Mother Knows Best

It's my mother's birthday, so I'd like to commemorate the occasion by posting about some of her cooking. After all, I think mothers (and some fathers) are the primary influence on people's food preferences and habits. It's plenty obvious that I have a predilection for Japanese cuisine which stems from growing up under my parents' roof.

Mom and Dad recently made an excursion out to Angel Seafoods Ltd., a Japanese food warehouse/market in the Saint-Laurent area of Montreal. Mom picked up a shiny red snapper, already neatly gutted and scaled. She salted it, skewered it from tail to head -- like sticking a rod up a puppet's butt -- then baked the whole thing in the oven at 350°F for about 30 minutes. To prevent burning, she covered the tail and fin with foil.

Salt crust roasting is an ancient technique used across different cultures. Salt, as I've mentioned before, has a way of drawing out moisture from flesh. However, salt crust roasting creates a barrier that locks in the moisture that the salt crust draws out, causing the flesh to steam inside.

Of course, instead of remarking on such intelligent details, I made a facetious remark about Mr. Snapper's teeth looking somewhat scary and comical at the same time. (Come on, you can't tell me this guy doesn't look like Admiral Ackbar from Return of the Jedi with piranha dentures?!)

My mother promptly replied that traditional Japanese cooking dictates that you should tie the fish's mouth shut with twine to prevent it from opening during baking. Presumably, this is to keep moisture from escaping from the mouth. I did some Googling and found that some people also sew the gills shut for roasting. Who knew? Mom knew.

I leave you with a photo of one of her New Year's feasts which she spends almost a week preparing for at the end of every December. This isn't even the full meal: these are the remnants (neatly re-arranged) after the family has devoured a number of dishes. Eventually, I'd like to accumulate enough understanding of these foods to be able to make something like this without consulting a book. My mother has all of these recipes in her head. Now that's skill.

Happy birthday, Mom!