Crete was Sweet!

Friday, May 28th, 2010 | posted by mike

Just returned from an amazing family vacation on the island of Crete in Greece! Of course food was a very important part of our trip! Lots of wonderful Greek salads made with local tomatoes & olives, a big slab of feta or some other sheep or goat cheese (usually home-made) with the goats looking right at us during the meal! Fresh yogurt with aromatic wild mountain thyme honey, local live snails sautéed in wonderful Cretan olive oil with garlic and rosemary, fresh sea urchin prepared simply with olive oil and lemon and served with crusty bread, incredible lamb roasted over olivewood, and of course everything always accompanied with great, inexpensive wines produced all over the island, often sold out of a barrel or a plastic water bottle!

The most unforgettable meals though were the fish and shellfish! The colorful, traditional small fishing boats would bring in an amazing mix. It was hard to choose what to buy, everything looked so gorgeous! Red mullet (barbouni), John Dory, whitebait, sardines, mackerels & jacks of all kinds, local shrimp (with roe), bronzini, sea bream (tsipura), slipper lobsters, cuttlefish and lots of fish I didn’t know the names of! There was octopus right out of the sea and that’s what my family loved the best! One night I grilled some along with other locally caught fish over a wood fire, along with a nice Greek salad, some local bread and wine! All the fish I simply grilled whole with olive oil, garlic & lemon.

We’ve included the octopus recipe here. In Greece they pound them on the rocks to tenderize them— boiling for 45 minutes works just as well!

Posted in Blog | Comments Off
Tags: , , ,

Grilled Octopus

Friday, May 28th, 2010 | posted by wendy

1 2# octopus (or 2 1# octopi)
4 T olive oil
2t fresh oregano or 1t dried
2 cloves minced garlic
juice of 1 lemon

Boil octopus for 45 minutes (lower octopus into pot and dunk in and out of the water 4 times, then simmer)

In a bowl, combine the olive oil, garlic, lemon and herbs.

After the octopus has simmered for 45 minutes, cut in half and add to bowl and coat with oil-lemon-herb-garlic mixture. Grill for about 2-3 minutes a side on a hot fire. Slice off legs, chop body and toss in remaining marinade.

This recipe is also wonderful as a warm salad-just add some thinly sliced red onion and wedges of ripe tomato to the marinade and grilled octopus chunks and serve on a bed of fresh greens.

Posted in Recipes | 1 Comment »
Tags: , ,

Oh Yeah! Wild Pacific Salmon Season is HERE!

Friday, May 21st, 2010 | posted by mike

May is a great month if you’re a salmon lover! We’ve had King (Chinook) Salmon from the Columbia River in Washington and from Sitka Alaska for about a month now and they have been awesome! Super fresh with a great color and high fat content.

The world famous Alaskan Copper River Season opened on May 13 this year. These fish are some of the finest, richest, most delicious salmon in the world. Because of their long spawning run (up to 300 miles) these fish fatten up for the trip, giving them great flavor, succulent texture and lots of omega 3s.

The Copper River Sockeye salmon will be running also and we’ll expect to see them within the next couple of weeks. Sockeyes have the super red fillet and are prized by the Japanese. They’re probably the most flavorful of all the Pacific Salmon—leaner than the Kings but the Copper River run will be the richest Sockeye of the season. After the sockeye run we’ll see Cohos (Silvers) from Washington to Alaska. The Cohos are a bit milder than Kings or Sockeyes…kind of like a smaller and more delicate King.

There are two more commercial Pacific salmon—the Chum and the Pink Salmon. The Pinks are small with a soft and very perishable flesh. Super fresh Pinks are good eating but most of them go the the cannery and we rarely see them. Chums are also known as Dog Salmon (because they feed them to the mush dog) and are not as highly regarded as the other species of salmon. They are generally leaner and aren’t as bright in color as the other salmons. However, the last couple of years have brought us a new treat—rich, fat, flavorful Chums from the Yukon River. The Yukon had been closed for commercial fishing for the past 30 years to protect the fish stocks. It’s the longest river in Alaska (2,300 miles) and the Yukon Chums have a fat content on par with the Kings. They are delicious and a great value.

I know you’ve heard the word “fat” a lot in this post, but remember the fat we’re talking about is the GOOD fat—unsaturated, high omega fat with all its amazing health benefits. Omega-3s are not one single nutrient, but a collection of several, including eicosapentaenic acid (EPA) and docosahexanoic acid (DHA). Both are found in greatest abundance in coldwater fish—and that, say experts, is one reason so many of us are deficient. So enjoy LOTS of wild salmon this summer. It’s hard to believe that something so rich and delicious is so good for you!

