wild blueberries

so here in Southern New England, its the wild blueberry season, high bush blueberries to be exact. The high bush blueberry is a cousin to the domestic ones you buy in the grocery store, only its about 1/2 the size, tastes like a blueberry on steroids and its free. These delectable little guys grow on shrubs about 6-8 feet tall and near water or wet areas. They seem to love growing around the shores of local lakes and ponds. Not to be confused with low bush berries which grow in more arid, rocky areas like the tops of hills and ridges and are only 2-3 feet tall (and a lot harder to pick).
when it comes to picking wild blueberries its all about tenacity, you have to be willing to pick 10 from one bush and then 1/2 a pint from the next one, then 3 from the next etc....keep at it and you'll have a quart in about an hour.
I went blueberry picking at a favorite spot (secret) and got 2 quarts in about 1 1/2 hours. washed and frozen they are destined to become blueberry pie and maybe a treat sprinkled in pancakes....mmmmmm.

Cool Tastes for a Damn Hot Day

Someone at work put the idea in my head, cold cucumber soup. Trust me I know that right about now you are going "ewwww" in your head, but it really is amazing on a hot day. there are a ton of variations but this is how I make it; take it or leave it.....and yes this might actually be a recipe of sorts, which is very rare and difficult since I don't really use them.
ok
3-4 medium cucumbers from the garden (or a friends)
2-3 cloves garlic
2=3 stalks of celery
1 cup sour cream
1 cup 1/2 and 1/2
optional
2 table spoons smoked paprika or chipotle powder
1 segment preserved lemon with juice
salt and pepper to taste

chop up the garlic, celery, sprinkle with the smoked paprika and sweat them in a pan till they are soft
peel and 1/4 lengthwise the cukes, cut out most of the seeds and chop them
when the celery and garlic are soft take them off the burner and let them cool for a bit.
put the cukes and celery/garlic into a blender in small batches and blend until smooth. you may have to add some 1/2 and 1/2 or chicken broth to make this work. it should be thick but smooth. add the sour cream and blend it into the soup. put it in the fridge for at least an hour....and then enjoy....its really very good.....try something new

Bluefish, oh you amazing yellow eyed devils

bluefish, often maligned, cursed and tossed away. Next to dogfish, the plague of many fishermen in the northeast. The yellow eyed devils cut lines, shred bait and bite fingers. There's an old joke that goes..."whats the best way to cook a bluefish? fillet it, rub it all over with garlic, black pepper and other spices, tack it to a cedar plank, and grill it over an open fire till its done. Throw away the bluefish and eat the plank"...Oh what poor fools they are who do this. Bluefish is a delicious food when prepared and cooked properly. There are three things to remember when you want to eat bluefish and enjoy it. 1) size (like everything else it matters). 2) freshness and handling (again see size)...3) cooking method....Ok we'll go in order
1)never ever eat a bluefish over about 10lbs, they are extremely oily. Here in the northeast the bluefish show up to feast on schooling fish,mostly herring and Menhaden. They do this for a reason, the high oil (fat content) that they need to make their fall migration both off shore and south. The bigger the fish the more oil. A perfect size is between 4 and 8 lbs, smaller fish called skipjacks are good too.
2) this is probably the single most important step in eating bluefish. Because of the high oil content they do not keep well. Never EVER buy a bluefish at the market, unless its been smoked. Bluefish do not keep well as the oil will start to flavor the meat with in hours and cause it to get soft and mushy. Fresh caught is the only way to go, and once caught it must be bled and put on ice. It makes me gag every time I see some tourist throw their bluefish on the sand where it sits baking in the sun, covered in sand for 3 hours. as soon as you can fillet it, and unless you are smoking it, skin it and cut out all the dark meat along the lateral line.
OH and please do not freeze it, it will thaw out into a mushy mess (unless you do a dry salt brine fist...more on that later)
3) Ok preparation. You have, lets say a 5lb bluefish, properly cared for, filleted, skinned and all the dark meat cut out.....now take some good kosher salt and rub it all over the fillets front and back and let it sit in the fridge for about a hour.....When you come back to check on it you'll find it sitting in a pool of oily liquid. This is good the salt has drawn a lot of the water and some oil out making the fillets firm and less oily. rinse the fillets under cold water quickly to remove the salt and pat them dry. Now you can cook them like any other thick flaky fish, baked, grilled etc with you favorite seasoning....or poached in white wine with dill.....OR you can freeze them ( for only about a month) or better yet smoke them to make ambrosia from the heavens....but that's for another time...:)

A life lived thru sensory appreciation

We, all of us, were born with 5 (or 6) senses. smell, touch, taste, sight, sound, and for some of us more evolved than the rest empathy. These senses are keyed into our evolution they helped to keeps us from eating bad things (like poison) and helped us to survive over several hundreds of thousands of years. Beyond mere survival, they have helped to create some of the most amazing testaments to what is good and right about humanity, they define us, they shape who we are both culturally and individually. Without taste we'd eat bad things...(not that some of us don't anyway), without sight we'd never create amazing works of art or zen gardens...(ok I do know of many blind artists), without sound how would we know when to get up in the morning? or how to appreciate Stairway to Heaven? without touch would we be able to procreate as a species? What would a world be without smell? And without empathy would we ever care about the world around us?
This blog is mostly just a way for me to share with the world my adventures with these 5 (6) senses...to explore what it means to be human.

Where to Start?

well I figured that I needed somewhere to start so why not fish? If you know me at all you know that I love fish and seafood, and I love even more when its something gathered with my own sweat. So tonight I looked into the freezer and pondered over the stacks of vacuum sealed fish......hmmmm what to make.....I settled on a macaroni fish salad.....kind of like a tuna fish salad but with white fish, flaky and subtle. Some elbows, bass fillets, onions, green olives, preserved lemons (more about those later), my special fish seasoning (don't even ask), celery (with the leaves if you please) lemon juice and just a dash of olive oil and enough mayo to bind it together....it will be just right tomorrow for lunch.