Mind in the Butter

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Seafood

Seared Scallops and Fennel Risotto

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Nothing feels more triumphant than expertly mastering a difficult dish. For me, it’s my seared scallops and fennel risotto. And I know I’m awesome at it because it’s hands down the most requested dish I make for special occasions. I’ve been making (and perfecting) it for almost ten years and I think I’ve finally got it down. As for the risotto, this one features fennel but you could easily do a butternut squash and sage one, a beet root one, a pesto one…the list goes on.

A note on the scallops, since you know, I’m like, THE expert. Searing scallops is not easy, it takes patience and a hot-ass pan. The trick is to not be afraid of the heat and to not be tempted to shake the pan or peek under the scallops before they are actually ready. The reward is crispy and tender scallops and a buttery, fragrant risotto. An important thing worth emphasizing: be sure to get “dry” or “diver” day boat scallops. Fishmongers often store scallops (and most seafood) in a salt solution to maintain freshness and make the appearance of the seafood more plump. Avoid this at all cost- and yes, day boat scallops are more expensive. If you don’t, that’s a one-way ticket to squishy, squeaky, wet scallops and you’ll get annoyed and curse me and never attempt these again.

Keep practicing with this one!

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Seared Scallops and Fennel Risotto

Prep

Cook

Total

Yield 2-4 servings

Ingredients

For the scallops

  • 1 pound (about 12- 15) dry day boat scallops
  • olive oil
  • salt and pepper to taste

For the risotto

  • 1 cup arborio (risotto) rice
  • 1 medium fennel bulb, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
  • 3-6 garlic gloves (per your preference)
  • 1 onion, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
  • 1 cup cheese from a block of good salty parmesan or pecorino
  • 1/2 cup good dry white wine
  • 6-8 cups chicken or vegetable stock
  • 3T ish olive oil
  • salt and pepper

Instructions

  1.  Line a cookie sheet or large platter with 2 layers of paper towel.
  2. Prepare the scallops by rinsing them thoroughly to remove sand and the muscle on the side of each scallop. This is a tough, fibrous piece that looks kind of like the tab on a soda can. Feed it to your cats or dog and make them happy.
  3. Place clean scallops on the paper towel-lined cookie sheet and dry as thoroughly as possible. They should be almost sticky they are so dry. Keep them on the paper towel and place in fridge.
  4. De-core and chop fennel into small 1/2 inch cubes. Fennel doesn't breakdown as much as an onion does when cooked so whatever size you chop it to, assume it will stay that size. Keep a few fronds for garnish at the end if you're feeling fancy.
  5. Chop onions; peel and slice or crush the garlic.
  6. In a dutch oven or large pot, heat a few tablespoons of olive oil. Once glistening, add the risotto rice and toast for about 3 minutes then add fennel, onion, salt, pepper and half your portion of garlic and sauté until onion and fennel are soft.
  7. In a separate saucepan, heat stock or broth and keep on low to simmer. More on this below.
  8. Take swig of wine, then deglaze pan with a good glug or 1/2 ish cup of it. Once wine has evaporated, ladle in one cup of warm broth into the risotto and continue to add a ladle at a time until each cup is absorbed by the rice.  Be patient with this step. It's kind of annoying but makes the risotto really creamy and tender without the cream! The risotto will tell you ultimately how many cups it needs so don't worry if you have a little broth left over in the small pot.
  9. Once risotto starts to soften (about 20 mins), add remaining garlic, a huge whack of good salty cheese, about 1/2 cup and check in on your salt and pepper levels.
  10. Start heating a large skillet (NOT a non stick one) for your scallops on high. Coat with 2 ish tablespoons of olive oil, depending on your skillet size. Pull scallops out of fridge and sprinkle one side with salt and pepper. Note: we waited to salt the scallops until the last second to avoid drawing water out of them. Goal is to keep them as dry as possible to get the best sear.
  11. Wet your finger under the faucet and flick water off your finger into the oil in the skillet. It should hiss, spit and pop when you do this. If it doesn't, wait and try again once pan is hotter.  Only when the skillet passes the water test, carefully place scallops seasoned side down into the pan.  Let sear for about 3-4 minutes and then flip. If the scallop is properly seared, it shouldn't stick to the pan and you should see the brown carmelization creeping up the side of the scallop. This takes practice. Finish second side for 2 mins and transfer scallops to a platter or just turn off the burner.
  12. Check on your risotto, adding any remaining stock to finish cooking the rice. If needed, add fresh crushed garlic, salt, pepper depending on what you think it needs. Garnish with some more cheese and the reserved fennel fronds.
  13. Spoon some creamy risotto onto a pretty plate with 4-6 scallops nestled on top and be sure to drizzle any scallop juice from the pan or plate onto the dish before serving.

