DeRusha Eats: Scallops At Union Fish Market
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- After your Thanksgiving turkeys, and the resulting surfeit of turkey sandwiches thereafter, we figured you might be ready to eat something a little different.
It's a quirk of the Twin Cities dining scene that there are only a couple seafood restaurants. The new seafood restaurant Union Fish Market in downtown Minneapolis is hoping to fill the void. That's how Jason DeRusha got a taste of the delicious scallops in this week's DeRusha Eats.
"When people think of Minnesota they don't think of fresh seafood," Chef Lucas Almendinger said. "We are centrally located."
According to Almendinger, Minneapolis gets the same fish as fresh as anywhere in the country, with deliveries as often as seven times a morning.
The owners of the extremely successful Crave America opened Union one year ago and found their customers were asking for more fresh fish. So they rebooted the concept in their gorgeous dining area.
"I think that people really crave fresh seafood in kind of an approachable setting," Almendinger said.
The sea scallops he prepared for DeRusha were from New Bedford, Mass. He used a pastry knife to check the sear, and basted them out. There was no need to flip them for the sear; just two or three minutes and it happened.
"Just be patient," he said. "If you put them in and say, 'Oh no, they're sticking, let them caramelize and have a glass of wine while they're caramelizing."
At the restaurant, Almendinger uses a beet puree and pickled beet shavings balanced out by a bacon vinaigrette.
So even though there's no ocean in sight, Union Fish Market hopes Minnesotans will love eating delicious, expertly prepared fresh fish that was very recently in the water.
Union Fish Market is at the corner of 9th Street and Hennepin Avenue in downtown Minneapolis. Right now they have a gift card deal where, if you buy $100, you get a $25 bonus.
