Zester Daily

Daniel Pauly, marine biologist at the University of British Columbia, says we’re close to harvesting the last wild fish from the sea. If we do, we’ll have no choice but to eat farmed fish. Figuring out how to farm sustainably without bringing unbearable pressure on wild stock seems like a wise course. Perhaps we should save wild fish for special occasions, as we do wild meat, and the rest of the time eat what’s farmed by viable methods.

A good half of all seafood consumed by Americans comes from aquaculture of some kind — shrimp, oysters, branzino, Arctic char, and of course, Atlantic salmon. Seventy-five percent of the world’s fisheries are either fully fished or overfished, says the Monterey Bay Aquarium. It’s time to face up to the need to farm fish sustainably.

A lesson in how to do that is dramatically present in Chile’s far south where I was a guest recently of SOTA, Salmon of the Americas, an organization that promotes Chilean salmon aquaculture. The southern third of that long nation is a coastline of spectacularly indented fjords and islands washed by deep, chilly waters surging up from Antarctica. This nutrient-rich environment is prime salmon-raising territory, as ideal as the coasts of Norway or the lochs of northwest Scotland. Although not native to the Pacific, Atlantic salmon thrive on Chile’s clean cold water and strong currents.

Chile’s salmon saga

Salmon farming is relatively new in Chile, but in just a couple of decades the country surged to second place in salmon production, rivaling only Norway. Then, in 2007, a calamitous epidemic of Infectious Salmon Anemia (ISA) broke out, decimating farms and threatening Chile’s industry with complete collapse. By 2009, production had dropped by almost 60%, and Wal-Mart, a major buyer, turned to Norwegian suppliers. Chilean processors closed their doors, fish farms shut down and thousands of workers lost their jobs.

Such a scenario was predictable, observers said. Chile had become an international scandal, notorious throughout the tightly knit world of salmon aquaculture for crowded cages, polluted waters and abundant use of antibiotics and pesticides, including those banned by the United States and other countries. In 2005, the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) censured Chilean salmon operations. But producers were on a financial roll. “In the middle of a party, it’s difficult to communicate that something’s not right,” says Adolfo Avial, an industry consultant who sounded an early warning. “They didn’t want to see the problem.”

I was expecting the worst as I headed south from Santiago, Chile’s capital. I’ve visited salmon farms in the past, in Maine (a state that vaunts rigid environmental regulations for fish farming) and in Scotland’s extreme northwest. In both places I was impressed by the concern for environmental issues. Salmon farmers on both sides of the Atlantic have adopted more sustainable practices, combating disease through inoculation rather than medication, strengthening barriers between farms and the open ocean, and cutting back radically on the amount of wild fish necessary to provide meal and oil for salmon diets.

How Chile’s industry came back from the brink

What I found in Chile was an incredible story of the rebirth of a moribund industry. If it took disaster to bring Chilean salmon producers to their senses, the remarkable part of the story is the rapid recovery. On my weeklong visit to areas around Puerto Montt, I followed the salmon cycle, from the hatchery where eggs spawn, through the developing smolt stage, to sea cages and finally, two years after spawning, to the plant where mature fish are processed, filleted, thoroughly deboned, sometimes smoked and then flown to Miami where fish arrive within 18 hours.

Salmon quality, whether live fish leaping in cages or glistening rosy fillets on assembly lines, was impressive, as were the biosecurity measures employed. Everywhere, our group donned protective gear similar to that worn by plant workers, stepping through sanitizing pools, sometimes not daring to breathe to protect the atmosphere. This striking reform distinguishes Chile from more relaxed standards I’ve seen elsewhere. Other reforms were less visible: cage density, for instance, is reduced from 23 kilos per square meter to less than 14 kilos, so fish mortality has dropped from 15% to 0.2% per month, and growth rate has improved. Another important change: Fish are no longer transferred from cage to cage, mixing up different year classes and making it impossible to trace problems back to their source. Just as with humans, this kind of promiscuity is infectious.

ISA, which researchers compare to human influenza — omnipresent but seldom infectious — is no longer virulent in Chile in part because of biosecurity, and also because fish eggs, a suspected disease vector, are no longer imported, and the fish are inoculated against ISA and other diseases.

The end result is a bigger and better industry providing consumers with a product that is not just safe and inexpensive, but also delicious. The driving financial impetus, in other words, is product quality, and here Chile is clearly a leader. The salmon I saw and tasted was first-rate. If this keeps up, Chile’s salmon revival is guaranteed.

And if we fish-lovers hold the wild catch for truly special occasions, we’ll be a step closer to saving our oceans as well.

Chilean Salmon Fillets With Almond-Caper Sauce

Makes 6 to 8 servings

Ingredients

1 head garlic

4 boneless fillets (about 8 ounces each) of Chilean salmon

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

¼ cup extra virgin olive oil (Chilean, if available)

¾ cup dry white wine, preferably a Chilean viognier or sauvignon blanc

1 small onion, chopped

1/2 cup toasted almonds, chopped

4 tablespoons salt-packed capers, well rinsed and dried

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F.

2. Separate the individual cloves of garlic but do not peel them. Set the cloves on a baking sheet and roast for 15 minutes.

3. Sprinkle the fish fillets on both sides with salt and pepper.

4. Use a little of the oil to grease an ovenproof baking dish, then arrange the fish steaks side by side in the dish and pour the wine and remaining olive oil over them. Cover the dish and transfer to the oven to bake for 20 minutes.

5. Meanwhile, peel the garlic and chop the cloves. Combine the chopped garlic with the almonds and the onion in the bowl of a food processor. Add 3 tablespoons of the capers and pulse briefly, just to crush the ingredients and mix well — but do not make a paste.

