Fish Fry Wisconsin Cont.

They Write E-Mails

I got this advice from chicagostylehotdog on some Wisconsin fish fries

In your hunt for a close Wisconsin fish fry, I suggest Beer Belly's on Layton in Milwaukee. Great pan fried perch & blue gill. Wegner's St. Martin's Inn does a nice Friday night fish fry too. If you're headed up north into Vilas County, Birch Lake Resort on County W in Winchester, just north of Manitowish Waters, serves a nice family style Friday fish fry.

Good luck!

Eat Local Now - Day 2 of the Localvore Challenge

Local Fish

Are you satisfied so far with your eating options after a day of Localvore Challenge? Are tomatoes boring you yet. Too many scrambled eggs. Are you in need of protein ideas for your sustainence. Ennui in the diet will lead you off the local path. Keep your diet diverse. Do you know that fish can easily fit within the parameters of your Challenge requirements.

I will confess, under my mantra of don't make yourself nuts eating local, that I have purchased during the last four years, various seafood--I'm a sucker for the marinated shrimp skewers at Whole Foods when they are on sale. I also very much eat canned tuna, sardines, anchovies, and herrings, but at least these fall into my made to travel exception. These purchases aside, I sometimes miss seafood. What keeps me missing it too much is the quality of seafood around here, at least for the price. What also keeps me from missing seafood is the good fish options.

If I do not purchase halibut at the store or some version of salmon, I am not without my fish. It can come from the Great Lakes, and it can come from area fish farms. Great Lakes fish include perch and whitefish, with the latter being cheaper and more available. It is common to find Great Lakes fish at area supermarkets, but it is really worth a trip to Devon Ave. for the last of the old time Jewish fishmongers, which these days means a Mexican fishmonger. No place sells a fresher whitefish than Roberts. Roberts alone will keep you from missing ocean fish. Farm raised fish carries mixed connotations. To some it can seem too tasteless and too eco-damaging. I am pretty sure the organic, sustainable system at AquaRanch is green. I'll leave the taste of their tilapia to you. Try this fish raised in Illinois from the freezer case at Cassie's Green Grocer. I'm plenty happy with the flavor of farm raised rainbow trout from Rushing Waters farm in Wisconsin. These fish are widely found at markets in the Chicago area, including Whole Foods. If you ever travel to farmer's markets in Wisconsin, you will find smaller producers of farm raised fish. The Chicago area local diet may not have seafood, but it does not need to be fish-less.

Success in your eat local challenge comes from keeping your diet diverse. There is no reason that local cannot be diverse. Make it diverse by including local fish.

What's Local Sahar's Meat

Eat Local Fish

There are certain stores I shop mostly for local. Cassie's Green Grocer or Marion Street Cheese. Granted, one of my favorite things to buy at Sahar is the veal shoulder, and veal is essentially a local product to my area. I was just reading about how veal is a by-product of the dairy industry--birthed female cows join the heard, male Holstein's, well that's your veal, baby. Most veal comes from Wisconsin, including most likely what they sell at Sahar. I do not, however, necessarily think of Sahar as an eat local kinda place.

Until yesterday. Now, I will be tempted to shop there most Thursdays. It seems that every Thursday, Sahar gets a shipment of farm raised fish from a downstate company called Dallas (IL) Fish Company. Sahar carries catfish, carp and buffalo fish. As I was told, the fish is processed (that's food talk for killed) on Wednesday. The especially bloody-fresh looking carp verified that. We had other stuff we needed to eat in the house on Thursday, but I can easily see making the trip to Sahar for some freshwater fish on another Thursday.

Sahar Meat (and fish!)
4829 N Kedzie Ave
Chicago, IL 60625
(773) 583-6098

Eat Local Fish

The Phil Vettel Game

There's a fine line between advocacy and reporting in the CTrib's At Play section. It's not that Phil Vettel is above a little push and shove. I've seen him use his space to seek improvement in Chicago's eating. Maybe today's piece on codish fish and chips represents a state of affairs he's happy with. Maybe.

