Seafood / Principal Chef

Coconut Fish

What a fantastic, fancy, and relatively easy recipe this is. It’s our new favorite. This is adapted from Yewande Komolafe’s New York Times recipe, and we just love this it. Sweet, mild, with a little spice. It works great with rice, which soaks up the extra delicious sauce. Crusty French bread would work well too. I hope you enjoy!

Ingredients

Marinade/Sauce

14 oz Coconut Milk (1 Full Can)

1 stick Ginger (2″ long or so, diced or cut into small matchsticks)

4 Garlic Cloves, peeled and chopped

1 tsp Tumeric

1 tsp Red Pepper Flakes

1 tbsp Honey

1.50 tsp Kosher Salt

1 Lime, Squeezed and Zested

½ cup Cilantro, stemmed and chopped

Fish

2 lbs White Fish (Chilean Sea Bass and Halibut both work beautifully)

3 cups Cherry Tomatoes

Directions

Mix all of the marinade ingredients together.

Add fish to the marinade, as fully submerged as possible, and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes or until ready to cook.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Have a center shelf for baking, and a top shelf if you want to broil it for color at the end.

Prepare a casserole dish. Remove fish from marinade, placing filets in the casserole dish, with at least 1″ of space between each filet. You want the fish to nearly fill up the dish.

Pour marinade over fish, leaving at least one half inch of the fish rising above the marinade.

Add tomatoes, filling in the spaces in between the filets.

Add dish to the oven. The length of time depends completely on the thickness of the fish. 8-10 minutes a good estimate. I am a big fan of using my Thermapen thermometer, and getting the fish to reach 135 to 145 degrees.

if you want a little more color, remove the fish when it is ready. Place the oven on low broil. After 5 minutes, place the fish on the top shelf and watch carefully. When the browning starts, it’s time to remove it. I don’t believe this step is necessary, but the NY Times loves what it does to the fish and tomatoes. I’ve done it both ways, and there is a little more show-stopping look with the broiler.

Blackened Salmon

We love Salmon in our house, and we have a variety of ways to prepare it. Blackened salmon is one of our favorites, and I would say we eat it twice a month! It’s spicy, and such an easy preparation. If you make extra spice mixture, then there’s hardly any work at all in the preparation when you make them the next time.

You can buy salmon fillets from your market. This may sound crazy, but we love the Costco frozen salmon farm-raised salmon fillets. They are so easy, and with just 1 hour of soaking them in water, we are ready to make this any time. I know fresh is better, and we do that sometimes too, but this is a great recipe, whether you use fresh or frozen fillets. I think one of the keys to finishing the salmon is a liberal lemon squeeze on it when you plate it. It makes it sparkle and you can taste the difference.

Enjoy! – Mike

Ingredients

2 tbsp Paprika (I used Smoked Paprika)

1 tbsp Black Pepper (Course is better than Shaker Grind)

2 tsp Brown Sugar

1 tsp Kosher Salt

2 tsp Garlic Powder

2 tsp Onion Powder

1 tsp Cayenne Pepper

1 tsp Oregano

1 tsp Thyme

4 Salmon Filets

Butter or Olive Oil

1 Lemon, Cut into wedges for squeezing

Directions

Mix all spices together. This should be enough for two dinners at least. I keep a spice jar of it in my spice drawer so I am ready to go at a moment’s notice.

Coat salmon fillets with a little olive oil or butter, then spoon or shake spice mixture onto salmon. Press into the salmon to make sure it is affixed. Let sit for 10 minutes or so. Do not add additional oil or butter. You don’t need it!

On your stove or on your outdoor grill, heat a cast iron skillet until it begins to smoke. Without adding any oil to the pan, place salmon, spice side down, into the skillet. You don’t need to press down. You don’t need to move it around at all. Let it sizzle for 4 minutes.

With a metal spatula, slide under the salmon, keeping the edge as close to the pan as possible, and flip each piece over. You are going to want to cook it until it is 130 to 135 degrees internal temperature. It’s probably another four minutes, depending on the thickness of the filets.

Plate the salmon, spice side up, and squeeze a lemon wedge over it, and serve. You will love it!

