Article by Christine Budd
Chimichurri Lemon Mahi Mahi
Ingredients:
4 mahi fillets
4 lemons thinly sliced into wheels
4 tablespoons lemon juice
Fine sea salt
Freshly ground pepper
Chimichurri sauce
Cooking spray
Directions:
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Lightly coat the bottom of a glass baking dish with cooking spray.
Line dish with lemon wheels as a base. This serves three purposes, it provides flavor, prevents the fish from drying and elevates the fish allowing hot air to circulate around the fillet and cook evenly.
Pour 1 tablespoon lemon juice over each fillet and season to taste with fine sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.
Bake for 15 minutes, or until fish is pearly white and flakes easily with a fork.
Remove and top with Chimichurri sauce. (See below)
Chimichurri Sauce
Ingredients:
2 cups flat leaf parsley any overly large stalky parts removed, packed
4 large cloves garlic
3/4 cup cilantro packed
1 teaspoon dry crushed red pepper
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 cup olive oil
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
Directions:
In a small food processor chop parsley. Remove to a small-medium bowl.
Repeat with garlic and cilantro.
Add crushed red pepper, black pepper and olive oil to the same bowl. Stir.
Hawaiian Style Marlin with Poke Sauce
Ingredients:
2 teaspoons fresh ginger, minced
1.5 cups soy sauce
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
2 tablespoons chili oil
Shredded cabbage (garnish)
Cooked white rice
Poke Sauce:
1/4 cup fresh ginger, minced
1/2 cup cilantro
1/4 cup scallions, minced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup peanut oil
1/2 teaspoon Tabasco sauce
Directions:
Combine ginger, soy sauce, brown sugar, sesame oil and chili oil in a small bowl. Place the fish in a resealable plastic bag; pour in the marinade; seal bag and let rest in fridge for up to an hour.
Mix poke sauce ingredients in a blender or by hand until emulsified. Refrigerate until ready to use.
Preheat grill to high. Remove fish from bag, and discard the marinade. Place fish on the grill and sear one side for about 2-3 minutes. Use a lightly oiled spatula to turn and sear the other side for another 2-3 minutes. Remove and plate.
The marlin with be seared on the outside and very rare in the middle. Serve garnished with cabbage, white rice and poke sauce.
Teriyaki Tuna with Volcano Sauce
Ingredients:
Teriyaki Tuna:
1/2 cup teriyaki sauce
4 ahi tuna steaks
3 tablespoons white sesame seeds
3 tablespoons black sesame seeds
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
Volcano Sauce:
3/4 cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons chili garlic sauce
2 tablespoons sweetened condensed milk
1 teaspoon sugar
Garnish:
1 bunch scallions, sliced diagonally
Directions:
For Volcano Sauce:
Using a small food processor or an immersion/stick blender, combine mayonnaise, chili garlic sauce, sweetened condensed milk and sugar. Depending on your tastes for walking on the spicy side, add chili garlic sauce slowly until you reached your desired heat. Set aside.
Combine white and black sesame seeds in a shallow bowl or pie plate. Dredge both sides of the tuna steaks in sesame seeds. Set aside.
Heat vegetable oil in a large cast iron skillet or large frying pan over high heat.
The name of the game is to sear, which means high heat, spitting oil and in my house, the smoke detector going off, so prepare your work space accordingly.
When vegetable oil is hot, place tuna steaks in the pan, cover. Cook on each side for 2-3 minutes depending on desired temperature. Two to three minutes will be a medium rare for a 1 1/2 inch tuna steak. I like mine rare, so I go for 1-2 minutes on each side. It all depends on the thickness of your tuna steak.
Remove tuna steaks from frying pan/cast iron skillet. Plate and top with teriyaki glaze.
There are two choices for the volcano sauce. You can put a dollop on the side, allowing individuals to dip according to their tastes OR you can put the volcano sauce into an airtight plastic bag and cut a small hole on one bottom corner and then pipe the sauce onto teriyaki tuna steaks. Garnish with scallions.
Cajun Wahoo
Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter, melted
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
6 fresh garlic cloves
1/3 cup fresh cilantro or 1/3 cup parsley
2 tablespoons cajun seafood seasoning
Juice of 1 lemon
6 wahoo fillets, about 1/2 inch thick
Lemon wedge (to garnish)
Directions:
Spray grill with nonstick spray or brush with vegetable oil to prevent sticking. Preheat on high for about 10 minutes.
Mix first six ingredients in a blender. Purée into a smooth sauce.
When ready to cook, brush both sides of fillets with sauce. Place fillets on grill and cook, turning once or twice. Brush more sauce as needed.
Fish is done when it flakes easily (about 5 minutes). Serve with lemon wedges.
Kingfish Roasted in Butter with Provençale Sauce
Ingredients:
For the fish:
1-½ lbs. kingfish fillet
4 tbsp. of butter at room temperature
1 teaspoon of paprika (or more according to taste)
1 tablespoon of chopped parsley and extra for garnish
1 teaspoon of lemon or lime juice
1 teaspoon lemon or lime zest
Salt and pepper to taste
Directions:
Preheat oven to 400°F and butter or grease a baking sheet.
Combine the butter, paprika, parsley, lemon zest and juice as well as salt and pepper and stir until well blended
Spread the butter mixture over the entire fillet both sides and sprinkle with a little more salt and pepper (optional).
Transfer to baking sheet and roast fish until it’s done and opaque in the center. (This took approximately 25-30 minutes with this size fish. Cooking time will vary depending on thickness)
Transfer fish to platter, tent with foil for a few minutes while you make the Provençale sauce.
