Something's Fishy

The first 7 days in the kitchen have been Seafood Identification & Fabrication. Basically, the word "fabrication" is a fancy way to describe cutting up and de-gutting a fish. Flat cut, round cut, up & over, straight cut...most of these cuts will not be used by the home chef, but the one piece of advice I can give is keep your fish COLD while handling!

After filleting a 25 lb salmon, one soon realizes how fish can slowly transform to mush the warmer it gets. If you are prepairing a meal with fish, the less you can handle it and the colder you keep it, the more you qill preserve the fragile flesh.

I wouldn't exactly call myself a "seafood fanatic"...I mean, I like Filet-O-Fish sandwhiches as much as the next guy, but I'm not one of those people that can eat any kind of fish out there because they are so crazy about seafood. There was a day this week that kind of surprised me; caviar tasting day! I had never had caviar, and thought I would be repulsed by the taste, but I could see meyself quickly forming an expensive habit. We sampled about 11 different kinds of caviar. Actually, it is only called caviar if it is roe from a sturgeon (that's the really pricy stuff), all of the other 'caviar'are kind of wannabes. We had warm Blinis (mini silver dollar pancakes with salt instead of sugar), creme fraiche, and small dices red onions. The trick was to not load up the blini, take small servings to balance the flavor with the other ingredients.

I feel a bit guilty about liking the caviar, it's not exaclty a eco-friendly food =[ But I figured it's about the experence here while I'm at school, and the pact I made with myself to TRY EVERYTHING once. Even if my first reaction is to pass on taking a taste, it's for the enrichment of my education! Here is the recpie for the Blinis, even if you dont use one with caviar, they make a great 'plate' for many savory and sweet toppings:

2C Flour

1/2C Milk

1/2C Melter Butter

1/2 T Baking Soda
1t Salt

1/2t Black Pepper

2 Eggs, Separated

Mix flour, milk, baking soda, salt and pepper. Pour in melter butter and egg yolk. Wisk eggwhites until medium firm, fold in to batter. Make silver dollar pancakes. Great with creme fraiche and fruit preserves too!