here fishy fishy
I had a mini adventure today, quite unexpectedly. Alan and Mike had a bunch of lovely whole salmon come in. Fresh Sockeye that had still been swimming around three days ago. It needed to be washed and prepped for sale. I learned how to cut fillets and steaks, picking up some wonderful tips about how to avoid the bones and how to remove the skin with my hands. It was fun.
I am amazed by how much fun it is to learn about food. We talked about making gravlax from the scraps and fried up some of the skin with olive oil, salt and pepper – like chicken skin but yummier. Alan suggested using it as a salty, crispy topping on a salad. I am undecided as to if he was serious or if he was just trying to get me to eat something that I would not normally eat. I usually avoid the skin on my salmon but he was able to convince me that not only is it edible but that it can be tasty too.
Our food culture is full of waste. Me avoiding the skin on my salmon is one small example of this. It was also interesting that when you prep a fillet, you cut off the fatty part of the belly – he said that americans are not really interested in eating this whereas in some cultures it is considered to be the best part. We seared one of the pieces and sampled it – quite lovely.
I enjoy these little food adventures.
