Sea and Smoke by Blaine Wetzel

Author:Blaine Wetzel [Wetzel, Blaine; Ray, Joe]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780762453115
Publisher: Running Press

I can’t remember the first time I met Jeremy Brown, which is hard to believe because he is a merry, redheaded Cornishman, but I will never forget the first time I saw his fish. Jeremy has been fishing for The Willows for the last twelve years, long before I got here. He leaves Bellingham for about three days at a time on his small boat to catch whatever’s biting, bringing a cooler or two of his catch to the kitchen when he’s through. He handles each one gently, even going to the effort of tying a small string through the mouth of each fish he catches to carry them without strain. He also pressure bleeds the fish with a syringe and a small saltwater pump to flush out their circulatory systems. Removing as much blood as quickly as possible ensures the best flavor and texture from the flesh. Once that’s done, the fish are weighed and packed in a cooler with crushed ice, with more ice in their belly cavities.

Through no fault of their own, chefs often don’t realize that commercial fishing is a highly regulated business, not an open-season, all-you-can-catch buffet. There are limited openings strung out through different fishing zones over the course of a season (and sometimes those are only a few hours a year). In 2014, there were only two days when halibut could be fished in the Puget Sound, and each boat was allowed only a limited amount.

The openings were spread out by a few weeks, but if you were to call a less-than-scrupulous fish supplier for the six weeks after the first opening, they would tell you about their great, just-caught local halibut.

We never know what Jeremy is going to bring in: some salmon, a few types of cod, some rockfish, a tuna, some mackerel, skate, or halibut. He’ll text from his boat, sometimes even sending me a picture of his catch, and let me know what he’s got. Each week, we take whatever he brings and figure out what to cook. Sometimes, it’s all one type of fish, and other weeks, there might not be enough of any single type for the whole restaurant, and we’ll use different fish at different tables.

Beyond this, getting to know our fishermen has given us a huge variety in the kinds of fish we can get. There are so many different fish that are caught, bought, and sold commercially, yet very few types trickle down to make it onto restaurant menus. Many great-tasting fish are seemingly known only to fishermen. When I told Jeremy that I was curious about the other types of fish he sees, he started to bring in all types of small fish, snapper-type fish, flounder, and even eel. One time he caught a giant angelfish that had apparently swum over all the way from Hawaii to Lummi Island.

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