Login
Join Now!
Membership Info
Sections
Home
Articles
The Darter - Newsletter
NFC Forum
NFC TV
Photo Gallery
NFC Store
Joe Tomelleri Store
Grants & Programs
Adopt a Tank
Blue Pike
Exotics Fish Tourny
Grant History
Sustainable Aquaculture
Web Fund
|
Gold in La Bayous
Lowly choupique spawns Louisiana caviar industry
The Times-Picayune:March 18, 1990 To mention caviar and the choupique in the same breath may sound like a joke. Caviar is a treat prized by the affluent. The choupique is, well, a trash fish. Except that the choupique, also known as a bowfin, produces a roe, or eggs, that makes a pretty good caviar. And caviar has turned into a pretty good Louisiana yarn. The most prized caviar comes from sturgeon that live in the Caspian Sea and migrate into rivers in the Soviet Union. Caviar has been prized for centuries. Hamlet even mentions it. But this-story opens in 1986 when John Burke, who dropped out of the University of Texas to go into the oil business, came back to south Louisiana. His oil business in Fort Worth had gone bust. So had his marriage. He had almost no idea what to do with himself except maybe live off the land. "I thought if I have to be a fisherman, I'd be a damned fisherman," he said. While he was sorting things out, he worked with his mother, Para Daniels, on economic development in St. Mary Parish. Daniels is executive director of the East St. Mary Parish Economic Development Consortium. One day, a local fisherman came to see them. He knew a family that lived in the Atchafalaya Basin who had made a caviar from the choupique for years for local consumption only. The caviar was tasty. Did Burke and Daniels think there might be an opportunity here? Burke went to see the family and liked what he tasted. They apparently liked him, and they agreed to sell him their caviar to resell to others. The family has had the recipe for at least four generations. Burke doesn't know where they got it; he isn't sure they know. Meanwhile, Burke decided to go to Louisiana State University to finish his degree in pre-law, But Baton Rouge seemed to have "too many lawyers. The potential with caviar seemed greater than going to law school." So he took courses in food science, business, marketing, and the like. In the winter, from December until February when the choupique spawn, he helped process the caviar and then wandered around Louisiana talking up what was called "Cajun Caviar." Chefs weren't impressed by the name. "They wanted to know if it was roe and cayenne peppers," Burke said. But when they tasted the caviar, they loved it. In 1989, Burke and his partners decided they'd best get serious. They renamed the product Choupiquet Royale, got it trade marked, formed a real company, Louisiana Caviar Co., and raised $25,000 from members of Burke's family to finance some equipment to make the caviar. Burke's relatives own a small part of the company; he and his partners own the rest in equal shares. "This year, Louisiana Caviar will sell some 4,000 to 5,000 pounds of the stuff. Buyers include Commander's Palace, Lafitte's Landing and delis in Los Angeles. Some customers are in Australia and Tokyo. John Burke, 30, is enjoying the attention, and he is still amazed that the tough, ornery choupique can produce something that people desire. Caviar starts with the 10 to 16 ounces of roe that are cut out of a live female fish. The eggs are strained gently through stainless steel screens to clear them of membranes, fibers and fatty matter. Then. salt is added, from 3 percent to 6 percent. It sounds simple, but by all accounts caviar is extremely difficult to make. For one thing, you lose between 10 percent and 20 percent of the eggs in the preparation process. Its the preparation that makes the caviar. Others have tried to make caviar from choupique without much success. The caviar is spooned into tins but not sealed. It doesn't store well unless it is kept at 28 degrees, away from air. Commander's Palace is the biggest caviar user, buying 15 to 20 pounds a week during the season and beyond. Burke keeps some in his cooler for the restaurant. Executive chef Jamie Shannon has featured it in a number of dishes in the busy Christmas, New Year's and Mardi Gras seasons. Shannon said customers have liked it so far. And he likes it, too. The caviar "'singles' out (doesn't clump together) and isn't filmy." Chef John Folse of Lafitte's Landing near Donaldsonville also is a fan. For one thing the price is right -- $50 a pound wholesale. The Russian equivalent costs two to four times as much, sometimes more. Choupiquet Royale retails at $28 for a 4-ounce tin. Then, Folse insists, choupique caviar is far superior to other domestic caviars, made from North American sturgeon, a distant relative of the choupique. "I look at caviar like I look at truffles," Folse said. "They are nice to have, but I can get by without them if the price is too high. Choupiquet Royale gives me a product of superior quality that I can afford." Tony Romeo, gourmet foods assistant manager at Martin's Wine Cellar in Uptown New Orleans, said the