Atlantic cod is the preferred fish because it's an inexpensive fish that's moist, flaky and sturdy enough for the deep-fryer. Just as important, cod has a very mild flavor. "A lot of people who think of themselves as non-fish eaters will still eat fish and chips," says chef Dirk Flanigan, who sells a lot of fish and chips at the Michigan Avenue gastropub The Gage. "That's what people are looking for." The trouble is, overfishing of cod has become a serious issue. Many chefs take care to buy cod from countries that avoid overfishing; Iceland is considered progressive on that score, and so Flanigan and many other chefs feature Icelandic cod (not a separate species, just Atlantic cod caught in Icelandic waters). Some local chefs have turned to less-overfished species, such as hake, haddock or pollock, members of the cod family whose populations aren't considered to be as endangered. Creative chefs will employ halibut, tilapia and walleye -- but these more expensive fish kick up the prices. "I was thinking one day I'd do mahi-mahi, the next day St. Pierre," says Flanigan, "but getting someone to pay $25 for fish and chips would be hard."

Phil hits on the problems with the cod, tasteless and scarce. He recognizes a solution in more expensive fish, but he fails to mention the best solution. Local fish.

There was a time, in the greater Midwest that fish n' chips, at least Friday fish fries, meant one fish, perch. These days perch still swim away in our Great Lakes, but the commercial fishing in many of the Great Lakes states is next to morbid. Still, lake perch is out there. More importantly, there's efforts to farm raise perch, and what I've tried so far, from has been pretty darn good (I've long been impressed with Growing Power's operations, but read the linked article to really be impressed). Let's pine for more perch in our fish fries.

Think of all impacts of ocean caught cod. Sure, not all cod stocks are decimated, but so many are. Beyond that, there's the impact of the miles and miles that these fish travel back and fourth from boats to shores to markets to markets to our restaurants. All that for a product tauted for its "very mild flavor". It's not that perch is fishy. It's no herring. It is, however, sweet and distinct and with a flavor that will soon addict. Ditch the cod.

Don't get me started on the chips.

Local's Where You Find It

What's Local at the Restaurant Supply House

My wife and I have an in that allows us to shop at the restaurant supply house. Unfortunately you cannot walk in and buy the local stuff we found today. Still, if it's at the wholesaler, it may show up somewhere by you. Look. Local IS where you find it (I mean the other day we had a blast finding local at the River Forest Jewel, including Michigan oatmeal, I just did not take good notes to post on it.)

Local at the supply house: incredibly vivid bass from the Great Lakes. They wisely angled the fish to show its magenta gills; not pretty but key for those in the know. Other freshwater fish today included lake trout fillets, lake smelts, rainbow trout, whitefish and carp. There were ten pound and fifty pound bags of Wisconsin potatoes and three pound bags of Michigan apples.

Eat Local Fish

The Vie Way

Chef Paul Virant of Vie restaurant in Western Springs is also a fan of Great Lakes fish. He has graciously allowed me to reprint the following recipe that uses whitefish. Note, I have not tried the recipe itself. All I can say is first, it sounds great, second, it looks complicated!

POACHED WHITEFISH, BRAISED SAUERKRAUT,

LITTLENECK CLAMS, SHALLOT AND DILL VINAIGRETTE


Braised Sauerkraut


2 C sauerkraut, rinsed in cold water

1/4 C diced bacon

4 T butter

1 onion, sliced

2 ribs celery, peeled and sliced on a bias

1 t each coriander seed, dill seed, fennel seed, caraway seed, toasted and coarsely ground

1 C riesling (preferably Alsatian)

1 C chicken stock

salt and pepper


1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2. In a heavy bottom wide saucepan render the bacon until crisp, about 5 minutes.

