Vanessa Barrington

Mendocino Abalone Plus Recipes: Abalone Ceviche with Kumquats and Abalone Chowder with Bacon

I’m not a diver but I’m a cook so I feel fortunate to have been invited on a camping trip with a bunch of abalone divers. I’m always happy to let my imagination run wild in the camp kitchen. And even happier to be able to eat copious amounts of one of the last wild foods available to us.

After my chilly weekend at Van Damme State Park in Mendocino, I have a new appreciation for abalone and the divers who harvest it. Because you know what? It’s not that easy to catch abalone. You may think, “How hard can it be? It’s not like they run away or anything, right?” And though abalone can’t technically move fast enough to flee from divers, they do have other deterrents at the disposal. As does the Calfornia Department of Fish & Game. 

 

First of all, while there are seven of species of abalone in California, the only ones the divers are allowed to take are Red Abalone no smaller than seven inches in diameter. To preserve the population, licensed divers are allowed three abalone per day with a maximum of 24 per season. The season runs from April through November with a closure in July.

 

Regulations also prohibit the use of oxygen tanks, so would-be abalone divers have to be highly skilled.  Imagine diving down to a depth of 20-30 feet in freezing water, while holding your breath. Once you’re down there, you have to find the abalone, make sure they are the proper size and species and then move swiftly to pry them off the rock with a special tool. Tip them off to your presence and they seize onto the rock, making it impossible to remove them. One strike and you’re out. The seas can be rough, and visibility can be low, adding to the difficulty.

For these reasons it’s also dangerous. Emergency responders in Mendocino County rescue about 15 abalone divers each year. Nearly every year, somebody dies while diving for abalone. Last year’s death count was three.

 

Lets say you’re diving and you make it back to the surface with your abalone and head to the campsite to relax. First you have to pry the abalone out of their shells (this sounds nicer than saying you have to kill the live mollusks), and then you must trim out their goopy reproductive and digestive organs, as well as the black edges and the tough bits of the “foot.” Finally you have to pound the hell out of them or they’ll be too tough to eat. Then you can relax while someone else cooks them (if you’re lucky). In reality, most divers do cook. Usually they grill it, poach it, or slice, pound, bread, and pan-fry it. All are perfectly respectable ways to enjoy the sweet, oceany flesh.

On the third meal, something a little different was in order. I’ve made ceviche with abalone at home previously, but I wanted to do something a little different, so I brought along some kumquats to go with the usual ceviche flavors. The chowder was entirely unplanned. It was an incredibly cold weekend and, on one of our frigid hikes, Haven and I were fantasizing about chowder. We had potatoes in the cooler. We thought if only we had cream and bacon, we could make a fabulous abalone chowder. Luckily one of the other campers had both cream and bacon so our dream came true. 

Here are the recipes—proportions are estimated. We cook by feel in the campsite.

Abalone Ceviche with Kumquats

2 abalone, sliced thinly into strips

6-8 kumquats, sliced as thinly as possible

2-3 serrano chiles, finely diced (seeds removed or left in depending on how much heat you want)

1/2 bunch of cilantro, chopped

1/2 of a red onion, cut half, then thirds lengthwise and then thin, half-moon slices

Juice of 5-6 limes

Salt to taste

Toss all of the above in a bowl and let sit for at least 30 minutes or up to 24 hours.

 

Campsite Abalone Chowder

This was truly a camp collaboration incorporating the ideas of many. One of the beautiful things about this chowder was that we were able to use the tough abalone trimmings to make a super flavorful stock. If there had been celery, I definitely would have put some in both the chowder and the stock. I used leftover cooked bacon from breakfast for the chowder, but if you don’t have cooked bacon you could sauté it in its own fat, add the onion and skip the butter if you want (or pour off some of the bacon fat and still use butter for flavor)

Stock:

2 pounds abalone trimmings

1/2 of an onion, roughly chopped

1 slab bacon

Chowder:

1/2 stick butter

1/2 of an onion, diced

2 to 3 russet potatoes, peeled and diced

1 abalone, diced

4 to 5 pieces of cooked bacon, crumbled

Cream to taste (about a cup)

Salt and pepper to taste

Put the abalone trimmings, onion, and bacon in a pot and cover with cold water. Bring to a boil and simmer slowly for 1 to 2 hours, strain. (can be made one day ahead and refrigerated).

In a soup pot, melt the butter, add the onion and sauté until translucent. Add the broth and bring to a boil. Add the potatoes and simmer until tender. (I added water to stretch it here because the broth was super flavorful) Add the abalone, bacon and cream and simmer until the abalone is tender, about 5 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve immediately.