caviar has taken off with little advertising beyond a couple of signs in the store. He thinks the quality is as good as that of the Russian Sevruga, the least expensive of the three Russian grades. If Burke can keep his production up, Romeo said, Choupiquet Royale "could become a major product." At the Irvine Ranch Farmer's Market in Los Angeles, salesman Jeff Bellenand said sales of the bayou product are good but could be better. The caviar comes in 4-or 7-ounce tins. "We could sell a lot more if we had 1- and 2-ounce tins," Bellenand said. A 4-ounce tin in Bellenand's gourmet section costs $59.95. Nancy Hendrickson, Burke's Los Angeles-area distributor, said her biggest problem is educating customers. "Most have been burned on American caviar," she said. "When they taste this, though, they change their minds." Response from retailers has been mixed, Hendrickson said. Some retailers are very enthusiastic. Others want to see more demand. The several dozen commercial fishermen, who catch the fish with large gill nets, are also waiting for increased demand. So far, it hasn't been a big money maker. Burke pays $3 to $4 a pound for the roe. "The choupique helped me make a few dollars, the same as other fishing," Carl Carline of Charenton, La., said. "It helps fill in the gap left when they banned fishing for redfish." Louisiana Caviar is currently the only licensed caviar marketer in the state, said Charles Conrad, administrator of the seafood sanitation section of the Department of Health and Hospitals. "There was one operation out of Tennessee that was buying the roe and shipping it back to Tennessee to process, but they haven't been back in a couple of years," he said. The species has been around at least 200 million years. Its favorite food is crawfish, but it isn't choosy, Burke said. "As long as it moves in the water, this fish will eat it." So far, the choupique is in no danger of being over-fished, unlike its relative, the sturgeon. The freshwater species is found in the eastern two-thirds of the of the United States south of Great Lakes. But Burke and Carline both concede that overfishing could occur if there's enough demand. What's ahead? Burke would like to see the company's production hit 10,000 pounds. Then, he'd like to figure out what to do with the rest of the fish. He sells carcasses to fisherman who uses them as crawfish bait. Maybe the skin could be tanned into leather, he suggested. Maybe the meat could be smoked and sold. He's thought about raising choupique on fish farms. Of course, Burke said, laughing, "it might cause some problems with the sport fishermen if we start restocking Louisiana waters with choupique." In the meantime, he's working harder than he ever dreamed on his venture. "It's so much more expensive than I expected. You have to worry about the raw materials, about getting the product out to customers. The fishermen come in all day long," he said. "With the international accounts, the day never ends." He often works in the little processing plant with his partners until 2 a.m. The first order of the day usually arrives by fax at 5:30 a.m. by the Associated Press BATON ROUGE -- From those same folks who gave you blackened redfish and alligator now comes Cajun Caviar. Barely three years on the market, it is made from the eggs of the choupique, Or cypress "trout," and has caused a culinary sensation in south Louisiana Chef John Folse of Lafitte's 'Landing says he thinks it's better than Beluga caviar. But Folse said he was skeptical at first. "I had some in the cooler for about a month before some people got to talking about it one night in the bar at White Oak Plantation," he said. "I got it out and I was stunned at the quality of it. "Look at this kind of gold coming out of Louisiana!" Folse makes a crawfish caviar crepe --- crawfish in a sour cream sauce wrapped in a crepe with a little caviar on top. "It's one of our biggest sellers," he said. "As an appetizer, it sells for $7, and we serve 25 to 30 a night. "It's not as salty as Beluga, and it fits right into the Louisiana indigenous style of cooking." At Commander's Palace in New Orleans, Executive Chef Emeril Lagasse serves Louisiana caviar several ways--- on toast as well as in recipes. "Quite a few ladies are requesting it at their luncheons," Lagasse said. "It's not too fishy or too salty." Caviar --- the eggs of the fish, processed - is taken from the Lumpback sturgeon, black and white sturgeon, and paddlefish. Choupique, a bony fish whose name is pronounced something like shoe-pick is in the same biological class, so the eggs produce a true caviar. A fourth member of the class is the gar, but is almost never eaten and its eggs are toxic. Most of the world's caviar now comes from around the Caspian Sea, but until the first World War the United States produced so much from the cold Atlantic waters that it exported caviar to Russia. John Burke, a student at Louisiana State University who is the sole distributor for Louisiana caviar, said it is produced by a single Cajun family whose name he will not make public. He