PADDLINGgourmet by tarmo poldmaa Make the Most of your FISH The best damned fish soup around
Whether it’s jigging up a fish, picking some mushrooms for soup or foraging for fresh salad greens in the woods, I find that “livin' off the land” really helps connect me to where I am and my ancestry. My most memorable meals on any paddling trip are the ones where I've relied on those good old hunter-gatherer instincts still rumbling around somewhere in my genome and cultural tidbits passed on by my parents and grandparents.
Ingredients: One best damned fish...
I recall reeling in a few red snapper while on a paddling trip in Gwaii Haanas National Park, British Columbia. Having been out for close to two weeks, my partner and I were down to our “less than fresh” veggies, lots of pasta and rice, and a variety of spices and other staples.
The red snapper provided us with a number of fantastic meals. The first night we gorged ourselves on fresh pan-fried fillets (recipe below). After din- ner, I tossed the fish heads and the backbone sec- tions of the carcasses into a pot with some salt and water and put it on the stove to boil. My pad- dling partner, looking a bit alarmed, asked, “What are you going to do with that?” To which I replied, “Make the best damned fish soup around” (not hard when you are in the middle of nowhere). I grew up with a father who would not waste
any part of a fish, so from an early age I came to appreciate fish-head soup. I was always amazed at how much meat came off a fish head and a rack of bones. Even more amazing was how good it could taste. So for this issue I want to pass on a couple of recipes to help you use almost every little bit of that fish you may catch on your next kayak- ing adventure. I've included two options for fish
soup—one is the more traditional European style soup I grew up with; the other is a spicy Thai ver- sion you can make very quickly if you have some Thai red curry paste and a block or can of coconut cream.
Coconut cream is usually easy to find in gro-
cery stores in cans but if you're lucky you may find coconut cream in blocks. Blocks don't have to be refrigerated and you can use what you need. They are typically about 150–200g and the chunks melt easily in a pot or pan with a bit of water. Beware of piña colada coconut milk mix— great for a refreshing drink on the beach but very sweet and not suitable for cooking.
Shellfish, mushrooms and other wild vegetables make excellent additions to the soups. But before you go foraging, remember, a smart hunter-gath- erer eats what he knows, not what he thinks he knows. Consult experts and field guides before you start experimenting with mushrooms and edi- ble plants. And on the coasts, heed warnings about red tide (the toxic algae that often accumu- late in shellfish). Good luck, eat safe and be pre- pared—that is, bring a can of soup just in case the fish aren't biting!
14 Summer 2003
photo Popp & Hackner
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