(no subject)

[mamadeb]

My brother-in-law the biologist is coming by for dinner tonight. He's an ecological vegetarian - he stopped eating meat entirely (he never was a major carnivore) after a cross-country trip through cattle country where he decided too much acreage was devoted to growing cattlefeed. This means that while he does eat fish, it has to be only certain fish. Kosher is a given - when he ate meat, it had to be kosher - but also, it has to be either wild or farmed in an ecologically correct fashion, and it can't be things like Chilean sea bass. Chilean sea bass, you see, grow extremely slowly and live for a very, very, very long time. When we eat them? They're about a century old.

I don't buy or eat sea bass anymore.

Fortunately, he does eat trout.

So, tonight's dinner will be bok choy, sauted with garlic and a dash of sesame oil, artichoke noodles (they just looked neat) with a bit of margarine, saute'd trout fillets and a green salad. Everything is ready to be cooked. I'm just waiting for both of them to show up, as this is a rather a la minute meal.

I'm debating what spices, if any, to put on the trout. I'm thinking of shwarma spices, or maybe cajun.

Comments

[kressel.livejournal.com]

Where do you buy spices like that? What are they called?

[estherchaya.livejournal.com]

There's an Israeli company, Pereg Gourmet, that packages all manner of spices, including a bunch of ready-made spice combinations like Schwarma, Falafel, American Hamburger, Cajun, etc. I'm sure you'll be able to find them if you know what you're looking for. They're short, squat, cube shaped containers... pretty large containers, really. If you can't find them anywhere, I could snail mail some.

[magid.livejournal.com]

They, or another brand, also have spices (and spice mixes) in plastic bags that might be easier to ship. (At least, there are a number of them in the local kosher store.)

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

The Cajun spice mix (which I eventually used) are Spice Time. I bought them in a supermarket. Most of the major spice brands have mixes like that.

The shwarma mix is an Israeli brand that comes in plastic pouches. I got them at a store called "Dagan" on Ave M. They also sell Israeli curries (better than some American brands), hwage and Israeli grill mix.

[kressel.livejournal.com]

Do you know if you can get any of these things in Landau's?

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

I haven't been there in over a year. It's certainly possible.

[estherchaya.livejournal.com]

Chilean sea bass, you see, grow extremely slowly and live for a very, very, very long time. When we eat them? They're about a century old.

Really? A century old? I had no idea.

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

You get interesting dinner conversation when you eat with a biologist/ecological vegetarian.

I'm just glad he eats trout.

[estherchaya.livejournal.com]

How big are they? Huge? Huh. Now I have to go look up patagonian toothfish.

[estherchaya.livejournal.com]

http://www.fao.org/documents/show_cdr.asp?url_file=/DOCREP/006/Y5261E/y5261e09.htm

Every source I've found says that Patagonian Toothfish (aka Chilean Sea Bass) are thought to live up to 50 years. So they are unlikely to be a century old when you eat them.

My understanding of the problem with chilean seabass was the overfishing/illegal fishing. And the fact that they're not an especially resilient fish in the first place, which makes their population unstable. They are, indeed, slow growers, which contributes to the instability of their population.

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

sounds very tasty ^^

[mamadeb.livejournal.com]

Was quite yum.