Category Archives: Fish and Seafood

Seared Salmon on the bed of Sautéed Spinach and Caper Béchamel Sauce

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Seared Salmon w Bechamel Sauce

I thought of this delicious way of serving salmon one day, when expected friends over for dinner. I wanted to make something fancier than my usual, simply broiled salmon, seasoned with salt and pepper. I would usually make it in my favorite kitchen appliance in the world (toaster oven), and saute some fresh spinach on olive oil with little bit of sliced garlic. This time, with just a little added – I must say that the Béchamel sauce brought the dish to an entire new level. The sauce is the most difficult part of this recipe. But don’t get discouraged – it sounds more difficult than it really is. To prepare this dish took me less than half an hour.

Seared Salmon on the bed of Sautéed Spinach and Caper Béchamel Sauce

Ingredients:

4 portions of salmon (or how many you need)

1 bag of baby spinach, washed

2 cloves of garlic

1 and ½ cup of milk

1 carrot, peeled and finely sliced

1 small shallot, finely chopped

1 table spoon unsalted butter

2 table spoons flour

2 dried cloves

1 bay leaf

2 table spoons chopped fresh parsley

1 tablespoon capers (drained)

Salt and pepper

In a small pan heat up the butter and saute chopped onion and carrot, slightly seasoned with salt and pepper about 3-4 minutes, until soft. Add cloves, bay leaf and 1 spoon of green parsley and let saute for a minute with onions and carrots. Sprinkle with flour, slightly mix together and saute for another minute. Add milk and whisk together on low heat, until thickened.

Strain the ready sauce, taste for seasoning, and spice it up with the rest of fresh chopped parsley and drained capers.  Set aside.

In a heavy pan (or in the skillet) heat olive oil, and put seasoned salmon (really, just salt and pepper), skin side down on hot skillet. Cook without touching at least 3 minutes, until crisp. Carefully turn around and finish cooking – about 2 minutes more, depends on the thickness of your fish.

In the meantime, start another pan, olive oil, add washed spinach and start turning it around until it reduces into about half of the original amount. Add salt and pepper, thinly sliced  garlic and cook few minutes, just it softens.

Pour Béchamel sauce to the bottom of the plate, add a little bit of sauteed spinach over it and place the portion of salmon on top. I have put a slice of lemon on to each salmon and seared a large shrimp for each plate, just for decoration purposes. OK, that shrimp was delicious too.

Salmon with Bechamel sauce and sauteed spinach

I have paired this dish with Adelsheim Pinot Noir. I loved it. If you feel more comfortable with white, you can either choose oaky Chardonnay, that compliments the sauce with its creamy, bigger body texture – or crisp, un-oaked Chardonnay, or other white variety wine, that will cut through the creaminess of the dish. Grüner Veltliner anyone?

Salmon in the blanket

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I have seen the end of this recipe, featured one day in “French cooking”, on the Food Channel. Unfortunately, I didn’t see most of the episode, so I had to guess the ingredients myself. It looked pretty simple, and soooo delicious that I couldn’t resist, went to the Farmers market and bough a piece of salmon to try it – the same day!

It was a simple idea and I could fill in dots myself. I am pretty sure there is even proper name for this French dish, which I didn’t catch – for the same reason (turning on the TV just about when she was wrapping it up, and putting this beauty to the oven). So forgive me, I have made up my own name and version of this superb recipe.

Oh, by the way – it was truly delicious! The pastry dough prevented the salmon from drying, so it stayed super moist, and the whole dish was such a great looking presentation – I am planning to make it for my next guests. Please let me know if you try it. I am considering wrapping individual portions for each of my guests the next time.

Ingredients:

1-2 lb of salmon (depends on how many people you need to feed)

1 box of frozen puff pastry

1 lb of asparagus

1 small container of Mascarpone cheese

1 small container of canned artichoke hearts

1 clove of garlic

1 egg

handful of fresh parsley (or dill, if you prefer. I don’t :) )

salt and pepper

Thaw the dough and roll out two similar size rectangles on floured table. Carefully spread one of the pastry rectangle on the baking sheet.

Cook asparagus in salted water to “al-dente”, drain and immediately place in bowl filled with ice water to preserve its green color. Cut off the tips of the asparagus.

Place Mascarpone cheese, asparagus tips, artichoke hearts (drained) and garlic in food processor. Add parsley to the cheese and mix together until smooth.

