Eighty pounds of fish, to be precise. She called me from the Vancouver airport in the middle of the night.
Me: “Hi! I’ve missed you this week. How was fishing out in the Canadian wild?”
She: “Do you have room in your freezer?”
Me: “What?”
She: “Because mine’s pretty full, if I remember, and I’ve got a lot of fish.”
Me: “My freezer?”
She: “Yeah. Eighty pounds. Sorry, I haven’t slept much. Can I put my fish in there?”
Me: “I guess, but what --”
She: “Good. I’ll come straight to your place from O’Hare. I’ll need to take a cab, because I’ve got a lot of fish.”
Me: “Um, you’ve --”
She: “The coolers are only good until 8am, so we need to unload it quick.”
Me: “Coolers?”
She: “See you soon!”
So she arrived at the crack of dawn and it turns out that eighty pounds of fish fit into two large Styrofoam coolers but not into one freezer. So now my otherwise-empty freezer is full of fish, and my brother-in-law’s freezer is half full of fish. It’s mostly salmon, but there’s some halibut, red snapper, and lingcod, which is apparently some kind of fish.
Neither of us is that great at cooking, but I sense some very quick learning in our future. And a lot of meals that involve fish.
Do you owe dinners to anyone? Make a couple of practice dinners, and then start paying back any dinners you owe. Most people who are not vegan/vegetarian will eat fish. And a lot of people who claim to be vegetarian will eat fish, too. IIRC, even frozen fish will not keep forever, you have to eat it up in a matter of a few months.
Also, she might consider donating some fish to a homeless shelter. My husband loves to hunt, but none of us really care for venison, so he usually donates any deer that he kills to Hunters for the Hungry, or something like that.
I believe the Chicago Food Depository has the means to collect and keep cold perishable food. I’m guessing that even if they can’t use 80 (or however many) pounds of fish they’ll know someone who can.
I’d be willing to take some off your hands myself, except you might be quite some distance away from me, and my freezer is also mostly full right now.
The best meal I ever had was around a bonfire at some friends’ house after they’d just gotten back from a salmon fishing trip in Canada. Eat the salmon first!
Lingcod - a scary looking fish. But fantastic on the grill. Season and butter lightly. Cook until just firm. A very nice white meat fish. Enjoy with white wine. I’m envious.
If you want to offload some of that fish, I’ll take it.
With the salmon, if you like uncooked fish, I would definitely give gravlax a shot. It’s basically just salmon cured with salt, pepper, sugar, dill, and maybe some aquavit or other liquor. It’s quite nice, IMHO.
You’re lucky; all of the fish she caught is great fish. Wild Alaskan salmon is maybe the best tasting fish there is - totally superior in every way to the farmed shit with color added. It is best with minimal preparation. I usually just put a little salt, pepper and lemon juice and grill it or bake it in the oven.
I would totally take that fish off your hands. My best friend lives in Alaska, and keeps on threatening to send him some of his family’s catch (smoked), but so far. . .nope. Sigh.
I\ The beast deal is when somebody takes it off your hands (The Salmon) smokes it and jerks it, keeps a third and sends you back the preserved two thirds… or maybe 60/ 40 in these times.
Way yes. Essentially a kissing cousin of lox, and delicious – and not hard to make.
And, yes, your partner is one hot lady, and that is hot that she brought you amazing fish. Gabby Johnson is right – those are all some of the best fish you could ever eat. Never had lingcod, but I know of it’s reputation as good eating.
I love the salmon cooked with the skin on, if they’re in filets like that – good tasting and good fat under the skin. Did she clean them and everything? If so, that’s even superhumanly impressive
I don’t think she’s interested, but I bet she’ll be tickled by the offer.
That’s an interesting idea. I think the priorities will be 1) eat a lot of it ourselves, and 2) give a lot of it away to friends. But a food pantry or shelter sounds like a noble third option.
One of her company’s vendors took her, so it was quite fancy. Everything was very professional. They fileted the fish for them and vacuum-sealed the filets individually. Incidentally, I’ve never seen salmon filets this thick. Some of them are 5 inches thick, and that’s just half the fish!
Indeed, that thing looks pretty terrifying. She knew absolutely nothing about fishing when she set out, but since she got back has been talking about it as if she were born in waders. So I guess she knows all about the fish she caught. I, on the other hand, am from landlocked Kansas, and am still surprised to learn that fish do not come from cans.
Agreed. Though she was out there for a week, so I’m not sure it’s quite as impressive. (Some of the other people on the trip caught a lot more.) On the other hand, she actually reeled in a lot more weight than 80 pounds, but she left all the guts/heads/etc. up in Canada.
Keep an eye on her. My wife got at least one proposal after frying up a mess of crappie, much less salmon. OTOH, she was 15, looked 18, was in a swim suit, and fried them in the grease from a pound of bacon. The number of heads this might turn is mighty high. Especially the last part.
