Photo: janeyhenning; Flickr

Before delving into today’s topic, we need to pass along an important change just sent our way regarding the Barbara Lynch event mentioned in Tuesday Tidbits. As a reminder, next week Chef Lynch will be presenting, discussing and offering a tasting from her new cookbook Stir: Mixing It Up in the Italian Tradition. The day and time are the same (Tuesday, Nov. 17, 7pm), but there’s been a change of venue to the Morse Institute Library in Natick. 
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Now, the stuff of today’s post. Two nights ago I had the opportunity of joining one of the New England Aquarium’s “Celebrate Seafood” dinners, at which approximately 60 guests participate in a live cooking demonstration and Q&A featuring the NEAQ’s Executive Chef Tim Ridge, a local guest chef who on this evening was Andy Husbands of Tremont 647, and three kinds of exquisitely prepared seafood chosen on account of the ecologically sustainable way each landed on the dinner plates. The take-home point of the evening (and the entire dinner series) is, these fish can land in a sustainable way on your plate, too.

On Tuesday we ate the Hawaiian reef fish opakapaka, followed by West Coast Dungeness crab and U.S. rainbow trout. Of the three, it’s the trout I’d like to focus on for the moment. The recipe developed by Chef Tim called for the fish to be pan-seared, laid on a bed of braised red cabbage and drizzled with an herbs de Provence-flavored cream sauce. The result was delicate, flavorful, balanced. Superb. But when NEAQ Conservation Director Lydia Bergen began introducing the fish by way of a Google Maps zoom-in, the diners hummed. The U.S. rainbow trout we were about to eat had been farmed-raised, in Idaho. Really? Come to find out, the production techniques of the domestic trout farming industry are well established, operationally efficient, and the farms themselved monitored and regulated for minimal negative impact on the environment. The water most farms use is pulled from natural streams into land-based raceways and filtered of waste products before being released back into the natural stream. All this in combination makes U.S. farmed trout an ocean-friendly seafood choice.

What can the average consumer do, I asked Lydia, to make responsible choices when buying seafood? “Ask lots of questions,” she said. They’re logical but important: where, specifically, did the fish come from, how was it caught or raised, by what supplier or company, etc. This shows the vendor your interest, your desire to be informed and the selectivity underlying your choices about what fish to eat, what to avoid. Not all farm-raised seafood is a good choice, nor is all wild-caught. The Aquarium has lots of great information on sustainable seafood choices and related recipes, too. So, read away, then, of course, eat.

More soon on Andy Husbands’ crab momos and audio from the dinner itself.