johnnyd
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Posts posted by johnnyd
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Did business in Freeport, Maine today. Saw this sad sight:
Current Real Estate issues are one thing but unless you're literally flushing the cash down the toilet at closing time, every lobster shack I know - up to now - makes money.
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Hey thanks for the guideline - I'll give it a try.
I think we're going to try them in a ceviche later this week.I use enough fresh lime juice to cover the shrimp, one clove minced garlic , twice that amount in minced red onion, and a handful of cilantro - with stems - chopped. A local chef I know includes fresh squeezed orange also which cuts the bite a bit. The shrimp is very sweet itself though. A Thai chili is good too. Enjoy!
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Heard from pals in Reading, Mass: $3.99/lb for 1¼lb this week.
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In Canada, the really big ones are also often a lot cheaper than the 2 pounders. I buy the big boys (actually girls) when they are on sale and prefer them to the smaller lobsters.There is a law in Maine prohibiting the harvesting of large female lobsters as they are considered brood stock for this fishery. Legislation is being prepared to enact similar laws in other New England states.
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This from today's Portland Press Herald,
In 1930, men stood on street corners in New York City and tried to sell apples for a nickel, or even a penny. Sales were slow. As the Great Depression took hold, many people just didn't have money to buy fruit, even at bargain prices.In 2008, some lobster fishermen in Maine have been selling their catch out of trucks for as low as $3.99 a pound. That hasn't dried up the oversupply, in part because – even at bargain prices – many people can't afford lobster.
Comparing apples and lobsters isn't a perfect match-up. Lobster is a luxury item, and low prices stem from lack of demand in the recession, according to Charles Colgan, an economic forecaster at the University of Southern Maine.
But the struggle that Maine's lobster industry is enduring now serves as a modern-day illustration that, if prices continue to fall, a bargain can turn dangerous. The fear is deflation, which is a decline in general price levels, caused by a reduction in the supply of money or credit, and flagging consumer confidence.
Deflation was a hallmark of the Great Depression. Of course, lobster prices aren't an indicator of that kind of deflation – not at this point, anyway. But it can serve as a worse-case analogy of what can happen when prices spiral into a freefall.
"Lobster is just a more-expensive apple," Colgan said.
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Got some at Whole Foods in Cambridge last night: $4.99/lb headless. We lightly poached them, and had them with a dipping sauce of lime, soy, rice vinegar, ginger, and fish sauce. Yummy!
That sounds delicious. May I ask what your proportions were? Roughly equal? Refrigerate overnight to marry?
I recently coated scallop pieces and shrimp meat with black bean and garlic sauce and flashed them on very high heat. Served with rice and stir-fried bok choy, carrot, celery and scallion.
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Prices for fresh shrimp are falling here in Portland.
Harbor Fish this morning:
Shelled Shrimp meat: $5.99
Shell-on, headless: $3.99
Whole shrimp: $1.29 (over 5lbs: $0.99)
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The problem with these is the yield, when you cook them the meat usually shrinks.
Actually, soft shell lobster meat is smaller because the newly-molted animal has grown a bigger carapace to accommodate the annual body-tissue growth.
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New York Times covers the lobster glut,
While fantasizing about ways to cook my bargain crustaceans, I asked Lewis Spada, the manager of Fish Tales in Brooklyn, why prices were so low.“The economy,” he said. “People just aren’t buying, but in Maine their stocks are loaded. It’s all about supply and demand.”
At his shop, lobsters go for $10.99 a pound, about $3 less than last year — a trend seen all over town. Balducci’s is selling them for $14.99 to $16.99 a pound, $4 less than last year, and at Wild Edibles they are $2 to $3 less, or $13.99 to $15.99 a pound. The Lobster Place, with locations in Chelsea Market and Greenwich Village, is the cheapest of the markets I surveyed, at $7.95 a pound.
Article, by Melissa Clark, here.
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A little Maine shrimp ceviche for our guests tonight,
This is a sherry glass with about eight shrimp marinated in lime juice, garlic, red onion and cilantro.