Clean salmon filet of skin, possible visible bones and dry it in paper towel. Season fish with salt and pepper. Place salmon in the middle of the pastry. Cover the top of the fish with cheese mixture and spread evenly with spoon.

Take the asparagus from the ice water and pat dry. Place the vegetables evenly on the fish (I used mix of green and white asparagus just to play with colors). Coat the uncovered  dough edges with beaten egg, so the top dough will stick better to the bottom. Cover the fish with the other rectangle and push the edges back to seal. Make few cuts into the top of the dough with sharp knife to allow the steam out, while baking. Coat the dough with egg wash before baking so it will come out nice and shiny.

Preheat oven to 425F and bake the salmon for 15-20 minutes, or until golden brown. Serve hot or warm, with your choice of vegetables. I used the rest of the asparagus.  I believe this dish will be delicious even at the room temperature. The salmon came out fantastic, moist and delicious. Loved it!

Suggested wine pairing:

I have paired this dish with A by Acacia Pinot Noir and it work perfectly well with the richness of the salmon. Pinot Noir from French Burgundy, or other cooler region’s (like Oregon, Washington State, New Zealand) will work perfectly well too.

Salmon Tartar

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I just recently made this recipe for our friends, as an appetizer. I wasn’t sure if they would mind the idea of eating a raw fish. Well, it seemed that I didn’t make enough that night. Just few days ago my husband mentioned that he was craving salmon tartar. And since I just went to Whole Foods, and bought the most beautiful piece of wild organic salmon, I thought it was a great idea to let the quality fish shine on its own. So here is my recipe the way we love it at our home:

Salmon tartar

1 lbs fresh wild salmon, skinless
1 shallot, finely chopped
Salt and freshly ground pepper
Juice from 1 lime
2 tbs dry white wine (optional)
1 tbs fresh green dill (if you can’t stand dill like me, substitute for parsley, chive, whatever you like)
1 tbs extra virgin olive oil
1 tbs chopped capers
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
Baguette or your favorite bread

This recipe works with raw salmon so I recommend getting the freshest, highest quality fish you can. Carefully clean the meat of any bones, fat spots or skin.

Cut the salmon into tiny little cubes by hand (you can use a processor but any great chef wouldn’t approve of that when preparing tartar).
In a small bowl put the finely chopped meat, add shallot, all the spices, lime juice and mix well with the fork. Taste and adjust the seasoning if needed.

Brush each slice of bread or French baguette with an olive oil, spread it on the baking sheet and let’s bake in the oven for about 10 minutes, until lightly brown and crispy. You can also toast the bread, but trust me, it’s not the same.


It is nice to serve tartar in the bowl or arranged on the plate, and slices of the bread on the side – to let everybody make their own plate.

Serve with dry white wine or champagne. Bon appetite!

Steamed clams and mussels casserole

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The other day, I went to Costco for shellfish – I needed it for a recipe. But they only sell large bags of mussels and clams, as you know. They looked so good though, that I couldn’t resist. So I had more than plenty for what I needed it originally for, and a new dilemma what to do with the rest.

Simple solution – I just steamed them! It took just a few minutes and we had a wonderful, light a super tasty dinner for hot summer night! (Light it was meant to be, but we stuffed ourselves anyway!) If you are on low carb diet, you have got to skip a day. Crusty bread to dip into this delicious broth, is a must! Simple and fast dinner recipe  -  I don’t think you can go wrong with a fresh shellfish!

Steamed clams and mussels casserole

Ingredients:
about 2 dozen of both clams and mussels (or how much do you need for your family)
2 slices of bacon, chopped
1/2 cup of chopped leek
2 cloves of garlic
1 small shallot, finely chopped
1-2 cups of low sodium chicken broth
1/2 cup of white wine
freshly chopped parsley
olive oil

Scrub clams or mussels well under running water; pull any beards off mussels. Discard open shellfish that don’t close when tapped. In the meantime heat a little bit of olive oil in a large pan (so all the shellfish would fit in and could be covered). Saute chopped bacon, onion, garlic and leeks for a few minutes – until soft. Add chicken broth and bring to boil.

Add shellfish to boiling broth and sprinkle with wine. Cover and cook until shells pop open, about five minutes. Spoon into plates, sprinkle with parsley and serve immediately. You can serve wedges of lemon on the side, if you desire (but we didn’t need them).


