Something's "Fishy" 'round here!, Favorite Seafood Recipes

Well, I really like any fish. The best one, however, isn't sold any more: English fish'n chips wrapped in a newspaper.

Personally I prefer plaice (and sole), prepared the Finkenwerder kind: the whole Plaice is gutted and pan-fried with chopped bacon and served with potatoes (usually pan-fried as well) and fresh parsley.

One of my favorite seafood dishes, especially this time of year, is:

Sauteed Sole with Golden Raisins, Almonds and Pine Nuts in Anisette Butter.

(I'll scale for two people)

2-4 fillets of sole or flounder (depends on size of fillet)
flour, seasoned with salt and pepper, for dredging
Olive oil for sauteeing
1/4 cup golden raisins
1/4 cup black raisins
1/4 cup slivered almonds
1/4 cup pine nuts
1 cup of anisette, or pernod
1 stick (1/2 cup) butter, cut into chunks

Heat a medium saute pan over medium-low heat, add the almonds and pine nuts, toast to golden brown, remove from heat. In a small sauce pan over low heat, add the anisette and simmer to reduce by 1/3, (be careful, liquors can and probably will ignite if your flame is too high, keep a cover close by to extinguish quickly and safely), add the raisins and allow to plump in the liquor for a minute or two. Remove from the heat.
Dredge the sole in the seasoned flour,..shaking off any excess. Heat the olive oil in a saute pan over medium high heat, saute the fillets for about two minutes on each side, or til golden brown and cooked..
Heat the raisin/anisette mixture to a simmer, remove from heat, stir in the butter a chunk at a time to make a reasonably thick sauce (should coat the spoon), add the nuts,..taste for salt and pepper. Put the hot fillets onto your serving plates,..spoon the nuts, raisins and sauce over them.

I usually put the fillets over some sauteed baby spinach!

Hiya Walter!

Bacon makes EVERYTHING good!!

Really sounds yummy!!

Your recipe doesn't smell, ehem: sound, bad either!

Leaving the North Sea and getting some fish from the river and lake:

Trout in Herb Sauce
Ingredients (for 4):

4 medium trout
3½ oz of butter
½ cup of whipping cream
1 onion
3 cloves of garlic
parsley, thyme, basil, salt, pepper, lemon juice
1 glass of white wine
Sautee diced onion, garlic, and herbs in hot butter. Add salted trout, pour in white wine, and let simmer for 15 minutes. Remove trout and prepare sauce by adding lemon juice and pepper to taste and stirring in whipping cream.

Here to learn....

I like cod, halibut, chilean sea bass (I don't eat it anymore....) - the white flaky unfishy fishes.

Walter, I made a variation on Finkenwerder-style fish for Christmas day breakfast. I dredged some fish fillets in corn flour, then beaten eggs and then home-made bread crumbs. Fried up some nice thick bacon til it was crispy. Then pan-fried some potatoes and then the fish. Setanta and the dogs and I had a great feed.

In the summer, we cook fish the same way, but serve it with hot potato salad (bacon again!).

I've generally been grilling fish on the waffle iron and serving it with a fruity chutney or fruit sauce, on top of a nice mesclun salad. Added some orange sections to the salad a few times. It worked really well.

For a party a few years ago, we stuffed several different large fish with an orange and bread stuffing and baked them in the oven. They were quite popular. Citrus and fish, mmmmmmmm. Love that combo.

Hi little_k,
Here's an easy recipe, it's really good for mild white fish:
I copied it from a previous post I made on another thread:

the cod is tres simple,...but really good,..also works great for most mild white fish,..yummy with sea bass!

Heat your oven to 500. Cut the fillets into portioned sizes,..season with salt and pepper, and dredge VERY LIGHTLY in flour, saute the fillets in a small amount of oil, on high heat, just to sear on each side. Remove the fillets to a baking sheet, brush each liberally with dijon mustard, the sprinkle with some mustard seeds and some breadcrumbs (for crunch,..I usually use Japanese Breadcrumbs (panko), but any plain breadcrumbs will work fine). Put the baking sheet into the hot oven for 6-10 minutes, depending on the thickness of your fillets, cook til just done, moist but not flaky, as it will continue to cook after you take it out of the oven.
I serve it over sauteed baby spinach, with roasted potatoes.
Hope you like!!

mmmmmmmmm, yummmmmy, JerryR! I think I'll try that (in the waffle iron of course) - with baby bok choi or bean leaves instead of spinach - i eat waaaaaaayyyyyyy too much spinach already.

<paying attention>

I need to get more seafood in our diets. Mr. Jespah isn't a big fish fan - mainly shrimp and tuna (from a can) and that's about it. We're also hampered by generally not eating anything in the fridge the day that we go food shopping (it's not that we don't eat; it's that we eat out on that day), so anything we buy will have to keep for a day and be less than optimally fresh.

mmmmmm, Jerry, both of those dishes sound wonderful!

