I love seafood. Growing up, my family used to spend summers on Cape Cod, and we regularly grilled swordfish, tuna, and salmon on the back porch. When I got a little older, I discovered sushi, and I recently began eating raw oysters, a delicacy that I'd avoided for years. There are some weird items, like sea cucumber and cuttlefish that still give me the heebie-jeebies, but I will try pretty much any denizen of the deep, as long as it is properly prepared and relatively fresh.
As I've gotten older, though, the fish market has become like a game of Russian roulette in which the chambers are loaded with a mixture of mercury poisoning, overfishing, and guilt. As more and more warnings about pollution make the rounds, I find myself trying to decide between the great prices of farm-raised and the supposed safety of wild caught produce. Meanwhile, I also have to worry that my fish of choice is being overharvested, leading to depletion in the ocean, the end of biodiversity, and (presumably) armageddon. Given the consequences of the wrong decision, I'm more and more likely to forgo the ocean's bounty in favor of a nice, juicy hamburger.
Recently, however, Stop & Shop has made it a little easier for me to navigate the rocky shoals of politically correct pescotarianism. Recognizing the danger of overfishing certain species, they've decided to stop selling shark, orange roughy, and Chilean sea bass until these species have repopulated. As the Quincy, Massachusetts-based supermarket operates 360 stores, this is a pretty impressive commitment to the environment. At the same time, it's a nice step toward making fish delicious and guilt-free!
Who wants to invite me to a wedding with this cake? Please? I want it! I admit - it might be a little more pricey than the cake you were thinking of getting, but it's healthier. Surely sticking pieces of sushi in each other's faces is more romantic than frosting. Although, if you really wanted some frosting, perhaps you could add a green wasabi frosting. I'd be OK with that.
If you need some help with it, you should know that the picture came from the wedding of Jef and Jin Yoon and the cake maker has shared the recipe on her website. Now, you've got no excuses. It's sushi time!
It's pretty easy to find tasty fish fillets in your local grocery store. However, if you're interested in taking that impressive next step and picking up a whole fish that you prepare yourself, you really should check out the video above. Chef Kirt Martin takes a Steel Head Trout and fillets it step by step. It's a great demonstration on the particulars of fish prep, and should help you prepare the perfect fish, whether you're picking up a whole sucker at the store, or sitting at a fire by the river.
There is a whole slew of cooking shows on the web that showcase newbie cooks that can show off a good meal, but can't necessarily give you some great background information that a chef can. Above you can watch Dallas' Master Chef David McMillan prepare halibut and clams with chorizo and black bean sauce -- and he not only discusses the dish, but the particulars of what is going into the meal. For example, he explains the different flavors that can be coaxed out of garlic, and the differences between curly and flat-leaf parsley.
It's the debut show, so I imagine there will be lots of great cooking info to come in the future. Enjoy!
My son Alec, who frequently tags along with Amy and me on our foraging hikes, is camping this week in upstate New York, with my wife Marti, and his cousin Colten. I received a picture mail message today around lunchtime which is displayed here. The caption in the text message read: Your son's catch. Complete with butter and garnish!
Gourmet's Barry Estabrook finds that more food producers are addressing the issue of sustainability. The following is an excerpt of his findings published on Gourmet.com.
Carnivore's Delight
It's not often that you'll find this space singing the praises of vertical integration in agriculture, but I was heartened to read this week that Joel Salatin of Polyface Farm (the subject of a September 2002 profile in Gourmet who became the national face of sustainable food production after being featured in Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma) had bought the small, 70-year-old slaughterhouse in Virginia that processes his grass-fed cattle.
This is good news because small meatpacking operations in this country have been closing in droves, unable in many cases to comply with stringent USDA regulations designed for the enormous facilities that handle most American meat today. As a result, sustainable livestock farmers have had to truck their animals over great distances, or in some cases cease raising cattle, sheep, and hogs altogether for want of an approved slaughterhouse. T&E Meats, as Salatin's company is known, will continue processing his animals and also those of nearby small producers.
