Recently, I had the chance to attend the last in a series of sustainable seafood dinners at National Aquarium of Baltimore. This time the guest Chef was John Shields, and the sustainable meal of the night was sustainable trout.
Before this dinner my concept and perception of sustainability was always embedded in “the local movement.” You know the whole deal where you support your local businesses and farms within a 150 miles of where you live. The one where you are reducing your carbon footprint by buying things locally made, instead of products shipped in from all over the place? It’s all the rage these days. That’s what I always threw into my definition of sustainability…..
I certainly had an eye opener that night. For the first time the concept of Sustainability and Local were separated from each other in my mind. In other words, you can have local that is not sustainable and vice versa. Like local business that are adding pollution to the water- not sustainable. But a trout farm in North Carolina where they make sure that they have environmental practices and grow fish native to America – well that is sustainable.
I also learned that night, that when it comes to the seafood world, one tends to look for sustainable fish to the entire country, not just a region or state. This makes a lot of sense, seeing only two sides of America have large bodies of water. And that when one is having a sustainable seafood trout dinner, you are looking for the trout to be sustainable and not the other ingredients in the meal like coconut, and plantains. I also learned that one can serve sustainable wines that are not local, but sustainable in their production, and still suite their purpose of having a sustainable dinner.
As you can tell I was very bewildered that night, and left with a lot to think about. But enough of my enlightenments and personal philosophical debates; let’s get on to the actual food!
The night started out with a “Cocktail Moment” (instead of hour), that included local cheeses from Chapel Country Creamery, Firefly Farms and Meadow Creek Farms. (See local and sustainable!) There were also a few wines to sample that were all produced by sustainable vineyards in either Washington State or Italy .
We were then all seated to witness a cooking demonstration by Chef John Shields. Chef John showed us how to make the main dish we would be eating that night and included his thoughts on how sustainability is very important in the seafood industry. Since bodies of water are suffering drastically and change needs to happen immediately, it really needs to be made as public as possible.
He prepared for us a trout dish, which came from a farm in North Carolina (I’m still waiting to hear back on the farm name, and will let you know once I have that detail.) Chef John proceeded to show us how to make “Miss Lillian’s Trout – The Haitian Way.” We were also provided a recipe for the dish, to which I will include at the end of this article. We were also informed that Chef John had worked very closely with Classic Catering to create the menu and prepare our meal for the night.
After the presentation had ended, and all of us completely hungry from the smell of food, we started on our first course. There was a Barbecue Trout Slider with apple fennel coleslaw, a Rainbow Trout Sweet Corn and Red Bell Pepper Fritter with an apple chutney aioli and a Smoke Trout Mousse Pate’ on seeded flat bread with dill crème fraiche. In essence, the menu consisted of a sustainable trout threesome.
My favorite of the three was the fritter and after looking past a few bones, the dish in whole was a complete success. This proved that one can be versatile in serving seafood dishes. I also enjoyed the inclusion of in season apples which brought sweetness to two of the three items.
We then proceeded onto the main course that was Miss Lillian’s Haitian-Style Trout Fillet and Wild American Shrimp (from the local and popular Marvesta Farm) bathed in citrus, tomato, and cilantro sauce, and served with toasted coconut Caribbean rice and plantains. I personally like spice in my food, and quite enjoyed the tropical taste of the trout mingling with the sweet coconut flavored rice. We were even rewarded with a full sized shrimp with head and legs still on. This is something that I am quite accustomed to, but surprisingly find out that not everyone has witnessed a shrimp with its head still on prior to eating it. If you have never seen that display than I really encourage you to do so, shrimp are quite funny looking creatures and typically either bring out a “gross” or an “oh cool!” response from children, which always makes me smile.
For dessert we ended the night with a Bourbon Chocolate Mud Cake with berries and mint crème anglaise. We were also provided with a recipe for this dish to which I will also include at the end of the article. The dessert was also accompanied with the option of Decaffeinated Zeke’s Coffee or Mighty Leaf Organic Teas. Of course I went with Zeke’s coffee as it is one of my favorite local coffees. The chocolate cake was well complimented with the mint crème and was the perfect portion to end the meal.
Throughout our meal a few representatives from the Aquarium got and spoke on the importance of sustainability. It is great to see that the Aquarium staff are becoming forerunners on educating the public on sustainable seafood and sustainable fishing practices. We were also provided with little wallet inserts of a reference of sustainable items for sushi, and other items to avoid. Those in attendance were also encourage to check out www.seafoodwatch.org which is a valuable reference for anyone to use in recommendations on what seafood items to eat in regards to sustainability.
Overall the night was a grand success, and I left learning many new things about sustainability as it pertains to our fish and waterways.
Here are also the two recipes I mentioned earlier. Both are from John Shields.
Miss Lillian’s Trout (The Haitian Way)
Ingredients:
6 oz trout fillets
2 medium limes
3 TB chopped parsley
4 TB butter
4 TB olive oil
1 small onion finely chopped
1 TB minced garlic
1 small red bell pepper finely chopped
1 small hot chili pepper finely chopped
3 tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped
¾ cup orange juice
Salt and pepper to taste
Lime wedges and parsley for garnish.
Instructions:
Wash the fillets with cold water mixed with the juice of one lime. Pat dry and place the trout on a plate. Squeeze the juice of the second lime over the fillets and sprinkle with chopped parsley and lightly salt. Set aside.
In a sauté’ pan large enough to hold all the filet's, melt the butter and add the olive oil. Sauté the onion, garlic, red bell pepper and chili over medium hear until the vegetables begin to soften. Add the tomatoes and orange juice and season with salt and pepper.
Bring the sauce to a boil, and add the fillets and ½ cup water. Reduce the heat to medium and continue to simmer gently for about 10 minutes, or until fish begins to flake.
Carefully remove the fillets and place on a warmed dinner plate. Spoon the sauce from the pan over each serving and garnish with chopped parsley and lime wedges. Serve with steamed white or jasmine rice.
Bourbon Chocolate Mudd Cake:
Ingredients:
1 ¾ cup brewed coffee
¼ cup bourbon whiskey
5 oz unsweetened chocolate
½ lb butter cut into pieces
2 cups sugar
2 cups flour
1 ½ Tp baking soda
1/8 Tp salt
2 eggs lightly beaten
1 Tp vanilla extract
Instructions:
Preheat the oven to 275 degrees. Grease and flour a 9x2 inch round cake pan.
Combine the coffee, bourbon and chocolate in a saucepan and cook over low heat, stirring constantly until the chocolate is completely melted. Whisk in the butter, a little at a time, until all of it is melted. Remove from heat and transfer to a large bowl. Beat in the sugar.
Sift the flour, soda and salt in separate bowl. Add the sifted ingredients into the coffee and chocolate mixture. Beat well for a minute. Add the egg and vanilla and beat until the batter is smooth. Do not over beat. Pour the batter into the prepared pan.
Bake for about 1 ½ hours or until a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. Let the cake cool in the pan for 30 minutes, and the turn out on a rack. When it’s cool transfer to a plate and dust lightly with powdered sugar before serving.
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