We caught another whack of fish today. Some teenie ling cod. P had a good day, catching a 13 lb ling [seen on left], and generally just catching most of the fish of the day. We kept a couple ling cod – one to brine and smoke, and one to freeze whole to enjoy at home.
We also took 4 nice rock cod, and had a very memorable dinner. G went through the trouble of gutting them, cutting out the gills, and scaling them. Other than that, they were whole, head on. She then corn starched them to avoid moisture, and deep fried them whole. Add to that a nice sweet and sour spread she made to top it. Wow. You can eat every bit of flesh cooked whole, which is awesome, but there’s more. I ate fins. The fins of the fish deep fried are crispy like crackling. Cheeks pop out and are easily enjoyable. And to put a cherry on the cake, I had a proud yet slightly disturbing experience of tasting the eye. Wow. Not a super pleasant experience, I have to admit.
Add to the meal: 6 crab caught the other day, kept live in the waters off the dock. Corn on the cob, asparagus, and rice.
The wine pairings with dinner: a Marsannay Rose [pinot noir]. Good, strawberry, and long mild finish. But a little lacking somehow overall. However. We then proceeded to tackle a bottle of Georges Duboeuf Macon-Villages 2003. Chardonnay. And possibly the nicest, most friendly chardonnay I can recall. Refreshing, fruity, light, and overall likeable and popular by all involved.
The last bit I have to add – we went on an adventure to a local island where Gerry had sourced some incredible wild chives we’ve been enjoying. They have a fresh chive vibe, but with a deep-fried onion kind of depth of flavour. Nuts. So we dug up about a hundred plants, and I’m taking 3-4 dozen home to plant. They are seriously good. The best chives I’ve had, and I’ve become a big chive fan. Fun to spend some time on an island in the middle of the tide, that I’ve seen for years, but never set foot on.
The smoker’s smoking away, smoking up some moose brisket, game sausages, and whloe fillets of brined ling cod. We just finished lunch – I made a crab, brie, and wild chive egg scramble with toast and home-made blackberry jam.
This afternoon, H’s off early, and wants to go salmon fishing for a bit, which is near a spot where he wants to try for a monster ling cod. He wants to catch a small ling to use as live bait. The monster ling will eat their own kind, so it will be interesting to see if we can catch what they refer to as a ‘bucket head’ or ‘dinosaur’. Salmon fishing has seriously been sucking for the guides up here. Terrible. The vast majority of guides are getting skunked, shift after shift, day after day. H was able to get a 20lb spring in the boat yesterday, after a lot of nothing.
Anyway. Time for a nap, as I said.