Six Reasons to Buy King Salmon

You don’t have to be a genius to know that fish is good for you. Every medical society in the U.S. and overseas highly recommends eating fish at least twice a week, and most of them recommend eating ocean fish, such as salmon and albacore tuna, for all of the nutritional benefits they provide. If you’re hoping to reap the full benefit of eating those fatty, cold-water fish, though, you’ll want to buy king salmon, as fresh as you can possibly get it. Why should you buy king salmon as opposed to other fish? Here are six great reasons to indulge in the luxury that is fresh king salmon.

It’s Good for Your Heart

King salmon is high in omega-3 fatty acids, those amazing oils that improve heart function and lessen other conditions that contribute to heart disease. That’s why the American Heart Association strongly suggests that everyone should eat fish, especially fatty fish like fresh king salmon, at least twice a week. People who enjoy king salmon regularly (well, you don’t HAVE to enjoy it, but you will!) lower the chance of having a first heart attack considerably.

It Reduces Your Blood Pressure

High blood pressure is a major contributor to heart disease and stroke. People who eat fatty fish like king salmon and other seafood high in omega-3s typically have lower blood pressure than those who don’t eat fish regularly.

It Improves Your Good Cholesterol Levels

Has your doctor told you that you need to improve your cholesterol profile? When you buy king salmon, you’re buying some of the best medicine for that you can get. The Omega-3s in king salmon (and to a lesser extent, shellfish like diver scallops, Dungeness crab and abalone) increase your levels of HDL, the good blood cholesterol that actually helps scrub away bad cholesterol deposits from your blood vessels.

It ‘s Low in Calories, High in Protein

A 4-oz portion of fresh king salmon only has 157 calories – about 8% of the recommended daily nutrient daily value for a healthy adult – but provides 53.1% of the protein you need for the day. That’s just one of the many nutrients that you’ll get in a serving of healthy salmon. It also provides you with 127.8% of your DV for vitamin D, the sunshine vitamin, 94.5% the DV of vitamin B12 and 93.7% the DV of tryptophan. That’s not including selenium, phosphorus, choline and potassium it also provides.

It Boosts Immune System Function

The natural oils found in king salmon help improve the functioning of the immune system. That’s not just boosting it – it helps fine tune the immune system by providing proteins and fatty acids your body needs to build healthy cells and repair unhealthy ones. Since inflammation is a runaway immune system response, eating salmon helps reduce inflammation from conditions like diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis, as well as reducing the symptoms of allergies and allergic reactions.

It Tastes Fabulous

The rich, buttery flavor of king salmon is the perfect foil for so many other flavors. Enjoy it broiled, poached, backed, grilled, roasted or raw.

If you don’t live near a fresh seafood market, you can buy king salmon at an online seafood market and have it shipped fresh to your door so you can start enjoying the healthy benefits of this delicious fish.

Spicy Seafood Mixes for Dungeness Crab, Fresh Swordfish and Other Shellfish and Ocean Fish

Fresh fish in season is amazing on its own, but when you add one of these spicy seafood rubs, marinades or boil mixes, you’ll be elevating the amazing flavors to the next level. Citrus, pepper, bay and basil all have their place in cooking with fresh seafood, but they all have one thing in common. They’re always best when the seafood is at its freshest. One of the best ways to buy live Dungeness crab, fresh swordfish and other ocean fish and shellfish is from an online  seafood market. If you live more than a few hours’ drive from the ocean, it’s almost essential to order your seafood online to ensure really, really fresh fish. Now that we’ve got that bit of advice out of the way, let’s talk spices.

Nearly every culture that makes ocean fish a part of their diet has its own flavors, spices and methods of preparing the seafood found in their region. From the explosive heat of Cajun and Creole spices to the tart citrus of Peruvian ceviche and the piquant savor of Provence and Tuscany, the appropriate spice or marinade can awaken your taste buds to new heights of adventure. Next time you find yourself with a surplus of king salmon or you buy Dungeness crab online, try one of these boil, rub or marinade mixes on for size.

Blackened Seasoning for Swordfish Steaks, Albacore Tuna and Scallops

Blackening is popular in Southern cuisine, and particularly in Cajun cooking. It began as a way of adding color and flavor to firm-fleshed fish like swordfish steaks, albacore and to seafood like diver scallops. Start with the freshest fish you can get. Pat the fish dry and dip it in melted butter, then dredge it in the blacking spices and cook it in a very hot cast-iron skillet or on the grill. You can buy blackening spice mixes, or mix up your own using varying proportions of sweet paprika, onion powder, garlic powder, white pepper, black pepper, thyme, oregano and salt.