Fried Rice

I love fried rice. For us, it’s not a side dish. It’s a one bowl meal. The key is thinking a little bit ahead and having some one to three-day old rice in the fridge. If you keep some shrimp (Trader Joe’s Argentinian) in your freezer, or if you have some crab (Costco) in your fridge, you are ready. Take stuff that’s already in your fridge, freezer, and pantry, add some cooked rice from the night before, and go out there and be a fried rice hero!

Ingredients

3 cups White Rice, Leftover and Chilled

1 Onion, diced

6 Garlic Cloves

2 tsp Ginger, Minced(I usually don't have ginger, or ginger paste, but it's nice when I do)

2 cups Diced Vegetables (Peas, Carrots, Broccoli, Celery, Anything you like!)

2 Eggs, beaten

⅓ cup Soy Sauce or Tamari Sauce for less sodium

2 tsp Sesame Oil

1 tbsp Black Pepper(That's not a typo – Black Pepper is KEY for this dish!)

2 Green onions, for garnish

3 tbsp Cooking Oil – Canola or Peanut

1 lb Cooked Crab/Shrimp/Sausage/Pulled Pork/Chicken/Tofu or anything leftover that’s tasty!

Directions

I start by making a super thin omelette, taking it off the heat, and slicing into 1/4″ slivers to mix in the fried rice later. Set aside or refrigerate.

Chop your vegetables!

Create your mixture – Soy Sauce, Pepper, Sesame Oil

Add 1 Tbsp Canola oil to wok or pan. Sauté Onions for five minutes, then vegetables for 5 more, or until they’re just the way you like them. Take out of wok or pan and set aside.

Put 2 Tbsp Canola Oil in wok/pan with heat on high. Add rice and let it sizzle for 4-5 minutes. Use a spoon or spatula to make sure it does not stick, but do not stir. You’re trying to make it a little crispy. Add soy mixture, stir, and mix well.

Add everything except the egg. Stir in and heat. Again, let sit instead of constantly stirring.

Blend in the cooked egg at the very end and serve! Have extra soy sauce and some Thai Chili Garlic sauce or Sriracha sauce for those who like it hot.

Heather’s Crab Cakes

My friend Heather is well known as the person who does just about everything in our school district. She’s amazing at work, and to top it off, she’s a spectacular cook! This is one of her favorite recipes, and now that she’s shared it, it’s one of mine too.

Ingredients

Crab Cakes

2 tbsp Chopped Chives

1 tbsp Chopped Flat Parsley or Cilantro

1.50 tbsp Mayonnaise

1 tsp Grated lemon rind

1 tbsp Fresh Lemon Juice

1 Egg

⅓ cup Panko Bread Crumbs

1 lb Crab Meat, Lump is bestI try to always have at least one pound of the Costco Lump Crab Meat in my fridge. It lasts a long time, and I'm crab cake or fried rice ready at any time.

1 tbsp Blended Olive and Canola Oil

Spicy Mayo

¼ cup Mayonnaise

1 tbsp Chopped Chives or Shallots (but if you bought the chives, you might as well use them!)

2 tsp Creole Mustard (or Dijon Mustard with 1/2 tsp hot sauce)

1 tsp Fresh Lemon Juice

¼ tsp Cayenne Pepper (careful here, you may want to do it to taste)

⅛ tsp Salt

1.50 tbsp Capers (If you like them)

Directions

Mix together everything except the crab and the bread crumbs.

Add the crab and bread crumbs, mix together and set in the fridge for one hour.

While you are waiting . . . Mix all Spicy Mayo ingredients together.

Use a 1/3 cup measure, scoop out crab cakes onto plate or parchment paper.

Press out flat, then place in frying pan with just a little bit of olive/canola oil mix – 1/2 Tbsp. Sauté for 4 minutes.

Flip over and sauté another four minutes until golden brown.

Serve with lemon wedges and spicy mayo and enjoy!

Cambodia Yellow Curry Sauce

In December of 2018, Jill, Dawson, and I took a big trip to Cambodia. Jill’s sister was living there at the time, and we took the opportunity visit their family, and travel with them around Cambodia. It was amazing! The sites, the brutal and beautiful history, and the food all made an impact.