Copy Machine Food Muses…and Salmon

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Salmon

I love my co-workers. No but actually… I’m obsessed with them.  We have this unnaturally close bond because we are frequently required to travel internationally together, sometimes making work feel more like camp or high school (except awesomer because I’m not going through puberty and I’m now cool). We bond over champagne at 40,000 feet, over horrific food poisoning, severe colds and broken limbs, in strange and foreign countries. We bond over lost baggage, language barriers, Swiss fondue and too many bottles of wine.  I really love this level of familiarity and comfort because it allows me to do things to my colleagues I’d never do anywhere else, you know, like break into their desk late at night on a regular basis to eat that salted chocolate they keep at the back of their bottom desk drawer, or ask to borrow their socks on my way to the gym.

Travel disasters and desk break-ins aside, I love my coworkers because of their support of my blog.  Mind in the Butter has gained incredible traction in my office and some of my biggest fans and food muses are right here scanning documents at the copy machine. They  “like“, comment, and drool over every blog post or food photo immediately once I click “Publish.” Conversely, they tap their watches, scowl and shun me when I’ve gone too long between postings.  They are a huge motivating factor and source of inspiration for my food blogging and deserve to be celebrated. THANK YOU!

Yesterday in the spirit of home-cooking and coworker love, we hosted a “Coworker Potluck”  to give us an excuse to swap recipes and enjoy each other’s company. With the help of one of my coworkers, I did Roasted Salmon with Lemon, Tarragon, Shallot Butter with Tomatoes Provençal and others brought incredible salads, sides, dips, and desserts. What a treat!

Roasted Salmon with Lemon, Tarragon, Shallot Butter  

  • Filet of Salmon
  • 1 lemon
  • 2 sprigs tarragon (about 3 T), torn up
  • 3 T chives, rough chopped
  • 2-3 pads of butter
  • 2 T olive oil
  • 2 cloves garlic, rough chopped
  • 1/2 medium shallot or one whole, small shallot diced
  • S and P to taste

Pre-heat oven to 350

In food processor mix tarragon, chives, butter, garlic, shallot, olive oil, S/P and the juice of ½ the lemon until smooth.  No food processor? No problem.  Just finely chop everything and blend with olive oil and softened butter.

Rinse and pat dry the salmon and place in a foil-lined baking dish. Spoon the luscious herby mixture generously over the salmon making sure to cover all the sides. Slice the remaining 1/2 lemon into 3-4 thin slices and place on top of salmon. If possible, leave in the refrigerator for at least an hour before baking.

Pull the corners of the foil up around the filet into a loose tent, careful not to smush the herb mixture. Bake at 350 for about 20-25 minutes, depending on the size. White specks should form around the salmon indicating it’s done.  Use a fork and pull at the corner of filet to ensure it’s ready.

Tomatoes Provençal

  • Small, ripe tomatoes on the vine (campari and cherry tomatoes are ideal)
  • Olive oil
  • Herbs de Provence
  • Italian seasoning

On a plate, drizzle olive oil on whole tomatoes. Shake or pinch herbs and Italian seasoning on around the tomatoes to fully coat.  Sprinkle on salt and pepper for good measure.  To avoid cleaning another dish later, tuck the vined tomatoes into the corner of the same pan as the salmon (not inside the foil tent). Roast at 350 with the salmon.  They should be soft and blistered when done, so they might need a few more minutes than the salmon depending on their size.

