We built our house back in 1995 and have lived here ever since. You would think that in those years I would have gotten to know the local resources much better but its not as easy as you might think. For one, there are not that many resources here to begin with. Note also that I didn’t grow up here nor do I have any family within a 2000 mile radius, we are on our own. We don’t know all the little hidden gems so we have been slowly uncovering them ourselves. There are so many we may never find!

We don’t live in outer mongolia but in terms of food, yeah, we do. The local restaurants are best if they are the pizza joints. The others, especially the ones that have illusions of haute cuisine, are not worth the trip down the hill.

If you read this blog, you know I found a fantastic local resource in B.T.’s Smokehouse run by Brian Treitman. Not only does Brian pour everything into his BBQ, he has been great to get to know!

I have written several posts on his food:

• An improbable meat nirvana in a BBQ wasteland
• Criminally Good Smoked Salmon and Bacon – B.T.’s Smokehouse
• Food Photo 101: Shooting BBQ
• A Tasty Carboniferous Terroir

We have no real main streets because all business activity has long since been completely co-opted by big box stores some miles away. We certainly didn’t move here for the food but over the years, a steady diet of Stop n Shop blandness can wear on you.

A few years ago I came across a great local butcher, Ed Stearns Dressed Meats butcher shop in Charlton, MA (a hike but close in relative terms). They began business in 1932 so they have been around for a few years. I love supporting local businesses like this especially because its a family business making it in a tough big box world.

My latest great food related fortune has been finding a recently opened fish shop in Sturbridge, MA. Stop n Shop has a fish counter but its bland and the attendants do not know anything about their products. Also, they sell NO whole fish and if asked, they generally look at me like I grew a second head!

So you can imagine how happy I was when I first noticed the G & R Fish Market open in Sturbridge about a year or so ago. They are located at 135 Main St, Sturbridge, MA 01566-1569 (map). In that time I have not had a real free moment to check them out until late last week.

I walked in and was greeted by Sebastiano, one of the market owners. My goodness, he was so welcoming. This is absolutely a good sign because it means he loves what he does. I once visited a fish market in West Concord, MA (Twin Seafood) and felt utterly overwhelmed and a bit terrified by the stridency of their way of doing business.

Sebastiano is the polar opposite, very calm and very excited to hear of my interest in getting some fish bones and whole fish. I found myself making a special order. He was going into Boston to the great fish sellers there and find something for me. I asked him to surprise me. This last Tuesday we got a fantastic 2 foot bluefish that had been caught that morning. This is a fish I have never had before and I have only grilled whole fish so this was going to be a new experience for me.

After taking all sorts of shots of the fish, I gutted it. I remember gutting fish as a kid while camping and I also have a lot of experience gutting chickens we dispatch in our backyard so this was not difficult.

From here its simply a matter of removing the scales (very easy with this fish), rinsing, stuffing the cavity with cilantro, lemons, lime, bit of sea salt, cutting the fish in a few places to encourage even cooking time, olive oil, garlic, salt. I then threw it in a 425F oven for 25 minutes or so, checking the cuts for doneness of the meat (just opaque, just flaky)

The fish came out just barely cooked, lightly scented by the citrus, garlic, and cilantro. It had a distinct flavor that was quite delicious. Its not bland like salmon can be, it holds it own but in a way that is lovely. Be sure to remove the dark meat as that has a much more fishy flavor that some may not like. Everyone in our family loved it from the toddler on up. I will be making stock from the head and bones!

As this is a larger fish and carniverous, it sits at the top of the food chain. For this reason it does bioaccumulate toxins and heavy metals. Its a great once in a while treat but not something a young family or young women wants to eat on a regular basis.

Yummmm, you know you love grilling, especially when certain vegetables like asparagus are so fresh. Its also nice to stand outside and cook instead of at the same old stove.

Fresh air, fresh food, the quiet of the backyard, cant get better than that.

What CAN get better is my technique and grilling know-how. This is where you come in.