My favorite foods there were Crab Fried Rice, Fish Amok, and Kep Fish. This mild Cambodian curry dish is a my combination of Fish Amok and Kep Fish, except that there is no fish. You choose what to serve it with – fish, shrimp, tofu, and chicken all work well. Serve over jasmine rice and you have a full one-dish meal!

Ingredients

3 tbsp Yellow Curry Paste

2 Cans, Coconut Milk

1 Sweet Onion, Diced

2 Red Bell Peppers, Diced

2 Green Bell Peppers, Diced

1 Bunch of Celery, Diced

1 tbsp Tamari or Fish Sauce*(Add more to bring out more umami taste)

Salt and Pepper

1 tbsp Corn Starch

4 Cloves, Garlic, Minced

2 cups Vegetable Broth

Directions

Sauté onions, garlic, and celery in a little vegetable or olive oil.

Add bell peppers, and sauté until a little softened.

In a separate pot, heat 1 Tbsp Olive Oil, mix in curry paste.

Mix in coconut milk with a whisk.

Taste for spice. You can add curry paste, red chili pepper flakes, or chili garlic sauce if you want more heat. Add vegetable broth and re-taste for heat.

In a separate bowl, mix a small amount of the curry with the cornstarch. Mix back into the curry to thicken.

Add vegetable mixture to curry sauce.

Beer Battered Fish Tacos

There’s a place about 5 miles from our home, Malibu Seafood, that serves the best fried fish tacos I’ve ever had. It’s a long line in the summer, so we don’t go then. As Yogi Berra said about one of the top restaurants in NY, “No one goes there any more. It’s way too crowded.” Ha! Well, we go in the off season. So in the summer, I’ll try my hand at making my own. They’re not as good as the ones at Malibu Seafood, but I love them.

Ingredients

1.50 lbs Fish – Cod is cheap and fantastic, and halibut is a nice (and more expensive) version.

Making the Batter

1 cup Flour

12 oz Beer – I usually have some Fat Tire or Firestone DBA on hand.

1 tsp Ground Black Pepper

1 tsp Salt

Coating Mix

1 cup Flour

1 tsp Salt

1 tsp Ground Black Pepper

Cream Sauce

1 cup Sour Cream

3 tbsp Salsa

0.50 tsp Salt

0.50 tsp Ground Black Pepper

1 Lime, Zest and Juice

Hot Sauce (Cholula is our house favorite)

Toppings

½ Head of Cabbage, Chopped

1 White or Yellow Onion, Chopped

2 Roma Tomatoes, Chopped

2 Avocados

3 Oil for frying – I use

12 Corn Tortillas

Directions

Making the Cream Sauce and Preparing the Toppings

Mix together Sour Cream, Lime zest and juice, salsa, 1/2 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp pepper. Sauce should be lime tangy, and a little spicy. I add about 10 shakes of Cholula.

As an alternative, I have a good tartar sauce recipe that I have not yet put on the website.

Mix cabbage, onion, and tomato together. Bind with a little of the cream sauce if you like.

Slice the avocados and squeeze a little lime or lemon over them.

Move cabbage mix, sliced avocados, and cream sauce to the fridge.

Making the Beer Batter

Mix together flour, 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp black pepper, and 8 ounces of beer. You figure out what to do with the rest of the beer!

Let sit for 15 minutes. Don’t let it get too thick! Add more beer or seltzer water if it does.

Cooking the Fish

On a plate or in a large bowl, mix together 1 cup flour, 1 tsp salt and 1 tsp ground pepper.

Cut fish into thin pieces, 3-4 inches long and 3/4 inch wide. Don’t go too wide here. You want to be able to make a nice taco without a giant piece of fish.

Heat oil in a 9″ cast iron skillet. You can go bigger, but it’s a lot more oil. You want at least 1″ of oil. Oil should heat to about 350 degrees. Thermapens are great for checking temperatures!

Dredge fish pieces in flour, dip in batter, and place in oil. I do about six pieces at a time. Cook for 5-6 minutes until deep golden brown.

Set fish on a wire rack over a cookie sheet lined with paper towels to drain.

Serve as quickly as possible!

Prepare the tortillas by either
(1) Heating them up on a griddle or on the grill (very healthy),
(2) Lightly frying them in canola oil, then resting on paper towels or hanging them in the oven over the oven rack (very awesome),
(3) Wrapping in a paper towel and microwaving for 30 seconds.

