Pescies and Veggies

[Janne]

Conch is delicious. "Cracked" or as a "Ceviche".
I do not like conch fritters. A waste of good seafood.

Our Conch season is now on!
I collected my legal limit a couple of years ago, but it is incredibly laborious to clean them and prepare them for eating, so now I just buy ready cleaned.

 

[Robson Valley]

Janne: every conch shell that I've seen over many years has a hole knocked in the twist at the top.
Just to get the little bugger to let go so you can dig him out?
My brother says that the Bahamas harvest so much that they smash the shells for making roads.
He doesn't know yet why the holes.

Never asked at the city fish shop, they get all kinds of stuff air-frieght.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, but I don't do this twice a week.

 

[Janne]

The way to remove it from the shell is to make a hole with a hammer or machete on the third twist from the tip. This releases the vacuum so the animal can be pulled out.
Then you have to cut away the hard operculum, all instestines and skin it.
A lot of work.

 

[santaman2000]

.....Pretty simple = the major and main ingredient is corn flour. NOT corn starch, NOT corn meal. According to McGee, the starch in
corn is much harder to hydrate (than in wheat flours) so the cooked batter remains crisper. So I went to a big grocery store
and looked at the lists of ingredients for several brands of fish batter mixes. #1 was always corn flour.....

If it ain't corn meal, it ain't fit to eat. LOL I'm exaggerating of course, but there's a vast difference. Flour of any kind is just too bready (like tempura) too much like a batter instead of a proper crisp dusting. That was my only dislike regarding the fish & chips over there. It was great fish otherwise but the wet batter was yucky.

 

[Robson Valley]

Read McGee. Corn flour is the trick to crispy batter-fried foods.
If you want a crisp crumb coating, there's other ways to do that.

 

[Janne]

As corn ( maize) is not a food we traditionally eat from where I stem, I have never used it, but will try next time I panfry my cod fillets!

 

[santaman2000]

Read McGee. Corn flour is the trick to crispy batter-fried foods. ....

That's the key word though, "batter." It's not something we do down here, and it should be avoided at all costs. Our coating is just a dry dredging (albeit seasoned) Plain wheat flour is great for dredging chicken, squirrels, rabbits, and red meat (beaten round steak) but only cornmeal really works for catfish, bream, perch, and most fried saltwater fish. Some people use a commercial version with a mix of cornmeal and panko, but those really don't hold a candle to a proper fish fry.

 

[santaman2000]

Read McGee. Corn flour is the trick to crispy batter-fried foods. ....

That's the key word though, "batter." It's not something we do down here. Our coating is just a dry dredging (albeit seasoned) Plain wheat flour is great for dredging chicken, squirrels, rabbits, and red meat (beaten round steak) but only cornmeal really works for catfish, bream, perch, and most fried saltwater fish. Some people use a commercial version with a mix of cornmeal and panko, but those really don't hold a candle to a proper fish fry.

At the end of the day it's just a difference in tastes; personal or cultural.

 

[santaman2000]

As corn ( maize) is not a food we traditionally eat from where I stem, I have never used it, but will try next time I panfry my cod fillets!

It's gone down here as well. Up until the 1980s some form of corn was expected at least twice a day: corn on the cob, corn niblets, plain cooked corn, cornbread, grits, cold cereal, or whatever for meals. Then you could add snacks such as popcorn. Now-a-days it's probably down to about half that or less.

 

[Robson Valley]

It's become really difficult in North America to grow corn and save seed for next year's crop.
There's so much corn pollen in the air, the farmer cannot predict what the kernels will be like
for whatever market he has in mind (flint, flour, dent, sweet & popcorns).

I don't know which of the 5 basic types is used for corn flour but I suspect flint corn as it has the hardest starch.
Flour corn is most drought-resistant and has soft starch = tortillas.
Dent corn has the highest productivity
Sweet corn has a genetic defect which delays the conversion of sugars to starch.
Pop corn has a little zone of water filled cells in the middle that explodes as steam. Tap a few open, the water-filled area is white.
Even the mushroom and snowflake shapes are of economic importance.

Most of the corn genetics research these days is done in Hawaii.
Three crops a year and the pollen is blown out to sea.

 

[Janne]

I love the Popcorn Corn.
The fields must be truly beautiful, when the ears are full of the white fluffy corn!

 

[Robson Valley]

I can't recall the age data but the Inca(?) Aztec(?) were fully aware of how to pop the corn in hot oil.
Old popcorn has literally dried out. Maybe by October the new crop is in = always max % popped.
I have never had the nerve to toss an ear of popcorn into hot oil. Not ever.

I listed 5 kinds as those are the ones documented by the explorers are preColumbian cultivation.

There are 2 different shapes of popcorn:
a) mushroom is round with a skirt of little bits at one end. Doesn't gum up the candy corn coating machinery eg CrackerJack.
b) snowflake is a puff of easily chewed corn which breaks up very easily. This was Orville Redenbacker's "Gourmet" popping corn.

The rip-off is that the movie theaters buy snowflake by the pound. Popped, they sell it to you by volume.
So that mega cup has less weight of corn in it than if they had used what you and I can buy in a grocery store.

 

[Night Phoenix]

I like that this thread has evolved and come into its own as what has turned out to be a very interesting corn topic thread Learning something new!

 

[Janne]

What oil would you say is the best and tastiest for popping corn?
I used to use butter, before I got lazy and started buying Microwave packets.

 

[Robson Valley]

Mazola. American corn oil. The movie theaters use palm oil (according to the projectionist.)
1tbsp oil in the pot, handful of corn. When done, into a bowl with a little salt. No more needed.

Orville Redenbacher had a butter-flavored popping oil on the market for a while. Sure did replicate
the movie theater flavor. Then a very sudden and urgent recall with no explanation.
Despite all appearances, OR was the world's expert in pop corn. Had a stable of in house genetics
whiz-kids working for him as well.

 

[Janne]

That is the brand I usually buy.

 

[Robson Valley]

The old house, the McKale House, on Main Street in our village has been converted into a book store, new and used. Floor to ceiling, wall-to-wall, every room is full of books.
The owner buy estate sales, etc. She's got complete sets and collected works that she refuses to break up.
In there today, I bought Plants of Haida Gwaii for $28 (cheap). Nancy J. Turner, (& 15+ Haida plant specialists) 2010. Sononis Press, Vancouver. ISBN 1-55039-176-3 Lavishly illustrated with color photographs. Lots of other art and carvings, everything explained also in the language and writing system adopted for school use.

I can cross reference this with a plant ID book for my region to see what to look for next summer.

 

[santaman2000]

I use corn oil too (usually, but not always, Mazola) I do still like pouring melted butter over the popped corn though. Usually salted with ordinary salt but sometimes I get a mood for Cajun spices (usually Zatarain's or Tony Chatches) Sometimes I get a sweet tooth and pour honey over it.

It really like fried patato chips (crisps) in that respect, it's a carrier for whatever flavor you want. Left plain it makes a decent breakfast cereal with milk poured over it.

 

[Robson Valley]

Corn oil in the pot and a little salt on the popped is all my kids have ever known.
I've tried some spice mixes but I'm after the corn taste.