Delectable Shad Roe

Today I went to the fish market intending to get salmon to cook for our dinner tonight.  The salmon was there,  but as I explored the ice box filled with fish I saw one of Wayne's favorite delicacies, shad roe.  A shad  spends their lives in the Ocean from Georgia to Nova Scotia, but move into North Carolina freshwater rivers and streams to spawn in the spring. We've had such a warm winter, I think they've come a little early.  The American shad is a valuable commercial fish highly prized for the quality of its flesh (so some say) and roe (I would agree!). I doubt that I would ever cook a shad...it's loaded with small bones and if my memory serves me correctly, a real "fishy" fish.  I remember Grandmama  cooking a shad  covered with a cloth and baking it so long that the bones dissolved.  You can find recipes for cooking this fish dating from early colonial times.

Wayne and I are not shad fish eaters but really enjoy shad roe so I was delighted to find it already in the market.  Sometimes I precook bacon until it's just about to crisp, wrap the bacon around the roe and bake in the oven for 15 minutes.  Tonight I found a  great new recipe in the Washingtonian Magazine from the Blue Duck Tavern that made the roe a very special dish.   I served it with garlic mashed potatoes and a crispy romaine wedge salad.  Yum!!!


Serves 4

Ingredients:

2 slices smoked bacon, diced
1 medium vidalia (or other sweet) onion, sliced
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
4 slices bacon
2 "sets" shad roe (4 lobes)
2 tbs. butter
2 tbs. balsamic vinegar
4 tbs. chicken stock
1 tbs. stone ground mustard
2 tbs. butter
1 tbs. fresh squeezed lemon juice

Preheat oven to 350 degrees
1.  Using a cast our skillet over medium heat, saute bacon until crisp and fat is rendered.  Add onion and garlic.  When onions are caramelized (about 5 minutes) remove mixture from pan and set aside.
2.  Wipe pan and return to heat.  Pat the roe dry and season with sea salt and freshly ground pepper.  Melt two tablespoons of butter in the pan, add the two whole slices of bacon and cook until close to crisp.  Add roe to the pan and cook on one side for 3 minutes, basting with the butter in the pan, then carefully flip.
3.  Place the pan in the oven a cook for 5 minutes (the time is very important, overcooked roe turns to mush!)  Remove the roe and bacon from the pan and place on a warm plate.
4.  Drain the fat from the pan and return to medium heat.  Deglaze the pan with the vinegar when it is reduced by 90% return the onion mixture to the pan, add the chicken stock and mustard.  When it starts to boil take it off the head and add butter and lemon juice.
5.  Serve roe over the onions with a strip of bacon and drizzle sauce over.