3. Add 2 T of the butter, onions, celery, and toasted seeds.

4. Sweat for 5 minutes.

5. Add the rinsed sauerkraut and wine, bring up to a boil.

6. Add the chicken stock and bring to a boil

7. Cover with a parchment paper lid and place in oven.

8. Bake for 45 minutes.

9. Remove from oven and keep warm (there will be extra).




Vinaigrette


1/2 lb littleneck clams

2 T minced shallots

1/4 C champagne vinegar

1 t honey

1/2 C olive oil

2 T chopped dill

salt and pepper


1. Cook the clams with 1/4 C of water in a covered saucepan for 2-4 minutes (or until the clams open).

2. Remove clams from shells and strain liquid (if any) into a mixing bowl.

3. Add shallots, honey and vinegar to the mixing bowl.

4. Whisk in the olive oil, season with salt and pepper.

5. Add chopped dill and clams and reserve.



To Finish

4 3oz portions of whitefish

1 qt rendered duck fat or chicken fat

1/4 C dill sprigs, loosely packed

2 T julienne house made pickles

1 T olive oil


1. Season the fish with salt and warm the duck or chicken fat to 150 F in heavy bottom saucepan.

2. Place the fish in the fat submerged.

3. Poach between 10 and 15 minutes in the fat until firm, remove from heat.

4. Heat up the sauerkraut finish with remaining 2 T butter.

5. Place about 1/2 C sauerkraut on the center of 4 warm plates.

6. Place poached fish on top.

7. Spoon about 1T vinaigrette on each plate with 3 clams.

8. Garnish with salad of dill sprigs and pickles tossed with olive oil.

9. Serve and enjoy!

Eat Local Fish

Rainbow trout, whitefish, huh? Said about five times as I roved the River Forest Whole Foods looking for a better cell spot. Whole Foods did have a whole case full of fish: halibut, salmon, tuna, sustainable and not, it's just as a localvore, we are forced to eat from our foodshed. To us, local fish meant Great Lakes whitefish, sold at Whole Foods as fillets or Rushing Waters rainbow trout sold head-on but mostly boneless. Sure it's a bit of a conceit, to ignore all the ocean fish, even the farmed catfish from North Carolina, but we believe in local. I heard trout. Bony, I mentioned. Huh, trout? Trout? OK. I took the trout.
Local fish matters to us for a few reasons. Aside from frozen lamb and off-season asparagus, is there more miles on a consumable? Take Whole Food's squid, while vast amounts of squid, in season, can be found off or Rhode Island Whole Foods was shipping them in from Greece. One example. The distance matters, but even more, taste matters. Fish tastes better fresh. C'mon. We bought whitefish at Robert's (2916 W. Devon Chicago--see below) that was alive the day before. Was any of the ocean fish at Whole Foods.

Really fresh fish is just so good. Try some freshwater fish and you will find out. That's the last reason. We are on a mission to expand the market for local fish. Create demand. Help the environment for sure, but also more demand will make the local fish options that much better.

Making the trout could not have been easier. An oven pre-heated to 350, salt pepper (fish needs a heavy hand with the salt), a solid Le Crueset pan, a spritz of olive oil (not local), a spritz of white wine (not local) and bake until done, about 20 minutes. The fish was so fresh that the skin turned so blue a Frenchmen would have belted the Marseillaise as proudly as they did here (who does not get a bit teary at that scene!). Boiled local potatoes the obvious side. The trout came a few days after a whole roasted whitefish.
Like an old transaction on Maxwell Street, we mock challenged Arturo Venegas, who ably carries on the traditions at Robert's (he can explain to you which fish may be kosher but are still now blessed by the CRC). Fresh, he unfolded the whitefish to show us innards still crimson, practically beating. As I said, the fish was alive the day before. About following the recipe in last month's Saveur, I roasted the fish whole.

I will concede a few drawbacks to the local fish. It's surely not clear how much Great Lakes fish one should safely eat, and probably twice in a week is enough. Culinary-wise, the fish can be a bit softer. OK, the whitefish is a lot softer than tuna or salmon. You know it's fish. And bones, there's always bones. You have to handle the bones, but if my daughters can deal with the bones, cannot you. Eat local fish.

Eat Local Fish

New Vie Menu Posted!

My job is nearly all based on computer research. I'm facing my Dell six to ten hours each day (at least). It gives me ample opportunity (and excuse) to peruse the Internets, working my vast catalogue of bookmarks. Maybe not once a day, but often, especially when it's been ages since a new menu has been posted, I go to my favorite restaurant's site. Has a new menu been posted for Vie?

Yes! The June 9, 2007 menu has posted, roughly a month since the last menu was posted. And Chef Virant has seen our pleas, here and here (for instance). The new menu features:

crispy fried lake perch, mustard aioli, local lettuces,
lemon vinaigrette and house pickled asparagus

And:

pan-roasted walleye pike, smoked fingerling potatoes, pancetta, local spinach and wood-grilled baby fennel vinaigrette

As usual, there are so many things I'm anxious to try. This dish especially appeals to me:

salad of wettsteins house made country ham, confit of spanish judion beans, local tuscan kale and “cepa vieja” aged sherry vinaigrette (I just put an order in for 1/2 lamb from the Wettstein's, still thinking about the pig)

Still, next time I go, I'm getting the fish.

