Chesapeake Chowder

Wow, is this chowder good! We liked it so much, I made it twice in one week. It's great with crusty bread or as a starter with crab cakes. It reheats well, too, but it wouldn't be good to freeze.

Chesapeake Chowder

1/2 pound unpeeled, medium-size fresh shrimp
1/2 pound fresh crabmeat
1 onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 celery ribs, chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
2 1/2 cups chicken broth
1 cup dry white wine or chicken broth
1 (8-oz.) bottle clam juice
5 red potatoes, peeled and diced
1 tablespoon Old Bay seasoning

1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1/2 cup heavy cream
Garnish: chopped fresh parsley

1. Peel shrimp; devein, if desired. Drain and flake crabmeat, removing any bits of shell. Set seafood aside.

2. Sauté onion, garlic, and celery in hot oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat 8 minutes or until tender. Stir in flour, and cook, stirring constantly, 1 minute. Stir in broth and next 5 ingredients. Bring to a boil; cover, reduce heat, and simmer, stirring occasionally, 30 minutes or until potatoes are tender.

3. Stir in shrimp, crabmeat, and heavy cream; cook over low heat 5 minutes or just until shrimp turn pink. Garnish, if desired.

Indian-Spiced Roast Salmon with Mango Chutney

We used to eat salmon once or twice a week. We haven't eaten it as often lately, probably because we were a little sick of it! But I bought a salmon a couple of weeks ago that had been pre-cut into fillets and then frozen, and it's so good!

If you don't normally buy it, look for wild-caught, not farm raised salmon. Wild caught tastes better, has more protein and less fat, and is better for the environment. It is always frozen or previously frozen, but flash freezing methods are very good. Also, look for fillets that are at least an inch thick and consistent - not a lot of very skinny tail ends. Even though salmon is relatively high in fat, thin pieces will dry out very quickly.

This is one of our favorite recipes, originally from Cooking Light. Unfortunately, it does require a lot of different spices! Though the recipe calls for plain yogurt as a topping, I always serve it with mango chutney, usually homemade. However, I found some great, cheap mango chutney at Your DeKalb Farmer's Market, so I used that this time. The recipe for the salad in the picture is located here.

Indian-Spiced Salmon

1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds, crushed
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
4 (6-ounce) salmon fillets (about 1 1/4-inches thick)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon olive oil

Heat oven to 400°.

Combine first 8 ingredients in a shallow dish. Sprinkle fillets with salt; dredge fillets in spice mixture. Heat oil in a large skillet (oven-proof) over medium-high heat. Add fillets, skin sides up; cook 5 minutes or until bottoms are golden. Turn fillets over. Wrap handle of skillet with foil; bake at 400° for 10 minutes or until fish flakes easily when tested with a fork. Remove skin from fillets; discard skin. Serve with mango chutney.

Yield: 4 servings

CALORIES 301 (46% from fat); FAT 15.4g (sat 2.7g,mono 7.7g,poly 3.2g); IRON 1.6mg; CHOLESTEROL 111mg; CALCIUM 54mg; CARBOHYDRATE 2.6g; SODIUM 390mg; PROTEIN 35.9g; FIBER 0.3g

Mango Chutney

2 mangoes, peeled and diced

1/4 cup onion, diced fine

1/4 cup golden raisins

1/4 t. crushed red pepper or to taste

1 T brown sugar

Combine all ingredients in a saucepan and cook over low heat until saucy.

Baked Scallops

My mom made these for my birthday this year, and they are delicious. I got great scallops at Super H Mart the other day, so we had these with crusty multi-grain bread and green beans. The picture is from an iPhone; they aren't really so pink.

This is a quick but impressive recipe. Rinse and drain scallops on paper towels before using.

Baked Scallops

1 c. cracker crumbs or panko bread crumbs
2/3 c. light cream, half and half, or buttermilk (Legal Seafood uses buttermilk)
salt and pepper to taste
garlic salt to taste
1 lb. sea scallops, patted dry
1/4 c. butter
flat leaf Italian parsley, chopped
lemon wedges

Melt butter and mix with crumbs. Add garlic salt and parsley. Put scallops in casserole dish. Add cream and top with bread crumb mixture. Bake 30 minutes at 350 degrees, uncovered.

Serve with lemon wedges.

Cheesy Shrimp and Grits

When we went to Destin with my parents in August, I got some great shrimp from a local seafood market called, well, Shrimper's. It's actually in Santa Rosa Beach and has awesome key lime pie in addition to fresh seafood. Even though two people present are kind of lukewarm on shrimp and grits separately, this Southern Living dish was a great hit with everyone except Ben (unsurprisingly).

I doubled the recipe, and it made way too much. The recipe as written will serve 6 adults nicely.

