The Shad are Running and I Have Shiitakes
In Savannah, you know spring is right around the corner when Russo's announces on their marquee "For those in the know, it's shad and shad roe". Before coming to Savannah, I had not experienced the delicacy known as shad. Way back when, shad was an important food source in the United States and was fished in the spring as the fish leave the Atlantic to spawn in freshwater streams. These days, shad is fished primarily for the roe (which is delicious, I admit). Of course I don't fish, (do Southern Girls fish?) but I understand that one of the reasons that shad is not commercially available is that it the boniest fish known to mankind--it has 3000 bones to be exact. Try to fillet that. According to the folks at Russo, it's a dying art but, fortunately, alive and well at their fish market. My weekly farm box arrived yesterday and contained a bag of shiitake mushrooms and my cook's brain immediately went "ding, ding, ding--Elizabeth's shad recipe" the one without the roe and with those yummy shiitake mushrooms and leeks. Heavenly, and a reminder that spring is almost here.