Receta Trumpeting the Virtues of Siren Fish Company
California King salmon delivered right to my door from Siren Fish Company that I cooked with mustard and brown sugar.
So many of us want to eat more fresh seafood.
But finding the freshest, local, sustainable seafood is can be a cumbersome task.
Siren Fish Company makes it easy to do so, though.
The community supported fishery works directly with California and Oregon fishermen so that their fresh catch arrives to you 24 to 48 hours out of the water each week.
Siren has pick-up locations throughout the Bay Area, often at retailers, where you just show up to take possession of your order on the day it is delivered. It also offers home delivery on pre-selected days of the week for an additional modest $3 charge.
You can choose to order a share for two or four (corresponding to how many people it will serve); as well as choose between ordering fillets, whole fish, or “variety” (which can include fillets or shellfish, whole little fish, crustaceans or even sea urchins).
Siren invited me to try a couple deliveries for free to test out their seafood by receiving a share for two (averaging about $23 each week).
Because there is no pick-up site in my area, I had to go with home delivery, which in my case, was scheduled for Wednesdays by 7 a.m.
On Monday, I got a confirmation email, showing me what my delivery would comprise, including a link to Siren’s blog post providing info on who caught the fish and where, as well as recipe suggestions.
If the particular seafood wasn’t something I was keen on, I could log into my account and pick something else instead. I also received an email on Tuesday, reminding me to leave my own cooler with ice packs on my front porch that night since the delivery would be made overnight.
What was inside my cooler.
On Wednesday morning, I woke up to find my cooler on my porch safely holding a pound of Black Gill rockfish (valued at $24) caught in Bodega Bay by the F/V Spellbound boat captained by second-generation commercial fisherman Anthony Ferrari.
The blog post noted that of the more than 65 species of rockfish native to the California coast, the Black Gill is considered the tastiest.
My steamed Black Gill rockfish fillets.
That wasn’t hyperbole, as I found out when I cooked it that night. The blog post mentioned the rockfish make for excellent tacos. I was going to do that, but then changed my mind and instead simply steamed the fillets gently with ginger, before pouring a little hot peanut oil over it — Chinese-style. I’m glad I went with that method, because it really allowed me to appreciate the flaky, mild fish. It tasted incredibly clean and fresh, with a natural sweetness to it.
The next week, following the same procedures, a pound of California wild King salmon (valued at $28) landed inside the cooler on my porch. It was a gorgeous center-cut piece. For $28, it was such a deal, too. That’s about what a pound would sell for at a farmers market or seafood market, and here I got it so conveniently delivered right to my door to boot. It would be hard to top that.
A gorgeous hunk of salmon.
Caught in the waters off of Fort Bragg, the salmon was pristine, and cooked up beautifully using a New York Times recipe for “Roasted Salmon Glazed with Brown Sugar and Mustard.” The recipe is super easy. It adds a sweet-piquant character to the salmon. But if you want crispy skin, this isn’t the recipe for you.
The week after that, it was two pounds of Manila clams (valued at $25) that arrived, sourced from Dabob Bay, WA, which I cooked with spaghetti.
Two pounds of Manila clams.
Because you do get a couple days notice about what will be delivered, you won’t necessarily have to race out to the grocery store at the last minute to get ingredients to go along with your fresh catch. You can plan it out a little more, which I really appreciated.
It’s fun to see what each week’s delivery will bring. No matter what it may be, the freshness and convenience is hard to beat.
FOR FOOD GAL READERS: Use the code “foodgalfish” to sign up for Siren’s CSF delivery, and the $15 membership fee will be waived.
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