Mike and I are big fans of a good main dish salad, but we don’t often do them during the winter months. I got an idea in my head, though, after a recent visit to Mercato del Mare, to put together a salad inspired by a dish we had at B&G Oysters last year.

The star was a chunk of their gorgeous house-smoked bluefish, skinned and sliced thin on the bias, served on a bed of baby winter greens, with crisp watermelon radishes and tart pickled fennel strewn about. To give the salad a bit more heft, I added some wedges of hard-cooked egg, and I drizzled it all with a dressing made of creme fraiche, fresh lemon juice, freshly grated horseradish, and a blob of grainy mustard. Colorful and surprisingly hearty, this salad was just the what I needed at the end of a long, hectic day.

One of the things I love most about seafood is that when you get good, super-fresh stuff, you don’t need to do too much to it. A little basic seasoning, a quick cooking method, perhaps a little sauce or something to go alongside and you’ve got a great meal. It almost feels like cheating.

Mike brought home a gorgeous piece of bluefish yesterday, which got a quick rubdown with salt and olive oil before going on the grill. To go with it, I packeted slices of Yukon Gold potato in foil (which were also cooked on the grill), mixed up a garlicky lemon mayo, and quickly pickled some thinly sliced red onions with salt and sherry vinegar. I finished our plates with a little baby arugula, both for color and a fresh, peppery bite.

We had time to fit even more seafood into our evening – some oysters we picked up from Matunuck at the Hope High farmers’ market over the weekend, which were shucked, soaked in buttermilk, then dipped in flour and fried until crisp and golden. They were great to nibble on while the rest of our meal came together, and needed just a sprinkling of flaky Maldon salt after they came out of the hot oil – perfect little bites of salty-sweet-slightly briny goodness. This time of year, this is how I love to eat.

I’m still suffering from this awful cold, so I kept things pretty simple last night. I started with about half a dozen fat garlic cloves and some fingerling potatoes halved lengthwise, placed them in a baking dish, covered them with olive oil and cooked them for 30 minutes in a 325 degree oven. After 30 minutes I added some small heirloom tomatoes, halved or quartered depending on their size, and laid two bluefish filets on top. I seasoned everything with Kosher salt and Herbes de Provence and let it roast at 400 degrees for another 20 minutes or so. When the fish was cooked through, I removed them to a small plate so I could pull out the potatoes, tomatoes and garlic using a slotted spoon and mound them on our plates. The bluefish went on top, and I sprinkled a bit of chopped flat-leaf parsley on top. Not the prettiest dish, but it was a tasty, satisfying, and most importantly easy weeknight meal.

Though Mike and I have enjoyed bluefish the few times we’ve tried it, it’s another one of those foods we were reluctant to prepare at home. We had agreed that Mike would bring fish home from the Greenmarket for Wednesday night’s dinner, and as it turned out, the bluefish they had appealed to him so much he decided to take the plunge.

We turned to the internet for inspiration, and found great suggestions on how to prepare it from Beyond Salmon and foodandwine.com. Because I’m allergic to grapefruit (and oranges), I used a mixture of lemon and lime juice for the citrus component (about 1/4 cup each). I added salt, pepper, and a minced garlic clove, then whisked in about 1/4 cup of olive oil. I added the onion slices to the vinaigrette, stirred in an abundance of snipped fresh chives from our garden and a dollop of Wheelhouse‘s excellent horseradish. I mixed it all together and let it sit while Mike got the grill going.

He cooked the bluefish fillets (which he had seasoned with salt and rubbed with olive oil) over high heat for 3 minutes on the skin side, then he moved them to the cooler part of the grill and cooked them on the flesh side for another 3 minutes. When the fish came off the grill, I plated the fillets and spooned a bit of the onion relish over each.

It’s safe to say our trepidation about cooking bluefish at home disappeared with the first bite we took – it was cooked perfectly, the skin crisp and the flesh rich and moist. The citrus, onion and horseradish provided just enough zest and bite to cut through the oiliness of the bluefish without overpowering it. When something this good (and good for you) is such a cinch to make, it would be a shame not to add it to heavy rotation, and we plan to do just that.