The 33 Best Fish And Shellfish, Local And Exotic
Every year on the thirty-three weekdays of Lent, we present a ranking of the best seafood around town. Some years we rank seafood restaurants. On others, we rank specific dishes. Three years ago, it was the thirty-three best local seafood species for the table. This year, the subject is all the seafood that we find in our restaurants, seafood markets, and our dinner tables at home. The list is dominated by local seafood--we live in one of the great fisheries of the world, after all. But it also includes favorites from other places. Salmon and scallops. Lobster. Mussels. Halibut. Our chefs prepare spectacular dishes with those fine guests from other waters.
The list is not a countdown, beginning with the thirty-third best and working up to Number One. Rather, we started at the top. It's a measure of how superb our seafood selection is that even #33 is involved in many excellent local dishes.
#6: Speckled Trout
The favorite fish in New Orleans white-tablecloth restaurants for decades, speckled trout was losing that reputation among gourmets about ten years ago. The fish had suddenly become rare. And therefore desirable.
It was an artificial shortage. New laws limited the commercial catch of speckled trout to almost
nothing. For many months of the year, there were not--and are not now--any Louisiana speckled trout to be had in restaurants. When the fish returned to menus after these seasonal scarcities, we realized just how terrific a fish speckled trout is. And how all the recipes developed with that particular shape, taste, and texture never really worked as well with other
species.
The first fact about speckled trout (or "spotted sea trout," as the ichthyologists call it) is that it's a drum, not a true trout, and not related even distantly to those fresh-water, salmon-family fish. If you've ever had rainbow trout or ruby red trout substituted in a dish created with speckled trout in mind, you see how important this is. Neither texture nor taste are similar.
The best speckled trout weigh about two or three pounds. (They can grow to over ten, but they get worse as they get bigger.) Really small ones are excellent cooked whole--either fried or broiled. Beyond that, you're talking about fillets. Although some trout is poached and broiled, I've always felt that the fish lends itself to cooking in some kind of fat. It's great deep-fried for dishes like trout meuniere and amandine. (Despite what the waiter says about those dishes' being sauteed, the fish is probably fried.) But it does saute very well, too. These are the dishes in which the flaky, nutty flavor of speckled trout becomes magnificent.
The best coating to use on trout, in my opinion, is simply a light dusting of flour seasoned with salt and pepper or Creole seasoning. In the case of trout meuniere--the classic preparation for this fish--the flour blends with the butter in the pan to make the sauce. I think trout also comes off very well in preparations that essentially steam it to doneness. I'm thinking here about having the fish on a pan, topped or surrounded things like bell peppers, onions, mushrooms, bread crumbs, white wine--that sort of thing.
I don't often see restaurants grilling or blackening trout, but that's just as well. The fish tends to fall apart on the grill, and often dries out. (Keeping trout from turning dry while cooking is the essential step.) If you're a fisherman, you've noted no shortage of speckled trout in recent years. If you're not, much of the trout you've eaten has had to be shipped in from North Carolina. The commercial quota on trout, given the very healthy population of the fish, is absurd. We need a campaign among eaters to change the law that allows two hundred trout to be caught by recreational fishermen for every one sold in a restaurant or store (and that's a conservative figure).
