Seafood 101
by cobb, August 31, 2009 | Permalink
This month, Chef Ben wanted to change pace a bit and give the School of Fish a much broader approach. Rather than focus on a specific fish or recipe for the entire evening, he decided to drop some knowledge, and teach the School of Fish about Seafood in general, and about Seafood at Whole Foods Markets. Be not afraid, there was still food to be enjoyed: a summery, southwestern salad with shrimp and Ben’s own dressing.
The salad itself was an uncomplicated affair - romaine lettuce, cucumbers and the like - made remarkable with the addition of roasted corn (both white and yellow), chopped mango, tomatoes and poblano peppers. And let’s not forget the dressing: Olive oil and Rice Vinegar, Salt and Pepper, Garlic and Cilantro, Fresh Lime Juice (Chef Ben does not approve of bottles, lime-shaped though they be) and warm Honey. Don’t skimp on the dressing, but be wary that if you use too much, there will be no crunch to the salad. No one, not you, not your guests, not Ben, will be happy with a crunchless salad. Topping the salad with sauteed shrimp, Ben offered some advice for their cooking:
- Season shrimp (or any fish you’re cooking, really) evenly with salt and pepper. Evenly. Treat them, each and every one, like you love them the most.
- Heat your pan first, then add neutral, high-heat oil, like canola or grapeseed.
- When you place (not throw) your shrimp in the pan, listen for a sizzle. If it’s quiet, it’s cold, and you should take the shrimp out. Cooking takes heat!
- Shaking the pan is not going to help anything, including the flavor. And eating food that doesn’t taste great doesn’t look cool.
- Color is the key to determining if a fish is cooked, and a splash of beer to deglaze is the perfect way to finish.
So, now that we’ve eaten, let’s get down to brass tax. What makes the seafood Ben cooks, that Whole Foods and Harry’s sells, different? Well, to begin, we know where all of our fish come from. Be they wild or farmed, their place of origin is always available to whoever wants to know, and they are always harvested and raised responsibly. When it comes to farming seafood - Aquaculture - there are a lot of bad facts and ideas floating around. Those don’t apply to Whole Foods Market. Our quality standards could take up pages and pages, so let’s just get the greatest hits:
- We prohibit the use of antibiotics, added growth hormones, and poultry and mammalian by-products in fish feed.
- We do not carry genetically modified or cloned seafood.
- We require that our farmers work to minimize the impact that aquaculture has on the environment, by protecting natural habitats, monitoring water quality and sourcing feed responsibly and sustainably.
- Our farmed seafood is free from added preservatives such as sodium bisulfite, sodium tri-polyphosphate and sodium metabisulfite.
Our farm-raised fish are great, but our sustainable, wild-caught fish might be better. Whole Foods is proud to be the first national retailer to partner with the Marine Stewardship Council in offering several varieties of certified sustainable seafood. There’s more information about our sustainable efforts here. In fact, the Whole Foods Market website is simply loaded to the gills with information about our Seafood, Mercury content in Seafood and handling it safely. It’s a wealth of information, just like our boy Ben. Unfortunately, it won’t cook you a meal. You’ll just have to come back to Ben’s class next month.
Categories: school of fish
Leave a Reply
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on topic and not abusive. For more information, please see our Comment Posting Guidelines. If you have a store-specific inquiry, please contact your local store.