ArcaMax

C or O?

I was listening to a radio talk show yesterday while I drove back from a company retreat. The experts they had on were seafood people. The chef works at a restaurant called Catch 35. His general manager was on the show too.

I learned a couple of things I thought I’d share.

The first thing was about cooking shrimp. Shrimp are so easy to cook but many people screw them up. They don’t have any real measure for how long to cook them.

The chef said it very well. He said when the shrimp are in the shape of a "C" they are done. If they are in the shape of an "O" you went too far and they are now overdone.

Easy. Just cook them to the "C" shape.

I often put the shrimp in at the last minute because I don’t want them to become overcooked. I get the whole sauce prepared and just cook the shrimp by warming them in the sauce. That often works.

He talks about why you don’t want to buy cooked shrimp. They are just so easy to prepare and will taste better freshly cooked so why not use fresh? I’ll admit I buy cooked shrimp sometimes. If I am really strapped for time I don’t want to take time to rinse and thaw and then take off the shells and de-vein them. I can just drop cooked shrimp into a meal very easily and all I have to do is heat them up if it’s a warm dish. He makes the case for doing the extra work.

The General Manager was asked about buying the fishes that are now coming in from Asia. I have seen some new ones at my fish monger that are from Vietnam. Lots of fish now come from China too and Malaysia. He said to buy all North American fish if you can. Wild caught is always best. The reason is it can be caught and shipped into the store in less than 48 hours. If it’s coming from Asia it has to go through Customs and of all the hundreds of thousands of pounds of fish that come into the airports each day less than two percent of it is inspected. Those countries don’t have the same quality control laws that the US and Canada do so you are taking a higher risk buying their fish. That and it came a long way.

The distance theory also applies to lobster. There’s cold water lobster and warm water lobster. He says cold water lobster is sweeter. Better, firmer flesh too. And lobster from Maine is his preference over lobster from Australia and New Zealand. It takes a long time to fly a lobster from New Zealand. Even if it’s immediately frozen his opinion is that it begins to deteriorate early on.

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