Long
Island is surrounded by water and the East End, where we live, is particularly
blessed. Not two miles from our house is
Peconic Bay, which feeds into the Long Island Sound separating New York from
Connecticut. Four miles in the other
direction brings you to the Atlantic Ocean.
In our town, this is pure beach front territory. But travel 30 miles East and
you’ll come to Montauk. Until very
recently, this town was all about fish.
Some people earnestly wish it would return to its roots. In the last couple of years, it’s become a
party place for city hipsters. There are
any number of names for these new arrivals, most of them unpleasant as in
“Citiots”. But Montauk will always mean
fish to those of us less recently arrived.
So when we were planning a recent dinner party, I couldn’t think of a
better thing to serve than a fresh-caught Whole Striped Bass caught from a boat
off Montauk in the morning, delivered to our fresh fish emporium within hours,
gutted, de-gilled and handed over to us the same afternoon. Talk about fresh!
Striped
Bass is a much a part of Long Island as the potato fields. The New York State
record for this fish was a 74 pounder caught off Montauk in 1981. Their range however is much longer than Long
Island. They run from the Atlantic Coast
of Eastern Canada all the way down to the St. John’s River in Florida. They are spawned in fresh water but live
their adult lives in the ocean. In New
York, mature fish head for the headwaters of the Hudson River in the
spring. The fertilized eggs float
downstream hatching a few days after spawning.
They move downstream where they’re drawn to estuaries, which become
nurseries for the larvae and juvenile fish in the summer. By late summer and into fall, they travel
down into New York Harbor and finally, when they are large enough, they join
the adult Striped Bass in the Atlantic.
They’re migratory too, swimming south in the summer and heading back
north and inshore in the spring.
Our Striper's Fish Tag During
colonial times, there was such an abundance of Striped Bass that the early
colonists used them to fertilize farm fields.
They came under such pressure, that they were first fish to have harvest
regulations put into place—in the 1600s in Massachusetts! In the 20th century, there were
all kinds of attempts at conservation but they failed miserably. Unfortunately, in the 1980s, these failures
created a collapse of the population.
Strict rules were put into place and a fisheries management success
story was written. By 1995, the
population was re-built and returned to healthy levels. Nevertheless major restrictions still exist. Only two striped bass may be taken on any one
per day are permitted to be caught. But for all its restrictions, there is
nothing quite like Striped Bass for its subtle taste and texture. And you can cook it almost any way you could
imagine! I chose to roast ours whole and
how I did that was about as much an adventure as fishing for it itself.
Colin Mather, right, outside his
Seafood Shop in Wainscott NYWhen I first hit upon
the idea of making Striped Bass the centerpiece of our dinner, the first place
I went was to the Seafood Shop in Wainscott, which is a couple of villages over
from us. Colin Mather presides over this citadel of fresh fish, clam chowders,
seafood of every description and has for as long as I’ve been going there. I stopped in there on a Thursday afternoon
for advice on which fish to order.
Steered to Striped Bass, I ordered a whole fish to be picked up early
Saturday. Off home I went in search of a
recipe. The problem I encountered was
that the only recipes I could find were for 1 ½ to 2 lb. fish--the sale of
which New York doesn’t permit. So it was
a matter of adapting what I learned and creating a recipe of my own. I chose to make a lemon and mint combination
that for all the world looked like a chimichurri, the Argentine sauce more
associated with beef than with fish. The
fish is scored to the bone and some of the lemon and mint mixture is stuffed
into the cavities created. More of the
sauce plus lemon and mint are put inside the fish’s gut. Then the whole thing is roasted until the
skin is crisp and the fish cooked through.
Because I had such a big piece of bass and because nothing is worse than
overcooked fish, I erred on the side of caution and the fish, which I thought
would cook in 20 minutes took closer to 40 minutes. Fortunately, one of our dinner guests is not
only a doctor of medicine but apparently a doctor of fish cooking as well. He checked doneness of the fish by opening up
the scores all the way to the bone.
Finally, the fish was white all the way down and ready to serve. It was magnificent, if I do say so
myself. We Caprese Salad
served this with very simple
sides: A Caprese Tomato Salad with Buffalo Mozzarella and Corn off the Cob with
Shiitake Mushrooms, Shallots and a hit of Red Pepper. And for dessert,
those individual Pavlovas I raved about earlier in the week. Here is the recipe:
Corn off the Cobb with Shiitake Mushrooms and Shallots
Recipe
for Whole Roasted Striped Bass with Lemon and Mint Chimichurri.
Serves 8 – 10. Active Time
30 minutes. Resting time 1 hour. Cooking
time 20 – 40 minutes. Total Time 1 hour
40 minutes.
4 lemons, cut in half. 1
Lemon sliced, 1 lemon cut into wedges, the rest juiced.
1 8-10 lb. Whole Striped Bass, cleaned, scaled and de-finned,
scored to the bone in 4 places on each side.
Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees.
Season
the cavity and exterior of fish with salt and pepper. Cover with plastic, and
refrigerate for 1 hour.
While
fish is in the refrigerator, make the Chimichurri sauce:
In a
food processor with the metal blade in place, blend Olive Oil, scallions,
chopped mint, lemon juice oregano and garlic until a coarse puree forms. Season the sauce with salt and pepper. Reserve ½ cup of sauce.
Spread
the remaining sauce in the scores on both sides of the fish and in the body
cavity. Place the lemon slices and the
mint sprigs into the fish.
Put
the fish in the oven for about 20 minutes.
Start checking for doneness at the 20 minute mark. The fish should be dead white all the way to
the bone. Depending on the thickness of
the fish, this may be another 10 to 20 minutes.
Remove
the fish from the oven. Serve the fish
directly off the bone, with the lemon wedges.
Pass the reserved sauce.