A Healthy, Restorative Meal with Sablefish and Dal

I rarely cook a protein, starch, veg meal anymore. And I rarely eat fish either. Our oceans are just so endangered, that it’s a once-in-awhile treat these days. And it’s gotta be on Seafood Watch’s green list, or I’m not even eating it as a treat.

If you’ve never cooked sablefish, you’ll find that it’s a reasonable substitute for the overfished rockfish and snapper usually used in dishes like fish tacos, and other preparations where you want a mild, white fillet of fish. It has a moist texture that lends itself well to a variety of preparations. I always find myself wishing it were a little flakier and a little less gelatinous, but it works pretty well. You may also see it as Black Cod at the fish counter.

This was a really easy dinner to make with little prep time and few ingredients. Its only down side is the number of pots and pans I used. One for the fish, one for the rice, one for the greens and yet another for the dal. If you cook the dal on a different day, that will make it a little less dish intensive.

For the dal, I use red split lentils and just cook them in water with a little turmeric and salt until tender (takes about 20 minutes) Then I sauté chilies (either fresh green or dried red) with mustard seeds, cumin seeds, garlic, shallots, and whatever else I’m feeling like adding, over high heat in oil or ghee and then quickly add the sizzling hot mixture to the dal, stir in and cover to permeate the dal with flavor. Ratio of lentils to water is about 4 to 1. The rest you’ll have to eyeball.


For the fish, I followed a recipe in Niloufer King’s fabulous James Beard Award winning My Bombay Kitchen for masala seafood. You don’t even need a recipe. It’s basically cayenne, turmeric and salt rubbed into scored fish fillets that are then fried quickly in a very small amount of oil. It’s wonderful and wonderfully easy. The rest of the meal is just sautéed mustard greens and Massa Brown Rice with some sprigs of fresh cilantro.

And Hey! I’m going to Mexico for two weeks so you might not hear from me. I might try to blog from there, but not sure. At any rate, expect some good posts about Mexican food when I return. I’m staying with a family and I hear the Senora is a very good cook and I’ve been assured that I’ll be welcome in her kitchen. Qué Bueno! Feliz Navidad Y Año Nuevo!

Wild Salmon-Potato Cakes

I'm turning into my mother. She used to "do things" with canned salmon. Namely a tasty but disturbingly cat-food textured dip served with Ritz crackers. I never have "done things" with canned salmon other than eating it on salads like tuna. In one of my ongoing battles with odd bits of leftovers and an overfull pantry, I came up with an elegant way to use leftover potatoes and canned wild salmon. Yep, I "did something" with canned salmon.

The impetus consisted of three steamed russet potatoes that never quite made it into Susan’s birthday potato salad with the Yukons, because it hadn’t seemed quite right to mix them.

Those potatoes had been taunting me from the vegetable drawer for a couple of days. Just daring me to use them. I kept thinking of eggs, and breakfast, and hash, but it just never happened. Suddenly it was Monday night and I was faced with a drawer full of fresh vegetables and a mean protein craving, with nary a speck of flesh defrosted.

Resourcefulness kicked in.

Makes 4 small patties

3 medium steamed russet potatoes, peeled
1-7.5 ounce can of wild salmon, skin and bones removed (I snack on them or feed them to the dog) and flaked
About 2 tablespoons freshly chopped herbs such as parsley, tarragon, chives, whatever you have
A dollop of mayonnaise
Harissa paste or a sprinkling of good paprika or Aleppo pepper
Salt and pepper to taste
2 to 3 tablespoons vegetable oil

In a medium bowl, mash the potatoes with a potato masher until they are broken down, but with some texture remaining.

Add the salmon, herbs, a small spoonful of mayonnaise, the harissa or other pepper, and salt and pepper. Mix and check for seasoning. Also check to see if the mixture holds together when you try to form it into a patty. If not, add a little more mayonnaise until it does.

Form the mixture into 4 patties, dividing it evenly. Heat the oil in a cast iron pan over medium high heat until it is shimmering but not smoking. Carefully lower the patties into the pan. Cook on the first side until crisp and brown (2 to 3 minutes) Turn and cook the other side for an additional 2 to 3 minutes until brown. Serve immediately accompanied by seasonal vegetables. In this case it was steamed then sautéed broccoli with red pepper flakes and garlic, along with roasted golden beet and arugula salad.

An unexpectedly great Monday night dinner, and easy too!

