391 replies to this topic

[Peter the eater]

That mackerel looks identical to the ones I get in my bay. And that Garoupa is exquisitely reticulted, never heard of them.

[johnnyd]

A lot of baby polpo has landed at my favorite fishmonger here in Portland, Maine





Simmered these with a cork for 45mins, then seared them at high heat in olive oil, added kosher salt.

Edited by johnnyd, 02 May 2011 - 10:54 AM.

[heidih]

I have been thinking about octopus for some time and those look perfect johnnyd. How do you clean/prep them? I see them in the Asian and the fish markets but have hesitated.

[johnnyd]

These were fresh not frozen. I see mostly cleaned octopus in the Asian market freezers.

I bought four - probably 4 to 5 inches across. The counter guys said to make an incision from leg to tip of the head and scrape out the insides, making sure you find the beak. I made a complete and utter hash out of the first one - severing ink sac and whatever encased the gross brown stuff - a big mess (good thing they were small).

I was smarter with each one after - most importantly: don't cut through the beast, just in enough to be able to unfold the head cavity, leaving guts intact which you can then scrape off (you'll see you can pull it all off eventually). Eyes and beak next. The first pic above is actually an inside-out polpo.

Drop into boiling water and reduce to simmer - the polpo will shrink to half-size. I chilled them for a couple days then seared them in a hot pan w/EVOO, only because I didn't have the grill going at that moment, my first choice.

They were so small they ended up super crispy - drizzled EVOO, lemon and S&P and that was lunch today with a salad and poached egg.

I'd call myself ready to take on the big boys now so I can slap it on the grill as a course in a Greek-style meal.

ETA: Make sure to flush out any dirt in the suction cups

Edited by johnnyd, 02 May 2011 - 11:45 AM.

[rlibkind]

Writing in the The Ellsworth American and Mount Desert Islander, two jointly-owned newspapers serving Hancock County, Maine, Stephen Rappaport reports that the price for elvers (baby eels) hit $1,000 a pound this week.

Known as "glass eels," the buyers ship them off to China and Taiwan where they are raised in ponds to market size, then shipped to Japan and other markets. There are about 2,200 to 2,2400 elvers to a pound.

In Maine the elver season this year began March 22 and ends May 31.

Just a decade ago the average price per pound was $24, though last year it was about $185. There's been a gold rush for elvers before in Maine: in 1995, 16,600 pounds were netted, while only 1,300 were nabbed the previous year.

Speculation in Asia may account for the price. Here's a link to a recipe article in the Taipei Times.

Edited by rlibkind, 19 May 2011 - 11:30 AM.

[Mallet]

That's unfortunate, given the mega population declines. American eel are already endangered here in Ontario.

[johnnyd]

I helped a pal with his elver weirs one late night in '95. The price was about $400/lb. There was a lot of shooting and yelling in the dark at one point so I thought best to decline the invitation for another go at it.

[johnnyd]

Maine's elver season saw a jump in violations due to a spike in prices.

Little Eels - Big Bucks

Rusty Blake said he has never seen prices so high in the 41 years he's been in the elver business. Blake, owner of Northeast Eel and Elver Co. in West Forks, said the season started out around $200 a pound and reached $1,200 by the end.

Blake believes the prices this year were a fluke resulting from a shortage due to a moratorium on exports from European Union nations and a poor harvest in Asia.

[Prawncrackers]

Eels!! Loads of them at the market last week in the run-up to Xmas, big fat silver eels for £25 per kilo. Not cheap but in a fit of madness I bought a fairly big one for just under 20 quid. It's madness because I really don't like dealing with them; slimy, slippery, snakelike creatures that refuse to die. I left this one in a briney solution for about an hour, and it jumped out of the pot and tried to slither away. It gave my wife such a shock when she stepped into the kitchen!!



So I made a much stronger saturated salt solution and tied the lid down on the pot to make sure it wouldn't escape. After half an hour the salt did it's job, not only did it kill the eel but it also removed most of the slime. Although it was definitely dead it nonetheless twitched madly as I gutted it. I gave it a rub down with a little coarse sea salt and left it to cure for a few hours. To get it ready for the smoker in the morning I dried it off and left it overnight for the pellicle to form. It was hot smoked over oak for an hour at around 90-100C:


Was it worth it? You bet, eel hot off the smoker is the best smoked food ever. EVER!

