Jazz, catfish and Tabasco

The other day I was wondering how to cook the catfish fillets sent by the splendid people at Fish In A Box and started looking around for recipes. My sister, a professional development chef, advised frying them in cornmeal, which is apparently the tradition way in the Southern US of A. Then I came across a more detailed recipe in the excellent book Jazz Cooks.

This book has long had a place on my kitchen shelf. It consists of favourite recipes from a whole range of jazz musicians, together with interviews with each, specially taken photos and background detail. The book is organised not by food categories (as one might expect from a recipe book) but by instrument! However the full index means that recipes can be located easily enough - including one for Branford Marsalis' favourite catfish.

Jazz fans out there will know that Branford Marsalis is a mean saxophone player, with a particular reputation for the soprano sax. He is also brother of Wynton Marsalis, trumpeter of great repute and part of the jazz dynasty coming from New Orleans (though he now lives in New York). He gives his mother's recipe for fried catfish - and very good it is too.

Take catfish fillets and coat them with salt, pepper and dried dill (I used about a tablespoon for 2 fillets). Leave them in the fridge for at least a few hours, up to 24 hours, for the dill to penetrate. When it's time to cook them, dip in beaten egg and coat with corn meal. Corn meal is finely powered polenta, you can get it in the Jamaican food section at Tesco (at least that's where I found mine - and at 35p for a big bag it won't break the bank). Fry in oil (I used sunflower, though the recipe says peanut oil) for about 5 minutes per side until golden brown and serve immediately.

Mrs Marsalis' recipe says to serve with cornbread and Tabasco . We didn't have any cornbread, but I did try some Tabasco - and much to my surprise it worked really well. Normally I just like some lemon juice with my fish, but there's something rich and meaty about the fried catfish that was gingered up very nicely by a few drops of McIlhenny's finest. A great surprise and a welcome excuse for some great heat in the meal. Go ahead and try it!

Oysters at 8000 feet: Sapphire in Vail, Colorado

The resort town of Vail lies (as the name might suggest) in a deep valley in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. Coming in from Denver shows how these mountains form the backbone of North America – the vast plains to the east suddenly giving way to peaks of up to 15000 feet. Vail itself is a great spot to spend a few days. In contrast to the working town of Aspen some 50 miles distant, Vail seems like a recent development where Swiss-style chalet architecture meets upscale galleries and fine dining restaurants, and the Betty Ford alpine garden sits alongside ski-lifts waiting for the winter to arrive.

Sapphire Restaurant and Oyster Bar is located right in the centre of town and boasts the only raw bar in the vicinity. I ate there twice during a conference visit and was very impressed both times, particularly with the oysters and fish. Owners Susan and Joel Fritz source their shellfish from both coasts; when I visited there were large-ish Wianna oysters from Nova Scotia alongside smaller Effingham oysters from British Columbia and delicious Royal Myagis from Washington state. This being the USA, the plate came with the usual (and very good in this case) cocktail sauce of tomato and horseradish, and a rather sharp and nicely contrasting vinaigrette. Add in some terrific snow crab claws at $1.50 a pop, and you have a great plate of seafood to start your evening.

Main courses are varied and imaginative, and chef Peter Millette is clearly on top of his art. I fell in love with the miso marinated ahi tuna, seared very rare, sliced thin and served in a sushi style with sticky rice, wasabi cream and pickled ginger – a really top-class combination. I also enjoyed the crusted roast Alaskan halibut served with saffron, fennel and tomato, couscous and harissa sauce – a very savoury combination where the fish stood out rather well against the slightly spicy and tasty accompaniments. I washed it all down with a couple of glasses of Mirror Pond Pale Ale from Deschutes craft brewery in Bend, Oregon (http://www.deschutesbrewery.com/) – as usual with US microbrews this is plenty hoppy and goes very well with the food.

So when you’re up Rocky Mountain Way, have no hesitation to drop in to Sapphire and enjoy some great seafood (the menu is very varied, and has plenty of meat and other choices too). They also have the best deck in Vail and a fine lunch menu, so pretty much any time is Sapphire time. More details at http://www.sapphirerestaurant.com/ .

