Fish & Seafood – Let's Cook Together

Cooked Smoked Salmon

Denis Martel — Sun, 11 Feb 2018 17:40:10 +0000

This salmon is sooooo good, you need to try it if you have a smoker. You may try it on a regular BBQ, if you can place the salmon on the opposite side of the heating source and control your heat.

Ingredients:

Good quality fresh salmon (about 1.5 kg)

Dry rub:

250 ml brown sugar, packed
250 ml coarse salt
50 ml granulated onion
50 ml granulated garlic
15 ml dill weed
15 ml savory
10 ml tarragon

Finishing rub:

75 ml light brown sugar
15 ml granulated onion
15 ml granulated garlic
5 ml dried savory
5 ml dried tarragon

Method:

Place the salmon in a platter or glass dish.
Combine the ingredients of the dry rub and spread evenly over the surface of the salmon.
Refrigerate the salmon for 2-3 hours.
Take the salmon out of the refrigerator and rinse the filet under cold water to remove all the rub.
Pat dry with a paper towel.
Place flesh side up on a clean platter for about 30 minutes. A pellicle will develop.
Heat the smoker and when ready, place the salmon flesh side up on the grill. I usually use maple wood chips to smoke this salmon.
Sprinkle on the finishing rub and smoke/cook for about 45 minutes to 1 hour at 250 degrees.

Mussels with Black Bean sauce

Denis Martel — Sun, 11 Nov 2012 14:40:38 +0000

With this recipe, I have tried to recreate a dish Cheryl and I had eaten with in Thornbury, Ontario. We found the dish delicious but could not put our finger on what was the special taste. We asked the server and he told us it was probably the black beans of course!

Ingredients:

50 ml olive oil
3 chopped leeks
3 chopped garlic cloves
3 chopped green onions
75 ml black bean paste
30 ml garlic chili paste
30 ml chopped ginger
2 kg mussels
250 ml white wine
300 ml chicken stock
Salt and pepper

Method:

Heat the oil in a large sauce pan
Add leeks, garlic, green onions and cook for 3 minutes
Stir and cook for another 2 minutes
Add mussels wine, stock, salt and pepper and mix well
Cover and cook for about 5 minutes, until the mussels are opened.

Margarita Salmon

Denis Martel — Sun, 11 Nov 2012 14:23:20 +0000

We often overcook the salmon. There is no need to cook fresh salmon through. If you serve it rosÃ©, you will notice that it will not be dry.

Ingredients:

– 6 salmon steaks
– 150 ml lime juice
– 50 ml tequila
– 75 ml soy sauce
– 50 ml oil
– 5 ml chopped hot pepper such as Scotch Bonnet type
– 3 chopped garlic cloves
– Pepper from the mill
– 30 ml fresh, chopped oregano

Method:

– With a sharp knife, make a cut on both sides of the bones, all the way to the bottom of the â€œlegsâ€ of the salmon steaks.
– Remove the bones
– Remove half the skin of the leg on one side
– Roll the skinless leg inside and cover with the other leg
– Attach the â€œwheelâ€ with a butcher rope
– Mix all the other ingredients together
– In a Pyrex dish, marinate the salmon for about one hour
– Cook on the BBQ for about 3-4 minutes by side. Be careful not to overcook the salmon. I like it â€œdark pinkâ€ inside. Hey, if I can eat salmon sushi, I can certainly eat my salmon steak rosÃ©â€¦

Stuffed Salmon

Denis Martel — Fri, 28 May 2010 14:43:26 +0000

You can replace the salmon with a large trout.

Ingredients:

50 ml chopped green onions
50 ml butter
10 chopped mushrooms
1 ml tarragon
30 ml fresh parsley
Salt and pepper
50 ml cream
Salmon (about 1.5 to 2 kg)
Lemon juice

Method:

Pre-heat the oven to 400⁰F
Melt 30 ml of butter and add the green onions, mushroom, tarragon and parsley. Add salt and pepper to taste
Cook for about 5-6 minutes
Remove from heat and add the cream to the mushrooms
Stuff the salmon with the mushrooms and close the belly with butcher rope
Place the salmon in a baking dish
Melt the remaining butter, add the lemon and pour over the salmon
Bake for 15 minutes then reduce the heat to 350⁰ F for another 15 minutes
Serve with melted butter and lemon

Sushi Rolls

Denis Martel — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 14:41:56 +0000

Making sushi is easy. It just requires some practice. The good thing is that you have to eat your practice and they will taste just as good as a well shaped rolls…maybe just a bit loose. I have calculated the cost is about one-third of the cost of take-out sushi restaurant, even when you buy your fish at an expensive fish store. Just make sure your fish is sushi grade. A good fish store will tell you, they want your business back.

