Fish and Seafood

[Bridgestone]

Good to see this wonderful post again!

Adam mentioned burbot way back in post #118 but didn't actually have one. I bought and prepared one myself this past spring and thought I could add a little to this thread.

Winter is the best time of the year to eat "lake", or burbot. Burbot are related to cod and live in the cold, dark, freshwater lakes of northern Sweden. They can, of course, be eaten year round. However, burbot spawn midwinter and therefore are full of roe between December and February.

Burbot isn’t very popular in Sweden anymore. I bought this fish at giveaway prices and the fishmonger seemed surprised that I’d want it. He seemed downright suspicious when he noticed my accent but quickly warmed up when I mentioned that burbot, due to its slimy coating (the slime insulates them) and general low status amongst fishermen, are also known as “lawyers” in the Northern U.S. He even offered to inspect his four burbots to find the one with the most roe. Alas*, it seems I was a few weeks late in my searches as none of the burbots he had contained any roe.

Back in its day, burbot was a pretty popular fish. Burbot can be caught by any number of means but one method was especially popular for generations of poorer Swedes. In midwinter, burbot swim from their deep lairs to spawn in shallow, shoreline waters. And, with the right conditions (i.e., clear, snow-free ice), burbot can be stunned by smaking the ice with a sledge. Apparently, one does not want to hammer through the ice but instead simply crack a “rose” in it. This stuns the burbot. One then may make a hole in the “rose” and retrieve the fish.

And, finally, there is one aspect of the burbot that makes it especially appropriate for survival food: its liver. Burbot liver is both huge (up to 10% of its body weight) and packed full of vitamin D.

The burbot:

its liver:

Start by filleting the burbot and setting aside the fillets along with the liver (and roe, if your burbot hasn’t spawned yet).

With the scraps, bones and trimmings, make a quick stock. I simply rinsed the scraps in cold water and simmered them for about 45 minutes with ½ carrot, a little leek, 1 stalk of celery, a bay leaf and some thyme.

The ingredients for the final dish:

An onion, 1 stalk of celery, 1 small carrot, ½ of a leek, about 20 haricot verts (or, say 10 green beans), 1 tablespoon lemon juice, the burbot fillets and liver (about 1 ½ pounds – cod would make a fine substitute), one whole mace “flower” (maybe ½ tsp ground?), one bay leaf, ½ tablespoon instant-blending flour, ¾ cup white wine, 2 ½ cups of the burbot stock, 1 cup heavy cream or half & half, 2 egg yolks, about ½ cup broccoli florets (or peas or other green vegetable). Not pictured: 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar

Start by adding the wine, lemon juice, white wine vinegar, mace and bay leaf to the stock and bringing it to a simmer.

Add the fillets and the liver and simmer for 10-15 minutes.

While the fish is simmering, finely chop the onion, carrot, celery and leek and haricot verts:

Remove the fish (keep warm) and strain the stock. Bring the stock back to a boil and reduce by half.

When reduced, add the cream…

… and chopped vegetables:

Simmer for about 5 minutes.

Next, thicken the sauce. Start by adding the instant-blending flour:

Whisk in the flour and let the sauce thicken for a few minutes. Remove the sauce from the heat and add (while whisking) the two egg yolks. Taste and add salt and pepper as needed.

Place a serving of fish and liver on a plate, coat with sauce and vegetables, garnish and serve:

All in all, an excellent dish. The burbot (both the liver and the fillets) is mild tasting and, apart from its firmness, could easily be substituted with any type of cod or firm whitefish. The sauce was very rich and I’d probably recommend using half-and-half for anyone even a little sensitive to rich dishes. Finally, the mace makes for an interesting spice. I’m normally not wild about mace by itself (too much of it makes everything taste like ketchup to me) and was concerned after tasting the poaching liquid. However, once thickened and full of fresh-tasting vegetables, the mace flavor had kindly retreated to the background.

* I use “alas” lightly here. As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, I’ve become more and more squeamish about eating fish roe as report after report of collapsing fish stocks hits the newsstands.

[Adam Balic]

What an interesting looking fish. Actually is looks a lot like the seawater Cusk superficially, although the liver is huge in comparison. My memory of the Cusk was that it was covered in a huge amount of slime. Burbot similar?