Rosemary Skewered Halibut

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blog hLIBUT SKEWERSRecently, my mom gave me about a dozen rosemary branches from her garden. It was a lot of herb and I didn’t want it to go to waste, so I made this Rosemary Skewered Halibut. Rosemary is an intensely woody and lemony herb that I normally associate with meats, but Halibut is a pretty bland and trim fish, so the intensity of the rosemary actually worked quite nicely.  The halibut can easily be substituted for chicken, red meat, lamb or tuna, and since it’s almost summer, these skewers would be happiest when cooked on the grill.

The secret to this dish is marinating the halibut for at least 1 hour beforehand in a really intense herb blend. I tossed some fresh thyme, seasoned salt, paprika, garlic, Italian seasoning, herbs de provence, an herb mix containing dried chervil, parsley and coriander (pretty much the entire spice rack) and olive oil in a medium sized glass bowl and let it hang on the counter for about 10 minutes. If you try this recipe, the marinade should be almost pasty and super intense in flavor.

While the marinade rested, I rinsed and pat dry a beautiful filet of halibut and cubed it into 1 inch chunks, added it to the marinade bowl and chilled it for 1 hour.

I then heated the oven to 475 and lined a cookie sheet with tin foil and olive oil. With an entire stalk of rosemary, I laced 3-4 cubes of halibut down the rosemary from the bottom up and laid them on the cookie sheet so no halibut cubes were touching, then baked them for about 8-10 minutes until they were golden brown (they go fast, so keep on eye on them so they don’t  over cook).  Note: the rosemary edges will burn at this high heat.  This  is fine, but just have someone ready to do the “dish towel helicopter” under the smoke detector just in case.

I served the skewers with a kale salad and mushroom polenta and I can’t wait to get my hands on more fresh rosemary so I can do this again….

Halibut Top Ramen

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photo (11)Last week I did a post featuring a fried halibut sandwich with one of two halibut fillets we had. The fate of the second fillet is featured above– an Asian-style halibut soup with tender ramen noodles, shiitake mushrooms, leeks, baby bok choy…and about 100 herbs and spices. I really got into it and made the soup using my wok and a wooden sushi spoon as a ladle. (I’ll admit, I was even  a whisker away from wearing a Hello Kitty apron…)

Like many of my recipes, the ingredients are interchangeable but the trick here is  to layer them properly to get the right depth of flavor and the right consistency (ie not mushy, not too salty or bland). So below I’ve outlined, not a recipe, but conceptual steps to take to make a tasty Asian-style soup.

aromatics/sturdy vegetables and proteins + seasonings and oils + broth +  noodles +  delicate vegetables and fish + serve+ garnish = so awesome.

Step 1: Saute mushrooms and aromatics (onions, garlic, shallots etc.). If you’re using beef, tofu, shrimp or chicken as your protein, cook them here to get maximum flavor and color. They are sturdy enough to withstand the boiling broth.

Step 2: Season liberally with all your “Asian-style” pantry goods: soy sauce, dash of rice wine vinegar, green onion, ginger, mirin, seasame oil, lemongrass.

Step 3: Add broth: I mix 1 carton of chicken broth and 1 carton of vegetable broth. Combinations of beef, mushroom or fish stock would be equally as delicious.

Step 4: In separate pot, boil noodles only until tender. Drain and set aside. Ramen – the jerry curl of noodles – is my noodle of choice since they are easier to grip with chopsticks.

Step 5: while the noodles cook, add delicate vegetables: bok choi, spinach, leeks, zucchini and fish: haddock, cod, salmon, halibut etc. and stir gently for about 2 minutes.

Step 6: Add a generous scoop of ramen noodles into the bottom of a pretty bowl then ladle soup making sure to get all the good bits; the vegetables and protein.

Step 7: Garnish with sesame seeds, green onion, hot chili oil, whatever your heart desires.

