Well, at least down deep in the Galley of the 36 Trojan.
The following are some of our favorite recipes that we fix on the boat as well as various dishes we have highlighted on the show. The dishes that we will post here will be easy to make, and will make any table a joy to sit at. We are going to kick this page off with something that Quint might like, Bottom Fish Stew!!
Bottom Fish Stew
You will need:
A Crock Pot, 1\2 bottle of your favorite cooking wine, two pounds of those bottom feeding monsters, the almighty Croaker. (Make sure the filets are cleaned with no bones.) Five cups of milk, Cracked Pepper, one large Onion, chopped, one chopped Celery stick, 1\2 stick of Butter, two cubed Potatoes, one pound of peeled Shrimp, fresh Parsley, fresh Garlic, three Bay leaves, and some Thyme.
Combine all ingredients and put into a good size Crock Pot, turn on medium heat, and then go fishing for eight hours. When you get back, you will have one fantastic fish stew.
Serve with some nice white wine, and Texas Toast with some blackened seasoning.
Fantastic.
Make Time for Mako
Although Shark is my least favorite of all seafood, this one is a truly tasty recipe. It is called Make Time For Mako because the filets need to soak for about four hours.
You Will Need:
Some Mako Shark Steaks, 10 ounces of Pineapple Juice, four ounces of Lime juice, two ounces of Orange Juice, fresh garlic cloves, fresh cracked pepper, Jerk seasoning, and one ounce of Soy Sauce.
First- Mix all liquids together and then add the pepper, crushed Garlic Cloves, and several dashes of Jerk Seasoning..
Second- Marinate the Mako Filets in the liquid for about four to five hours in the refrigerator. This will cook the meat somewhat.
Third- After marinating, grill the filets till done. Do NOT overcook.
This is a great dish that is easy to do, and goes well with Wild Rice
Jim's Salsa Rockfish
You will need:
Fresh Rockfish filets, Thyme, Parsley white wine, Butter, fresh cracked Pepper, Garlic, one can of Tomatoes, Cilantro, one Onion, and a large white serving plate. If you do not have a white serving plate, do not cook this dish. You must have the white platter for the presentation!
First off, make the Salsa.
This is not a hot Salsa, more of a cool spring topping after the Rocks are cooked.
Just combine in a bowl the Tomato's, finely chopped Onion, some Parsley, and chopped
Cilantro. Add a little Olive oil and stir, leave at room temperature.
Next,
get a broiling pan, put the filets in the pan with about one cup of white wine
in the bottom of the pan. Spread some light Butter on top of the filets, along
with a little Parsley, Thyme, and Garlic. Crack some fresh Pepper over the filets
and place a few Onion rings over top of the fish. Bake fish till done, about 20
minutes at 350 degrees. When the fish is cooked, turn on the broiler and broil
off the top of the fish for only a minute or two. All you want to do is brown
the top of the filets.
For the presentation, lay the cooked Rockfish in a large
white serving platter. Next, pour the Salsa over top the middle of the filets.
Garnish the dish with some Parsley and Cilantro. Like most things, this goes well
with what we call, Gubby White. More popularly known as Governors White Wine by
the Williamsburg Winery.
Blackened Tuna with Green Scallops
You will need:
Tuna filets, large Sea Scallops, Jerk Seasoning, fresh Parsley, Jalapeno Pepper Sauce, Cracked Pepper Corns, Blackened Seasoning, One stick of Butter.
Start by preparing the Tuna with traditional Blackened Seasoning, melt the butter, coat the Tuna with butter, and apply Blackening Seasoning lightly. Cook in a white ash hot cast iron pan, about three minuets on each side. This is best to do outside on a hot grill.
Lay the Scallops out in a pan, coat the Scallops lightly with some melted butter, and the Green Jalapino Sauce. Add some parsley and Jerk Seasoning on top of the Scallops. The Scallops will look Green as they marinate, once grilled, they turn a brownish white.
Grill the Scallops and be SURE NOT TO OVER COOK. Serve the grilled Tuna and Scallops over a bed of your favorite rice or light linguini and Clam sauce.