The website Culinate is running a contest that will send one winning reader and one winning foodblogger to attend the COPIA Cooking School’s prestigious two-day grill course taught by Andrew Schloss and David Joachim, authors of the best-selling Mastering the Grill.

Click that blue graphic to put my name ontop of the list of extremely competitive foodbloggers. I have no illusions that I will, but I can dream!

If you would like more grilling food porn to help you decide try these two slide shows.

See below for a slideshow from that whole red snapper and trout grilling photo shoot.

You may also enjoy this slideshow

[Like me, you may not have known that the merry month of May is actually National BBQ Month! While it is apropos to this post, it was not planned. Let the grilling commence!]

Now that it is warming up, I have been thinking about grilling but the thought of another dried out chicken breast made me weep. No, I had a hankering for something completely different.

This meant using the fish grilling basket for the first time and that meant whole fish!

My husband and I both telecommute so that means we generally stay close to home. While that saves quite a lot on the commuting expenses, it also means that we tend to stay local for our food shopping. Unfortunately, this limits what we eat, especially when it comes to fish. Our local grocery store does not carry whole fish because customers complained (amazing huh? I think it went like this – “Ewwww, look, a dead fish head”). People really do NOT want to be in touch with food origins. Personally, I think this sort of person should stay away from the fish counter and stick to the twinkies, but, hey, I don’t run the store.

To get fish that is fresh, delicious, prepared to order, and handled with love and attention, what we have to do is visit Whole Foods when we DO make it in to Boston, an hour and a half away.

So this last Sunday, my husband brought home a selection of whole fish (also wild caught shrimp and salmon from Norway – I travel vicariously through my salmon) and I set to the task of grilling a red snapper and two trout.

I stuffed each with some grapefruit slices, key lime slices, bit of minced garlic, fresh chives, fresh dill, and fresh cilantro. The bigger red snapper was slashed on the outside to help the heat penetrate into the thicker meat. I used a single-fish basket for the red snapper and a larger one for the two trout. I threw in some ruby red grapefruit, white and green asparagus, snugging the trout, perfuming the whole batch.

We used real hardwood charcoal from Whole Foods, its chemical free and burns clean from the start so you do not have to wait until the petrochemical stench of the briquets burns off.

The larger red snapper was put on with some sliced yellow squash. I grilled it until it looked done but I had to give it a bit more heat later to finish off the cooking.

The trout took less time because they were little guys.

I served the fish with the grilled vegetables and some boiled new potatoes that had been sprinkled with Greek olive oil, sea salt, and fresh dill.

Technorati Tags: National BBQ Month, grilling, fish, grilling basket, whole fish, food origins, Boston, wild caught, shrimp, salmon, Norway, red snapper, trout, grapefruit, ruby red, asparagus, hardwood charcoal, Whole Foods, new potato

I found these really cute sushi soaps at The Paper Source and thought I would share.

One day, I spent a couple of hours driving around looking for some guest soaps for the bathroom and find NONE! I was so darn frustrated.

With these soaps you can satisfy the need to spiffy up the bathroom for yourself or guests and have a bit of fun while your at it.

This is a link to the sushi soap page at The Paper Source sit, where it says:

Yum, we love this keen sushi soap. They even come with kamaboko and wasabi soap. Scent free, these glycerine soaps are naturally moisturizing so they won’t dry your skin out and, no animal testing is involved. They make such a wonderful thank you for a hostess and a clever welcome gift for any visitors who drop by. So realistic you could just eat them up, but don’t do it!

Includes one of each soap:
Tamago
Ikura
Kamaboko
Wasabi

I also really like their tag line, “Do something creative every day.” I think it would be nice to be able to do that but, like many ideals, it is not a trivial task!

[Note: I get nothing if you click these links, this is all just for fun!]

If you can believe it, I have even more photos from the IBSS. This set today is from a cooking demonstration at the cooking theater that day. The Phillips Seafood Company had some of their corporate chefs cooking up some of their products. My feet were screaming for a rest and there was simply no better place to take a break, watch some entertaining cooking, and eat some delicious seafood, brought right to you. You can’t beat that!

