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I almost always buy my shrimp frozen.  Shrimp go bad very quickly, and unless you live near shrimping boats, you should buy yours frozen too.  I like to buy all of my shrimp with their shells still on.  The main reason for this is I like to make stock with my shells, but the shells also protect the flesh from the freezing process and help maintain the texture.  Shell on shrimp is always cheaper than peeled d shrimp, as less work is done by the packer

Tips for Buying Clams, Mussels, and Oysters

Clams, Mussels, and Oysters are delicious shellfish but can potentially make you very sick if not handled properly. Once they die, they release very harmful bacteria, and must be eaten or cooked while still alive (lobster and crawfish do too).  You can tell if mussels and clams are still alive by their shell.  If the shells are open and will not close up, they are dead.  If the shell is slightly open, gently tap it on the counter,  If it closes back up, it is fine, but if it stays open, it needs to be discarded.  Clams, mussels and oysters prefer very cold temperatures once plucked from the water.  They will stay fresh on ice for several days, but if left out at room temperature, they will die in just a matter of minutes.  You must always store oysters, mussels and clams on ice, changing the ice every day.  The easiest way to keep them in your refrigerator is to store them in a metal container with ice bags on top.  Fill gallon ziplock bags with ice, and cover them with the bag.  Once the ice is melted, pour the water out and refill with ice.

Clams are often sold in 3-5 pound red mesh bags, mussels in 3-5 pound purple mesh bags, and oysters are usually sold individually.  If buying a bag, inspect it carefully.    If the shells are all tightly closed, you can assume the bag is pretty fresh.  If the clams or mussels have opened, buy a different bag.  If you are going to be transporting these, you need to be careful.   If it is really hot outside, you need to either take a cooler with ice or have your fishmonger pack them in ice for you.  Never store clams, mussels or oysters – or any live seafood for that matter-in plastic bags.  The shellfish will literally suffocate and die in a plastic bag.

If you have ever eaten fresh clams, you have probably bit down on a nasty little piece of grit.  Clams feed by filtering sand and ocean water, and occasionally they will hang on to some of the grit.  Some chefs swear by rinsing the clams, but it won’t always work, as the grit is often inside the clam.  If you want to get rid of any chance of grit, simply soak the clams in an ice water bath with 2-3 tablespoons of cornmeal.  The cornmeal will trick the clams into thinking they are feeding, and the cornmeal will filter out any grit. They only take 30-60 seconds to cook, and once they pop open, they are done.  Take them out as soon as they are cooked, as overcooking makes them rubbery.

Buying Live Seafood

When buying LIVE seafood, look for seafood that is aLIVE.  If the crabs or lobsters don’t look very lively, they aren’t going to be very good.  If they are squirming around, they should be pretty fresh.  Dead Lobsters, crabs, and crawfish release harmful bacteria, and shouldn’t be eaten.  Any dead shellfish need to be removed from the group, or this bacteria will spread like the Bubonic Plague through Europe.

Do Lobsters Scream When You Put Them in Boiling Water

There is a myth surrounding lobster, that when you put them in boiling water they scream.  This is absurd, the lobster live underwater, have no vocal cords and if they did, they wouldn’t be audible to humans.  The noise they make is actually pressurized air and steam being released from the shells.

What Is the Most Humane Way to Kill Lobsters or Blue Crabs

People often ask what is the most humane way to cook a lobster or blue crab.  This is a very important question because we need to realize these creatures gave their lives for our meal.  Treating food with respect is the best way to honour these creatures.  Some people think they should be dropped into boiling water, but the truth is, this won’t kill them immediately.

The most humane way to kill a live lobster or blue crab is to place the tip of your knife at a 45-degree angle right between their eyes.  Push down straight through to the cutting board with the tip of the knife, and in a rocking motion, push down until the heel of the blade touches the cutting board killing the crustacean immediately.

