Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Frozen Fish Help Global Warming

KUOW news ran a story today about the pros of buying and selling Frozen at Sea Salmon.
A lot of local Washingtonians would rather buy local salmon than support out of state fishermen. However, most of the King salmon and silvers that go straight to our restaurants come out of Alaska. The Pike Place market in Seattle, WA provides fresh and frozen salmon all from Alaska.

Did you know that fishing is already a low emissions industry? Greenhouse gases matter to us! When you account for Salmon being flown to its next destination instead of shipped by boat, the carbon emissions increase. Alaska Air is the only airlines coming out of Alaska. They promise lower emissions. They are using a newer fleet of airplanes in order to decrease their emissions while delivering their services.

Freshly caught, not frozen and shipped salmon, is what we would call in the industry "ice fish". It is more likely to perish and so it has to be sent by plane immediately to keep the product fresh. This makes the "fresh" cost more to our environment, another reason to buy Frozen at Sea Salmon. Iced fish are caught the same way as FAS fish and immediately thrown into a fish hold being packed with ice. They can be eaten right away and are served in restaurants all over the world.

Helene York with Bon Apetit Management supports FAS salmon and their low carbon emissions. At first they were skeptical about the quality of the fish being previously frozen. However the chefs have tried high quality FAS salmon and are convinced that it is an amazing product. The freshness is frozen in at the time the fish is caught and it makes for a wonderful product and in the long run that will last a lot longer.

To see the transcript of this story go to KUOW's website.
Do you agree with the points made in this article? Or do you have another opinion to share here? Leave us a comment.

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

And we are back!

Sorry about the delay everyone! It has been a crazy two weeks. Transitioning jobs and such means less time for blogging and sharing with you all. Now that we are back and we are entering into the holiday season where stress is bound to increase and people will start spending more time in the mall or in front of their computers buying things for family members.

I am going to share some recipes that you can replace those traditional Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners with. These are healthier than the average dinner because guess what, the core ingredient is Salmon!

First of all, if you are going to cook fish you need to start by buying it as fresh as possible. If it was previously frozen salmon, then your chances of great flavor increase. However, if the store has already thawed this fish for you, make sure you are not going to freeze it again. It also may be a good idea to buy a frozen chunk of salmon and thaw it yourself.

Here's a recipe that looks really good and simple to make. Salmon is easy to bake, you just have to treat it with a little bit of care. You should always make sure that you have some moisture in the pan. Salmon is easy to dry out fast.

Soy Glazed Salmon with Watercress Salad

This recipe is straight from Martha Stewart

Ingredients: (some of this is from the salad part)
2 tablespoons soy sauce
4 teaspoons honey
2 oranges, peeled cut into segments and juice squeezed
coarse salt and ground pepper
1 teaspoon rice vinegar
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
4 salmon fillets (approx. 6 ounces)
1 bunch watercress (3/4 pound) trim thick ends
1/2 small red onion

Directions:
  • In a small bowl, whisk together soy sauce, 3 teaspoons honey and orange juice; add salt and pepper. In a bigger bowl whisk 1 teaspoon glaze, 1 teaspoon honey, vinegar and oil and set aside.
  • Heat broiler, with rack 4 inches from heat. Line baking sheet with foil. Add salt and pepper to Salmon and broil for 5 minutes. Remove from oven, brush with glaze and then broil until opaque throughout, around 2 minutes, brushing with glaze once more.
  • Add orange segments, watercress and onion to dressing and toss to combine. Add salt and pepper.
This recipe is said to take about 20 minutes to prepare. I would pour the glaze over the salmon before hand and allow it to soak up the flavor before putting it in the oven. It makes the salmon more moist and brings out more flavor. As for the Watercress salad, this is a very healthy alternative to anything you may find on a Thanksgiving table.