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Fish and Seafood


Adam Balic

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I am very interested in fish and seafood. One of the good things about moving continents is that the local fish tend to be completely different. Hence, I have a lot of fish images. I thought that a single thread would be a good place to put them and obiously, if other people have images that would be excellent.

First up.

The fish:

Salmo trutta, "sea-trout", "salmon-trout", "selwin" etc. Actually, this is a type of Brown trout, that has a sea migratory phase, only returning to freshwater to spawn. They are delicious, I prefer then to salmon (Atlantic). As I don't eat farmed salmon, it tends to be a rare treat, but on this occasion I rejected hugh wild salmon in favour of this sea-trout.

About 3 kg and 50 cm long

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Poached and served with a Normandy sauce (cider, creme fraiche etc)

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Outstanding.  Beautiful plate too. Did you put anything in the cavity before poaching?

Just some leeks, thyme, salt and pepper.

Next fish is a Indian ocean snapper, not idea of the species. Weirdly, good fishmongers are an exception in Edinburgh. On shop that is very good (Eddie's Seafood) imports fish like this that is fresher then local fish sold by other shops. Go figure.

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Baked in vine leaves with sort of a Sicilian stuffing (capers, tomato, mint, pine nuts)

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A meal from Cinque terra (Liguria) a few years ago. A terracotta amphora is filled with seafood (cuttlefish, shovel-nosed lobster, clams, mussels, scampi and mantis shrimp, in a wine broth flavoured with tomato, saffron, thyme, anchovies (and a few other things they wouldn't tell me). This is sealed and baked in an oven. Whatever you don't eat is used to produce a sauce for pasta.

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Man this thread is making me perspire! I might have to dig up some of my own porn, er, I mean fish and seafood photos!

John Sconzo, M.D. aka "docsconz"

"Remember that a very good sardine is always preferable to a not that good lobster."

- Ferran Adria on eGullet 12/16/2004.

Docsconz - Musings on Food and Life

Slow Food Saratoga Region - Co-Founder

Twitter - @docsconz

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Beautiful pictures, they might even be able to make my brother and his wife stop saying "we don't like fish" everytime I tell them of a new fish recipe I've found.

"A fool", he said, "would have swallowed it". Samuel Johnson

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Adam, I like fish!

Great photographs and great thread.

"I've caught you Richardson, stuffing spit-backs in your vile maw. 'Let tomorrow's omelets go empty,' is that your fucking attitude?" -E. B. Farnum

"Behold, I teach you the ubermunch. The ubermunch is the meaning of the earth. Let your will say: the ubermunch shall be the meaning of the earth!" -Fritzy N.

"It's okay to like celery more than yogurt, but it's not okay to think that batter is yogurt."

Serving fine and fresh gratuitous comments since Oct 5 2001, 09:53 PM

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Adam,

What an engaging thread! I don't know if you are book dork like I am; if you are you might consider the following books by Alan Davidson. (This link is to his obituary in The Guardian. It is the most thorough link I found on him).

Mediterranean Seafood (1972)

Seafood of South East Asia (1979)

North Atlantic Seafood (1979)

Saveur magazine's website says of Mediterranean Seafood: "Complete handbook to Mediterranean sea life, with black-and-white drawings, detailed definitions, translations, and recipes. Excellent for identifying the lesser-known creatures." His works are considered unimpeachably authoritative. Davidson was an Oxford graduate and was serving as a British diplomat when he wrote Mediterranean Seafood. Elizabeth David, goddess of English food writing and M.F.K. Fisher's spiritual twin, gave Davidson his publishing break by recommending his manuscript to Penguin.

Davidson wrote many other books, including the previously out-of-print Fish and Fish Dishes of Laos, and was the editor of The Oxford Companion to Food, of which Amazon.com says: "Davidson himself...contributes approximately 80 percent of the 2,650 entries, thereby guaranteeing high levels of erudition, readability, and deadpan feline wit."

You could buy his books through www.abebooks.com (direct link to his books with the word "seafood" in the title), which is a site that is linked to the inventories of thousands of used-book stores.

Frau Farbissma: "It's a television commercial! With this cartoon leprechaun! And all of these children are trying to chase him...Hey leprechaun! Leprechaun! We want to get your lucky charms! Haha! Oh, and there's all these little tiny bits of marshmallow just stuck right in the cereal so that when the kids eat them, they think, 'Oh this is candy! I'm having fun!'"
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Adam,

What an engaging thread!  I don't know if you are book dork like I am; if you are you might consider the following books by Alan Davidson. (This link is to his obituary in The Guardian.  It is the most thorough link I found on him).

Mediterranean Seafood (1972)

Seafood of South East Asia (1979)

North Atlantic Seafood (1979)

Saveur magazine's website says of Mediterranean Seafood:  "Complete handbook to Mediterranean sea life, with black-and-white drawings, detailed definitions, translations, and recipes. Excellent for identifying the lesser-known creatures."  His works are considered unimpeachably authoritative.  Davidson was an Oxford graduate and was serving as a British diplomat when he wrote Mediterranean SeafoodElizabeth David, goddess of English food writing and M.F.K. Fisher's spiritual twin, gave Davidson his publishing break by recommending his manuscript to Penguin.

Davidson wrote many other books, including the previously out-of-print Fish and Fish Dishes of Laos, and was the editor of The Oxford Companion to Food, of which Amazon.com says:  "Davidson himself...contributes approximately 80 percent of the 2,650 entries, thereby guaranteeing high levels of erudition, readability, and deadpan feline wit."

You could buy his books through www.abebooks.com (direct link to his books with the word "seafood" in the title), which is a site that is linked to the inventories of thousands of used-book stores.

Thanks for the suggstion. I have Davidson's Mediterranean Seafood and North Atlantic Seafood. Both are completely invaluble. Although, my copies are old, so maybe I need to update to the new editions. SE-Asia seafood I haven't got, but should, just for interest and the identification of the odd SE-Asian fish that makes it to Scotland.

Edited by Adam Balic (log)
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From the Market in Jerez (Andalucia)

The market

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Baby Dover Sole and Mullet roe. The latter is what gets salted to and dried to produce 'Bottarga/Botarga' in Spain and Italy

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Chub mackerel

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Various crustacean (and some snails), including spider crab in the top right and scampi in the bottom left.

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Porbeagle shark

Intact (shark on the left) at the Sanlucar market

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Topped and tailed

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Skinned and ready to section into slices

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Although, I have posted this before, I now have some extra images and information to add. Yesterday I attended the Scottish Game Fair at Scone Palace. Amoughst, numerous attractions was a demonstration on the traditional production of Arboath Smokies.

The fish are lightly salted, then dried and hung in pairs on poles

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These are then hung over barrels which are set into the ground, the fish are then covered with wet hessian and smoked for approximately 40 minutes, depending on the wind.

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We ate then hot from the smoker and in this form they are one of the UK's best food products, well deserving of its geographic protection.

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what a great, interesting thread. your pictures and descriptions are wonderful. i would love to wander through that market!

"The smell and taste of things remain poised a long time, like souls, ready to remind us...."

Marcel Proust

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