6. When the salmon is done, remove the fish from the baking dish and keep warm on a platter. Bring the broth left in the baking dish to a boil, then reduce heat to low. Stir in the almond paste and simmer until the sauce is thick. Top the fish with the sauce and garnish with the remaining capers.

Photo: Chilean salmon. Credit: Nancy Harmon Jenkins

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Late last week, California Gov. Jerry Brown signed AB376, a bill that outlaws the sale and posession of shark fins within the state. “Some shark populations have declined by more than 90 percent,” he said at the time, “portending grave threats to our environment and commercial fishing industries.” He signed the bill, he said, “in the interests of future generations.” Brown also signed a companion bill, AB853, that would give suppliers and restaurants another 18 months to exhaust their existing stock of shark fins, meaning that, practically speaking, AB376 will not go into effect until July 2013.

But that doesn’t mean the shark fin debate is closed. The 400-year-old “Compendium of Materia Medica,” one of the most respected manuals of Chinese traditional medicine, claims shark fins “can nourish the five organs [heart, liver, spleen, lungs and kidneys], increase kidney function, and are good both as a tonic and as an appetite stimulant.” The tradition continues. Chinese cookbook author Eileen Yin-Fei Lo claims that shark fins benefit the complexion as well. That, she says, “is why the Chinese regard the shark fin so highly.”

Not everyone concurs. Noted Harvard nutritionist Lilian Cheung, co-author with Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh of “Savor: Mindful Eating, Mindful Life,” says traditional medicine should be reevaluated. “I respect some of the claims,” she explains, “but it’s just like anything else with Chinese medicine: it’s sort of passed down through the centuries. We need to look at that together with the new scientific paradigm and see where they converge. It’s a good source of protein, there’s no question about it. But protein is something that Americans are not deficient in.”

Protein, water and ash

According to a recent report from the United Nations’ Food and Agricultural Organization, 97.5 percent of a dried shark fin is protein for the most part, with a bit of water; ash is the third-highest component at 2.2 percent. The rest of the fin consists of small amounts of fat, calcium, iron and phosphorus. Cheung laughs when asked about the nutritional value of shark fins. “From a nutritionist’s standpoint,” she says, “I don’t think it’s a good value! Nowadays, they are so expensive, and you’re not getting high quality.”

Chen Cunren, the late authority on Chinese cuisine and traditional medicine, wrote about shark fins and their nutritional value in his newspaper columns, which were collected under the title “Jinjin youwei tan” or “Talks on Eating With Gusto.” Chen pointed to a Shanghai study that found shark fins to be a concentrated source of protein, but he nonetheless promoted vegetarianism. “Eating shark fins every day is very detrimental to the digestive system,” he concluded, because they are so hard to assimilate.

Mercury counteracts potential benefits

Shark expert John McCosker of the California Academy of Sciences has often been asked whether shark fins are beneficial. “Absolutely not!” he says. “A bowl of vegetable soup is good for your health, but a bowl of shark fin soup can increase one’s impotence! It’s ironic, but consuming all of those toxins and that much mercury is bad for you.”

Does that mean that the benefits of eating shark fin soup don’t outweigh its potential harmful effects? “No one to my knowledge has been able to demonstrate any health value of consuming the soup,” McCosker says.

Large predatory ocean fish are likely to be high in mercury, McCosker says. But it’s almost impossible to measure the quantity. According to Peter Knights, the co-director of the conservation organization WildAid, “the only advice on mercury is the same pretty much for any fish: The lower down the food chain, the safer you are.”

Chinese consumers are becoming more aware of the dangers. A report on the Chinese-language television station KTSF in San Francisco’s Bay Area last May said pregnant women should avoid shark fin altogether because of the mercury. The amount of protein in dried shark fin is roughly the same, ounce for ounce, as that in dried egg whites.

The bottom line: Despite Chinese tradition, contemporary thought suggests that consuming shark meat and fins can be dangerous — and in California, Hawaii, Oregon and Washington — illegal too.

Zester Daily contributor Carolyn J. Phillips is a Chinese food wonk and illustrator who has a cookbook to be published by McSweeney’s in 2014. In addition to Zester Daily, you can find her on her blog and as @MadameHuang on Twitter; her food writing can be found in places as  disparate as Lucky Peach and Pork Memoirs.

Illustration credit: Carolyn J. Phillips

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California’s Senate passed a bill Sept. 6 by a vote of 25 to 9 to enact a full ban on the trade of shark fins in the state. If Gov. Jerry Brown signs the bill into law, the ban would  take effect in 2013.

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As was explained in my previous Zester article on mock shark fin soup, the proponents of Assembly Bill 376 (which passed in the Assembly in May on a 65-8 vote) appeared to have a reasonable argument: Since California is one of the largest markets for shark fins outside of Asia and is a main conduit for their distribution throughout the United States, this bill would reduce much of the pressure on what are being reported as rapidly diminishing shark populations all over the world.

Call to outlaw shark fishing, not just finning

However, not everyone sees it that way. Opponents of the bill, almost to a person, made an astounding argument that was rarely commented on during the debate running up to the vote: They would rather see shark fishing completely outlawed than allow Chinese-Americans, the main consumers of shark fins in California, to be demonized. Yes, outlawed. People such as State Sen. Ted Liu (D-Torrance); Pius Lee, the co-chair of the San Francisco Chinatown Neighborhood Association; and Cantonese Chef Kam Wo Au of the Kitchen in Millbrae, Calif., seemed to be agreeing to the impossible. “I would support just not killing sharks,” said Liu, “but if you’re going to kill a shark for a steak or for wallets, then I think you should use the same shark for soup.” And that was the main stance of just about everyone against the bill. As Au pointed out, “If no sharks can be caught, and you can’t eat them and you can’t sell them, I think this is more fair.”

