Salmon beyond sushi: how to choose and prepare fish – 07/10/2023 – Food

Salmon is a phenomenon of popularity in São Paulo. “It’s the fish preferred by 80% of the clientele”, says Denis Watanabe, owner of the restaurant that bears his surname in the Itaim Bibi neighborhood.

Brazilians discovered the orange-pink fish in the 1980s, through hotels and restaurants serving the then sophisticated (and expensive) international cuisine. “There was only demand for smoked salmon, which we made from frozen fish”, says Roberto Veiga, from Damm, responsible for the first imports from Chile.

Today, the scenario is different. In 2022, the country imported 101 thousand tons of salmon, which reach supermarkets, temakerias, fast food chains and restaurants per kilo. Behind this change are aggressive marketing campaigns, backed by fishing industries and governments in the main exporting regions: Chile and the state of Alaska, in the United States.

The Americans were the pioneers in this popularization. Since 2011, the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute, ASMI, has been publicizing the properties of wild fish, which are caught in the icy waters of the North Pacific Ocean. But the products only reached national markets in Lent 2014.

“We promoted tastings, and salmon was the flagship of that Holy Week”, says Carolina Nascimento, spokeswoman for the entity in São Paulo. Since then, events in restaurants, courses in gastronomy schools and partnerships with influencers, chefs and nutritionists have been incorporated into the project.

Even so, the results are timid. Of the 101 thousand tons of salmon that Brazil imported in 2022, only 430 came from Alaska. Everything else comes from Chile. Although it started the campaign a year after ASMI, in 2012, Salmón de Chile was able to catch up. With strong allies, such as chef Rodrigo Oliveira, from the Mocotó restaurant, he transformed Brazil into the third largest consumer market, behind the USA and Japan.

At the same time that they please the Brazilian palate, salmon producers are increasingly accused of practices that are harmful to the environment. Complaints vary.

In the case of Chile, where salmon are bred in captivity, the international NGO Oceana says that overcrowded tanks generate an accumulation of feed residues below the cages and cause diseases that are cured with high doses of antibiotics.

ASMI takes advantage of the accusations against its competitor to say that it only sells wild salmon, caught in its natural habitat. The same Oceana, however, through its North American arm, warns that salmon have difficulty reproducing in increasingly warmer waters, as a result of global warming. If the pace of the fishing industry is not reduced, claims the entity, wild salmon is at risk of extinction.

The color of the fish is also a result of comparison. While those from Alaska acquire it naturally, because they feed on krill and plankton that have this pigment, the Chileans are colored indirectly, says Oceana, because of the feed. The entities refute the accusations and claim that they strictly comply with the laws of their countries.

“We are the most government-regulated protein industry in Chile. Exporters have international certifications and publish sustainability reports. The NGO Monterey Bay Aquarium is developing a long-term project to reduce the use of antibiotics”, says Melanie Whatmore, manager of Salmon de Chile.

“Since the creation of Alaska, in 1959, the state’s constitution determines that natural resources are managed in a sustainable way. Captive breeding is prohibited and a body of biologists works to monitor stocks of shoals”, says the ASMI spokesperson.

Despite the discussion, professional and amateur kitchens remain loyal to salmon. As the market receives different products, the culinary result varies —this is what the professionals invited to the tasting promoted by Sheet.

At the Wilma Kövesi de Cozinha School, in the São Paulo neighborhood of Pinheiros, salmon cuts from Chile and Alaska were tested by professors Joël Ruiz and Tiago Membrive, by chef Bella Masano, from the Amadeus restaurant, specializing in fish, and by sushi chef Denis Watanabe. They prepared raw and cooked recipes, with various cooking methods, and analyzed the results based on taste, color and texture criteria.

More expensive, the wild red salmon (the “sockeye”), from Alaska, enchants by its intense red tone, without apparent layers of fat. But, as the distance forces you to travel already frozen, it doesn’t work for any recipe. Membrive followed the supplier’s recommendation, prepared the frozen slices and approved the result. “I took it from the freezer to the frying pan and finished it in the oven. It was juicy, looking fresh.”

When thawed, however, the fish loses texture, says Bella Masano. “The thawed sample had a spongy texture and dried out on vacuum cooking.” Therefore, defrosted salmon was not approved by Watanabe for raw preparations, such as sashimi. “The fish released a lot of liquid and lost flavor.”

The same does not happen with the Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar), from Chile, which arrives fresh. According to Salmón de Chile, the fish come by truck and take four days to arrive in São Paulo, for example. Light pink in color, it has clearly visible white layers of fat, an advantage from a gastronomic point of view. “The higher fat content gives it shine and a firm texture. In vacuum cooking, it produced beautiful chips”, says Bella Masano.

The Chilean sample was the only one tall enough for salmon stuffed with zucchini, the recipe chosen by Joël Ruiz. “The creamy texture made the fish ideal for searing with a little oil.”

In raw preparations, fresh Chilean salmon was also approved by Watanabe. “The fibers are intact, which is fundamental for sashimi, carpaccio and tiraditos. It was soft, pleasant to chew.”

Also from Chile, coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch) arrives frozen, from February to August, and fresh, from September to January. It has an intense orange hue, without apparent layers of fat, and resisted better to thawing samples, according to Watanabe. “When defrosted, it lost its shine and the piece ended up cracking. But the texture of the sashimi, in the mouth, did not change that much.”