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Chef’s Corner-Bits and Bites, by Chef
Michael Hutchings
Abalone!
The mention of this mollusk conjures up memories
of someone diving for, eating it somewhere, hearing about
it, or seeing a button or ashtray made from the shell. Mostly
we remember it as the abalone steak. Some diners claim that
the texture reminds them of Wiener schnitzel or conch.
The abalone s really a huge, flattened snail,
a sort of escargot of the sea. The abalone has its origins
in the Upper Cretaceous period, some 80 million years ago.
In California there are four types, red, black , green, white
and pink. The white and red varieties are considered the best
culinary types. The abalone has a long history as a food source.
California Indians used them as food and the shells were used
as tools, ornaments and barter items.
In the 1800s, commercial harvesting started
on a large scale first by Chinese then Japanese immigrants.
Hard hat divers began harvesting in the 1900s. In 1915 “Pop”
Ernest Doelter, a restaurateur in Monterey, introduced abalone
at the Panama Pacific International Exposition and abalone
became a gourmet food item.
Inevitable, the abalone resource was overexploited
and wild stocks dwindled to the point where harvesting was
banned. The 80’s were the last hurrah for the wild stock.
About that same time, marine scientists discovered how to
induce abalone to spawn and a new industry was born, abalone
mari culture.
Enter John McMullen of Ab Lab. I met John
one afternoon when he wandered in to the kitchen at the Olive
Mill Bistro, a bygone Santa Barbara restaurant, with a bag
of red abalone that were 1-1/2 inches in diameter, live in
the shell. He was growing them for the State Fish and Game
Department to reseed the depleted abalone beds. I had been
cooking the large wild abalone for years and tried these out
as an appetizer. They were a huge hit and I was soon preparing
some 20 dozen a week.
Locally, The Cultured Abalone company has
been raising abalone at an onshore mariculture farm located
in Goleta. Abalone are bred and raised in onshore tanks until
they reach a commercial size in about 3-1/2 years. Sea water
is pumped in from a deep intake and passed through a UV light
to kill off parasites. They start life as free swimming, microscopic
animals eating an algae that grows on the tanks and then graduate
to kelp, their natural food. The abalone farms sells live
abalone that are about 3-1/2 inches in the shell. As a twist
of history, the orientals are still big buyers of abalone
and the farm ships thousands overseas each year.
Preparation involves scrapping them out of
the shell, removing the “working parts” and giving
them a little time under a tenderizing mallet. I like the
classic egg batter method with a quick sauté in butter.
A white wine and butter emulsion sauce with enoki daki mushrooms,
snipped dill and diced tomatoes is a great foil for this unique
local product.
They are available from The Cultured Abalone, (805) 685-1956.
Tastefully yours,
Chef Michael Hutchings
Michael’s Catering
www.michaelscateringsb.com
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