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Fish Head Stew


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#21 Guest_teleost_*

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Posted 01 December 2007 - 04:17 PM

I can't believe a Yankee (me) has to be the one to defend among the finest leafy vegetables around. I eat greens and only greens as a meal on occasion. I would not eat greens without salt pork and who cooks vegetables without salt pork anyway?

#22 Guest_Casper Cox_*

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Posted 05 August 2008 - 05:12 PM

Drum Chowder, its not quite the topic "Fish Head Stew" but its mighty good and since we lack a "Fish Eating" heading i will insert it here. As i've been told... "To really know a fish you have to eat it".

:)

I've made Drum Chowder several times and have the technique down and the recipe fairly refined. I would not be an easy streamside cooking adventure but in a typical kitchen the process is simple enough, but first you have to fetch the drum...

Last friday while picnicing with the family i speargunned 5 medium sized drum. I've gotten pretty good at it and make each shot count. I was 5 for 6 on this day. We had spent the day snorkeling the cool clear water though i was mystified where all the darters had gone to. Most of the shiners had lost their breeding colors but the tricolors were still handsome with their colorful dorsal fins. But there were plenty of drum and they were isolated in a large pool bracketed by riffle runs. Fisherman always frown on drum saying they taste bad. I have yet to experience that. I think it depends on the water quality they come from and its hard to beat the beautiful Conasauga flowing out of the forested mountains. Perhaps if one catches an older drum from futher downstream, below the carpet mill purgings or a dirty TVA reservoir they might taste badly and i suspect would, not to mention toxins. There is the talk about removing the mudline to remedy the taste factor and during my first attempt to cook a drum and being thus concerned, i struggled to remove the mudline, and finally in frustration, i tasted it. There was no hint of a bad taste whatsoever. Clean tasting fish from clean water.

5Drum1.JPG

After getting out of my wetsuit and snorkel gear, i had the fish on ice within an hour. The next day i scaled them, cut off their heads, gutted, trimmed all the fins off and rinsed them clean. The largest drum had a pair of yellow roe sacks which suprised me for this time of year. I also noted that their guts were filled with a slimy grit, perhaps asian clam fragments. I have carefully checked the contents of all the drum i've speared looking for darters or any minnows as i was told they eat them but i have yet to find one but folks do catch them on lures so i will keep looking and watching. Anyway, i double wrapped the five fish in a couple plastic bags and microwaved them for 3 minutes, then 2 minutes and then 2 more minutes as i was cautious about overcooking them. The smell was not pleasant and i was worried that they might taste as they smelled and quickly turned the stove's venting fan on. After cooling, the fish were drained, and placed in the frige for about an hour to chill.

Later i sat down and carefully removed the bones by hand. Precooking the fish makes the flesh firm and fairly easy to remove all the bones. It is a tedious activity, but eventually i ended up with a nice bowl of clean, cooked fish and another of skin and bones for the compost pile. The smell at this time was not unpleasant, perhaps because the flesh was chilled, but i was still worried about the potential taste.


DrumBonePicking.JPG

Last night i began boiling a dozen small sliced potatoes and added a videlia onion and a couple peppers, bell and banana. I still had a floral of wild mushrooms from the week before which are called the cauliflower mushroom, or ruffles or in latin, Sparassis crispa. For the third July now i have found them growing from the bases of old pine stumps wiped out by the pine beetles. They are a pretty mushroom and appear like white delicate ruffles around the stump and are as big or bigger then a head of cabbage. Very thin, they trim up nicely and add a texture and delicate flavor to any meal. As we were returning from our fungi walk last week, there in my backyard, at the base of a 10 year old pine stump, was a white cluster of ruffles. I have been watering it during these last few hot days seeing if i could increase the size and decided this night it is going to chowder.


Cauliflower1.jpg

After all the ingredients were on a rolling boil i turned down the burner to a simmer and dropped in one half of the cooked drum, breaking it into chunks. Drum does not flake like most fish and has a rubbery texture making it ideal for stews but not for baking or frying in my experience. People generally don't like the rubbery texture. Typically i like to highly season all my cookings but i deliberatly kept this recipe mild so the true flavors would come to the forefront. It was delicious.

I still have 5 heads in the freezer! Picking the meat off the heads while eating, though interesting, is messy. I'm thinking next time i will boil them in a mesh bag and thus create a fishstock to season another meal with, unless on your next visit you would rather have the head natural, eyeballs, lips and all.