Buying Fresh Seafood Vs Frozen Seafood

Fresh isn’t necessarily better.  In some instances, frozen fish is actually fresher than fresh fish.  Look for food that is flash frozen immediately after processing or fish that is individually vacuum sealed for freshness. If the seafood has to travel a long distance to get on your plate (say Salmon in Ohio or Snow Crab in Texas), flash frozen will most often be your best bet. Flash frozen is exactly what it sounds like.  The fish are frozen at a very cold temperature, freezing them very rapidly.  This will prevent ice crystals from forming, which will damage the texture of the cooked product.  Once thawed, use immediately.  Under no circumstances should you refreeze previously frozen and thawed seafood, as this develops big ice crystals.

Be careful of frozen seafood in the supermarket that is on styrofoam and wrapped in the simple plastic wrap.  This type of frozen fish will often not be flash frozen and will typically have freezer burn.

How to Store Fresh Seafood Once Purchased

Fresh seafood spoils quickly.  The easiest way to keep your seafood fresh is to store it on ice (no doubt if you have been to a fish market you have seen fish stored in/on ice).  In the county where I work, the health department actually requires fresh seafood to be stored at 34 degrees or below (vs 40 degrees or below for all other cold items).  In my restaurant, this isn’t an issue, we already store our fish in ice inside the refrigerator to preserve freshness.  We keep our seafood in metal containers with Ziploc bags of ice on top.  At the beginning and end of every shift, we change the pans and change the ice bags.  At home, store the seafood in a glass or metal container with the same Ziploc bags and change them as the ice melts.  Never store Live seafood (lobsters, clams, mussels, crawfish etc) in airtight containers.  Cook the seafood before it starts to stink up your fridge.  If you have bought frozen seafood, force thaw (under cold running water) immediately prior to cooking.

What are fish and chips without the seaside scent of salt and vinegar? Bangers and mash are made the dish it is with the addition of a splodge of brown sauce, and no bacon sandwich is complete without tomato ketchup. To make our favorite foods the tastiest that they can be, condiments are key. Here is a list of our favorites:

Salt and Vinegar – The pairing of these kings of condiments was genius, the saltiness mixed with the acid of vinegar makes their inclusion on fried potatoes essential, and place them firmly in the center of the dinner table at all times.

Tomato sauce – Tomato Sauce or ketchup as North America calls it, is the condiment of choice the world over. There are varying levels of quality of ketchup, but it is widely agreed that Heinz is perceived as the best. Thick and tomato-y it is perfect on burgers, with fries, fish fingers, next to steak, in fact, ketchup compliments almost any savory food.

Brown Sauce – The more mature choice to ketchup, brown sauce is a bit fruitier and a bit spicier. Perfect with meats, cheeses and even on plain crisps, the HP variety, bearing Parliament on its label, is famous all over the world.

Salad Cream – Known as the poor man’s mayonnaise, salad cream has experienced something of a resurgence in the last few years. Used as mayonnaise is, with tuna or prawns for sandwiches or on the side of a salad plate, it is proving to have developed quite a cult following.

Olive Oil – Once considered posh and exotic, olive oil is commonplace in the common kitchen. It can be used for dipping bread and makes a wonderful salad dressing. It is also an essential base for homemade mayonnaise and sauces.

Mint Sauce – Serve mint sauce with lamb for the very best results to tantalize your taste buds. Mint compliments the meat perfectly, and homemade mint sauce can be easily made by grinding fresh mint in a bowl and adding balsamic vinegar.

Mustard – Perfect on hotdogs or with steak, mustard comes in many guises. French or Dijon mustard is mild and creamy; some mustard’s have whole grains of the plant in them, and English mustard has that hot bite that if not properly monitored can go up your nose and burn your eyes.

Horseradish Sauce – This can be bought, or if you are lucky enough to hunt out wild horseradish root made at home. It is the traditional accompaniment to roast beef, matched by none.