I cook up Shrimp Creole on occassion but, most people cant stomach the spicy with the fishy so..I keep it all to myself, not often though...one can only eat so much!!
I really really like shrimp and lobster <lazyman style> with olives, artichoke hearts, and diced tomatoes and onions over pasta with olive oil and garlic...verra yummy!
As far as filets goes I used to do haddock in a butter/condensed milk concoction and baked it with some seasoned bread crumbs...that way it never got dry and was tasty.

Jerry, I am pleased that you have posted your recipe/method for white fish filets here. After you posted it some weeks ago, I tried it and have used it a number of times since. I use grouper most often but have tried the method with flounder, too. This dish draws raves, every time. I have prepped it up to the "oven blast" point, then held even for an hour or two, and added maybe a minute to the oven time.

We eat a lot of fish, and my favorite (aside from Jerry's recipe) is broiled salmon. (Well, my own fave is tuna, seared for a minute on each side in a ridged iron skillet, then finished for 20-30 seconds in the oven and served sliced or whole. But Mr. K. is not so fond of tuna, so I eat this is restaurants, mostly, but always regret it...mine is better.) We eat lots of fresh shrimp, and my most used recipe is a hot wok, bit of oil, add slivered ginger, few green onions slivered, sear for a minute or two, then add the shelled shrimp, cook a minute or two, then add a mix of sherry and soy sauce, (3 to 1 ratio) and heat only a a minute or two. I serve this on top of a base...anything from pureed cauliflour to sauteed cabbage, or the more conventional brown rice or tabouli. In North Carolina, right now, the fresh shrimp is better than it has been in years.

mmmm,mmmm,mmmm....
This IS my favorite!!

Spaghetti Alla Vongole
(Spaghetti with Clams)

1lb spaghetti
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
3 tsp finely chopped garlic
2 Tbsp finely chopped parsley
pinch of red pepper flakes
4 dozen littleneck clams in their shells (I use cockles), rinsed and scrubbed
salt & pepper
1/3 cup dry white wine
2 Tbsp butter

Put the olive oil and garlic in a large skillet (large enough to hold the clams and the spaghetti) over medium-high heat and cook until the garlic begins to sizzle. Stir in the parsley and the red pepper flakes.
Add the clams in their shells, season with salt and stir well. Add the wine and cook, stirring occasionally, until the alcohol evaporated: about one minute, then cover the skillet to steam the clams open.
While the clams are steaming, bring 4 quarts of water to the boil in a large pot.
Check the clams frequently, and when they have all opened, remove the skillet from the heat, discard any that do not open.
Add the salt and pasta to the boiling water, stirring well. When the pasta is about 1 minute from being al dente, remove from heat and drain well.
Immediately, return the skillet with the clams to a medium heat and add the drained pasta so that it finishes cooking in the skillet. Cook until the pasta is al dente and most of the liquid in the skillet has evaporated. Stir in the butter and serve immediately.

Jerry, your roasted nuts remind me of a compote I used to make out of the Union Square Cafe cookbook (they recommend it for swordfish, but it works on everything from salmon to bagels). Roasted red pepper, raisings (by which I mean, of course, raisins) plumped in sherry the way you describe, frizzled leek, fresh basil, and toasted pine nuts (can just put 'em on foil in the toaster oven). Mmmm. The sweet with the crunchy with the basil. Mmmm.

Favorite fish, though, is rainbow trout pulled out of a mountain lake and cleaned and friend in butter and garlic on the spot. They say that hunger is the best sauce, but I think this one would stand up even (if it were possible) in civilization!

Well now,....
I'm glad that my nuts remind somebody of something,.....I think?!?!?!

,..just a little joke,..couldn't resist!!!

That trout sounds delicious,..can't wait til my next vacation!!!

anything that starts with garlic has got to a winner, as does fish fried in butter at a campsite.

Your fish recipes are making my mouth water--yum!

One of my favorite seafood dishes is Crab Louis made with fresh Dungeness crabs, which are in our local markets now. A most delicious salad; I try to make it every Christmas Eve.

An awesome Louis dressing:
1 C. mayo
1/4 C. chili sauce (catsup style)
1/4 C. half and half, or heavy cream
3 Tblsp. grated onion
1 hard boiled egg, grated
1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
2 tsp. fresh chopped parsley
1 Tblsp. fresh lemon juice
Salt and ground black pepper to taste.

Happy New Year, all.

Hi suzanne!!!
Happy New Year,..and Welcome!!!

The crab recipe sounds GREAT!!!