Shark fin soup is Cantonese ‘heritage’

As for who is eating these California shark fins, Assemblyman Paul Fong (D-Sunnyvale) has a simple answer: Chinese-Americans who order shark fin soup. “I just know that my only opposition are the Cantonese … My people — I’m Cantonese too! The old-time Cantonese are the ones that are raising their voices, crying out ‘discrimination.’”

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Fong is referring to opponents such as state Sen. Leland Yee (D-San Francisco), who thinks supporters of this bill “are trying to limit our heritage and our culture” by forbidding Chinese-Americans this traditional delicacy. Fong strongly disagrees: “It’s my culture too,” he says with a laugh. “You know, I’m Chinese-American too. I was born in China. I’m proud of the Chinese culture. The Chinese culture will survive without shark fin soup.”

The opposition to this bill centers on Lee and the business interests he represents, which according to the AB 376 bill analysis is a narrowly focused group of Chinese dried goods importers such as Chung Chou City and Stockton Seafood Center, and the Asian Nutrition and Health Association, a collective of Chinese product importers. Lee believes that AB 376 was not necessary because “the majority of shark fin is imported from other states, such as Florida and New York,” and so local fishermen, processors, importers, restaurateurs and diners should not be penalized.

Fear that shark fishing ban might lead to poaching

On the other side are the conservationists and scientists who realize that this wouldn’t work in reality. World-renowned shark expert John McCosker explained: “The attitude of conservationists and biologists is, [a complete ban] won’t work … if there’s any opportunity for illegal poaching, it will occur because the value of [the fins] is too much.”

As the chair of the California Academy of Sciences’ department of aquatic biology, McCosker has a ready answer for why Chinese-American consumers should not be allowed to remove the fins of sharks killed for sport or by commercial fishermen: “There’s no enforcement mechanism that can control it, so I don’t think that that’s possible.”

Peter Knights, executive director of WildAid, an international group intent on ending illegal wildlife trade, points out that “a small scale meat fishery in California is sustainable. There’s no big incentive there to cheat or take extra numbers or expand the catch. But if you put the fins in, there is. The fins are the most valuable part, and are driving the unsustainable fisheries of sharks around the world.”

Knights, who is working with Richard Branson and basketball star Yao Ming to publicize the shark fin dilemma in China and elsewhere, went on to add that “there isn’t a need to ban all shark fishing. I think recreational fishing is pretty well regulated within California, and I think that the commercial fisheries are sufficiently small scale at this point. They don’t pose a threat to shark populations, and they don’t impact shark populations beyond California waters. They are being governed by the Fish and Game Commission, so there is a venue if that becomes a problem, to address that. What there isn’t a venue for right now is anything to do with the shark fin trade, and that is what AB 376 is very specifically designed to do.”

Now that California appears to be banning shark fins for good, where will conservationists focus next? “New York,” says Knights, “would be the obvious next step.”

Zester Daily contributor Carolyn J. Phillips is a Chinese food wonk and illustrator who has a cookbook to be published by McSweeney’s in 2014. In addition to Zester Daily, you can find her on her blog and as @MadameHuang on Twitter; her food writing can be found in places as  disparate as Lucky Peach and Pork Memoirs.

Photo: Dried shark fin for sale. Credit: Carolyn J. Phillips

Slide show credits:

Photos of Assemblyman Paul Fong, John McCosker, Sen. Ted Lieu and Pius Lee by J.H. Huang

Photo of jarred shark fins by Carolyn J. Phillips

Photo of Peter Knights courtesy of WildAid

It’s hard to get worked up over the plight of sharks. I admit it. They’re not as majestic as elephants, but they are disappearing faster than most of us realize. And just like the tusks of the elephant, only one part of the shark has any real value — its fins. The rest of the body is dumped back into the ocean as just another piece of garbage.

China’s shark fin soup is the culprit. The sad fact is that as China’s population has become more and more wealthy, its demand for shark fins has skyrocketed, directly resulting in the plummeting shark populations. The International Union for Conservation of Nature stated recently that a sixth of the world’s shark species are at high or very high rate of extinction, and as Jake Tilson noted last year on Zester, “Up to 73 million sharks are caught annually, many just for their fins.”

Ban on shark fin in the works

A pending California state bill would ban the sale, consumption or trade of shark fins, giving shark populations the opportunity to recover. Pulitzer Prize-winning food writer Jonathan Gold said it most succinctly not too long ago in the L. A. Times: “There is no third way with shark’s fin — we either stop eating it because we choose to preserve the species, or we stop eating it because soon there will be none left to eat.”

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There’s still a chance that the tide will change, for this traditional Chinese ingredient is starting to lose its cachet, even among the Chinese themselves. Prominent celebrities such as basketball star Yao Ming and movie star Jackie Chan have become vocal about their support for the movement. This in turn is leading conscientious diners on both sides of the Pacific to protest rampant overfishing and the cruel practice of “shark finning,” where only the fins are lopped off live sharks before they are dumped back into the sea to either drown or be eaten alive.

A taste for the gelatinous

This all prompts the question, what is it about shark fin soup that is so appealing to the Chinese palate? The answer is simple: its gelatinous quality. Many of China’s exotic ingredients are savored for their texture rather than flavor. Sea cucumbers, deer tendons, swallow’s nest, jellyfish … in and of themselves have little or no flavor. But what they do have is a gentle chewiness that is loved by the Chinese almost as much as Americans adore anything crunchy.

