18-pound, 21-inch bone-in roast. (Many fish markets will do this for you.)

You can buy whole albacore, with head and tail on, in sizes ranging from 20 to 40 pounds. Figure about a pound of whole fish per person. You’ll have plenty of leftovers for tuna salad.

When cooked, the flesh is creamy white, like poultry white meat--why do you think it’s called chicken of the sea?--and even needs a little extra attention to keep from getting overcooked and dry. (For those who always take the turkey leg, skipjack--the other small tuna--is fattier, darker and stronger-tasting.)

As her in-laws taught her, Charlotte fills the cavity of an albacore with sliced onion, garlic and bay leaves--the aromatic trinity of Madeira--and lays in several strips of bacon to lard the lean fish. She tops the fish with more of the same, wraps it tightly in heavy-duty foil and places it in a large roaster. Cooking the fish this way creates steam, which also helps keep the fish moist. Long before guests arrive, the main dish is for the most part doing its thing unattended.

The senior Correias, who still live in San Diego, are the first to arrive. Tall, rugged 80-year-old Manuel blows in showing off his new fish-print shirt and heads right for the kitchen with five pounds of his favorite Moniz brand Portuguese linguica sausages. His wife, Anita, follows with the makings for bolitas, the family’s nickname for Portuguese green peas in a cinnamon-spiked tomato sauce.

“They don’t eat a lot of linguica in Madeira,” Manuel explains in his raspy voice as he cuts the foot-long garlic- and paprika-laced sausages into chunks and pierces them with a knife. “Farmers make linguica, and there’s not a lot of flat farmland on Madeira.”

Closer to Morocco than to mainland Portugal, the island of Madeira was a stepping stone for the spice trade in the 15th century. Earlier Moorish influences have also left their culinary marks. Madeiran cuisine is fragrant with spices, especially cinnamon, and with citrus and sweets. At the same time, it is spare, with simply prepared seafood.

After an hour of simmering, most of the liquid is gone and the linguica are delicious, chewy and tender. Manuel tucks them into soft French rolls. “Nobody doesn’t like linguica,” he commands, pushing the little sandwiches to all who enter the kitchen.

Watching his strong hands as he tends the skillet, you can easily imagine him as a youth wielding a hand line on an eight-man rowboat to land tuna the way they did from Paul do Mar on Madeira’s southwest coast. A fisherman since third grade, he came alone to the U.S. when he was 16, joining his parents, who had left the island just after he was born.

At first, he worked on smaller boats, bait fishing. Excursions often lasted months as crews searched for tuna as far as Peru and Chile. It was on such a voyage 58 years ago that he docked at Costa Rica and met Anita. “He was fishing, but I fished him,” she says, laughing.

As they have for more than half a century, Anita speaks to Manuel in Spanish and he answers in Portuguese. They make the peas--bolitas in Spanish, ervhilhas in Portuguese--together (“When he retired from fishing,” she says, “I retired from the kitchen”). When sauteed onion and garlic are fragrant and tomato sauce has been added to the pot and thickened slightly, Anita adds several cans of peas and their juices. When it’s just about done, she adds a last generous teaspoon of cinnamon.

The fisherman’s five children work together in the arts. Patti owns a gallery in Bergamot Station in Santa Monica. It was her marketing skill that launched Correia Art Glass in the ‘70s, placing her brother’s work in the permanent collections of internationally renowned museums.

Algerine is president of Correia Art Glass, now that Steve is busy with Correia Crystal across the street. Youngest brother Jeffrey, in from New York, is its principal designer. Cindy is a woodworker in Northern California; she’s the only family member who didn’t make it to the party.

Fish stories fly. Steve and his family remember festive trips to San Pedro with their mother to greet their father’s returning boat, which by the ‘60s was a 600-ton purse seiner. During school vacations, Steve worked at the messy job of unloading the boat and was in line for a spot on a seiner. “But from the time I was in sixth grade, I knew I wanted to be an artist,” he says.

When he broke ranks, “He paved the way for the rest of us to go into the arts,” Patti recalls.

Perhaps the increasing difficulties the tuna industry was undergoing softened any disappointment Manuel might have had that his children didn’t follow in his footsteps.

By the 1970s tuna fishing was becoming a hot environmental and geopolitical topic. Tuna industry historian August Felando and William Bayliff, senior scientist at the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission, say several factors led to the decline of the American tuna industry: the focus on dolphin-safe tuna, the differing U.S. tariffs for oil- and water-packed tuna, changing marketing and consumer demand, environmental concerns over cannery pollution and the rising value of tideland property.