I substituted a red bell pepper for the original green - with the green onion, this would be great for a Christmas brunch. I also added the shrimp to the casserole raw; I think cooking them before baking would make them rubbery. The recipe below contains my changes.

Cheesy Shrimp and Grits

4 cups chicken broth
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup regular or quick cooking grits (not instant)
1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese, divided (4 ounces)
1 cup shredded monterey jack pepper cheese (4 ounces)
2 tablespoons butter
6 green onions, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 lb fresh small shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 (10 ounce) can diced tomatoes and green chilies, drained
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper

1.Bring 4 cups chicken broth and 1/2 teaspoon salt to a boil in a large saucepan; stir in grits.
2.Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 20 minutes (follow package instructions - quick grits will take less time).
3.Stir together grits, 3/4 cup Cheddar cheese, and Monterey Jack cheese.
4.Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat; add green onions, bell pepper, and garlic, and sauté 5 minutes or until tender.
5.Stir together green onion mixture, grits mixture, raw shrimp, and next 3 ingredients.
6.Pour into a lightly greased 2-quart baking dish.
7.Sprinkle top with remaining 1/4 cup shredded Cheddar cheese.
8.Bake at 350° for 30 to 45 minutes.

Fish Tacos

Jack loves fish and seafood almost as much as I do - he cheered when I told him what we were having for dinner tonight. These fish tacos are a healthier version of the ones you get in a restaurant, since they are not deep fried. I ate them with traditional soft corn, and Jack liked hard shell corn tortillas. I tried his, and I think they made the tacos taste a bit more like restaurant ones because they are crunchy and fried.

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The toppings for these tacos came from Sara's Secrets, a cookbook I really like.

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1 lb. tilapia

1 egg, beaten

1/2 cup flour

salt and pepper

1 cup panko bread crumbs (Kikkoman is a common brand)

1-2 T. butter, melted

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2/3 cup mayonnaise

1/3 cup sour cream or plain yogurt

2 chipotle peppers, diced

1 T. adobo sauce (from the chipotle can)

2 T. lime juice

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2 cups shredded cabbage

1/4 t. salt

2 T. unseasoned rice vinegar

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1 avocado - diced

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Tortillas - soft or crunchy corn recommended

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Combine flour with 1/2 t. salt and 1/4 t. pepper. Dip fish into flour, coating lightly. Dip into egg, and finish with panko breadcrumbs on both sides. Place on a baking dish and drizzle fish with melted butter. Bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes or until fish flakes easily with a fork.

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Combine sauce ingredients (mayo through lime juice). Chill until time to serve.

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Just before fish is finished cooking, toss cabbage with salt and rice vinegar.

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When fish is cooked, cut into chunks. Serve at the table with tortillas, sauce, cabbage, and avocado.

Shrimp, Mark Bittman's Way

Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything has been one of my favorite cookbooks for years. He's known in the NYT as the Minimalist, because he writes recipes with just the basics of ingredients. This doesn't mean his recipes are necessarily short or super easy, but they aren't overly fussy. People used to have a Betty Crocker or Better Homes and Gardens cookbook so if they wanted to know how to cook lima beans or brisket, they'd have one source that answered all basic cooking questions. I think HTCE is that source for our generation of cooks.

This is maybe our favorite way to have shrimp. It is actually very easy, especially if you buy already peeled and deveined raw frozen shrimp. In fact, Jack has made this recipe all by himself when he was five! You can serve it with crusty bread or rolls, pasta, or rice if you want to make the most of the garlicky sauce. I don't use the full 1/2 cup of olive oil - I just lightly cover the bottom of the pan. I often use a 9x13 pan over two burners for the first part of the recipe. Finally, I usually use about a pound of shrimp for the four of us and adjust the spices by about 1/3.

Shrimp, Mark Bittman's Way

1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
3 or 4 big cloves garlic, cut into slivers or minced
1 1/2 to 2 pounds shrimp, in the 20-30 per pound range, peeled, rinsed, and dried (thawed if
frozen)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 1/2 teaspoons paprika (spicy is best, but sweet is okay too)
Minced fresh parsley leaves for garnish (optional)

1. Preheat the broiler and slip an oven rack into the closest possible position.

2. Warm the olive oil very gently in a large, broad, ovenproof skillet or baking pan. There should be enough olive oil to cover the bottom of the pan; don’t skimp. Put the garlic in the oil and cook for a few minutes, still over low heat, until it turns golden. Be careful not to let it burn.

3. Raise the heat to medium-high and add the shrimp, salt, pepper, cumin, and paprika. Stir to blend and immediately place under the broiler. Cook, shaking the pan once or twice and stirring if necessary, but generally leaving the shrimp undisturbed, until they are pink all over and the mixture is bubbly. This will take from 5 to 10 minutes, depending on the heat of your broiler.

4. Garnish and serve immediately.