Halibut Ceviché and Mexican Corn

Last week it was brutally hot around here and all I could think about was the Mexican corn I had at the Eat Real Festival. See my post about the festival on EcoSalon.

I had some corn in the fridge that needed eating so I went out shopping for more food and inspiration. I walked into the fish store at Market Hall in Rockridge and I immediately thought, “Ceviché!” And there you have it: Mexican corn and ceviche on a hot night. Perfection.

For the Corn:
Boil, grill, or steam it. (I steamed because it was too hot to boil water and it’s both energy efficient and water saving, and I’d never light the grill just for corn)

Slather with thick, plain, Greek yogurt (for all those people that are freaked out by mayonnaise) Sprinkle with Mexican oregano, Aleppo pepper, and Parmesan cheese.

For the Ceviché:
3/4 pound halibut (I used two sea scallops for part of it, but you could use all halibut) cut into bite-sized pieces
Juice of 3 limes
Chopped cilantro to taste
One-half of an avocado, in bite-sized pieces
1 firm, tart plum, sliced thinly into wedges
One-half of a large jalapeno (or a whole small one) quartered, seeded, and diced
1 small shallot, sliced thinly
Salt
Pepper
Aleppo pepper to taste

Combine all the ingredients and refrigerate for about 45 minutes before serving.

Plums? you say? I don’t know where the plum idea came from. It just popped into my head. Too much Top Chef? Anyway, it worked, playing the same role as tomato would in ceviché. I freshly fried corn tortillas before serving and I’m telling you it was good. I have no idea why I don’t make ceviché more often.

For the Aleppo pepper in both recipes, you could substitute cayenne (be careful because it’s usually hotter) or some other mild, ground chile. I just really love Aleppo for its heat level and slight fruitiness.

Vittles for the Great Outdoors: Camping Food

What do you eat while you’re camping? Do you go easy and already prepared? Do you make up soups, stews, chilis ahead? Do you grill? Do you plan to the last detail or do you wing it?

Camping food is one of the best things about camping, in my opinion. A week or so ahead I’ll start playing with menus in the part of my brain that’s always set aside for food. I want variety. I want special things I don’t usually eat (like meat!) I want easy that doesn’t taste like easy. I want lots of flavor for little effort and as always, I want to eat in season, sustainable food from my local farmers’ market.

I understand the appeal of ready-to-eat foods, but cooking in the campsite is challenging and fun. The ability to make do with few utensils and pots and pans is like a puzzle for me. When it comes to dish doing time, I’m always amazed at how few dishes there are for such a fabulous meal. This trip was a little challenging because we found out about the fire restrictions when we arrived. Everything on the menu was cooked in one cast-iron pan and one small pot on our propane camp stove. The only things made ahead were the beans, yogurt, granola, salsa, curtido, and anchovy butter

Here’s a three-day menu:

Dinner # 1
Halibut tacos with Primavera tortillas, homemade cultured curtido, beans, homemade tomatillo-avocado salsa from Catalan Farm tomatillos, cilantro, and chilies, Lucero Farm sautéed okra and squash, radishes, and our own garden cucumbers.

Breakfast #1
Pancakes from Bob’s Red Mill Multigrain mix (pretty good!) maple syrup and bacon
Lunch #1
BLTs with Eduardo’s bread, bacon cooked that morning, River Dog Farm Tomatoes, homegrown lettuce
Dinner #2
Grassfed Hanger Steak from Highland Hills Farm, anchovy butter made from homemade cultured butter, corn on the cob, pan-fried potatoes, and salad

Breakfast #2
Toad in a Hole with Ludwig Avenue Farm Araucana Eggs and Full Belly Farm Melon
Lunch #2
PB & Js with Blossom Bluff peaches
Dinner #3
Let’s Be Frank Hot Dogs with Alvarado Street sprouted hot dog buns, homemade cultured curtido, beans, corn on the cob

Breakfast #2
Homemade yogurt and granola with Blossom Bluff peaches

What we got away from:

Where we ended up:

What we Ate:

Tacos minus tortillas and salsa

Toad in a hole

Fighting the yellow jackets

Steak dinner protected from vicious yellow jackets. We ended up eating in the car. Not an ideal situation.

Susan found these charming covers in a thrift store in Nevada City

 
Happy Dog. (photo by Susan Fleming). No! We didn't eat her.

Abalone Three Ways

It’s good to have friends who dive. Sometimes they’ll just show up at your house on a Sunday evening with beer and abalone. I haven’t had abalone in years. It is a very special food and on a Sunday a couple weeks back, the abalone showed up and I got to decide how to cook it with the stuff I had in the house.