Shark fin soup started in the southern province of Guangdong, where dried seafood has played an important part in the cuisine for centuries. Then, in the latter half of the 19th century, Beijing’s diners were gifted with a delicious influx of spectacular Cantonese dishes, courtesy of an imperial official and poet from Guangdong named Tan Zongjun, whose famous banquets rivaled any in the capital.

Tan had given his chef, Cao Jincheng, one directive: Make the best cuisine that anyone has ever tasted in the capital city. The results, which came to be known as Tan Family Cuisine, or Tanjiacai, were legendary, combining the most refined dishes of Guangdong with the familiar flavors of Beijing. Invariably elegant and richly sauced, Tan Family Cuisine soon became one of the great branches of Beijing’s culinary arts. More than 100 recipes make up this delectable Beijing-style cooking, the most famous of which are seafood dishes. Of these, the greatest are those that highlight shark fins.

Shark fin texture with a conscience

Fortunately, we can still dine like the Tans without endangering sharks; vegetarian shark fin is a remarkable substitute. Available frozen in 1-pound bags, the labels tend to translate the main ingredient for this alternative as gelatin, but my guess is that it is actually a combination of seaweed or agar-agar and starch, since veggie shark fin can be simmered without melting. As with the real deal, it is flavorless and provides a fragile gelatinous texture. (Some recipes suggest using cellophane noodles — also called mung bean noodles or fensi — in place of the mock shark fin, but they soften too quickly and turn gluey.)

This new version of the soup, which I’ve developed from the Tan original blueprint, concentrates on providing the same traditional delicate flavors, but punctuated with ersatz shark fin to satisfy that inimitable Chinese passion for texture. Here, as in Chef Cao’s original creation, everything but the stock ends up flying below your sensory radar — the dried scallops are practically undetectable in the final dish, providing only the barest suggestion that this soup is also about the sea. The green onions and ginger hover in the background, and the small piece of Chinese ham lends just a faint smoky saltiness.

Seek out a package of vegetarian shark fin in your Chinese grocer’s freezer and prepare a large tureen of a soup so good that it would have pleased even Tan Zongjun. And give the ocean’s sharks an opportunity to live another day.

(Carolyn J. Phillips’ most recent article, on Sichuan cuisine, includes a recipe for Sichuan wontons with red chili oil.)

Mock Shark Fin Soup, Tan Family Style

黃燜素魚翅 Huangmen suyuchi

Serves 6 to 8 as part of a multi-course meal

Ingredients

Directions

1. Place the dried scallops in a heat-proof bowl and cover them with warm tap water. As soon as they have plumped up, use a paring knife to trim off any tough fibers or debris.
2. Rinse the ham and trim off the skin. Cut a quarter of the ham against the grain into paper thin slices and then into a fine, even mince for your garnish. Chop the rest of the ham into about 6 pieces for the stock.
3. Rinse the chicken breast and duck carcass, removing any organs or big pieces of fat, and trim as needed. Place the poultry in a stock pot and cover with cool tap water. Bring the water to a boil and simmer about a minute to remove any impurities, and then dump into a colander in the sink. Rinse the chicken and duck under cool tap water, being sure to wash off any scum.
4. Return the chicken and duck to the rinsed out stock pot, cover with about 16 cups of filtered water, and add the scallops, ham chunks, ginger and green onions. Bring to a full boil, lower the heat to a gentle simmer, and cook the soup uncovered for about 3 hours to get every bit of flavor from the chicken parts. The liquid should be reduced to about 8 cups and the bones should have completely broken down at this point.
5. While the stock is cooking, prepare the poached meat garnishes by placing the chicken breast and duck leg in a small saucepan and covering them with water by at least 2 inches. Bring the water to a boil, and then dump it out and rinse off the chicken and duck.
6. Rinse the pan, return chicken and duck to it and add filtered water to cover. Bring to a boil again, cover, turn off the heat, and let the chicken and duck poach undisturbed for about 15 minutes. Check the meat by piercing with a chopstick; the juices should run clear.
7. Strain the cooking liquid into the stock pot.
8. When the chicken and duck pieces are cool enough to handle, remove and discard the skin and bones, and shred the meat with your hands into long strips.
9. Place the minced ham in a heatproof bowl and steam for about 5 minutes; discard any juices. Taste, and if it is overtly salty, rinse the ham with boiling water. Drain in a small, fine sieve, and taste again; repeat as necessary.
10. Place a large, fine sieve over a large (3- or 4-quart) saucepan and pour the stock into a covered 2-quart casserole, preferably a ceramic one with an unglazed exterior that the Chinese called a “sandpot” (shaguo). Use a heavy spoon to press all the juices from the solids before discarding them. You should have a nice bit of yellow chicken fat floating on the top, which is quite delicious, but most of it may be skimmed off if you must.
11. Defrost the vegetarian shark fin by placing the package in a large bowl and covering it with hot water, adding more hot water as necessary. When it has completely defrosted, pour the contents into a sieve (don’t use a colander, as the holes are too big), and rinse under cool tap water. Drain well.
12. Add the drained vegetarian shark fin to the stock in the casserole or sandpot and bring to a boil. Lower the heat to a simmer and slowly cook uncovered for about 20 to 30 minutes so that it absorbs these flavors and plumps up a bit.
13. Gently stir in the shredded chicken and duck to heat through.
14. Sprinkle the minced ham on top and serve at once, either in a tureen or in delicate soup bowls. This soup is best when eaten immediately while the vegetarian shark fin is still firm and the flavors are perfectly balanced.