I place the tortillas, fish, cabbage mix, cream sauce, avocado and hot sauce on the table, and let people serve themselves!

Shrimp and Grits

I love going to The Faded Rose restaurant in Little Rock, Arkansas and eating their Shrimp and Grits! The fry a grit cake, which is really good, but more work than I’m willing to do without a deep fryer. I find that just good old cheesy grits is a nice base for this meal. And then it’s just shrimp and veggies, with a little cajun flavor, making a simple but wonderful dish.

Ingredients

1 cup Grits – Stone Ground or Instant. Stone ground is of course better!Once again, Bob's Red Mill is my favorite grits brand.

1 lb Raw Shrimp, peeled and deveined, salmon, and/or andouille sausage

1 Onion, chopped

4 Celery stalks, chopped

1 Green Pepper, cleaned and chopped

4 tbsp Butter

6 Garlic Cloves, choppedIf you love garlic, double it!

1 tbsp Dried Basil

1.50 tsp Kosher Salt

1.50 tsp Black Pepper

2 cups Broth, Chicken or Vegetable

14.50 oz Diced Tomatoes, full can

Directions

Take 1 cup of stone ground grits and put it in 3 cups of boiling water (or whatever the directions say). After it thickens, add 1 tsp kosher salt, 1 tsp pepper, 1 tsp chili garlic sauce, and 1 cup of sharp cheddar. Cover and set aside.

Or . . . if you have leftover cheese grits , reheat those babies and you’re set!

If you’re going to use sausage, shrimp, and/or salmon (blacken it if you like it spicy!), cook it first and set aside. Again, it’s a great dish for leftovers, so if you have something you love that fits, this will work.

Heat skillet, add butter, and sauté Holy Trinity with Garlic: (6- 12 cloves depending on your taste. I did 12!) Add Basil as well.

Add tomatoes, broth, seasonings, heat and leave on simmer to reduce. (In this picture I used fresh cherry tomatoes. Jill’s tomato plants were overflowing so, what the heck! My friend Pete taught me about cooking sauce with fresh cherry tomatoes – cook them until they split, then they’re ready!)

Note: If you want to add some heat here, I love Tabasco in this one. The spicy vinegar taste works very well with this dish.

Add shrimp, salmon, sausages, or your leftovers to the sauce.

Place grits in the center of a bowl. Ladle shrimp and sauce goodness around the grits and serve.

Salmon – Cast Iron Skillet Style

This is one of my favorite ways to cook salmon. It’s so easy, and it looks fantastic. The key is the cast iron skillet, which starts on the stove, then finishes in the oven. The time on the stove makes it brown and beautiful, and the oven makes the fish perfectly done.

Ingredients

1.50 lbs Salmon Filet(s), Skin On

1 tbsp Olive or Canola Oil

Salt and Pepper or Lemon Pepper

2 Lemons, Quartered

Directions

Preheat oven to 425 (400 Convection)

Heat Cast Iron Skillet on high heat.

Prepare salmon. Coat with Olive Oil and season non-skin side with salt and pepper. Add some lemon pepper spice if you want.

When skillet is hot, place the salmon, SKIN SIDE UP, into the skillet.

After 5 minutes, turn Salmon Filet over. Move THE ENTIRE CAST IRON SKILLET WITH THE SALMON into the oven. 5 Minutes

After 6 minutes, take out of the oven, or when the salmon is 130 degrees, and it is ready to serve! 5 Minutes

Pineapple Salsa

This is a fresh and wonderful addition to fish, turkey, or chicken. It’s great with grilled food. Very simple to do, but it’s better if you make it ahead of time and let it marinate in its own juices.

Ingredients

1 tbsp Rice Vinegar or White Wine Vinegar (Rice Vinegar is much cleaner)

½ tsp Salt

½ tsp Cayenne Pepper

1 Pineapple, Cored and Chopped into small pieces.(If you are in a pinch, 2 cans of sliced pineapple will do.)

½ Red Onion, minced

1 cup Cilantro, washed and chopped

Directions

Chop and drain pineapple. Mix all ingredients together and chill for at least one hour.

Fish Tacos

We love fish tacos! Our friends, especially my friend Merlin, love fish tacos. When I tell Merlin it’s fish taco night in the Matthews house, he always asks the same question, “Is it all you can eat?” Yes, Merlin, it is.