We had:

1.    Southeast Asian Abalone Ceviche
2.    Pan-fried Abalone
3.    Poached Abalone

All that and the alliterative salad you see below and a variation on the caramelized rice dish from my new favorite cookbook, My Bombay Kitchen by Niloufer King and it really was a memorable meal.

Abalone season is over so you’ll have to file this advice away until April or so. That should give you plenty of time to cultivate a few diving friends. Sorry no pictures of all the dishes. We were too busy stuffing ourselves.

Salad: Persimmons, pomegranate seeds, and pumpkin seeds along with arugula and fennel.

Ceviche: Cut the pounded abalone into strips and add a little dressing of fish sauce, lime, chilies, cilantro, shallots, and a little bit of sugar. It sat for about an hour and became incredibly tender.

Panfried: Slice the abalone first and then pound. Dip each piece in flour seasoned lightly with salt and pepper and pan fry for just a minute or two on each side in a mixture of butter and olive oil.

Poached: (Pictured) Pound the abalone whole and then put it in a casserole dish just large enough to contain it with 1/2 cup-3/4 cup white wine, a splash of olive oil, a dab of butter, a couple slices lemon (with rind), 2-3 garlic cloves, peeled and sliced, and 2-3 sprigs parsley, and Salt and pepper. Bring to a boil on the stove, remove from heat, cover tightly and place in a 350 degree oven for 45 minutes or so. Check abalone for tenderness before serving.

This one was transformative. I had no idea poached abalone could be so good. It was also by far the easiest of the three dishes to prepare.

I got to keep a shell! Isn't it pretty?

How to Clean Sardines and Eat as if you live in Spain

My recent post on cleaning squid became so popular, it was picked up by CBS-5 and, for the first time, people that don’t actually know me started reading my blog. I guess there’s a call for that sort of thing, so now we’re going to learn how to clean sardines.

Those of you who know me (if you’re still reading!) know that I love sardines more than practically any other food. These were gorgeous. I picked them up at Monterey Fish Market last weekend with not a thought of what I’d end up doing with them. What I did with them tasted like Spain, if I do say so myself. And it was really my dining partner who said it. She should know. She’s eaten sardines in Spain. This was one of the best meals I have ever cooked and one of the simplest.

I’ll just say at the outset…if you were completely grossed out by the squid (and you and I both know who you are) you might not want to read any further. But, it’s a train wreck so I know you’ll look anyway. Here we go: Wheeee!

First you must behead them. Just grasp it and pull toward the back. Most of the guts will come out with it. Discard head and guts.

Grasp the top fin firmly and pull toward the back of the fish until the bone along the top comes out with it.

Run your fingers down the belly gently to open the fish all the way so it is flat.

Rinse well.

Gently lift the backbone up while sliding a finger underneath to make sure you don't remove any of the flesh with the bone.

Pull the bone sharply to remove it and the tail. You must grasp the fish firmly while you're doing this as the tail doesn't want to come off.

Your lean, clean, sardine.

This isn't necessary but I like to trim the edges a bit for a neater look. And this helps get rid of some tiny bones.

Ok, here we go again. You know sardines are good for dogs. Lots of Omega-3s.

Taking the bait.

This is one of our accompaniments. So simple! Green beans from the garden, corn, and tomatoes sauteed with onions in olive oil.

Grilled pimientos de Padron. Now these taste like Spain!

All I did with the fish was marinate it with pounded garlic, parsley, salt, olive oil, lemon juice, a tiny bit of cumin, and some Pimenton de Espelette from the French Basque side. You could use Spanish paprika as well. We grilled them and that was it. Smoky and delicious! Great with rose.

Photo Credits: Susan Fleming

How to Clean Fresh Squid &Thai-inspired Squid Salad

With more types of seafood becoming nearly extinct or too expensive to afford every day, I'm always looking for delicious, healthy, sustainable, affordable, preferably local seafood. Two of my favorites come from the Monterey Bay and fit all the requirements above: Sardines and squid. Unfortunately, both can be daunting to clean. I picked up 3/4 of a pound of nice looking fresh squid at the Berkeley Bowl for something like a buck-fifty. Can't beat that. Don't be tempted to get the already cleaned version. It's more expensive, it was processed in China and caught who knows where, and it won't taste as good.

The best written instructions I've ever seen for cleaning squid come from Andrea Nguyen's book, Into the Vietnamese Kitchen, a stellar book that I highly recommend. This is her method with photos to aid understanding.