Just for the Halibut: Lager-battered Fish Sandwich with Garlic Truffle Fries

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photo (6)This week, Stingray and I made use of two snow-white halibut fillets we had in the freezer (fate of the second fillet to be revealed tomorrow). I was lucky enough to have him make me this outrageous fried fish sandwich for Sunday supper. Despite having a reputation for being the ultimate convenience food, sandwiches are actually a luxury dinner item at our house.  They often require ingredients that we don’t keep on file (bread and sliced cheeses),  and require a keen attention to detail to make them extra tasty (hence why he cooked and I didn’t). Stingray did a basic beer batter for the fish, with classic accompaniments: lettuce, tomato, sliced cheese. He hit it out of the park by buttering and toasting both sides of the bun before serving. I was feeling kind of useless in the kitchen, so my contribution was a  dill aioli and some garlic truffle fries.

For the batter:

  • 1 bottle lager
  • 1 Tbsp baking powder
  • 1/8 tsp ground black pepper
  • Dash cayenne pepper
  • 1 tsp seasoned salt
  • 1 tsp fish seasoning
  • ¾ cup all-purpose flour, plus ½ cup
  • Canola or vegetable oil

1. In a large bowl, mix together the beer, baking powder,  pepper, cayenne pepper, seasoning and salt. Whisk in the flour until the mixture resembles thin pancake batter, add more flour if needed.
2. Fill a medium-sized pan with about a ½ inch of  oil and heat over medium-high until it begins to shimmer. Season the halibut, dredge lightly in the ½ cup of flour (helps the batter to stick), dip it into the batter, and cook the fish until crispy and flaky, 4 to 6 minutes, flipping halfway through. Remove the fillets and rest on paper towel lined plate, pat gently to coax away excess oil.

For the aioli:

  • 3/4 cup mayonnaise
  • 1-2 crushed cloves garlic
  • 1 lemon (juice and zest)
  • 1/2 cup dill, finely chopped
  • s/p to taste
  • 2 T olive oil

Add all ingredients to food processor, blend until smooth.  Taste, and adjust flavors as you like. Smear on toasted buttered buns before stacking fish fillet, cheese, tomato, lettuce.

Garlic Truffle Fries

  • 2 blemish-free Russet potatoes
  • 4 cloves garlic
  • olive oil
  • 4 T finely chopped parseley
  • truffle salt
  • truffle oil
  • s/p to taste

1. Place cookie sheet in oven and crank  to 400. Slice potatoes into long wedges. In a large bowl, coat potato wedges liberally with olive oil. Mix in 2 cloves crushed garlic, 2T parsley, salt and pepper.
2. Distribute potatoes onto hot cookie sheet and bake undisturbed for at least 15 mins before flipping.  Bake for another 15 minutes or until tender and crispy.
3. Before serving, gently toss with remaining 2 cloves of crushed garlic and 2 T parsley, a drizzle of truffle oil and several pinches of truffle salt. Serve and enjoy.

 photo (8)

Superwoman’s Salmon, Fennel and Mushroom Pot Pie

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Coho Salmon, Fennel, and Mushroom Pot Pie with Truffle Cream

Ray and I woke up early, had a delicious breakfast and headed to the Metropolitan Museum to see the Warhol and Protoshop exhibits, amongst a thousand other amazing works of art.  After three lovely hours of photographs, paintings, vases and tombs, I managed to do three loads of laundry at the laundromat (with Ray’s help), mend our ripped duvet, go to the grocery store, workout for an hour and then bake what I’ve been craving for weeks–a salmon pot pie, just in time for half time of the Giants game. Flaky and rich, this pot pie blew the traditional chicken-carrot-pea-celery combo straight out of the water. I call it “Superwoman’s pot pie” because I’m having one of those Sunday evenings where I can’t stop high-fiving myself because I was so awesome and productive all day.

High-fives aside, I juiced this dish up by tucking a teaspoon of truffle butter under the hood of puff pastry before serving.  Since I’m amazing at following recipes (not), I used the Food Network’s  here.

I tried to be cute and put pastry fish on the top, but after being in the 400 degree oven it looks like two of them got a little fresh…

Tofino Time: Steamed Shrimp and Crab Shumai

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Crab and Shrimp Shumai

This next week is the Tofino edition! The family and I are nestled in the balmy Pacific Northwest for a week of action-packed fun: fishing, prawning, crabbing, hiking, camping, and best of all – dinner roulette: where dinner is entirely dependent on whatever Dad catches on his 16-foot boat. Given that I’m with the fam damily this week, I’ll have some guest contributors!

