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Fish tales from NYC
Last year we received a grant from the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust - an amazing organization that offers individuals an opportunity to travel abroad to learn and share with others working in their field.
In our case, we were inspired by some of the first and finest community supported fishery initiatives happening in North America. So our travels took across the pond to start a trip that would take us up the west coast of the US from Los Angeles to Vancouver, Canada.
This August we completed our trip with a final mission to the east coast to meet with New York's first community supported fishery, founded by Sean Barrett. Meet Dock to Dish.
Based at the eastern tip of Long Island in Montauk, NY, Sean’s venture started out much like SoleShare, with a box scheme approach, connecting the region's small-scale fishermen directly with their community of members across Long Island. Today, Dock to Dish has grown into something with more far reaching impacts. In addition to providing fish for the community box scheme, Dock to Dish now supplies Manhattan’s finest restaurants - from Michael Anthony's The Gramercy Tavern to Chef Dan Barber's Blue Hill NYC & Stone Barns. With the help of these forward thinking chefs and their enthusiasm to take the plunge, Dock to Dish has set up the countries first Restaurant Supported Fishery, and New Yorkers are eating it up.
I joined Sean on his weekly route from Montauk's docks to Manhattan to get an inside look at their story, from dock to dish.
We started off from Montauk at 3am with a boot full of the days catch - golden tilefish, a local fish with some serious sustainability credentials.
When it comes to sustainability, Dock to Dish mean what they say. On evaluating the "sustainability" of specific species, Sean accounts not only for the species' stock status, but also considers habitat conservation, gear types and harvest methods. With the term 'sustainable' banded around a lot in the fish world, it was refreshing to see robust checks happening to ensure their fish really is the reel deal.
After delivering the day's catch to their restaurant members across Manhattan, we landed at Untitled, recent Dock to Dish member and brand new restaurant at the Whitney Museum of American Art. With chef Michael Anthony at the helm, I had a chance to see some behind the scenes action with the golden tilefish taking centre stage.
The day's catch were carefully unpacked & masterfully prepared by the restaurants own butcher. Today's special: Golden tilefish with corn, sweet peppers & curried squash. The kitchen staff could all tell you where the tilefish came from, the name of the fisherman who caught it and when it hit the dock. And it didn't stop there. Every single front of house staff member knew the tilefish's story too. And for every customer that walked through the door hungry for a fish dish, they'd soon come to know the where, who and how their fish landed on their plate.
With every fish dish that came out of that kitchen, a story came with it too. Hearing that story weave it's way from the sea to the city was a brilliant thing and showed that Sean's tireless efforts to maintain a genuine connection between the fishermen, the fish and the plate are getting through, loud and clear.
Here's to hearing more dock to dish stories this year, here and abroad! Massive thanks to Sean Barrett, Paul Farnham, Mike Anthony, Jenny Jones, Susanna Cupps, Trevor & Danny for making it a memorable trip!
Cooking with Mama Rosetta!
We had wild sea bass from Kent in the box this week, that beautiful fish with firm white flesh and silvery sheen and I was determined to do my fish justice. So it was perfect timing that one of my favourite Italians happened to be in town this week and offered to spend an afternoon in the kitchen showing me some of her Livornese cooking secrets.
Meet Rosetta, the gracious, loveable Italian mama you always wanted.
After the ceremonial greeting with kisses on both cheeks, forehead, both cheeks again, she took me by the hand into the kitchen, we donned our aprons and rolled up our sleeves.
We cooked the sea bass 2 ways. Spigola Arrosto (roast sea bass), a beautifully simple whole roasted fish with rosemary, garlic, lemon & olive oil (lots of it). And the other one went a little something like this...
Rosetta's Spigola alla Catalana (Catalan sea bass)
Ingredients
Sea bass x 2, scaled & gutted
Potatoes, thinly sliced (enough to make a bed for your fish)
Bunch of cherry tomatoes
A few sprigs of rosemary
4 cloves of garlic
Olive oil (be generous!)
Salt & freshly ground black pepper
1. Cover the bottom of a baking dish with very thinly sliced potatoes to create a bed for your fish. We cut each potato into quarters, then sliced each quarter into thin slices.