Don’t forget to have plenty of crusty fresh bread on hand, 
to soak all the juice! :)
Wine pairing suggestion:

I have picked an excellent white wine from French Loire, Domaine de la Pépière Muscadet Sèvre et Maine sur Lie to pair with this dish. It was crisp, lemony and refreshing, just like this casserole full of goodies. We ate way more than we needed – and drank the whole bottle. Yeah, it was pretty good idea, this dinner!


Shrimp Criolli

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I had one of those days, craving something light, spicy and ‘seafooddy’. And, I didn’t want to spend a lot of time in the kitchen. So I examined my freezer, found a bag of frozen extra large shrimps and immediately thought of Shrimp Scampi.

But I didn’t really want to get carbs involved so much either. And the Shrimp Scampi without spaghetti, for some reason, weren’t as appealing to me.Why not try something completely new?

So I looked up some recipes for Creole style dishes on line. I had some idea what was that cuisine, popular in southern part of the country, about – but wasn’t completely sure what kind of ingredients it involves. I found several different ones, and liked the simplicity of the recipes. That’s what I was looking for!

As usual, I put my own twist on it and made something I called Shrimp Criolli (inspired by Creole and Spanish cuisine combined). Let me tell you, I already made it several times, that’s how delicious it came out! My mouth is watering again, just writing about it!

Shrimp Criolli

1 pound of large raw shrimp
¼ cup of thinly sliced leek
8 campari tomatoes
Salt and pepper
pinch of saffron threads
½ cup white wine
½ tsp of red flakes (optional)
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 shallot
4 pc of palm hearts
1 tbs finely chopped fresh rosemary

Cut tomatoes in half, line them cut side up in a small baking dish, season with salt and freshly grated pepper, chopped garlic and rosemary and sprinkle generously with olive oil. Let bake in oven at 375F for 20 minutes.

The aromas of tomatoes with the garlic and rosemary, was incredible as soon as it warmed up a little. That’s the base of this dish.In the meantime clean your shrimp, peel and de-vain if needed. In the large skillet heat olive oil, add shallots and leeks and cook on medium heat until soft. Add red flakes or hot pepper and few threats of saffron. Add baked tomatoes straight from the baking dish with all the juices, and mix together.


The tomatoes will easily brake down and release all the caramelized juices we achieved by baking it, with beautiful aromas of garlic and rosemary. Add white wine and raw shrimp, so it’s covered in sauce. Cover the skillet and let cook on medium heat until the shrimp turns pink – about 5-10 minutes.

Remove palm hearts from the jar, and wash them in colander under running water to remove salty solution they were preserved in. Drain and cut into similar pieces (rings) and add it to the sauce at the end. At that point, turn the heat off and let the palm hearts just warm up in the sauce. You don’t want your shrimp to turn into a rubber.

If you don’t have palm of hearts (I bought mine in Costco), honestly, it is not really contributing to a particular flavor profile of this dish. I liked it because it added an additional crunchiness. So feel free to skip it if you can’t find it in the store.

And, if you’re done watching carbs, serve these delicious shrimps over rice
or with crusted bread for dipping.


Wine pairing suggestion:

I had this dish with a bottle of Henri Bourgeois ‘Petit Bourgeois’ Sauvignon Blanc – a beautiful, crisp and refreshing white wine that I hadn’t have for quite some time. It was as good as always and complimented the dish perfectly.
I would see Argentinian Torrontes to pair great with this or perhaps any Spanish whites, since I put Spanish twist on it! I can see my favorite Muga Blanco, Muga Rose, or any crisp whites from Rueda – like Las Brisas or Oro de Castilla to do just great.

Tilapia loin with a spicy sweet potato hash

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Tilapia loin with a spicy sweet potato hash

 

Ingredients:
4 tilapia loins – I really like the individually frozen loins from Costco, just a perfect size
1 table spoon of your favorite seafood seasoning
olive oil
1 table spoon of butter

For a simple pesto:
1 cup of chopped basil and parsley
2 cloves of garlic
1/4 cup of olive oil
sprinkle of champagne vinegar
salt and pepper

For a sweet potato hash:
1 – 2 large sweet potatoes
Half of medium sized red onion
1 chorizo
1 leek (white parts and light green parts only)
½ cup dry white wine
Hot salt or salt and tiny bit of cayenne pepper
Fresh crushed pepper
1 table spoon of ketchup

Peel sweet potato and chop it into a petite cubes. Finely chop onion and leek into a little slices. Chop cured chorizo into small cubes.