Tonight I lightly fried some eel chunks and served it with a tangy crispy goats cheese börek, a spiky fresh goats cheese & horseradish cream, beetroot, radish and rocket:

[LindaK]

House-smoked eel sounds fantastic. I don't know that I'm ready to chase an eel around my kitchen, though. Clearly I am not worthy.

[Prawncrackers]

Ready smoked eel are so expensive to buy, at £12.75 for a measly 200g pack it's almost a luxury item. So now i've gotten over my initial reticence about handling them, i'll smoke more than one of them at a time. That'll make it even more worth while!

[Mallet]

Can't you just lop off their head or something (says the guy who's never handled a live eel before)?

[rlibkind]

Elvers price tops $2000/pound in Maine.nearly double last Year's price. Only a few seasons ago it was less than $100. Article from Bangor Daily News:

http://bangordailyne...2000-per-pound/

[Prawncrackers]

Octopus, the local market have finally got some decent octopodi. Big meaty ones from warmer waters with two rows of suckers on each arm. They taste much better than the smaller ones with only one row of suckers. You have clean them carefully, use some coarse salt and scrub out all the grime in the suckers. Turn the head inside out to empty all the organs contained inside and pop the beak out. It's pretty nasty the first time you have to do it but remember that it's worse when they're live...

There are lot of techniques for getting your octopus tender; bashing it, massaging it, putting cork in the water - i've tried all those. Nowadays I just pressure cook them for 30mins in some salted water with some bay leaf and onion. I let the octopus cool before searing the tentacles on a hotplate with some olive oil, lemon, garlic and parsley. I save the rest of the tentacles in the freezer, ready for the hotplate at anytime. Great little tapa:

Edited by Prawncrackers, 06 June 2012 - 02:55 PM.

[johnnyd]

Magnificent. I love octopus, and they occasionally hit my market. Pressure cooker sounds like a perfect tool - thanks!

Edit to add:
This is one of 6 babies I cleaned, simmered w/cork and broiled back in February - it's 3" accross

Edited by johnnyd, 07 June 2012 - 07:04 AM.

[scubadoo97]

I've never understood what the cork does even when it's been explained. Just sounds like junk science.
I'll have to try the PC. Most recently just did a dry cook in a dutch oven per McGee. The octopus puts out a large amount of water so it ends up brasing it. I follow with a light marinade and grill for added flavor and texture.

[Prawncrackers]

A freakin' huge halibut head, that's what I saw out the corner of my eye as I walked by the stall. I'd just bought a couple of live crabs and did a double take when this beast appeared in my peripheral vision. I stopped right in my tracks and asked how much; "a tenner", done! It's not every day you see a fresh halibut head for sale and I knew that I had a dinner guest who'd appreciate picking out the juicy bits out of it:



Because I was doing crab linguine I thought that roasting it with some lemon and herbs would be the way to go but i had no idea how long to cook it for. I mean who has a clue really how long to roast a 3kg fish head for? Well, you do now, 50mins at 210C. It was perfectly cooked, we picked every part of it clean. The cheeks were massive and juicy, they had the texture of skate wings. The eyes were bursting with clean tasting gelatinous liquid. My auntie and I went at the sticky bits in the head with chopsticks in the end, she's one of those Cantonese ladies who loves to eat fish heads so you can imagine she was in food heaven. As was i! The more we picked at it the more meat/collagen/funky bits it gave up, it was a tenner well spent I wouldn't hesitate buying it again, wonderful eating.

[LindaK]

I never thought I would covet a fish head. Well done.

[Mallet]

Awesome!

[heidih]

Gorgeous fish head! And I particularly enjoyed the enthusiasm of the eaters . I also enjoy the cheeks. My mind always goes to the bit in When French Women Cook: "Mimi Cherie jealously guarded the head of the fish, for the cheeks, well mashed with leftover mayonnaise and spread over a slice of bread generously rubbed with garlic, was her lunch for Monday noon".

[Prawncrackers]

I forgot to mention it had a liberal salting a couple of hours before roasting and i rubbed it down with lots of olive oil.

Yeah, I'm thinking I should have haggled the price down a little. I'll have to play it cool next time I walk past that stall. So, you got anymore halibut heads that I can take off your hands? You know the last one was just ok, not much meat on it...

