FEBRUARY 16, 2021

 HELLO EVERYBODY!!!!!

Well, well, well. What a week that was. Yeah, everyone went nuts on lobster and tuna but I have to say that we are blown away by the culinary growth. Wow!! This could have been such a shitty Valentine's Day weekend without a reservation at one of your favorite restaurants because of all this nonsense around us.  But think of it. All of you prepared such beautiful meals. Amazing! Our Instagram account (@smallworldseafood) lit up with beautiful preparations of seared tuna, tuna pokes, lobster risotto and so much more. I am not sure how many of you were thinking about it but you all DEFINITELY spent much less money on those meals for much more and better quality. Your homes were the best restaurants in town. The best! We are so proud of all of you. 

I kind of went into a little panic over the weekend thinking, aww snap, how are we going to top this? But, we don't have to. It's nice to go big once in a while but just once in a while. All the work with tuna, though, got me thinking that next month we should focus a little more on sushi kind of things and dumpling kind of things and glazes kind of things. Just a little thought. 

This week, we got our hands on a couple crowd favorites. First, speckled trout fillet! These beautiful fish from the Carolinas are so tasty. Wild trout is nothing like the farmed rainbows that you often see on menus. Much, much better. These fillets are skin on and bone out. We will also be selling Jersey fluke fillet! That is our version of flounder down these parts but nothing like the frozen sole flounder your grandma used to cook. At this time of year, they are meatier and glisten for the extra fat that comes with the cold waters. You can sear these babies simply with a little bit of our dredge in a hot pan or broil it with a little bit of Bibou's parsley butter. Mmmmmm....

And since Mardi Gras is upon us, we thought we would tie in a little bit of a New Orleans kind of thing by featuring a little bit of corn grits and corn meal. Now, you can buy commercial varieties anywhere but that's not how we roll. So we are teaming up with Castle Valley Mill in Bucks County (castlevalleymill.com) to get the real stuff. Heirloom varieties and non-GMO corn. Stone ground by them from product coming from Pennsylvania. It's worth a ride there if you bake bread as well. Their wheat flour is off the charts good and it's a neat place. Barbara in Fairmount told them they had to call us and they did. Thanks for the lead, Barb.

So, with this in mind, we will do two things. One is we will incorporate cornmeal into our signature dredge this week so that you can get an extra crisp and nuttiness on your fish. You can use it on the fluke or the trout, honestly, and then finish it off Almondine or Meuniere. Mmmm, good. We will also be selling pint containers of their mixed corn grits (10oz each) which you can use to make cornbread, pancakes but really you should make this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhCgotCyooU

Now, add shrimp stock to the grits instead of water and, well, yeah. Dopamine surge...you can use either size of shrimp. No matter. The shrimp stock is made by El Camino Real in Northern Liberties. They make an excellent paella every once in a while and this stock is off the charts. Perfect for grits but also for bisque or paella. it is pretty concentrated so you can add water to dilute it some.

Another thing the cornmeal/flour dredge would be great for is bay scallops. They are back! From Peru, they little pearls make for a nice little snacky snack on toast or a risotto maybe with shrimp stock? Se where i am going with all this? Mussels are the shellfish of the week. Oysters will be Cutty Hunk Islands form Massachusetts. A little bigger. Kind of like the Thatch islands of a couple of weeks ago.

Lastly, we are going to do a fund raising drive the week. Again, we will be selling our tote bags for $5 of which $2 will be donated. Also, we will have a tab for a simple donation if you already have a bag and we will match all the donations. 

The beneficiary this week will be The Ethical Society in Rittenhouse Square. This organization has been around since1885 and has been an importsnt contibutor to the conscience and conscientiousness of this city. It has been part of our community longer than any of us. They help shape the character of many of us through community and FOR the community. They have not been able to rent out rooms to different groups for almost a year because of Covid. I was a beneficiary of one of these groups able to use space there four days a week there around noon. It certainly enriched my life. These are good people helping people become better people. That's a good thing indeed. We can use all the good people we can get in this world and they help do that. 

Anyway, that's it from me. look out for the order form this Thursday at 9am.

And speaking of Mardi Gras,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyLjbMBpGDA

Peace,

Robert Amar

Small World Seafood

Owner