Shad Roe NOW

[Frank Deis]

I had planned to make Aloo Gobi tonight and was accumulating ingredients for that. Louise bought a huge head of cauliflower and was eager to use it up. I realized I had no fresh ginger and hot peppers so I went to an interesting local store -- run by Koreans and staffed by Hispanics, always interesting stuff there. They have a fish department and they had a few packages with a hand lettered sign "EGGS OF FISH"

I recognized shad roe and bought a package. SO it's shad roe tonight. I am assuming the best approach here is the simplest, bread and fry and make a brown butter sauce?

If I can get my act together maybe I can use half of this big cauliflower to do one of the oven-browned and caramelized variations, like the one by Todd English with honey...

Gourmets have to be flexible!

[Frank Deis]

Re: Delicious Discovery for Cauliflower

We roast cauliflower florets in the oven, coated with EVOO, some granulated garlic and turmeric. It does indeed caramelize, tastes great, and is one of our favorite side dishes

.

This looks so simple. I cut half the cauliflower into florets, tossed with olive oil, sprinkled with salt, garlic powder, garam masala, and turmeric. And I cut up an onion I had into wedges, with Jenise's method in mind. About to stick it into the oven.

[Frank Deis]

Shad roe is SO good. I had forgotten.

I just did 1) flour 2) egg wash 3) bread crumbs 4) piping hot cast iron frying pan with peanut oil.

Three minutes on a side.

Not the least bit fishy, just wholesome, delicious and nostalgic.

Louise said "your Mom did it better." What!?!? She couldn't tell me HOW mom did it better.

On reflection I think bacon and onions were involved...

[Mike Filigenzi]

Well if bacon and onions were involved then it was pretty much better, at least to some degree.

I've never had shad roe and don't believe I've ever seen it for sale here, although I'm not sure I'd recognize it. Sounds good, though.

[Frank Deis]

It looks vaguely disgusting but it's really tasty.

[Christina Georgina]

LOVE IT LOVE IT LOVE IT heading out to my Oriental market tomorrow to see if the season has hit here. Fried in bacon fat...simple, easy and tasty

[Christina Georgina]

Fish eggs are amazing. Just finished the sturgeon egg season here and waiting for the Lake Michigan salmon eggs to come in. Shad roe would make a triple crown. Now I'll be dreaming about the meal.....

[Dale Williams]

love shad roe, but Betsy doesn't.
Noticed fish market had whole shad marked "with roe" Tuesday.

[Frank Deis]

I went back to where I bought it, to get more, all sold out. I tried the Korean place, H Mart, no go.

Because it's a very American fish (see John McPhee's book, "The Founding Fish") there is some confusing at ethnic markets. It is "Alosa" in Spanish and "Arosa" in Japanese. In Japan they are constantly making use of "mentaiko" which is pollock roe, which is a pair of little sacks which looks just like a baby sized shad roe. The length of my little finger instead of the length of my hand, and treated with salt and hot spices. But these analogies just confuse the people in the aisles...

Maybe I should call the "expensive" fish store out on Route 18...