Cobia and Tasmanian Sea Trout 10/06/10

  








 
Farmville!

Two exclusively awesome farm-raised varieties are on the menu this week (and always).
Salt-water Cobia Fillet: 100% yield - 8.95/lb
Allow me to introduce our Florida Fresh Farm Raised Cobia Fillets from the Sunshine State!
We buy this meaty cousin of the Remora (shark sucker) already filleted and de-boned. 
Do you want to know why we only sell cobia by the fillet? It is because the bones of the cobia are very heavy. Obviously the money we save by leaving the bones in the bone-yard is a saving passed along to you, our beloved customer.

Cobia eat clams and other marine animals. They are sheer ravenous carnivores who love eating crabs. They are sometimes referred to as crab-eaters. I truly commend the creative genius who came up with such a nickname!

 

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Now for a morsel of information regarding one of the most prized and honorable fish ever farmed by human-kind, the Tasmanian Sea Trout!

Petuna Tasmanian Ocean Trout have a marbled rosy pink and orange flesh that literally tastes like heaven on earth. The trout are bred in a fresh-water hatchery for 12 months, then moved to special marine farms on Tasmania's rugged west coast where they spend another six to twelve months growing until they reach about 8 pounds a pop.
Many chefs consider the farmed Tasmanian trout meat superior to that of farmed salmon. This could be exactly what you are looking for when farmed raised salmon doesn’t cut it and wild king salmon is out of season. Plus, at 8.95/lb and a 75% fillet yield, lets just say you should never look a gift horse in the mouth.


 


Tasmanian sea trout is stuffed to the gills with healthy cholesterol and has a very high omega 3 oil content.
Top 5 reasons to fall in love with Tasmania (and it's trout):
1) The islands favorite sports include cricket, field hockey and apparently woodchopping. Ax wielding Tasman David Foster held the title of Wood Chopping World Champion for 21 years straight.

  ...here we have the ax legend with his wife

How can you not love this guy?

2) Tasmania is an Australian state. Mainland Aussies are encouraged to move to Tasmania, but are also forewarned to look for a job there before actually moving.

3) Tasmania is world renowned for having some of the cleanest and greenest fishing and aquaculture environments in the world.

4)Creative in most fields, Tasmanians are making a clear impact in the emerging business of multimedia animation with television programs such as Real Life Water Rats.

5) Tasmanian Devils are real and they eat every part of their prey. Even the bones.

Sturgeon Moon, Skate, Shark 8/25/10

Full Sturgeon Moon.
 
The end of summer is bittersweet. It stirs the human soul. Out of nowhere the days are just a little shorter, the air is crisper and you can smell wood fire at night. This slight change of season makes some feel crestfallen, for others it is relieving. For me, it feels like the thorn from a pricker bush has impaled my tiny blackened heart.

                                                                                                    
                          
Before I get mushy on you, let us forge ahead to one last Indian-summer poem about a sturgeon:

Hiawatha's Departure
from The Song of Hiawatha
By the shore of Gitchie Gumee,
By the shining Big-Sea-Water,
At the doorway of his wigwam,
In the pleasant Summer morning,
Hiawatha stood and waited.
All the air was full of freshness,
All the earth was bright and joyous,
And before him through the sunshine,
Westward toward the neighboring forest
Passed in golden swarms the Ahmo,
Passed the bees, the honey-makers,
Burning, singing in the sunshine.
Bright above him shown the heavens,
Level spread the lake before him;
From its bosom leaped the sturgeon,
Sparkling, flashing in the sunshine;
On its margin the great forest
Stood reflected in the water,
Every tree-top had its shadow,
Motionless beneath the water.
From the brow of Hiawatha
Gone was every trace of sorrow,
As the fog from off the water,
And the mist from off the meadow.
With a smile of joy and triumph,
With a look of exultation,
As of one who in a vision
Sees what is to be, but is not,
Stood and waited Hiawatha.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow


         
 

Sturgeon as a species is older than YOU (wow) and older than the dinosaurs. As members of the most ancient actinopterygian fish family, these living fossils are over 200 million years old! When I call them living fossils it isn’t to be rude, it is because they have undergone very little morphological change during their time here on earth.

We sell wild sturgeon bullets from the lower Columbia River. In this region the sturgeon are not endangered. They are a by-catch of the local salmon fisheries.
It is commonly said that white sturgeon meat resembles veal. At 10.75/lb they are de-plated and have an 80% meat yield ready for you to smoke, cure, sous vide, poach or roast for your people.
American Indians have the right to hunt and fish on their land, making them the only ones allowed to harvest the white sturgeon without STRICT regulation.
August is the month of the Full Sturgeon Moon according to the Farmer’s Almanac. The American Indian fishing tribes take credit for naming this moon because this is the month when sturgeon is most readily caught.
Two words for you: SEASONAL PRODUCT.

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Trash to treasure: The Spotted Skate.

Do you remember the days when no one had anything nice to say about skate? Well, I do.
They are the “bats of the sea.” They are trashy. They are not fun. They must be iced to perfection. They even pee out of their skin! The list goes on.
Despite all of this, they now proudly showcase on many of your plates.
You serve it with brown butter sauce, you lay it down next to braised red cabbage and some of you have the cojones to throw some capers on top!
You are all amazing. You made skate cool.

Oh yes, and at 1.95/lb you can MAKE MONEY off each and every delicate wing, which is helpful.

The point I am trying to make is this: We have learned to love skate.
AND what does skate have in common with sturgeon and smooth shark?
They are all cartilaginous species.
           I promise that what I am about to say is a once only. Please, do not get your knickers in a twist:  
                                         Why hasn’t anyone ordered smooth shark from me yet?
                                       Be a pioneer, be a trendsetter, be a cartilaginous fishmonger.