Old Bay Seasoning

Technically, Old Bay Seasoning is a spicy-salty spice mix marketed by McCormick & Company, but many people refer to spicy crab boil mixes as an Old Bay spice mix. It adds a characteristically Chesapeake flavor to crab, most often used with Chesapeake soft shells. It’s also a delicious way to add extra kick to Dungeness crab. Add the Old Bay Spice to boiling water before dropping in the live Dungeness crab and let them cook in the mix. You can also add Old Bay seasoning to the breading for lightly breaded diver scallops, or sprinkle it on accompaniments to your favorite fresh fish dishes. If you want to mix your own, you’ll want to use mustard, paprika, celery salt, bay leaf, pepper, crushed red pepper flakes, allspice, mace, cloves, nutmeg, cardamom and ginger, and adjust the proportions to taste.

Grilled and fried seafood is delicious with minimal spicing, but if you like a little extra kick to your shellfish and ocean fish, try one of these seasoning mixes with Dungeness crab, swordfish steaks, albacore tuna and other seafood.

Buy Sushi and Sashimi Grade Fish and Seafood Online: Handling Tips for Raw Seafood Dishes

Sushi – it’s not just for snobs anymore. It wasn’t long ago that many folks turned their noses up at the idea of eating raw fish. These days, all the Food Network shows and other cooking shows on television have made people keenly aware of the various types of raw seafood dishes and their delights. Whether you’re planning to prepare sushi, sashimi, tartare, ceviche, carpacio or crudo – to name just a few – it’s vital to start with fresh seafood or fish. Unless you live along the coast, there’s always a chance that the fish in your grocer’s freezer is far from fresh. One way to make sure that you get fresh albacore, salmon and other seafood for your raw seafood dishes is to find a reliable, trustworthy online seafood market and order your seafood online.

Choosing Seafood for Raw Seafood Dishes

There are very few inedible fish or shellfish, but many of them don’t do well in raw seafood recipes for various reasons. The best fish and seafood for ceviche, crudo and other raw seafood dishes are the ones you’d choose for sushi or sashimi. They include:

-          Any type of tuna, including Bluefin, bigeye, bonito, yellowfin and albacore

-          Salmon, including fresh king salmon

-          Scallops, especially diver scallops

-          Abalone

-          Halibut or flounder

-          Nearly any farmed fish from the U.S., Norway, Britain, New Zealand, Canada or Japan

A Word About Raw Salmon

The biggest risk in eating fish raw is the chance that you might inadvertently swallow a passenger. Most fish are susceptible to parasites, though the risk is far lower with farmed fish than those that are caught wild. Salmon, even king salmon, is especially susceptible to parasites. It’s one of the reasons that professional sushi chefs always freeze salmon before using it: freezing will kill most parasites.

If you buy seafood online, make a point of finding one that has an excellent local reputation. They’re the online seafood market choices that are most likely to always buy from fishermen that treat their fish well from the moment they’re caught. It’s a good way to make sure you get impeccably fresh and clean fish for all your raw seafood dishes.

When your fish arrives from the online seafood market, inspect it carefully. It should pass the sniff test – fresh fish will smell like the ocean, with no hint of ammonia, and the flesh should be firm and translucent. If you’re not going to prepare it immediately, place it on a bed of ice in the coldest spot in your refrigerator, usually the bottom shelf. If you won’t be using it within 24 hours, wrap it and freeze it.

Take Advantage of Fresh Abalone for Sale Now at the Best Seafood Markets

Abalone is one of those seafood treats that everyone knows about, but many people never get around to trying. The large sea gastropod mollusk (AKA sea snail) was, not too long ago, close to extinction along the Pacific West Coast, a victim of overfishing and poor management. Even today, it’s impossible to find wild abalone for sale – in most states, it’s illegal to sell wild, diver caught abalone. There are, however, a number of West Coast fisheries that farm abalone, so you can legally buy live fresh abalone (usually California Red abalone) from local fish markets, or, if you’re not near the coast, from an online seafood market.

