Fish and Seafood

[Adam Balic]

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

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

[Pan]

Adam, what a great idea for a thread! I look forward to the next fishy post.

[johnnyd]

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

[Adam Balic]

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.

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

[Adam Balic]

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.

[Adam Balic]

Arbroath Smokies. These are haddock that are hot smoked in pairs from a geographically defined area in the east coast of Scotland.

In this case I used them to make a local variation on a typical salt cod 'cream'.

[Adam Balic]

Pomfret (sorry, no idea of the species). Again from my fishmonger in Edinburgh. Highly prized in SE-Asia.

Deep fried and used and sauced with Thai 'Three flavour sauce'.

[Gifted Gourmet]

What a beautiful thread! Thanks!!

[Adam Balic]

A rainbow trout. Not native to Scotland, but used to stock lochs etc for recreational fishing. Also the first fish I caught on a fly.

Used to make "Blue Trout".

[Adam Balic]

From the mercato centrale in Florence, earlier this year.

Anchovies

Soup fish

[docsconz]

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!

[Arey]

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.

[Jinmyo]

Adam, I like fish!

Great photographs and great thread.

[Adam Balic]

From Samlucar (Andalucia).

Live fiddler crab with samphire.

Fiddler crab claws as a tapa

Clams in a burnt onion sauce

Hake roe salad

Buying fish at the wonderful Sanlucar market

Which included

Weever fish

Red mullet, cuttlefish and baby sole

Edited July 3, 2005 by Adam Balic (log)

[BonVivant]

'food from the sea' is my favourite! i eat meat once or twice a week. love my seafood too much.

steamed and eaten with a simple butter parsley garlic sauce

[johnnyd]

A recent scallop ceviche made from a local diver harvest. Full report here.

[afn33282]

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.

[Adam Balic]

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.

←

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 July 4, 2005 by Adam Balic (log)

[Adam Balic]

From the Market in Jerez (Andalucia)

The market

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

Chub mackerel

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

Porbeagle shark

Intact (shark on the left) at the Sanlucar market

Topped and tailed

Skinned and ready to section into slices

[Corinna Dunne]

This is such a wonderful thread. Thanks.

[Adam Balic]

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

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.

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.

[Pan]

Adam, you refer to wet hessian. What is that?

[lmc]

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

[savvysearch]

From Samlucar (Andalucia).

Clams in a burnt onion sauce

←

Mmm! Can you post this recipe!!!

Edited July 4, 2005 by savvysearch (log)

[Adam Balic]

Adam, you refer to wet hessian. What is that?

←

Pan - hessian is cloth made from jute, very common as for producing sacking material etc. Also refered to as burlap.