Technology, Party Trays and Petrale Sole

Dear Fish Fanatics,

Let's start with a joke.  Why do fish love salt water?  Keep reading to find out.

It's All About Communication
When I was a little girl I had pen pals.  They were called pen pals because we actually sat down with a pen and wrote out letters to our friends who lived far away. If I needed to engage my local friends, I could risk passing them a note during class or I could make a phone call from the community phone at my house with my entire family listening in.

When I was in my twenties, the company I worked for installed a "mobile" phone in my car.  It mounted on the floor board of my car and had a long pole that brought the receiver up to within arms reach.  When I left the car I could always be reached by the fashionable black pager attached to my waistband.  My husband's company was much more sophisticated.  He had a 30 lb mobile phone in something like a suitcase that he could tote with him whenever he left the car.

For written documents there was always the high-tech fax machine.

With the nineties came the personal computer with instant messaging and email.  I can only shake my head with wonder at what means of communication will exist when my grandchildren grow up.

In keeping with the times I am beginning a new method of communicating to you:  a blog (which sounds to me like what follows a beer when you drink it too quickly.)  We're calling it On Deck with Kathleen's Catch and it will replace my old-fashioned weekly email.  You will have the opportunity to also hear from some of the others at the Catch as well because they are young and know all about technology.Simply sign up at the top of the page at

www.kathleenscatch.blogspot.com 

and you will receive email notification when there is something new to read.  

Speaking of new technology, texting!  I know texting isn't new, but it is new to Kathleen's Catch.  We've been using our weekly email to tell you about what's happening in our store, but the seafood business changes daily! Sometimes I don't know until 12 hours in advance that I can buy some cool fish that everyone is always looking for, e.g. trigger fish last week.  Therefore, I have engaged a texting service that will allow me to send you really fast, up-to-the-minute news about what's in my store and what's coming in tomorrow.

All you have to do is send a text with the word Catch to this number: 51660. 

 You will receive a confirmation text back which you should answer with YES.  

That's it.  Whenever I feel like telling you that I have fresh softshell crabs, or live crawfish or 10 lbs of pompano, I can drop you a quick text and you can rush over to my store before someone less cool and connected than you drops by and snags it.  

Please Let Me Introduce You To

Colin Kopel, our new Store Manager!  Colin comes to Kathleen's Catch from the Buckhead Life Restaurant Group.  As the Service Manager of the Fish Market in Buckhead for 4 years, Colin knows all about fish and all about service.  He has lots of ideas on how to make your shopping experience at the Catch even better!  Say hello next time you are in and, as Colin is also a sommelier, ask him to recommend a wine with your next fish purchase.!" 

Sushi This Weekend
It's a sushi weekend at Kathleen's Catch. We are bringing in a great assortment of high quality seafood ready to eat as sushi. Our staff is also preparing great sushi-making baskets for all your home preparation needs.  Contents of basket include:

Sushi rice

Sushi quality panko

Soy sauce

Ginger

Wasabi

Sesame

Bamboo rolling mat

Recipe cards

 Starting Saturday, buy a basket...get a free piece of fish!  We are limited on the number of baskets so get up early, bring your coffee and folding chairs and get in line in front of the store.   We open at 10:00.

Fish for sushi this weekend are:

Verlasso salmon

Yellowfin tuna

Hamachi

Kampachi

Cobia

Duck for Dinner

Do you prefer water fowl over land fowl?  We have Magret (duck breast) available by special order.  They average 2 lbs. each and are what food people call double loaf.   These are all natural (of course) and are $15.00/lb.

