A month of fish
Well, 3 weeks really.
Over the past 4 weeks, I spent 3 of them learning about, cooking and eating fish and shellfish.
The real fun had started weeks prior at our second butchering class where I learned how to gut both a round fish and a flat fish. I don't recommend trying it at home, as it was quite gross, but it was very interesting and something that I'm glad to have done.
Over the course of these 3 weeks, we covered fish, mollusks, crustaceans - you name it, we probably covered it. I worked with halibut, lobster, oysters, mussels, clams, shrimp, squid (twice), and ate even more. Turns out, these ocean dwellers are crazy interesting. Who knew.
Did you know that scallops have 25 eyes? I told my little cousins that the other day and I think they thought I was lying. Nope, honest truth.
Lobsters fascinate me now. The eat each other (hence the bands on the claws. They are not, as thought, for our safety). When the female molts, she is in heat. In order to prevent herself from being dinner during the mating process, she spays a chemical out of her eyes to paralyze her male counterpart. She slides under him, does her business and then scurries off. The lobster version of being roofied. Never knew what hit him. Poor guy.
For those of you who have always wondered, here are some rules to follow when buying fish:
1. Smell - the fish should not stink. A faint "ocean" smell is fine.
2. Eyes - the eyes in a whole fish should be clean and clear, not sunken and cloudy.
3. Fins - moist, and in tact. Stay away from brittle, brown fins with tears.
4. Gills - Moist, bright red. 'Slime' is ok, as long as it's clear.
5. Body Texture - should bounce back when poked. Mushy fish indicates that it's old.
For those of you on the "I only eat wild Salmon" bandwagon, you should know that all Atlantic salmon is farm raised. So that fancy Norwegian salmon that you are eating grew up on a "farm". The fish adapted well to farm life, and the meat and texture was not compromised. Dyes are only added to farm raised Pacific salmon because in order to farm raise those species, you need to neuter them, thus causing the pink color to not develop. I do feel compelled to mention that I can't speak to any of the above personally, as I don't enjoy salmon, so I'm going on what chef told me.
My favorite part of the fish/shellfish lessons was the cleaning of the squid. Weird to say, but super easy and tons of fun. And the calamari was delicious (as was the squid ink mayo!).
Now that I've made my self successfully hungry for fish (and not the lamb chops I have waiting on deck), I need to go rethink dinner tonight.
Perhaps some yummy white fish....
Over the past 4 weeks, I spent 3 of them learning about, cooking and eating fish and shellfish.
The real fun had started weeks prior at our second butchering class where I learned how to gut both a round fish and a flat fish. I don't recommend trying it at home, as it was quite gross, but it was very interesting and something that I'm glad to have done.
Over the course of these 3 weeks, we covered fish, mollusks, crustaceans - you name it, we probably covered it. I worked with halibut, lobster, oysters, mussels, clams, shrimp, squid (twice), and ate even more. Turns out, these ocean dwellers are crazy interesting. Who knew.
Did you know that scallops have 25 eyes? I told my little cousins that the other day and I think they thought I was lying. Nope, honest truth.
Lobsters fascinate me now. The eat each other (hence the bands on the claws. They are not, as thought, for our safety). When the female molts, she is in heat. In order to prevent herself from being dinner during the mating process, she spays a chemical out of her eyes to paralyze her male counterpart. She slides under him, does her business and then scurries off. The lobster version of being roofied. Never knew what hit him. Poor guy.
For those of you who have always wondered, here are some rules to follow when buying fish:
1. Smell - the fish should not stink. A faint "ocean" smell is fine.
2. Eyes - the eyes in a whole fish should be clean and clear, not sunken and cloudy.
3. Fins - moist, and in tact. Stay away from brittle, brown fins with tears.
4. Gills - Moist, bright red. 'Slime' is ok, as long as it's clear.
5. Body Texture - should bounce back when poked. Mushy fish indicates that it's old.
For those of you on the "I only eat wild Salmon" bandwagon, you should know that all Atlantic salmon is farm raised. So that fancy Norwegian salmon that you are eating grew up on a "farm". The fish adapted well to farm life, and the meat and texture was not compromised. Dyes are only added to farm raised Pacific salmon because in order to farm raise those species, you need to neuter them, thus causing the pink color to not develop. I do feel compelled to mention that I can't speak to any of the above personally, as I don't enjoy salmon, so I'm going on what chef told me.
My favorite part of the fish/shellfish lessons was the cleaning of the squid. Weird to say, but super easy and tons of fun. And the calamari was delicious (as was the squid ink mayo!).
Now that I've made my self successfully hungry for fish (and not the lamb chops I have waiting on deck), I need to go rethink dinner tonight.
Perhaps some yummy white fish....
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