Then Great American Seafood Cookoff may be over, but the voting, for the folks at home, has just begun. Five top recipes have been chosen and we get to vote for our favorite. Just click on the red box at GreatAmericanSeafoodCookoff.com to vote and also be entered to win a trip to New Orleans.
The event was such a great way to promote domestic seafood and the unique flavors that will knock your socks off if you haven’t ventured away from your fish sticks. Growing up along the Great Lakes, I could name at least 10 varieties of edible fish that the family regularly ate, by the time I was five. Looking at the stores shelves as an adult, I am stuck with salmon, cod, grouper, or “fish sticks.” I can see why people don’t experiment!
You may take it for granted, but I have flipped over the packages at the grocery store of local varieties of fish, and notice so much is from or packaged in Thailand or China! They are also injected with solution and “spices” that do not all have to be disclosed. I couldn’t help but wonder just how long that fish had been sitting before it came into the store, and it just seems unnatural to raise fish that are not native to ship back to sell in their native land. It just can’t be as healthy, and they all start to taste the same. With the local seafood that kept me healthy during my childhood, I not only knew what lake or river they came from, but I knew the name of the person who caught them too!
Since it takes me years, it seems, to decide what to order at a restaurant because there are so many things that I like, I knew that this would be no simple task for me. I was torn between choosing a cook off recipe I personally would like to eat, and what I thought was truly original.
Here are the two I have neck and neck and that I will agonize about all day long before I vote:
- Colorado Striped Bass Panzanella from Colorado’s Paul Anders, but I was a little uneasy about the choice of using hybrid bass. Maybe it is a false assumption, but I assume since it says “hybrid” and not “fish from an inter-fish marriage” I would imagine it was farm raised. That is a no no for me. However, if this recipe is “that good,” I may be able to substitute for a similar fish if I was making it myself.
- Texas Shrimp. They just “grow em bigger” in Texas like everything else! The whole state of Texas (and the recipe comes from Texan Mark Holley) seems to be in here. You have Gulf Shrimp, hominy, pricky pear juice, and more. Could I actually make this dish, even though I love shrimp? Finding a few ingredients near me may be a bit more of a science project.
Visit Greatamericanseafoodcookoff.com and cast your vote for your favorite! Write in and tell me what you chose!
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