Taste

When it’s prepared properly, abalone has a firm, velvety texture and a sweet, delicate flavor similar to calamari. If abalone is overcooked or not properly tenderized, however, abalone meat gets tough and rubbery, with little flavor.

Preparation

Some seafood markets that sell seafood online offer live abalone for sale. Preparing them for cooking and eating may look complicated, but it’s a lot simpler than it appears to be at first. Essentially, you need to slide a hard, flat blade in between the two halves of the shell, slide it along the opening until you hit the muscle that’s attached to the shell. Work the blade (or spatula) between the shell and the muscle until the abalone detaches. From there, simply slide the abalone from the shell, cut away the viscera (the hanging guts) and scrub or cut away the black film around the sides of the meat. Cut off the tough, curled edges and the pointed end, and you’re ready to slice the abalone into thin steaks, pound it thin, bread it and fry it.

Buy Abalone Steaks Ready to Cook

Of course, if that sounds like way too much work, most seafood markets that offer abalone for sale also sell cleaned and sliced abalone steaks to make your life easier. With the cleaning done, all you have to do is cook them. You’ll find lots of recipes for abalone, but the hands-down favorite for most people is the simplest of all. Pound the abalone steaks thin, season with salt and pepper and coat with breadcrumbs, then fry – very quickly – and serve.

If abalone isn’t quite to your taste, you can also buy all sorts of other seafood online from the places that offer abalone for sale, especially this time of year. Look for fresh salmon, fresh albacore, live Dungeness crab and fresh swordfish, all ready to ship to you when you order from an online seafood market.

Order Seafood Online for Father’s Day

Why make Dad cook on his special day when you can do something so much more special? Around here, Father’s Day has always meant the whole family gets together and Dad busts out the grill to cook food that got bought out of his budget. What kind of Father’s Day present is that? This year, why not do something special? Give dad a break. Order seafood from an online seafood market and man the grill so dad can relax and enjoy his day.

Not sure what to order? Here are some suggestions from a top online seafood market to help you make up your mind.

Buy Dungeness Crab

These sweet crabs aren’t for the faint of heart, but they’re well worth the effort. The sweet meat is among the most tender crab meat you’ll find anywhere. They’re easy to cook – just toss live Dungeness crab into a pot of boiling water, cook them until they’re bright red and run them under cold water. You can get fancier, of course. There are some great recipes for grilled Dungeness crab and different kinds of butter to serve with Dungeness crab. No matter what you do, though, fresh Dungeness crab from an online seafood market will be the star of Dad’s day.

Buy Swordfish Steaks

Swordfish steaks really live up to their name. Swordfish is generally regarded as the “meatiest” fish, with little fishy taste and a real meat texture. They also grill up beautifully – and very, very fast. Order swordfish steaks a few days ahead of time, keep them on ice until you’re ready to cook them, and then marinate them in lemon juice, olive oil and your choice of pungent herbs. Let them marinate in the refrigerator for at least half an hour but no more than two hours, then throw them on the grill. All it will take is about 4 to 5 minutes on each side. Dad will love them so much he may hand over the spatula for the rest of the summer.

Buy King Salmon

There’s a reason they call this delicious fish the king salmon – they’re not only huge, they’re incredibly tasty. This time of year, king salmon is in season, so you can easily buy fresh-caught kings from any online seafood market that regularly stocks them. To get that delicious seared crust and crispy skin, brush the salmon steaks with vegetable oil. Do the same with the grill. Start the salmon skin side UP on the grill, letting it sear for about 4 minutes before flipping it over to finish cooking. Serve it with something tangy and spicy, like mango-peach salsa or a delicious chimichurri.

This Father’s Day, treat your dad like a king. Order from a seafood market online and take over the cooking so he can kick back with a cold brew and critique your technique. You know he loves doing that.

How to Prepare Fresh Live Abalone for Sale at the Fish Market

One of the most delectable treats to come out of the California coast oceans is fresh live abalone. Many of the best chefs compare the sweet, tender meat to lobster and the very best diver scallops. Its texture is smooth and rich, almost velvety on the tongue. For some, part of the fun is in diving for your own dinner, but if you’re not a diver or live inland, you can nearly always find fresh abalone for sale at an online seafood market.

