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America’s love affair with seafood is epic. More and more consumers are happily diving into seafood-based appetizers, salads, soups, stews, sandwiches, pastas, risottos, entrees, and pizzas.
Seafood not only tastes good, it’s good for you too. This can be a major selling point with the health food craze. Experts generally attribute the rise in consumption of seafood to the popularity of high protein diets and the overall health benefits of consuming fish two to three times per week as part of a healthy diet. Low in calories and fat, yet loaded with flavor, it’s no wonder that fish and seafood are so highly touted. Seafood Traditions, Old and New Most of the old-time traditional Italian-American pizza parlors of the Northeast specialize in popular dishes like baked clams, fried calamari, shrimp scampi, linguini with red or white clam sauce and steamed mussels. Regional specialties run the gamut from New Haven Clam Pie, Crawfish Etouffe and Gulf Shrimp Po’Boys. But the real innovation is coming from the casual dining segment where an eclectic approach to seafood cookery has taken hold. When it comes to seafood dishes, inspiration can draw upon one or several cuisines as diverse as Italian, Spanish, Caribbean, Greek, Mexican and Asian. Seafood Pizza? In the last decade, seafood pizza has become widely accepted and extremely popular with mainstream consumers. Even that icon of American Regional Pizza: The New Haven Clam Pie was still thought of as an oddity. But pizza aficionados from far and wide have spread the gospel of clam pizza, and other pizza operators have come up with their own versions. The Most Popular Choices Shrimp has been at the top of the popularity heap for years now. When it comes to the public’s affection for them, there’s seemingly no limit; shrimp sells. Mussels and clams, featured in seafood stews, chowders, soups, pastas and risottos are popping up on menus everywhere. Fried Calamari is another super popular dish that can be equally delicious when paired with zesty tomato sauce, or creamy tartar sauce. Smoked fish is favored among top American chefs as a delicious and refreshing addition to salads and upscale pizzas. And finally, canned fish such as tuna and anchovies, which are popular in Italy, make more of a play in tuna sandwiches and Caesar salads on this side of the Atlantic. When it comes to anchovies on pizza, most Americans either love them, or hate them; there’s generally no middle ground. Start Small Keep it simple; begin with one type of seafood—clams or shrimp. Chances are, you already have anchovies on the menu, and tuna spread in the house. Get several uses out of your seafood. Clams can be used in chowders, pasta sauces and on pizza. Fried clams can be served as an appetizer, entrÈe and sandwich. Shrimp can be served cold in a cocktail or in a salad, deep-fried as an appetizer or entrÈe, grilled, broiled scampi style and on pizza. Spin It Name that dish! Creamy Bay Shrimp Primavera Pizza, or Bayou Pink Shrimp Scampi Pizza, or Tommy’s Tuna Melt Supreme are catchy names that put a spin on the dish. Perhaps there’s some history to the dish, like Auntie Clara’s Clams Casino Pie (even if Auntie Clara doesn’t exist—the story can). The Price Must Be Right Seafood based items tend to hover in the 30 to 50 percent food cost realm. Usually higher cost items involve less labor to prepare. Don’t be afraid to charge the right price. Look at your other offerings, if this is significantly higher than any other menu item, it won’t fly, but $1 or $2 more will still be in the range. If the second most expensive pizza on your menu is at the $16 range, and your seafood pie sells for $25, that is too much of a spread between prices. Try to aim at selling the seafood pie at $20 or below. Market Events & Trends A Shrimp Lover’s Pizza does especially well for Valentine’s Day. The Lenten season is a great time to market meatless pizzas. Try offering a special Lenten pizza menu with special prices on vegetarian and seafood pizzas. Springtime is best for featuring Primavera seafood pies and Summer is the time to push clam pies—especially with pesto and fresh tomatoes in easy supply. A super-thin crust pizza with plenty of garlicky greens, cherry tomatoes and balsamic glazed King salmon appeals to the heart healthy and carb-counting audience. A PIZZA OPERATOR’S GUIDE TO SEAFOOD BASICS Have you always wanted to add seafood to your offerings but weren’t sure how to purchase, store and handle it? Not sure whether fresh or frozen is right for you? Need some ideas on how to diversify your menu offerings that feature seafood? Read on. SHRIMP The hands-down seafood crowd favorite, shrimp can be enjoyed hot or cold, fried, boiled or grilled and they star in dishes from the local shrimp shack to the formal restaurant. In California we call them “prawns”, in Italian, they are “scampi” and in the Pacific Northwest, they are tiny bay shrimp. Some of the tastiest specimens are wild spot prawns, wild tiger prawns, wild brown Texas Gulf shrimp, wild white Mexican Gulf shrimp and wild pink shrimp from the waters off of Florida. Wild-caught shrimp are pretty scarce, accounting for less than 10 percent of the entire market, they are usually snapped up by discerning chefs. While we tend to think that most shrimp come from the Gulf waters, 90 percent of the world shrimp supply is farmed around the globe. Because shrimp with the heads left on spoil quickly, the majority are trimmed and frozen on the boat. Shrimp will vary in flavor depending upon the waters they were fished in and what they feed on. FROZEN SHRIMP Packages of frozen shrimp are stored in a freezer at 0?F. To defrost, remove the shrimp from the package, place in a colander and defrost under cool running