Today only one full-service tuna cannery remains in mainland United States, Chicken of the Sea International in San Pedro--stunning, because the U.S. is still the world’s largest consumer of canned tuna.

Charlotte squeezes into the crowded kitchen to make a mountain of potato salad. Boiled potatoes are a mainstay of the Portuguese diet and complement Portuguese-style long-cooked vegetables. Today, Charlotte updates the favored side dish, spiking it with grated fresh garlic and black olives.

After the tuna’s been roasting for two hours, Charlotte and Steve check for doneness, baste the fish with the juices that have collected in the bottom of the foil wrapping and return it to the oven for about an hour more.

This is the tricky part. If you wait until there is absolutely no pink left near the bone, the tuna may overcook, because heat will continue to spread through it for several minutes after it is removed from the oven. Plan on baking an albacore about 10 minutes per pound. Then remove it from the oven and wait 20 minutes before unwrapping the foil.

When the fish is ready, Steve discards the skin and bones and the very dark meat along the “bloodline” that runs down the center of each filet. He puts great chunks of the white meat on a platter that Charlotte garnishes with lettuce and wedges of tomato and lemon. As the crowning touch, they pour the pan juices over the fish, and the feast is ready.

The salads and bolitas are brought out in Correia glass bowls to tables set with traditional Madeiran embroidered cloths and Correia vases filled with Charlotte’s abundant roses. Steve carries out the huge platter of albacore. All that tuna will feed more than 15 Correias, and soon friends and neighbors descend on the creekside cottage, bringing more salads and desserts.

Before long, all that remain are a few crumbs of delicious spice cake and a small bowl of tuna. Manuel heads back to the kitchen and, as he has for decades, pickles the remaining fish Portuguese-style. He pours vinegar over the chunks of fish, adds slivers of garlic, some sliced onion and, of course, bay leaves. Then one small dried chile, a little olive oil and water to cover. “It’ll keep for a week,” says the salty dog.

Turkey or tuna, there are always leftovers.

Potato Salad With Black Olives

Active Work Time: 15 minutes * Total Preparation Time: 1 hour

4 large baking potatoes (about 3 pounds), quartered

2 large cloves garlic

1/2 cup sliced black olives (use less if olives are strongly flavored)

1 cup mayonnaise

Salt, pepper

* Boil potatoes in salted water until easily pierced with fork, but do not overcook, about 15 to 20 minutes. Drain and cool. Peel potatoes and cut into 1-inch chunks and place in mixing bowl.

* Grate or press garlic and add to potatoes. Add olives and enough mayonnaise to coat potatoes, and mix gently but thoroughly. Taste for salt. Add salt and pepper to taste and mix again. Refrigerate until ready to serve. (May be prepared a day ahead.)

8 to 10 servings. Each of 10 servings: 183 calories; 241 mg sodium; 6 mg cholesterol; 9 grams fat; 25 grams carbohydrates; 3 grams protein; 0.53 gram fiber.

Portuguese Fisherman’s Baked Tuna

Active Work Time: 15 minutes * Total Preparation Time: 55 minutes

Long, slow baking en papillote keeps the fish moist. Leftovers make delicious tuna salad and marinated tuna. If using a whole fish, double the stuffing but cook to the same number of minutes per pound.

1 (4-pound) tuna filet (preferably albacore), butterflied

4 slices bacon

1 bay leaf

1 clove garlic, chopped

1/2 large onion, thinly sliced

Coarse salt or sea salt

1/2 teaspoon black peppercorns

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

Lemon wedges, for garnish

Italian parsley or cilantro sprigs, for garnish

* Lay tuna on large sheet of heavy-duty foil. Lay 2 slices bacon, bay leaf, garlic, quarter of onion, salt, peppercorns and 1 tablespoon oil in center of fish. Press fish closed. Rub remaining oil over surface of fish, lay remaining bacon and onion on top and tightly seal foil. Place in open roasting pan and bake at 325 degrees until done but still moist, 9 to 10 minutes per pound, or 35 to 40 minutes. Halfway through cooking time, open foil, check for doneness, turn tuna over and spoon juices over fish. Reseal and finish baking.

* Remove tuna to work surface, being careful to reserve juices. Discard onion, bacon and bay leaf. Cut or break tuna into chunks and arrange pieces on platter. Taste for salt, pour reserved cooking juices over and garnish with lemon slices and parsley or cilantro.

