The Fish Dish

Things are changing at The Fish Dish. Science Communicator Marie Zhuikov is retiring from Wisconsin Sea Grant. Co-host Sharon Moen will soldier on with a few more episodes thanks to help from other Sea Grant communications colleagues.

As a parting gift, Marie created a blooper reel. Listeners might recognize the episodes they relate to, such as “The 100% Great Lakes Fish Initiative,” the “Northern Waters Smokehaus Cookbook”, and “Growing Atlantic Salmon in Wisconsin.”

In this episode you’ll learn how to fillet a fish from Sam Peterson, a fisheries biologist with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. We’ve heard from listeners that being handed a whole fish—one with the head still on and insides still inside—can be intimidating. We’ll talk to Sam about his job, his hobby of microfishing, then he’ll break the fish filleting process down. Marie even tries her hand at filleting a walleye, and then we get into different filleting techniques for different species of fish. For the Fish-o-Licious part of our podcast, Marie cooks a new recipe called, “Oh My, Arctic Char!” It’s really simple and easy and can be used on almost any kind of fish.

In this episode we discuss the 100% Great Lakes Fish Initiative, which is a campaign aimed at commercial fishers to better use all parts of the fish they catch. Sharon and Marie speak with campaign leaders David Naftzger and John Schmidt with the Great Lakes St. Lawrence Governors and Premiers organization. Then Sharon and Marie travel to Bayfield in search of whitefish livers – a part of the fish many people don’t realize you can eat. Joining us for our whitefish liver feast at the Pier Plaza Restaurant in Bayfield is Emma Hauser, Wisconsin Sea Grant’s aquaculture outreach and education specialist. She discusses a way to feed baby fish, which would also entail using more parts of Great Lakes fish. A bonus topic at the end includes lake trout fish cheeks!

The episode features a new cookbook with fishy connections. The book’s title is “Smoke on the Waterfront: The Northern Waters Smokehaus Cookbook.” The Smokehaus has been described as a “cultural icon of Lake Superior cuisine.” It’s located in Duluth, Minnesota, inside the DeWitt Seitz Building in Canal Park on the shores of Lake Superior.

We’re covering them on the Fish Dish because the Smokehaus uses fish from Wisconsin and because we both happen to be fans of the business and their cookbook. For the fish-o-licious part of this episode, we’ll be cooking the Lake Superior Fish Chowder recipe from the book.

The Fish Dish travels to Superior Fresh, an aquaponics business located on 800 acres of rolling woodland and prairie in Hixton, Wisconsin. They’ve been raising Atlantic salmon and growing salad greens in their indoor facilities since 2017. The business reports it’s the largest of its kind in the world and produces 1.5 million pounds of salmon per year plus organic-certified salad greens. 

We meet Kyle Woolever, who shows us the fish part of the business, and then Sam Heward, who shows us the plants.

For the fish-o-licious section, we prepare a super-easy, super-delicious recipe: crispy salmon with roasted squash and kale chips.

In this episode, The Fish Dish travels to the Mississippi River to meet Michael Valley, a fourth-generation fisherman out of Prairie du Chien. Mike operates Valley Fish and Cheese, a quirky store that sells a plethora of different river fish and also turtles, alligator meat, as well as Wisconsin cheese.

Sharon describes how the river fishery differs from the Great Lakes fishery and delves into the colorful history of clamming in Prairie du Chien, once called the Freshwater Pearl Capitol of the U.S.

For the Fish-o-Licious part of our show, we cook catfish. Learn the secret to making it taste delicious! Mike also offers his secrets for a good catfish fry and we discuss how even the skin of the catfish is edible and a good source of protein.

In this episode, The Fish Dish takes the kitchen to the beach – Wisconsin Point Beach, to be exact, along the shore of Lake Superior. With summer full upon us, we thought it would be fun to bring you along on a classic dining experience: the shore lunch. Joining us were Emma Hauser, an aquaculture outreach and education specialist with Sea Grant and the Northern Aquaculture Demonstration Facility; Russ, intrepid taste-tester and Fish Dish volunteer; and Jojo Hunt and Crow Idnani -- two summer scholars who are working with Sharon and Emma to learn strategies for engaging a variety of audiences in local food-fish production.

There’s no typical Fish-o-Licious part of our show this time because the whole episode is about cooking fish. But never fear, you can find the two sauce recipes that we mention during the podcast on this page.

In this episode, Sharon and Marie visit with a class of food science and technology majors from the University of Wisconsin-River Falls. The students cooked several recipes found on the Eat Wisconsin Fish website. They helped perfect the dishes, plus the campus photographer snapped a few photos. Marie and Sharon talk “fish” with the students and award a “best of show” prize for the dish that looked the tastiest and the “Eat Wisconsin Fishiest.” For the Fish-o-Licious part of the show, Sharon and Marie cook the winning dish, which is called Fisherman’s Brunch.

In this episode Sharon and Marie interview Titus Seilheimer, Sea Grant’s fisheries outreach specialist. Then they travel to Cornucopia, Wisconsin, on the south shore of Lake Superior to speak with staff from Halvorson Fisheries. What’s the topic? Burbot!

If you’re not familiar with what a burbot fish is, you will be by the time the podcast is over. Plus, a very special day is coming up soon. Most people call it Valentine’s Day, but at the Fish Dish we call it something else due to an important event in the burbot life cycle.

For the “Fish-o-Licious” part of our show, we make a tasty appetizer and compare burbot to shrimp to see if it really can be called “Poor Man’s Shrimp.”

The Fish Dish traveled to Madison for an invitation-only event held in October of 2022 that celebrated Wisconsin’s water, from drinking water to businesses that depend on water for their livelihood. These include commercial fishing and aquaculture.

“A Taste of Wisconsin Waters” was a first-ever event organized by none other than Sharon. Plus, for the “Fish-o-Licious” part of our show, we discuss fish roe – specifically, cisco roe – and how it can be used in recipes as a caviar substitute. Sharon and Marie prepare saffron-garlic aioli crostini appetizers.