Holiday Party Trays

Shrimp Platter

Beautiful domestic shrimp
 (not Asian shrimp like you get at the grocery) 

Extra large!!  16 to 20 shrimp per lb.
with cocktail sauce and lemon 

Small - (1.5 lb) - $49.00  (serves 8-12 people)

Large - 3 lb - $79.00 (serves 16 to 20 people)

Smoked Salmon Platter

1.5 lb Cold Smoked Salmon

by Woodsmoke Provisions

with cream cheese, capers and red onion
Serves 8-12 people

$59.00

Hot Smoked Seafood Platter
1 lb Hickory Roasted Smoked Salmon
1 lb Pecan Smoked Trout
8 ounces Smoked Whitefish Salad
with lemons, tartar sauce and spicy mustard
Serves 16-20 people
$75.00

Alaskan Snow Crab and Shrimp Platter
with cocktail sauce and lemon

Small - One lb of each - $69.00 (serves 8-12 people)

Large - two lb of each - $129.00 (serves 16-20 people)

Jumbo Jumbo Jumbo Royal Shellfish Party Platter

1 lb. jumbo crab meat

1 lb. jumbo lobster meat 

1 lb. jumbo shrimp
with cocktail sauce and truffle mayo
Serves 16 to 20 people
$129.00

.
Caviar for Thanksgiving
(pre-orders only please - order by Tuesday for Thanksgiving)

Farmed Beluga - $120 - one ounce jar
Golden Russian Ossetra - $150 - 30 grams
UGA Ossetra Baeri - $80.00 - 30 grams
American Paddlefish - $28.80 - 1 ounce jar
American Hackleback - $36.75 - 1 ounce jar
Golden Whitefish - $11.00 - 1 ounce jar
Trout Caviar - $16.25 - 2 ounce jar
Smoked Trout Caviar - $25.45 - 2 ounce jar
Salmon Roe - $12.70 for 1 ounce jar

We sell mother of pearl serving spoons too!

This Week's Special
Do you love fluke flounder?  Then you will love this week's special - petrale sole!   $11.99/lb,
Petrale is a higher quality fish than the very popular west coast Dover.  A flat fish in the flounder family, petrale is the west coast's alternative to fluke flounder.  It's mild-tasting, kid-friendly fish .

Sautéed Petrale Sole in Herb Butter Sauce Recipe

Serves 4.

Ingredients

1.25 to 1.5 pounds fresh petrale sole fillets

Salt, to taste

2 T olive oil

3 T minced shallots

1/4 c dry white wine

2 T, cut into 4 pieces, cold, unsalted butter

Fresh thyme leaves (or any fresh herb for flavor)

Minced fresh chives

Lemon wedges

Method

1 Pat the sole fillets dry with paper towels. Lightly salt the fillets on both sides.

2 Heat oil in a large, stick-free skillet on medium-high heat. Once the oil is hot, carefully add the fillets to the pan. Brown the fillets gently on both sides. Fish is cooked when it flakes easily and is no longer translucent. Sole fillets will cook up very quickly, no more than a few minutes on each side, so don't walk away from the pan while cooking. Once done, remove the fillets from pan and place on a warm plate.

3 Add shallots to the pan and sauté until soft. Deglaze the pan with white wine and scrape up the browned bits at the bottom of the pan. Add butter and gently swirl to make a sauce. Add herbs, and squeeze a little lemon juice into the sauce. Spoon over the sole.

Serve immediately.

Steamed Sole Asian Style

Layer the following ingredients in a large frying pan

Fennel- thinly sliced

Onions- thinly sliced 

Fresh ginger and fresh garlic - sliced thin or chopped
Lots of fresh baby spinach washed and dried.

Place fillets on top and sprinkle with salt and pepper. 

Sprinkle on top of fish - all to taste:

Fish sauce

Chili oil

Soy sauce

Be generous with the flavors - they will mix with the liquid from the fish and vegetables and will make a delicious sauce.

Put lid on pan cook on medium to low heat, steaming until fish is cooked through and spinach is wilted.

Serve  with jasmine rice seasoned with cilantro.

This Week's Catch to Go

Cod with Roasted Sweet Potatoes

and

Catfish with Apricot Chili Glaze over Rice and Baby Spinach

Thanksgiving Hours
We will be open regular hours on Wednesday the 26h and Friday the 28th.  Closed on Thanksgiving.

Tuna Rolls

Oh my goodness.  The tuna salad was wonderful!  I had been away all day and decided to let it be my ‘dinner’ before heading out for the Wine Extravaganza at Johns Creek Wine and Crystal.  It was fabulous!  I wasn’t sure how I was going to like the Granny Smith Apples, but it gave it just that ‘something’ special.  It’s the best tuna salad I’ve ever had and I’m a big fan of tuna salad.   

