New England Seafood

Lobsters

New England lobster is mild, sweet and healthy. It is served whole, boiled or in a variety of dishes. Lobsters are available live in most coastal towns. Other areas may also have cooked, shelled lobster meat available.

Lobster Rolls

This simple but delicious dish is a great way to enjoy lobster. Lobster rolls are easy to make and are well suited for variations. The basic lobster roll uses very simple ingredients and doesn't need much in the way of spices or strong ingredients. Cooks start by making a simple lobster salad which can be simply chopped cooked lobster meat, mayonnaise, and salt and pepper to taste.

Optional ingredients can include a little Dijon mustard, butter, lemon and/or diced vegetables. The salad is chilled prior to serving. The most popular roll is a double sized slice of Italian or other home made bread, with a slot cut down half way in the middle to form a pouch. The bread is then toasted for a few minutes in an oven, just enough to harden the outsides. The lobster salad is then stuffed in the center pouch. Lobster rolls are served informally with sides such as cole slaw, fries, sliced tomato or a pickle.

Lobster Pie

This is another very simple but delicious dish. Lobster meat is cooked, chopped and placed in a casserole dish. Some recipes add vegetables, while others remain simple. Most variations include Italian breadcrumbs, butter, garlic and sometimes one or more diced vegetables. Lobster pie is delicious, simple and a great way to enjoy lobster.

2 lbs. cod, haddock or pollock
2 potatoes peeled cut into 3/4 inch cubes
1 small onion, sliced
6 strips bacon or salt pork
3 Tbsp. butter
2 cups scalded milk
salt and pepper to taste

Preparation

Remove skin and fillets and cut off head and tail. Cut fish into 2 inch pieces and set aside.

Put head, tail, and backbone pieces into a stew pan, add 2 cups of cold water and bring slowly to boiling point; cook 5 minutes.

Cut bacon or salt pork into small pieces and fry out, add onion and fry 5 minutes. Strain fat into a large pan, add potatoes to fat, then add 2 cups boiling water and cook 5 minutes.

Add liquor drained from the bones, add fish, cover and simmer 5 minutes.

Add milk, salt, pepper, and butter.

To thicken, melt 1 tablespoon butter and add 2 tablespoons flour, blending well. Gradually add 2 cups scalded milk.

Serve steaming hot with crackers.

Working Waterfront Festival

The Working Waterfront Festival takes place in New Bedford, America's largest commercial fishing port. This event showcases commercial fishing, America's oldest industry. The Working Waterfront Festival is held. The festival includes New England seafood as well as exhibits on the culture and traditions of the commercial fishing industry.

The Working Waterfront Festival is a project of the Community Economic Development Center of Southeastern MA, a non-profit organization. The FREE festival, a family friendly, educational celebration of New England's commercial fishing industry, features live maritime and ethnic music, fishermen's contests, fresh seafood, vessel tours, author readings, cooking demonstrations, kid's activities and more.

For more information visit www.workingwaterfrontfestival.org.

New Hampshire Fish & Lobster Festival

The New Hampshire Fish & Lobster Festival Celebrates 400 Years of local seafood harvests. Walk the decks of a local fishing boat, taste freshly landed local seafood prepared by top chefs, investigate the Gulf of Maine ecosystem, learn to identify and prepare local fish, sing a song and hear a tale or two.

This interactive festival celebrates 18 miles and 400 years of N.H. fishing communities and traditions. The festival is a made possible thru a collaboration between the Prescott Park Arts Festival, City of Portsmouth Fishing Industry Committee, UNH Sea Grant, Seacoast Local, Seacoast Eat Local, and Slow Food Seacoast.

For more information, visit www.prescottpark.org

Hampton Beach Seafood Festival

The Hampton Beach Seafood Festival showcases 55 of the Seacoast's top restaurants serving an abundance of mouthwatering New England seafood. The event features 39,000 square feet of covered tent space where 80 Arts & Crafts vendors offer locally made products. Local merchants offering end-of-the-season sales are located nearby.

The Hampton Beach Seafood Festival has become the largest non-spectator event held in the state of New Hampshire. The three day festival draws crowds of tourists and locals alike with attendance currently estimated as exceeding 150,000!