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Wonderful, Laura!
Somewhere in the Maine Shrimp threads from prior years are posts about specific places that choose to carry the critters - in Mass, Conn and farther away - made by other eGullet members. I completely understand if you choose not to wade through all of those posts - and places do turn over - so the best we can do is keep an eye open and pass this quest around to your friends. If you hear anything, report back!
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Shrimp harvesting has begun in the Gulf of Maine,
Every year during the season I run commentary on eG regarding prices, press and recipes in an effort to promote this sustainable fishery beyond the local arena.
Check it out here: *CLICK*
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The first load of Gulf of Maine Shrimp is in the house!
This is Steve at Harbor Fish Market here in Portland's Old Port waterfront district. He's holding up about three pounds of fresh shrimp that were swimming in the Gulf of Maine yesterday.
I arrived two minutes after they opened this morning to find one fish-tote full of shrimp. As it turns out, it was the only box they had so far so there was a five pound limit. Price: $1.59/lb
According to the guys at Harbor, the shrimp boats waited for bad weather to clear on opening day, went out yesterday but farther than expected so the haul wasn't huge.
This is the F/V Jerry & Joe which looks to me like it's rigged for shrimping but no one was aboard to ask.
I'll be snooping around the waterfront this December in the hope of talking to these hard-working guys and hear their take on the season's harvest, and the effect of this autumns economic turn on the industry.
In the mean time, I have three pounds of fresh Gulf of Maine shrimp to inhale.
I can't believe I'm actually sitting here - after snapping these photos I split a couple open and sucked them right out of their shells. Then I realized I was trembling. This is why I go crazy every time the shrimp season opens up here in Maine - they are little bites of the ocean.
For those new to my annual eGullet.org coverage of one of the few sustainable fisheries on the planet, check out these links to past shrimp seasons:
Gulf of Maine Shrimp - 2007/2008
Gulf of Maine Shrimp - 2006/2007
Gulf of Maine Shrimp - 2005/2006
Boats off-load shrimp harvest at the Portland Fish Exchange (Photo Essay - Feb'05)
After re-visiting prior years shrimp coverage, I am happy to report that the outrage that colored my older posts about the lack of attention from restaurants and the public for delicious fresh winter shrimp has been replaced by grateful acknowledgment that word is indeed getting around - Pandalus Borealis may finally be on people's radar - more people from farther away are posting prices; more media coverage has surfaced over the years; and my favorite: more chefs are creating plates for Gulf of Maine Shrimp.
However, this year will be interesting. With the economy in the crapper and seafood margins the thinnest in years, how long will Gulf of Maine Shrimp be around this season? Lobster prices are the lowest in 20 years, but not as low as shrimp. Will the local consumer derail the Maine Lobster Council's emergency marketing plan and buy the cheaper local shrimp instead? Would that be a good or bad thing?
What of out-of-state markets? Will the cost of transporting highly-perishable 40-60/lb shrimp to Colorado or Virgina be ridiculously high? Will demand for seafood in general be lower this winter anyway making the very thought foolish?
I hope folks from around the country post any Maine shrimp prices they see in their neighborhoods here. It's possible they will be scant, but that would be a shame - Maine shrimp are inexpensive and delicious. Pester your local fishmonger to get some this season... and while you're there, buy a lobster!
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Last Sunday's Portland Press Herald 11.30.08 had a front page story about tough times for the Maine Lobster Industry.
Excerpt:
The plunge of prices since early October has lobstering families and communities closing ranks and buying time. And what worries lobstermen even more than the approaching winter, they said, is the chance that the market won't recover by next spring or summer."We're just holding the turn," said John Drouin, repeating an old fishermen's phrase about navigating through uncertain times.
Drouin lives in Cutler, an isolated Down East lobstering community where there are virtually no other jobs to support his wife and five children. "There is going to be a lot of guys that go out of business this winter," he said.
