Christmas menu: 10 recipes for cooking fish roe

In the wake of caviar – which has become a little more popular, and whose price has stabilized thanks to the widespread use of farmed caviar – fish roe is no longer confined to toast and blinis. In salted and dried version, or in a jar, fish eggs are popular.

We see them everywhere: in the fresh section of supermarkets, in delicatessens and, increasingly, on bistronomic plates to add the final, salty and colorful touch to a dish. Their advantage?

A real nutritional richness in trace elements, vitamin D and proteins, all for a very measured caloric intake. However, pay attention to their sodium content because all fish eggs are salted to ensure their good preservation. It is therefore better to favor salmon roe over lump roe, which is particularly salty.

A wide range of sizes and colors

In recent years, new varieties, such as pike, trout, fountain salmon or lavaret roe, have enriched the offering for too long limited to a somewhat binary choice: chic caviar or cheap lump roe. Today, in addition to the beautiful naturally orange color of trout eggs or lavaret eggs, you can have fun with yellow (yuzu) or green (wasabi) pike eggs. Unless you prefer the ocher and very marine touch brought by grated bottarga on a burrata or a risotto. A quick overview of this diversity that puts iodine and glitter on our plates.

The different fish eggs

Salmon roe

Nicknamed “red caviar”, these large bright orange marine pearls that explode in the mouth have long been associated with exceptional meals. However, like caviar, it is often simply served on an egg scramble or on a steamed potato topped with a touch of raw cream that they are best enjoyed. While the price of quality salmon roe may dampen your appetite, take comfort in knowing that you don’t need much to enjoy.

Tobiko

In Japan, tobiko refers to the eggs of flying fish from warm seas. Naturally orange-red in color, these small beads with a very crunchy texture can be sold plain but are most often colored and flavored with squid ink (black), yuzu (yellow), ginger (orange) or even wasabi (neon green).
Its less soft texture than that of its cousins ​​is ideal for garnishing rice, steamed appetizers, decorating a scallop carpaccio or an oyster in seawater jelly.

Trout eggs

With a beautiful orange color, trout eggs are smaller and crunchier than salmon eggs. Their taste is also rounder in the mouth. They will nevertheless give pep to an omelette or a fish carpaccio with dill. The most? Trout eggs are a real slimming ally, because they contain only 5 g of lipids per 100 g and are a great substitute for red meat, due to their high protein content.

Pike eggs

Less known than other “caviars”, these eggs are gaining their place on holiday tables. Caught in the great Canadian lakes, pike offer eggs with a fascinating golden beige color. Softer on the palate than other fish eggs, with their buttery notes, they go very well with buffalo milk mozzarella, which, in fact, is never better or more fragrant than in the winter season.

Fountain salmon roe

More discreet and rarer on our tables, fountain salmon eggs are nonetheless extremely desirable thanks, in particular, to their beautiful golden yellow color. The texture of these eggs from freshwater salmon is quite firm and their flavor more subtle.
However, they have the same nutritional values ​​as wild salmon roe but still have a smokier taste, which goes perfectly with steamed green vegetables, such as broccoli.

Lumpfish roe

Produced mainly in Iceland and Canada, these eggs, originally gray, are always sold colored red or black, to make them more attractive. However, it is precisely these bright colors, which appear too chemical, which have caused them a certain disaffection today.
Fortunately, they have a major advantage: they are low in fat, and therefore low in calories. They are also the most affordable. All that remains is to give these little crunchy balls another chance (by avoiding eggs too rich in E110, E120 and E151 colorings), by slipping them into an avocado cream or mixing them with fettuccine.

Lavaret eggs

Still little-known in France, lavaret eggs (also called löjrom) are real stars in Scandinavian countries. Coming from fish from the Baltic Sea, they are much smaller than their counterparts, less gelatinous and therefore very fine in the mouth. This is why they are often available in mousseline (a specialty of Haute-Savoie, lavaret also being caught in Lake Bourget) or in terrine. In their natural state, these small orange or yellow pearls (depending on the fishing location) will brighten up celery puree or fresh cheese.

Dried eggs

If fish pearls are all the rage, they are also very popular in a dried version. The egg sac (called roe) is removed when the females are full, the sac is then dried and salted whole. It is used grated or thinly sliced ​​with a mandolin on pasta or vegetables to boost a dish. Among the best known, we find bottarga (or boutargue), made from mullet eggs, a Mediterranean culinary specialty today considered a noble product. But nothing prevents the use of roe other than those of the mule. In Italy, we find bottarga di tonno, hand-washed, salted and dried tuna roe, with a powerful taste and aroma. Less famous but no less tasty, kazunoko, nicknamed “yellow diamond” in Japan, is a crunchy and salty herring roe pouch, available in Japanese grocery stores.

Where to find them?

Delicatessens and most caviar brands also offer salmon roe, trout roe or tobiko. Better still, they deliver or ship everywhere in France, like Petrossian ( petrossian.fr), Kaviari ( kaviari.fr), Caviar Kaspia ( caviarkaspia.com), Le Comptoir du Caviar ( lecomptoirducaviar.com/fr), Caviar de Neuvic ( caviar -de-neuvic.com).

Large supermarkets, such as Monoprix, Carrefour, E.Leclerc, Intermarché, Auchan and Système U, also offer a wide range (including lumpfish eggs) in the fresh section.