water. Raw shrimp may require trimming and de-veining. Shrimp are best stored (fresh or defrosted) over ice that drains through a perforated tray. Never let shrimp soak in water, this will render them mushy and tasteless. Properly stored shrimp should last two to three days in the cooler, if the ice is changed regularly. Shrimp, whether frozen or fresh, should be firm to the touch and they should smell fresh—of salt and the sea. Strong odors of “ammonia” indicate that they have been dipped in sodium bisulfate to retard bacteria growth. Allergies to sodium bisulfate are not uncommon. Sized by how many shrimp make up a pound, the most common sizes are: small 51/60, medium 36/40, Large 26/30, Jumbo 16/20 and colossal U/15. Tuna Second in popularity to shrimp is canned tuna. Despite the fact that most Americans prefer their tuna in a salad or sandwich, it is popping up in casseroles, soups, wraps and yes, on pizza. Packed in oil or water, the most popular commercially fished tuna are albacore and yellowfin. Albacore, firm, white fleshed, and delicately flavored, is the top choice of tuna eaters. Yellowfin is pale pink, packed in chunks and has a more pronounced flavor than Albacore. While most tuna comes from the Pacific, it is also commercially fished in the Indian Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. Red fleshed, full flavored tuna, from the waters of the Mediterranean are prized by Italian, French and Spanish cooks. Salmon Salmon has climbed into third place in terms of popularity and is an excellent source of essential omega 3 fatty acids, which help lower blood pressure and cholesterol. Most salmon is farmed, but wild caught is prized by chefs and consumers. Atlantic or Norwegian salmon is the most common, however, Pacific Northwest varieties such as King, Coho, Sockeye, Silver and Chum are the most flavorful. When purchasing fresh whole salmon, the flesh should be firm to the touch, the gills should be red inside, the eyes totally clear and it should smell fresh and non-fishy. Filleted, boneless sides of salmon should be firm to the touch, non-slimy and smell fresh. To defrost frozen salmon, simply follow the directions given for defrosting shrimp. As with all fish and seafood, salmon should be stored over ice that can drain. Clams A perennial favorite on the most popular seafood list, clams have been enjoyed in America for hundreds of years. The most widely harvested clam is the Eastern Hard Clam, which is harvested on the eastern seaboard. The various local names describe the different sizes of the same species. Little Neck clams, the smallest variety of hard clam, come from the northeast coast of New York’s Long Island and are the most expensive. Other clams named according to their size are: Topnecks, Cherrystones and Chowders or Quahogs, which are the largest specimens. Softshell clams, steamer clams or Ipiswich, are harvested from Newfoundland to North Carolina during the summer months. Manilla clams populate the West Coast and other parts of the Pacific. When purchasing fresh clams, check to see that the shells are shut tight and that the clam doesn’t feel too heavy (heavy clams are usually dead clams with lots of mud trapped inside the shell). Scrub the shells well and store over ice. Never store clams, oysters or mussels in water, as they will drown. Always make a hole in plastic storage bags so the seafood can breathe. Frozen clam products need only to be defrosted; (follow the instructions for defrosting shrimp) canned clams are also extremely versatile. Mussels Some of the very best mussels come from the cold waters of Canada’s Prince Edward Island. Better known as PEI mussels, these specimens have a succulent rosy pink flesh and shiny blue-black shell. New Zealand Green Lip mussels are large with lots of tasty meat and beautiful gray shells with bright green lining. When purchasing fresh mussels, follow the same instructions as for clams; look for tightly closed shells, and for mussels that don’t seem too heavy. Mussels should be stored over ice, same as other seafood. When cleaning them, pull their “beards” off and trim with a sharp knife. Calamari (squid) Calamari sounds so much better than “squid” that it often goes by its Italian name—which also sells better. In recent years, calamari has become quite a hit with seafood lovers. Italians have always loved it stuffed, stewed, in pastas and fried. Calamari steaks, which resemble prized and endangered Abalone meat, are a favorite on the West Coast. Most calamari processed on the grand scale is cleaned and cut into rings for deep frying. The best include the tentacles, which are the tastiest and most tender part. Fresh calamari is labor intensive to clean and prepare. Most seafood purveyors will sell fresh calamari that is already cleaned at a slightly higher price. Fresh calamari is stored in the same way as all seafood, over fresh ice that drains, and frozen calamari is defrosted under cold running water in a colander. Smoked Seafood Smoked fish and seafood are becoming increasingly popular. The smoking process brings out the wonderful rich flavors of fish and seafood, allowing for a little to go a long way. The most common smoked fish and seafood are: salmon, sable, sturgeon, white fish, tuna, haddock, clams, mussels, shrimp, oysters and scallops. Anchovies Probably the most closely associated fish with pizza, the anchovy is most often packed in oil or coarse salt. The best quality anchovies come packed in coarse salt and must be soaked and boned before using. Trimmed and boned anchovy fillets are graded by the quality of olive oil in which they are packed. Spanish pickled anchovies, which are white and very fresh-tasting offer a completely different anchovy experience because they are sweet, rather than salty. – PMQ – |