The world's crispiest batter? The Old Passage at Arlingham

One of our favourite local seafood restaurants is the Old Passage at Arlingham, a few miles south of Gloucester. Set in wonderful surroundings on the banks of the Severn, the restaurant is housed in the former ferry-house where for hundred of years people set out to cross the wide river. On a nice evening, a walk along the riverbank is an ideal prelude to some serious shellfish.

Sadly, the weather let us down. Arriving early, we had plenty of time to sip a drink and peruse the menu. The establishment has changed hands in the past year, and is now run by Sally Pearce and her son David. However, the welcome and feel of the place is very much the same as ever, and I was delighted to find that they now sell Cotswold Lager on draft, an ideal prelude to some oysters.

The menu offers the bet selection of seafood and shellfish for many miles around. We started with a plate of Fowey No 2 oysters from Cornwall (nice, cold and not too large, just as I prefer them – there is a choice of Bigbury and Fin de Claire oysters too). Choosing a starter was much more of a problem – scallops thermidor, Scottish langoustine, a mini-fruits-de-mer plate…? However, you just can’t beat proper dark French-style fish soup with gruyere cheese and croutons, so that’s what I had. As an alternative, the pan-fried foie gras with scallops and poached rhubarb was richly delicious.

Choice of main courses presented another difficulty. A lobster from the tank? Not today – we tried a range of fish including line caught sea bream from Cornwall served (deliciously) with cockle, clam and samphire risotto, and fish stew (clearly a cousin of the soup I’d had earlier, and none the worse for that). I personally went with the beer battered fish and chips, served with proper marrow-fat peas. The fish was wonderful – the batter was the crispiest I have ever experienced with extra crispy parts having (I think) been drizzled on during the cooking in tempura style. It was still crisp at the last mouthful. Inside, the fish was moist and perfectly cooked. The business.

The Old Passage has been with us for some 7 years now, and continues to hold its place as the top seafood destination in the area. The place also has rooms, so you could consider staying over. Long may it continue. More details at http://www.fishattheoldpassageinn.co.uk/.

Halibut from God's Island

The island of Gigha lies just to the west of the Mull of Kintyre, some three hours from Glasgow in Scotland. After a long history of underdevelopment, the island was bought by a Trust on behalf of the islanders in 2001. I must confess I had never heard of it until a delivery from our friends at Fish In A Box arrived containing four generously sized halibut fillets ‘from a new farm in Scotland’. The fish was superb, so I decided to find out more about Gigha Halibut.

Halibut has long been considered a prime fish for the table. However, stocks of Atlantic halibut have reached dangerously low levels (unlike the Pacific – in Vancouver Island halibut is served in every fish & chip shop!). There is yet hope for us halibut enthusiasts here though – there are good prospects for farmed halibut off the West coast of Scotland.

Gigha Halibut are connected to Otter Ferry Seafish, the only halibut hatchery in Scotland. Young fish are transferred to facilities based around a former salmon farm on Gigha to mature and grow – a process which takes several years. However, growth rates are good on Gigha, and the halibut is a relatively efficient fish to produce – some 55% of the weight ends up being sold as fillets (compared to 45% for haddock and only 35% for turbot).

I prepared our fillets of Gigha halibut along the lines of a recipe from Legal Seafoods of Boston USA. The halibut was lightly coated with seasoned flour and pan-fried in 1 oz butter and a tablespoon of oil. Meanwhile, I roughly chopped a generous helping of cashew nuts and fried them for 3 minutes in melted butter until they started to brown. Spoon the nut mixture over the fish and serve with blanched asparagus and a little chopped hard-boiled egg. Delicious!

The Gigha Halibut website does not, alas, give information about where to find this fine fish. However, I can reveal at least one source – try Fish In A Box and see if they’re selling it. If my experience is anything to go by, they’ll have trouble keeping up with demand.