Drouin is still fishing, even though at $2.25 a pound it's barely worthwhile. He might catch $675 worth of lobster on a good day but spend $600 on fuel, bait and a helper, he said.
Drouin plans to get through winter by cutting back on family expenses. He's more worried that he won't be able to make up for the lost income when the lobster season starts up again in April.
The rhythm of life in Maine lobstering communities is usually dictated by the tides, the weather and the size of catches. But that changed in early October, when the industry got caught up in the turmoil of global financial networks. Lobster prices plunged.Along with a drop-off in lobster consumption worldwide, the collapse of banks in Iceland froze credit to large buyers in Canada, where about 70 percent of Maine lobsters typically go to be cooked and frozen.
The price paid to lobstermen dropped from $3 to $3.75 per pound to $2 to $2.75, figures not seen in more than a decade. Retail prices, meanwhile, dropped a similar percentage to as low as $3.49 per pound for soft-shell lobsters.
Statewide, the October lobster catch earned Maine fishermen less than $20 million, down more than 67 percent from a high of more than $60 million in October 2005, according to state records.
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I believe HF is a blue goat cheese, anyway the artisanal firm making it is known for Chevres.
Indeed it is, and a favorite of mine, but I buy it in portions the size of a chestnut and use it sparingly as an accent.
What, therefore, would be a creative - and cheaper - substitute in a mac & cheese venue that would accomplish the same, or close, subtle effect?
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My favorite mac&cheese comes from an old TV episode by Pierre Franey (of all people) who made it with Smithfield ham, sauteed mushrooms, sauteed onions, three kinds of cheddar, and cream (of course!). I make it once or twice a year, and it is wonderful. I wish I could find the original recipe, but until then I do what I remember from the show.
Ray
Ray, in The NY Times archives Pierre Franey’s 60-Minute Gourmet column of January 6, 1988 has a mac & cheese with the ingredients you describe. There is a similar column from May 12, 1993. He recalls his French childhood version in both recipe introductions and they were probably part of the PBS show you remember.
No wonder you’ve tried to recreate the dish for years, it sounds absolutely wonderful.
Here are the links NYT Jan 6 1988
and NYT May 12 1993
I have most of his books and the only one with mac & cheese is Cuisine Rapide with a simpler Parmesan cheese version.
Bumping this topic so that Ray can see this old response, in case he checks in again. So cool that you were able to find this recipe for him.
I'm making mac & cheese this Saturday for a little get-together with some friends. I'm smoking some pork ribs on my WSM (first time using it), frying some Popeye's style chicken, and making mac & cheese. They're theme foods for the day's sporting events -- the Kentucky Derby and the night race (NASCAR) in Richmond. (Because I like alliteration, I like to make ribs for the Richmond race.
) I'm also making KFC style coleslaw, cider donuts and ice cream sandwiches. Can't wait!I finally read the new Mac & Cheese recipe in NYT Nov 26, 2008 using Humboldt Fog, a fabulous blue from California that comes at a fabulous price.
The recipe calls for a total of 20 ounces of HFog which - in my area - costs at least $32 for a pound and a quarter. At four servings we're looking at about ten bucks a plate. Does anyone else find this a tad over the top or am I just a buzzkill here?
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If you have any left, I read somewhere about wrapping pollack in sorrel leaves and poaching in court bouillon and serve with a mustard sauce. I have it growing in my garden in-season and I get a ton - so much that I give most of it to a local French restaurant.
Yes, the farmer mentioned that his customers do this.
I saw pollack for 2.99 and bought some just to test this recipe. I loosely wrapped a tail-fillet in wide sorrel leaves, having cut out the stems and poached it in chicken stock. After a few minutes, the sorrel turned brown and some slipped off the fish. I removed the fish - which was perfectly done - and added a capful of white vermouth to the broth and reduced it by half; added whole-grain and regular dijon mustard and a squirt of lemon juice, and poured it all over the fish. Julienned sorrel for garnish.
