Posted on 01/19/2011 10:30:09 AM PST by JoeProBono
MUKWONAGO, Wash.- A Wisconsin restaurant chef is planning an "invasivore" dinner starring dishes made from invasive Asian carp taken from the Illinois River.
Chef Jimmy Wades of the Heaven City Restaurant in Mukwonago said the Asian carp menu for "invasivores" -- those who enjoy helping the environment by dining on invasive species -- will hit the restaurant in February as part of his Tapas Tuesday series, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported Tuesday.
"Lots of people will try anything once," Wades said.
However, some conservationists warned creating demand for Asian carp could increase the threat to the Great Lakes and other bodies of water by slowing the eradication of the species from U.S. lakes.
"One of the great things about North Americans is when they're dealt lemons, they make lemonade," said Marc Gaden, spokesman for the Great Lakes Fishery Commission. "But very often, they forget that they weren't drinking lemonade in the first place, and don't even like it."
Personally, I’d like to do my part by riding down the Mississippi River and shooting the things as they leap out the water, but PETA and the liberals would have a fit.
It seems to me that I heard that carp were originally imported into the US as a food fish by Eastern Europeans.
That actually sounds like great fun.
“It seems to me that I heard that carp were originally imported into the US as a food fish by Eastern Europeans”
“On an enormous silver platter
a great fish reposed in a bed of parsley: it was complete and perfect from head to tail,
with eyes of carrots and capers,
and gleaming scales of gelatin.
Surely no holiday food is more Jewish than gefilte fish. It has been eaten by the Jews of Central and Eastern Europe since the late Middle Ages. Perhaps because of its guttural-sounding name in English, it will probably never, like lutefisk within the Norwegian community, become a showstopper outside the Jewish community. But for the majority of American Jews it signifies holiday food in their home. And, homemade, it is delicious.
When the Jews migrated to Eastern Europe, fresh fish was hard to come by. Even so, they wanted just a little bit for their Friday evening meal—to welcome the delights of the Sabbath. Since nearly all the Jews were extremely poor, they learned to invent dishes for people of limited means. During the week their diet consisted of potatoes, salt herring, onions, and dark bread. Fresh fish was reserved for the Sabbath. Living near the North Sea, they could use pike, carp, buffel, or other inexpensive freshwater fish. But these fish spoil quickly. A fish stretcher—gefilte fish—was therefore concocted so that the 41 members of the family could have at least a small taste for the Friday meal. The women learned to carefully scrape the flesh away from the skin and bone, to add chopped onions, seasoning, bread or matzah crumbs and egg. The fish was then put back into the skin and poached in much the same way another Eastern European Jewish dish, matzah balls, are. Thus, the appellation “gefilte fish.” The fish patties came later. In America, where all manner of cooking was quickened, it was easier to make patties than to take the stuffing and carefully put it back into the skin.....
http://www.simplyseafood.com/newsletters/1008/gefilte_fish.html
Put enough hot sauce on and anything’s tasty.
Well, I like lemonade.
This is a good solution. Overfish them. No limits. We have apparently driven all sorts of species to extinction. We can do this!
Probably make good fishcakes. Japanese use carp quite a bit for sushi. If nothing else, they make good fertilizer.
I called the Illinois DNR. They said they don’t allow the taking of fish with a firearm. Too bad. That would have been a blast. I was thinking two guys with shotguns and one driver.
fermented crucian carp sushi
“Taste like dirt”
You gotta put them live in a sink to clean out a while”
Gefilte fish.
My dad’s Jewish neighbors in NYC used to put them into a bathtub for a couple days to clean out.
I neglected to list the carps most endearing feature: THEIR FLESH IS FULL OF REALLY NASTY OIL.
The preferred way to prepare them is as follows:
Run the carp through one of those old-timer washers with the double roller wringers — three times.
Filet the critter.
Roll the filets in egg and roll in flour, salt and pepper (or bread crumbs), then back through the egg.
Heat a 30 olive oil in a skillet to 300 degrees and drop filets.
Sear and cook on both sides until browned.
Just before pulling filets, pour in a quart of liquor of your choice and heat to just below a boil.
Remove from heat, allow to cool to serving temperature.
Remove filets, feed them to your cat — if he’ll have them — and DRINK THE GRAVY.
About 10 pm...us kids had ate all the hot dogs, Vienna sausage, baloney...and anything else we had. But we HAD caught a big carp.
My uncle tells us to go dig a pit in the sand...clean the carp, and wrap it in foil. Place the carp in the pit..cover the carp with mud..and then build a fire on top of the whole mess.
A couple hours later....we dug that sucker up...and ate it. Was damn good. Maybe we were just hungry. Ha!!
Shooting them is not listed as one of the methods by Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries either. Taking by boat, net, spear and snagging just doesn’t sound as exciting as silver fin skeet shooting.
“My dad’s Jewish neighbors in NYC used to put them into a bathtub for a couple days to clean out.”
Yeah, me too but, not being Jewish, I only did it once when I was about 12 years old and fought with the fish for about four hours. At the time, it seemed to me that if I caught it I should eat it.
You heard wrong. Strong and bad tasting.
I’ve used that bone cutting technique on northern pike. Pike aren’t bottom feeders but they are very bony. IMHO one of the tastiest of lake fish once you get past the bones.
Good, more for me.
Cue the old Cajun joke that ends: "You gonna talk, or you gonna fish, hanh?"
That would be alot of fun. Wonder if such a thing could be done legally.
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