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The Lady and the Lingcod

by Beverly Seltzer

194 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #03-0133; ISBN 1-55395-770-9; US$19.50, C$25.99, EUR16.90, £11.80

How to cook the ones that didn't get away!

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about the book      about the author      Reviews      sample excerpts or Table of Contents      catalogue info

About the Book An informative and entertaining cookbook by Beverly Seltzer, retired commercial fisherman and life-long sportfishing enthusiast. She cleverly weaves short stories of her fishing adventures along with fishing techniques, tips and humor among her collection of recipes for Pacific saltwater fish that she's targeted over the years. Readers will learn not only how to prepare the fish they've bought -- or caught -- but will also have some fascinating stories and facts about the fish they're serving up.

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About the Author Beverly Seltzer, also known as "Bajabev", began sportfishing as a child in the waters off southern California. Between 1989 and 1996 she fished several commercial vessels from central California to Seattle targeting salmon, lingcod, rockfish, halibut and albacore. This period also included five months of tuna longlining off Hawaii, two months of trolling on the Midway albacore grounds, a couple months in Alaska, and occasional deck-handing on "party boats". Beverly now resides in the mountains between the towns of Los Gatos and Santa Cruz, California, with her husband Jeff and "Puma", their cat (an abyssinian lovingly referred to as "the ab from hell"). Aside from fishing, Bev's other passions include her '68 Dodge Charger (and all vintage Mopars), horses and scuba diving.

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Praise for The Lady and the Lingcod

Beverly Seltzer's book, The Lady and the Lingcod, is a cookbook, but it is a lot more. Her sense of humor makes it fun to read and her adventures and misadventures including being on an 80 foot boat that sunk in the ocean miles from land. If you catch a lot of ocean fish and are looking for new recipes, this book does that, but don't pass up the adventures part -- that was the best part for me. -- Ray Rychnovsky, author of several sportfishing books published by Frank Amato Publications

... wonderful seafood recipes compiled in Beverly Seltzer's new book, THE LADY AND THE LINGCOD; How To Cook The Ones That Didn't Get Away. "Bajabev", as she is known on Internet sportfishing boards, is a retired commercial fisherman and an active sportfisher who lives in Los Gatos. The cover photo has Bev with what has got to be a 30 pound lingcod.

Seltzer discusses her wide experiences in different commercial fisheries, interspersed with unusual recipes such as "Coconut and Lime Lingcod," "Salmon with Mango Salsa," and "Broiled Wahoo with Orange Basil Butter." She offers advice on what commercial fisheries are sustainable - and which species to avoid. Although she offers a few fishing tips, with lots of pictures from Bev's commercial and sportfishing adventures, the cookbook is aimed at non-fishers and fishers alike. The recipes are real keepers, too. I hadn't seen most of them before, and the combinations - like using fruit or even blackberry preserves with fish - look mouth-watering. Plus, she tells great fishing tales with her good sense of humor. This book will [accompany] you by the fireside on these stormy evenings, and you'll get new ideas about cooking seafood. If you like to fish, cook fish, or eat fish, I'd recommend picking up a copy of THE LADY AND THE LINGCOD. -- Jim Martin, The Anderson Valley Advertiser

Hi Bev. I met you at the Ventura [Fred Hall] Show and bought your book. I just want you to know that I love it -- as a matter of fact I'm going to get three more copies to give to my son and a couple friends. The main thing I like is its simplicity; if you ever tried to cook something from The Joy Of Cooking and if you are culinary-challenged as I am, you can really appreciate a nice straight-forward recipe book in which you don't have to jump all over from one section to the other. Also, your little stories are short and entertaining. Very cool. All the best, and hope your sales soar. -- Vince Shriver of Buellton, California, one of the first 100 people to buy the book

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Excerpts

My first trip out on a commercial boat, the Anna B, played out the way I'd learn it often does for salmon trollers. After months of preparation at the dock, sanding, painting, and making gear, the opening day of salmon season looms just around the corner. For a week, you've been negotiating a price for your fish, along with a bunch of other vessels, and hoping none of the others decide to go out on strike. At some point during the final 48 hours [weather permitting], you jockey for position at the crowded fuel dock to gas up and blow ice into the hold. The chaos is like a shopping mall the day before Christmas. There's one last chance to raid the grocery store before throwing the lines. You head out a couple hours either side of midnight [weather permitting] to get to the fishing grounds by dawn. Buddy boats team up and do their radio checks using this year's secret codes. You leave the jaws of the harbor on your way to filling your hold with fish (you hope). At first light [weather permitting], you send the gear into the depths, cross your fingers, and say a prayer or two. As the day unfolds, your prayers are answered. You couldn't have asked for better weather or a calmer ocean.

The Anna B went on to land 73 salmon that first day (actually, 73 1/2 if you count the front half of a 20-pounder that got bit cleanly though by a white shark while it was on the line). Over the next four days we filled the hold and turned the boat back to port. By the end of that trip, I was hooked as well! In the years that followed, I fished on many different boats for a variety of species. My travels took me from California to Washington, and then on to Alaska and Hawaii. I sportfished whenever I got the chance, and even served as deckhand on some party boats occasionally. Yet I'll never forget the good old days, fishing in front of the bait receiver at the Pavilion, spending weekends at Catalina Island, or running out of gas in the Glasspar and getting towed back to port from Huntington Flats.

