Blue mussels
are found on the North Atlantic coast of North America, Europe, and in other temperate and
polar waters around the world. It is commonly harvested for food throughout the world,
from both wild and farmed sources. Mussels are a staple of many seafood dishes in various
cuisines including Spanish, Portuguese, French, Dutch, Belgian and Italian. Remove before
cooking all the damaged and open shells. Clean de shells with a lot cold water. You can
eat mussels fresh from the shell, only if they come from a safe source, or cook them
several minutes in seawater till the shells are opening.
Oysters also can be found near the
coastlines of the North Atlantic Ocean and are as mussels being maricultured in the open
ocean or an enclosed section of the ocean. The preparation for food is like mussels,
boiling in hot seawater till all the shells are open. Remove before cooking all the
damaged and open shells.
Whelks. The
whelk is a large edible marine gastropod in the family Buccinidae, the true whelks.This
species is a familiar part of the marine fauna of the Northern Atlantic and is found on
the shores of the United Kingdom, France, Norway, Iceland, some Arctic islands, and North
America. The shells can be as large as 7 centimeter width and 10 centimeter height .
Whelks, cooked in seawater for 10 to 25 minutes, depending on the size, taste delicious.
Periwinkles. The periwinkle is
also a smaller edible marine gastropod, native in the European North Sea area and the
north-eastern Atlantic ocean. Common periwinkles have been introduced to the Atlantic
coast of North America, possibly by rock ballast for ships in the mid-1800s. The conical
shell of the periwinkle is almost round, till 4 centimeter high and 3.5 centimeter width.
The periwinkle lives in and near the
intertidal zone at a solid soil like rocks and stones, but also on wooden rods,
moring-masts and other objects. Clean de shells with a lot cold water. Periwinkles
cooked in seawater for around four minutes taste delicious. You can get the periwinkles
out of the shell with a safety pin after cooking.
Venus clamps
or venerids are in sea living bivalve mollusks, sort like the mussels and oysters. The
shells live in sandy soil beneath the low tide line and in deeper water. The shells can
become 3-4 centimeter in diameter. The shells are native in the North Sea, Mediterranean
Sea and near the coast lines of the Atlantic Ocean, also the North American east coast
till the Caribbean. You can eat the venerids fresh from the shell or cooked. The
preparation of the shells is sort like the mussels and oysters. The shells are splendid on
seafruit dishes and also in South Europe and North America a beloved sea food. Also edible
related sorts of the venus clams, as the hard
or round clams are on the American market and good for the American kitchen.
Scallop is
a marine cosmopolitan bivalve mollusk. Company Royal Dutch Shell has made from this shell
her company symbol. The shell can grow till around 20 centimeter in width. The shells can
have the colors yellow, salmon rose, red and brown, also shells with a flamed color
patterns exist. The shells can be found near the coastlines of the North Sea,
Mediterranean Sea and the coastlines of all oceans. The scallop lives flat on the sea
bottom, with the round valve at the underside. Young animals can attach themselves
with threads on a firm soil. Adult animals are laying free and prefer a sandy sea
bottom. The free-living animals can swim by opening and closing the shell firmly an
rapidly. The shells can be prepared for dinner on many sophisticated ways and is worldwide
to find on the menu card of many restaurants, in Europe under the French name Coquille
Saint-Jacques. For English recipes see the internet link to Allrecipes.com.
Shrimp
are swimming, crustaceans (like little lobsters), found widely around the world in both
fresh and salt water. Adult shrimps are animals living close to the bottom. They can live
in schools and can swim rapidly backwards. Shrimp are an important food source for larger
animals from fish to whales. Together with prawns, shrimp are widely caught and farmed for human consumption. Dutch
North Sea shrimps are cooked on board of the ship and transported kept cool in trucks on
land to made them ready for consumption. Shrimps can become larger in warmer water. Big
shrimps from the Far East reach us uncooked and raw deep freezed and are good for grill or
barbecue.
Picture right contains several sorts of shrimps and picture left already cooked North Sea
shrimps, ready for consmption.
Langoustine or Norway lobster is a smaller sort
sea lobster, but can still reach a length of 10 to 24 centimeter. Additional cached
lobsters via beam trawling for
flatfish are mostly much smaller. You can buy langoustines fresh or already cooked. You
can already cooked lobsters warm up for a little while in hot water. Fresh smaller
lobsters need to be cooked for about ten minutes in sea water. You can find these lobsters
in the North Sea and north-eastern Atlantic Ocean from Norway to Iceland. For the larger
lobsters the claws and/or legs are delicious and also the tails taste delicious and can
sometimes be bought apart fresh peeled or cooked.
Crab. True crabs are decapod crustaceans,
like lobsters, which typically have a very short tail. There are many sorts of crabs. The
best known of these are the North Atlantic or brown crab and the original
Siberian red king crab, now caught in
all cold oceans near North Pole. The North Sea brown crab is heavily exploited
commercially throughout its range, being the most commercially important crab species in
Western Europe.The crabs are caught using crab pots (similar to lobster pots) which are
placed offshore. The fishery is widely dispersed around the British and Irish coasts. Most
of the edible crabs caught by the British fleet are exported live for sale in France and
Spain. King crabs, also called stone crabs, are chiefly found in cold northern polar seas.
Because of their large size and the taste of their meat, many species are widely caught
and sold as food, the most common being the red king crab. These huge king crabs are raw
or already cooked deep frozen on board of the ship.
Inkfish or squid (cephalopod) is also a mollusk,
just as shellfish, but does not live in a shell, with as only exception the Pacific nautilus.
Some sorts of inkfish are also sporadic found in the North
Atlantic, but surely not in large numbers. European squid comes from the Mediterranean
kitchen and is commercial an important sort of seafood. In Europe are these fishes caught
in large abundance in the Mediterranean Sea and near the Atlantic coast of North Africa.
After professional cleaning, you can bake this fish in sliced rings or cook in soup. Octopus is also from the Mediterranean
kitchen, but is a tougher sort inkfish and needs special preparation. In Europe we go to a
Greek restaurant for inkfish.
Almost all above mentioned shellfish can be found near the coast lines of
the Atlantic Ocean. Mussels and oysters can also be cultivated in open sea or a locked
part of the sea. The mentioned lobsters and crabs live at the bottom of deeper sea water.
Menu by category for Dutch
recipes 