In the large skillet sauté onions on a little bit of olive oil on medium heat. Add chopped potato and sprinkle with hot salt and fresh crushed black pepper. Add chopped leek and cook, stirring often. Cook through, until the potatoes are starting to get a little tender. Add chorizo chopped into a little pieces and pour wine over it. Cover and keep cooking until potatoes are tender. Add more white wine, if desire. Taste the potatoes – if tender, finish the dish with a little bit of sweet ketchup. Mix well together.

Place parsley and garlic in a food processor and process for a few seconds. Season with salt and pepper. Start adding olive oil while the processor works. If needed, add more olive oil than in recipe, until you get a desired thickness. Add a few drops of champagne vinegar and mix together.

In the meantime, heat olive oil and butter in another pan. Sprinkle your fish loins lightly with spices and cook just few minutes on each side, until done. On your plates, plate the sweet potato hash first, top it with tilapia loin and sprinkle with pesto. I hope you are going to love it as much as I did! Bon Apetite!

Wine pairing suggestion:
I have paired this dish with lovely Montepulciano D’Abruzzo from Fattoria La Valentina. You can also pick your favorite Pinot Noir or any other, light-medium body red wine (preferably not too much tannins). Who said you can’t drink red wine with the white fish?

Seafood Party Salad

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Seafood Party Salad
Ingredients:
1 bag of frozen calamari, thawed (or about one pound of fresh)
1/2 pound of crab/lobster meat
1 pound of medium shrimp (cooked)
half of the bulb of fresh sweet anise (optional)
red peppers in oil (about 1 piece, just to add color)
handful of olives (your choice)
3 sticks of celery
cup of each fresh parsley and basil, chopped
4 tablespoons of white champagne vinegar
1/2 cup of olive oil (more if desired, based on the weight of seafood used)
2 cloves of garlic
juice from half a lemon
salt and pepper

Clean calamari and chop into small pieces, tails to short pieces, bodies to rings. In a large pan bring water to boil, add salt and throw in calamari for just a 30-45 seconds – cooks al dente. Fish them out and throw in ice bath to chill instantly. This way they stay nice a crisp, instead of overcooked chewy style.

In the salad bowl mix chopped celery, chopped crab/lobster meat, cooked shrimp, finely chopped anise (or use mandolin to get thin slices), chilled pieces of calamari rings and tentacles, chopped red peppers, celery sticks cut into thin rings and sliced olives.

Dressing:
In a food processor mix garlic, parsley and basil leaves. Pulse and start adding olive oil, lemon juice and vinegar while processor is running. Season with salt and pepper if desired. You can taste and sweeten a slightly, if desired. Mix with the salad, toss everything together and serve chilled.

Wine pairing suggestion:
To match this delicious seafood salad, I picked delicious Italian white wine from Veneto, made by Inama family – Soave Classico “Foscarino”. The complexity of this wine totally blended with the salad and together created a symphony of lovely flavors….

Angel hair pasta with spicy seafood

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Angel hair pasta with spicy seafood99% of time when we feel like pasta in our household, spaghetti or similarly shaped pasta wins. But this simple and tasty recipe goes well with any other kind of pasta you personally prefer.

Angel hair pasta with spicy seafood

Ingredients:
1/2 pound Bay scallops, cleaned
4 – 6 extra large shrimp, peeled, deveeined and chopped into chunks similar to the size of scallops
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 medium green zucchini (thinly sliced on mandolin into long strips)
1/2 cup white wine
1 tablespoon Pelago Spicy Seafood seasoning
1 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoon olive oil
salt

Bring water in a large pot into boil, add tablespoon of salt and cook your pasta “al-dente”. Drain, sprinkle a little bit of olive oil into cooked pasta so it wouldn’t stick, and mix. Reserve about 1/2 cup of pasta water for your sauce.

In the meantime, heat up the butter until melted in deeper pan, add olive oil and slices of zucchini. Sprinkle with a little bit of the seasoning mix and saute, stirring regularly, on medium hot until soft (about 2-3 min.). Take cooked strips of zucchini out of the pan with fine mesh spoon and set aside.