I did not catch the names of the various chefs so this is not really hard-boiled journalism (as if it ever is!). Just enjoy it for the food.

The chef here is actually cooking a different dish but I thought I would share anyways.

The tuna steaks, seasoned and ready for the pan.

Here is a shot of the steaks from the mirror above the cooktop.

Tuna steaks hitting the hot saute pan, hot oil and tuna goodness sparkling up into the air.

Here the chefs are portioning out samples for the crowd.

Succulent delicious barely cooked tuna. Fantastic. See another view at the top of this page.

All the pics here are mine. I am flying without photoshop right now so I am not yet up to speed on watermarking the images. All photos – all rights reserved.

Technorati Tags: IBSS, cooking, demonstration, Phillips, corporate chef, seafood, tuna, steak, saute, pan

There was a sense of manifest destiny around this dish when it came together for me the other day. I was coming off my seafood high from the International Boston Seafood Show, I had found some huge super jumbo raw shrimp on sale for $9.99/lb (thats good around here), and I had been hankering for Paula Deen‘s Shrimp Grits that I had seen in the Best of the Best cookbook I got last year from Food & Wine Magazine.

The source cookbook was Paula Deen & Friends: Living It Up, Southern Style.

Leite’s Culinaria has done a beautiful job of spotlighting this recipe so I won’t do the same. What I will do instead is show you the recipe for my adaptation, which is really quite different than what Miss Paula did.

Before I get started, please let me emphasize that you can NOT use second rate instant grits. There is no use to even starting out if thats what you are going to use. Having lived in the south a long time, I can appreciate a good grit and let me tell you, the best has always been stone-ground. I used Bob’s Red Mill Corn Grits (not sure they need to say “corn,” are there other types of grits?). Fantastic flavor and texture, I can not rave enough about Bob’s Red Mill anything.

Nika’s Ginger Sesame Key Lime Shrimp Grits

Serves four for lunch

Ingredients:

• 1 C Bob’s Red Mill Corn Grits
• 5 C water
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 1/8 stick unsalted butter
• 1 C cheddar cheese, very finely grated
• 1 lb jumbo shrimp, raw and de-veined
• 2 green onions, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 1/2 tsp ginger, minced
• handful of cilantro, chopped
• 3 tablespoons Nellie & Joe’s Key West Lime Juice
• 3 tablespoons Sesame Seed Oil
• Olive Oil, as needed to saute (add a pat of butter if desired)
• Coarse Ground Sea Salt to season
• Toasted sesame seeds to garnish

Directions:

Bring 5 C of fresh cold water, 1/2 tsp sea salt, and a dash of roasted sesame seed oil to a boil.

Add 1 C grits, bring it back to a boil, turn down to a simmer, and cook over low heat for 15 – 20 minutes, stirring diligently. Beware of any splattering grits during this time. Those flying wet grit splashes hurt like the dickens if they get on you. Make sure to keep kids and pets away while making this.

Turn off the heat and add the 1/8 stick butter and a cup of the finely shredded cheese, mix, and cover the pot. Put it at the back of the stove while you do the rest of the recipe, making sure there is no heat under the pot.

Rinse and pat the shrimp dry and select two to be minced into tiny pieces. Put the rest of the whole shrimp aside, on ice or in the fridge.

Over medium heat in a small pan, sweat the minced garlic and ginger in about one tablespoon of olive oil, a pat of unsalted butter, a pinch of sea salt, and 1/8 teaspoon roasted sesame seed oil. Do not use high heat as the garlic will become bitter. If your pan is large, you may need to add more of the oils and butter, up to you.

Add minced shrimp, green onions, key lime juice, and cilantro (save some raw to garnish) and cook until just soft and the shrimp mince is releasing its juicy goodness.

Making sure that the heat is on medium low (just barely enough to cook at all), add the shrimp to the pan and slowly cook until just barely pink. You want the shrimp to be still a bit raw and wonderfully crunchy. I know that some of you need to go to a complete cooked shrimp, thats ok. This is really about they way you like your shrimp. Shrimp is the focus in this dish so take care to make the best shrimp you can.