Notes:

Vegetarian shark fin (suyuchi) can be found in the frozen section of some Chinese grocery stores. It is usually sold in 1-pound bricks. Keep it frozen until needed and defrost it either by placing it in a cool area on the counter overnight or by soaking the unopened package in hot water. Open the package into a sieve in the sink and work the pieces apart under warm tap water. Drain thoroughly before using.

Dried scallops (ganbei) are best found at a Chinese herbalist’s or a specialty dried goods store, although some Chinese grocers will keep them behind the counter with other expensive goods like dried ginseng root. When using them to flavor stock, go for the cheaper small ones, which are just as tasty as the large ones. The dried scallops should have a slight “give” to them when pressed and should have a fresh scent of the sea. Keep dried scallops in a jar in a cool, dark place.

Chinese ham (Jinhua huotui) is a dried, pressed ham that is as often used as a seasoning as a main ingredient; brined or canned ham should not be used as substitutes, although country ham or Smithfield ham can be excellent. These hams are generally sold as slices in Chinese grocery stores with the bone and skin attached. Select a piece that is free of mold, is a nice rose color, feels slightly soft and not at all sticky when you press it, smells fresh and smoky, and has the smallest ratio of bone to meat; if you find any black mold on the skin, just scrape it off. Keep the ham completely dry and refrigerated in an air-tight bag; it will keep well for weeks this way. Just cut off the amount you wish to use and rinse it carefully under tap water, pat dry with a paper towel, and trim off any bones or skin; these can be tossed in soups for a wonderful boost of flavor.

Shaoxing rice wine (Shaoxing jiu or huangjiu) is a specialty of the eastern Chinese province of Zhejiang. Sometimes spelled Shao-hsing, this rice wine has a lovely aroma reminiscent of sherry and dried mushrooms. The best quality wine is not needed except for drinking, but neither should you go for the cheap “cooking” wine; something in the $3 to $5 range is usually good. Store the rice wine in a cool, dark place where it will keep pretty much indefinitely.

Zester Daily contributor Carolyn J. Phillips is a Chinese food wonk and illustrator who has a cookbook to be published by McSweeney’s in 2014. In addition to Zester Daily, you can find her on her blog and as @MadameHuang on Twitter; her food writing can be found in places as  disparate as Lucky Peach and Pork Memoirs.

Photo: Vegetarian shark fin soup. Credit: Carolyn J. Phillips

Slide show credit: Carolyn J. Phillips

Every year, from January until April, a particular kind of fish comes — briefly — into season. This is skrei, the Norwegian Arctic cod, which sets off in massive shoals from the icy Barents Sea in the Arctic Circle, headed for the waters around the Lofoten archipelago off the coast of Norway. The name of this winter wandering cod is derived, appropriately, from the Norse word for a “walker” or “wanderer.”

The arrival of the mature fish, which migrate southward to spawn, is greeted with jubilation by the north Norwegian fishermen and their customers. Once strictly a local delicacy, skrei is now found at top tables all over Europe. I recently heard one Spanish chef describe it as “the pata negra of the cod kingdom,” referring to the prized jamón ibérico. The flesh is pearly white and unbelievably succulent, with bold, firm flakes.

Until a couple of weeks ago, I was a skrei virgin. Then everything changed with a visit to chef Jean-Philippe Guggenbuhl’s restaurant La Taverne Alsacienne in Ingersheim near Colmar, Alsace. Just a taste of Guggenbuhl’s skrei with a citrus crust and orange butter sauce and I was hooked. Chef Guggenbuhl discovered this fine fish some 10 years ago; now he serves it up every year at his restaurant. “I put it on my menu as a special every January till the beginning of April,” he says. “People know about it now, they look out for it.”

Before you round up a lynching party and set off for the Taverne Alsacienne to stage a boycott à la Legal Seafoods, it’s important to realize that there’s cod, and there’s cod. Overfishing of Atlantic cod is a hot topic. The Norwegian Arctic cod from the Barents Sea is another story. Here, the fisheries have been strictly regulated since 1816 when the first regulations governing skrei fishing off the Lofoten Islands were put into place. Today’s regulations cover the type of boat permitted, the size and type of nets, even the time of day fishing may start. Thanks to these measures, Arctic cod stocks are so robust that the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) actually increased the recommended permitted skrei catch from 577,500 metric tons in 2010 to 703,000 in 2011.

As Karin Olsen of the Norwegian Seafood Export Council explained: “There are several different cod populations in the world, but unfortunately they are often mentioned just as ‘cod’ in the media. Therefore there is a big confusion around the question of whether cod is sustainable or not.” Invoking the careful, fruitful measures that have been taken for almost two centuries to conserve Norway Arctic cod stocks, she adds, “You can serve your skrei with good conscience.”

Guggenbuhl delights in the annual skrei season, buying the whole fish (average weight 4 to 6 kilos, or 8 to 12 pounds) from his supplier in Strasbourg and preparing the fillets in the restaurant kitchen. He loves its firm, snowy white flesh, and the fact that it’s slightly cheaper than the generally less interesting (and endangered) regular cod. This allows him to offer his fine dish at a competitive 23 Euros. And with a clear conscience.

