[local eating] Fish share, week 2 of 12

[magid]

Thanks to Hrafn, I had a heads-up that I was likely to get whole (read: not gutted) fish, and indeed, this week's fish share was ten whitings and two yellow-tailed flounders, all whole. Also thanks to Hrafn, I have some recipes to consider using.

To start with, here are the whiting. Ten of them make a minyan, right?


According to the people at the distribution, I needed to at least cut off the heads and stomachs today, so the stomach acids wouldn't work on the flesh to make it unpleasant. First a couple of passes with the wrong side of the knife to descale them first. Then one angled cut from behind the head got most of it, and I rinsed the rest out each cavity (left photo). Some had roe (the orange stuff in the discards photo at the right); most did not. I also cut off the tails. I still haven't decided what their fate will be; suggestions if you have them!


The two yellow-tailed flounder were more difficult to deal with. They're very flat (see right), and very sided: the darker top side was rather rough in spots, while the lighter underside wasn't. And there was the whole freaky both-eyes-on-one side thing going on. Unfortunately, I hadn't gotten information on how to process them, nor did I check out the recipes, which have a pretty good description, so I ended up filleting them, which was not the best method for maximizing yield. On the plus side, I did manage some almost-creditable skinned fillets, which I lightly sauteed with some baby red onions and their greens. Yum!


I'm rather glad that the first week's fish was a bit easier to deal with (having been gutted); I think it would have been more difficult had this been the first week's catch.

eta Oh, I'd forgotten: right after I picked up the fish, a reporter from the Cambridge Chronicle asked me a few questions about the share, so I got to spout about local eating, and how I used the first distribution, the question of how the fish are caught, and the non-exact parallels to farm shares. The story will likely be in the paper a week from Thursday; I wonder if I'll be mentioned.

Comments

[ruthling.livejournal.com]

OMG flounder!

[magid.livejournal.com]

Favorite recipe?

[ruthling.livejournal.com]

I don't think I've ever cooked flounder, I just love the way they look. Herbs and butter, baked, maybe?

[magid.livejournal.com]

The fillets were so thin that I didn't want to bake them. A couple of minutes in a pan at low heat were pretty much all it took.

[fetteredwolf.livejournal.com]

Wow, seems like a fun challenge.

[magid.livejournal.com]

It's been interesting.

So far, I haven't had any ick-factor sorts of issues with processing the fish, which is good. I wish my skills were better, though, since I'm far from maximizing yield. And this week I didn't use the discards for stock or anything (even though I'd picked up a mesh bag to make that easier): I brought them straight to the community compost bin.

[hrafn.livejournal.com]

Ah, I wondered what all that orange stuff was! I think almost half my whiting had roe.

I left the tails on because 1) lazy. It turned out to be useful when I baked them this evening, cause I could hold them by the tail when I dragged them through (first) oil/butter and (second) flour/seasoning. I used tail and fins when I made stock last week, but this week I threw out all the heads and guts and etc. (I don't feel like burying more fish remains in the garden.)

[magid.livejournal.com]

I admit, I wondered whether it's problematic (from a super-green/save the fish point of view) to have fish with roe, but too late now.

Hopefully it won't be too much of a pain not having the tails on.

I have a limited number of pots in which to put fish remains, and since I was going to the Whole Foods with the compost bin anyway... it seemed like the right thing to do. Making stock would've made more sense in my head had there not been as many fish guts involved.

How did the baked whiting turn out?

[hrafn.livejournal.com]

Tasty! Though my breading sucked. And the whiting have teeny tiny bones, so once you get through the up-side of the fish and then pull out the backbone, there are still loads of tiny, obnoxious bones to deal with :\ (Which are from the fins, I think? Rather than being rib bits.)

[magid.livejournal.com]

Hm. Yay for tasty, but teeny tiny bones sound annoying. Maybe I'll be able to figure out some way to approach them that will leave them intact on the frame...

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

What did you do about all the little sticky spines along the belly and back of the whiting? I found those more difficult to clear off than the fins and scales, by far.

[goldsquare.livejournal.com]

I don't know what magid did, but I have a pair of kitchen shears, and I use those to remove top and bottom fins. Side fins can also be removed with shears (as can the tails), but I either leave those for cooking (and remove once the flesh is cooked) or I remove those when filleting the fish.

Fish should be gutted promptly. Other than that, I tend to cook it whole, and fillet after.

[magid.livejournal.com]

Is there a problem with cooking them with the little spines still on? I don't have kitchen shears, and am trying for ease of preparation rather than pretty, especially since I don't think I've actually cooked whole fish before.

[goldsquare.livejournal.com]

Gosh, no problem at all.

Some top and bottom fins have sharp spines on them - this anti-predator device works on people like you and me, who are predators. I tend to remove the spines in that case, to save some tears. :-) Cutting the spines doesn't remove the bones within the fish, anyway, so some care in presentation or consumption is still required.

We tend to cook a lot of whole fish, generally by grilling or baking. Otherwise, I'll butcher the fish, and we can cook it on the stove top. I've got lots of simple techniques I can share.

[magid.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the confirmation that it won't affect the taste.

I don't currently have a grill either, so I'd be more likely to bake (or fry, I suppose, though I tend to be a bit skittish about lots of hot oil). Any techniques are appreciated.

[magid.livejournal.com]

I admit, I decided to ignore them, figuring if I'm cooking them essentially whole, then I could just not eat them later.

Perhaps foolishly, I don't yet have kitchen shears.

What did you end up doing with them after you'd cleaned them? Little fish still with bones in are not my forte (neither is cooking fish whole; I don't think I've done that yet either).

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

I found the spines more painful than the internal bones, so I took off as many as I could.

I cooked them wholeish -- I took the heads off. If I'd realized I'd end up eating pretty much all the whiting I would've left the heads on. At any rate, I pan fried 3 but I didn't get the temperature up enough so they disintegrated. I roasted the other 4, and they came out nicely.

Then I ate them with my fingers, to deal with the bones and because I'm a barbarian.

[magid.livejournal.com]

I think I would've had a hard time gutting them without taking the heads off. And the woman who was checking people off said that they don't have fish cheeks like the cod did, so it wasn't as worth doing.

It sounds like roasting is the way to go. That'll be tonight's experiment, I think.

[hrafn.livejournal.com]

I also left those on (ditto the fins), because I figured it would be easy enough to ignore them or pull them off once the fish was cooked (and some of them kind of got scraped off anyway when I scaled the fish).

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

Ah, they didn't come off when I scaled the fish. I need a better scaling knife, clearly.

[magid.livejournal.com]

FYI, The guy at my distribution suggested using the back of the knife for scaling, and said that whitings scale easily.

[hrafn.livejournal.com]

My scaling knife was er, whichever smallish kitchen knife I happened to be using (and it's in need of sharpening). I did use the blade side of it, and not the back of the knife; I think it had more to do with the angle I hit the spines at than anything.

And I am totally on board with eating them with fingers :)

[magid.livejournal.com]

For the record, whiting are yummy, but labor-intensive eating.