Millie Thompson

We've added to our lineup!  Besides our soon-to-be world famous lobster rolls and shrimp rolls, we have come up with our favorite - tuna rolls.   We serve it up just like the lobster rolls and shrimp rolls.  And it can come with a cup of our crazy-good soups or on a bed of greens.   Also available by the pound,   Give it a try!

And Finally
There are many opportunities to enjoy seafood around the holidays.  Maybe a light dinner the day before or the day after the big feast, oysters for the football fans, smoked fish or seafood spreads as appetizers.  Whatever you choose to eat, enjoy it with friends and family and do your best to be thankful for it all.  Spend a little time in gratitude for how much better our lives are than those of much of the world's population.  Every day should be Thanksgiving around here.

I'm thankful for you.

Blessings,
Kathleen

P. S.  Why do fish love saltwater?  Because pepper makes them sneeze.  (Thanks, Susan)
  

Johns Creek Vets, Thanksgiving Seafood and Oh My Cod

Dear Fish Fans,

Veteran's Day brings many people to a pause in their lives, to take a moment or longer, and appreciate the sacrifice of loved ones and the sacrifice of strangers.  Johns Creek used the day to make a considerable statement about the value of our veterans by dedicating the Veterans Memorial Walk at Newtown Park.  It's a somber and beautiful tribute to the veterans of Johns Creek and it's right here in our neighborhood.  Plan a visit to remind yourself that this wonderful life we live here came neither easily or cheaply.

Johns Creek Vets on Facebook

Fin Mail ( This week from our facebook page)

Kathleen, 

I just read this weeks' newsletter (loved it, as usual!) and I had to tell you...we ate at Cypress last weekend in Charleston...my dining companion said those oysters were the best things he has EVER eaten. I was planning to stop in and see you sometime to tell you about them. Is there any chance you might be able to recreate that dish?? You would be my hero!

Phyllis Sterling Angle

Phyllis – I’m working on it! I'm hoping one of our readers has some pull in Charleston and can get us the recipe.  Maybe I should offer a small reward???

BIG NEWS!

I’ve waited almost 4 years for this to happen.  We made the bigtime!! In the AJC!  I’m going out to get some new dark sunglasses to wear around the city now that we are flat out famous!  Let's see - I might need to hire a secretary and a body guard and a publicist and a biographer.... 

Here's the link if you want to share in our two minutes of fame:

http://www.myajc.com/news/lifestyles/food-cooking/in-season-king-crab/nh2DG/

Thanksgiving

Who the heck eats seafood on Thanksgiving?  Well, how about the Pilgrims?   Seems logical to me that a week-long feast in 1621 near the Massachusetts shore would include oysters and lobsters.  So make your Thanksgiving truly authentic and include some of these fruits of the sea. It's very possible that Miles Standish preferred roasted oysters over an open flame and enjoyed lobster instead of venison.  

I'll have plenty of shucked oysters in the jar for your oyster stew and oyster dressing.  And you won't be able to beat our selection of raw oysters in the shell for roasting or baking or just shucking to eat raw while you watch football before dinner.

And for lobsters - we have Maine tails and Caribbean tails in our freezer.  It wouldn't hurt to order ahead if you need a large quantity.

If you are thinking of cooking live lobster over the holidays, let me remind you of why you should buy them from me.  Once a lobster leaves the ocean water, they no longer eat, becoming thinner and thinner on the inside until there is hardly any meat left.  Did you know that it is possible to buy a lobster from a grocery store tank that is still alive, yet has almost no meat.   Unless you are very familiar with how much a certain sized lobster should weigh, you would not know how much meat is in the shell until after you cook it!  That's a little too late, wouldn't you say?  

I don't keep a lobster tank in my store.  Instead, my lobsters come down from Maine three times a week; they are very fresh, fat and full of meat. All you have to do is order one day in advance.  (Sorry - no live lobster deliveries on Sunday.) 

