Behind the French Menu: shallots

from
Behind the French Menu
by
Bryan G. Newman

behindthefrenchmenu@gmail.com

Allis Shad
Photograph courtesy of EUNIS, the European Nature Information System

Shad or Allis shad are mild but tasty fish and, in the season, between April and June, a fish that will be on many French menus. A restaurant may offer thin slices of marinated or smoked shad or shad roe as an hors d'oeuvre with filets of shad as the main dish. Shad is a bony fish, and having the restaurant handle all those bones is a joy; the fish will be grilled, poached, or sautéed. Most Shad are caught when they are already mature and returning to their home river to spawn; a small shad will usually weigh at least 700 grams.

Eagles also like Shad, they feed them to their children.
Photograph courtesy of Andy Morffew
www.flickr.com/photos/andymorffew/25233551759/

Believe it or not, shads are part of the herring family; however, shads are cooked very differently from their smaller herring cousins in the kitchen. After the first bite, you will never compare a shad with a herring.

Shad on French menus:

Alose au Cidre –Shad poached in cider.

Alose à l'Oseille - Shad baked with sorrel, the herb.

Salade d'Oeufs d'Alose Sauce Gribiche - A salad of shad roe eggs. Shad roe is a delicacy, and here they are served with a Sauce Gribiche. Gribiche is a mayonnaise-based sauce made with hard-boiled egg yolks, mustard, and cornichons.

Alose Fumée, Rémoulade de Concombre, Radis, Oignons à la Crème de Tamara et Ciboulette - Smoked Shad served with a Cucumber Sauce Rémoulade, radishes and onions accompanied by a cream of taramasalata flavored with chives.

Sauce Rémoulade (Remoulade)- A mayonnaise and mustard sauce made with cooked egg yolks, oil, and mustard, usually with added parsley and sometimes with cornichons. Sauce Rémoulade will be served with many dishes and is a favorite with a mashed céleri-rave, celeriac. The sauce is also popular in the USA, where it is part of Cajun or Creole cuisine; my source was not sure which. In any case, Sauce Rémoulade becomes a lot spicier, and the recipe may be somewhat different.
Taramasalata - Taramasalata; one of the most well-known parts of most traditional Greek mezes. Taramasalata should be a light beige to a light creamy pink mixture of salted and cured carp roe, olive oil, garlic, onion, lemon juice, and breadcrumbs. Originally grey mullet roe was used, but that was changed to carp roe when grey mullet rose became too expensive. When you see bright pink versions of taramasalata, then you know that food coloring has been added to the roe of a fish that is almost certainly neither a grey mullet nor a carp.
In a Greek restaurant, I was told that this dish was initially served during the Christian holiday of Lent when meat was not eaten. Traditions, however, do change, and tourists to Greece provide a very important part of that nation's income, and so now taramasalata is available all year round.

Shad caught at the mouth of a river.
Photograph courtesy of Greg Miller
www.flickr.com/photos/gm_ncffb/445717271/

Alose de Loire, Beurre Blanc – Shad caught in the Loire River, the longest river in France; 1,020 km (634 miles). The fish will have been caught close to where the river reaches the sea when returning to the river to spawn. Here the fish will have been lightly fried in a Beurre Blanc Sauce. Beurre Blanc Sauce is one of the most favored French sauces for fish and seafood. Sauce Beurre Blanc or Sauce Beurre Nantaise is made with butter, a dry white wine, lemon, and shallots.

Fried shad roe.
Photograph courtesy of stu_spivack
www.flickr.com/photos/stuart_spivack/5676945671/

Pavé d'Alose Meunière, Fenouil Braisé et Légumes Printaniers - A thick cut of Shad prepared in a Sauce Meunier and served with braised fennel, the herb, and spring vegetables. A Sauce Meunier and parsley.

Shad are born in freshwater rivers and streams, and like salmon, they spend most of their lives in the sea before returning to their homeland streams to spawn. When they return to spawn, that is when most shad are caught at the entrance to the rivers.

Meunière - is a superb sauce for fish and very simply made; it is clarified butter, lemon juice, that is often translated in error as a dish prepared in the manner of a miller's wife. One of my correspondents on French cuisine, Michel Mass, points out that the miller's wife story is another urban legend probably explained because such recipes sometimes (though not always) imply that the fish should be rolled in flour before cooking. However, the word initially related to various species of freshwater fish that in the past went by the collective name of meuniers, most likely the then plentiful Common Bullhead, Chabot in French, and Chub, Chevaine in French. The mill ponds built close to water mills were a haven for fish and, consequently, anglers.
Today, unfortunately, we will rarely see Bullhead or Chubb on the menu, but you can order sole, trout, and almost any type of fish prepared à la meunière.

Shad in the languages of France's neighbors:

(Catalan -alosa ), (Dutch -elft ), (German – alse or maifisch), (Italian – aloa), (Spanish – sábalo), (Latin – alosa alosa).

Shad in other languages:

(Chinese (Mandarin) - 西鲱 ), (Danish - majsild ), Greek- Κέπα – kepa), (Hebrew - aloza), (Maltese – lacca), (Norwegian - maisild), (Polish – aloza finta), (Portugues –sável), (Rumanian - scrumbie de mare), (Russian - европейская алоза), (Swedish - majfisk), (Turkish – tirsi).

For assistance with the names of shad in other languages thanks go to: Froese, R. and D. Pauly. Editors. 2016. FishBase. World Wide Web electronic publication www.fishbase.org, version (01/2016).

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