Archive for the ‘Seafood’ Category

When you think of Mexican dishes, you probably think of dishes that use pork, beef, and chicken. However, you may be surprised that quite a few great recipes happen to include fish and other types of seafood. Since Mexico definitely has plenty of coastline and a variety of great rivers, seafood is easy to find in the country. Within the Vera Cruz area, seafood is especially popular. Just a few of the types of fish and seafood used in these recipes include shrimp, grouper, snook, mojarra, and even red snapper. Sometimes crab, oysters, and lobsters are used in dishes as well. Now that you understand a bit more about how diverse the dishes can be in this type of cuisine, here is a look at some of the dishes often made.

One of the most popular times for fish and other seafood to be used in Mexican food is during the time of lent. During the Holy Week in Mexico, people line up to purchase the seafood that they need for these tasty recipes. One of the popular dishes often made during this time is a special seafood soup. Some of the other common dishes that include seafood and fish are Mexican seafood cocktail, baked whole fish, shrimp stuffed chilies, and more.

If you want to make an authentic seafood cocktail, you will find that this dish is different than you may expect. For the broth, tomato and clam juice are used. Shrimp, crab, and avocados are also used to provide this recipe with plenty of flavor. While sometimes you may have hot sauce served on the sauce with this dish, others actually make the sauce very spicy. Usually this dish is served in a dish that is made of clear glass. This allows you to see all the ingredients that are so beautifully combined to make a dish so full of flavor.

Another of the dishes that are made with fish and other seafood is traditional seafood soup. You may hear this dish referred to as caldo de mariscos and it is a popular dish in Mexico today. Fish broth, fish fillets, crab claws, shrimp, garlic, tomato, onion, and various herbs are all combined together. Other ingredients may be added as well. This creates a delicious soup that is tasty and anyone who enjoys seafood is sure to appreciate this wonderful soup. Most restaurants in Mexico have their own unique version of this soup, so you will found it made a bit differently, depending on where you are within the country.

As you can see, seafood and fish are both used in Mexican cuisine quite a bit. So many tasty dishes can be made with fish and seafood, which is a great option for those looking for healthier Mexican dishes.

Crispy Fish Tacos and Sauce Recipe

If you are a fish lover, you will definitely enjoy these crispy and tasty fish tacos.

What You’ll Need

• 2 tablespoons of cornstarch
• 1 egg
• 1 cup of all purpose flour
• 1 cup of beer
• 1 teaspoon of baking powder
• ½ teaspoon of salt

• ½ cup of mayonnaise
• 1 jalapeno pepper, minced finely
• ½ cup of plain yogurt
• 1 lime, juiced
• 1 teaspoon of cayenne pepper, ground
• ½ teaspoon of ground cumin
• ½ teaspoon of dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon of minced capers
• ½ teaspoon of dried dill weed

• 1 pound of cod fillets, cut into portions of 2-3 ounces
• ½ head of cabbage, shredded finely
• 1 package of corn tortillas, 12 ounces
• 1 quart of oil to fry in

How to Make It

Combine together the cornstarch, baking powder, flour, and salt in a large bowl to start beer batter. Blend together the beer and egg, then stirring into the flour mixture in the large bowl. A few lumps are fine.

Mix together mayonnaise and yogurt in a medium bowl for white sauce. Stir in the lime juice gradually until sauce becomes a bit runny. Add in the cayenne, jalapeño, oregano, dill, cumin, and capers.

In a deep fryer, heat the oil to 375. Take fish and dip in light flour, then dip into the beer batter. Fry in the deep fryer until the fish is nice and brown. Drain to eliminate some of the oil. Fry up tortillas lightly.

Serve fried fish in fried tortillas. Top with cabbage and the white sauce.

Seafood and fish are used in many popular Mexican recipes. Enjoy exploring new recipes and trying out various seafood dishes. Combine them with tasty Mexican desserts for a wonderful meal.

MexicanDessertRecipes.net The Sweet Side of Mexican Food

Los Angeles is filled with restaurants. If you can think it, you can probably order it in a neighborhood bistro. Like New York, you can find an eatery in LA that is not part of a huge chain and that serves real food.

Sometimes though, you do not want to get dressed to go out to eat. You are tired, you just want to go home and grab something from the fridge or see what falls out of the freezer. That does not mean you are limited to grabbing a meal from a drive through where you talk to a clown head or peanut butter sandwiches. Your refrigerator can hold some glorious fresh seafood and produce if you just make a stop at Elat Grocery on Pico Street.

