"Ono" Ono

My Hawaii brother is an avid fisherman. He loves everything about fishing from the preparation of the lures and the boat to the reading of the water and the behavior of the sea creatures to the pride of landing a great mahimahi, marlin or ono for the table.

When he worked for a Honolulu restaurant, he learned an easy method for cooking his catch that required from me a leap of faith to try it when I heard the recipe, but I was sold when I tasted the firm, dense, moist fish.

The fish pictured is part of my brother's catch, a Hawaiian fish called ono (or wahoo on the Mainland), a steak-style fish that is mild, with dense white flesh. He marinates it in Wishbone Italian dressing (or you could obviously make your own vinaigrette) for half an hour before cooking. Cooking is easy - they just watch the fish in the heavy skillet (Le Creuset is their favorite) until cooked 1/3 of the way through, then turn it over and cook the other side 1/3 through, then remove from pan. Residual heat will finish cooking it through, leaving it moist and not tough.

In Hawaiian, "Ono" means "the best!" and this fish qualified! The brother's pretty "ono" too!

And, by the way, Happy New Year or, as they say in the Islands, Haoli Makahiki Hou!