The first installment of our CSF (community supported fisheries) came into today: a golden cod, about as heavy as a big cat and stiff with rigor mortis. Cleaned and dressed, head on. Obviously, this tiny cooler was too small. Our friend Ryan, whose other fish that is, had to put his in a canvas tote bag and bike home with it swinging just below his armpit.
The act of filleting it was difficult and scary. We need a new knife, bad. Like, before next Monday. But, after some wrangling, slipping, sawing, hacking, ripping and slicing, we found ourselves with two, beautiful, tender fillets. And a big fish head and a tail and the ribs of this monster who gave its life for us tonight. Thank you , fish. Something about seeing your eyes was hard and elicited a different kind of conscientiousness about eating another animal.
The first fish of the season became a kind of fish taco. We made a refrigerator salsa with CSA cilantro, jalapeno, red onion and farmer’s market arugula, all minced and tossed with oil, rice vinegar (would have been better with lime), salt and pepper. The fish it self was very, very clean and tender. Nothing smelled fishy, not even the distribution truck.
Good on ya to all those Cambridge peeps who I think tackled their first whole fish, like us, tonight. You are now prepared to live off the grid.
If anyone wants to comment here and talk about fish stock, please do.
Can’t wait to get my 1/2 share tonight! Anyone would like to share some Cod recipes? Those fish tacos sound delicious.
Curious what you make of http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124421534407589317.html — particularly this part:
The hodgepodge of independent fishing vessels means fishermen use a variety of gear. Some are considered eco-conscious, such as stationary weirs or hook-and-line gear. Other boats may use trawlers, gillnets or purse seines, which are not considered as environmentally friendly, as they often harm or catch unintended sealife. The current CSF programs only regulate quality and health standards, not catching procedures.
There are also issues surrounding the types of species being offered. Some of the fish, including cod, hake, flounder and monkfish, appear on the red lists of environmental groups such as the Blue Ocean Institute and the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch program because of concerns over over-fishing, habitat impacts and contaminants such as mercury.
(via http://www.ethicurean.com/2009/06/16/csf/)
Fish stock: place bones, half a yellow onion, a roughly chopped small carrot, a rib of celery, half a cleaned leek and a couple of parsley stalks in a pot. barely cover with water (the bones will settle) and bring to the gentlest of simmers. (sub)Simmer for 1 hour, cool slightly and strain through cheesecloth. Try not to stir things around when you’re straining - it will release protein aggregates that cloud the stock (largely an aesthetic concern). Retrieve remaining flesh from head and bones and discard all other ingredients.
You can use this stock for risotto, soups, pan sauces etc. Fold the retrieved meat in right at the end of a risotto or soup (it overcooks during the stock-making but is still a valuable bulking agent).
Enjoy!
For the sake of simplicity I’ll put a link at the bottom of this post to a recipe at Epicurious for a “sweated” fish stock. This style of stock produces great flavor and can be frozen.
I invite you to check out the resources page on my website for some pretty good culinary links.
The stock link:
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Strong-Fish-Stock-105266
I know what you mean about the eyes–they had me spooked, too. It made it a little more difficult to saw off its head and cut it up, but, boy, was it good!
I have now made fish stock. It’s pretty simple. I now have 4 pints of fish stock in my freezer. However, having never cooked with fish stock before, I’m not sure we’re going to go through it very quickly. If I do this every week, I’ll need a new freezer soon.
Had similar experience with my cod (JP pick up), but very proud of my results post emergency eBay fillet knife purchase and some confusing fillet video watching. The fish was good. The thing that made me the most happy, however, was bringing the carcass to my farmer comrade Greg Maslowe at Newton Community Farm where I get a lot of my veggies for my business (portable local veg in the form of knishes and pasties). I believe that he was determined to bury the head in the fields the old fashioned Native American way. There is a food system to be proud of.