Many have warned me not to over-do the sorrel, but I needed an identity for this stuff. Man, I got it in spades. I was lucky I had a nice strong mustard sauce and a very fresh piece of pollack because I ended up with three distinct flavors on the plate today. Served with fresh baguette w/local butter and a thimble-full of white wine.
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If you have any left, I read somewhere about wrapping pollack in sorrel leaves and poaching in court bouillon and serve with a mustard sauce. I have it growing in my garden in-season and I get a ton - so much that I give most of it to a local French restaurant.
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Johnny, You mean the scallops or the cod? Nothing could be done about the Carolina boats coming for the scallops.
More on the Newfoundland cod can be found here.
As far as who's to blame? Here's what's written on the page after the opening link.
GOVERNMENT POLICY IS AT THE core of Newfoundland's fisheries problem. Canada's bureaucracy supported and even subsidized high-tech fish hunts because federal and provincial leaders wanted a modern domestic seafood industry to supply cod to international markets all year.I knew about the cod travesty, not the big scallop bed rape. They had to have had federal permits allowing them to do that, but no state permits needed or enforced? Was Maine asleep at the wheel again? We are veering off-topic - My pals in the biz could fill pages of discussion about fishing regs. Thankfully, they aren't members!
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As for diver, well that's a term thrown around like organic. You really think some guy is out there underwater for hours and hours... I couldent imagine how many scallops each diver could even provide. I'd imagine if he supplied at least 3 restaurants daily that would be amazing.
Actually, it's like hunting for anything. I've swam for a whole tank (about 1 hour) and managed to pick up half a bag (a couple dozen) but the next tank I'll hit a little canyon where they all hide from the current and spend the rest of the tank shoveling them into net bags. A day like that will yield 80 - 100lbs. A diver can't safely do more than three tanks in a day (although it's done, easily) because scallops aren't found above 35 or 40 feet. You have to stay out of the water at increasingly longer intervals between dives.
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The worst time came ten or fifteen years ago when a really big bed had been found and shrimping was bad in the Carolinas. They re-rigged for scallops, came up here, and wiped things out in short order. Same thing happened to the Newfoundland cod 20-25 years ago. The big boats came and wiped out the cod. The fishery still hasn't recovered.Country, who the hell let that happen? WTF?!
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Hard to see exactly how big those are unless that's a standard 10 or 12 inch plate, which of course, makes them absolutely huge in my book.
Shrimp season opens here in Maine in exactly one week. I am beside myself with glee.
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Do reconsider, Peter! Look how delicious these little guys are!
Why not dig up the larvae -- harder to clean, but no crunchy exoskeleton to slow you down.Good call, Peter! That is exactly what Kate did - larvae were stuffed inside the June Bug Malt Balls. That's what's in the white bucket on the kitchen stove up-thread. Camera guy has his lens up nice and close. I'm going to have to keep an eye open for that when it comes around Monday the 24th.
In case anyone missed this weeks Bizarre Foods Maine broadcast, check out these airings next week:
Nov. 24 @ 9 p.m.
Nov. 25 @ 1 a.m.
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8th course - Pickett Street Posse (Kate Squibb & Josh Potocki)
June Bug 3 Ways
Kate and Josh, collected a mass of june bugs a couple evenings prior to the island event and experimented with a few ways to prepare them, settling on three dishes. This, after discovering that certain parts of the critters are inedible, like the exoskeleton.
After a quick roast in a dry pan, they are easier to remove and then the fun begins.
I like the simple syrup squeeze bottle - crack
June Bug Malted Balls,
Unfortunately, this is the only completed dish of the three we have - glasses for the June-nipper behind the plate (it featured a vodka gimlet rimmed with toasted junebug, crushed juniper berries, and Maine sea salt).
This table was clearly the most intriguing to Andrew and Bob. I think everyone else were pretty squeamish, including this local writer in attendance that day. Once again, I was too busy spinning up handrolls to try any of their bugs.