Jean-Philippe Guggenbuhl’s
Skreï de Norvège en Croûte d’agrumes Au Beurre d’oranges

(Arctic Cod With a Citrus Crust and Orange Butter Sauce)

Serves 6

Ingredients

For the citrus crust:

For the orange butter sauce:

For the fish:

Directions

For the citrus crust:

1. Take very thin slices of zest off the lemon using a potato peeler.
2. Boil a small pan of water and blanch the zests briefly.
3. Drain zests, repeat the process four more times, then chop the zest very finely.
4. Put the cubes of butter, finely chopped zest, breadcrumbs, grapefruit juice and orange juice in a food processor and process till well mixed.
5. Scoop the citrus butter out of the food processor onto a sheet of baking parchment, cover with a second sheet of parchment.
6. With a rolling pin, pat and roll out the citrus butter between the sheets of parchment to a large square about 1/8 inch thick – about the thickness of pie crust.
7. Refrigerate citrus crust (or freeze – goes faster) till quite firm.

For the orange butter sauce:

1. Make a caramel with the sugar and water.
2. Deglaze the pan with the orange juice and let it cook down to a syrupy consistency.
3. Pull the pan off the heat and beat in the cold butter bit by bit, as if making a beurre blanc, until it emulsifies and thickens.
4. Season to taste with salt and white pepper.
5. Keep the sauce warm – it will hold for about half an hour.

For the fish:

1. Season the fish on both sides with salt and white pepper.
2. Heat 1 tablespoon of oil and a small square of butter in a frying pan until sizzling.
3. Fry the fish till just done, about 2 to 3 minutes each side, depending on thickness.
4. Lift fish pieces onto a lightly oiled baking sheet that will fit under your grill (broiler).
5. Heat the grill (broiler) to maximum.
6. Cut the chilled citrus crust in squares to fit exactly on top of the fish pieces.
7. Lay a square of citrus crust on top of each piece of fish and give them a fierce blast under the grill/broiler until the crust is lightly golden and bubbly.
8. Serve with the orange butter sauce and vegetables in season.

Sue Style is the author of nine books, and writes on food, wine and travel from her base in Alsace. Her most recent articles have appeared in FT Weekend, Decanter and on her website www.suestyle.com.

Photos from top:

Jean-Philippe Guggenbuhl’s Skrei de Norvège en croûte d’agrumes au beurre d’orange. Credit: Thierry Meyer

Norwegian Arctic Cod. Credit: Frederike Arndt, © Norwegian Seafood Export Council

January’s controversial “blacklisted fish” dinner at Legal Sea Foods in Boston did not turn out as planned. But it did turn out roaringly well, especially for those who wanted to argue there’s a lot more to “sustainable seafood” than just the fish. Billed in advance as a standoff between champions of sustainability and a very successful seafood restaurant chain, the event turned into a full-fledged teach-in about the sustainability not only of the fish, but also of the dwindling numbers of New England fishermen, several of whom were in attendance at the dinner. The bloggers who had been attacking Roger Berkowitz, president and CEO of the 30-unit Legal Sea Foods chain in the weeks leading up to the dinner sat meekly at their places, twittering away.

Cuddling the mic as he welcomed guests at the “blacklisted fish” dinner, Berkowitz joked that he usually introduces himself as “Hi, I’m Roger and I sell fish,” but recently he’s been tempted to introduce himself as “Roger Berkowitz, Lightning Rod.”

Originally intended as a pleasant winter outing for the members of the Culinary Guild of New England, the private dinner morphed into a media moment when Berkowitz cheekily chose to use it as a forum to present his views on the popular “watch lists” that millions of concerned diners and chefs use to decide which seafood to eat and which to enjoy. On the dinner menu: Atlantic cod cheeks with spaghetti squash and prosciutto-wrapped hake.

Questioning the sustainable list

For several years, Berkowitz has been vocal about his view that the assessment of the health and sustainability of New England fishing stocks is vastly under-represented by the data used by both the U.S. Commerce Department and by the non-governmental organization environmental watchdogs such as Pew Charitable Trusts and Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch program.

At a Culinary Institute of America event in Hyde Park, N.Y., a few years ago, Berkowitz fumed when an eminent chef told him that Atlantic cod was not sustainable seafood. Berkowitz asked the chef, “Why do you say that?” The chef responded by pulling his Seafood Watch card out of his wallet. “See,” he said pointing, “It says so here!”

Berkowitz asserts that the watch lists depend on misinformation, that the highly restrictive National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s catch allocations to local fishermen are based on flawed data that is not substantiated by high-tech sonar fish-finding techniques used by contemporary fishermen and do not take into account different catch methods. As a result, Berkowitz argues the fishing limits do not reflect the true health of the seafood population within the 200-mile limit surrounding Georges Bank and elsewhere along the New England seacoast.

Berkowitz calls the relationship between the fishermen and the NGOs and the government asymmetrical. “The well-intentioned environmental groups are very well-funded and the fishermen have no one to speak up for them. It’s too tightly regulated for the fishing industry to survive,” he said.

Richie Canastra, a fisherman from New Bedford, Mass., railed against the well-funded efforts of sustainable-fish-list proponents and the fines from regulators who make it increasingly difficult for “a guy in his boat” to make a living.

An accurate count?

A heated political controversy is playing out in New England. On one side are Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke, NOAA administrator Jane Lubchenco and several environmental NGOs. On the other are Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, members of the Massachusetts congressional delegation and local New England fishermen. At issue is who accurately measures the supply of the fish. Does NOAA more accurately measure the supply of fish in the sea using its decades-old techniques, or are the fishermen and scientists who use four-dimensional sonar more accurate? Is the government setting catch limits that appropriately account for the differences in catch method, in habitat (for example, sandy bottom versus rocky) and size of nets (are the openings small enough to catch juveniles). Are the fishermen, who are assigned catch limits that equal 25 percent of the allowable annual supply, being capriciously penalized for exceeding these limits by as little as 1 pound of fish.

