Shrimp Scampi

A few of my favorite memories from childhood revolve around Shrimp Scampi. It was a meal my grandma cooked for me when I would visit her. And it was something she always included on her Christmas Eve menu, with lots of other wonderful fish dishes. Also, I remember eating lunch at Red Lobster with my dad and sister when I was in high school. We would order the shrimp scampi for lunch and dip those yummy little Cheddar Bay biscuits in the sauce. I love shrimp scampi, which can be a very nourishing and healthy meal if you make it at home.

Salmon Patties

These crispy little patties pack in a lot of flavor and are a delicious and fun treat. You will enjoy them on their own, as a salad topper, or even in a sandwich.

Creole Shrimp

It's that time of month again when I peruse the pages of my recent Cooking Light magazine and re-vamp one of their recipes for my dinner table. I really enjoy this magazine for the new ideas it inspires, but don't necessarily agree with several of their ideas of "healthy" foods  (often their elimination of butter or healthy fats of any kind as well as subsitutions with low fat or no fat milk and their use of "fake" foods like margarine). However, these types of ingredients are easy to replace with more nourishing options.

In their latest issue, the June 2013 magazine, I found a wonderful shrimp recipe that my family thoroughly enjoyed. In fact, it was so good, it will likely be on the regular rotation and I hope you will enjoy it as much as we did. Here is the link to the original recipe. I've changed it up a bit below.

Dover Sole Francese

It turns out that there is not a lot of variety in recipes for sole that are easily found online. So, when I found this recipe I was eager to give it a try. The family loved it and asked me to please oh please oh please save the recipe and make again. The original recipe is from Food.com, but I've changed it up a bit.

Lemon Butter Sole

Dover sole is a wonderful fish for those of you "on the fence" fish people or children who are not super crazy about a strong fishy fish. It has a light flavor, like tilapia or trout, but I think even more mild. It is also a very thin filet, which means very minimal defrosting time for those of you, like me, who often have to throw together a last minute meal.

Bacon Wrapped Shrimp with Balsamic Reduction

My super awesome friend, Missy, invited us to dinner at her house a few weekends ago and we really enjoyed her bacon wrapped shrimp appetizer.

Coconut Shrimp

This is a super fast recipe with really delicious results. Note gluten-free version if you use the coconut flour.

Spanish-Style Cod in Tomato Broth

This recipe is from the November 2011 issue of Cooking Light, page 50 (the Super Fast section). I changed the recipe a little and we served ours with bulgur rather than brown rice since we were short on time.

White Clam Sauce

This recipe is from my grandma and I have been making it in the same way since I first started to cook. It is so delicious and so very easy, I hope you enjoy it.

Smoked Salmon on Rye Crackers

This is a quick and easy appetizer that makes a truly lovely presentation.

Ingredients:
4-6 ounces lox, sliced in 1x1 inch squares (approximately)
4 ounces softened mascarpone cheese
2-3 tsp chopped fresh dill
2 tsp lime juice
About 16-20 rye crackers, or your favorite crackers
Finely diced red onion and/or bell pepper and/or jalepeno and/or cucumber, or capers, olives, pimento, etc. for optional garnish (about 2-4 tbsp)

How To:
Blend cheese, dill, and lime juice. Spread cheese mixture on crackers and top with smoked salmon as well as any garnishes used.

Comments:
This recipe is from the Vital Choice website. Really delicious snack that we all enjoyed. Ok, well, to be perfectly honest the six-year old only liked the lox and cream cheese and said the crackers were "disgusting". I thought the crackers were great though! You'll have to try for yourself.

 

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Almond Crusted Fish

Fish like this is always a big hit and it's very easy to do.

Ingredients:
1 lb fish filets of your choice, I like to use Dover sole, grouper, or local catfish, etc. (check out this website for guidance when buying fish)
1 cup breading of your choice (use 1/3 to 1/2 parts ground almonds or other ground nut; then for the rest try oat flour or ground flax seeds or sprouted bread crumbs, etc.)
1 pasture egg whisked with a splash of water or whole milk
1 tbsp seasonings of your choice (try sea salt, ground pepper, Italian seasonings)
Lard and/ or tallow and/ or ghee for frying, click the links for sources

How To:
1. Wash and cut fish into preferred sizes, if necessary.

2. Dip into egg/water mixture, then into bread crumbs, covering the filet completely. Fry in lard until done (when fish is flaky), flipping once - time will depend on the thickness of the fish you use.

3. Remove from pan to a plate lined with paper towels to absorb any excess cooking grease.

Comments:
You can use any type of nut and then you will have yourself a fancy-sounding meal. For example, use almonds for Almond Crusted Sole. Or macademia nuts for Macadamia Nut Crusted Catfish. See how impressive that sounds? Just adjust based on what you have in the house. We always keep soaked and dried nuts in the house and when we need to make a breading, simply grind them up in a Magic Bullet.