Ingredients:

500 ml sushi rice
625 ml water
50 ml rice vinegar for the rice and another 50 ml to be added to a bowl of water to dip your hands
Nori sheets (dried black algae sold in pack)
Strips of fish (salmon or tuna are the best), cut in about 1 cm of diameter. You can use the leftover pieces from your Nigiri Sushi
Cucumber, carrot, avocado or mango, cut in fine stripes
Wasabi

Method:

In a medium size sauce pan, wash the rice four to five times
Add water to the rice and bring to a boil for 5 minutes
Reduce the heat and let simmer for 20 additional minutes
Transfer the cooked rice to a non metallic bowl (wooden if you can) and add 50 ml of rice vinegar
Mixing for about 15 minutes to cool. If you can have help, ask someone to fan the rice while you are mixing it. This method makes the rice shinny.
Place a Nori leaf on a bamboo mat (sold in any Asian store and some groceries)
Damper your hands in the bowl of water, which the remaining vinegar was added. Make sure your hands remain damp to prevent the rice from sticking to them
Spread a handful of rice on the nori, making sure to compact the rice
With your finger, spread a bit (and I mean a bit!) of wasabi about 1 or 2 cm from the bottom edge of the rice.
Place strips of fish and vegetable/fruit sticks over the wasabi
Roll the mat away from you so the fish will be at the centre of the roll.
Clue to close the top end of the nori use a small amount of water to seal the roll
With a sharp knife, that you have immersed in the bowl of water before, cut the roll in two, then each of the two, in four so you end up with 8 rolls

Sushi Nigiri

Denis Martel — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 14:40:22 +0000

For Christmas a few years ago, Natasha asked my sister Louise for a sushi dinner as a Christmas gift. As they say in the bible, give a fish to a man and you feed him for a day, show him how to fish and you feed him forever! Louise gave her a sushi cookbook, the dishes and chopsticks. Natasha then turned to me and said now we (read I) can make sushi as often as we would like!

The trick with sushi is to go slowly and have all the ingredients ready. Your hands must always be kept moist to avoid having the rice to stick to them.

The cost to make your own sushi is so low that I am sure you will do like me and make some every monthâ€¦

Ingredients:

500 ml sushi rice (available in an asian supermarket or in some Loblaws)
625 ml water
50 ml rice vinegar
500 gr very fresh fish filet, such as tuna or salmon. Ask for sushi grade fish. A good fish store will tell you the truth. The one I go to even refuses to sell me tuna if it is not sushi grade.
20 ml wasabi (I prefer the one from powder instead of already mixed paste, it is tastier!)
2 sheets of Nori (black dried seaweed), cut in stripes of 1 cm wide, 8 cm long
Bowl of water with some rice vinegar in it to dip your hands

Method:

In a medium size sauce pan, wash the rice four to five times
Add water to the rice and bring to a boil for 5 minutes
Reduce the heat and let simmer for 20 additional minutes
Transfer the cooked rice to a non metallic bowl (wooden if you can) and add 50 ml of rice vinegar
Mixing for about 15 minutes to cool. If you have help, ask someone to fan the rice while you are mixing it. This method makes the rice shinny.
Slice fish in 2cm by 6 cm stripes, about 0.25 cm thick
Prepare the wasabi following the instruction on the box
When rice is cool, take a piece of fish with your right hand and rub some (a bit!) of wasabi on the fish
Place the fish on the tip of your index and major fingers, with the wasabi side down grab a ball of rice. Your hand must be moist at all times, dip them in the bowl of water and vinegar, if you do not want the rice to stick to them
Press the rice into a ball under the slice of fish to make it into a sushi shape.
Wrap around with a stripe of nori

Salmon Teriyaki

Denis Martel — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 14:38:27 +0000

Easy, easy easy to do. Serve this salmon with white rice.

