Cultured Pearls
I’ve seen the future of caviar in concrete tanks teeming with prehistoric creatures. In the flatlands of the Sacramento Valley, I’ve watched as young female sturgeon bred from an ancient line of fish lumber through man-made pools of filtered water--slurping down pellets of organic feed, biding their time until their bellies fill with glistening pearls of roe.
For more than a century, the caviar of American sturgeon has been considered a second-rate substitute for the delicately salty eggs of beluga, osetra and sevruga sturgeon from the Caspian Sea, but lately the Caspian catch has been tarnished by desperate economic and corrupt political conditions that contribute to inconsistent quality.
The dissolution of the Soviet Union and Russia’s early attempts at capitalism have turned the northern end of the Caspian Sea into a chaotic battleground for natural resources, especially oil. Rampant industrialization is polluting the water, choking the river beds where sturgeon are raised and decimating many of their traditional spawning areas. The police force is making matters worse by routinely accepting bribes and looking the other way while fishermen slip into the cover of darkness and pull whatever they can from the waters. So few sturgeon remain that last year’s catch was the lowest in a century, and more than three-quarters of it was caught and processed illegally, making taste and quality utterly unpredictable. The Iranian government, on the other hand, has maintained strict controls on pollution and overfishing in the southern Caspian Sea, so its caviar ranks high with connoisseurs, but there’s not nearly enough of the precious roe to go around. Enter California.
California caviar has arrived on the stage like an understudy ready to steal the spotlight from the ailing leading lady of extravagance. But why here? I asked Chuck Edwards of Stolt Sea Farm, a multinational aquaculture company that has chosen the Sacramento Valley to raise sturgeon for its Sterling brand of caviar. “California caviar starts with an indigenous species,” he explained. White sturgeon (Acipenser transmontanus) swim wild in the Sacramento River, and, according to top chefs such as Christian Rassinoux at the Ritz-Carlton, Laguna Niguel, they are capable of producing caviar comparable to the best Russian osetra.
In the 1970s, Stolt Sea Farm was one of several companies that prospered from a government grant to UC Davis. Academic research spread to nearby farms, where scientists fertilized wild sturgeon eggs to create a stock of farm-raised fish. The farmers found that the water they were using from storage tanks--which is a tepid 65 to 70 degrees--allows the female sturgeon to produce roe after eight to 10 years, compared to the 20- to 25-year production cycle in the much colder Caspian Sea.
Swedish-born couple Mats and Daphne Engstrom, who sell white sturgeon roe under their Tsar Nicoulai label, were among the early farmers, and they have devoted much of the last 30 years of their lives to their hopes for the respectability of California caviar. Although they continue to work with hatcheries in Russia, China and Azerbaijan to rebuild populations of prized sturgeon such as beluga, they believe that California will soon be the world’s mother lode of consistently good caviar. Last year the Engstroms produced a mere 500 pounds of farm-raised white sturgeon caviar--not nearly enough to meet demand for their product--but they are on the verge of completing a new farm near Sacramento that they predict will produce 50,000 pounds annually within five to six years. May Parich, the caviar buyer at Surfas in Culver City, says, “Even though their supply is not high enough yet, the taste of their farm-raised caviar is superior to many of the Russian caviars I’ve tried.”
Killjoys like to point out that caviar is simply fish eggs, but booming sales prove that plenty of people are willing to spend $50 or more per ounce for the eggs of California sturgeon. As Mats Engstrom says, “Cristal and Cooks both make wine with bubbles, but come on, with one sip you know which is which. The quality speaks for itself. And you don’t drink it because you are thirsty. Likewise you don’t eat good caviar because you are hungry. It is not a food. It is a lifestyle. You taste it . . . then you know.”
His reference to Champagne is fitting: Its only true source technically remains a small enclave of northern France. Yet, particularly in recent years, fans of Champagne have been buying up bottles of sparkling wine from California and other regions of the world with little or no feelings of compromise. With caviar, it appears that Californians are once again asking gourmets to think twice about the rightful provenance of their luxury.
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Lightly Boiled Eggs With Caviar
Serves 4
4 large free-range eggs
1 teaspoon shallots, finely chopped
Salt and white pepper
2 1/2 ounces creme fra 5/8che
1 teaspoon chives, finely chopped
2 ounces caviar
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Slice tops off eggs with serrated knife and tip contents into bowl. Wash and gently dry shells and set them aside. Lightly beat eggs, then pour eggs and shallots into nonstick saucepan over low heat. Using a whisk, beat eggs vigorously until they begin to thicken. Remove from heat, season to taste, then add creme fra 5/8che and chopped chives.
Place shells in eggcups, then fill each shell three-quarters full with the egg mixture. Top each with teaspoon of caviar and serve immediately.
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Potato Rostis With Smoked Salmon, Quail Eggs and Caviar
Serves 4
Rostis
1 pound potatoes, peeled and grated
1 red onion, grated
2 egg yolks
Salt and black pepper
1/4 cup olive oil
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Topping
4 quail eggs
2 1/2 ounces creme fra 5/8che
3 1/2 ounces smoked salmon, diced
3 1/2 ounces caviar
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Place grated potatoes in bowl. Rinse well, drain, then wrap in towel to draw out remaining moisture. Return potatoes to bowl and mix in onion, egg yolks and seasoning. Heat 3 tablespoons olive oil in frying pan. Divide potato mixture into eight balls, then flatten them out slightly. Fry over moderate heat for approximately 10 minutes on either side, until golden brown. Remove from pan, drain on kitchen paper and transfer to plate in warm oven.
Heat frying pan with remaining tablespoon oil, then carefully break quail eggs into it and fry until cooked (1-2 minutes). Set aside.
Warm four plates and put two rostis on each. Place spoonful of creme fra 5/8che on one rosti and pile on a quarter of smoked salmon. Place quail egg on other rosti and top with 2 teaspoons of caviar. Serve immediately.
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Caviar and Blini
Serves 12
1/2 cup flour, sifted
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1/3 cup milk
4 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup sour cream
2-4 ounces caviar
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In blender or food processor, blend flour, salt, egg and milk until smooth (1-2 minutes). Strain batter through fine sieve into bowl and allow to stand for 30 minutes.
In small saucepan, melt butter and pour 1 tablespoon into large nonstick frying pan. Pour enough batter into pan to form three blini, each about 1/8-inch thick. Cook over medium-high heat for about 2-3 minutes on each side until lightly golden. Transfer to warm oven. Continue to make more blini, remembering to add melted butter to pan as necessary. Top each blini with 1 teaspoon of sour cream and a dab of caviar.
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Jamie Purviance last wrote for the magazine about grilling.
Food stylist: Christine Masterson