Letter to Erin 20151021

In the name of Allah, most Gracious, most Merciful.

Hello beautiful Erin!  How are you, my gorgeous darling?  I suppose you're having fun with sports.  I'm sorry, but I'm not a sports fan.  I support the teams you love.  I like fish, though.  This morning, my Dad gave me a big scad.  A hardtail scad, with thick skin perfect for grilling.  But I need a new grill, plus I don't have any butter for basting, so I'm going to have to figure out someway else to cook it.  Let me teach you how to prep it.  Hardtail scad doesn't have scales.  First I use a pair of kitchen scissors to make a cut beginning from the anus right up to the gills.  Don't cut deeply, just deep enough to reach the stomach cavity.  The base of the gills start right at the mouth, so cut there.  Then make another cut at the opposite end of the gills, right at the roof of the skull.  So now you loosened the gills, pull on them with your hand, making sure you loosen the membranes that hold the stomach parts to the fish.  All the stomach parts should be attached to the gills, except the roe.  Separate the roe cautiously- it's delicious!  I got soft roe with my fish today.  Not as tasty as mackerel roe, but still good.  Keep the liver, too.  Then I used my big old Chinese cleaver to chop off the head and the tail.  My cleaver is pretty sharp, so I used it to fillet the fish.  I separated to biggest lengths of flesh from the skin, and put them away in the freezer.  There's still a lot of flesh stuck to the skin and bones, so I will be frying these up tomorrow inshaAllah.

Normally, I would have sashimi or sushi with the fillet, but today I want won tons stuffed with cuttlefish and chicken wings for dinner.  Ah, praise Allah!  It's a good day for food.  You must come and share my dinner with me.  I love you Erin, and I need you.