Many of the best seafood markets on the coast offer fresh abalone for sale in season alongside diver scallops, Dungeness crab, swordfish steaks and fresh salmon. Unlike the others, though, abalone – especially if you buy it live – will take a little extra preparation before you can enjoy it. Here’s how to shell and prepare abalone for cooking.

You will need an abalone iron or a bamboo spoon, a sharp, flexible knife, a pounder and a good cutting board.

Hold the abalone in your hand with the shell down and the flat side toward you. Slide the abalone iron under the foot on the flat side of the shell and scrape it loose from the shell.

Slide your fingers along the rim from front to back to release the abalone’s guts, then cut them off in one piece by cutting from the back and moving toward the head. Cut carefully all the way around the top of the foot and try to avoid cutting into the gut.

When you reach the head, cut into the meat slightly so that you can remove the head and gut both together. Now you have the abalone meat still attached to the foot with a thin layer of black film along its side. Scrub or cut this away. If you cut, keep the cuts very shallow to preserve as much abalone meat as you can.

Cut off the edges along the sides and the foot and remove the thick, tough, pointed end of the abalone. Your abalone is now ready to slice and tenderize before cooking.

The recipe you’re following should tell you how to slice the abalone meat. If you’re going with the simplest preparation – pan-fried or grilled abalone steaks –simply slice the abalone meat into ¼” to ½” thick slices. Lay each slice out flat on a cutting board and pound the edges and the toughest parts of the meat with a meat tenderizer.

Dip the slices in egg and breadcrumbs, then fry each slice in a very hot pan for about 30 to 40 seconds per side. Flip onto a plate and serve.

If that sounds like an awful lot of work, check to see if the online seafood market has abalone for sale as steaks or filets, or even cleaned fresh abalone for sale. It will cut out the cleaning and you can start with the fun part – seasoning and cooking.

Get to Know Your Seafood Market for Healthy and Delicious Eating

How well do you know your local or online seafood market? Do you know which seafood harvest fruits are best for your diet? From fresh albacore to swordfish steaks, the seafood market is one of the healthiest places for you to shop for your food. Not sure whether you should buy swordfish steaks or buy king salmon? Here are some nutritional facts about some of the best seafood available at the best West Coast seafood market websites and stores.

Swordfish

Why should you buy swordfish? According to the Harvard School of Public Health, foods that are high in protein slows the emptying of your stomach so you feel full longer. Fresh swordfish provides 20 g. of protein in a 3 oz. serving, and costs you only 146 calories. Swordfish is also packed with healthy omega 3s, which help your body build new cells, and provides 93% of your daily recommended value of vitamin D, which your body needs to use calcium.

Try: Grilled swordfish steaks with tangy lime butter and cilantro

Fresh Dungeness Crab

Dungeness crab provides a whopping 300-500 mgs. Of omega 3 fats, which add to your healthy cholesterol and provide the building blocks your body needs to repair cells and build new cells. And unlike many hard shell crabs, live Dungeness crab is remarkably low in contaminants like mercury and PCBs. They’re also a good source of selenium, vitamin B12, phosphorus, copper, zinc and niacin.

Try: Spicy crab curry with healthy 7-grain pilaf

King Salmon

A study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine in March 2013 found that people who eat oily fish like salmon live an average of 2.2 years longer. These fish are a good source of omega 3 fatty acids, which are one of the main building blocks your body uses to build new cells. Eating fresh king salmon twice a week could add a couple of years to your life.

Try: Grilled Salmon with Lemon-Hazelnut Sauce

Diver Scallops

Not a seafood fan? Diver scallops have a light, fresh, non-fishy taste and a delicate texture that practically melts in your mouth. In addition, they provide 20 g. of protein in a 3 oz. serving for just 95 calories. Fresh diver scallops also provide a healthy heaping helping of magnesium and potassium, which can be difficult to get from other foods.

Try: Pan-seared diver scallops on rosemary skewers

Albacore Tuna

Albacore is the white meat of tuna, the type that you’ll pay a premium for if you buy canned tuna. If you’re used to canned tuna, though, fresh albacore will be a surprise to your taste buds. The flavor is lighter and fresher, and the texture is much meatier. Albacore is high in healthy omega 3s, and provides lots of protein at a relatively low calorie-count.

Try: Brush albacore tuna steaks with wasabi and soy sauce and sear in a pan on the stovetop.

Next time you’re looking for a healthy meal idea, head straight for the seafood market and load up on all the nutrients your body is craving.