Live lobster prices this holiday season are:

1.25.lb  to 1.5 lb.           $12.99/lb

1.75 lb                            $14.50/lb.

2 - 2.25 lb                      $15.50/lb.

2.5 - 3 lb                        $15.99/lb.

3.0 and up                     $15.99/lb.

Stop by and let's discuss how we can make your Thanksgiving dinner spectacular!     

Catch To Go

Roasted Chilean Sea Bass with Green Beans and Asian Cilantro Sauce
(this is the staff favorite)

AND

Orange Roasted Steelhead with Caper Finishing Sauce 

over Orange Parsley Jasmine Rice
(I'm smelling this rice cooking while I am writing this.  It's mouthwatering!)

In the Discount Freezer

Coho salmon, steelhead trout, rainbow trout, black bass, snapper, corvina, cobia, mahi, pompano, Arctic char, pollack, cod, hake, haddock, grouper, black drum, flounder, tuna, swordfish, catfish, kampachi, striped bass, barramundi, wreckfish, amberjack, wahoo, monkfish and rockfish

In the News

The cod you find at Kathleen's Catch is Pacific cod from Alaska, Washington and British Columbia.   This is a good thing for you because Atlantic cod fishing has been halted in the Gulf of Maine for the entire season.   Starting yesterday, November 12th, no one can catch any cod in the Gulf of Maine from Provincetown, Massachusetts up to the Canadian border.  It’s a sad day when monitors from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration declare the cod population in the Atlantic to be only 3 to 4 percent of the population necessary to be sustainable.  This recent restriction marks the most severe ban on cod fishing in history. 

This is where I get on my aquaculture soapbox.  With 7 billion hungry people straining the natural resources of our world, we simply must get past the negative results of early attempts at aquaculture and recognize that some (not all) companies are doing an excellent job of growing healthy and sustainable fish.  Their work is ensuring that our descendants will be able to experience the pleasure of wild food from the sea.

And Finally 

On your to-do list this weekend, get some rest.  Get out your winter coat.  Plan a visit to the memorial at Newtown Park.  Eat fish.  Enjoy yourself.  Okay?  Come see me.

Blessings,
Kathleen

Charleston, Japanese Seafood and Super Heroes

Hey Fish Fans,

I'm a little late this week because I spent a few days unwinding in Charleston. What a beautiful city! Art, architecture, history, ocean breezes, little shady parks, swings by the water, cobblestones, rooftop bars and even a creepy old slave market. And food.  And wine. And mild weather. It was a perfect couple of days.

Fin Mail       

Dayna Shock was charged with putting together her daughter's class's contribution to the silent auction at her school. She and I put our heads together and came up with a certificate for a surf and turf dinner of lobster tails and filet mignon. All Dayna had to do was throw it in with a few other seafoody items to make a presentation. Maybe a little plastic bucket and shovel? Nope. Not Dayna. She and her husband Sam came up with this instead:

A homemade lobster trap! Filled with all kinds of treasures from the sea (and the vineyard). I am humbled by my talented customers.

Joe Scripture is out seeing the country this week and sent me a few photos.  This one is of honeysuckle oysters he found at the Harbor Fish Market in Portland, Maine.

I can't wait to hear if they really taste like honeysuckle! I love getting your travel seafood photos. It's like modern-day postcards.

In Seafood News

Although I don't sell any seafood products from Japan, people often ask me about the status of the Japanese seafood supply. As you probably remember, March of 2011 was not a good year to be a Japanese fishermen.  It was then that Japan suffered an earthquake, a tsunami and a nuclear disaster, all of which gravely affected the seafood supply in the Pacific.  The earthquake and the resulting tsunami seriously damaged the areas of the Japanese coastline where oysters were produced.  Most of the rafts were destroyed as well as the infrastructure set up to collect and process the oysters.  Even more alarming was the nuclear reactor meltdown which contaminated the water around Japan, destroying much of the local seafood.

