We may be speaking too soon; but, summer may be here or at least it felt like it last night! Nothing beats coming home and finding that it is warm enough to sit on the deck, enjoy a glass of wine and not have to pull on your cable knit sweater. No, we do not live in the North Pole, it is true we live in San Francisco; but, one may not realize that it is usually freezing cold most of the summer and this year it has seemed to last a lot longer than normal.

When we do see the sun, we do not talk about “how hot” it is, we appreciate it and we don’t want to curse it, instead we get in the mood for summer time foods. Tonight it was going to be fish! Opakapaka was looking good at the market, so we caught it and brought it home. Opakapaka is a very dense Hawaiian snapper. I normally do not see it at the market, in fact last time I did see it was in Hawaii and that on my dinner plate.

I usually prefer to grill my dinner especially when it is warm enough to enjoy the deck; but, I was not sure about grilling this cut as with normal snapper it usually falls between the grates on the grill. Instead, we opted to bake it, using a standby fish recipe. I wrapped in foil, and seasoned it lightly with a nice white burgandy, a little butter, sea salt and fresh ground pepper and lots of lemon zest. It came out ultra moist and very flavorful. The fish was very dense so it flaked nicely and would had been great served as a salad as well. I did make a nice citrus salad with a secret dressing (stayed tuned for more about that, trust us, you will not want to miss this one) and served the two together – it was a marriage made in heaven!

In the meantime, pour yourself a glass of cold white wine, but not too cold, pull up a chair and Opakapaka!