:)


Edited by Casper Cox, 05 August 2008 - 05:13 PM.


#23 Guest_Casper Cox_*

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Posted 13 August 2008 - 07:12 PM

After our trip to the Little River in Bama last week Rob and i got together and cooked the 2nd half of the 5 Drum.

Recipe:
Cooked, deboned and chopped school of Drum, 1 large minced onion, 7 eggs, seasoning, 1 small can of Rotel, a handful of dried morels, small can of mushrooms, and a bag of crushed croutons. All mixed together, shaped into balls and then rolled into some crushed breadcrumbs.
Cast iron skillet on medium low, a splash of olive oil and a few minutes on each side.
A tasty native fish that most folk frown upon.
DrumPattiePrep.JPG

Toward the end of the session the olive oil burned and i opened the door to help vent the house. This critter flew in...
FlyingHellgrammit.JPG
A female, the males get long pinchers extending from their heads, a really odd couple. Both males and females have a very strange odor that does not compliment recently cooked native fish patties.

#24 Guest_uniseine_*

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Posted 13 August 2008 - 07:35 PM

I couldn't find any on native cyprinids
<clip>
Are there any pictures of those from natives?


on Flickr

Teeth from the throat of a Telescope Shiner.

#25 Guest_farmertodd_*

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Posted 13 August 2008 - 07:59 PM

A female, the males get long pinchers extending from their heads, a really odd couple. Both males and females have a very strange odor that does not compliment recently cooked native fish patties.


You do realize that's what hellgramites turn into, yes? That's a nice photo of the female :)

Todd

#26 Guest_Casper Cox_*

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Posted 13 August 2008 - 09:58 PM

Yep, that there is a Flying Hellgrammit, AKA, Dobsonfly of the female persausion.

I have seen them much larger and in fact up at Big South Fork, where i urged you to gather last fall, i found both a male and female against the lighted bathhouse wall.
There is only one thing uglier than a Hellgramit and that's a Flying Hellgrammit!
:)
Sometimes my coolpix 775 does pretty well, but i can never count on my operating skills. I wish i could have got her wings extended. She had kinda of a dual dragonfly flutter while dodging through the house.

#27 Guest_mikez_*

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Posted 14 August 2008 - 09:05 AM

Can drum be filleted? I know pike and trout have the extra set of crosswise bones that make it tough to fillet. Are drum the same?
That microwave part would be good to skip if possible. Something about cooking fish in the microwave brings out that smell. Even the freshest cod or haddock stinks in the microwave. Doesn't seem to effect the taste though.

#28 Guest_scottefontay_*

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Posted 14 August 2008 - 11:10 AM

This topic is great! Eating is definately my favorite method of sampling!

#29 Guest_Casper Cox_*

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Posted 15 August 2008 - 09:47 AM

Mikez, so you have had the same experience with microwaving fish and the resulting smell? Interesting, and i seem to recall store bought fish doing the same, now that you mention it. It sure is convenient, my microwave has a venting fan and i might remember to turn it on next time.
or shortly thereafter.
:)
I have never filleted a Drum, nor sure if i can or could. I started the bone picking technique working with those Redhorses and all the Y and multi X bones. I have a lot still to learn.
When i first started native fish snorkeling i started hearing the down turned nose stories of the non edibility of "rough fish". I heard otherwise from streamside older country folks out and dead animal partying icthologists, so i have been on an interesting cycle to learn and experience as much as i can regarding rough fish. It certainly adds to my enjoyment tho the fish seem to know when i switch from peaceful observer to lethal predator.
I still have yet to try a Carp, the ones i have seen are so large it would take a roomful of willing fish eaters to justify it. Maybe you guys will depart the northlands and give some southern fish the fork, spoon and fillet knife.

#30 Guest_fundulus_*

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Posted 15 August 2008 - 10:41 AM

Carp are great, at least the ones I've eaten at restaurants in Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic. But I'd be leery of ones from muddy waters in North America...

#31 Michael Wolfe

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Posted 15 August 2008 - 12:26 PM

Carp are great, at least the ones I've eaten at restaurants in Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic. But I'd be leery of ones from muddy waters in North America...