[Bridgestone]

Yes, Adam, fresh burbot is very slimey.

[RAHiggins1]

I was amused by the fact that the label indicates the Japanese name, hokkigai, as well as the English name.

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Hiroyuki, what do you make of these clams - do they look the same as the hokkigai you have? I have never seen a Japanese word on the labels at my fish market - obviously the seller is assuming the buyers know the word. Do your surf clams come from the Sea of Japan or the Pacific, or both?

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I'm no expert on clams. I did some google search and found that the Canadian variety is more reddish than the one in Japan.

http://www.zukan-bouz.com/nimaigai/heterod...gai/ubagai.html

(Japanese only. You can at least look at the photos.)

I'm not sure if hokkigai can be gathered from the Sea of Japan. Hokkaido is famous for its hokkigai.

As you can easily imagine, domestic, high-quality ones go to sushi shops while cheap imported ones go to conveyor sushi restaurants.

Besides being used as sushi toppings, they are fried with butter (butter-yaki); cooked with rice (takikomi gohan); and put in curry.

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I would reason that people know "Hokkigai" from Sushi Menus. I've noticed that people are using tje Japanese names more for other seafood as well. "Ahi" and "Toro" are very common these days on non-sushi menus.

[Prawncrackers]

My mother cooked this beautiful fish tonight, it's a type of grouper but i have no idea what kind. Any ideas?

Pre and post steaming with salted pork and shitake musrooms, deeelish!

[Peter the eater]

My mother cooked this beautiful fish tonight, it's a type of grouper but i have no idea what kind.  Any ideas?

Pre and post steaming with salted pork and shitake musrooms, deeelish!

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That looks like something from a tank at the pet store!

Red grouper is available Florida but I'm not sure that's what you have. I found this picture (click) of a guy spearfishing in the Red Sea, but the species is not identified.

[Adam Balic]

Coral Trout/Grouper (Plectropomus spp.). Very good eating, but a lot are farmed.

Worth looking at post #199 on this thread

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=70254&st=180

Edited June 6, 2008 by Adam Balic (log)

[Prawncrackers]

Thanks Adam, had a feeling you'd know what this is. Have you tried another one since post #199? They are really good eating like all groupers mild in flavour but fantastic flesh. Can't believe you cooked it the same way as my mother though but please note this is a traditional Hong Kong way of cooking it. Gives mild fish extra taste. I could've eaten this all on it's own, actually i could've eaten two!

[Peter the eater]

Re-reading this thread is like pulling out a old favorite cook book. I knew I saw that beautiful grouper somewhere, it was back on post #199 all along!

The blue highlights are startling.  Once in a blue moon (sorry!) a lobsterman here in maine catches a pure blue lobster in their traps.  Apparently the odds are one in 2million of getting a blue one.  They build an aquarium for it when they find one.  Here is a picture of one.

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I think that there are two main pigment groups in lobsters, reddish and blues. The blue is heat sensative, hence they 'turn' red with cooking. I would guess that blue lobsters lack normal amounts of red pigment. They are most likely quite pale when cooked?

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These comments were made almost 3 years ago, but . . .

That's the pigment story I know - just like maple leaves loose the green chlorophyll in autumn to reveal the reds and yellows.

There are a few blue lobsters at my local pound. They are "pets" and not for sale, I'll take a picture next time (I go every Wednesday ). The boys say that blue lobsters are much more common now than they used to be but nobody knows why.

[Adam Balic]

Thanks Adam, had a feeling you'd know what this is.  Have you tried another one since post #199?  They are really good eating like all groupers mild in flavour but fantastic flesh.  Can't believe you cooked it the same way as my mother though but please note this is a traditional Hong Kong way of cooking it.  Gives mild fish extra taste.  I could've eaten this all on it's own, actually i could've eaten two!

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I've actually fished for them (didn't manage to land them as reef sharks bit them in half before they got to the boat). I've seen them on the Great Barrier Reef when diving. Red light is lost in the first metre or so of water, so they actually look blue/grey with spots in normal situations. Very well camouflaged actually.