There’s even a “trawlgate” scandal where NOAA’s cables got entangled and three years of false assessments were reported and used as inputs to catch allocations. At the blacklist fish dinner, several professional fishermen were up in arms. “There was proof that [NOAA] was wrong for three years running and they still refused to change the catch allocations,” one shouted from his seat.

Fight over enforcement continues

Recently, the Commerce Department denied the request by Northeast lawmakers who lobbied to freeze sanctions and allow local fishermen accused of breaking the law to have their cases reviewed. This denial came even as an inspector general appointed by Secretary Locke to review the fishermen’s claims against the NOAA found financial mismanagement, abusive treatment of fishermen, and the use of high-pressure tactics used to force fishermen to settle their claims.

This month, Gov. Patrick sent a letter of protest to President Barack Obama, saying, “Our fishing communities face severe challenges, and are currently suffering great hardship, as a result of well intended but often ill-conceived and poorly executed efforts by federal regulators to constrain the fishing harvest and rebuild our fish stocks. Over the last decade, the Northeast groundfish fleet has been reduced by nearly 60 percent, and this decline shows no sign of ending. The small fisherman is in danger of disappearing altogether, and with him would go a way of life.” The governor adds his voice to the chorus of people who think the federal government and the sustainability lobby have fishermen over a barrel. Newly released Agriculture Department dietary guidelines encourage all Americans to eat two or more seafood meals per week. From where will the seafood supply come if fishing industries like New England’s are decimated? Who will catch the fish?

Berkowitz says he was pleasantly surprised by the dinner.

“It was a respectful crowd, intent on learning more. People walked in with preconceived notions about the fish and the fishermen, and I think we helped them understand how important the new science is and how restricted the fishermen are today.

“Believe me, fishermen are the people most invested in making sure that fish stocks are sustainable. Fishing is the only life they know. I scratch my head and wonder how all of them will survive.”

Zester Daily contributor Louisa Kasdon is a Boston-based food writer, former restaurant owner and founder of letstalkaboutfood.com. She is a columnist for the Boston Phoenix, the food editor for Stuff Magazine and has contributed to Fortune, MORE, Cooking Light, the Boston Globe, Boston Magazine and the Christian Science Monitor, among others.

Photo: Roger Berkowitz. Credit: Legal Sea Foods.

On a grey London day, a small fleet of fishing boats chugs up the River Thames toward Westminster, the seat of Britain’s parliament. Sounding horns and waving banners encourage people to JOIN THE FISH FIGHT. On the lead ship is celebrity chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall who is well known to British TV audiences for his “real food” campaigns and for the River Cottage series, in which he shows how to live off the land. He’s holding up a huge dead cod as he shakes his head. “Around 50 percent of all fresh fish being caught in the North Sea are being thrown back into the water, dead, and that’s an unsustainable, shocking waste,” the likable 46-year-old explains.

To illustrate his frustration about British and other European fishing practices, Fearnley-Whittingstall has made three TV programs called “Hugh’s Fish Fight.” They’re part of British Channel 4′s Big Fish Fight series, made with a clutch of other high-profile U.K. chefs, including Jamie Oliver, Gordon Ramsay and Heston Blumenthal. (You can watch them online for the next few weeks).

In his shows, Fearnley-Whittingstall questions the moral, environmental and economic price of current fishing policy. Each episode covers a different aspect of the dilemma, from the plight of tuna, to whether fish farming really is sustainable (it takes three kilos of wild fish to produce one kilo of farmed salmon), to “discards” or “by-catch” from trawling. Fearnley-Whittingstall’s high visibility brings these arguments into the prime-time living rooms of a large, non-specialized audience of more than 2.3 million viewers and is a valuable contribution to the fight that’s long been waged by Greenpeace, Slow Fish and other environmental organizations.

Discards are a particularly distressing issue. They refer to the waste of over 1 million tonnes (about 1.1 million U.S. tons) per year of perfectly good fish that fishermen are forced to dump back into the sea in order to abide by European fishing laws.

Here’s how it works: Every fishing boat, depending on its size and location, is allotted an annual quota, limiting the amount of each species it is permitted to catch. The idea behind this is, in part, to prevent over-fishing of certain species. So far, so good. Out at sea, however, this bureaucratic solution can cause problems. If a ship reaches its full annual quota of, say, cod in eight months, for the last four months of the year it will be obliged to throw back any cod it catches. The trawlers’ nets are not able to be selective as they scoop up large quantities of mixed fish. Each haul is sorted on board, and fish that exceed the quotas must be thrown back. They are, by this time, dead. So, thousands of metric tons of edible fish end up on the bottom of the sea to be eaten by crabs.

Fearnley-Whittingstall is no stranger to this sort of activism: His 2008 “Chicken Out!” series, also on Channel 4, helped raise awareness about the devastating conditions of battery hens, and persuaded some supermarkets to use more free-range chickens and eggs.

Reactions to the shows have been positive. To date, more than 540,000 people have signed a petition calling for an end to the discards (add your name to it on the Fish Fight site). Tesco, one of Britain’s largest retailers, announced a switch to selective, pole-and-line caught tuna for its private label canned tuna. The company previously used tuna caught in vast purse seine nets which can also trap porpoise, turtles and shark.

Another practical idea has been supported by chefs Oliver and Blumenthal. Britons are crazy for cod. But if they can be encouraged to broaden their tastes to include mackerel for their fish and chips, or easy-to-prepare coley or mussels for their dinners, then some of that demand for cod will be spread to other, more abundantly available fish. Oliver’s super-easy recipes can and should inspire everyone to cook a greater range of seafood.