Carp from lakes in the midwest are my only experience, and it was good... gentleman that did the cleaning said the trick was to make sure not to cut the "mud vein"... yes I know they do not eat mud, nor do they have mud in their blood, but that was his term... as long as that was not cut and the meat not "contaminated" he said it would be very tasty... he did the cleaning and apparently did it correctly, becasue it was a pretty good fish fry.
Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing. - Benjamin Franklin

#32 Guest_mikez_*

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Posted 15 August 2008 - 12:58 PM

I don't have much experience with "rough" fish. We have so many delectable fresh and saltwater fish around here there's no reason to try, aside for the experiment of course.
I did eat a shad once, slow baked at low temps as perscribed. Not something I'd likely do again but I was impressed by how the bones really did get soft enough to eat.
Of our saltwater fish, bluefish get the bad reputation for poor eating but I find it's all in the preperation. Done correctly, fresh bluefish is my favorite.
My techneque may be worth sharing for possible application elsewhere;

First, maybe the most critical thing is, when heading out in search of fillets, I always make the effort to carry a cooler with ice. I can't over stress the importance of that step. Too many fishermen toss their blues on the beach and keep fishing. No can do.
As soon as a blue is landed and unhooked, I stop everything [takes willpower during a real "blitz" of feeding blues] and begin preperation.
First the fish is bled by cutting through the "throat" area where the gill rakers come together at the bottom of the head. Blues are very bloody and such a cut empties them in minutes [very impressive spurting too]. There 's a huge difference in taste if this step is skipped or done after the fish dies and heart stops pumping.
As soon as the spurting stops and the fish quits trying to bite your leg off, it is filleted immediately. This too I think is critical. Even when bled and put on ice, the fish will taste much stronger if not seperated from guts, skin and red meat [mudline] right away. The abdominal cavity is never pierced so no chance of stomach contents, bile or gore getting to the meat. Skin is removed completely, red meat along lateral line cut out and fillets cleaned and bagged and put on ice [saltwater fish should never be kept in direct contact with freshwater ice].
I've got it down to a science and can do one in about 15 minutes tops.
All the guys around me who couldn't bear to stop fishing now have a pile of stiff, dead, partially decompossed smelly bluefish. No wonder they say it doesn't taste good!
Might be worth a try with some of your southern rough fish, especially in hot weather.

#33 Guest_farmertodd_*

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Posted 15 August 2008 - 01:35 PM

gentleman that did the cleaning said the trick was to make sure not to cut the "mud vein"... yes I know they do not eat mud, nor do they have mud in their blood, but that was his term...


Yeah, this annecdote has to be one of the most staunchly defended rural legends of our time. The last time I bothered to mention there was no such thing, the guy wanted to fight. So I don't bother with it any more.

I've tried to figure out if it's just a ruptured liver, gall, or if it's the stores of fat in the peritoneum that give it that off taste. Does anyone know this for sure?

Man, we were talking eatin' logperch again this morning. Yum yum.

Uland, my advisor and I got a seinefull last weekend in the Tippecanoe that woulda had El Snorkelmeister slobberin' like a baby! lol!

I'm kickin' myself for not running to get a camera (Dave, forgot the ethanol... I'll be back there soon!). That was one of the most beautiful seine hauls I've ever been witness to.

Now, not walkin' back to get a camera to get a picture of that sheepnose mussel Uland found... Now that was plain out lazy. I guess the caveat is I know where it is. Perfectly sculptured, living in sand. Wow.

Todd

#34 Guest_mikez_*

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Posted 18 August 2008 - 06:06 PM

Yeah, this annecdote has to be one of the most staunchly defended rural legends of our time. The last time I bothered to mention there was no such thing, the guy wanted to fight. So I don't bother with it any more.

Todd


I thought the "mud vein" was refering to the strip of dark meat that runs down the center of a fillet in certain species, roughly where the lateral line would be. It's solid meat, not a vein and nothing leaks out of it but it does have a stronger taste. Some say the PCB, mercury etc is concentrated in the dark meat as well. Don't know if it's true, but it's easy enough to cut from a fillet with a sharp knife.

#35 Guest_farmertodd_*

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Posted 18 August 2008 - 08:59 PM

I thought the "mud vein" was refering to the strip of dark meat that runs down the center of a fillet in certain species, roughly where the lateral line would be. It's solid meat, not a vein and nothing leaks out of it but it does have a stronger taste. Some say the PCB, mercury etc is concentrated in the dark meat as well. Don't know if it's true, but it's easy enough to cut from a fillet with a sharp knife.


Well that makes even more sense. There's wad of fat stored in and along there (myelin insulation) surrounding all the nerves, and in the fat would be all the big nasties. I just hadn't put two and two together :) Thanks for doing such!

Todd



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