Whether you're young in years and experience or young at heart, we fully believe anyone at any age and skill can become a talented cook with the right ingredients and know-how. When you know what you're cooking and how best to cook it, you're already one step closer to creating unforgettable at-home meals you and your family may repeatedly ask for.
So long as you do not have an allergy to them, shellfish often has a bad reputation for being difficult to cook. We want to share the basics with Shellfish 101: varieties, preparation, and cooking tips that may change your mind about this sometimes divisive seafood.
What is Shellfish?
Shellfish is a colloquial term coined by fisheries and fishermen that represents exoskeleton-bearing aquatic invertebrates that are often consumed as food. Shellfish include species called mollusks, crustaceans, and echinoderms. Most shellfish we eat are harvested from saltwater environments, but a few are also found in freshwater.
A few species of land crabs from the Caribbean are also considered edible shellfish, such as the Cardisoma Guanhumi or the Blue Land Crab.
Despite the name, shellfish are not fish and have been used as a food source for thousands of years.
Shellfish Main Categories
There are three major categories of shellfish, as mentioned above. This includes:
- Crustaceans: The Shellfish in this category include crab, crayfish, lobster, prawn, and shrimp.
- Mollusks: This class of shellfish includes abalone, clam, conch, cuttlefish, limpet, mussels, nautilus, octopus, oyster, scallop, squid, whelk, and winkle.
- Echinoderms: These lesser-known classes include sea cucumber and sea urchin.
Popular Shellfish Varieties
Which variety of shellfish are the most popular due to preparation and flavor? Here is a list of some of our best-selling shellfish varieties and how best to prepare them:
Bay Scallops
Scallops remain a shellfish favorite, and with good reason. These delectable morsels of tenderness hold the slightest ocean flavors with a sweet twist that can melt in your mouth when cooked properly. They can be cooked in a no-frilled, buttered pan and sauteed or used in a mind-blowing array of dishes. Ideally, if purchasing Bay scallops fresh, you'd cook them the day of purchase. However, if your bay scallops are frozen, as long as they are cooked immediately after thawing, you should still enjoy the same fresh-caught sweetness.
The easiest and best way to cook bay scallops is pan-searing in a stainless steel pan or cast iron, which will heat quickly and retain high temperatures more readily. Non-stick pans are not recommended for searing, as they aren't meant for high-temp cooking.
The key to a perfect sear is to rinse and thoroughly pat dry your bay scallops. Next, season them with salt and pepper or the seasoning of your choice. Next, preheat your pan over medium-low for at least 3-5 minutes. Add your preferred fat, such as butter or oil, increase the heat to medium-high, and add your cleaned and dried scallops to the pan, making sure not to crowd.
Do not touch your scallops or turn them until you see the bottoms turning a deep caramel color; at this point, they won't stick to the pan anymore. Since bay scallops are so small, you will only need to sear each side for 1-3 minutes and remove them just a smidge before they finish cooking to let them rest for a tender, juicy, buttery burst of flavor with every bite.
Conch Meat
You may already know conch shells, but have you heard of or tried conch meat? A conch is a sea snail typically found in the Caribbean and other tropical regions. Conch meat has a sweet, slightly salty flavor with a firm, chewy texture that many say compares to calamari.
One of the best ways to try and prepare conch meat, to ensure that the chewiness doesn't run over into toughness, is to tenderize the conch meat before cooking. One of the easiest and possibly most familiar ways to tenderize conch meat is to use a meat pounder until the conch meat resembles a chicken cutlet. Just be sure to stop if you notice any signs of the conch meat beginning to fall apart, as that means you may be tenderizing too much!
You won't need to worry about tenderizing if you add conch meat to soups and stews. Simply, try to cut the conch into uniform pieces, and the cooking process will tenderize as it goes.
The most popular means of cooking conch meat from the Bahamas is tenderizing it, then soaking it in milk and vinegar before deep frying—or the famous conch fritter.
To make conch fritters, tenderize your conch meat. Then, cut it up into smaller pieces. In a food processor, add chopped bell peppers, onions, and a fresh hot pepper of choice if you wish, then fresh lime juice and celery. Pulse until the meat and ingredients are finely diced.
Mix a batter of flour, egg, and milk in a separate bowl, season it with cayenne pepper, black pepper, and salt, and combine. Add the flour mix into the ground conch mix and let that sit as you grab your favorite oil that handles high heat. You can use a deep fryer or a high-sided pot to place the oil in and get it to roughly 350. Using a cookie or ice cream scoop, scoop some batter and drop it into the oil, making sure not to crowd the pan (approximately four or five fritter scoops at a time.) While frying, gently spoon the oil over the patties until golden deep brown. Remove from the oil and set on a paper towel, and voila! You've made a fantastic appetizer or meal.
Of course, these are just a tiny example of the shellfish you can find with us here at Wholey's, delivered fresh-caught right to your front door, but if you've never tried these before—we want to ensure that you get your money's worth and more out of every single delicious bite.
We hope we've inspired your next dish! Don't forget to check our resources often for continued series, advice, and delicious discussions about food to keep your taste buds tingling.