Carla Capalbo is an award-winning food, wine and travel writer, as well as a photographer, based in Italy for more than 20 years. She writes regularly for magazines and newspapers, including Decanter, BBC Olive, The Independent, World of Fine Wine, Bon Appétit, Departures, Food & Wine. She is a long-time member of Slow Food, the Guild of Food Writers and the Circle of Wine Writers and has won Italy’s Luigi Veronelli prize for best foreign food writer. Her articles have been included in anthologies Best Food Writing 2011 and How the British Fell in Love with Food. Carla is a co-organizer of Cook it Raw, an itinerant think tank featuring top international chefs. In 2006, she and designer Robert Myers were awarded a gold medal at the London Chelsea Flower Show for the Costiera dei Fiori garden she produced for the Campania region.

Carla was born in New York City to a theatrical family and brought up in Paris and London. After getting a degree in art history, she made sculpture in London, wrote about design, and later worked in Manhattan as a food and interiors stylist for photography, for clients that included the New York Times. She moved to Italy in 1989 and worked as the Milan correspondent for Vogue Décoration before writing her first cookbooks on Italian food. Her spirit of adventure led her to undertake three personal and detailed guides to the food and wine culture of Italy. The first was The Food and Wine Lover’s Companion to Tuscany which took three years to research and write (Chronicle Books, 1998, shortlisted for Food Book of the Year by the Guild of Food Writers).
Naples book
It was followed by another three-year project: The Food and Wine Guide to Naples and Campania (Pallas Athene, 2005) which was illustrated with her photos. To write it, Carla lived in fishing villages and mountain communities in diverse parts of the large region to meet and write about the many restaurants and small food artisans of Campania. Her most recent book, Collio: Fine Wines and Foods from Italy’s North-east (Pallas Athene, 2009-10) is also richly illustrated; it won the coveted André Simon Award for Best Wine Book 2009. Her other books include Cheeses of the Amalfi Coast and The Ultimate Italian Cookbook. Carla divides her time between Italy, Bordeaux, London and further afield. When she has time, she leads food and wine tours in Italy and France.

Her travelog, Assaggi, has just begun on her newly launched website: www.carlacapalbo.com.

Photos from top:

Chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall with by-catch.
Fearnley-Whittingstall with discarded fish he took from the sea on ice.
Credits: Channel 4

As a New Orleans chef committed to preserving my region’s unique and robust food culture, I am eager for a complete recovery of the Gulf’s magnificent fishery in the wake of the BP oil spill. Yet I see it under pressure from something potentially even more damaging than BP’s millions of gallons of rogue oil: an ongoing panic over the safety of Gulf seafood.

Let me be clear: I am as concerned about contamination as anyone — especially since my livelihood depends on our surrounding foodshed. But state and federal officials are monitoring the waters and will close any fishing grounds that show signs of contamination. So far, 96 percent of federal waters have been declared safe and reopened to fishing. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration also just announced the results of an extensive study, which tested 1,735 samples of fish, oysters, crabs and shrimp. Only 13 showed even trace amounts — still far below any safety threshold — of residue from the chemicals used to disperse the oil. I wouldn’t be serving Gulf seafood at my restaurant — nor would I be eating it, which I am — if I weren’t completely confident it was safe.

Gulf fishermen need consumers’ support

Yet media reports suggest some consumers are avoiding these products. Harlon Pearce, chairman of the Louisiana Seafood Promotion and Marketing Board, recently told the Wall Street Journal that grocery stores and restaurants around the U.S. have canceled orders. Cliff R. Hall, a fish supplier, told the Associated Press that national demand is down 50 to 75 percent. This adds bitter insult to the injury inflicted by the Deepwater Horizon disaster.

The BP oil spill was a devastating, manmade environmental disaster, among the worst in U.S. history. But food consumers will compound the spill’s damage if they don’t support the Gulf’s fishermen. If the individual fishers, shrimpers and oystermen — with generations of experience and expertise — are forced out of business, a centuries-old food tradition will perish. Reviving it will be next to impossible. This will be a loss not only to the Gulf communities, but also to the whole country.

Since the opening of Cochon in 2006, we have emphasized Gulf seafood on our menu. That hasn’t changed. I believe chefs like me have a responsibility to strengthen our regional food systems by supporting local farmers who are growing food responsibly, by purchasing meat from conscientious producers and by buying seafood that is sustainably harvested. At this moment, that ethos calls for serving safe, delicious, domestic, Louisiana Gulf shrimp, crabs, oysters and fish purchased from people whose way of life is endangered.

Gulf seafood isn’t just safe, it’s delicious

While the BP oil well has been killed, the Gulf’s future, both environmentally and economically, is uncertain. Though offshore waters have been deemed safe for fishing, vast swaths of our coastline are still undergoing cleanup. The way Louisianans carry on also will serve to either preserve or bury traditional ways of life here. If we want to continue the traditional fishing and aquaculture that has long characterized Louisiana coastal living, we must work to save our coastline.

I urge consumers and my peers in the restaurant industry nationwide to remember that Gulf seafood isn’t just safe — it’s delicious. Participating in events and supporting organizations focused on fishermen and the oil spill recovery are a place to start. But eating and serving seafood from the Gulf of Mexico is the only way to save a truly American way of life. Let’s not allow fear to magnify the financial hit the Gulf has already sustained. Together, we can ensure a vibrant future for healthy fisheries in the Gulf — and for one of our nation’s most vital and beloved foodways.

Stephen Stryjewski is the chef/partner of Cochon restaurant in New Orleans and board member of Chefs Collaborative, one of the founding voices steering the conversation in the local, sustainable food movement.