Fishermen: Worries here to stay

Thu, 24 May 2012 04:00:00 +0000

MAssachusetts

Yellowtail catch limit cut 80 percent

A newly formed group to help fishermen outlast an 80 percent cut in their yellowtail flounder catch offered no certain solutions yesterday to a battered fishing industry some warn will soon collapse.

The steep cut on yellowtail in Georges Bank, east and southeast of Cape Cod, Mass., went into effect May 1. The yellowtail flounder isn't a big money fish, but worries about exceeding the low catch limit on it prevents fishermen from chasing the more valuable bottom-dwelling groundfish the yellowtail swim among, such as cod and haddock.

Some among the group of fishermen, environmentalists and regulators expressed pessimism yesterday.

"I don't see any way out of it. None of us see any way out of it," said Jim Kendall of New Bedford Seafood Consulting, a former scalloper.

Spring soup

Hillary Nelson — Wed, 23 May 2012 04:00:00 +0000

Turn the last of the cold weather crops into something creamy and delicious

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Spring soups

The last of the cold greenhouse crops are coming to maturity just in time to make room for pepper and tomato plants. At my house, this means we're eating lots of brassicas, like purple cauliflower and sprouting broccoli, mustard greens, mizuna, kale and collards. I can't grow any of these outside in spring because our garden is rife with brassica-loving flea beetles. For me, these vitamin-rich vegetables are, of necessity, winter, early spring and fall crops.

One way to curb the bite of sulfurous brassicas is to cook them with potatoes, onions and milk and then puree them to make a creamy soup that's good hot or cold. The method also works well with other spring vegetables, especially asparagus. It even works with past-its-prime-ready-to-bolt spring lettuce.

Spring soup

Hillary Nelson — Wed, 23 May 2012 04:00:00 +0000

Turn the last of the cold weather crops into something creamy and delicious

Embed multimedia (photos, galleries, audio, map):

Spring soups

Three winning barbecue sauces

Wed, 23 May 2012 04:00:00 +0000

For some time now, commercial barbecue sauce has been progressing from its Dark Ages, when slow-smoked meats were tortured with bland, sweet, corporate slathers, to a more enlightened era of complex boutique sauces flavored with ingredients from habaneros to peaches. The homemade sauces in our second annual Washington Post barbecue sauce recipe contest reflect that evolution.

We received sauces that contained a pantry full of ingredients: cocoa powder, cider jelly, fresh plums, mangoes, apricots, chipotle peppers, tamarind paste, smoked beer, Asian pear, Mexican chocolate and more.

Such enlightenment - better than the bad old days, to be sure - has its own problems. It was tough sometimes to determine whether something could be considered a barbecue sauce, per se, or a different kind of sauce entirely.

The sauces seem to exemplify a paradoxical trend in contemporary barbecue. On one hand, the craft sauce makers create flavors for niche tastes.

Three winning barbecue sauces

Wed, 23 May 2012 04:00:00 +0000

The sauces seem to exemplify a paradoxical trend in contemporary barbecue. On one hand, the craft sauce makers create flavors for niche tastes.

The branding of 'Pink Slime'

Wed, 23 May 2012 04:00:00 +0000

'Pink slime" was almost "pink paste" or "pink goo."

The microbiologist who coined the term for lean finely textured beef ran through a few iterations in his head before he decided to send an email about the filler to a co-worker at the U.S. Department of Agriculture a decade ago. Then, the name hit him like heartburn after a juicy burger.

"It's pink. It's pasty. And it's slimy looking. So I called it 'pink slime,' " said Gerald Zirnstein, the former meat inspector at the USDA. "It resonates, doesn't it?"

The pithy description fueled an uproar that resulted in the main company behind the filler, Beef Products Inc., deciding to close three meat plants this month. The controversy over the filler, which is made of fatty bits of beef that are heated and treated with ammonium to kill bacteria, shows how a simple nickname can forever change an entire industry.

The branding of 'Pink Slime'

Wed, 23 May 2012 04:00:00 +0000

'Pink slime" was almost "pink paste" or "pink goo."

"It's pink. It's pasty. And it's slimy looking. So I called it 'pink slime,' " said Gerald Zirnstein, the former meat inspector at the USDA. "It resonates, doesn't it?"

Picnic-friendly bruschetta

Wed, 23 May 2012 04:00:00 +0000

It's easy to love basic bruschetta - thick slabs of toasted bread topped with a heap of chopped tomatoes and shredded basil, then drizzled with a mess of olive oil.

But that heap of tomatoes and that dribbling olive oil don't exactly make for great picnic packing.

So for a more portable take that sports the same great flavors, we transformed our favorite bruschetta into a cool couscous salad.

Perfect for a picnic, Israeli-style couscous actually is made from small balls of pasta.

If you can't find it, feel free to substitute another small pasta.

If you can't find the small fresh mozzarella balls, just cut up a larger ball of fresh mozzarella.

BRUSCHETTA COUSCOUS SALAD

16 ounces Israeli couscous

½ small red onion, finely diced

3 cloves garlic, minced

3 ribs celery, finely diced

20 ounces cocktail tomatoes, quartered

½ cup fresh basil leaves, torn

Picnic-friendly bruschetta

Wed, 23 May 2012 04:00:00 +0000

It's easy to love basic bruschetta - thick slabs of toasted bread topped with a heap of chopped tomatoes and shredded basil, then drizzled with a mess of olive oil.

But that heap of tomatoes and that dribbling olive oil don't exactly make for great picnic packing.

So for a more portable take that sports the same great flavors, we transformed our favorite bruschetta into a cool couscous salad.

Perfect for a picnic, Israeli-style couscous actually is made from small balls of pasta.

If you can't find it, feel free to substitute another small pasta.

If you can't find the small fresh mozzarella balls, just cut up a larger ball of fresh mozzarella.

BRUSCHETTA COUSCOUS SALAD

16 ounces Israeli couscous

½ small red onion, finely diced

3 cloves garlic, minced

3 ribs celery, finely diced

20 ounces cocktail tomatoes, quartered

½ cup fresh basil leaves, torn

What's in a name?

Wed, 23 May 2012 04:00:00 +0000

'MONDEWHAAAAT?" The sarcasm was palpable in the one-word headline that appeared in The New York Post the day after Kraft Foods revealed that it planned to name its new global snack business "Mondelez," an interpretation of a mash-up of the Latin words for "world" and "delicious." But that wasn't the only dig.

One blogger teased that she would've been "stifling giggles" if she'd been in meetings to determine the name.

Crain's Business Chicago tittered that it bears close resemblance to a Russian term for a sexual act.

The made-up moniker, pronounced "mon-dah-LEEZ," became a punch line after it was unveiled in March.

Today, Kraft shareholders will decide whether to approve the name for the company's business that sells global snack brands such as Oreos, Fig Newton and Cadbury.