return of the blowfish

yesterday, we had a very pleasant surprise!! a neighbor pulled up a crab trap filled with blowfish.

as a kid, a local fisherman — Mr. Grey, taught us how to clean the blowfish (and also tried to get us to make blowfish-head soup). needless to say, we used to catch them all the time — but, over the last 10 years, rarely, if ever.

unrelated to the japanese blowfish and definitely NOT poisonous, Sphoeroides maculatus is located up and down the northern atlantic coast, and sometimes known as the northern puffer (or the blow toad!).

they are quite delicious, the big joke (of course) is that they ‘taste like chicken’! around barnegat bay, they are even referred to as ‘chicken-of-the-sea’. the largest one caught in NJ is recorded at 1lb 14oz in the Delaware Bay — i wish i could have seen it inflated!

we like them best breaded with a good quality italian-seasoned bread crumb mixture and fried in a few tablespoons of butter and olive oil. serve with a wedge of lemon.
mmmmmm