I'm going to knock on wood, but I dare say Salatin may be part of a trend here. Earlier this spring, two other grass-fed beef producers, White Oak Pastures in Georgia and Paicines Ranch in California, opened their own slaughterhouses.
Posted Jun 25th 2008 3:32PM by Max Shrem Filed under: Fish
Every time that I order pizza at a restaurant and I find out that they've flavored it with sardines, I start to gag. The combination of any fish and pizza is nauseating and repulsive. For some reason, sardines over pizza is the worst. The most disgusting thing about this pairing has to be the stinking fishy aroma emanating from the pizza pie. The slippery texture of the cheese and the fish only add to the unpleasant experience.
I do not understand why waiters sometimes forget to tell their guests that a certain pizza contains sardines. You should be warned before munching into this sort of gooey mess.
My husband and I have similar tastes in many things like music, decor, 19th century English literature, mayonnaise brands, etc. It makes for pretty smooth sailing day to day, but there are a few notable exceptions -- namely that if given a jar and a fork, I'll gobble down marinated herring like a rabid porpoise, and the very sight of cured fish sends him swimming as far upstream as he can get.
In the interest of marital accord, I hold off my pesce-centric binges for times when he's out of town or at his office on a weekend, and I was very amused to learn that other friends of mine make the same sort of bargains with their partners. One friend has a similar anchovy pact with her husband, another's wife goes into a broccoli rabe munching frenzy when he's away for a day or two, and my very own grandfather acquiesced to my grandmother's wishes that he only eat Limburger outside of the house. His compromise? He set up a cheese-eating outpost in their backyard.
Do any of you have culinary agreements with a partner, family member or roommate due to their repulsion or yours? Are there any foods that trump the bonds of love or friendship? Share 'em in the comments below.
Be it fish, garlic, or cabbage, dinner is delicious - until it's all gone, but its scent remains in the air, permeating the furniture and generally grossing you out.
Aside from sticking a fan in the window and setting it to 'exhaust,' Apartment Therapy has some great suggestions on how to get rid of those lingering odors:
Leave a dish of vinegar on the counter overnight, or leave it out while you're cooking (careful of boiling it, though, because then you'll replace the fish smell with vinegar, and that's not really any better)
Simmer a mixture of half-vinegar, half-water on the stove
Simmer a mixture of lemon and orange rinds on the stove for about half an hour. Throw some cloves in, too, if you have them
Before you cook fish, core and slice an apple into thin layers. Then submerge the apples and fry them in oil until they turn brown. Then, go ahead and cook your fish.
There seems to be confusion and mislabeling, but the Argentinian bonarda is "a killer pizza-and-nachos wine," that happens to be really affordable too.
Recipes ripe for summer days: Sorrel and Green Pea Soup, Grilled Whole Fish, Grilled Peppers, Grilled Rapini, No-Bake Strawberry Cheesecake Tartlets
The failures of Steve Lee, and the successes of Jamie Kennedy and his new lunch spot -- Gilead Cafe.
I can't remember the last time I had fish. I just don't eat fish, which means I'm probably incredibly unhealthy because I don't get all of the great things into my body that fish provide. I'm not a big seafood lover in general. I'll order chicken before I get fish, though I do love clams and scallops.
When I do eat fish, haddock is my favorite. My mom used to make it when I was a kid, and it was the only type of fish I could stand. I probably haven't had it in 25 years or so, but this recipe for Haddock Marinara from Kristimoo at AllRecipes might make me jump back into the fish world, at least once in a while. If you like your fish plain this might not be for you (it has a lot of stewed tomatoes and mozzarella cheese), but it sounds great.
