Learning to eat everything

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Shellfish is a big category. I don't really like the texture and often the flavor doesn't blow me away.


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It's probable that everytime you've eaten shellfish it wasn't cooked properly.

Overcooked shellfish is rubbery and chewy - shellfish thats been mistreated so that the animal is overly stressed before it dies is also rubbery and has a faint almost metallic taste to it which isn't supposed to be there.

Badly cooked food uses ingredients to mask the flavour of what the principal thing is - Well cooked food uses ingredients that enhance the flavour of the food subtly and allow the real flavour/texture of the food in question to come to the fore.

I grew up in Cornwall in the UK (Falmouth to be exact - which is the 3rd largest natural harbour in the world) I [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] shellfish and seafood in general but I was spoiled rotten then and had easy access to most local fish that was hours old at most - One of the best meals I ever ate was barbequed whole trout - caught from a river and killed/cooked immediately and very simply with a little salt and lemon juice.

Sadly these days tho I live close to London and can get fish direct from places like Billingsgate market - even then the quality of "local" fish I used to love so much and got in Cornwall dirt cheap and still half alive while very good isn't close to what it can be.

Basically fish quality (like everything else in life) is king - pay as much as you can afford for fish - imo fish that is older than 24hours past being caught - or fish that has been frozen at some point loses much of it's flavour. But use as fresh a fish as you can get. Shellfish like mussels and clams are always sold live - in fact you must discard dead mussels clams etc before you cook them otherwise you will poison yourself.

If you have the time and inclination try these.

Lobster: - Buy live lobster from a quality fishmonger - cook it yourself by dropping it into a large pan of rapidly boiling vinegar water (125ml vinegar to 8 litres water - 1/2 cup to 8 quarts in US measurements)

People tell you that the most humane way to kill a lobster prior to cooking it is to stab it in the head with a skewer. As far as I am aware lobsters are very ancient creatures - thousands of years old - they do not have a brain they have several bulges along their spinal cord - none of which appears to function as we might think a brain would. Consequently when you stab your lobster in the head to try to kill it you are actually just paralysing it - and in the time it takes to actually die after you do this it gets very stressed and the meat inside suffers because of it.

(I am not sure how accurate the "no brain" bit is - this is simply what I have been told - but certainly lobsters IME cooked in rapidly boiling water are much less rubbery - and therefore appear to have been killed more quickly/humanely)

The water must be enough to totally cover the lobster.

For a 2lb lobster boil in the water for 3 mins - remove twist off the claws and return them to the water for another 5 mins. Once cooked cool the lobster quickly in a pan of cold water to stop the cooking process (the shell holds a lot of heat and your lobster will overcook if you just leave it on the side)

This doesn't totally cook the lobster it loosens the meat from the shell. Remove the meat from the lobster (taking care to take out the intestinal tract that runs through the tail) and leave meat to relax for 30mins+ before stage 2.

Stage 2 is basically poach the lobster meat in gently simmering liquid of your choice for 5 mins - the classic is to poach them in beurre monte which is an emulsified butter sauce thats *very* hard to make. (basically it's hot butter that remains emulsified and opaque looking at ~80degrees Celsius - boil a little water (about 40ml) in a pan and while whisking add small chunks of cold butter - keep the pan hot and keep whisking/adding more butter till you have enough to cook with - if it gets cold it'll split into oil and water - if you get it too hot it'll split - if you add too much butter too fast - it'll split - if it splits it's no good as a poaching medium.)

I find that a very mild olive oil(extra virgin or similar olive oils are way too strongly flavoured) or grapeseed oil with a good squeeze of lemon juice in it works very well - tho for raw lobster flavour slightly salted water works well too - the trick is to cook the lobster at about 80degrees Celsius - so that the water isn't quite boiling - too hot water denatures the protein in the meat and makes it tough and chewy. After loosening the meat as described at one of the restaurants I worked at we cooked lobster in vac pac bags in a warm water bath held at 72 degrees C. If you have access to these it's the ultimate - but way outside the range of most home kitchens.

Personally I think lobster is waaaay overrated.

Crab - for an awesome sandwich filling / salad element flake white crab meat - and carefuly remove any tiny fragments of shell still inside it season lightly with salt, - finely dice ripe mango - (about 1/5 mango to crab meat by weight) and then bind the whole lot together with a spoonful of good quality mayonnaise - about a desert spoon of mayo to 250g of crab mix is about right.

Mussels Clams etc. IME almost noone cooks these well.

For classic "Moules Mariniere" - prepare some very finely diced shallot, sweat in a saucepan until soft and leave to one side. Pick through the mussels - discard any open dead ones - and pick off the "beards" (little fragments of nylon rope that the mussels are attached to while they are farmed most often)

Get a good sized dry saucepan really hot - throw in your mussels and put a tight lid on top (the water on the outside clinging to the shells and the liquid inside the mussels is sufficient to steam them) almost immediately lots of steam should be produced inside the pan - steam them holding down the lid (using a cloth else you'll burn your fingers!) if it doesn't happen quickly add a shot or so of white wine to kickstart the process. High pressure(ish) steam your mussels for 1-2 mins - no more. Remove from heat and strain off the liquor.

using the same pan add your shallots (about 50g for 2 pints of mussels) sweat a little more - add a good dose of white wine (about 1/4 bottle) and reduce wine by about half - add in the mussel liquor taste - and add a little salt if required. Return mussels to pan and cook for a further 1-2 mins - throw in a good pinch of chopped parsley and if you like a good dash of double (heavy) cream and serve immediately.

[wiggs73]

El D,

I'll have to try the heirloom tomatoes... never have been a fan of tomatoes by themselves although I don't mind eating them on sandwiches or burgers.