Guest Contributor//Emily: There are about 1 trillion things that I adore about my sister – one of the biggest ones being that she has a true adoration and admiration for all things food. Of course,  it’s always a pleasure to dine on whatever Eva “whips up”, but, since she always makes it look so fun, I thought I’d jump in. We cranked the Reggae, poured two glasses of wine and let the fun flow! Sissy and I are very similar and very different – in this case, our differences in the kitchen really do keep things smooth sailing. As her honorary sous-chef for the evening, I was keen on ensuring that she had a clean workshop to let her creativity flow. It’s really something to watch her work – a certain smell or color or texture will inspire a whole new direction, only more delicious than the previous one. I enjoy  following her direction – in a life of constant unknowns, she is precise with her guidance and is mindful of being kind to a novice (like me). One of the greatest parts of this experience was capturing her creativity,  documenting the magic that she really does create, and being able to celebrate it time and time again.  – EJSF – 

Last night, Emily and I decided to make shrimp and crab shumai because, you know, we just happened to have them fresh from Dad’s boat. For our shumai, we used my knight in shining armor – wonton papers – to make these delicious seafood dumplings, perfect as an appetizer. This is definitely an activity meal, so enlist a sous-chef before you get started and prepare these little pinwheels of delight in advance. Conversely, if this is part of the “performance” make sure guests have something to nosh on while watching the action.

Ingredients:

Fresh crab, shrimp, scallions, ginger

Shumai Filling

  • 12 small shrimp, (can be raw or boiled)
  • 1 cup fresh boiled crab
  • 2 scallion, white and green chopped
  • 1 T Fresh ginger finely chopped
  • Egg wash: ramekin of 1 scrambled raw egg and 1 T water

 

Asian-style goodness

Dipping Sauce

  • 2 splashes Soy sauce
  • 1 dash Rice wine vinegar
  • 1 splash Sesame oil
  • Sesame seeds
  • 1 t. Dijon mustard
  • 1 pinch sugar
  • 1 T fresh ginger, finely chopped
  •  2 scallion, white and green chopped

The Gist:

The idea of the shumai filling is to have multiple textures, achieved by staging the mixing process. I was without my trusty Cuisinart for this recipe and used an old blender making it difficult to control this.  We ended up simply rough chopping several ingredients by hand and mixing them in a bowl after we got the pasty base.

Shumai Filling

  •  Make the dipping sauce first. This mixture will season the filling.
  • Add half the crab and shrimp and 2 T of dipping sauce to the food processor and mix until paste like.
  •  Add the rest of the shrimp and crab and scallions and pulse.

 

 

Fake it ’til you make it…

To wrap the shumai:

Let’s be honest here – Emily and I had no idea what we were doing and had a blast taking creative license making our little dumplings. The nice thing about shumai too is that it’s actually opened on the top, so it made it easier to hide our neophyte skills. I’ve had shumai before and really like the pleating of the dumpling wrap so I attempted to replicate it. Regardless of your style, it’s important use the egg wash before pressing any two corners of the wonton paper together so they stick together.

Finally, steam the shumai, 3-5 minutes ideally in a bamboo steamer lined with cheesecloth (to keep the shumai from sticking). We didn’t have this luxury, so I poured enough water to cover 2 inches of the bottom of a large pot and fashioned a pedestal in the bottom  using a trivet (so the bowl was not in direct contact with the burner) and an overturned bowl, then placed the plates of shumai directly on the raised surface one at a time. Worked out pretty well, thanks Sissy for all your help!

My oh my, shumai!

Two Coudies Archive: Fine Investment Father’s Day Rockfish

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Daddy-Happy Father’s Day!  Along with great hair, thank you for gifting me with a discerning and rather expensive palette. You’ve programmed me to thrive best when consuming fine wines and champagne, imported cheeses, charcuterie, caviar and fresh seafood.  While my wallet doesn’t appreciate it, my belly definitely does.