For the Provençal Sauce:
Ingredients:
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
3 cloves garlic minced
¼ teaspoon of chili flakes
½ teaspoon of fresh thyme
Zest of one lemon or lime
4-6 small Roma tomatoes seeded and chopped
1 teaspoon of anchovy paste
2 tablespoons capers rinsed and drained
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
¼ cup of pitted and chopped Kalamata olives or a blend of whatever olives you may have on hand
1 pinch of sugar – to take the edge off the acidity of the tomatoes.
2 tablespoons of chopped parsley
Salt and pepper to taste
Directions:
Heat the butter and oil in a medium sized pan on medium heat and add the garlic, lemon zest, chili flakes and thyme and sauté for a couple minutes until very fragrant.
Add the tomatoes, anchovy paste, capers, olives, vinegar and sugar and partially cover and cook for a few minutes until the tomatoes soften. Stir in the olives and parsley, taste for seasoning and then it’s ready to serve over the fish garnished with more parsley.
Notes:
Leftover fish can be stored in a sealed container in the fridge for up to 3 days. I like to store the fish in a separate container to the leftover sauce because sometimes I’ll add any leftover sauce to other dishes.
You can use any white fish fillet in this recipe or even salmon, if you cant get your hands on king fish where you are.
Cooking time will always vary depending on the thickness of your fillet, so keep an eye on it after the 18-20 minute mark. You will know when its done when the fish is no longer translucent but is opaque and it flakes easily at its thickest point when tested with a fork.
Feel free to add different herbs or seasoning to the herbed butter according to your taste and even adjust the amounts to taste as well.
Baked Stuffed Clams
Ingredients:
10 to 12 large size clams, rinsed, sand and grit removed
3 tablespoons minced onion
1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley (or 2 teaspoons dried)
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 cup breadcrumbs
1 tablespoon clam juice (or cooking liquid from steaming the clams)
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Directions:
Fill a large pot with 1 1/2 to 2 inches of water. Bring water to a boil. Add the clams to the boiling water. Reduce the heat to a simmer and let the clams steam for approximately 6-10 minutes, until the shells open.
Remove clams from the pot and let cool enough to handle. Discard any clams that have not opened (if they haven’t opened it means they were dead to begin with and should not be eaten).
Next, remove the clam meat from the clams (not the clam foot which is attached to the shell) and mince finely.
Pick the best clam shells for serving:
Break apart the clam shells from their hinges. Rinse. Pick 10-12 of the cleanest, nicest looking clam shells and set aside.
Make the stuffing:
Preheat oven to 350°F. In a sauté pan, melt the butter on medium heat and add the minced onion. Once the onions have softened (2-3 minutes), add the garlic.
Cook the garlic for 1 minute, then add the parsley, bread crumbs, minced clams, lemon juice, and clam juice.
Stir until the stuffing mixture is completely moistened. (If too dry, add a bit more butter or clam juice; if too wet, add a bit more bread crumbs.
Stuff clam shells with stuffing, sprinkle with Parmesan, bake:
Lay clam shells on a baking dish. Scoop a little stuffing mixture onto each clam shell. Sprinkle with grated Parmesan.
Bake at 350°F for approximately 20-25 minutes, until Parmesan is lightly browned on top.
Variations:
Cook a few strips of bacon until fat renders but not brown or crispy, chop and mix in with the stuffing.
Use crumbled up Ritz crackers for the breadcrumbs.
Put a little piece of cheddar cheese underneath the clam mixture in each clam, that way you get a little melted cheese with each bite!
Tip:
Save your biggest, prettiest clam shells to use for future stuffed clam dishes. To clean, just rinse them off and run them through the dishwasher with your dishes.
Blackened Rockfish with Avocado Fish Taco Sauce
Ingredients:
Blackened Seasoning:
1 tablespoon paprika
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
½ teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
1 teaspoon dried oregano leaves
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon ground black pepper
Rockfish Ingredients:
1 tablespoon coconut oil melted, or avocado oil
1 lb. rockfish about 4 fillets
Avocado Fish Sauce:
1 avocado
½ cup non-fat Greek yogurt
1 cup water
2 cups cilantro with stems
½ lime juice of, or 1 teaspoon
1 large garlic clove
½ teaspoon salt
1-2 splashes of chipotle sauce, optional
Directions:
Make the Blackened Seasoning
In a small bowl mix all the ingredients for the blackened seasoning. Set aside.
Bake and season the rockfish:
Preheat the oven to broil. In a 9 x 13 inch baking dish drizzle 1 tablespoon of oil. Rinse the rockfish in cold water and pat dry with a paper towel. Add it to the prepared baking dish. Pour blackened seasoning on top of the fish and using hands rub it into the fish and around the sides and bottom. Bake uncovered 6-10 minutes or until the center is cooked and flakes apart when pulled with a fork (bake 6 minutes for thin slices, thick slices might need about 10 minutes). If it starts to burn on top cover in aluminum foil to cook.
While the fish bakes, make the avocado sauce:
Blend all ingredients of the avocado fish taco sauce in a blender.
Drizzle the avocado fish taco sauce on top of the baked rockfish. Serve with a side of vegetables and rice or into tacos.
Tom Budd’s Tuna Marinade
Ingredients:
2 lbs tuna steaks
Marinade:
1/4 c orange juice
1/4 c soy sauce
2 T olive oil
2 T parsley, chopped
1 T fresh lemon juice
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1/2 t oregano
1/2 t black pepper
Directions:
Mix all ingredients together. Marinate tuna in a large ziplock bag or bowl with fitted lid for 24 hours. Sear tuna on high heat over a grill for 5-6 minutes, flip and sear another 4-5 minutes. Do not overcook.
Never met anyone that didn’t love this marinade! §
