local fresh seafood... Beach recipes

Once a month, usually on a Sunday afternoon, four of us from CMF gather at one of our houses and play Settlers of Cataan. While the game doesn’t lend itself to much a fellowship time, it is good to get together, eat good food, and trade wood for ore. We’ve come to call ourselves “Abu el Banat” – Arabic for “father of daughters” – taken from a so named West Wing episode. (We all have daughters.) I think the plural is abiyna, I’ll do more research…

The most recent time, I had the pleasure of being introduced to Wendell Berry’s literature. Wendell Berry, for those of you who don’t know, is, to quote my friend who had the longest road the last time we settled Cataan “ a poet, a farmer, a writer, a philosopher…” He’s written many books of poems, essay collections, and has 11 novels (I think). His writing is based in the idea that one's work needs to be rooted in and reactive to where one lives.

From Wikipedia: “His nonfiction serves as an extended conversation about the life he values. According to Berry, the good life includes sustainable agriculture, appropriate technologies, healthy rural communities, connection to place, the pleasures of good food, husbandry, good work, local economics, the miracle of life, fidelity, frugality, reverence, and the interconnectedness of life. The threats Berry finds to this good life include: industrial farming and the industrialization of life, ignorance, hubris, greed, violence against others and against the natural world, the eroding topsoil in the United States, global economics, and environmental destruction.”

I’ve been reading Berry’s “The Way of Ignorance”…. More discussion on that later…

Right now – a recipe from the beach this past August – a month late, but hey, better late than never – especially in this case.

Plankin’, Steamin’, Fryin’

The beach gives me an opportunity that I relish each year. I get to cook with fresh seafood. I have my seafood store that I go to – the fish monger there is reliable, knows what’s fresh, and is honest – e.g. the couple who walked in after my purchase of red snapper and shrimp (unpeeled!) asked for “trout”.

Trout?

I did a double take, as did the fish monger.

“Trout?” he repeated.

“Yes, trout. Do you have any?”

“No, this is a local seafood store and we don’t have trout. You need to go about 4 hours inland to come close to trout, the only thing that isn’t local that we have for sale is the Chilean Sea Bass.”

“Really?”

I roll my eyes and go to pay the cashier (who I think is the fish monger’s mom).

Here’s what I made:

Shrimp cocktail – brining is the way to go with this and leaving the shells on while cooking is key.

32 shell-on (21 to 25 count) tiger shrimp

For the brine:
1/4 cup kosher salt
1/4 cup sugar
1 cup water
2 cups ice

Using a pair of scissors, make an incision down the backside of the shrimp, following the intestinal track. De-vein all shrimp and rinse under cool water leaving shells intact (best way to de-vein – the vein is where all the grit and gunk end up especially in larger shrimp)Deveining the shrimp (blecH!)

Place cleaned shrimp into a bowl with above brine and refrigerate for 20 to 25 minutes.

Place a baking sheet or broiler pan under oven broiler and preheat for 5 minutes. Remove shrimp from brine and drain thoroughly.

Rinse the shrimp under cold water and dry on paper towels.

In a large bowl, toss shrimp with olive oil and sprinkle with Old Bay seasoning.

Place shrimp onto a preheated sheet pan and return to broiler immediately. After 2 minutes, turn the shrimp with a pair of tongs.

Return the shrimp to broiler for 1 minute. Transfer to a cold cookie sheet. Refrigerate immediately.
Once shrimp have chilled, arrange with cocktail sauce in a martini glass or as desired.

Crab Cake – I doubled this recipe for our group – remember, easy on the filler – it’s a crab cake, not a bread crumb cake.

1 lb fresh jumbo lump crap meat
1 ½ tsp Old Bay
2 tsp fresh dill
2 tbsp bread crumbs (up to 4 tbsp total max)
¼ cup mayo

Mix gently

Form crab cakes and refrigerate x 30 minutes
Heat non stick pan under medium high heat.
Place 1 tbsp of butter (or olive oil) in pan.

Once heated, add crab cakes (don’t crowd the pan!)

Cook for about 3-4 minutes per side or until cooked through.

Makes 4 large cakes

Serve with my kickin sauce:

Mix together:

½ cup mayo
1 tsp powdered mustard.
1 ½ tsp smoked papikra
½ tsp dried tarragon
¼ cup raspberry preserves
1-2 chipotle peppers – diced fine
½ tsp Adobo sauce (or more to taste; this is the sauce that comes in the can with the chipotle peppers)

Cedar Planked Red Snapper – main course and delicious. Remove the bones with a small pliers.

Soak a cedar plank overnight or for a minimum of 4 hrs (can be bought at a hardware store – just buy UNTREATED wood!)

2 filets of red snapper (or trout! lol – salmon would work too, but I wanted to try something other than salmon)

Season the filets with salt and pepper.

Top fillets with lemon or lime slices.
Place fillets, skin side down, on soaked planks.

Preheat grill to high

If using gas – only heat one side – in other words, use indirect heat.
If using charcoal – place hot coals to one side.
Place cedar plank with fish on grill (not directly over the flame).
Cook about 15 – 20 minutes – or until fish begins to flake.
Serve on the plank (can reuse the plank).