I really like this dish, although now I steam it on a plate like your mother. Sometimes I add a few black beans as well. I didn't know that this was a Hong Kong method, in the book I have the combination of ham, mushroom, dried shrimp, ginger, spring onion is from Sichuan (where catfish would be used)?

[Peter the eater]

This is a small haddock stuffed with lemon and chives, ready for roasting in the oven. More details here post #26.

[pauladsous]

This is a small haddock stuffed with lemon and chives, ready for roasting in the oven. More details here post #26.

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Man! looks brillliant! Thank God for the below 3" creepy crawlers otherwise you'd have had to share Joke aside nice job Now, personnally, I know I can't resist oysters, fried calamari, crab cakes ( whenever in the US which basically and sadly amounts to never since 2001...) or seafood salad as an appetiser OR grilled/fried seafood(griglia mista di mare, misto di mare, boquerones y chipirones fritos, parillada del mar, grillade du pêcheur, St Jacques lacquées), seafood stews (bouillabaisse, cioppino,...) sashimi/sushi/ sefaood tempura OR any Asian seafood as a main. Basically, unless I'm in the deepest heartland where fresheness is somehow doubtful, I ALWAYS order at least one "fishy" dish

[Evan]

Summer is here and the California Grunions are back.

During the full and new moon high tides, grunions invade the beaches en mass...

Plate of grunions...

Grunion dredged in flour/cornstarch mix and fried...

Very fresh sardines...

Matter of fact, they were alive 15 minutes prior to when the picture was taken.

Simple but my favorite way to have fresh sardines, broiled with salt.

[JohnnyH]

I have nothing to offer here -- much to my dismay -- other than to say that this is, I think, my favorite thread on egullet.

[crinoidgirl]

Evan, thank you so much for those pictures, especially the grunion on the beach.

Hopefully, next year I'll get a pic of the smelt here in SE Michigan.

[Prawncrackers]

Time to bump this topic up again! Another beautiful fish from my mother's kitchen yesterday. Some kind of reddish snapper i think, anyone have a definite ID on this one? That's the only problem when my mum goes to the wholesale market, nothing is marked up and she's not really bothered to ask whether it's this fish or that. She only cares about how fresh it is. Which i suppose is the best way about it! Wonderfully tasty liver with this fish too:

[Evan]

Spot Prawns

Asked the fish monger for two largest and this was what she gave me, two females with eggs. Didn't do anything fancy with them, just steamed and had it with butter and vinegar and soy sauce with ginger. Available mostly during the summer here in the west coast US.

[johnnyd]

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.

[Evan]

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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They are 1/4lb each, and the plates are about 8".

[SeanDirty]

If you really want to see fish... i work at a large seafood company... i took pictures of some of our fish a few months back... and put them in my photobucket...

My photobuckethttp://photobucket.com/FISHPIC

This is an east coast Mantis shrimp... as in Long island... they also come from Greece but are alot more expensive... their shells have very sharp points and is very easy to cut yourself on their shells...

this is Hotaru Ika, also known as firefly squid... they are about an inch long, and they are so fresh they still retain color... at almost 1.50 per squid... hell id expect them to have color

just some of the pics i have in my photobucket file... we carry a whole line of Japanese products as well...

Edited November 25, 2008 by SeanDirty (log)

[BeeZee]

Sean, thanks for the link to your photo's. I'm always blown away by how beautiful all the different varieties of fish can be!

[emilyr]

I just have to say, this thread is really beautiful and makes me very hungry. Yum!

[Evan]

Spiny lobster season is here again in California...

Steamed...

Parboiled and split...

Then baked...

[Prawncrackers]

this is Hotaru Ika, also known as firefly squid... they are about an inch long, and they are so fresh they still retain color... at almost 1.50 per squid... hell id expect them to have color

That's wonderful, i had Hotaru Ika for the first time earlier this year in Japan and i've been dreaming about eating them again ever since. Last Saturday i went to a Japanese place near me (maybe the best in the country) and to my surprise i found them on the menu. I was delighted, they are so sweet and juicy they literally pop in your mouth. The first photo also shows some marinated raw octopus in wasabi:

This place had also had some knockout uni, my favourite sushi item:

[SeanDirty]

ya know as a foodie i'd try just about anything once... cept for maybe bugs and raw squid or octo or even life fish..... creeppppyyyyyy!