12 servings. Each serving: 199 calories; 80 mg sodium; 46 mg cholesterol; 8 grams fat; 1 grams carbohydrates; 28 grams protein; 0.03 gram fiber.

Marinated Tuna

Active Work and Total Preparation Time: 10 minutes plus 8 hours marinating time

This use for leftover baked tuna is similar to Spanish escabeche. This also is a great solution for overcooked fish.

2 cups cooked firm fish such as albacore, yellowfin or swordfish

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1/2 cup vinegar

1/2 small onion, thinly sliced

2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced

1/4 teaspoon black peppercorns, lightly crushed

1 bay leaf, broken in 2 to 3 pieces

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 small dried chile such as chile de arbol, broken in 2 to 3 pieces

Water

* Break fish into bite-size chunks and place in deep glass bowl. Add oil, vinegar, onion, garlic, peppercorns, bay leaf, salt and chile to bowl and mix with fish. Add enough water just to cover fish. Cover and refrigerate overnight. (Will keep 1 week.)

8 servings. Each serving: 74 calories; 159 mg sodium; 10 mg cholesterol; 5 grams fat; 1 grams carbohydrates; 6 grams protein; 0.04 gram fiber.

Peas in Spicy Tomato Sauce

Bolitas or Ervilhas

Active Work Time: 20 minutes * Total Preparation Time: 1 hour 20 minutes

This saucy dish is commonly made with canned peas because they are soft and very sweet. The peas go well with another Portuguese favorite, boiled potatoes.

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1 small onion, finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 (8-ounce) cans tomato sauce

3 (16-ounce) cans green peas drained, liquid reserved

Freshly ground pepper

1 teaspoon cinnamon

Kosher or sea salt

* Heat oil in wide pot over medium heat. Add onion and garlic and saute until golden, about 5 minutes. Add tomato sauce and 1 cup liquid from peas. Bring to boil uncovered and cook sauce 5 minutes. Add peas, reserving any additional liquid. Return to boil, then reduce heat and simmer 1 hour, stirring occasionally, until peas are very soft and sauce is thickened. Midway through cooking, add generous grindings of pepper. Shortly before peas are done, add cinnamon and some salt (the predominant flavors should be sweet and spicy). If sauce gets too thick during cooking, add reserved liquid from peas.

8 to 10 servings. Each of 10 servings: 120 calories; 677 mg sodium; 0 mg cholesterol; 5 grams fat; 16 grams carbohydrates; 5 grams protein; 2.32 grams fiber.

Madeira-Style Spice Cake

Active Work Time: 20 minutes * Total Preparation Time: 4 to 8 hours

This dense, moist, spicy cake rich with red wine is typical of the flavors favored by Madeirans. Plan ahead; the longer the raisins soak in milk the better, and this cake is best cooled in the pan overnight.

1/2 cup golden raisins

2 1/2 cups milk, room temperature

1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) butter, softened

2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon shortening or lard

4 1/3 cups flour

3 cups light brown sugar, lightly packed or 1 1/2 cups light and 1 1/2 cups dark

1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 1/2 teaspoons nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

3/4 cup red wine

2 1/2 tablespoons whiskey

1 tablespoon molasses

Zest of 1 large lemon

1 2/3 cups finely chopped walnuts

2 teaspoons baking soda

2 teaspoons baking powder

* Soak raisins in milk in refrigerator several hours or overnight.

* Melt together butter and shortening and set aside to cool.

* Place flour and brown sugar in bowl of mixer and blend on low (medium if using hand-held mixer) until completely blended and no lumps of brown sugar remain. Add cinnamon, nutmeg and salt and mix.

* With mixer running, add eggs, wine, cooled butter-shortening mixture, whiskey, molasses and lemon zest. (Once there is enough liquid in bowl to keep flour from flying out, turn mixer to medium.) Turn off mixer and pour in milk and raisin mixture, incorporate briefly by hand, turn mixer back on and beat at medium speed until well blended. This whole process should take 3 to 5 minutes.

* Reserve 1/3 cup chopped walnuts for topping. Stir remaining nuts into batter. Add baking soda and baking powder and beat at medium speed just until blended. Pour batter into greased and floured (10-inch) bundt pan, smooth top and sprinkle with remaining nuts. Bake at 350 degrees until cake tester inserted comes out clean, about 1 hour 10 minutes. Cool on rack several hours, preferably overnight, before removing from pan.

12 to 16 servings. Each of 16 servings: 567 calories; 345 mg sodium; 77 mg cholesterol; 28 grams fat; 72 grams carbohydrates; 7 grams protein; 0.73 gram fiber.