Step by step instructions: Position a bowl in the sink below the cutting board.
Pull the head free of the body and get ready to cut the tentacles off just above the eyes.

Make the cut and pull the head and the guts that come with it out. Put the tentacles in a colander and the guts and ink in the bowl.

If you have a dog, she'll go googly eyed over the heads--waste note want not!

With the dull edge of the knife, scrape the squid so that the gunk inside falls into a bowl positioned under the cutting board. Do this several times to get as much gunk as possible and at the same time, scrape off the mottled skin so the squid is clean white. Turn the squid over and do both sides.

Here's what it will look like.

Reach inside the body and pull the bony quill out, making sure to get it all.
Place all the cleaned squid in the colander and rinse thoroughly, letting the water run through the bodies to remove any remaining sliminess.  Drain and cut the squid as your recipe directs.

This salad is a variation on one in Paul Johnson's excellent book, Fish Forever, for which I tested all the recipes. To prepare squid so it is tender, you either have to cook it for 30 seconds or something like 30 minutes. Anything in between produces tough rubber bands. To cook the squid for this salad, all you have to do is bring a large pot of water to a boil and add the cut squid. Once the water returns to a boil, turn the heat off and let sit for 30 seconds. Drain, rinse and immediately toss in a simple, spicy fish sauce-based dressing. Then you add whatever vegetables you're using. I used different ones than Paul's recipe-purple cabbage, lettuce, green onions, herbs, carrot, avocado, and served it over rice noodles. Easy peasy, healthy, no fat, and fantastic.

The Healthiest Breakfast on the Planet

Ok, I’m sure you could debate that, but you gotta admit, seaweed, wild salmon, soba noodles and broth beat out a lot of other typical options. We always eat fairly intelligently around here, but the cold weather makes us crave carbs. And however good the Marin Bagel Company Bagels may be, they are not the best way to start the day, if you want to stay awake and in fighting form.

This bowl of nourishment is really easy to throw together and it’s hot, which is important in these days of keeping the thermostat at 61 degrees. After you eat it, you’ll feel light on your feet and quick in your brain, and the fat and protein in the salmon will hold you until lunch. Most important, it tastes really good (As long as you don’t mind eating fish for breakfast). I’ve been into canned salmon lately for salads, pastas, and things like this. It’s really cheap, it’s wild caught (better for your body and the environment) and it’s surprisingly tasty. The brands vary a lot, but a good one will be moist and flaky. At the risk of sounding like a shameless shill for Whole Foods Market, their 365 brand of canned salmon stands out among the brands available.

Make a quick dashi broth with bonita flakes (directions on the package)
Add a few strands of wakame and boil until reconstituted
Add soba noodles and boil until tender
Turn off heat and add salmon
Garnish each serving with nori strips and Goma Shio
Eat

You can make a big batch of dashi broth ahead of time to have on hand.
You can add shredded cabbage, kim chee, sauerkraut, sprouts, avocado…pretty much anything you want to keep it interesting and varied.

Quick & Easy Sablefish with Meyer Lemon & Ajvar

Ok, the picture is terrible due to the absence of natural light this time of year at dinner time, but the fish was good. It was one of those nights when we’d picked up a piece of fish for dinner with no plan for it at all…Sunday night, something easy.

Sablefish is also known as black cod. It’s commonly found smoked and is also the classic fish used for miso-glazed fish. You don’t find many other recipes for it. It has big, tender flakes and a buttery texture. It’s affordable, easy to cook, and gets a “best” or “good” rating from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch(depending on where it’s caught)

Here’s how to make it:

Slice a Meyer lemon and toss it with a little olive oil and salt and roast at 400 until brown. Whisk together a couple teaspoons of lemon juice, a couple tablespoons of ajvar (Turkish red pepper spread) a little olive oil to thin it out. I happened to have the ajvar in the fridge, but you could use another type of red pepper spread, or an olive tapenade, or you whatever interesting condiment you have hidden on your refrigerator shelves. Slather the fish with that mixture and let it sit while you prepare the rest of the meal. (In this case, leftover rice sautéed with mushrooms, shallots, and a little saffron, and green chard sautéed with garlic and olive oil).

Chop 1 clove of garlic and mix it with a couple tablespoons chopped parsley and a couple tablespoons bread crumbs moistened with a little olive oil. Spread this over the fish and top with the lemon slices. Bake for about 5-8 minutes until the fish is cooked through and then blast it under the broiler for a few seconds. The lemons are delicious rind and all.