Good Fish_ Sustainable Seafood Recipes From the Pacific Coast - Becky Selengut [29]
Without cleaning the skillet, add the onions and salt, and cook over medium-high heat, scraping up any stuck-on bits. Cook until the onions are lightly browned, about 5 minutes. Deglaze the pan with the white wine, clam juice, and apple juice. Add the pepper and lemon thyme. Bring the sauce to a boil and reduce by half, about 5 minutes. Remove the skillet from the heat, then swirl in the butter, tarragon, and cayenne. Taste and check for seasoning.
Serve each person a quarter of the crabmeat, placing it in the center of a warm plate. Place an apple slice (caramelized side up) to one side, leaning on the pile of crabmeat. Drizzle the sauce over the crab and apple, and garnish with some reserved bacon pieces and one piece of the reserved leg meat. Finish with a sprinkle of Maldon sea salt.
PAIRING: A Savennières, such as Château Pierre-Bise 2007, Loire Valley, France, or an Alsatian pinot gris.
shrimp
When I was just a wee lass, I had a thing bad for shrimp cocktail. This habit started when I was 6 or so—an age that required me to kneel on my seat at my family’s favorite local restaurant to reach the shrimp that perched on the sides of a soda fountain glass. I remember how cold and frosty that glass was; how the ice cupped a thimbleful of cocktail sauce in the middle; how five plump shrimp fanned out from the center like the orange-pink petals of a rare flower.
I feel wistful about those cheap and easy shrimp cocktails, those family meals that seemed to be devoid of the modern conversations about food that are fairly commonplace today. Being an ethical eater sometimes gives me an adult-size headache and a penchant for sounding like an old fogie who starts sentences with, “Remember when . . . ?” I no longer eat shrimp in the numbers I used to. I’ve learned to anticipate—with joy—the seasons for food.
Thirty-some-odd years later, with the feeling of the wooden chair on my knees and the smell of lemon still etched in my nasal passages, I find myself at the docks in Anacortes, Washington, where I happen upon some live spot prawns being sold off a local boat. The sun is shining and the striped and spotted orange prawns are lookers, stunning against the blue sky. I hang my legs over the side of the dock and twist off the shrimp heads, thanking each one for its life. My excitement builds as I plan a menu—I’m thinking some cocktail sauce, a lemon, a tall frosty glass, some crushed ice. Yes, that feels about right.
WHAT MAKES THIS A GOOD CHOICE: Pacific Coast shrimp, generally speaking, are well managed, sustainable, and abundant. Shrimp grow very fast, produce many young in their short life spans, and have catch limits set by fishery managers. Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch lists Oregon pink shrimp and B.C. spot prawns as “Best Choices,” and the Oregon pink shrimp fishery is certified sustainable according to the Marine Stewardship Council.
BY ANY OTHER NAME: Pink shrimp (Pandalus jordani) are the tiny guys, no bigger than your thumbnail. They are also marketed as Oregon pink shrimp or cocktail shrimp, and are sometimes called bay shrimp, ocean shrimp, or salad shrimp. Spot prawns (Pandalus platyceros) are sometimes called spot shrimp, sonamed for the distinctive white spots on the prawns’ abdomens. There are two very similar species of shrimp—called sidestripe (Pandalopsis dispar) and coon-stripe (Pandalus hypsinotis)—that are often caught along with spot prawns and sometimes marketed erroneously under that name. All, regardless of name, are considered sustainable.
SEASON: Pink shrimp are in season from April through October in Oregon and Washington, but they most often come to market cooked, peeled, and frozen. Spot prawns are in season in the spring and summer in British Columbia, and can