Jim's three pepper shrimp sauce with Sea Bass:
Chop one red, green, and yellow pepper, one onion, mushrooms two tomato's, peel and de-vein one pound of large Tiger shrimp, and have one cup of white wine and one cup of whipping cream nearby as well as half stick of butter. In a saucepan, lightly fry the Sea Bass filets, set aside and keep warm. Then, in a deep pan, pan seir some chopped garlic with the butter, when done add the wine. then add all the vegetables and cook for 5-10 minutes. Ad cream, if the sauce needs a little thickening use some corn starch. Add shrimp last to the sauce. Let stand for 5 min, and pour over the cooked Sea Bass filets.
You will love it!!!!
(Credit to Bubby Vereen from Myrles Inlet SC for showing me this one many years ago, thank Bub. we have been cookng this one up now for over 13 years!)
What do you do when you just have a ton of fish that needs to be kept? Freeze It!! A good way to Freeze fish is to put some water in the freezer bag to cover the filets. This will help alleviate air getting around the filets, helping to postpone freezer burn. The other thing you need is a lot of good recipes so your family and friends will eat your catch quickly. Here are just a couple of great ones that are sure winners.
Teriyaki Bluefish
You will need:
Bluefish Filets, the more the better. Some light Teriyaki Marinade Sauce, Spring Onions, fresh Garlic, white Wine, and Aluminum Foil.
First, make a boat platter out of Aluminum Foil. Simply take a big sheet, fold up the sides and secure the ends by rolling them together. You want the Aluminum Foil boat platter set up so you can place the filets inside the foil, and no liquids will leak out of the sides. This is easy to do with large rolls of Aluminum Foil.
Next, place the Bluefish Filets inside the foil and pour one 10 ounce bottle of Teriyaki Marinade onto the filets. Add some fresh Garlic on top of the fish, and about one cup of white Wine. Lastly, place several Spring Onions on top of the fish.
Cook in 350 degree oven for about 45min.
NOTE: Make sure that the top of the Aluminum Foil boat platter is closed \ sealed tightly on top. You want the fish to cook in the fluids and steam. Having an open top on the boat will cause the fish to dry out. This is really more of a pouched dish, make sure the top is closed.
Once out of the oven, let the dish stand for about 10min. with the top closed. Open when ready to serve.
You will never look at Bluefish the same way again, and you will also start shopping for a larger freezer to put you filets in.
Blackened Bluefish
It used to be that about 10 years ago Blackening was something that was only heard of down south in Crawfish country. Now Blackened dishes are served just about everywhere, however I still find that most people do not know the correct way to Blacken fish. I will outline the basic steps here.
For many years I have told the story about our first experience producing a cooking segment in the penthouse suite of the Lord Baltimore Hotel in Baltimore Maryland. We featured the head Cheif of Phillips Seafood Restaurant who proceeded to show us the best way to Blacken fish. The problem was, we did it in the kitchen of the Penthouse Suite. Once the fish hit the cast iron skillet with the melted Butter, well it was not long before the Hotel fire alarms went off, and here came the energetic Baltimore Maryland Fire Department.
There was so much smoke coming out of the top of the Lord Baltimore it looked like a smoke bomb convention.
The lesson learned here is, to Blacken outside if at all possible.
The other lesson I learned from this experience was this: Blue Fish makes the best Blackened dish you have ever tasted. To this day, I will take Blackened Bluefish over ANY fish, Tuna, Dolphin, etc., etc.,
One of the reasons is due to the fact that Bluefish has a higher oil content, so during the Blackening process, the fish does not dry out. One other nice benefit is that seasonings adhere well to the meat of the filets, and Bluefish have a great flavor. The meat may look gray while filleting the fish, however once cooked, the fish has a nice white color.
Step one
Get a cast iron skillet and put it on an outside grill on high heat. I use the base of a Turkey Fryer with a regular gas grill container. This allows the cast iron skillet to be placed directly on the flames. Being able to maintain a constant high heat to the skillet is very important.
Step two
Heat the skillet until the bottom is white ash hot.
Step three
Place the Blue Fish filets on a large tray, it is best if the filets are slightly chilled. This will help the melted butter adhere and cool more quickly once poured.
Step four
Lightly pour the melted Butter over top of the filets. Then take your favorite Blackened Seasoning and lightly sprinkle over top of the fish. I like to also use some Jerk seasoning on the fish, it really is a nice mix.