Add all the seafood to the hot oil and butter, and sprinkle with seasoning. Add pasta water, mix together and quickly saute, stirring it regularly, until shrimp is pink on all sizes (about a minute). Add chopped garlic and cooked zucchini strips. Combine and pour over cooked pasta.
Buon Appetito!

Wine pairing suggestion:
With this meal I opened a new vintage of Alta Vista Torrontes from Argentina and it was delicious together. Some of you, Vera Wine Club’s members may remember this wine from our Argentinian Luncheon at Fleming’s – few years ago. It was quite a success. If you didn’t taste it yet, you got to try a bottle.

Pan seared scallops with creamy corn

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Pan seared scallops with creamy corn

I have to admit, this is not my original recipe. It is my favorite appetizer at Burton’s Grill in East Windsor, CT. Who ever created this combination, was a genius. I tried to recreate the taste and structure of this dish at home – and now I will share it with you. This to me is a perfect light dinner for hot summer day. Well, if it’s not enough for you, have it as an appetizer and top it with a piece of grilled steak as a second course!

Pan seared scallops with creamy corn

Ingredients:

4 scallops per portion
3-4 ears of fresh corn (for 2 people)
1 jalapeno pepper
1 shallot
2-3 scallions
1/2 half of red bell pepper (optional)
salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 cup of heavy cream
1 tablespoon of Old bay seasoning
1/3 cup of cornmeal
chopped Italian parsley for garnish

Let’s start with your creamy corn first, because the scallops only need few minutes.

In a shallow bowl, hold ears of corn upright and, with a sharp knife, cut kernels from the cobs. Then with blunt edge of the knife, scrape juice from cobs. Set aside.

In heavy pan melt 1 tablespoon of butter, add finely chopped shallot and jalapeno and cook for a minute. Season with salt and pepper. Add finely chopped scallions and bell pepper and add all the corn.

Cover with heavy cream and let cook on medium heat stirring occasionally, until the cream thickens. In the restaurant there is also a bacon in this recipe, but I wasn’t brave enough to add more fat to this “light dish”!

When the corn is cooked, set aside and keep warm. Clean your scallops and pat them dry with paper towel. Mix seasoning with cornmeal and dust your scallops with the mixture.

Heat reminding butter with olive oil and sear scallops on high heat until medium rare – about 2 minutes per side, depends on its thickness. You can also grill it, if you prefer.

Spread creamy corn on each plate and top it with pan seared scallops. Garnish with parsley and enjoy!

Wine pairing suggestions:

I have once had this dish with Hess Collection Chardonnay Su’skol - the very generous, oaky, round and buttery style Chardonnay from Napa. The creaminess of this corn was a superb match the first time and I didn’t even try another wine with it since.

When something was such a perfect match, I didn’t feel like messing it up! Please, note that I have an older review on this wine – see if you can get newer release – 2007 vintage.

Grilled trout

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Grilled trout
Trout is such a delicate, tasty fish yet we don’t eat it often enough. One of my reasons was that I didn’t want to bother with those tiny little bones. But when I last time came to my favorite City Fish, I found out that they had a fresh, nice size trouts, completely de-boned. I couldn’t resist to grab few and trow them on the grill. The simple preparation only took few minutes and before you can decide what wine to open, the fish was ready to serve.

Grilled trout

Ingredients:

2 whole trouts
few thin slices of unsalted butter
4 slices of lemon
2 teaspoons Mrs. Dash Garlic and herb salt free seasoning
(or any other favorite seasoning mixture)
salt and pepper if desired
1/4 cup olive oil

Open trout and sprinkle seasoning on the inside of the fish. Cut thin slices of butter and put on on half of the fish. Cover with 2 thin slices of lemon, close with the second half and secure with skewers. Place in refrigerator for at least half an hour.

When ready to grill, take out of the fridge, brush skin with an olive oil and place in grilling basket. You can also grill it directly on your grill, just use caution when turning around.

Preheat grill on medium hot. Place your basket or fish and cover. Mine were pretty big and it only took 3-4 minutes on each side and they were ready.

The lemon with butter and seasoning created a lovely combination with the delicate meat. Serve immediately with any vegetables you like.

Wine pairing suggestions:

I picked Argentinian Torrontes called Alamos to pair with this light summer dinner. It was absolutely delicious together. My other pick was Maculan Pino & Toi, long time Italian favorite that I didn’t taste for quite some time. Both wines were a great match with simply prepared trout.