Florida Seafood

I grew up eating fresh shrimp and seafood from the Texas Gulf Coast. Much of it was caught by family or friends. If any of it was frozen, it's because we cleaned, packaged and put it in the freezer ourselves.

Not so anymore. Time and circumstances march on, the world changes. These days I rely a lot on what's found in the supermarket seafood case.

The fresh and frozen selections come from all over the world. Some is wild and some is now farm-raised. Quality and selection varies from day to day, from store to store.

The other day while waiting for my order to be wrapped, I picked up a brochure off the top of the case, Florida Pink Shrimp Recipes (not dated, 6 pages).

This brochure was published by the Bureau of Seafood and Aquaculture Marketing, a group that provides information about Florida's seafood and aquaculture industry. This group is a division of the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.

The color brochure has four recipes that use Florida Pink shrimp: Boiled Shrimp, Tortilla Towers, Sizzling Shrimp and Santa Rosa Shrimp. (It does provide some alternative seafood suggestions for each recipe) Nutritional information is also given for those who need or want to know.

When I got home, I went to their website for more recipes as was suggested in the brochure. The consumer portion of their website "provides general information about Florida seafood and aquaculture, the variety and availability of Florida products, recipes, festivals, food safety tips, and other information of interest to consumers."

On the tab marked "Brochures" I found a list of other publications they had available either through the mail or for viewing and printing via PDF files.

There were many kinds of Florida seafood recipe pamphlets to choose from: Blue Crab, Farm-Raised Catfish or Clams, Grouper, Mahi-Mahi, Oysters, Scallops, Red Snapper, Shrimp (fresh and farm-raised), Swordfish, Tilapia and Yellow Fin Tuna and others. Even Alligator, if that's to your taste.

I opted for the mail variety. I got them a couple of days ago--twenty-five new fold-out pamphlets full of recipes with tempting names that I can't wait to try.

You can order yours here. There are even a few available in Spanish.