5 Tips for Keeping Fish Fresh

1. Start with fresh fish: Your best bet is to buy seafood from shops and vendors with high turnover that keep their fish well iced. 

2. Avoid fish that was frozen and thawed in store: It's hard to know how long or at what temperature it has been left to thaw. Better to buy the fish frozen and thaw it carefully at home.

3. Keep fish fillets on ice: Take the advice of Helen Rennie, an avid blogger about fish. She suggests packing your fish fillets between layers of ice pack sheets. Refrigerators aren't normally cool enough to keep fish for more than a day, but by changing out the ice packs every day until you're ready to cook your fish will keep for at least a few days. 

4. Let your shellfish breathe: Oysters, clams and mussels are best eaten within a week of harvest, but, according to Taylor Shellfish Farms, they'll stay fresh during that time if you store them in the refrigerator in an open container covered with a clean wet towel. 

5. Freeze your fillets: If your plans change and you won't be able to cook your fish before it spoils, freeze it. Wrap individual fillets in plastic wrap and place them in the coldest part of the freezer, usually in the back. Be sure to label and date each pack. Small, fatty fish will keep for 3 months, leaner fish will keep for 6.  

This post is part of a series: a Week of Fish. Check out our post about the documentary "Jiro Dreams of Sushi", our guide to choosing safe and sustainable fish, and list of 4 great places to shop for seafood in NYC. 

A Buyer’s Guide to Sustainable Seafood

There are lots of options for buying seafood in New York, some more accessible than others. Here are a few of our favorite places to shop: 

Blue Moon Fish (Union Square Greenmarket)
Visit Alex for local seafood caught off Eastern Long Island. This time of year you're likely to find Herring, Mackerel, Scallops and Oysters. Check out the Blue Moon Fish website to see what else they'll have at market. They're at market on Wednesdays. 

PE & DD Seafood (Union Square Greenmarket)
They are a family-run business that catch and sell local seafood. Phil and his family are committed to using fishing methods that minimize their impact on the environment, so they are a great choice on multiple counts. Visit PE & DD for fresh fish and shell fish on Mondays and Saturdays. 

Wild Edibles (Grand Central Market – Lexington @ 43rd Street)
Need something that's open every day? Once a hole-in-the-wall on Elizabeth Street in Soho, Wild Edibles now has a beautiful home in Grand Central Market. They do their best to source seafood from sustainable fisheries, but you can do your part by using their green, yellow and red icons to make smart choices about the fish you buy. 

The Lobster Place (Chelsea Market – 75 Ninth Avenue)
Thanks to high turnover, the seafood at the Lobster Place is incredibly fresh. The friendly, knowledgeable staff make it well worth braving the crowd. It also helps that you can snack while you shop. We like the Salmon Rillete roll. 

Not in NYC?
Check out i love blue sea. They offer overnight shipping across the United States, so that you can get well vetted sustainable seafood no matter where you live. 

This post is part of a series: a Week of Fish. Check out our post about the documentary "Jiro Dreams of Sushi" and our guide to choosing safe and sustainable fish. Stay tuned for a post with 5 tips for keeping fish fresh. 

Eating Simply: Safe and Sustainable Seafood

Our mantra at Sweet Roots NYC is that "eating simply doesn't have to
be complicated." It guides us in our mission to make home cooking easier and to make accessing wholesome and healthy ingredients straight forward. For us, it also means sifting through the multitude of food messages for ourselves and for our clients, so that making choices about what to eat has more in common with a well-cleared path than an obstacle course. 

I happen to like a challenge, so for the first installment of "Eating Simply" I'm taking on seafood. 

One of the shops we'll recommend tomorrow in our guide to buying sustainable seafood in NYC is The Lobster Place. They keep things simple and describe sustainable seafood this way: 

"Sustainability is about balancing the economic and nutritional needs of today with the preservation of ocean resources for tomorrow."

Overfishing, pollution and climate change are the three top threats to ocean eco-systems. While specific numbers are up for debate, experts seem to agree that many of the world's fish populations are declining and that we're running out of time to halt the downward spiral and restore what's been lost. 

The other topic that comes up when we talk about seafood is mercury. Exposure to high levels of mercury can negatively impact the brain and nervous system. The problem is especially serious for young children and pregnant women. Some fish have higher levels of mercury than others and the FDA and other watch groups agree that the health benefits of fish outweigh the risk, if certain precautions are taken. 