Deathmatch Dessert - Rebecca
"Fools Drunken Goat"
Cabernet Gluten-free Tart - Goat Cheese Mousse - Rhubarb Fool
Team Wyatt
Allen's Coffee-Brandy Whoopie Pies with Moxie Marshmallow filling
At this point, the Bizarre Foods crew produced some ballots for those in attendance to vote for the most memorable item on the menu.
Presentation was over so we all kicked back with some drinks,
Zimmern Father & Son count the ballots,
Andrew took to the terrace and announced how wonderful every dish really was, but couldn't help noticing almost all the ballots mentioned The Pickett Posse's junebugs as the most novel plate of the day.
Andrew signs menus as we pack up,
On the ride back, we were all pretty bushed - we all got more sun than we realized, of course.
Joe and Jon missed that boat too, and arranged a more fun way to get back to town,
Thanks for visiting the Deathmatch Crew in Portland, Maine!
For those new to the Deathmatch posse of Portland cooking talent, and would like a peek at prior memorable feasts, see the list below arranged by date and menu-challenge:
October 14th 2007 - Deathmatch Deer: click here
March 9, 2008 - Deathmatch Japanese: click here
June 7, 2008 - Deathmatch Bizarre Foods: click here
August 31st, 2008 - Forage! Grow! Kill! click here
I have located photos of the very first Deathmatch in August 2007, which I did not attend. It was a Foie Gras challenge. I will assemble a report of that evening in the coming months.
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The Deathmatch Beverage - Candace Poirier
White Pine and Teaberry Flip
Fascinating cooler on a Maine summer's day,
Or you could do this,
5th course - Colin & Bronwen Wyatt
Wild Moose and Venison Pate - Salad of Pickled Wild Maine Vegetable on Crostini
The talented Wyatt brother/sister team never disappoint,
They also make custom T-shirts for every Deathmatch.
6th course - Nolan Stewart
"The Maine Italian Sandwich 2 Ways"
Original: Ham - Green Pepper - Tomato - Black Olives - Cheese - S&P
Bizarre: Braised Pig Ear & Tongue - Peppadew - Olivia's Garden Dehydrated Tomatoes - Local Gin-pickled Fennel - Rosemont Bakery Semolina Roll
Everyone said this was amazing. I had my hands full of flounder roe and never got close to Nolan's table.
7th course - Sean McClure and Mitchell Gerow
"Obscurf & Turf"
Seaweed 3 ways - Uni Spheres - Tomalley Dumplings - Maine Moose Tartare with Egg Yolk - Confit of Duck Gizzards, Hearts and Feet
When Andrew came around to these guys he said, "Ah, these are the real chefs!"
No one could argue with a guy who hops around the planet filming chefs of any and all stripes and skill levels. Sean and Mitch have cooking in their blood and it shows. It is a treat for an amateur like me to watch them work.
Seaweed three ways,
Uni Spheres,
Dumplings are ready for plating,
... and voilà!
I never got a chance to see Mitch's Moose meat tartare until the broadcast. Sean saved me the last Tomalley dumpling and it was pretty damn good.
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Next up:
June Bugs 3 Ways
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How about Fresh Approach, 155 Brackett St.?
I only mention because they have a creative sausage maker (so far: best chorizo I've had in town) so his skills could be swayed to perhaps any request. Try it.
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I was just down at Harbor Fish - they have baby polpo and fresh sardines from Portugal - both for $8.99/lb. I bought some of both - never cooked polpo myself.
Fresh Anchovies were $9.49/lb.
Portland ME Food Sourcing
in New England: Cooking & Baking
Posted
Interesting specialty seafood at Harbor Fish this morning. Ben told me he expects to be busy.
Atlantic Eels - $8.99/lb
Whelks - $5.99/lb
Periwinkles - $1.99/lb
Also, fresh squid from Rhode Island, Branzini, Ocean Perch, Lemon Sole and a pale-color salmon from the left coast that looked good. Of course, the usual Tuna, Halibut, Cod etc.
Huge cherrystones are $0.65 each - steamers and oysters are plentiful.