Portion out the still hot grits (they are amazing in their heat holding capacity), add a small handful of finely shredded cheese, a slight dribble of sesame seed oil, a sprinkle of sea salt, and top with the shrimp. The carry-over heat of the shrimp and the grits will take them to completion. Make sure to serve all the juices in the pan too.

Garnish with fresh cilantro and sesame seeds. You may want to add a fresh dash of key lime juice now if you really like the citrus bang like I do.

Enjoy!

Let me know if you make this recipe and if you liked it.

I made an soy based sauce because I like that flavor (others in my family do not so they were happy without it).

Mix: Ponzu citric flavored soy sauce, sesame seed oil, minced ginger, tiny amount of minced garlic, and minced cilantro.

When I was looking for props for these shots, I pulled out one of the several Asian teapots I have (bought off of eBay ages ago). When I looked at it more closely, I realized that it was adorned with shrimp! Talk about 1) serendipity and 2) my inattention to detail .

Resources for Ingredients:

• Bob’s Red Mill Corn Grits
• Nellie & Joe’s Key West Lime Juice
• Sesame Seed Oil
• Ponzu citric flavored soy sauce

Books of Interest:

• Food & Wine’s Best of the Best cookbook
• Paula Deen & Friends: Living It Up, Southern Style

Related Posts:

• International Boston Seafood Show 2007: Mantis Shrimp
• International Boston Seafood Show 2007: Frozen Sushi from Polar Seas – Delicious!
• Post Preview: International Boston Seafood Show 2007
• International Boston Seafood Show 2007
• Fishing for some clarity – Well Fed Network article
• Auto-design that has gone to the fishes
• Ducktrap orgy
• Ichthyological super models
• King of Crabs

Technorati Tags: manifest destiny, seafood, International Boston Seafood Show, jumbo, raw, shrimp, Paula Deen, Shrimp Grits, Best of the Best cookbook, Food & Wine Magazine, Paula Deen & Friends: Living It Up, Southern Style, Leite’s Culinaria, adaptation, instant grits, stone-ground, Bob’s Red Mill Corn Grits, Nika’s Ginger Sesame Key Lime Shrimp Grits, sea salt, cheddar cheese, green onion, garlic, ginger, cilantro, Nellie & Joe’s Key West Lime Juice, Sesame Seed Oil, Toasted sesame seeds, garnish, grits

What is a Mantis Shrimp?

Well, you are looking at three of them in the photo above. I was walking through the IBSS and came across some Southeast Asian seafood purveyors who had some interesting displays, this one included. These animals are much larger than most shrimp, you would likely need two hands to hold one of them. They tend to be about 30 cm (11.8 inches) in length but have been known to grow to 38 cm (15 inches).

While they are referred to as shrimp and are in the crustacea subphylum, they are not actually shrimp at all. Their name comes from the fact that they look like a cross between a praying mantis (terrestrial) and a shrimp. They are also much more intelligent and fierce than your average shrimp. Their odd looking appendages in the front are not just funky eye candy. No, the mantis shrimp can use these claws to attack prey and predator (including fishermen’s fingers), with great force.

Pet mantis shrimp are so tough they can even break through the double glass walls of an aquarium.

“A truly pugnacious stomatopod (ed: mantis shrimp) can threaten not only aquarium fish but also the aquarium itself. In 1998, a 4-inch mantis shrimp at the Sea Life Centre in Norfolk, England, shattered the quarter-inch-thick glass of its aquarium. The power puncher was promptly christened “Tyson.” ” Source = NWF

Yikes, this guy is not going to be added to any aquarium I have!

One other interesting fact about these curious sea creatures is that their eyes are the most complex eye structures known in nature. They are the only animals to have something called “hyperspectral color vision.”

