White prawn, canana or catfish are tasty and more affordable alternatives to the highly touted species

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The increase in prices that is also noticeable in food should not lead us to eat worse. Nor when it comes to fish and seafood: it's a matter of opening your mind and not just sticking with the most consumed species, such as hake, sole or squid. In this way we can discover others that are caught on the Catalan coast, which can be useful for both daily and festive cooking and which are often more affordable, especially when they are in season. There is the white prawn, a good substitute for the red; canana, which we can use in stews instead of squid or cuttlefish, or delicious fish such as moixina or catfish. If we incorporate them into our diet, we can spend less and at the same time enrich our taste enjoyment with more diversity at the table.


Some of the lesser-known species are considered to have little commercial appeal. They are even called "priceless fish" and are not always found in every fishmonger. Maybe when we're at the counter it's something we ask for, but if we take the step of asking the fishmonger if he has any of these uncommon and affordable fish we can return assiduously. It can also tell us the best way to cook them and leave them ready to bake. In addition, the collective of chefs of the Kitchen of Empordanet has launched this year the project De la Llotja a la Cuina, which aims to facilitate the consumption of these fish with a free recipe book available in PDF and in video recipes uploaded to his Instagram.


More sustainability on the table


La Cuina de l'Empordanet seeks to promote the little-known fish that is caught off the coast of Empordanet so that it ends up having an outlet. The recipes are not for the spices that tend to have the most circulation, but for some that are quite well-known but not so common - such as motherwort, melva or roger de fang - and others that I'm sure many people haven't tasted never yet – the encore, the lissa or the ham cutter. The book reminds us that consuming local products such as these fish "is rowing in favor of a sustainable model": a "little traveled" product means fewer emissions, ensures the freshness of the fish by avoiding added preservatives and additives, if it is season, the life cycles of the species are respected - then they are at their peak taste - and it helps to preserve fishing.


Buying these fish can also be more sustainable for our pocket. Especially if they are in season, they can go out for a few euros per kilo, as chef Quim Casellas, of the Casamar de Llafranc restaurant (Baix Empordà), which is one of the members of La Cuina de l'Empordanet and has presented De la Llotja, points out in the Kitchen during the Barcelona Gastronomic Forum this November. "What we are trying to do is for people to have more proximity, to discover more spices and to be a little more daring with these recipes, which are very practical and economical," relates Casellas. Each chapter in the book includes an explanation of the species, the recipe, the link to the video recipe, and additional comments from anglers who know how to make good use of the underpriced fish.


The chef at Casamar is particularly fond of white prawn, a species that is also becoming more and more accessible. "Don't you find it strange that many fishmongers now have a lot of white prawn?" Casellas asked the audience around him at the Gastronomic Forum. The reason is that, with climate change, the temperature of the sea has risen and more and more are found on the Catalan coast. When cooking, the head of this prawn is ideal for making suquet. The tail, to make tartare, and can be made whole sautéed, in milk or in some fried noodles. Also preparations that may be more historic, such as the bundle of white shrimp with mushroom tartar, which is the recipe proposed by Casellas in the book De la Llotja a la Cuina .


The universe of possibilities is wide. Brótola is very well floured and fried. The catfish, which can resemble a small shark, is usually sold without the skin: it is removed right after it has been caught because otherwise it sticks to the meat and is very difficult to remove. It is a delicacy that can only be made floured and fried, that melts on the palate and that has almost no thorn other than the central one. The meat of the plaice is highly valued, and the conger can be very good for broth or stews. Canna is also suitable for stews, although it must be cleaned well.


Blue fish tend to be a good healthy resource (because of the omega 3 content) and economical, especially some species, such as halibut - a good alternative to tuna -, as well as the well-known seiton, sardine and mackerel, or solel , which goes more unnoticed. All in all, Casellas encourages everyone to discover and try new species, and more so now that the times may invite to do so. "It's up to us to tighten our belts and watch a little where we put our money, without forgetting quality and health", he reflects, and considers that it is not necessary to be defeated by the impossibility of finding these species in the place where we buy the fish usually. "The objective is to go to the fish market, go around asking and make it like a slow war, that the fish market in Barcelona, ​​Blanes, Palamós or Girona has to



The role of restaurants



So that affordable spices are better known and in demand, restaurants also do a lot when they incorporate them into their menu, as the chefs at La Cuina de l'Empordanet try to do. Also chef Riccardo Radice and head chef Giulia Gabriele, co-owners of Fishology, a restaurant that opened in 2021 in Barcelona with seafood as protagonists. At the Gastronomic Forum, Radice demonstrated what can be achieved with a lampuga, a fish that can be one or two meters long, which is not threatened and which in the Mediterranean is in season from August to November, one of the main reasons why Radice cooks at this time. He is able to take advantage of everything, or almost everything, from lightning. He even makes sausages – marine charcuterie –, such as a blood sausage for which he uses the blood of this fish,


Radice believes that the best thing to do when going to buy fish is to accumulate experience. "The more fish you buy, the more you pay attention to the prices and the details, such as the quality", emphasizes the cook, and he exemplifies this with a grouper: if we find one at half the price, maybe it comes from Morocco, where it will not arrive as fresh because it will have traveled many kilometers and possibly not followed the same regulations on catches or conservation as those in force on the Catalan coast. In conclusion, we can eat very good fish at affordable prices, but chefs recommend not to overlook aspects such as proximity or season.


The revival of the 'Mediterranean soy sauce'


People who study the evolution of gastronomy agree that garum, the sauce obtained by the enzymatic degradation of bluefish, is making a comeback. Also in the fact that "it is the Mediterranean version of soy sauce", as defended by food science writer Harold McGee, who participated in the III Science & Cooking World Congress in Barcelona. There are cooks who use garum or a condiment related to it, anchovy colatura (la colatura di alici of Italian origin), in stir-fries and other preparations as a substitute for salt. There are brands that have brought condiments of this style to the market by taking advantage of parts of the process of preserving anchovies that were previously discarded, such as the Catalan Escata and Callol Serrats,