Buying and Storing Seafood

[Chef Kevin]

Whether you are buying seafood for the grill or to cook indoors, buying seafood for many people is a hit and miss affair,

so I thought it might be useful if I share one of my blog posts about how to improve your seafood buying.

Just click on the photo to go to my post and learn what I do when I want fresh seafood.

The post also has some great links if you want to learn more about the different types of seafood and how to fillet fish.

[sotv]

Funnily enough had a delivery of some frozen shellfish (couple of packs of clams, greenshell mussels and king prawns) this morning along with a fresh dressed crab, sent out yesterday evening and delivered to my door at 0830 this morning, still all frozen solid and the crab is still unfrozen but well chilled.. Always comes in a well insulated box with a foil blanket and 6 solidly frozen blocks of what I assume is some sort of chemical frozen ice as doesn't dissolve into liquid water when thawed and they literally take days to thaw out.

Get my fresh fish from my local Morrisons and they have a pretty good selection and the freshness is pretty good, especially if you buy it on arrival date at the supermarket.

I live in the landlocked Midlands so limited to this sort of method, but when ever I visit family down in Devon, try to get to Brixham down the road, where the Fishmonger on the Quayside, literally sells it fresh off the boat and his flatfish and crab are just amazing and such good quality.

[Chef Kevin]

Looks like a great catch!!

 For others reading this, the Green-lipped mussels (Perna canaliculus), are native to New Zealand so they are usually sold already cooked and frozen.

They are generally larger than the blue mussels native to the UK and New England seaboard.

Was your crab meat from native UK crabs or was it from the Blue Crab?

Crab meat from the Blue Crab is sometimes sold in the UK and usually pasteurised to give it longer shelf life. 

The Blue Crab (see photo) is native to Eastern US seaboard particularly around the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland. Unlike the meat from UK crabs the meat from Blue Crabs are all white and milder in flavour.  This makes it a great to stuff other fish or make crab cakes with.

[sotv]

I find the crab meat that is pasteurised a little to slimy for my tastes, prefer fresh dressed UK crab meat, which is what I got in my order (hen crab). Got my eye on some Snow or King Crab Claws to grill in the future, but always sold out at the online stores i use. I mainly use the Green Lipped Mussels for cooked dishes, rice and paella dishes etc as they work better for my tastes and the shells just look better on the plate. Prefer British mussels when cooked in a pot with a sauce.

 

Edited August 22, 2020 by sotv