“ “Mantis shrimp have the world’s most complex color vision system,” according to Justin Marshall of the University of Queensland. “These lowly crustaceans possess four times as many color receptors as humans, four of which sample the ultraviolet, a region of the spectrum to which we are blind.” Stomatopods also can see polarized light. Marshall believes that for a mantis shrimp, polarized vision may be as rich a sensory experience as color vision.” Source = NWF

Ok, one more neat fact and then I will get on the the meat of the matter. These mantis shrimp are not only wily and throw their back into their battles, they are able to create balls of fire in their claws. Remember I said they can break an aquarium wall? Well, with those fierce claws, they can flick them out to attack their prey or tormentor. When the claw is flicked out, a “cavitation bubble” forms (a void that is left behind by the rapid displacement of the claw). Things on this micro-scale (and nano-scale) are non-intuitive for us. We would not expect that this cavitation bubble would flash with light, heat as hot as the surface of the sun, and pop to produce sonic wavefronts that travel away from the mantis shrimp at high speeds (called sonoluminescence).

You can try to view a video of this activity at this link (I could not open the mov file, but thats just me, hope it works for you) – This video was found on this page and they give these credits – “Courtesy of Sheila Patek, Wyatt Korff and Roy Caldwell/UC Berkeley.”

For far more information on this and other aspects of Mantis Shrimp visit “Shrimp spring into shattering action” by April Holladay, a science journalist for USATODAY.com. I have borrowed a few resource links from her excellent article and put them at the bottom of this post.

Good eating, if you can get a hold of it that is.

They taste less like shrimp and more like lobster. The Japanese call it “shako” and eat it raw and tempura fried. The Italians eat it as a stewed dish called “canocie in busara” (stewed mantis shrimp) (found in “Cofanetto cucina del Bel Paese“). The Chinese eat them a million different ways, to be sure. You can visit one off-the-beaten path restaurant in Hong Kong to get your Mantis Shrimp fix, fried, combined with pepper and its own roe. The Spanish call them “galera” and boil them in salt water. They probably serve them as a tapas in some seaside locations.

I hope you have learned something interesting about these odd creatures. I sure have. I am not sure I will be eating them any time soon as they are rarely found in any market I go to and I hear they are quite expensive.

Have you eaten these? Where did you find them? How were they cooked? Did you like them? Share if you can.

Resources for learning more:

• University of California: Secrets of the Stomatopod by Roy Caldwell
• Wikipedia: Pistol shrimp and shrimpoluminescence
• UC Berkeley News: Mantis shrimp may have swiftest kick in the animal kingdom by Robert Sanders.
• Edge-of-Reef.com: Peacock mantis shrimp Odontactylus scyllarus

Books of Interest:

• Cofanetto cucina del Bel Paese

Technorati Tags: Mantis Shrimp, Southeast Asian, seafood, animal, praying mantis, terrestrial, appendage, mantis, shrimp, aquarium, complex eye structure, claw, cavitation bubble, sonoluminescence, video, April Holladay, lobster, tempura, galera, expensive

[This post will appear on the Growers and Grocers blog, a member of the Well Fed Network]

This last Monday when I attended the 2007 International Boston Seafood Show, I got to sample quite a few products. Let me assure you, I had to pace myself because there were so many tempting foods.

One product that I sampled toward the end of the day was the frozen sushi by Polar Seas (a PDF of their products), a collaborative product of Brooklyn, NY, based True World foods and Kyokuyo Co. in Japan.

I tried it with some trepidation because I have had some fantastically bad chilled (frozen?) sushi at grocery stores and I am still scarred. I have never bought sushi frozen in a box for that reason.

But I had to give it a try, mostly because I felt like I would be able to tell whether it was at least edible. Most of the other samples I had that day were fried, lots of masking.

Good sushi is based on fresh fish but perhaps more importantly, in terms of where it can go horribly wrong, good sushi MUST have GOOD RICE, period.

Frozen or chilled sushi rice can be vile and nauseating: mushy, watery, and revolting on the tongue. Can you tell I feel pretty strongly about the sushi rice? Just a bit.

We taste tested three different types of Polar Seas frozen sushi (images below from product PDF):

Spicy Tuna roll:

Tuna Nigiri:

Shrimp Nigiri:

The shrimp didn’t taste like eggs like a lot of frozen shrimp does, thank goodness. It tasted like a natural non-preserved shrimp.