Mayonnaise – Mayonnaise can be used on salads and to make sandwich fillings such as tuna mayo, prawn mayo, and even coronation chicken. This creamy delight made from eggs should be used sparingly because of its fat content but is particularly tasty on salads.

Truffle Oil – Truffle oil is an unusual synthetic oil that mimics the scent and taste of the world’s most expensive fungi. Add this to risotto’s and pasta dishes to evoke the taste of decadent Italy in your cooking.

I am often asked if wild seafood is much better than farm raised.  The answer has a little grey area and depends on what type of seafood you are buying.  Certain types of seafood do very well in aqua farms.  Catfish, tilapia, and shrimp all seem to thrive in aqua farms, while larger migratory fish do very poorly.

With the world’s voracious appetite for fresh seafood expanding, the sustainability of wild seafood is in jeopardy.  With the ever growing popularity of sushi around the world, several species are being overfished.  To combat the overfishing problem, many are turning to aqua farming.

I salmon farm

If you are unfamiliar with aqua farming, fish are raised in giant, densely populated nets in lakes, rivers, oceans and man-made ponds. The fish are raised usually on pellets made of various types of feed.  Due to the heavy feeding, and dense population, the fish live in very polluted waters.  Certain species, such as bottom feeders, adapt very well to these types of conditions.

Large, migratory predator fish do not do so well in aqua farms.  Tuna, for example, swim thousands of miles all over the world’s oceans searching for food.  These apex predators are at the top of the food chain and are praised for their delicious flesh.  Tuna is a bright vibrant red colour, very high in protein and heart-healthy omega 3s.  Tuna take years to get to full maturity and 90% of all tuna eaten are caught before they reach sexual maturity.  It is easy to see why the increasing demand for tuna is rapidly killing off the species, especially if they are being fished before they reproduce.

Typical wild salmon spawn far upstream in freshwater streams and rivers.  Once they hatch, they swim out to sea to fatten up.  Once their biological clock starts ticking, they swim back upstream, dodging grizzly bears and hydroelectric dams to lay their eggs in the very streams they were hatched.  Once the eggs are laid, they die.  The average farm-raised salmon are hatched and confined into pens where they are fed and fattened.  Once they reach market weight, they are plucked from the pens and sold on the open market.  The flesh of wild salmon is a deep, vibrant red while the flesh of the farm raised is a light pink, often with added dye.  The vibrant flesh colour comes from the miles of streams and oceans the wild salmon swims.  While the farm-raised salmon still contains healthy omega 3′s, is rich in nutrients, and high in protein, the farm-raised version is significantly higher in fat, especially omega 6 (not good).  The farm raised variety is also much higher in antibiotics, due to the living conditions.  The farm raised salmon doesn’t have the flavour or the health benefits of the wild version, but it is substantially lower in cost.  Farm raised salmon usually only get 1/2 of what a wild salmon would fetch for.  It’s not all bad, eating farm-raised salmon is still better for you than not eating it at all.

The aqua farms also release pollution and toxins into the nearby waterways, further damaging wild species.

Not all farm-raised seafood is bad.  Catfish, tilapia, and shrimp all farm very well.  Shrimp farming, for instance, is actually BETTER for the environment than wild shrimping.  Wild shrimpers drag giant nets along the bottom of the ocean floor to pick up the shrimp but catching and killing everything along the bottom of the ocean floor.  It would be like going to hunt a deer, but along the way killing every bird, squirrel, and bunny along the way.  Shrimp are naturally bottom feeders and tend to thrive in, ahem, “dirtier” waters.

Catfish and tilapia require very little maintenance, and are usually farmed in man-made aqua ponds, and very little pollution gets out into the environment.  Because of their ease in farming, flaky white texture, and subtle flavours, they remain very cheap alternatives to more expensive seafood options.  My restaurant has gotten rid of its tuna and mahi-mahi dishes.  As the supply is dwindling and becoming more and more unpredictable, the price and quality fluctuate wildly.