All in a day’s catch: inventive seafood

SCITUATE — “I was always a search-out-weird-ingredients type of guy,’’ says Adam Fuller of Snappy Lobster Delivery. When he was 4, that meant going to the Ritz-Carlton in Boston with his father for frogs’ legs and snails. Later, as executive chef of Great Bay, the former restaurant at the Hotel Commonwealth in Kenmore Square, it meant incorporating whelks (sea snails), sea urchins, and periwinkles into his inventive menu. Now it means selling what he and partner Lawrence Trowbridge pull up in their traps along with lobster, the primary focus of their business.

On a muggy midweek afternoon, the waters in Scituate Harbor are perfectly calm, but the sky looks threatening. Trowbridge and a crew member returning from a day at sea report bringing in “more whelks than lobsters.’’ As Fuller navigates his skiff through the harbor to one of the floating docks where he and Trowbridge store their catch, he points out the other boats with which they do business. Each of the team’s two docks can hold up to 5,000 pounds, or three boats’ worth, of lobster and the by-catch they pull up with it.

Selling their by-catch, which includes whelks, Jonah crabs, and sea urchins, distinguishes Snappy Lobster from most other lobstermen, who simply toss those things back into the water. The partners also harvest periwinkles from rocks near the shore. Their client base — Boston chefs eager to diversify their menus and shoppers who buy from the Snappy Lobster truck at a farmers’ market — is eating them up. All Snappy Lobster seafood, including fin fish, comes from within 50 miles of Scituate Harbor. It goes directly from the ocean to the customer.

When Great Bay closed in May 2009, Fuller, 33, had several job offers but decided to join Snappy Lobster in September of that year after he ran into Trowbridge, also 33, at a party. The second-generation lobsterman had just started his own business and was looking for a way to sell seafood to restaurant chefs. With 15 years of experience, Fuller has loads of contacts. And because the by-catch of lobster traps has long been part of his culinary repertoire, he understands the value. “Larry had no idea what they were worth,’’ Fuller says. The partners get between $2 and $4 a pound.

What comes up in the traps is less abundant than the lobsters. On any given week, says Fuller, “We’re lucky if we get 25 to 50 pounds of whelks.’’ Sea urchins and Jonah crabs are most plentiful in the fall, when they can bring in over 30 pounds of each. Fuller sends clients regular text or e-mail messages to let them know what’s available; restaurant delivery days are Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday. “Chefs who are up early and in the kitchen early get what we have,’’ he says.

The Snappy Lobster team is selective about its clientele. “We try to find the best chefs in Boston, people who we know are going to treat the products really well,’’ Fuller explains. Selling even the more unusual products has been relatively easy. “They say, ‘You’ve got that? Great.’ They know I wouldn’t go to the door with a fish they wouldn’t want.’’

“Anything that they have that is less common is never a gamble because I know that they come straight from the ocean that morning,’’ says Mary Dumont, executive chef of Harvest in Harvard Square. Her sauteed whelks with porcini mushrooms, veal stock, and butter — with Pernod on the side — “flew out of here.’’ Dumont has also served sea urchin and crab from the Scituate duo.

Will Gilson of Garden at the Cellar says, “Working with them is such a treat. We take whatever we can from Adam.’’ The chef likes whelks for their “meaty consistency and saltiness,’’ and incorporates all of the lesser-known mollusks into what he calls his “sea-to-table’’ cuisine. So far this season, he has served whelks in a riff on the traditional French escargots, with butter, garlic, and parsley; and in a cold Asian salad, with seaweed, sesame, and edible flowers.

“Whelks are one of my favorite local shellfish,’’ says Charles Draghi, chef and co-owner of Erbaluce in Boston. “Being Italian, I grew up in a family that ate anything other people would use as bait — eels, butterfish, razor clams, periwinkles, skate, and squid — which are popular now, of course. But when I was a child, no one other than Italians and maybe some Portuguese would eat them.’’

Draghi steams the whelks with white wine, lemon, garlic, and herbs from his garden. Then he chills them, pulls the meat from the shells, and marinates them in lemon, olive oil, mustard, and more fresh herbs. He serves them with watercress, dandelions, or arugula.

What was once bait is now luring adventurous diners.

Snappy Lobster Delivery is at the farmers’ market at Weston Nurseries, 93 East Main St., Hopkinton, alternate Fridays beginning July 9; at Wayside Inn farmers’ market, 72 Wayside Inn Road, Sudbury, 10 a.m.-2 p.m., alternate Saturdays beginning July 10; and Springdell Farm, 571 Great Road, Littleton, 3-6 p.m., alternate Saturdays beginning July 10. For more information call 781-635-0072 or go to www.snappylobster.com.

Andrea Pyenson can be reached at apyenson@gmail.com.