Fish & Seafood

Sea Scallops with Puy Lentils and Fennel Cream

April 28, 2010 By Steve Dunn 17 Comments

After a multi-month hiatus from contributing recipes to Food52, I am pleased to say that I am back in the saddle and getting reacquainted with some of the great people who are active members of the community….. I hadn’t realized how much I missed being part of the scene there. This recipe is one that I whipped up last week to hop back into the game, the recipe contest was for “Best Scallops”. It wasn’t chosen as a finalist, but was tagged as an “editor’s pick” which is always a nice acknowledgment.

It is my spin on a restaurant dish I had a few years back that paired scallops with lentils, an apple cider reduction, and a mascarpone cream…it was delicious. I’ve always loved earthy flavors with my scallops, and particularly like Puy lentils which have such a lovely bite to them. The smoky bacon and the sharp mustard are a nice play against the sweetness of the scallops, and as for the fennel cream….what doesn’t taste better with a little fennel cream?

Ming Tsai’s Tea Rubbed Salmon

April 8, 2010 By Steve Dunn 24 Comments

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It’s confession time, my friends.

OK….are you ready?

I really don’t care for salmon.

These are words of a heretic, I know.

Of all the fish in the sea, most folks go on and on about the wonders of salmon, but to me, its just a little too….how shall I say this…..FISHY.

Whatever taste buds I have in my mouth that are responsible for tasting “fishy” things must have been inherited from my Dad, who won’t eat even a molecule of fish unless you put a gun to his head. My Mom on the other hand, resides at the other end of the spectrum and believes anything milder than mackerel, bluefish, or bagna cauda is just plain tasteless and boring. I have to say that I’ve got the “fishy” thing kinda bad, because just the thought of smelling mackerel on the grill makes my stomach go all queasy.

Nobu’s Spicy Shrimp Tempura

January 20, 2010 By Steve Dunn 20 Comments

One of my favorite features of Bon Appetit magazine has always been the r.s.v.p. section. This is where readers write to ask the Bon Appetit staff to chase down chefs in order to discover the recipes of their favorite restaurant meals. I’ve never written in myself, but have loved reading about people’s special food memories, and their quest to uncover the secrets to making a beloved “restaurant” dish at home.

That said, the boys and I came across a dish this past Spring, that had I not already had the recipe in a cookbook I owned (how lucky was that?), I almost certainly would have been begging Bon Appetit to get it for me. My desperation not only driven by how perfectly tasty the dish is, but also by Grid relentlessly hounding me to figure out how to make Nobu’s “Tempura Shrimp with Creamy Spicy Sauce”….man, you’d think I never feed the kid.

The dish is so addictive that when we ordered it as a shared appetizer, I started to really fear that someone was going to get hurt, as the four of us stabbed our chopsticks into the serving bowl to fight for our share. It got UGLY in a hurry!

Shrimp Fried Rice

October 18, 2009 By Steve Dunn 1 Comment

This is a recipe that was inspired by a Pineapple Rice dish that I recently found featured on the fabulous 101 Cookbooks blog. I took Heidi’s recipe and adapted it to what I had on-hand at the time when I first made this a few weeks ago. It came out so well, that I thought I’d reproduce (and document) it for all of you.

Fried rice is absolutely one of those everything but the kitchen sink dishes, that lends itself well to any leftovers you have laying about. You will find some combinations you like better than others, but as long as you start with a few cups of cold, cooked rice, and the makings of a tasty dressing, almost anything else you throw into the mix is sure to yield a satisfying meal.

Arthas put in some time working on his knife skills to pull this meal together, tailing and cutting the shrimp, mincing the garlic, and prepping the clementines. This is one of those meals that is really all about prep, so if you have the space in your kitchen, pull a few of the kids into duty to speed along the slicing, dicing, and mincing process. Once your “mise” is ready, only about five minutes of high heat stand between you and a healthy, delicious meal.

Enjoy!

Shrimp Fried Rice

by: Inspired by Heidi Swanson of "101 Cookbooks"

yield:

Cooking Mode Print Recipe

Ingredients

1/4 cup mild olive oil, or sunflower oil
2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil
1/8 cup orange juice
1/8 cup lemon juice
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
2 teaspoons freshly grated ginger
2 garlic cloves, finely minced
pinch of kosher salt
2 cups cooked brown long grain rice, cold from the fridge
24 large, cooked, peeled and de-veined shrimp, cut into thirds
4 cups baby spinach leaves
2 ears of corn, kernels stripped from the cob
3 clementines, each segment cut in half cross-wise
1 shallot, finely minced
2 scallions, thinly sliced, white and light green parts only
1 cup roasted, salted cashews, roughly chopped
1 small chile, seeded and finely minced
3 eggs, scrambled, cooked into a thin omelette, and cubed.
Fresh Cilantro

Instructions

Make the dressing by whisking the first nine ingredients together in a bowl, set aside.
Whisk the eggs with a little salt and pepper, and pour into a pre-heated small non-stick skillet. Cook on low-medium heat, undisturbed, until totally set. Flip briefly if you wish before slipping the omelette onto a cutting board to cool. Cut into cubes and reserve.
In a large skillet or wok, heat 1 tablespoon high-heat canola oil to almost smoking.
Add the corn kernels and cook for 1 minute.
Add the shallot, chile, rice, scallions, shrimp, and half the dressing, and cook till heated through.
Add the spinach, cooked egg, clementines, and cashews, and cook until the spinach wilts.
Taste for seasoning, adding more dressing if required.
Serve immediately, topped with freshly minced cilantro.

Roasted Halibut with Tomato – Shallot Salsa

September 19, 2009 By Steve Dunn 2 Comments

This is one of my favorite kind of recipes to cook with the kids. It offers a healthy and beautiful dish, that because of it’s component parts, can be modified when plated to satisfy almost anyone’s tastes. It can be a struggle with kids, trying to bend the family menus to suit everyone. You lean too much to the kid’s tastes and you eat nothing but mac and cheese, to the adults, and you end up with frustrated kids that won’t eat their dinner because its too much of a reach for their young taste buds. The magic of this dish is in the salsa that can be served over the fish for the more adventurous, on the side of the plate for those willing to at least try it, or be eliminated entirely for the younger kids who won’t even give it a chance. One meal, and three ways of serving it that can satisfy almost any member of the family.

Creamy Pesto Pasta with Shrimp

September 8, 2009 By Steve Dunn 3 Comments

I am happy to report that the four basil plants that almost snuffed it before reaching their adolescence due to the horribly wet weather we had in the Spring, have recently turned into the most prolific producers in our garden. Twice over the past few weeks I have had to seriously prune them back before they collapsed under their own weight. Hallelujah!
While there are many creative ways to use basil in the kitchen, whether it be to brighten a sumptuous panzanella salad of freshly diced tomatoes, toasted cubes of peasant bread, and a drizzle of EVOO and balsamico, or a quick puree with cannelini beans and a little lemon juice for a crostini topping or crudite dip, there is no finer use for basil, in my humble opinion, than to use it in a homemade pesto. To me, pesto is a nearly perfect food. The sharpness of the raw garlic, the earthy warmth of the toasted pine nuts, the vibrant color and herbal aroma of the basil itself, and the salty chew of the fresh parmesan…..I could eat it by the bucket-full. Don’t laugh….I really could.

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Shrimp Fried Rice

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