Well, I KEPT MY PROMISE, no blogging without something to say. Long silence from me after doubling my quota of grandchildren…from one to two!
What brought me back into action was the arrival of spring. Along with the flowering redbud and dogwood come shad, making their way up the rivers to spawn. With the female of the species comes shad roe.
It is available in Florida in late January, and in the Carolinas in February and March. Virginians must wait until April. Shad roe comes in two half-moon shaped crescents of small roe that is held together by a thin filament. This is called “a set.” Early in the season a set can cost $12.99. At this time of year, when shad roe is local, the cost is down around $7.00.
The Garden Club of Virginia Cookbook has the simplest way to cook shad roe. You sever the filament that holds the two pieces of the set together, and then wrap each of the two crescents in a slice of bacon. Put both in an iron skillet that you’ve sprayed lightly with oil and put the skillet into a COLD oven.
Turn the heat to 375 degrees. Cook from 30 to 50 minutes, depending on the size of the set. If this your first time cooking shad roe, ask the person behind the counter about the size. Serve with lots of lemon wedges.
Cora Jones’ method takes more time, but insures that the interior of the set stays moist. Poach it at a slow simmer in water to which you’ve added a tablespoon of vinegar (this help it stay in one piece). Let it simmer five minutes for a small set and up to ten minutes for a large one.
Pat dry, smear with melted butter and put it in a pan under a hot broiler. Broil it only until it turns golden, don’t leave it in the oven so it dries out the roe. Again, serve with lots of lemon, or make up a mayo/yogurt/sour cream/caper/lemon sauce to go with it.
My Godchild, Georgina, is an inspired cook, and she came up with this combination. For two people, cook ½ lb. of angel hair pasta. Melt a generous amount of butter in a sauté pan and on a very low flame gently cook the set in the butter until it is barely done. Remove it to a chopping board and chop it six ways from Sunday.
Georgina tosses the pasta with olive oil, mixes it with the shad roe, some light cream, salt and pepper and then sprinkles on chopped parsley or chives for color. I often use a little store-bought Tzatziki (a yogurt and cucumber mixture) revved up with hot sauce, lemon juice and green onions, to mix with the shad roe.
Again, chopped parsley is a must for color. When we have the luxury of shad roe, this is my favorite way to eat it.
Quick! Hustle on down to your favorite seafood store before shad roe disappears for another eleven months.
Well, my own receipt for shad roe is not, I’m sure, good for the cholesterol watchers, but. . .I always cook up some bacon first; then I divide the roe sets and wrap each in one layer of waxed paper (which keeps them from popping all over the kitchen!) and fry (yes!) them slowly in the bacon grease. They brown through the paper, which is easily unwrapped, and are out of this world with the bacon and some asparagras and hollandaise sauce! I justify all this by thinking it’s only a once or twice a year treat, but yum!
Oh yum indeed, Penny. I’ll try it with the wax paper. But the hollandaise??!? I would end up putting it on both the asparagras and the shad roe, which really would be over the top!
My Irish father adored shad roe and we had it every spring. Ditto my very old style mother-in-law,with the bacon of course.
Sheila
Comment