Cooking with Ed Chiles: Say it loud, I'm mullet and proud
Since man has walked on two feet in Manatee County, this area has been based on small agriculture and seafood. Specifically, grey stripped mullet. The great southern writer, Roy Blount, ran a nice piece in the February issue of "Garden and Gun," titled "The Humble Mullet." Silver black and grey, what Blount describes in his piece as "resembling old, piratical Oakland Raiders," mullet is no super model. But it is a fish that provides a critical component to how we are going to feed the world. Mullet are tough, resilient, incredibly efficient feeders that go straight to the critical matters at hand.
Dr. Michael Crosby who heads up Mote Marine Research Institute tell us that we are overfishing the world's oceans by 40 percent. Mullet populations are in great shape and, in almost every case, being harvested in a sustainable manner. More than 90 percent of the seafood we eat in the United States is imported and approximately 50 percent of that is aquaculture, much of which is sub-optimal on many levels. Mullet is wild, organic and very high in protein and Omega-3 fats which makes my cardiologist happy. It's also very low in mercury.
The official saltwater fish of Florida is sailfish. No doubt a noble beast that attracted the sports who flocked to Flagler and Merrick's Florida in the '20s, '30s and '40s. But nobody made it through the depression eating sailfish. And the good folks who migrated down to Cortez from Carteret County, N.C., in the 1880s such as the Guthries, Cappos, Fulfords and Taylors, built the strong foundation that has survived today, still serving those families and countless others, more than 10 generations later. That foundation wasn't built
on a majestic gamefish -- it was built on mullet.
The Mote Marine research institute gets it. Thanks to an incredibly generous $3 million bequest from local residents Carol and Barney Barnett, Dr. Michael Crosby and his team at Mote will now plant their flag in the shallows of the only area in the country that has three national estuaries on its borders. They will be studying our grey stripped mullet while developing a "fisheries improvement initiative" to ensure that mullet continues to be harvested in a sustainable way. The Barnett gift comes with a $3 million dollar challenge match, so I hope those of you that share Motes' and the Barnett's passion in this regard will dig deep.
One of my dad's favorite cracker sayings is, "It's a poor frog that can't holler in his own pond." I'm hollering for mullet. Seth Cripe, who started the Anna Maria Fish Company, this country's first and only entity artisanally producing bottarga, the gourmet cured mullet roe that sells for well over $100 a pound at retail, is hollering. The folks in Cortez such as Karen Bell and Johnny Banyas are hollering for mullet, too. We're hollering for mullet at our restaurants the Sandbar, Beach House and Mar Vista where we are serving mullet seasonally to our guests from mid-July through December when they are fat. Other local restaurants like Star Fish, O'Shucks and Swordfish Grill are too.
Ed Hunzeker, our able county administrator and his parks and natural resources director, Charlie Hunsicker, who have worked tirelessly to restore and revitalize large tracts of precious coastal estuaries in our county are hollering. So is Dr. Crosby and his team at Mote Marine, one of the few remaining independent marine research institutes left in the country. Carol and Barney Barnett hollered at the top of their lungs. Their generosity and wisdom in this regard should be an inspiration to us all. I hope you'll holler with us.
Grey Striped Mullet with Heirloom Tomato and Fresh Horseradish
1 skin-on scaled grey striped mullet filet per person
2 tablespoons grape seed oil
Sea salt
Cracked pepper
3-4 heirloom tomatoes sliced or chopped
Fresh horseradish to taste
Score the mullet skin with a sharp knife. Dust with a good sea salt and cracked pepper. Heat a little grape seed oil in a pan. Add scored filets when oil is almost at the smoking point skin down. This will allow you to get a nice crispy skin. Cook the mullet until the skin is crisp and you are starting to see the fillet become a bit white on the edges of the flesh side. Turn it and cook for another 30 seconds or so. Plate some chopped heirlooms and their tomato water and grate a touch of fresh horseradish over the top and add the crispy skinned filet. Enjoy!
Ed Chiles, owner of the Sandbar, BeachHouse and Mar Vista restaurants on Anna Maria Island and Longboat Key, can be reached at 941-778-1696.
This story was originally published February 25, 2015 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Cooking with Ed Chiles: Say it loud, I'm mullet and proud."