[johnnyd]

Nothing says "I Love You" like a nice, roasted halibut head. Outstanding

[LynnFoodies]

Octopus, the local market have finally got some decent octopodi. Big meaty ones from warmer waters with two rows of suckers on each arm. They taste much better than the smaller ones with only one row of suckers. You have clean them carefully, use some coarse salt and scrub out all the grime in the suckers. Turn the head inside out to empty all the organs contained inside and pop the beak out. It's pretty nasty the first time you have to do it but remember that it's worse when they're live...

There are lot of techniques for getting your octopus tender; bashing it, massaging it, putting cork in the water - i've tried all those. Nowadays I just pressure cook them for 30mins in some salted water with some bay leaf and onion. I let the octopus cool before searing the tentacles on a hotplate with some olive oil, lemon, garlic and parsley. I save the rest of the tentacles in the freezer, ready for the hotplate at anytime. Great little tapa:

Superb!

What is your recommended method to get the octopus tender (for someone newbie like me)

[Prawncrackers]

Depends how big your octopus is, small ones don't really need tenderising. If you don't have a pressure cooker then the bigger ones are helped by some light bashing with a steak hammer or rolling pin. Remember, double suckers are better

[Prawncrackers]

About to post some more fishy pics and saw the halibut head had disappeared, so here it is again in all it's glory.

A freakin' huge halibut head, that's what I saw out the corner of my eye as I walked by the stall. I'd just bought a couple of live crabs and did a double take when this beast appeared in my peripheral vision. I stopped right in my tracks and asked how much; "a tenner", done! It's not every day you see a fresh halibut head for sale and I knew that I had a dinner guest who'd appreciate picking out the juicy bits out of it:



Because I was doing crab linguine I thought that roasting it with some lemon and herbs would be the way to go but i had no idea how long to cook it for. I mean who has a clue really how long to roast a 3kg fish head for? Well, you do now, 50mins at 210C. It was perfectly cooked, we picked every part of it clean. The cheeks were massive and juicy, they had the texture of skate wings. The eyes were bursting with clean tasting gelatinous liquid. My auntie and I went at the sticky bits in the head with chopsticks in the end, she's one of those Cantonese ladies who loves to eat fish heads so you can imagine she was in food heaven. As was i! The more we picked at it the more meat/collagen/funky bits it gave up, it was a tenner well spent I wouldn't hesitate buying it again, wonderful eating.

[Prawncrackers]

So back to the present. Sea Bream, gilt-head bream or dorade. Call it what you want they are very common and popular fish in British waters. They're mostly farmed from Turkey or Greece nowadays but still very nice fish to cook and eat. They also freeze very well, I dug one out along with some frozen squid and soft-shell crab. The fish was filleted, the bones made a light stock with which to make a quick Thai red curry with them. A 30 min meal and a great midweek option, good to cook and one of the the wife's favourites:

[Prawncrackers]

Here's something from 'the other' category; halibut soft roe or milt or as American food show presenters like to say in practised seriousness sperm-sac! One of my pet peeves, along with head cheese there's a perfectly good English word it. I digress. It was free, it's 1kg of the stuff, any ideas out there?

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[Prawncrackers]

It was quite an intimating piece of protein. In the end I sliced some pieces off and simmered it in some dashi. Served as a light snack with some ginger and scallion. Very creamy as you would expect but I don't think I could eat a whole kilo of it!!!!

[adey73]

I know the cheeks on the Halibut head are something to behold, but it looks like there's ALOT of meat elsewhere on it?

What about the 'salty sacks of magic', they taste 'halibut-y'?

Edited by adey73, 02 November 2012 - 05:45 AM.

[Baselerd]

Recently made some sea bass. Prepared it two ways, sous vide (bound two filets together with Activa RM and cooked 115 F for 35 minutes) and microwave steamed (Out of focus in the pic, 700 W for ~2.5 minutes, with sauce in bag). Served with preserved lemons, cucumber, cilantro, and a thickened yuzu-soy sauce (Sabazu, Uchi cookbook). All in all both were delicious, the sous vide was definitely more appealing to me, it has a buttery/flakey texture almost like sushi.

Edited by Baselerd, 02 November 2012 - 07:26 AM.