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Folks, if you care about coastal fishing communities it’s time to put your money where your mouth is. It’s time to eat more local seafood.
Not only is the majority of Oregon’s seafood exported overseas, but an astounding 90% of the seafood sold in restaurants on the Oregon Coast is imported.
This baffles me for so many reasons. We send our best ocean products off to overseas markets, then serve vastly inferior products, shipped thousands of miles from countries with lax water pollution regulations, to local customers and coast visitors who, by the way, can taste the difference. It’s a lose-lose, with a couple extra losers thrown in just for kicks.
Tariffs and other trade barriers have also caused a major clam jam for fisheries; overseas demand has plummeted, so the federal government just bought $16 million in Oregon seafood to try and soften the blow. (Hopefully this will actually be distributed to the hungry instead of incinerated like the 500 metric tons of emergency food that the government allowed to expire, but who knows!)
How do you even find the local goods if you want them? You might end up having to drive to the coast to buy directly from the folks who pulled it in, but tinned Oregon albacore is generally widely available at markets inland.
Of course, every time I end up buying a whole tuna for pressure-canning, I end up savoring each precious jar for as long as possible. It’s wonderful in a Niçoise salad or a tuna casserole of course, but this Mediterranean-style albacore and white bean salad is about as simple as opening a couple of cans and adding some oil and lemon. Serves 4 (as a main dish).
Note: You can use either water-packed or oil-packed tuna here; I pressure-can tuna in salt water to make it easier, but the oil in tinned seafood is flavorful enough to use in the salad dressing. You can stretch this meal by adding cooked pasta — just add more oil and lemon juice or red wine vinegar as needed.
Ingredients
Zest and juice of 1 lemon
1 small red onion, thinly sliced
2 6½-ounce can of albacore tuna (or 2 half-pints of home-canned), drained
2 15-ounce can white beans such as cannellini or Great Northern (or 4 cups cooked beans), rinsed and drained
½ cup chopped flat leaf parsley
¼ cup olive oil (or the oil from the tuna, if using oil-packed) plus more as needed
Salt and pepper to taste
Pinch of red pepper flake (optional)
Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl, combine the lemon zest and juice with the sliced onions. Let it sit for a few minutes so the onions can pickle and mellow out, then add the remaining ingredients and toss to coat in the lemon juice and oil. Taste, adjust seasoning, and drizzle on more oil as needed. The flavor will improve over time, so feel free to make it well before you plan to eat.