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Types of Tuna

The five common species of tuna must swim continuously and are highly migratory. Built for speed, they’ve been clocked at almost 50 miles per hour and can cross the ocean in six to eight weeks. The tuna that gets away from you in the eastern Pacific may well be the same fish you catch only a few weeks later near Hawaii.

* Skipjack. Half the 3 million tons of tuna caught each year is skipjack. A small tuna that swims in tight, pure (read: no dolphins) schools, it is commonly purse-seined. Oilier than albacore, with a strong flavor. It’s what you’ll often find in a can of light meat tuna.

* Yellowfin. Second in world production. Not to be confused with yellowtail, which is in the jack family. Most popular commercial size is 60 to 100 pounds dressed weight, but it can grow to 400 pounds. Bright yellow markings on fins. Leanest of the ahi tunas (yellowfin, bluefin, and bigeye). This is the notorious fish that swims with dolphins, a phenomenon occurring only in the eastern Pacific. Yellowfin moves in a tight enough school to be purse-seined, hence the problem.

* Bigeye. Third in production. This large tuna spends more time in deeper, cooler waters, so it is fattier and more valued in the sushi market. It brings in more money than all other tunas combined.

* Albacore. Fourth in world production. Small tuna that do not swim in tight schools and become even more solitary as they mature, so they are generally caught by longlining (using one very long line with many leaders), pole and line or trolling. Because they are caught one by one, albacore have always been dolphin-safe.

* Bluefin. Only 60,000 tons caught a year, because of overfishing and the elusive nature of this deeper-dwelling species. The largest and most migratory tuna, bluefin fetches the highest individual price. One frozen 500-pound bluefin can bring $80,000 at the famed Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo.

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How to Hook an Albacore

The best way to snag a whole albacore--besides reserving a spot on a sport-fishing boat and getting lucky--is to order one a day or two ahead from a fish market. Order by “dressed” weight, what remains after the fish has been gutted and the head and tail have been removed.

Tuna are available year-round from Hawaii and Fiji, but these are often larger albacore, yellowfin and bigeye, too large to bake whole.

Retailers prefer 40- to 60-pound albacore because they are better for cutting into steaks. If that’s all that is available, ask for a piece “in the round” toward the tail end, or buy a side.

Large tuna are cut into four loins (and then crosswise into steaks), so another option is to purchase the desired amount in loin form and ask the fishmonger to filet it horizontally, creating a sort of faux whole fish. Because there will be no bones or skin, the result won’t be as flavorful or moist and will require additional fat and liquid in the cooking.

Premium tuna are line- rather than net-caught, but it is a mistake to think top quality tuna is never frozen. Tuna must be kept ice-cold because they are in the Scombridae family and therefore produce dangerous histamines as their flesh deteriorates. By FDA regulation, No. 1 premium grade tuna for raw consumption must be frozen for 15 hours at minus 68 degrees, or 15 days at normal freezer temperatures, ideally 0 degrees. (Tuna that hasn’t been frozen is actually No. 2 grade.) If you thaw a tuna, do it slowly in the refrigerator, allowing at least 24 hours for a good sized piece.

Tuna bound for lesser markets, to be used other than as sushi, or the cannery are blast-frozen or brine-chilled. How skillfully this is done determines the quality. These are certainly acceptable for home baking.

Hoping to acquire an albacore directly, as Manuel did at $1 to $2 per pound, I started making inquiries. Buying albacore directly from fishermen is no easy matter in Los Angeles. It is illegal to sell fish off a sport-fishing boat. You must buy from a fishermen licensed to sell his own catch (they post signs), but most of the catch is for the commercial market.

Best bet for buying direct is at the end of the season when the cannery price is low. Occasionally a tuna boat will pull into Berth 72 near Ports of Call in San Pedro to sell. The municipal wholesale markets at the end of 22nd Street and Signal Place are sometimes open to the public on Saturday mornings.

Albacore cost about $2.99 to $4.99 per pound, with prices lower in season.

The following markets could get whole albacore available with several days’ notice:

Fish King, 722 N. Glendale Ave., Glendale. (818) 244-2161.

Pacific California Fish, 512 Stanford Ave., downtown Los Angeles. (213) 629-0045.

Quality Seafood, 100 S. International Boardwalk (Redondo Beach Pier), Redondo Beach. (310) 374-2382.

Santa Monica Seafood, 1205 Colorado Blvd., Santa Monica; 1700 N. Main St., Orange; 154 E. 17th St., Costa Mesa. (888) 762-3663.