I've come to realize there are still a lot of people who know relatively little about fish. The average person can correctly name a fraction of the many species of fish served, and many restaurant patrons cannot even point out the fish they are eating when shown a pictorial lineup of the different species. This book presents recipes for albacore, bluefin tuna, blue marlin, cabrilla, Chilean seabass, dorado, halibut, lingcod, mako shark, petrale sole, rockfish, salmon, sand dab, sierra, wahoo, white seabass, yellowfin tuna, and yellowtail. Some of these are familiar species that are widely fished commercially, while others you'd only get by going out and fishing them for sport. There are also about 30 other fish species from the Pacific and elsewhere that could easily substitute for the above-featured fish. Besides the recipes for cooking the fish, the book is chock full of anecdotes and useful facts to help you catch them, pick them, or just get to know a bit more about the fish you're serving. I hope it will inform and entertain you.

If you've had a successful day at sea, I will only remind you of two things: clean it and ice it as soon as possible! I like to use a wooden cutting board to fillet or to steak fish. If they're big fish, I use a sheet of plywood. Try not to soak the fish with water while you are cleaning it. Rinse it lightly, or just wipe off small bits of shmutz with your fingers or paper towel. Then, put it in plastic bags and lay it out on ice. Don't dump a lot of heavy ice on top of your beautiful fish! When I'm done, I rinse the board off with cold water first and then spray it with a bleach and water solution. I follow that with a good soap and hot water washing. I also use the same bleach solution to spray out the ice chest I used to carry the fish home. It's what works best at getting the fish smell out.

For the rest of you who are stalking your prey through the glass (at the market), pay attention. Your best bet is to buy fish locally when in season, right off the boat when possible. You will not only get a fresh fish, but an education to go with it. Most fishermen love to tell people about their boats and catch. Just try to avoid the topics of politics or fishing regulations, and you should do ok!

Your best bet for a year-round supply, especially when looking for exotics, will be an upscale market or seafood store. Depending on where you live, some seafood restaurants will also sell fish to their customers. Try to shop for fresh fish close to the weekend, as that is when most suppliers deliver the new orders. Do not buy fish that looks dry or off-colored. The smell shouldn't be overpowering either. Prime flatfish are often displayed belly-up to show off the condition of the fish. If you wish to purchase one displayed eyes-side-up, be sure to first flip it over to check for bruising. I often take along a small cooler with blue ice when I go shopping, in case I happen to run across something good. This also comes in handy for cheese and ice cream, if you live in the boonies, like I do.

When you do find a nice supply of fish at a good price, you may wish to buy some extra and to freeze it for future use. This works out especially well with whole fish, such as salmon or large halibut. I will often steak the front half of the fish and fillet the back. I use two methods of packaging. For short term freezing, I like to use a freezer quality airtight Ziploc bag, and I remove as much air from the bag as possible before sealing it. If I'm storing fish in the deep freeze for a while, I vacuum seal it. An affordable vacuum packer, such as FoodSaver, can be found in stores or over the internet and is a good idea if you get into cooking or catching a lot of fish.

Whatever I've chosen for a recipe is, in my opinion, the best possible fish for that particular recipe; that is, of all the species I've tasted so far. In most cases, I have added suggestions for alternative fish substitutions. If you want to try an alternative species, try to get it in the same form. That is, if a recipe calls for a halibut fillet, 2-3 inches thick, and you want to use Chilean seabass instead, just make sure to use a fillet that's about 2-3 inches thick as well. For the health-conscious, the three fish highest in omega-3 fatty acid content in this book are Chilean seabass, salmon, and bluefin tuna. Leave the skin on your fish if it came that way, in case you choose to use a cooking method that requires it. You can always remove it later if it is not needed.

Fresh fish should be stored in the refrigerator or left on ice for use within one to two days, for best flavor. If you notice liquid collecting around the fish during this time, drain it off and pat the fish dry with paper towel. If you like sashimi, I recommend the tuna species or yellowtail (hamachi). This is best when kept fresh on ice, especially while still on the boat. I have known people who keep wasabi in their tackle boxes!

Most of the time, we engaged in "live" fisheries, which meant that you had to subdue a ling, sometimes up to 40 pounds, and wrestle a jig out of his mouth before throwing him in a tank. Every now and then, you'd go stir the tank so that some poor fish pinned in a corner could move and start using his gills again. As I mentioned, they're hard to kill. We could keep between 500 and 1800 pounds of fish alive to sell back at the dock.

If the weather permitted, we'd fish a couple days before the weekend and be back at the harbor selling the fish Saturday morning. We would fill our display tank on the deck with a bunch of lings, and people would wander over to the rail beside the boat to make their selections. Half of the customers would have a certain size fish in mind. I'd search the tank for the right size fish, haul it out with my short-handled gaff hooked under its gill plate, and hang it on the scale. If the buyer liked the weight, I'd lay the fish out on the deck and proceed to bludgeon it to death with the gaff handle, to the delight of the cheering crowd. We'd slide the fish into a brown paper bag ("body bag"), then hoist it in a bucket up to the customer on the dock. This show came to be known around Pillar Point Harbor as, "The Lady and the Lingcod."

[Excerpts taken from the introductory chapter ("Hooked on Fishing"), Cooking Basics ("Caught it vs. Bought it"), and the intro to the Lingcod chapter.]

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Catalogue Information

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