Wednesday, April 12, 2006 

An Appetizing Salmon

An Appetizing Salmon

RecipeThat You Can Cook In 10 Minutes
Doesn't matter how good the recipe is, I never liked Salmon too much, and salmon isn't my favorite type of fish. I prefer the type of fish with very tender meat. However, I really enjoy this salmon recipe. It's easy to make, and it tastes good. All you need is some salmon and some batter.

Chinese Fry Salmon Fish
Salmon - 400 to 500 gramsFlour - 1/2 cupWater - 1/2 cupSalt - 1 teaspoonBlack pepper - a pinchOil
Cut the salmon into 1cm thick slices, and rub a little salt on to season.
Mix the batter with water. Add the salt, pepper, and mix well.
Heat the oil in a frying pan to medium-high. Coat the salmon in the batter, and fry until both sides are golden, and the fish is cooked. About 5 to 7 minutes.
For a little extra flavor, you can make a dipping sauce to go with this salmon recipe. Mix 2 tablespoon of light soy sauce, 1 tablespoon of black vinegar, 1 teaspoon sugar, and 1 teaspoon chili oil. This makes a really tasty dipping sauce for the salmon.

 

Salmon Life Cycle

Salmon Life Cycle

Many species of salmon are anadromous—they spawn, or lay their eggs, in fresh water; the young migrate to salt water and grow up there; and the fish return to fresh water to breed after they reach maturity. Other populations or species of salmon are landlocked, spending their entire life cycle in fresh water. The migratory instinct of members of the salmon family is remarkably specific, each generation returning to spawn in exactly the same breeding places as the generation before it. Some salmon migrate hundreds or even thousands of miles to reach their spawning grounds. Even those species that do not migrate from fresh water to salt water spawn in the same freshwater streams as did their ancestors.

Although usually drab in color before the breeding season, which varies with the species, members of the salmon family develop bright hues at spawning time. During this season the male usually develops a hooked snout and a humped back. Salmon typically spawn in rapidly flowing, clear streams with gravel and rocks in the bottom. Before mating, one parent excavates a nest, or redd, for the eggs. The female deposits eggs in the nest and the male releases sperm, or milt, over the eggs to fertilize them. The female then stirs up the stream bottom so that earth and stones cover the eggs and protect them. During the migrations and nest-building activity that precede mating, neither the females nor the males consume food.

The eggs hatch in two weeks to six months, depending on the species and the water temperature. The newly hatched young, called alevins, remain buried in the nest, living on nutrients absorbed from a yolk sac attached to the abdomen. When all the yolk has been absorbed, the young salmon, then called fry or fingerlings, emerge from the gravel to seek food. Their diet consists of microscopic plants and small animals, such as insects.

 

Atlantic SalmonSalmo salar

Atlantic SalmonSalmo salar

Length: 26 inches
Weight: 4 pounds
Coloring: brown, green or blue on top; silvery on sides, and silvery white below
Common Names: Kennebec salmon, sebago, sebago salmon, grilse, kelt
Found in Lakes: Stocked in Ontario
The Atlantic salmon has been honored throughout history. The Gauls and Romans prized its many qualities, and Britain's Magna Carta even granted it rights of protection.
Despite its venerable past, this valuable sport and commercial fish has not readily adapted to the upper Great Lakes, though they were once native to Lake Ontario. After more than 100 years of trying, Canada and the U.S. have yet to establish these ocean-going salmon in the fresh waters of any of the Great Lakes.
In recent years, Michigan has planted a new freshwater strain of Atlantic salmon in Lakes Michigan and Huron. These "Gullspang" Atlantic salmon come from the freshwater lakes of Sweden, where they have been landlocked since the Ice Ages. Michigan and Wisconsin have at times experimented with a strain of Atlantic salmon that spawns in the rivers of Quebec province, and Minnesota continues to stock this species.
From these stocking programs, Lake Superior and the other Great Lakes now have small populations of Atlantic salmon. However, the success in reintroducing the fish has not been noteworthy, and Michigan is the only state that continues to stock it.
Though most Atlantic salmon spawn in fresh water and then spend most of their life in the ocean, some also lived their entire lives in Lake Ontario up until the 1900s. For over 100 years, Canada and the United States tried to establish self-sustaining populations of Atlantic salmon in the upper Great Lakes, but with only minimal success.
After the parasitic sea lamprey was brought under control, Michigan planted a new freshwater strain of Atlantic salmon in Lakes Michigan and Superior. These "Gullspang" Atlantic salmon came from Sweden, where they have been landlocked since the Ice Ages. For a few years in the 1970s, Michigan and Wisconsin also planted a strain of oceangoing Atlantic salmon in Lake Superior from stocks that spawned in the rivers of the province of Quebec. In the 1980s, Minnesota alone continued to plant Atlantic salmon in the headwater Great Lake, while Michigan today plants these fish only in Lake Michigan.
Though Atlantic salmon may spawn two or three times during their lives, self-propagating stocks have not yet developed. But fisheries scientists still hope that some experimental strain of Atlantic salmon will be found that has the genetic makeup to survive and reproduce in the Great Lakes.