10 hours ago, weinoo said:
In my (northern) California years, there was a friend who would go up to Mendocino or Humboldt County a few times a year to go abalone "fishing." No - you don't drop a line, you dive. And at that time (I don't know what the current regs are), you had to free dive, and the limit was probably one or two. (You did not want to get caught illegally taking ab). That was not a very safe thing to do; it's a treacherous coast and the water is cold - but then again, the guy jumped out of planes and base jumped; he was one of those.
Anyway, he and his dive buddies would bring the abalone back, and we'd prep and cook it. Pried out of its shell, sliced thinly, and then got the shit pounded out of it, often with the side of a wine bottle! Sautéed ever so briefly in butter and/or olive oil, it was heaven on a plate. Nothing from the sea tastes like that. Saline, sweet, tender - oh man. The stuff available in cans - nah. And as has happened to so many other sea creatures, over-harvesting led to even more regs, etc. etc. And now they farm abalone, and it's harvested much younger as it reaches market age more quickly, etc. etc. Sad decline of a delicious species. All this talk of seafood...
Funny, this coming up now. For two days I have been seriously Jonesing last Century abalone. 2 martini lunches at Bardelli's on O'Farrell: avocado and grapefruit, then abalone steaks. But, hell, in those days we even served abalone at small dinner parties.
Mise: abalone steaks, egg beaten with splash of seltzer, fresh saltine crumbs mashed to meal, unsalted butter. Beafeaters, Noilly. Make martini. Heat butter to bubbling. Dip steaks in egg, then very lightly in crumbs. Lay steaks in hot pan. Throw back half a martini. Turn steaks. Toss down remainder of martini. Plate abalone. Heaven!
Just today I saw that a locsl purveyor is offering fresh abalone STEAKS. I will check it out soon, and if true, I'm gonna git me some.
