Developing and Refining One's Sense of Taste - week 13

Pesce, Pescado. Fish. Chef  lectured and demonstrated how to prepare who grilled rockfish, flounder meunier, grilled rockfish with beurre balcn and tilapia en papillote. The class was asked to prepare flounder meunier, grilled rockfish with beurre blanc an tilapia en paillote in the kitchen.

image of round fish

What I learned

• Individually Quality Frozen (IQF) means that the items are individually frozen and then packaged together ( e.g. shrimp, scallops). The items won't appear in a block of ice. 
• Maryland blue crab is on the brink of extinction
• Sea bass, rockfish, striped bass are local terms, not about species of fish
• In culinary terms there are two types of fish, round fish and flat fish
• Round fish have more oily flesh and a are generally found in warmer water  (e.g. salmon, tuna, Chilean seabass) A cross section of round fish looks more like  a "steak"
• Flat fish heave less oily flesh, generally found in colder fresh water, and rest on rocks One side of the fish is flat in comparison to the other side (e.g.sole, hailbut, turbot)
• Flat fish bones are preferred for fumet (fish stock)
• Another name for Chilean seabass is Chilean tooth fish
• Halibut is a larger cousin of flounder. Catching halibut can be dangerous
• When selecting fresh  fish look for:
• clear, bulgy eye
• gills are the best indicator of how long the fish has been out of water. The gills should be pink
• the fish should smell like the sea or nothing all, smell the fish
• Most of the flavor is in the articulated parts
• One sign that fish is coked is the the blood albumin presents itself as foam
• Present fish bones side up, it looks better
• Tilapia ia a bottom feeder. It is the "catfish of Southeast Asia 
• Beurre blanc is a bitter acid reduction
• Beurre noisette is butter cooked until just brown
• Any flat fish cna be used for meunier. Meunier must be served immeditely

Observations

• Chef is encouraging the class to use whole fish 
• Chef recommended using named Sefood watch to stay current with bans and other issues related to seafood. For example, a recent ban was issues on tilapia from China because it's treated with carbon monoxide to maintain its pink color. 
• The class size has settled. Angie told us that usually by midway through the program the class size often drops for a number of reasons including work commitments and schedule conflicts
• The class at one time had five male students. We now have three. 
• I'm not aware of any of the women of dropping the class. 
• Chef recommended reading Cod : a biography of the fish that changed the world by Mark Kurlansky. 
• Tonight's lecture reminded me that the Maryland Seafood encourages the public to join them on field trips. They will  also send  email updates about the status of seafood in the Maryland waterways if you sign up for the information.  They have a website,  Facebook page and Twitter page: @md_seafood. 
• Chef suggests cooking fish as quick as possible, applying the Benjamin Franklin quote, "Guests, like fish begin to smell after three days"
• Angie explained how flat fish become flat. Shortly after a flat fish is born hormones in the fish cause one side to grow faster than the other.

Self reflection

• I helped with prepare the mis -en-place for the flounder meunier dish that Chef would prepare. One of my tasks was to chop the parsley. I didn't chop it fine enough; it was sent back to the kitchen. Michael showed me how to keep the what I did wrong - I should have run the parsley through at least two additional sounds (passes) of cutting. Michael also showed me to keep the parsley from clumping together.  Good lesson!
• Marl eagerly cleaned and filleted the fish. He told me several times that he didn't mind getting "fishy". He cut and filleted the rockfish and flounder Chef rockfish obtained for the class. 
• I focused on making beurre blanc. Chef gave my beurre blanc a thumbs up on the first try. I was surprised. This sauce is delicate.  
• I adore cod. After tonight's class I will start considering alternatives and hope that the cod is my freezer is really cod.  
• I checked, Cod : a biography of the fish that changed the world. is available at my local public library.
• So why didn't I attempt to cut or fillet the fish? As I drove home from class I thought of my history with fish:

• My earliest recollection of eating fish is consuming fish and getting bones (most likely pin bones) stuck in my throat. 
• Fishing (putting the bait on a hook and removing the fish ) does not appeal to me at all. After one adventure with extended family members I happily stayed at home while they went fishing.
• When I was a child I offered to help a friend of the family clean the fish he caught. When he placed the still beating heart of a fish in my hand I was distraught and he got angry. No more cleaning of fish after that.
• Marl kept his word and brought his Kitchen Aid mixer, food tray, food grinder and sausage stuffer attachments. It was hard to suppress the look of surprise and excitement on my face. Marl mentioned something about looking like a kid at Christmas. Perhaps he's right.
•  I'm going to try making sausage,over the weekend. Marl has requested that whatever I make he and his sons would like to try it. Man, talk about big stakes.  I'll follow Chef's suggestions about making sausage: grind the meat, season, cook a little to see how the blend tastes, adjust the seasoning if necessary and the place in casing. 

Tonight is a schedule change - dough. And we have a special guest lecturer.

Be well,

Technicolor girl