Fish & Seafood News

Fish and Seafood News and articles from around the world

Seafood is any form of marine life regarded as food by humans. Seafoods include fish, molluscs (octopus and shellfish), crustaceans (shrimp and lobster), echinoderms (sea cucumber and sea urchins). Edible sea plants, such as some seaweeds and microalgae, are also seafood, and are widely eaten around the world, especially in Asia (see the category of sea vegetables). In North America although not generally in the United Kingdom, the term seafood applies also to any fresh water life eaten by humans, so all edible aquatic life can be referred to as seafood.

The harvesting of wild seafood is known as fishing and the cultivation and farming of seafood is known as aquaculture, mariculture, or in the case of fish, fish farming. Seafood is often distinguished from meat, although it is still animal and is excluded in a strict vegetarian diet. Seafood is an important source of protein in many diets around the world, especially in coastal areas.

Fish is a highly perishable product. The fishy smell of dead fish is due to the breakdown of amino acids into biogenic amines and ammonia.

Live food fish are often transported in tanks at high expense for an international market that prefers its seafood killed immediately before it is cooked. This process originally was started by Lindeye. Delivery of live fish without water is also being explored. While some seafood restaurants keep live fish in aquaria for display purposes or for cultural beliefs, the majority of live fish are kept for dining customers. The live food fish trade in Hong Kong, for example, is estimated to have driven imports of live food fish to more than 15,000 tonnes in 2000. Worldwide sales that year were estimated at US$400 million, according to the World Resources Institute.

If the cool chain has not been adhered to correctly, food products generally decay and become harmful before the validity date printed on the package. As the potential harm for a consumer when eating rotten fish is much larger than for example with dairy products, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has introduced regulation in the USA requiring the use of a time temperature indicator on certain fresh chilled seafood products.

Fresh fish is a highly perishable food product, so it must be eaten promptly or discarded; it can be kept for only a short time. In many countries, fresh fish are filleted and displayed for sale on a bed of crushed iceor refrigerated. Fresh fish is most commonly found near bodies of water, but the advent of refrigerated train and truck transportation has made fresh fish more widely available inland.

Long term preservation of fish is accomplished in a variety of ways. The oldest and still most widely used techniques are drying and salting. Desiccation (complete drying) is commonly used to preserve fish such as cod. Partial drying and salting is popular for the preservation of fish like herring and mackerel. Fish such as salmon, tuna, and herring are cooked and canned. Most fish are filleted prior to canning, but some small fish (e.g. sardines) are only decapitated and gutted prior to canning.

Seafood is consumed all over the world; it provides the world’s prime source of high-quality protein: 14–16% of the animal protein consumed world-wide; over one billion people rely on seafood as their primary source of animal protein. Fish is among the most common food allergens.

Iceland, Japan, and Portugal are the greatest consumers of seafood per capita in the world.

The UK Food Standards Agency recommends that at least two portions of seafood should be consumed each week, one of which should be oil-rich. There are over 100 different types of seafood available around the coast of the UK.

Oil-rich fish such as mackerel or herring are rich in long chain Omega-3 oils. These oils are found in every cell of the human body, and are required for human biological functions such as brain functionality.

Whitefish such as haddock and cod are very low in fat and calories which, combined with oily fish rich in Omega-3 such as mackerel, sardines, fresh tuna, salmon and trout, can help to protect against coronary heart disease, as well as helping to develop strong bones and teeth.

Shellfish are particularly rich in zinc, which is essential for healthy skin and muscles as well as fertility. Casanova reputedly ate 50 oysters a day.

Doctors have known of strong links between fish and healthy hearts ever since they noticed that fish-eating Inuit populations in the Arctic had low levels of heart disease. One study has suggested that adding one portion of fish a week to your diet can cut your chances of suffering a heart attack by half.

