ARCHIVED - Sabores y Sabores; free recipes for sustainable fish consumption here in the Murcia Region

Recipes from Águilas, Mazarrón, Cartagena and San Pedro del Pinatar featuring sustainable fish species

The Asociación Columbares is a non-profit making organisation which is dedicated to improving the quality of life for all through educational, social participation and environmental activities. 

It's a fantastic project which is engaged in a vast range of different activities, amongst them one which focuses on the environment, this particular initiative aiming to promote sustainable fishing through a practical educative programme about the use of sustainable fish species and the methods used to capture them.

The programme includes practical cookery workshops, visits to fish shops, markets, ports, areas of the coast relating to fishing activities, talks, demonstrations, encouraging restaurants to serve sustainable fish and helping the public to buy sustainable fish, with activities encompassing all ages.

The fruit of years of collaboration between the association, the  University of Murcia, Fornet, Asociación Amureco, the fishing Cofradías of the region, as well as a host of restaurants and fishing experts has resulted in the publication of a collection of recipes showing different ways in which sustainable fish species can be cooked on a month to month basis, and is broken down into the four municipalities of the region which have fishing fleets based on their coastline; Águilas, Cartagena, Mazarrón and San Pedro del Pinatar.

In each of these areas varying species of fish can be landed at different times of the year (the  Chanquete for example, can only be caught in very limited quantities in Murcia and the Balearic islands and Melva are caught off the la Azohia coastline by traditional almadraba fishing nets as used by the Moors during the mediaeval period) and each area has its own specialities, as well as ways in which the fish are cooked and served.

The four booklets, which can be obtained in a box set at events run by the organisation, can be downloaded online as four separate pdfs, and provide a comprehensive reference to the sustainable fish which can be obtained from pescaderías in the region on a seasonal basis.

The pdfs are all in Spanish.

Download these interesting and informative recipe books here:

• Sabores_y_saberes_San_Pedro_Pinatar.pdf 
• Sabores_y_Saberes_Aguilas.pdf 
• Sabores_y_saberes_Cartagena.pdf 
• Sabores_y_Saberes_Mazarron.pdf 

In the long-term the association aims to encourage consumers to buy fish which are often discarded or thrown back by fishermen due to their low commercial value. The recipe book includes 19 species of fish which are often only found in localised pescaderías and are very rarely sold by the major supermarket chains in their stores, the reality being that between 70 and 80% of the species available for fishermen along the Murcian coastline are not commercially viable.

This is principally because consumers don´t know how to use them, or prefer to use the principal varieties which are widely available, so fishmongers and supermarkets don´t buy them.

The association and fishing sector are fully aware that this lack of demand from consumers means that the recipes of their childhood are being lost, a great tragedy in so many respects, as the flavour of some of these fishes are extraordinary; just because something has a low commercial value they say, this doesn´t mean that it has no gastronomic merit.

And as the oceans face one environmental crisis after another, the realisation is dawning that conserving fish stocks for future generations, promoting responsible fishing, managing commercial fishstocks, finding ways to consume fish in a sustainable fashion without damaging the ecosystem and caring for our oceans are all essential for the future health of the planet.

As a consumer, the Ed. admits that prior to attending two of the workshops run by the association, her knowledge of sustainable fishing was non-existent, but that participating in the events run by this project has been such an eye-opener that tuna for example, has now totally disappeared off the menu in her own household. Having mistakenly believed that because the tuna sold locally was fish-farm reared that this was a "good thing", it was a real shock to be told that tuna is an unsustainable fishing product, as the young tuna have to be captured in the wild and introduced into the fish farms for fattening, attempts to hatch them from eggs and fatten to a commercially viable size unsuccessful to date. Although a huge amount of research and resource has been dedicated to this mission worldwide and notable progress has been made, the worldwide demand for tuna is putting the species under considerable strain.

But it's easy to substitute other members of the "tuna family" and actually eat a sustainable product which is superior in so many ways; jars of Bonito, an entirely sustainable fish which has many similar characteristics, are available in most Spanish supermarkets as an easy susbstitute for tinned tuna, and Melva is a fabulous fish, it's dark, meaty flesh making highly memorable fish stews and casseroles, or lightly poached a highly flavoursome fish "star" for a wide variety of dishes, and at a fraction of the cost of tuna.

These recipes have certainly influenced a major swing towards fish consumption and participating in the workshops has helped to take away the fear of not knowing what to do with the lesser-known fish species promoted by the association.

Restaurants are being encouraged to join the mission by offering sustainable fish on their menus and the association plans to continue its educational workshops in the future.

For the moment, though, the books can be downloaded above and enjoyed.

Click here for one of the recipes which the Ed. made for the first time at one of the workshops and has subsequently made several times at home, with her own modifications: Meaty Melva is an ideal fish for Mediterranean cazuelas and guisos 

(can also be made using a wide variety of other fish including merluza/hake)

Join the Murcia What's On and Where to Go group on Facebook to keep up to date with all the latest events taking place near you: https://www.facebook.com/groups/MurciaWhatsOnAndWhereToGo/