This takes about 10 minutes prep time and then cook time will vary depending on the size of pan you use (how many "batches" you need to make). This would serve about four to six, depending on portion size.

Tuna Salad

This is a tasty version of an old favorite.

 

Ingredients:
36 ounces tuna, shredded or chunked, Vital Choice offers cans or pouches
5-6 hard boiled eggs, diced
1/2 to 1 carrot, grated and chopped
1/2 medium onion, finely diced
1 medium to large pickle, diced
4 or 5 lettuce leaves, torn or cut in bite-sized pieces
1/2 cup mayonnaise - homemade is best, try this recipe from Crunchy Betty or this one from The Healthy Home Economist
1/2 lemon, juiced
Sea salt, pepper, celery seed to taste

How To:
Combine all ingredients except lettuce, mix and serve on top of lettuce leaves.

Comments:
Regarding the mayo, I suggested approximately half a cup above, but that will have to be to your preference. I do not care for mayo and use as little as possible. My husband, on the other hand, would prefer twice that amount. Simply adjust as needed.

The NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council at http://www.nrdc.org/ indicates that tuna is "moderately high" in mercury and albacore is high in mercury. The NRDC recommends six servings or less of chunk light per month and three servings or less of canned albacore per month. Please visit their website to determine if tuna is a good choice for you.

We make a lot, when we make this, as my husband will take sandwiches to work so you could easily halve the recipe, which would get you about six servings. For sandwiches, we use the Ezekial bread, which is so good and available at our regular grocery store. Also, the above ingredients are based on my family's preferences and you could easily add chopped nuts, chopped dried fruit, diced celery, etc. to the tuna salad based on your own preferences. 

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St. Croix Seafood Platter

3 lbs raw seafood, skin removed (shrimp, clams, lobster, and fish like mahi mahi, halibut, etc.) rinse and cut in chunks; this is  your choice, we use a variety of whatever is on sale when we make this.
    *if using, remove shells/tail from shrimp/lobster and scrub clams then give a salt water bath  (1 gallon water with salt, soak 20 minutes, drain, rinse, & repeat 3X total) I have included a photo below of the washed seafood we used. It was 3 lbs plus about 10 clams.
1 28-ounce can of crushed tomatoes, swished with water as needed
1 8-ounce can tomato sauce swished with water, as needed
4-5 cloves garlic, diced
1 medium onion sliced
1 cup mushrooms, sliced
4 cups cooked brown rice
Pepper to taste
Caribbean jerk seasoning (about 3T), thyme (about 1t), onion powder (1-1/2 t), to taste
Sea salt & pepper
4 cups chicken broth
Olive oil

Rice
2 cups uncooked brown rice in 4 cups chicken broth, boil, then simmer 50 minutes. When done, set aside.

Seafood
When rice is about half-way done, start the seafood. Saute garlic, onion, and mushrooms in skillet in olive oil until soft. Add tomatoes and water, if necessary. Bring to a boil. Season with Caribbean jerk, thyme, onion powder, and pepper. Add fish and/or shrimp. Bring back to a boil. Re-season as needed. Simmer about 20 minutes, half uncovered.

Add about 1 cup broth to rice along with jerk seasoning and mix.

Serve seafood over rice. I served this with a salad and sugar-free cornbread.

This is a weekend recipe, as it takes a bit of time to cook the rice (although most is hands off) but I think you'll be busy cooking for about 30 to 45 minutes hands on with this recipe. Also, the recipe above makes a lot (could probably serve 6-8) and could easily be halved.

Comments: My husband and I love to visit St. Croix and when we went last year we ate at a little restaurant in downtown Christiansted that served a "seafood platter". This recipe is inspired by that experience. Our meal in St. Croix was served with sweet potato fries, a salad, and bread. You might really examine your Carribbean Jerk seasoning ingredients as I had a very difficult time finding one without sugar. If you cannot find, you could make  your own (combine red pepper, allspice, tumeric, onion powder, and thyme).

Please be mindful of mercury content and environmental considerations when selecting fish. The NRDC has recommendations on their website (www.NRDC.org/mercury) that will offer advice based on mercury content and environmental concerns. For example, many fish that are highest in mercury are also perilously low in numbers or are caught using environmentally destructive methods (for example, marlin, orange roughy, shark, swordfish, tilefish, and bigeye/ahi tuna).

Raw Seafood (mahi mahi, snapper, medium shrimp, & clams), cut in chunks and rinsed -clams were scrubbed and given 3 salt baths

Finished product with cornbread