Day 16

Welcome to Fish Week. If you could smell me right now you would immediately leave.

This is fish friend number 1. He is a petrale sole. He liked to hang out with his friends and take long swims around reefs before he met his end. He is not attractive since both his eyes are squished together on top of his head. So we took him apart (not because of his looks). He has 4 filets and is a flat fish. Once we cut off all 4 filets we skinned them. You can skin fish easily with a flexible and thin bladed knife. Keep the knife parallel to your work surface and the skin taught as you slide the blade between flesh and skin. Its not so hard really.

Much harder, however, is salmon. He is bigger and firmer and has some mean looking teeth. Luckily the salmon were gutted when we got them. We just had to filet them.

They were firm and it was not easy to wedge the knife between flesh and bones. Some of the filets looked like tartare when we were done. Mine weren't that bad but I was sweating when we finished. If you get creeped out by heads of any animals you would eat then you should get over yourself before you look at the next picture. If you would eat it then you should see it. It doesn't all happen by magic, you know. If you still are super grossed out then you should think about becoming vegan, or maybe a fruitarian. But a fruitarian who only eats fruit that has fallen from the tree or vine so as not to disturb or injure the plant.

That was what I looked at while I skinned my salmon filets. MMmmmm. So that was all we did today. Tomorrow we will fabricate monkfish (unfortunately the heads are already off). If you have not seen a monkfish you should look one up right now. It might just be one of the most homely creatures on our planet. We will also take apart snappers and john dorys. If we get through all that we will portion and cook some of our salmon too. Its a great change from meat week. Although the duck tacos I made last night with last week's leftovers were fantastic. Like carnitas and topped with radish, cilantro, onion, chipotle salsa, and queso fresco on flour tortillas. Now I just have to find 3 days worth of time to make the demi glace with the 40 lbs of beef bones in my freezer. Perfect.