The Fishman Cometh

I took delivery of our first seafood order, which had been swimming happily around the North Pacific the day before, and delighted in the very, very happy place that our food is going to. Up until now, the fish selection around here has been pretty bad, and I’ve had to console myself with the world-class local meat, cheese, and grain and our own produce. But fish is so wonderful, and gets me so inspired to do creative things that I’ve been sorely missing it. Until now. I ordered a side of sockeye salmon and a pound of side-stripe shrimp (both completely sustainable) figuring that it would be a good way to stretch one weekly delivery into several meals.

The salmon I have cured, and it will be gravlax in a day or two- just in time to take it to VT so my family can eat the whole damn thing; I also smoked 4 pounds of miso-cured bacon and will be bringing ONE pound up with us for that very reason. The shrimp were dinner tonight. I seasoned (garlic, salt, pepper, 5-spice) and skewered them, then put them in the smoker for a few minutes to cook. Why waste a good fire, right? Especially since it was 90˚ and jungle-muggy today. I had intended to do something fancy by agar-clarifying Blanche’s bloody Mary mix to make a clear cocktail sauce, but it got late, so I just used the agar to thicken it up from tomato juice texture to sauce texture and left it at that. We murdered them. There was other stuff, too- some leftovers, and a little new potato gratin, but these were the star. The ever-so flattering spotlight was a 2006 Max-Ferd. Richter Brauneberger Juffer Riesling Kabinett. As good as it is- especially for under $15- better still was the 06 Graacher Himmelreich we had a couple of days ago with coconut curried chickpeas. Not a very photogenic dish, but tasty, and just ridiculously delightful wine.

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7 Comments

  1. Zoomie
    August 21, 2009

    Terrific shrimp – do you have brothers and sisters?

  2. Heather
    August 24, 2009

    The seafood may be sustainable, but that's a helluva distance for it to travel to get to your tummy. If you're going to totally sodomize your carbon footprint, though, you picked the right stuff to do it with. The Pacific albacore is also fantastic this time of year – I'm thinking about a trip to the beach to buy a jack and do some canning.

  3. Heather
    August 26, 2009

    You won't post again or comment back unless someone besides Zoomie and I comment, is that what's happening here?

  4. Zoomie
    August 28, 2009

    Hey, what's up? Don't know what I did to offend, but I'ze sorry. Write some more, okay?

  5. Heather
    August 28, 2009

    It's not you, Zoomie. He's prolly got a show, or an article, or getting poisonak pustules, or something in the city, or battling deer. Those are his things that get in the way of entertaining us.

  6. peter
    August 28, 2009

    Settle down; I'm in Vermont. Jeez. Did I forget to send in
    my permission slip?

  7. Zoomie
    August 29, 2009

    We're relieved to hear you are in VT and okay and Milo hasn't had some dreaded accident or something! Enjoy VT.

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