Fish is thought to protect the heart because eating less saturated fat and more Omega-3 can help to lower the amount of cholesterol and triglycerides in the blood – two fats that, in excess, increase the risk of heart disease. Omega-3 fats also have natural built-in anti-oxidants, which are thought to stop the thickening and damaging of artery walls.

Regularly eating fish oils is also thought to reduce the risk of arrhythmia – irregular electrical activity in the heart which increases the risk of sudden heart attacks.

Including fish as a regular part of a balanced diet has been shown to help the symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis – a painful condition that causes joints to swell up, reducing strength and mobility. Studies also show that sufferers feel less stiff and sore in the morning if they keep their fish oil intake topped up. Recent research has also found a link between Omega-3 fats and a slowing down in the wearing of cartilage that leads to osteoarthritis, opening the door for more research into whether eating more fish could help prevent the disease.

Classic Fish Pie

The starting point for this classic fish pie is a roux sauce, made from butter, flour and a Knorr Fish Stock Pot; whisked together until smooth and thick, and enriched with cream. You then gently poach the fish and prawns in this sauce, adding to its flavour. Transfer to a pie dish, top with leeks, hard-boiled eggs and cheddar cheese. Then layer egg yolk-enriched potato puree on top. Bake in a hot oven until golden.

Ingredients
• 1 Knorr Fish Stock Pot
• 20g butter
• 20g flour
• 100ml double cream
• 50g handful of grated mild Cheddar cheese
• 100g white fish fillet, chopped into round 2.5cm squares
• 100g salmon fillet, chopped into round 2.5cm squares
• 100g smoked haddock, chopped into round 2.5cm squares
• 100g peeled, headless raw prawns
• 3 hard-boiled eggs, peeled and quartered
• 150g baby leeks, blanched, chopped, patted dry
• 1kg mashed potato (made by peeling 1kg potatoes, boiling until tender and mashing with double cream or milk and 2–3 egg yolks)
• For a healthier option instead of using 100ml of double cream you can use 50ml of cream mixed with 50ml of milk

Method

1.First make your fish stock by dissolving the Knorr Fish Stock Pot in 400ml of boiling water stirring until thoroughly dissolved.
2.Set the stock aside to cool for around 20 minutes while you prepare the fish and leeks.
3.Pre-heat the oven to 220°C/ Gas Mark 7.
4.Heat a heavy-based saucepan. Add in the butter, allow to melt, then add in the flour and whisk to mix thoroughly. Using a whisk, rather than a wooden spoon, to make the sauce means you won’t have any lumps.
5.Gradually add in the cooled stock, whisking between each addition. You want to be sure to cook out any floury taste.
6.Whisking constantly, bring to the boil and simmer until thickened. Whisk in the double cream to enrich the sauce.
7.Add in the white fish, salmon and smoked haddock chunks. Gently shake the pan to work the fish into the sauce. Cook very gently over a low heat to poach the fish in the sauce.
8.Two minutes later add in the prawns, again shaking the pan to work them into the sauce, and cook gently for 1–2 minutes until just cooked.
9.Turn the fish mixture into an ovenproof pie dish. Sprinkle over the blanched leeks and then top with a layer of hard-boiled egg quarters. Sprinkle over the grated Cheddar. This way you’re adding layers of flavour and texture to the dish.
10.Spread over the mashed potato to form a thick, even layer on top of the pie, smoothing with a spatula or palette knife. I used a wet palette knife to indent the mashed potato creating a fish scales pattern, but you can use a fork instead.
11.Bake for 25–30 minutes in the pre-heated oven until golden brown. The egg yolks in the mashed potato mean that it puffs up as it bakes and gives a lovely golden colour to the topping.

layer egg yolk-enriched potato puree on top. Bake in a hot oven until golden.

Marco Pierre White

You may be interested in the other news pages:
Barbecue News
Beer News
Bread Making
Breakfast News
Cake News
Cheese News
Chocolate News
Coffee News
Crockpot News
Baking News

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