As a consumer, there are two things to consider when making a decision about which fish to eat: 

1. Is this fish safe for my health?
2. Does the way that this fish is caught or harvested meet my standards for environmental sustainability?

The Monterey Bay Aquarium has put together a "Super Green" list that includes fish that score high marks on both counts. According to them the best of the best are: 

Albacore tuna (from the US or British Columbia)
Freshwater Coho Salmon (farmed in the US)
Oysters (farmed)
Pacific Sardines (wild-caught)
Rainbow Trout (farmed)
Salmon (wild-caught, from Alaska)

Outside of this list, there is no single answer, but there are a few guidelines that might help: 

Eat lower on the food chain: Smaller fish are great sources of omega-3's, but lower levels of mercury. They also tend to be less endangered than their bigger friends like Bluefin tuna. Mackerel is a great choice in this category - they are currently abundant and the way they are fished is low impact. 

Get off the beaten path: Blue fin tuna, cod and halibut populations are all dangerously depleted. There are some amazing and unusual fish choices that have been ignored for decades and as a result have not been subject to overfishing. Daniel Klein has a great episode of The Perennial Plate on mullet, for example. 

Ask questions: Get to know your fishmonger. Ask your waiter about where the fish on the menu is from. Use the Blue Ocean Institute's FishPhone texting service. Text 30644 with the message FISH and the name of the fish you're curious about. They'll respond right away with their thoughts about the fish and some alternatives. 

This post is part of a series: a Week of Fish. Check out our post about the documentary "Jiro Dreams of Sushi" and look out for guide to fishmongers in NYC and beyond and 5 tips for keeping fish fresh. 

Ultimate simplicity leads to purity

I took myself to see "Jiro Dreams of Sushi" yesterday. Sometimes, when
I want to be fully enveloped by the experience, I go to the movies alone. I go in the late afternoon, when it's less crowded. I sit in the back row.
I kick off my shoes and fold my knees into my chest. I'm not sure that
I move at all until the credits roll. 

I have been reading a book by Trevor Corson called The Story of Sushi. While watching the film, I was reminded of a practice he describes in which patrons of traditional sushi bars ask the chef for omakase, a series of small plates served one after another that are crafted around the day's freshest ingredients. To ask for omakase is to surrender, to say to the chef, "I leave it up to you." 

Yesterday, I felt like was served omakase. Each scene was like a small plate, a simple vignette that could stand alone, but flowed seamlessly into the next. There was the "ebb and flow of the menu" that Jiro describes when he talks about his own process of designing the day's meal. Lighter flavors lead to heavier dishes. The palate is cleansed between different kinds of fish with a piece of ginger. Scenes about familial duty, obligation, overfishing, and death are interspersed with bicycle rides through Tokyo streets that conjure the role of ginger. 

The film was brilliant. I went home hungry for the sushi made by a man in his 80's, who in dreams has "visions of sushi." 

*  *  *

One of the things that is so mesmerizing to me about Jiro is his dedication to quality. There are only one or two seatings of dinner each night because he can only find that much fish that meets his standards. We watch his son toast individual sheets of nori over coals, so that each is perfectly crisp. An apprentice makes a Japanese egg dish hundreds of times before he gets it right. Each of the elements of the meal is handled with care.

One of the most basic elements of Japanese cuisine is dashi, a broth made of kelp, or kombu, and flakes of dried bonita fish, katsuobusi.
"Ultimate simplicity leads to purity," Masuhiro Yamamoto writes. Dashi
is undeniably simple, but it is the foundation for any great Japanese meal. 

4 cups water
2 pieces of kombu (approx. 5" x 5")
1/2 cup katsuobushi

Soak the kombu in the water overnight.
Place the pot over medium heat. Allow the water to slowly approach boiling.
Remove the kombu as soon as it floats to the surface. 
Add katsuobushi.
Remove from heat. Let rest 5 to 10 minutes and then strain through
a fine sieve or cheesecloth. 

This post is part of a series: a Week of Fish. Look out for posts that demystify sustainable seafood, a guide to fishmongers in NYC and beyond, and 5 tips for keeping fish fresh.