Step five
Place the filets butter side down into the white ash hot cast iron skillet. Cook for only a few minuets, then take the fish out, coat the back side with some Butter, then place the uncooked side down onto the skillet. Cook for a few more minutes.
That is IT!! Goes fantastic with a bed of Wild Rice and a cool Salsa topping.
WARNING!!!! Blackening food is dangerous, and I have been burned several times. The Butter hitting the skillet will cause a lot of splatter and smoke. The best thing to do is wear protective cooking wear, and use long cooking tools to handle the fish while cooking near the skillet. Be careful!!
While Chrissy in the movie Jaws may have a good reason to hate seafood, most people who I meet that have sworn off seafood quickly change their mind once they have tasted a properly prepared seafood dish. Getting good seafood at restaurants is not an easy task. Restaurants that serve poorly prepared seafood is what usually drives people to think that they do not like the taste of the undersea world.
Preparing seafood dishes properly is a lot easier than most people think. I have had a lot of guest tell me that they will only eat seafood at my house, and will not order it at restaurants or try to cook it themselves. This I have found very silly, simply because seafood generally is one of the easiest types of food to cook properly.
Here are some basic guideline's about preparing seafood.
A) Buy or catch your seafood fresh. If you are going to be purchasing your fish, make sure the product is fresh, not fresh frozen. A lot of stores are very misleading in how they display their seafood products. Lots of times seafood will be displayed sitting on ice with some nice lettuce and maybe a clam or two. This looks good, however it does not mean that the fish you are about to purchase is not six months old. Do what I do, ask the person behind the counter what is fresh, not fresh frozen.
Using fresh filets in essential when preparing broiled , sauté, or even blackened fish. Fresh frozen products are fine for making pasta's, stew's, and for frying.
B) DO NOT OVERCOOK!! This is probably the biggest problem people have with preparing seafood. Ever wonder why those shrimp will not peel? Those Scallops are tuff and rubbery, your fish is dried out and has no taste? The reason is someone cooked the product to long.
The best way to determine if a fish filet is done, is to simply watch the filet and see when the meat begins to plump. This is when turning the filet over to heat the other side is a good idea. Remember the fish will still continue to cook some after you take it off the grill of fry pan.
C) Always rinse the seafood product and keep everything cool in the refrigerator until prep. time
D) Sandy Clams are hard on your teeth. They also have an unpleasant "Crunch" while trying to enjoy your dinner. The solution is to try to purge your clams before you cook them. You can do this by putting the live clams in a bucket of salt water overnight in a cool dark and quite place. Once the Clams are settled, they will continue to purge out the sand from their shells. They do this by continually siphoning water into their shells in search of food.
E) Clean you product well before cooking. Take out the bones in the filets, purge your clams, remove that seaweed stuff from the mussel shell, and wash off your Blue Crabs with fresh water.
NOTE:
There are a lot of fish that do taste better with the bones left in. Some of these fish include Spot and Croaker. These fish are usually fried, and the bones are very easy to remove.
More tasty bites to come!!
* Some historical info. on "Bruce" the world famous mechanical shark in JAWS
The Shark footage in Jaws was a combination of real shark footage and footage of three mechanical sharks created for JAWS. The mechanical sharks were nicknamed "Bruce", these sharks were created by Robert Mattey. "Bruce" cost $150,000 each to build and weighed 1 1/2 tons. The individual sharks were used for different movements; one for left-right, one for right-left, and one for various underwater photography. The live underwater shark footage used to intercut with "Bruce" was shot by Ron and Valerie Taylor near Seal Rocks Australia.
For most of the shooting of Jaws, "Bruce" did not work as promised. This forced director Stephan Spielberg to come up with solutions to have a monster Shark presence, without any monster Shark. Later, the film would be hailed as one of the best examples of a "Hitchcock" directorial style. That is to show the effect of horror, without showing actually what is causing it. Most of the movie was shot, directed, and edited in this fashion.
There is a good chance that had "Bruce" the mechanical sharks work as planned, Jaws would have never been the success that it was, due to the fact that it would not have contained all of the elements of suspense that was necessary and so craftily created by Speilberg. "Bruce" now sits a top of an entrance to a amusement park in California.
In
the case of Jaws, the busted "Bruce" was a true blessing in disguise.
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