Seafood Feast

I love seafood, a lot, and that I have access to two amazing fish markets on Arthur Ave tops the list of reasons why I love this place. The variety and freshness of the fish is awesome so at any chance I have to get my hands on stuff I have never had or cannot get anywhere else I jump at it. This manifested itself into me getting three types of seafood the other night; an old classic, a never tried newbie, and a current hard to find favorite. Clams, sea snails, and mackerel, respectively.

For the clams I shucked them then did my own take on clams casino topping them with guanciale (cured pork jowl), heirloom tomatoes, Portugese hot peppers, olive oil, home made breadcrumbs, and Korean garlic. Really good just some were really spicy from the pepper.

On to the snails I was not really sure what to do with them. I had only cooked snails once before. In the form of canned escargots that I cooked in puffed pastry. From that experience and the one other time I had snails, at Les Halles, I learned that three things go really good with them; butter, garlic, and parsley. So I busted out the clarified butter, cut up a ton of garlic and parsley and just let them sauté until they looked done. I got a little freaked when a few minutes into cooking them the kitchen smelled horribly like low tide. But that subsided, turns out one was muddy inside, thankfully it just smelled bad and didn’t affect the taste of the others which tasted really good they were just a pain in the ass to eat. I attempted to stab the meat out of the shells with toothpicks which failed about one in three tries just jamming the meat further into the shells and making it impossible to get out. Very messy and a lot of work so something I will not be getting again.

For the mackerel I went pretty basic. Just flouring it and pan searing it. For the rice which I put it over though I cooked it in homemade chicken stock with some paprika for color. Mackerel is currently my favorite fish. Mostly because of its dark oil flesh but also because of the circumstances of how I first had it while abroad in Ireland.