The samples were flying off the trays (the crowd was a couple people deep around the display) so when we asked for Tuna Nigiri they said there was none thawed but some that was frozen. They gave us a frozen piece and we walked away with it on a plate. It thawed rapidly and before we expected it, we were enjoying a delicious tuna nigiri. Additionally, the tuna tasted fresher than what we have had in sushi restaurants.

Makes you wonder about the possibility of using this frozen product in an ice-packed lunch box. Put the pieces in frozen, put in your ice packs, and then allow them to thaw right before eating. I would have to test that concept out a bit before recommending it.

The spicy tuna roll was flavorful and quite satisfying. We also tried several unagi nigiri (BBQed eel) but do not have photos to share. We could not get enough of it, so delish.

But the rice..

Oh, the rice was spot on. It wasn’t gummy, it was tasty, it was good sushi rice, and it was a pleasant surprise.

Technorati Tags: 2007 International Boston Seafood Show, Kathy Maister, startcooking.com, stephencooks.com, food, New England, food blogger, Boston, Growers and Grocers, Well Fed Network, frozen, sushi, Polar Seas, Brooklyn, True World foods, Kyokuyo Co, Japan, rice, Spicy Tuna roll, Tuna Nigiri, Shrimp Nigiri, shrimp, Tuna, Nigiri, spicy, unagi nigiri

I am now processing some of the photos I took at the International Boston Seafood Show of 2007.

Here are a couple fun shots of a motorcycle tricked out to look sorta like a shark and fish.

Its sorta reminiscent of the fish car I shot at last year’s show.

Much more later.

Technorati Tags: International Boston Seafood Show, motorcycle, shark, fish, fish car

Last year the kind people at the International Boston Seafood Show gave me a press pass so that I could cover this event for the Well Fed Network. I wrote an article for the Growers & Grocer’s blog (article link) and a few for this blog (Auto-design that has gone to the fishes, Ducktrap orgy, Ichthyological super models, King of Crabs, Cornucopia del Mar).

I am going to be covering this amazing event again this year and will hopefully be meeting a few other Boston area food bloggers (4 at last count). This should be a lot more fun because its always better to share fantastic experiences than to go it alone. I learned that lesson when I lived in Alaska by myself. I climbed mountains and sat alone at the top, with strangers, wishing I could have shared it with a friend or loved one. Same with just about any part of Alaska really. This show wasn’t quite such a transcendent experience, no comparison, but it will be great to share it!

This time I going to fast for like a week before (kidding) just to get ready for the experience of hundreds of people practically forcing you to eat prime quality seafood. I am not kidding.

So, last year, I took many photos (many didn’t come out with excellent quality but they serve to give a sense for the experience). I am going to post them here today in no special order so that I can get them out there and then wow you with this year’s photos (with a better camera no less) when the time comes.

Some of the things you will see is Tom Douglas cooking for me (OK, making samples for everyone but he handed them to me!), a cooking competition with salmon and mussels and other delectable treats, crazy blow up and furry displays, molecular gastronomy ingredients (reagents to be more specific), and acres of gobsmacking beautiful seafood.

The show this year is March 11-13 so check after then for coverage of 2007.

Photo montage of the 2006 International Boston Seafood Show:

The Chef:

The competition:

The beauty:

The delicious:

The demos:

The Silly:

Related Posts:

• Fishing for some clarity (Well Fed Network article)
• Auto-design that has gone to the fishes
• Ducktrap orgy
• Ichthyological super models
• King of Crabs
• Cornucopia del Mar

Additional Resources:

• International Boston Seafood Show

Technorati Tags: International Boston Seafood Show, Well Fed Network, event, Boston, food blogger, Alaska, seafood, Tom Douglas, samples, cooking, competition, salmon, mussel, molecular gastronomy, ingredient, beautiful seafood, 2007, 2006, Chef, competition, delicious, Related Posts, Additional Resources