Since it is Father’s Day I’ve pulled from the Two Coudies Archive this Father’s Day fish post.  It reminds me of such a great Father-Daughters trip we took a couple of years ago, I’m happy to have a place in cyber space to remember it forever. Love you, Dad!

*************************************************************************

For Father’s Day, my sister and I took Dad to St. Michael’s, Maryland (GO THERE!) for a nautically-inclined weekend.  Amidst sunset sailing, an antique boat show and a private plane ride over the Chesapeake Bay (!), we set him up with a fishing guide. Luckily for me he caught three HUGE Rockfish (called Striped Bass, where I’m from). He couldn’t take them back on the plane with him so when I returned to DC, I invited some of my girlfriends over and made a super simple Parmesan Rockfish.  To celebrate summer I added a feta and watermelon salad. While we ate the meal with rice, I’ve added a recipe for some insanely rich mashed potatoes…because that’s what the rockfish would have wanted. Thanks to my girl Nicole GoodHat Aguirre of Worn Magazine for the photos.

 

Parmesan & Parsley Fish:

Preheat oven to 350 and begin marinating fish.

Marinade:

  • 2 large garlic cloves crushed
  • 2  1lb filets of rockfish (or any other white fish)
  • the juice of 1 lemon
  • splash of white wine
  • 2 tsp salt and pepper
  • 3 tsp olive oil
  • 2 shakes of chili flake if you want to get KrAZy

Topping:

  • 1/2 cup Parmesan
  • 2 tsp finely chopped parsley

Mix fish and marinade ingredients together in gallon-size Ziploc and stick in fridge. After it’s chilled again, place in buttered glass dish large enough for filets to lay flat.  Sprinkle with grated Parmesan cheese and fresh chopped parsley.

Depending on thickness, bake for approx 13-15 minutes.  The fish should flake when you pull a fork through it.

**WiLd SiDe:turn on the broiler at the end of cook time for 2 minutes to brown the top.

They will love you Forever Boursin Mashed Potatoes:

  • Russet, Yukon Gold or bliss potatoes
  • 1-3 garlic cloves
  • 3/4 small package of Boursin or Alouette herbed cheese
  • 2 T butter
  • 2 T sour cream
  • splash of milk or cream
  • 1 egg
  • salt/pepper

Quarter and boil potatoes in large pot for about 30 mins. Potatoes will be ready when you can pass a fork or knife straight through with little pressure.  When cooked and tender, drain and return to large pot and turn heat to low.  Mash slightly with with masher or hand mixer. Incorporate all other ingredients except for egg. Continue to taste to adjust flavors and consistency to your liking. Add raw egg and blend.*

*If you have a Jewish family member in the kitchen, do this discreetly. If you get caught, deny everything.

 I-Am-A-Sex-MaH-Cheen Watermelon and Feta Salad:

Vinaigrette:

  • 1 part lemon juice
  • 2 parts Extra Virgin olive oil
  • 1 tsp salt/pepper
  • 1 tsp sugar
  • the leaves of 4 thyme sprigs, finely chopped
  • 5 raspberries, optional
  • splash of any good quality fruit juice in the frig (lemonade, limeade, raspberry juice)
  • 1 T dijon mustard

Mix all together in blender until smooth. If it’s too sweet, add one more lemon and/or pepper. Too tart, more olive oil, then more sugar.

Place a handful of washed spring mix, arugula or spinach on a salad plate. Serve with a slice of watermelon and a feta cube, drizzle with vinaigrette.

Birthday Fish Tacos

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This past weekend marked Mom’s __th birthday, celebrated just the way she likes, with all her chicks back in the nest on Cape Cod. Since Mom is rather difficult to shop for, I kept to what I know and made her dinner – Birthday Fish Tacos with a Carrot and Cabbage slaw, Black Bean and Hominy salad and a homemade “crema lima.”  This dish is easy, inexpensive, and loaded with vibrant and flavorful raw vegetables. It’s hot and cold, crunchy and soft, spicy and mild and has ingredients that can be easily swapped out for picky or sensitive palettes. Long story short…crowd pleaser.