The vegetables mixture adds some colours to the plate and makes it looks like you are serving a big restaurant dish.

Ingredients:

4 small salmon filets, with the skin on (about 150 g each)
50 g snow-peas
50 g soy beans
30 g shredded carrots
Salt
50 ml shoyu (Japanese soy sauce)
50 ml Sake
50 ml mirin (sweet Japanese cooking wine)
25 ml powder sugar

Method:

Over low heat, dissolve 15 ml of powder sugar with the shoyu, sake and mirin
Remove from heat and let cool for 1 hour
Pour the sauce over the salmon and let marinate for about 30 minutes
While waiting, blanch the vegetables in slightly salted water starting with the snow peas. After one minute, add the soybeans and another minute later, add the carrots. Remove from heat and pass under cold water for about 30 seconds
Light the BBQ (or the top grill in your oven if you prefer)
Remove the salmon filets from the marinade and pat dry
Place them on the BBQ, skin down, and grill for 4 minutes
Turn the filets and grill another 3 to 4 minutes
Add the remaining sugar to the marinate and baste the salmon while cooking
Arrange the vegetable on four plates and place the salmon filet on each plate
Drizzle with some marinate and serve

Salmon with Orange and Teriyaki Sauce

Denis Martel — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 14:36:46 +0000

The orange and teriyaki flavour mix very well with the salmon flavour. When you brush the sauce on the salmon every 30 second, the filets become shinier and shinier because of the multiple coat, just like if they were lacquered.

Ingredients:

100 ml teriyaki sauce
250 ml orange juice
15 ml finely chopped orange peel
One chopped green onion
125 ml white wine
5 ml Sichuan pepper
3 salmon filet (about 150 gr each)

Method:

Prepare the marinade by combining all the ingredients except for the salmon
Marinade the salmon for about 2 hours
Remove the salmon from the marinade and tap dry with a paper towel. Reserve
Bring the marinade to a boil and simmer for 15 minutes
Pre-heat the BBQ to at least 400⁰ F
Starting with the skin down, cook the filet for about 7 minutes while brushing the sauce on top every 30 second
Turn the filet and cook for another 2 minutes while brushing again the filet with the sauce

Poached Salmon

Denis Martel — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 14:35:16 +0000

Natasha wanted me to cook the salmon a different way one day. It was a Monday and I had some white wine leftover from the weekend in the fridge. I also had a big surplus of oregano growing in my backyard. Mix everything and you create a very moist salmon dish. Voila!

Ingredients:

One fresh whole salmon filet
150 ml white wine
50 ml olive oil
15 ml paprika
Big bunch of fresh oregano

Method:

Marinate the salmon in the other ingredients for about one hour
Place the oregano in a large sheet of aluminium paper
Put the salmon on the oregano, the skin side facing in the opposite direction on the oregano
Add the marinate, making sure it does not run out of the aluminium paper
Wrap the salmon in the aluminium paper (you may want to add another sheet on top to keep the liquid inside)
Bake on the BBQ for about 20 minutes

Marinière Mussels

Denis Martel — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 14:34:11 +0000

When we lived in Montreal we started a new trend around Christmas with a few friends for dinner. This dinner was based on a theme of mussels. Each couple came with a mussel recipe and a great bottle of wine. One team after the other had to go to the kitchen to prepare their dish and serve it to the guests. While the team was cooking, the rest of us would be relaxing and sipping wine. We started the meal around 8 pm and finished the last mussel dish just before 1 amâ€¦I think that was one of the most memorable dinners we had with friends.

Ingredients:

30 ml olive oil
200 ml chopped celery
200 ml chopped green pepper
200 ml chopped carrots
2 chopped green onions
3 chopped garlic cloves
250 ml white wine
1 kg mussels, washed and brushed
Salt, pepper, oregano and tarragon to taste

Method:

In a large casserole, heat oil and add the vegetables
Sauté medium heat for 5 minutes
Add wine, mussels and seasoning
Cover and let simmer for 6 to 8 minutes, until the mussels open. Discard unopened mussels
Filter the liquid in a colander and keep the mussels in a bowl covered with aluminium foil to keep them warm
Bring the liquid to a boil and reduce by half
Pour the liquid over the mussels and serve with some baguette