The Hampton Beach Seafood Festival has once again been honored with the prestigious award of being "One of the Top 100 Events in North America", by the American Bus Association in 2009. Award winners are chosen from hundreds of celebrations, festivals, fairs, commemorative events, and more that have been nominated by state tourism offices and local and regional convention and visitors' bureaus.

The Seafood Festival has been awarded the "Top 100" designation four times in the past, in 1996, 2001, 2003, 2006, and 2008. Being on the list brings an obvious boost in tourism in the area by increasing the exposure of the event as a designation for bus tours during the Festival.

For more information, visit www.hamptonbeachseafoodfestival.com

Harvest on the Harbor

Maine's premier food and wine experience, Harvest on the Harbor, takes place along Portland's waterfront.

Harvest on the Harbor delivers an exceptional experience that celebrates New England chefs and myriad of delectable dining establishments, while show-casing authentic and gourmet products from local farmers, fishermen and food artisans along with wine, beer and spirit makers.

Thousands have turned out for the event in past years and People magazine named Harvest on the Harbor one of four "Great Ideas" for fall food fests.

Gloucester Massachusetts is America's oldest commercial fishing port, and still exists as a full service port for the New England commercial fishing industry. The port is home to scallop boats, lobster boats, groundfish trawlers and gillnet boats that catch monkfish, cod, haddock, pollock, sharks and other commercially harvested fish.

New Bedford, Massachusetts is among the top US ports in terms of volume and dollar value of seafood. The port was #1 in value for landings with $281.2 million for 2006. Important New Bedford commercial fishing boats include groundfish trawlers, scallop boats and lobster boats.

In an economic study of commercial and recreational fisheries released on 6 January 2009, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) found that commercial and recreational fisheries combined generated 2 million jobs in the United States and $185 billion in sales.

The report, "Fisheries Economics in the United States," found that in 2006 US commercial fishing operations accounted for 111,000 jobs and generated $9.1 billion in sales. The report shows that an additional 106,000 jobs existed in seafood processing and 159,000 in seafood wholesale and distribution. Seafood processing and distribution generated $14.9 and $19.0 billion in sales, respectively. The largest sector of the commercial fishing related industry was the retail sector which accounted for 1,131,000 million jobs and nearly $60 billion in sales.

The document provides data on sales, income and job figures for each coastal state. The highest amount of sales generated by the commercial fishing industry were in California ($9.8 billion), Florida ($5.2 billion), Massachusetts ($4.4 billion), Washington ($3.8 billion), and Alaska ($3 billion). The most jobs were generated in California (179,000), Florida (103,000), Massachusetts (83,000), Washington (75,000) and Texas (47,000).

In a press release Jim Balsiger, NOAA's acting Assistant Administrator for NMFS, said that "the report documents clearly that managing fisheries sustainably is good for the environment and the economy. Fishing helps create a substantial number of jobs around the nation."

For a copy of the report go to www.st.nmfs.noaa.gov/st5/publication/economics_communities.html

New England commercial fishermen harvest some of the best tasting of all saltwater fish. These include groundfish, flatfish and other bottom dwelling species.

Some of the most well known groundfish include Atlantic cod, Atlantic haddock, Atlantic pollock, hake, whiting, yellowtail flounder, winter flounder, fluke, monkfish, redfish, spiny dogfish and other varieties of fish.

New England also has an abundance of inshore fish such as scup, weakfish, black sea bass, bluefish, and others. Many of these fish are available locally in season.

The waters of New England are famous for giant Atlantic Bluefin tuna. Bluefin tuna are noted for having a large, torpedo-shaped body that is nearly circular in cross-section. These massive fish are dark blueish-black on the back and white on the lower sides and belly.

Atlantic bluefin tuna sometimes exceed 1000 pounds and 9 feet in length. They are long lived pelagic fish that live and migrate in the open ocean. Atlantic bluefin tuna is the highest valued Atlantic tuna species in the market. Depending on regulations, bluefin tuna are caught with purse seines, handgear (rod and reel, handline, and harpoon), and longlines. Bluefin is low in sodium and is a source of vitamins A, B6, and B12, selenium, niacin, and phosphorous.

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