Swordfish Steaks - in Pictures

DMW

Wanted fish, found these at Shady Maple today, bought all 3 they had.

Scallop potatoes were vac sealed and frozen since Thanksgiving. They were egged then, warmed in the oven tonight.

I put the Shakin' The Tree on my salad as well, I like that stuff.

UrbanForestTurnings

Looks great

jonnymack

That is all that is right with America. Those swordfish steaks look awesome. By far my favorite fish.

Eggingaround

Looks great! Deschutes makes some good stuff also! Chain Breaker is one of my favorites.

Tinyfish

Puts my burger dinner to shame. I dont eat alot of fish but that looks good. Firm like steak.

travisstrick

PRO TIP:

Swordfish should look like this. What you have has sat in the fish house for about 6 days. Still good but not prime. Sword sits the longest. It's expensive and most folks don't know about it. 

DMW

travisstrick said:

PRO TIP:

Swordfish should look like this. What you have has sat in the fish house for about 6 days. Still good but not prime. Sword sits the longest. It's expensive and most folks don't know about it. 

Thanks, I knew this wasn't the freshest, just from it being the last 3 they had. But I did get it for $10.79/pound. 

Now I know what to look for, that pic is just plain pretty.

Should it be sliced already, or should they slice it for you when you ask for it at the counter?

blind99

@travisstrick‌ I sure have never seen swordfish that fresh looking in my supermarket!

travisstrick

It should be in large slabs. I worked in a seafood market in college and I never buy swordfish. It sits for freaking ever. It's usualy best to buy seafood frozen. Anything IQF( individualy quick frozen) is ideal. It's usualy frozen on the boat.

travisstrick

And for sure cut all that dark blood line out. Cut it out for all fish. That's what tastes fishy.

anton

Yeah, buddy, the swordfish steak is one of my favorites, it has that dense meat I like. Yours looks fantastic dude.
:-bd

NPHuskerFL

Nice work with the swordfish Dwayne. I'm with @travisstrick‌ on the quality point. I either buy the individual flash frozen or fresh at the docks. The fresh is of course much better and I can usually get a thick steak from them. But, in your location that would be difficult.
Nonetheless, that's a freaking awesome looking meal!!!

SGH

Looks like a winner to me =D>

nolaegghead

travisstrick said:

It should be in large slabs. I worked in a seafood market in college and I never buy swordfish. It sits for freaking ever. It's usualy best to buy seafood frozen. Anything IQF( individualy quick frozen) is ideal. It's usualy frozen on the boat.

@travisstrick - you and I need to compare notes.  I ordered fish for a few years back in the day.   Fish mongers and seafood wholesalers can be the biggest crooks on the planet, and it's more complicated than that - fish can get bought, sold, bought, sold many times. 

Often dealers hang on to fresh to get top dollar.  They'll IQF it at the end of it's lifespan.  I agree with you that IQF can be the best, especially if you live far from the sea.  But I've noticed a few things. One: flounder fillets that are IQF 90 plus percent suck ass. To a certain degree, like white trout here, they don't freeze well, especially if they aren't immediately frozen. 

Pretty much everything fancy packaged at Wal-Fart and big box stores in the freezer section is going to have a taste and quality level proportional to it's price.  It's a commodity, and the quality varies tremendously. 

Obviously the "fresh" fish is high risk/high reward.  Even though much of it is frozen, to get it to your market, how long it's been sitting there is questionable. 

Buying fish is a challenge.  If you're in doubt, you need to smell it (if thawed or fresh).  There are subtle signs, like the eyes, if a whole fish, signs of bleach (bad), slime, ammonia, etc. that can give you and indication of the quality. 

Finding a good source, and I gar-un-tee you'll pay for it unless you live in a fishing community, is a great start.  F*ck the 1 pound bags of halibut at sam's club.  That's dog food.  (I'm generalizing here).

jonnymack

travisstrick said:

PRO TIP:

Swordfish should look like this. What you have has sat in the fish house for about 6 days. Still good but not prime. Sword sits the longest. It's expensive and most folks don't know about it. 

Holy s**t, that is beautiful. I'm always so leery about buying seafood out my way (40 miles outside of Atlanta). My wife thinks I'm crazy but I'm obsessed with good seafood and hate buying crap seafood from grocer that tastes like crap.

KiterTodd

Good tips.
I'm always hesitant to buy swordfish when I see it at the supermarket because I figure it just came in frozen and they have it sitting out there to thaw.  Every time I see it, it looks just like the steaks DMW posted and I am not sure what I'll get.   I have never seen it look as nice as it does in
travisstrick picture but I suspect that's how it looks in a sushi restaurant.

I'll keep my eye out.  SWMBO is very sensitive to anything with a "fishy" taste so I tend to stick with things I know will be mild (salmon, tuna, fresh trout, & fresh rockfish) but I need to explore a bit more.

I have seen fresh Cod in the seafood market a lot lately.  I never buy it. It just seems like the fish I always see as fried fish, fish sticks and the like.  Is it good on the grill?  I'm also seeing fresh a lot...monk fish I think...it's very slimy lumpy and the meat looks like catfish.  Haven't tried that either.

nolaegghead

@KiterTodd - Cod is an excellent fish if it's IQF'd immediately or fresh.  Good on the grill.  Monk fish is "poor man's lobster".  Ugliest fish on the planet but tastes delicious.  One of my favorites. I buy it whenever I find it fresh.

travisstrick

Pro Tip:

Most of the fish I delivered to sushi restaurants was frozen.

travisstrick

Swordfish is generally caught by long liners. They log the fish out (cut the head and tail off) then frozen.

NDG

Interesting . . . I like the pro tips.  Also glad to read you are not "down" on COD.  I have been buying it a lot recently, some on the grill and some I do en papillote (the latter is our fav)

nolaegghead

travisstrick said:

Pro Tip: Most of the fish I delivered to sushi restaurants was frozen.

@Travisstrick - "sushi grade" mostly is a BS term (insofar as the FDA), but health departments in most places define it as frozen below a certain temp for a certain amount of time to kill parasites.