2. Scatter a bunch of halved cherry tomatoes over the potatoes, then douse with olive oil and lots of salt and pepper.
3. Place your scaled & gutted fish on top of the potato bed. Sprinkle a good bit of chopped garlic into each cavity, then lots of salt and freshly ground black pepper and a good glug of olive oil.
4. Stuff a cherry tomato and a sprig of rosemary into the gills, and another into the belly cavity.
5. Pronto! It's ready for the oven. Bake for a good 45 mins until the potatoes are nice and tender. I thought the fish might overcook for this length of time, but they were perfect. By cooking the fish whole and with the generous olive oil dousing, everything kept lovely and moist.
Rosetta served up the fish with a simple green salad and the most delicious buttery, cheesy sauteed brussel sprout dish I've ever had (turns out that one's a bit of a family secret).
Top tips I took away? Keep it simple, don't skimp on the olive oil and embrace cooking with the whole fish! If you do you'll get heaps more flavour and your fish will stay moist, delicious and just plain finger licking good.
Grazie Rosetta! And a massive thank you to our boys in Dungeness for braving the midnight seas and catching us these beauties.
Today's Catch!
We're just heading off to pick up today's catch from our fishermen Ken and Joe in Dungeness. They've caught seabass and herring for all our members today! Check out the recipes below for some cooking inspiration...
Thank you Spring.... Hello Summer!
We’ll it’s a wrap folks. Our spring season has come to a close, so we’d like to say a massive thank you to all our members who have joined us over the last 8 weeks.
The spring seas showed us what they were made of and we were thrilled to get our hands on a real range of delicious fish and seafood this season.
It seemed fitting that the SoleShare spring kicked off with sole taking centre stage. Our father and son team Ken and Joe in Kent blew us away with their first haul of the season with dover sole & lemon sole taking centre stage. It’s been a treat to be able to escape the city and take the trip down to Dungeness this spring in time to greet their boat and fishy bounty. We’re glad to be able to support this fishing family, one that’s been fishing the Kent coast for generations. Here’s to you boys!
Our fisherman Martin, who’s been with us since day one, continued to blow our minds with his catch over the course of the season too. On days when Martin was fishing for us, we’d get a call as he was pulling in the nets to tell us what he’d caught, and then at breakneck speed he’d have landed his catch, loaded the fish onto ice and before we knew it, he’d be pulling into London with his catch in tow, just in time for our members. We’re talking dock to dish in a matter of hours. Someone say spanking fresh? We’ve never seen such glowing gurnard, radiant mackerel and brilliantly spotted plaice before.
So over the last 8 weeks, with the combined forces of Ken, Joe, Martin and a final feisty delivery of live brown crab from our fisherman Kev in Cornwall, here’s all the fishy goodness that landed on our tables this spring:
Dover sole, lemon sole, plaice, gurnard, dab, huss, brill, cod, pouting, seabass, grey mullet, skate, whiting, brown crab, cuttlefish, garfish & the mighty mackerel.
Was brill to hear from our members each week about what became of their fishy shares once they'd reached the table, so cheers to all our members for making the most of your catch and turning out some spectacular dishes. We'll keep the recipes coming!
So what’s in store for the summer season you say?
Mackerel, sardines and herring will begin heading into the shallow warmer waters off our coast which means they’ll be within close reach of our inshore fishermen. So we’re likely to see more of these omega-3 rich beauties finding their way onto our member’s plates. With the warmer months ahead seabass are also a more likely catch, as are crab, bream, cuttlefish, skate, sole, pollock, garfish, mullet and no doubt there will be more weird and wonderful fishy surprises finding their way into our fishermen’s nets.
We hope you'll join us for our summer season which kicks off on the 21st of May with pick-ups on Wednesdays at Hackney City Farm, Thursdays at Mother Earth Shop (Newington Green) and Saturdays at The Towpath Café (on the Regents canal, De Beauvoir).
If you'd like to get on board, signup deadline is 19th May. Head to our signup page to get started and we hope to sea you soon!