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How to spend a great day.
Take highway 101 south to Jolon (near King City) and stop in at the San
Antonio Mission. Take a walk around then continue on to the coast road
and stop for a light picnic of cheese and fruit. Drop down to highway 1,
watch for whales and head north to Rocky Point for a beautiful sunset
dinner. You've still got it, boys!
Dear John,
Thanks John for your attempt to demystify some of the myths swirling
around farmed salmon. What bothers me most as a chef and restaurateur
about this anti farmed salmon quest, is the lack of historical
perspective to all this hysterical chatter. We serve nothing but
Monterey Bay salmon when in season, but I also appreciate the
availability and consistency of farmed Canadian salmon during the rest
of the year. Like any new industry, farmed fishing has made |
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mistakes along the way. Yet most
importantly, where would we be without farmed fish, and farmed salmon in
particular? In the last 30 years that I've worked and owned restaurants,
one of the best things to happen to restaurant food supplies, is the
availability and consistency of farmed salmon. I believe it is the most
important product for the stabilizing of fish prices by the way it has
taken the pressure off the fishing industry to supply our exploding
demand for seafood. John, I'm sure you remember the
days of extraordinary fluctuations in price and availability of
seafood. Without farmed fish the endangered fish lists would have come
out long ago, and the price for all seafood would have made Kobe beef
seem cheap. As a chef and a seafood eater, I'm very thankful of the
scientists and entrepreneurs of the farmed fish industries, which have
stabilized a very volatile market, with a plentiful stock of a healthy
product and have helped |
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preserve the ocean's wild fish stock.
Deamer
Dunn - Chef/President
Pajaro Street Grill
Salinas, Ca.Thanks DD - now
that's what I'm talking about! Folks, I have spent a lot of time the
past couple of months diving into this issue. It's interesting that most
of the negative mail I have received contains the same few complaints
regarding coloring, toxins and my supposed lack of support for our local
fishermen despite the fact that, over the past 30-plus years, I have
purchased millions of dollars worth of local seafood. I find myself
continually restating that I will always prefer our local salmon when it
is in season, even though I said this in the first column back on
January 5. Incidentally, a local supplier told me that restaurants are
ordering 1,000 pounds of farmed salmon to
every 100 pounds of frozen wild salmon. Anyone out there learning
anything from this? |
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Comment: With regard to your recent
endorsement of farmed salmon, I thought necessary to advise you of the
following...the Supreme Court of Canada has
recently ruled (Dec 24, 2004) that government must consult with Canada's
First Nations on new fish farms. Given the on-going controversy over
whether or not escaped Atlantics can establish themselves in B.C.
rivers; whether or not they pose any disease risks to wild populations
and as-yet unanswered questions about the
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relationship between sea-lice, fish farms
and mortalities among migrating wild smolts, it would benefit consumers
to have more information on the subject than just the industry sponsored
propaganda from www.farmfreshsalmon.org. I won't
buy farmed salmon because I find the quality is greatly inferior to wild
salmon, as does every long-time salmon-eating, west coast British
Columbian that I know.
Morris
Via e-mail |
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Response: Thanks for your opinion.
Why would anyone who lives in B.C. eat farmed raised fish anyway? I know
I would only be eating the wild fish. B.C. is where the wild fish are
and many people from the states go there to fill their freezers with
wild salmon. The answers are too long for me to write out. If you go to
www.aquaculture.ca you will find the answers to the
issues you brought up plus links to other web sites. |
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Q). Dear Chef Pisto,
I'm not sure if the recipe is still available, but a couple of years ago
I saw you prepare chicken "Coq au Vin". It looked delicious, but I
failed to write down the recipe. If it's still available, could you fill
me in?
S. Merwin
Via e-mail
A). A couple of years ago? I have a hard time remembering
yesterday (I guess I need more Omega3). Ah, coq au vin...one of the
oldest recipes of French Provincial cuisine. The name sounds so much
fancier than the translation - chicken with wine - and it's a true
classic.
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Coq au Vin Recipe
4 oz. bacon, diced
2 Tbs. butter
8 pieces chicken, floured
1/3 cup cognac
1 bottle (3 cups) red wine
2 cups chicken stock
2 cups onion, diced
2 carrots, diced
2 tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and chopped
bay leaf and sprig of thyme
1/2 lb. mushrooms, halved
1/2 lb. pearl onions, peeled
4 chicken livers
1/2 tsp. red wine vinegar
4 Tbs. butter, softened
salt and pepper to taste Combine
the wine and stock in a sauce pan and bring to a boil reducing to 3
cups. Cook the bacon |
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in 2 Tbs. butter until crisp, remove with
a slotted spoon. Brown the chicken pieces very well in the skillet and
remove. Sauté the onions until clear, about 10 minutes. Deglaze the pan
with the cognac and be sure to scrape up all the brown bits. In a
stockpot, combine the browned chicken, bacon, cognac-onion mixture, red
wine-stock mixture, carrots, tomatoes, bay leaf and sprig of thyme.
Bring to a boil and simmer for 20-30 minutes. Sauté the pearl onions and
mushrooms and add to the coq au vin. Puree the livers with the vinegar
and butter and then press through a strainer. Carefully temper the liver
mixture with some of the hot broth and then add the liver mixture to the
rest of sauce and heat but do not boil.
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