They are easy to make, healthy, inexpensive, and wildly popular. Any fish will do, but our favorite by far is salmon. Halibut, swordfish, cod, or tilapia are also great. You can gently reheat last night’s fish for some great fish tacos too. Don’t Microwave the fish. Just don’t. Jim Rome, a sports radio host, has the best take on this ever. He has taken time during several of his “sports” shows to try to teach the world never to microwave fish. It’s worth a listen. I join him in his crusade.

Ingredients

Salmon (or other excellent fish) – about 1/3 to 1/2 pound per person.

Cajun seasoning, Salt, and Ground Black Pepper

Cabbage (1 head is plenty for 8 servings)

Roma Tomatoes (1 tomato for every 2 servings)

Ranch Dressing or Sour Cream

Salsa

1 lime, plus 1/2 lime per serving

Avocados (1 avocado – 4 servings)

Corn Tortillas

Directions

Make a cream sauce of 1 cup sour cream, 3 Tbsp Salsa, zest and juice of 1 lime, 1/2 tsp salt, and 1/2 tsp black pepper. Add a little hot sauce (Cholula or other) if you like.

I have a good tartar sauce recipe tartar sauce recipe that I have not yet put on the website. But for me, with the grilled fish tacos, I much prefer straight salsa or this cream sauce.

Mix together cabbage and tomatoes, add a little onion if you want. Dress with some of the cream sauce if you like. Refrigerate both cabbage mix and cream sauce.

Cook salmon as per the grilled salmon recipe or the skillet salmon recipe . The only difference is that you can add a lot more cajun spice in addition to lemon pepper. Don’t be shy!

Prepare the tortillas by either
(1) Heating them up on a griddle (very healthy),
(2) Lightly frying them in canola oil, then resting on paper towels or hanging them in the oven over the oven rack (very awesome),
(3) Wrapping in a paper towel and microwaving for 30 seconds.

Cut up avocado into small slices.

Lay out prepared fish, cabbage salad, cut up avocados, lime slices, cream sauce, and hot sauce. Let people make their own and go to town!

Grilled Salmon

Salmon is by far the most common fish that we eat. Our youngest son loves it. It’s easy. It’s available in many different varieties, and it’s usually fresh. That’s my brother Bill up in Washington catching himself a big salmon and loving it! Grilled salmon is a great dish any time of the year where the bbq is in use. Why not tonight?

Ingredients

1 Salmon Fillet with skin on – 1/2 to 3/4 pound per person

1 tbsp Olive Oil

1 tsp Lemon Pepper

½ Lemon per person

Directions

Get your grill ready to go – somewhere between 400 and 450 degrees. Clean the grates well. I know there are men out there who believe that cleaning grills takes all of that flavor away. Dudes. That’s the worst idea ever. Clean your grates before you cook and after you cook!

Spread the olive oil over both sides of the filet – use a brush or your clean fingers. Sprinkle lemon pepper liberally on non-skin side. If you don’t have lemon pepper, plain old salt and pepper will do just fine.

There are different philosophies of how to keep quick cooking foods from sticking to the grill. A common adage is “Oil the food, not the grill.” For me, with fish, I like to do both. You need the meat side of the fish to get a nice sear on it, then the rest of the cooking can be with the skin side down. So I oil the fish, and I either spray the grates with cooking spray (safely from a distance) or take some tongs and oiled paper towels and coat the grates that way. You need about four minutes of non-stickiness, and the combo does it nicely.

Place filet on hot grill, skin side up. Grill for 3 minutes. After a minute or so, put your spatula under there, not shifting position, just to make sure the fish is not sticking. With a spatula, turn 90 degrees and grill for 3 more minutes. Do the same non-stick trick after a minute and a half. Use a spatula to turn over. It should look nice like this picture!

Now comes the easy part. Close grill and cook for another 3-6 minutes, until the temperature reaches 130. Some people may like it a little more well done, but in my humble opinion, 130 is the perfect salmon temperature.

Take out with a large spatula. The skin may come off when you pull it off, and that’s OK. Place on plate so that the cross hatched grill marks show nicely. Squeeze some lemon over the fish and you are ready to serve!