This dinner was a team effort, so after we perched Mom on the couch with some tune-age, we all (armed with plenty of wine and SoCo) took off in separate directions like oil and vinegar.  The men congregated around the BBQ (despite heavy rains!) and we ladies set up shop in the kitchen to make the salads. The result was a perfectly balanced family-style meal . Check out the recipes below, which have been adjusted to feed about 4 people.

Seafood:

For my version of these tacos, I was lucky enough to have salmon, halibut and shrimp on hand, and even luckier, had Dad on hand to grill the seafood with smoky Mesquite wood chips for insanely intense flavor.

  • 8 oz filet of fish – Halibut, Salmon preferred.  Local options: Hake, Bluefish, Cod. Cheap option: Tilapia
  • 1 lb shrimp (frozen is fine but de-shell and de-vein before grilling)
  • McCormicks Cajun Seasoning
  • Cayanne Pepper
  • Paprika
  • Juice of 2 limes
  • 3 T Olive Oil
  • Salt/Pepper to taste

Slice fish into 2-3 inch filets against the grain, rinse and pat dry, put into gallon Ziplock with shrimp (fresh or frozen). Put back in frig.

For marinade: In a small bowl, mix juice of 2 limes, olive oil, 2 taps of Cayanne, 2 taps of paprika and 1/4 canister of McCormick’s Cajun (seems like a lot, but just trust me).  It should be pasty but not dry. Add more oil or a splash of whatever you are drinking to thin it out, or dump in more spices if it needs a charge up. Be sure to taste it to see what the salt/pepper situation is, add S & P accordingly.  It should taste really intense since it’s a marinade.

Pour mixture over fish and shrimp and shake bag around so all seafood is coated. Keep in frig and hold off on cooking until salads are done, about 30 mins. (We’re getting there.)

To BBQ: call your Dad to prepare and insanely hot and smokey grill for you.  While he does this, create 2 foil boats (1 for fish, 1 for shrimp) so that the marinade doesn’t escape once you place the seafood down on grill- nothing fancy. Once BBQ is ready, set foil boat on grill rack and place just the fish filets to cook, about 4-7 mins on each side (depends on thickness of fish).  Remove and add the second foil boat with shrimp and cook 2 minutes on each side. Do them separately since shrimp cook wicked fast.

If Dad is not available/Stovetop Instructions: Heat large frying on med-high. The pan is ready if you flick water into it and it spits.  Don’t add oil or butter because marinade already has considerable amount. Add just the fish filets using instructions above.  Once cooked, keep filets under foil or in low heat oven while you cook shrimp.

While the fish marinates…make salads

Carrot and Cabbage Slaw

  • 1 small red cabbage, or 1/2 large cabbage (don’t buy the pre-shredded)
  • 1 bag of pre-shredded carrots
  • 1 box crystallized ginger (in the dried fruit/nut section)
  • 2 T apple cider vinegar
  • 1/4 chop cilantro, rough chopped
  • 4 T Olive oil
  • Salt/Pepper

In a small bowl, wisk vingear, olive oil and salt and pepper. Taste. The rule is 1 part acid to 2 parts oil, so adjust this based on your salad size.

Slice cabbage into thin pieces to match carrots.  Be sure to remove white core. Thinly chop about 12 pieces of ginger. In large bowl toss carrots, cabbage, ginger, cilantro and vinaigrette so salad is coated evenly. Place on dinner table.

Black Bean and Hominy salad:

Black Bean and Hominy with Cilantro and Red Onion

  • 1 can black beans
  • 1 can hominy
  • 1/2 medium red onion, diced
  • 1/4 c cilantro, rough chopped
  • 3 T Olive oil
  • Juice of 1 lime

Drain and rinse beans and hominy (can substitute yellow corn). Toss all ingredients together. Place on dinner table.

Crema Lima

Sounds fancy, super simple.

Crema Lima

  •   juice of 1 lime
  •  1 canister creme fraiche or sour cream
  •  salt

In a small bowl mix creme fraiche, lime juice and pinch a salt. Should smooth, runny and  super tangy.

Serve meal buffet-style with warm corn and flour tortillas.