Talk to me about fish roe page

[janie]

In the spring I see shad roe in the market, though I've never prepared it.

And I know what caviar is (also expensive)

Also have eaten the fish eggs that appear on a sushi platter.

But many other cuisines use various types of roe. The delicious Greek taramosalata (sp?) is made with roe (don't know what kind) and there must be many others of which I'm not aware.

I'm curious to learn how to purchase (fresh, canned, jarred?) and prepare various types of roe and wonder if anyone has experience to share?

[sbhikes]

Whenever I go out for sushi I always get a salmon roe nigiri and/or a smelt roe nigiri. I've seen this roe for sale in markets that offer sushi-grade seafood.

The sturgeon caviar you can buy likely comes from fish farmed in vats in Sacramento. There are no more wild sturgeon.

Read the label on the greek stuff. It may have soybean oil.

I once bought a lobster that was full of roe. That was the best lobster I've ever had.

That's all I know about roe/caviar.

[seaweed]

i always try to get the roes if there are any if i am around when anyone is filleting fish. i usually just fry them in butter and eat them like that. you can put them in omlettes too. then there is stuff like paua guts which are really roes. most people chuck them but i either do the fry whole in butter trick or put them in the sauce. so what you do is fry your onions and garlic, add in the cream and reduce. add the thinly sliced paua and a paua gut. bit of chilli. i use tabasco. cook thru and serve.

kina tongues i think are roes and we normally eat them raw or you can fry them up with cream. or eggs. so butter, garlic and onion. fry till however you like it. in the case of kina roes, i will sometimes do julienned zucchini noodles to go with them so i put them in now. when they are done. shove all the veges to one side of the pan. put in more butter. throw in beaten eggs and the kina and cook thru. serve the eggs and kina on the zucchini noodles with some fresh ground black pepper. or you can not use zucchini and put some cream in the sauce.

the orangey bits on scallops are roe too. it is rare for me to get salmon roe, but i omlette that too with cultured cream on top when i can get it.

[janie]

Thank you for your responses. I expect that my grandparents prepared roe, but it isn't something I see offered in the market except for the shad roe seen here in the spring. I expect I may have to start purchasing the whole fish and gutting it myself if I want to find roe. I'm going to a Greek market next week and will definitely check out the jarred taram to see if any nasty oils have been added.

Love you recipes, Seaweed. While I can't get kina or paua in the states, I think they would be adaptable to any roe I might find.

[seaweed]

the problem with gutting just one fish is you only usually get one or two roes. i am sure all the recipes would adapt. kina are sea urchins? i have used sea urchin mousse recipes before off the net with kina. paua are our version of abalone. you do have to get your own or get them in the shell,which is silly money, to get the guts. here they eat kelp so i still reckon the gut is one of the most nutritious bits. they have either a green or a white gut. the white ones are male and the green female.

[whitebear]

My grandpa was from Norway and when I was a kid he always had cod roe around. It came in a tube similar to toothpaste. We ate it on hard tack or crackers. It was salty and fishy and delicious. I've looked into getting some and there are a few websites where you can order it. I have not seen it in any stores.

[Knifegill]

Some fish eggs are deadly. Do the reading before the eating.

[janie]

Thanks, Knifegill. I found a list on Wikipedia (surely not complete, but helpful) of various species whose roe in eaten by a # of cultures so will use it as a guideline. My mother's family is from an island in the Chesapeake bay, so I was used to catching & eating local fish as a child. The adults did eat the roe but I don't remember ever doing so. I wondered about it as it seems to be a healthy food that has nearly disappeared from markets, cookbooks, etc.