Posted in Blog | Comments Off
Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Monahan's Irish Whiskey Maple Glaze

Friday, May 21st, 2010 | posted by mike

1/4 c real maple syrup
2 T Irish Whiskey (Bushmill’s preferred)
2 T Monahan’s Teriyaki

Whisk ingredients together to baste fish. This is one of our favorites for planked King salmon!

Posted in Recipes | 3 Comments »
Tags: , ,

Pan-Seared Whitefish w Beurre Noir

Friday, May 14th, 2010 | posted by wendy

1# boneless whitefish fillet, skin on
Drake’s Batter Mix or Seasoned flour
salt & pepper
3 T olive oil
3 T butter
1 lemon, supremed
1T capers
1 T chopped parsley

Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees.

Heat an oven-proof pan or skillet over medium heat and add about 3 T olive oil. Dredge whitefish in Drake’s, place fillet in hot pan flesh side down. Cook for about 2 minutes until nicely browned, then flip (skin side down) and place pan in preheated oven. Bake for about 3-4 minutes or until fish is opaque in the middle. Transfer fillets to a plate, pour off the remaining olive oil, add butter to pan, gently stir until butter begins to brown and add capers, lemon supremes, parsley and serve over the center of each portion of fish.

Posted in Recipes | Comments Off
Tags: ,

Great Fish from the Great Lakes!

Friday, May 14th, 2010 | posted by mike

Did you know that if you stood on the moon you would be able to identify all of our Great Lakes and the mitten between them? The Great Lakes have about one-fifth of the world’s fresh surface water supply and 9/10s of the U.S. supply. Spread out over the lower 48 states, we’re talking 10 feet deep. What an incredible resource! What a bounty and variety of delicious fish!

At Monahan’s we have always carried lots of the Great Lakes fish—spring, summer, fall and even some mild winters—whitefish, lake trout and smelt from Lake Superior and Lake Michigan; and lake perch, walleye and white bass from Lake Huron and Lake Erie (one of the biggest walleye fisheries on earth!) We also carry some great smoked whitefish and smoked whitefish sausage from Petoskey and Mackinac City. Whether you’re serving simply broiled whitefish or lake trout, fried smelt or lake perch with lemon and tartar sauce, or sautéed or broiled walleye, these are some of the world’s tastiest fish.

We hear a lot of questions and concerns from our customers about toxins in Great Lakes fish. At our market, we sell the younger, smaller sized fish, not the older fatty fish. Along with the fact that the lakes have cleaned up a lot since the Great Lakes Water Quality Act and Clean Waterways Act of the 70s were enacted, eating our lake fish once or twice a week is a healthy treat where the health benefits far outweigh any risk. The Michigan Department of Natural Resources has some helpful information here.

Our own family has eaten fish from the Great Lakes at our house along with a big variety of sea fish and shellfish. The key is to enjoy a varied, healthful diet, with everything in moderation and not just eating the same thing over and over. If there are minute risk factors in any food, be it ocean fish, lake fish or land-based meats, mixing it up is the best bet.

Our Great Lakes fish have so much to offer aside from supporting our local Michigan fisheries. We have such an amazing resource right here on this great pair of penninsulas.

Here’s a great whitefish recipe for you.

Posted in Blog | Comments Off
Tags: , , , , ,

Soft Shell Crab Season is HERE!

Friday, May 7th, 2010 | posted by wendy

One of the all time most delicious things on earth! Simply fried or grilled served with lemon, hot sauce, remoulade, tartar or cocktail sauce, there’s nothing finer.

Soft Shell crabs are blue crabs that have recently shed their shells (molted). In this very vulnerable (and tasty) state, they are beseiged by predators—they often hide in eel grass because they are the favorite prey of any fish, bird or mammal out there (including us humans).

To harvest soft shells, they are captured before they molt. After the crabs are caught the watermen can read the color of the shells and determine approximately when the crabs will shed. Then they are placed in holding pens or tanks and monitored constantly until the molting moment is nigh. At that point, they must be removed immediately from the water as they start to harden within 2-3 hours. They’re shipped live and sized by how many inches wide the crabs are from point to point.

Here’s the size-lingo you may hear in relation to soft shell crabs (from small to large):

Mediums: 3.5–4 inches wide

Hotels: 4–4.5 inches wide

Primes: 4.5–5 inches wide

Jumbos: 5–5.5 inches wide

Whales: over 5.5 inches wide

We always get a jump on the season by buying crabs in early April from Appalachicola, Florida. After the first full moon in early May, the Chesapeake crabs start coming in and we see them all summer (until around Labor Day).

So far supplies and prices have been good and we’re hoping for a great season.

There are many ways to prepare Soft Shell Crabs, but here is our favorite classic preparation.

Video: How to cook a soft shell crab

Video: How to clean a soft shell crab

Posted in Blog | 1 Comment »
Tags: