Fish, Shellfish, Andsome Exotic Animals

AMONG the pleasures awaiting persons who have concentrated too long on meat, few will surpass the discovery of fish and shellfish. And the best of it is that you can eat all of it you want without fear of obesity or cholesterol if you exercise a little restraint and admit that fish need not swim in fat-rich sauces. Nearly everyone in the British Isles lives within a hundred miles of the sea so that there is no reason why they should not get as much fresh fish as they want.

Fish Preservation And Cookery

Mankind has been busy since time immemorial learning how to preserve fish, and the result is a wonderful spectrum of flavours and consistencies. What can be a better preparation for dinner than canapes of pickled herring and smoked salmon? Sardines and anchovies and smoked fish and shellfish - eel, cockles, potted shrimps, and oysters - are sure ways to stimulate a jaded palate, and their high flavour lends zest to many dishes, especially Italian pasta - ravioli, spaghetti, macaroni. Finnan haddock and "smokies" form the basis of filling main dishes. Norwegian "fish pudding" and Boston codfish cakes are two of many ways to use dried or salted cod. Kippers and other smoked fish for breakfast are a treat too few of those who stick slavishly to bacon and eggs use.

Fish change far more quickly in storage than do meats or fowl. The trout you catch yourself in a day's fishing and eat the same evening do not merely taste better because you have an outdoor appetite; they are better. In Copenhagen the waiters at the harbour restaurants bring in trays of live, flopping plaice for you to make your choice for lunch, and when you eat it you will wish that this quaint custom were practical at home. In Paris many restaurants maintain little aquaria so you may select the particular blue cap whose grace in swimming most suggests the succulence you are shortly to enjoy. In Hong Kong you can go to a floating restaurant on Repulse Bay and select your dinner from the flashing forms in the live wells moored alongside; this alone is worth a trip to the Far East. In the Orient, screw up your courage and try the sashimi, the raw, yes we said raw, fish in Japan. Many Western visitors, including the authors, agree with the Japanese that it is delicious but are surprised that it does not taste fishy. Actually, truly fresh fish have little fishy taste or smell. Sashimi of sea fish is perfectly safe but you must never eat raw fresh-water fish.

Andre Simon in his Concise Encyclopaedia of Gastronomy lists 350 varieties of edible fishes, but this is probably only a small fraction of all the fishes that are good to eat. Restaurants often ignore zoological nomenclature and any one of a dozen kinds of fish may be sold to you as "sole". But never mind, most of them are good and the main question is how best to cook them.

Fish cookery is not difficult but it takes attention to timing. It is easy to overcook fish and when, in addition, it sits around after cooking before you eat it, the result will make you weep, once you know how good it can be. It will not do to fry or grill the fish and then start calling the family to dinner. If the fish cannot go straight to the eater as soon as it is done, bake it or put it in a casserole. Salted or smoked fish is less sensitive to over-cooking.

Fish sauces may be a difficult art at the highest level of gastronomy, but that does not mean you must be content with only a slice of lemon or a dollop of mayonnaise. Some of the classic sauces for fish - Normande, Marguery, Maitre d'Hotel butter, and those made with Béchamel sauce as a base contain more saturated fat than we like, but many good sauces are available. The modern art of sauce making is only beginning to escape the tyranny of butter and egg yolks so the list is not long, but other sauces only await your ingenuity to invent them. As a hint about the latter, many fish dishes take kindly to the following flavours: shallots, chives, parsley, anchovy paste, capers, ginger, white wine, vinegar, and, of course, lemon.

Brillat-Savarin in The Physiology of Taste, says that fish "suits almost every temperament, and may be allowed even to invalids". Correct, but we can now spell out three major reasons why fish is of special merit. First, fish contains only about half of the calories of an equal weight of beef or pork - so you may "eat hearty". Second, fish provides excellent proteins at high concentration. For example, 100 calories of haddock or sardines provide about 12 grammes of first-class protein, while with the same calories in mince you get only half as much protein. Finally, not only are fish generally low in fat; such fat as they contain does not raise the blood cholesterol level like meat and dairy fats.

Generally the flesh of fat fish is darker than that of low fat fish but this is not a universal rule. Eels are about the fattest of fish, but among the varieties of fatter fish more commonly eaten salmon, herring, and the many members of the mackerel family range from around 8 to 16 per cent fat by weight of the edible portion. Cod is less than 1 per cent fat.

Shellfish What we have said about fish goes double for shellfish. Shellfish provide more satisfaction with fewer calories than almost any other food. The protein of shellfish is easily digested and episodes of "upset tummy" after eating lobster or crab are usually the fault of the rich sauces that too often conceal the true flavour of the shellfish and the off taste of beginning spoilage.

Shellfish are even more sensitive to spoilage than true fish. Long before real spoilage sets in there is a loss of delicate flavours that cannot be compensated by any fancy sauce.

A few people are allergic to crabs, shrimp, or lobsters. If you have any doubt, try a small portion without sauce. If you do not break out in hives or have other symptoms, you can look forward to many treats in the future.

In times past there was some risk of typhoid from eating oysters. This danger is gone now from almost all places where oysters are farmed in England, in the United States and in northern Europe, but it is well to be careful about all raw shellfish in other parts of the world. Besides typhoid, less serious but very painful intestinal distress is a threat in such places, and your typhoid injections will not protect you from this.

All over the world the blue-black shells of mussels glisten on rocks and piers at low tide. On open sea-coasts and in harbours with strong tidal action and no sewers near-by they are perfectly safe, except at certain times on the North Sea coast and off California when, though themselves healthy, they become violently poisonous. So gather mussels if you will, but on the North Sea coast first get advice from the local health authorities. Mussels are recommended as a treat if there is assurance about hygiene in their handling.

Physical beauty is no clue to the safety and gastronomic quality of fish or shellfish. The uninitiated may shudder at the thought of eating octopus or squid, but both are excellent foods. Try them at a good Italian or Spanish restaurant when the opportunity occurs, and then decide whether to seek them out for your own cookery. The sea is full of good things to eat, but we must admit they sometimes come in strange shapes and colours.

Less Common "Meats" Frogs and snails are not shellfish but both are negligible in calories and fats. Frogs can be prepared in many ways without recourse to a bath in saturated fatty acids, but snails are more of a problem. The classic French method is to cook them in the shell which also holds half a teaspoonful of butter ! Try a little oil and garlic instead.

You may one day have an opportunity to try the gusanos de maguey of Mexico. These delightful morsels are ideal for hors-d'oeuvre even though they are the grubworms of the maguey plant. If this bothers you, learn about the home life of the pig and reflect about the clean vegetarian gusano. Unfortunately, gusanos are served almost exclusively in the French-fried form or sautéed in butter, and you know what that means.

At the opposite pole in size is the whale, which is not a fish; it is a mammal like the cow, of course. But we mention whale meat here because it is unusual if not exotic. Anyway, it provides good, rather coarse dark meat which is very low in fat, and such fat as it contains is probably not fully saturated.