File This One Under Weird: Shad Roe

A Friendly WARNING: This is not for the faint of heart. Re-hashing this recipe to write this post has me somewhat nauseous as I am thinking about what it was that we actually ate. Welcome to New England, baby, our delicacies are downright weird!

Let's begin with a quick explanation of Shad Roe. Shad is a bony fish native to the Atlantic Ocean that is especially prized for its roe - or eggs. Shad roe is considered a sign of Spring here in New England (personally, I prefer daffodils...) and is usually available beginning in late February or early March for only a short time. Boy and I were cruising our local fish market and upon asking our routine question - What's good today? - were excitedly rushed over to the roe. (As you can see in the photo, the roe looks more like a liver - split into lobes - but contains thousands of eggs.) Being the texture-phobe that I am, it took a good 15 minutes of convincing before my adventurous side kicked in. To my credit though, looking at the roe sac sitting on ice was less than appetizing. Frankly, it was nauseating.

The preparation suggestion we received from our awesome Fish Guy was to wrap each lobe of the roe tightly in good bacon and pan sear until just firm... just DON'T puncture the membrane that encases the roe. Hmm, ok. Easy enough. Who doesn't love an excuse to buy delicious Vermont bacon?

I have to applaud boy for his amazing bacon wrapping skills. (One more glass of wine and I would have had him convinced to put it on his resume...)

We pan-seared the bacon wrapped roe until the bacon was just cooked and I must say the result was fantastic. Once cooked, shad roe has the consistency of couscous that has been allowed to stick together with a slightly liver-esque flavor. All in all, I am very glad that we were able to try this delicacy. (More excited at the prospect of being in the know were I ever to come across it on a menu.)

Bacon-wrapped Shad Roe with Broccolini and mushroom risotto.