I'd love to hear any recommendations you have for cooked spinach. I just tried to cook some last night and it turned out pretty bland and not so tasty.


I'm going to an oyster roast this Saturday so I'll let you know if I try anything that's particularly good. I'm actually not even sure if I like oysters but I got invited to this so I'm going to try to like them for an evening at least.

[StevieG]

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I'd love to hear any recommendations you have for cooked spinach. I just tried to cook some last night and it turned out pretty bland and not so tasty.

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Are you comfortable making a basic bechamel sauce?

If so, just mix your steamed spinach with the bechamel and you will have a very tasty creamed spinach to enjoy.

Another simple preparation you might enjoy is to to dress the steamed spinach with tahini and chill.

[wiggs73]

Stevie,

Never made a bechamel sauce before, but looks easy enough. I'll probably try that sometime soon. Thanks!

[gumpzilla]

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I'd love to hear any recommendations you have for cooked spinach. I just tried to cook some last night and it turned out pretty bland and not so tasty.

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Saute it with some fresh garlic, and sprinkle lemon juice on it at the end. Works for me!

[Evan]

Diablo, a couple of your shellfish choices I think of mostly as east coat foods. I know things like crab are excellent on the west coast, but things like clams, oysters and lobster strike me as stuff I'd rather eat here than out west.

I don't know if you ever make it up to New England or out to eastern Long Island, but there is a great place in Manhattan that you may not have been to: Pearl Oyster Bar. I was there on Friday and had some really good clams and fried oysters. The raw oysters the people next to us got looked fantastic. By the way, you eat clams the same way you eat oysters, raw straight from the shell. Steaming them is also very popular and tasty.

So if you haven't tried that stuff on the east coast I'd make that your next go around.


As for mussels, the appetizer at Bobo's was very good when I had it. I'd try that unless you already have.


You definitely don't need a really expensive place to get a good lobster, but you do need a really fresh place. I think lobsters are supposed to be best fresh out of cold water oceans. Again, it's probably easier to get that on the east coast, especially New England/Long Island.

[fish2plus2]

Diablo,

Alot of thai dishs involve crab. try papaya salad with raw crabs. Less common would be crab steamed inside the shell and then broken and dipped in a spicy garlic sauce. In Singapore, black pepper crab is a very celebrated dish. Personally, I think fish tastes alot better then crab.

oysters and mussels cooked inside of an omlet with bean sprouts is another common thai dish.

Maybe you can find a local thai place in SF and ask them if you can bring them seafood that they can prepare special for you.

there is a japanese resterant here that does mussels cooked with butter lime and garlic, very good.

all,

Raw beef is one of the only things I havent eaten. Are you sure that there arent any health risks in doing so?

When you say blue cheese, do you mean the stuff in a bottle or actual blue cheese? Go to a deli and get some blue cheese imported from Denmark. If you still dont like it, then you are hopeless.

Not liking tea, onions, mushrooms, tomatos...? I think I am prejudiced against people with bad culinary taste.

[Dids]

About 5 years ago I was out with Spanaway Vin. He thrust some kimchee infront of me, and for some reason (probably just not wanting to look bad) I ate it. It was super good.

This was somewhat life changing for me, because I used to be really conservative about foods. Something like kimchee just grossed me out and I never would have tried it. Once I had this awakening, I made it a point to try everything.

When I embraced that, it also empowered me to feel like the stuff that I didn't like, I really didn't like. It was just that it looked funny, it was that I'd tried it, and didn't like what I tasted.

Things I still don't like:

Super cooked down onions, like what you'd find in a meatloaf. It's not a taste thing, it's a texture thing. To slimey. This used to just be a universal dislike of onions (again, not the flavor, but texture and texture contrast within a dish) but I've started to enjoy them if I cook them such that I'll eat them on their own (say, sauteed and served on a steak or something). I use them for flavor a lot, but I'll often strain thigns out to avoid the cooked down bits.

Green peppers. This used to be all peppers, but like onions, I found that I really enjoy them if I eat them alone, it's when they're mixed into a dish that the texture and flavor bothers me. Another element that I'll use a lot for flavoring and seasoning, but not to eat.

Raw Tomoato. I like grape and cherry tomatoes, and the occasional super good beafsteak with basil, but beyond that I'm pretty luke warm to them.

[StevieG]

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I'd love to hear any recommendations you have for cooked spinach. I just tried to cook some last night and it turned out pretty bland and not so tasty.

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Saute it with some fresh garlic, and sprinkle lemon juice on it at the end. Works for me!

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I would think the high water content would lead to a lot of oil popping and splashing. Is that the case?

I have just dressed steamed spinach with olive oil and crushed garlic, but you have to really like garlic for that [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

[gumpzilla]

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I'd love to hear any recommendations you have for cooked spinach. I just tried to cook some last night and it turned out pretty bland and not so tasty.

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Saute it with some fresh garlic, and sprinkle lemon juice on it at the end. Works for me!

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I would think the high water content would lead to a lot of oil popping and splashing. Is that the case?

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I haven't really noticed it, but I think that's usually because I'm doing a lot of spinach at once and so I might be getting shielded from it. I'm sure steaming it (which is happening to a certain extent anyway from the water leaching out, I would guess) or something like that would work, too.

Crushing garlic on at the end sounds pretty good to me. My typical use of garlic in cooking is to add it to things right after I've taken them off the heat when they're still kinda hot but cooling, so that the garlic remains more pungent. Throwing it in at the beginning of recipes really makes stuff smell good when you're cooking but I don't notice the flavor as much, usually. I think I'm probably doing something wrong.