said they use a recipe, based on an early Russian one handed down for generations. Burke said he knew about the family when he was growing up in Cajun country, and that he made a deal with them to market the product. A new process for "Louisiana Beluga," made with paddlefish grown in a special experiment, is producing "outstanding Beluga," Lagasse said. Folse reports that the bigger choupique roe makes a dark gray caviar called Caviar Royale. "Best I ever put in my mouth!" by Gene Bourg The Times - Picayune:December 20, 1988 It has taken 200 million years, but the choupique, one of Louisiana's lowliest trash fish, has finally swum its way into polite society.. The tiny eggs of this bony bayou denizen, which dates back to the time dinosaurs galumphed around the globe, are now on the menus of three Uptown New Orleans restaurants. Inevitably, the dense, dark-brown roe of the choupique is being called "Cajun caviar." which is not stretching the truth since it originates in Southwest Louisiana's Atchafalaya Basin. At the Upperline restaurant, chef Tom Cowman treats the minuscule choupique eggs with the same classic simplicity rendered the most prestigious Russian caviar from Caspian sturgeon. He spoons them onto little buckwheat blinis and serves it all up with sour cream, chopped egg and onion, and a lemon wedge. Choupique roe "is not as heavy or fishy-flavored as Russian caviar," Cowman said. "And the texture and initial taste are very good, although its delicacy doesn't allow you to use too much sour cream with it." A recent tasting of it at the Upperline backed up chef Cowman's assessment -- lighter in texture and weight and less fishy than most good-quality caviars. And the Upperline's sample was considerably less salty, too. For restaurants, a practical advantage of choupique roe is its shelf life. Cowman says. "Properly refrigerated and covered, it remains fresh for several weeks," he said. Sumptuosity is the approach at Le Restaurant de la Tour Eiffel where chef Daniel Bonnot mixes the roe with sour cream, egg yolk, lemon juice and fresh pepper-corns, then layers it between several layers and warms the assembled dish in the oven for about 10 minutes, just enough time to intensify, the flavors. On the Tour Eiffel's dinner appetizer menu it's called "caviar imperial," and it comes with the traditional ice-cold vodka. Bonnot also uses the roe for a caviar souffle Chef Bonnie Sue Liss of Albertine's, in The Columns Hotel, uses it to garnish a Louisiana seafood vol-au-vent. She fills the fish-shaped puff pastry, with a saute of crabmeat, shrimp, crawfish and shallots, deglazed with a reduction of champagne and cream, and spoons on a concasse of tomatoes and then the Cajun caviar. Albertine's also provides a traditional egg, onion and sour cream, as well as chilled vodka. Cajun caviar was recently brought to New Orleans by Baton Rouge businessman, John Burke, who for about three years has been selling it to restaurateurs and caterers in Baton Rouge, Texas and New York. Burke said he got the idea from members of an Acadian family along Bayou Teche who for years had been catching choupique and processing their roe according to a traditional Russian recipe. "But they hadn't figured out what to do with it all" he said, According to Burke a 6-pound choupique produces 10 to 16 ounces of roe during a season that extends roughly from late December to February. "Over a couple of months," he said, "one or two good fishermen can catch well over 5.000 fish." Burke said the roe's salt content can be adjusted, from 3 per cent to maximum of 5. And. he added, unlike many commercially canned roes, this one contains no artificial coloring or preservatives. Processing is minimal. Burke said. and all government health regulations are followed. The choupique's name comes from "shupik," a Choctaw Indian word that translates as "mudfish,'' according to Louisiana State University professor William A. Read's definitive Louisiana-French dictionary, published in 1931. It also has been known as bowfin, swampfish, and -- the most euphemistic of all - "cypress trout." The choupique's extended, slender body and snout-like mouth are traits it shares with a relative, the gar, another fresh-water fish in the ganoid class along with sturgeon and paddlefish. Anthropologists say the choupique, whose scientific name is Amia calva, swam the waters of North America many millions of years before man arrived on the continent, a fact that would make its extinction tragic and deplorable. So what happens if a mania for Cajun caviar develops along the lines of the blackened redfish craze, which eventually prompted a state ban on all commercial fishing for redfish? Burke said conservationists with the state Wildlife and Fisheries Commission and LSU scientists have told him the roe harvesting--currently at about10,000 pounds season -- puts "very limited pressure" on the choupique's propagation. "We were told that by catching the larger ones. he said. the smaller ones have a better chance of survival " |
© 2005-2008 The Native Fish Conservancy