Local As I Wanna Be

Dinner
Wisconsin ramps, sauteed (with one dried Illinois pepper for accent); Great Lakes trout, sauteed; over puree made of Wisconsin turnips, Illinois carrots and Illinois turnips. Local parsley. California and Turkish olive oil, Morton kosher salt (local company!), Indian pepper, Michigan milk, Wisconsin butter, nutmeg from ??. Illinois lettuce salad (mesculun mix), dressing of California olive oil, indeterminate pasteurized egg, Italian red wine vinegar, salt/pepper as above. French wine. Polish water.



I hate to brag, but this was one hell of a dinner, the flavors going from the exact onionish-garlic of the ramp to the near candy sweet of the puree (excellent job with those turnips Vicki!); soft on the bottom, firm and meaty in between and bright and crunchy on top.

The techniques, were, well if I could do..As preparing local veg goes, peeling parsnips, carrots and turnips is one of the easier tasks. It took about 20 minuites in boiling water to make them soft enough. You might notice my puree is a bit on the, shall we say rustic side. I used a ricer, which worked fine if made a bit of a mess. I could have run it through a strainer to smooth, give it a restaurant quality, but I was afraid we would then not have enough for a meal. The rest was done with a big stainless steel pan, some butter and some olive oil.

What's Local at Caputo's...What's Local at Whole Foods...What's Local...

I'm only a bit into Plenty, the tale of two people who only eat local. In the beginning we learn much of what they cannot have, because it is beyond their 100 mile limit. One of the hardest things for them is no local grain, forcing them to make sandwiches from sliced turnips. On the other hand, their stores in Vancouver supply an array of local seafood. Me, if I was a bread baker, could use my Wisconsin wheat or my Minnesota oats or my cornmeal from two states, yet in my stores, I find, well, whitefish.

While Caputo's today had Michigan apples on sale, 59 cents/lb, whitefish is probably the one local item that can always be found around here. I heavily interrogated the fishmonger at Whole Foods about their fillets, making him let me smell them, before a recent purchase. As I am wont, their localness made dinner extra delicious. My wife used a preparation that highlighted their freshness.

She thawed some asparagus (how's that for an off riff on Cali-corporate seasonality, eating last year's asparagus this time of year) and made a bed on a sheet of foil. Sliced lemon and herbs (local of course) made a layer before the fish. She rubbed a bit of mustard (mustard, there's another thing that would keep me from being 100 mile pure), splashed some white wine and folded. 20 or so minutes in a pre-heated oven, and we were local-licously eating our second course of dinner. First, last week's chard, which turned its accompanying pasta pink.

Sadly, my joy over dinner is lessened (a lot), by the fact that I cannot seem to find my camera--I had wanted to document the whitefish. I hope that mere words suffice.

Eat Local - Fish

Bill Daley in (the link free!) Chicago Tribune blog asks about local fish, namely local smelts. Sadly, as far as I know, there is no commercial fishing in Illinois, or much commercial fishing of any kind in Illinois. Perhaps there are people who know, but when I look at the regs, there seems nothing against fishing per se. Forces do conspire.

It's fishy. It's bony. It's toxic. (OK, there may be a point there.) Muddy, mushy, not so meaty, no tartare, no sashimi, hell no ceviche, who wants freshwater fish. And remember that cookbook culture that tells us we should be gorging away at artichokes and peas about now, well these books are filled with tuna and salmon and recipes just for the halibut (hahahaha). I can see why no one wants to dip their nets in our waters.

Maybe teeming is not the word, but the Great Lakes contain many delicious fish: whitefish, perch, the un-sellable coho, trout, Bill Daley's smelts, even (I'm sure) some remaining herrings. This is how I suggest demand gets re-built. Go to Washington Island, Wisconsin. Granted, it's like a $45 ferry ride but still less than half a tasting menu at Alinea. Commercial fishing thrives on Washington Island, meaning a boat can go out, catch 25 whitefish, 25 lawyer (burbot) and a mess of perch and have them all eaten by the next day. The fish can be done up fancy at the Washington Island Hotel , boiled at KK Fiskes or say a Friday fish fry at Findlay's Holiday Inn. No flash frozen, packed on ice, color added, farm raised fish tastes like it. Try!

After that, you'll not just pine for some smelts, you'll god damn demand we get fishin' in Illinois.