So what is the status of Japanese seafood now?  The unit of measure for measuring radioactivity is a becquerel.  In the United States the limit of acceptable radiation in seafood products is 1200 becquerels per kilogram.  Japan, in order to reassure nervous consumers, has determined the limit of acceptable radiation in seafood products at only 100 becquerels per kilogram.  Encouragingly, in the last year, only about 2 percent of samples have exceeded the Japanese limit compared to over 50 percent in the months following the disaster. 

It has been three and half years since commercial fishing was banned in Japan.  On September 25th, test commercial fishing began to determine if, in fact, the seafood supply meets the prescribed level of radioactivity. Things are looking up for the Japanese fisherman!  Again, I don't sell Japanese seafood.  But since Japan and the US west coast share the same ocean, US consumers need reassurance.  I hope this helps.

This Week's Special

Mahi - $7.99 for a six-ounce portion.

While in Charleston I visited Cherry Point Seafood from which we get the short summer supply of mahi. Throughout the fall and winter, mahi swim in tight schools relatively close to shore in the southern Caribbean along the coast of Central and South America.  Then, in March or April they start to spread out and swim north up the Gulf Stream.  They swim right by Cherry Point Seafood in SC and often end up on our summertime grills.

Catch to Go

Lemon Caper Swordfish with Baked Squash and Zucchini (I was not a swordfish lover until I had this dish.)

and

Charmoula Barramundi with Green Beans

This Weekend's Oysters

Watchhouse from Virginia, 3", mild brininess, clean finish

Chunu from Virginia - 2 1/2", high brininess, sweet grassy finish

Hollywood  from Maryland - 3", medium brininess, cucumber finish

Sewansecott  from Virginia - 4", mild brininess, clean finish

James River from Virginia - 4", mild brininess, mild finish

Blue Point from New York - 4", high brininess, mild finish

Naked Cowboys from New York - 4", high brininess, mineral savory finish

Alpine from Canada - 3", high brininess, sweet finish

Beausoleil from New Brunswick - 2 1/2", mild brininess, sweet finish

Deep Cove from P.E.I. - 4", mild brininess, earthy buttery finish

Duxbury Bay - from Massachusetts - 3", high brininess, sweet buttery finish

What do you think was the very best thing I ate while I was in Charleston this week?  Sashimi Tuna and Oysters at Cypress. A half dozen beausoleil oysters with a ginger-garlic glaze and pineapple wasabi.  Heavenly.  Maybe better than heavenly... if there is such a thing.

Crabs

Fresh King Crab - only $29.99/lb.  Fresh never frozen!  This is the ultimate in fast food!

Fresh Stone Crab - from Florida - get them while they last!

In the Discount Freezer

Buy One Get A Cheaper One Free (BYGCOF)

We've already marked these down 20% and now we are giving some away too! 

Grab a few pieces to put in your freezer for those nights when you  need something in a hurry.  We don't have much of any one species but we have a great assortment!

Cobia, snapper, black bass, corvina, sheephead, pompano, rainbow trout, mahi, opah, branzino, Arctic char, cod, hake haddock, grouper, black drum, flounder, tuna, swordfish, pollack, scallops, catfish, striped bass, wreckfish, tilefish, amberjack, wahoo, monkfish and rockfish.

And Finally

My three grandkids are, just like all other kids, incredibly curious.  We deal with a constant barrage of questions at my house:  What's that? (two year old), Why? (three year old) and Why not? (nine year old).  They are fiercely determined to understand what things are and why they are and why they aren't something else.  It can just about drive a person crazy trying to keep up with all the questions!

Another little boy I know just celebrated his 5th birthday yesterday at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta.  His name is Tommy and you can catch a quick glimpse of him near the end of this video.  He's the one with the adorable curly head.

Tommy at Children's Healthcare

Tommy is kept alive by his mother's kidney and on his birthday he is recovering from a difficult surgery to correct some consequences of the kidney transplant. Tommy's story reminds me of the times we just don't have an answer to the whats and whys and why nots.  But, in Tommy's case, there is a definite answer to the how. It's all in the cape, the cape that is the ferocity and determination of a child.

I'm inspired by fierce kids.

Blessings,

Kathleen

www.kathleenscatch.com

678-957-9792

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