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VANCOUVER — You know what not to eat: Chilean sea bass is a no-no, monkfish is totally taboo. You've double-checked SeaChoice.org for a list of aquatic life that's not ethically verboten, maybe even read Taras Grescoe's Bottomfeeder for a deeper insight into the fish crisis.
But what are these exotic-looking critters in your fridge? And how do you turn them into something worth eating?
Rick Moonen feels your pain. The chef-owner of RM Seafood in Las Vegas has been front and centre in the movement toward sustainable seafood in the United States for many years, and believes enjoying fish has never been so fraught.
He recognizes how difficult it is for consumers not to navigate their way to a piece of ethically caught fish, but to know what to do with the darned thing once they've bought it.
Don't be afraid to experiment with ethical fish at home, says chef Rick Moonen, co-author of Fish without a Doubt. The cookbook offers instructions on preparing such sustainable seafood as broiled sardines: Serve them with your favourite hummus and pita bread; drizzle the sardines with olive oil, sprinkle on some salt and curble on oregano if they're not marinated.
His message: "Be less afraid."
His new cookbook, Fish Without a Doubt, is designed to make choosing and cooking seafood at home a breeze. First, he proffers a list of what's okay and what is environmentally unsound, with information and links to the organizations that keep this information up to date.
Then he turns to the practicalities, keen to assuage readers of their fear of cooking fish.
"Even your average home cook is nervous about fish," Mr. Moonen says from Las Vegas. "It's expensive and they don't want to ruin it - you can pay $30 for a piece of halibut, and you don't want it to turn out bad. I really want to see more people have successful seafood meals at home."
The book offers step-by-step guides on removing "wings" from squid, snipping off the faces of soft-shell crabs and shucking oysters without spearing your palm.
Feel good about the choices you've made, Mr. Moonen says.
He calls sardines -never far from the table in Mediterranean countries - "almost the perfect ocean product for your health." Full of protein, calcium, iron, phosphorous, potassium and omega-3 fatty acids, all they need is a grill or broiler, "a squirt of lemon, some good olive oil and crusty bread." (If small bones bother you, the book has instructions on how to butterfly sardines and anchovies.)
Mackerel is dispatched just as easily: Baked over a base of potatoes and topped with a tangy olive and anchovy puttanesca sauce; spiced up in burgers with jalapenos; or cured in a ceviche of rum and pineapple. Be sure it's really fresh, Mr. Moonen notes: "It's a fish that deteriorates rapidly. Check for bright, shiny skin and a clean aroma."
He also made sure to include substitutes for each recipe.
"You want to buy the seafood that looks the best that day," he explains. "If you go to the market and they either don't have what you needed, or it just doesn't look fresh, then knowing what can sub in the recipe really helps."
A pineapple-carrot ceviche with sea scallops, for example, can also be made with grouper, black sea bass, Arctic char or squid. To be sure his dishes can be recreated comfortably in the average kitchen, Mr. Moonen decamped to co-author Roy Finamore's apartment.
"This was your typical New York kitchen," he laughs. "One stove, four burners, one oven, regular pots and pans. ... I wasn't about to fill a book with recipes from my archives - these were all created specifically for the book in a small, basic kitchen."
But as much as he wants people to cook and eat more fish - a large part of the book is about motivating them to do so with a clear conscience.
"Our children are going to see the collapse of fisheries and this is a call to arms," Mr. Moonen argues. "All wild fish are going to be commercially extinct and we need to get the message across that there's a problem in the ocean."
While he hopes people will make changes in their purchasing, he looks to governments to take the lead.
"They need to make regulatory changes," he says. "The U.S. West Coast salmon fisheries were shut down this year - five years too late."
Mr. Moonen has seen first-hand how such action can make a difference. He was prominent in the Give Swordfish a Break campaign, launched in 1998 when 27 East Coast chefs took the fish off their menus and demanded action. The campaign ended in 2000 when the National Marine Fisheries Service announced the protection of key nursery populations within U.S. waters. Two years later, swordfish had reached 94 per cent of full recovery.
Still, it doesn't help, he says, when organizations send out confusing signals.
"Whole Foods puts Chilean sea bass back in its stores because it has a reliable source but what message does that actually send?" he asks. "Suddenly, people think Chilean sea bass is universally okay again."
Keeping it interesting in the kitchen, he says, is the key to enjoying fish at home.