A man entered a Fredericksburg, VA gas station store and began to sing loudly. When he walked out of the store, another man was looking at him because he was singing, so the singing man picked up a rock and hit him with it. A friend of the man hit with the rock got out of the car and confronted the assailant, and then the assailant grabbed a fish out of his car and hit that man. He then threw a beer bottle at the man's car and dropped his pants.
Police caught the man and charged him with assault, malicious wounding, destruction of property, and indecent exposure. No word on what type of fish he used or how big the fish was. The fish could not be reached for comment.
I have a weakness for great gourmet oils, vinegars, and spices. This makes every trip to my favorite foodie store that specializes in these three things divine torture, and an exercise in failing restraint. I try a million different flavors, and I have even been known to finish off a small cup of vinegar like a shot. I go into a foodie haze and I can't be stopped.
Last week, I met up with a friend to go to that sinisterly tasty place and made a new discovery: Halen Mon Sea Salt with Taha Vanilla, which merges sea salt from Wales with Tahitian vanilla. (Details) It's delicious -- and I say this as someone who steers clear of flavored salts. The mixture offers the sharpness of the salt with the sweetness of super-tasty vanilla. I couldn't help but buy some.
Fugu, or pufferfish, is a Japanese delicacy whose intrigue has to do as much with its potential hazards as with its actual taste. Fugu liver contains a potent neurotoxin with no known antidote, so licensed fugu chefs must undergo years of rigorous training to seperate the toxic bits from the rest of the flesh. Consuming the liver is completely forbidden. Still, several people die every year from eating improprly prepared fugu - victims remain conscious while becoming completely paralyzed.
Now, Japanese fish farmers have bred a non-poisonous fugu and are trying to get the right to serve its liver, which is said to be even tastier than foie gras. But they're meeting resistance from government officials, who claim it may not be safe, and angering traditional fugu aficionados who say without a risk of death, eating fugu is just no fun. Which frankly, seems like a dumb argument to me. My father and brother ate at a renowned fugu restaurant on a recent trip to Japan, and reported that, while delicious, it was nothing extraordinary. As in, nothing worth dying over. So why not allow toxin-free fugu and get your kicks skydiving, or disarming land mines, or wrangling crocodiles?
The old story was that expectant mothers should eat fish to help their growing babies' brains. Then we heard that eating fish was dangerous to the health of the baby. If you're pregnant, no fish!
Obviously, fish was never really bad for expectant mothers; it was simply that some certain types of fish that had high levels of mercury. All the news about "fish," "mercury," and "pregnancy" must have been confusing. The most recent research doesn't seem to sound like anything new, just a reminder that fish is, in fact, good for the brain, as "Preschoolers whose mothers regularly ate low-mercury fish during pregnancy may have sharper minds than their peers...Researchers found that among 341 3-year-olds, those whose mothers ate more than two servings of fish per week during pregnancy generally performed better on tests of verbal, visual and motor development."
Just remember that it's fish with low levels of mercury, so make sure you do your homework.
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I love seafood. Growing up, my family used to spend summers on Cape Cod, and we regularly grilled swordfish, tuna, and salmon on the back porch. When I got a little older, I discovered sushi, and I recently began eating raw oysters, a delicacy that I'd avoided for years. There are some weird items, like sea cucumber and cuttlefish that still give me the heebie-jeebies, but I will try pretty much any denizen of the deep, as long as it is properly prepared and relatively fresh.
My son Alec, who frequently tags along with Amy and me on our foraging hikes, is camping this week in upstate New York, with my wife Marti, and his cousin Colten. I received a picture mail message today around lunchtime which is displayed here. The caption in the text message read: Your son's catch. Complete with butter and garnish!
I can't remember the last time I had fish. I just don't eat fish, which means I'm probably incredibly unhealthy because I don't get all of the great things into my body that fish provide. I'm not a big seafood lover in general. I'll order chicken before I get fish, though I do love clams and scallops.
Here's
Chocolate-stuffed bananas on the grill
Tyler Florence welcomes new daughter
Beware kids' menus!