Elat is one of those places where you either love it or you hate it. For those who have been to the Middle East, who are accustomed to the personalities and demeanor of Persians and Israelis, Elat is like coming home. For someone whose primary experience has been inside the big box chain stores, you may run screaming out the door after just trying to get a cart. There is also a cacophony of languages: Hebrew, Farsi, Arabic, and a collection of Slavic and European languages.

Elat is a Middle Eastern grocery, offering fresh meats, cheeses, fish and produce for prices almost half of what is charged in other stores. They offer imported canned goods, including olives and pickles from Israel, and lovely sheep’s milk feta cheese from Bulgaria.

Walking into the front door of Elat, the customer’s nose is assailed with a combination of scents: the spices redolent in Middle Eastern foods, the produce, the fresh meats sold from a counter tended by a real butcher who weighs and cuts the meat to order, and the smell of fresh fish. Another rarity at Elat is the presence of a fish monger who waits while you select your fish, then scales, guts and cleans it to your specifications. Most seafood shipped to seafood market now comes in already cleaned. Elat brings back this old school service in order to better serve their patrons who had been accustomed to buying their fish directly from fisherman.

Because Elat keeps kosher, you will not find pork or shellfish there. However, the fresh free range chickens and fish so fresh it slept in the ocean the night before is worth the trouble.

Once you are finished at Elat, take a walk across the street to the Haifa Restaurant. Humble, out of the way, with no more parking than Elat, but well worth the trip. They have wonderful fish on their menu, fixed in assorted ways. They offer chicken too, but no beef. Their hummus, falafel, and babaganoush are to die for. For under $20, you can have a nice sit down meal, made up of “small plates,” like salads, dips, fresh warm pita, and vegetables. Remember, they close at two o’clock Friday afternoon, but they set up a small buffet then and do a vegetarian take away, to allow their patrons to dash in grab supper then head home before Sabbath begins.

Step away from the sushi and the haute cuisine for a change and take a trip down West Pico Boulevard and see what develops.

Los Angeles seafood is not limited to restaurants. You may not find seafood chowder at Elat or Haifitz, but you can get enough fresh fish at Elat to make your own, then go across the street for a nice lox and bagel for lunch before you go home to cook.

A Guide to the Freshest Seafood in Los Angeles – LosAngelesSeafood.net

There are as many recipes for bouillabaisse as there are cooks. The dish had humble beginnings though, originating on the docks at Calais and on the Mediterranean Sea, by fishermen anxious for their supper, but unable to get home to their table.

The traditional ingredients are simple: fish, shellfish, tomatoes, spices, oil, water, and bread. In the fisherman’s version, bread plays a large part. Men would take large baguettes with them in the morning when they took to their boats, and would tear off bits during the day to slake their hunger, and there might be a half loaf left at the end of their day.

Coastal fishermen traditionally had different seafood targets. Some fished for mussels, some for fish, and some for crustaceans. On the dock at the end of the day, after a particularly busy day on the water, when they would still have work to do for the next day, someone invariably would build a fire on the beach, out would come a large pot, and the bouillabaisse would be on.

Fisherman’s Bouillabaisse

What You Need:

• day old crusty bread
• olive oil
• fresh fish
• crabs
• mussels
• clams
• (Any combination of seafood thereof, so long as they are fresh)
• water
• white wine
• salt
• pepper
• fresh basil
• fresh tarragon
• sprig of fresh rosemary
• bay leaf

How to Make It:

Clean the fish and cut into chunks. Clean te crabs and break the bodies into quarters. Scrub the shells of the clams and mussels.

Grease the inside of the pot with some olive oil. Put in the fish, shellfish, and herbs. Put in equal amounts of water and wine, enough to cover.

Bring to a boil and cook for about ten to fifteen minutes. Taste, add salt and pepper to taste. Add a little chicken stock if you think it necessary.

Cut the bread into thick slices. Dip in olive oil. Tear into chunks and fill a deep bowl half way with the bread. Put in some of the fish, and then pour in enough broth to be soaked in to the bread.

Serve with a lot of paper towels and a big glass of wine.

You can make a classier soup. You can pick the crabs and cut the fish into small pieces, and remove the mollusks from their shells. You can use chicken stock and wine, or use prepared fish stock, if you do not want your kitchen filled with the smell of cooked fish.

You can also make a Polish version, using a fatty fish like mullet. Rather than cooking in wine, put the cleaned fish in a bowl covered with equal parts vinegar and water. Tie 1/4 cup of pickling spice and a couple of bay leaves in a cheesecloth and put it in with the fish. Allow it to marinate covered for two days.

Put the fish, liquid and spice bag on in a pot (not cast iron. Stainless steel works best) and simmer on medium-low for about two hours.

Remove the fish from the cooking liquid. Serve with buttered noodles.

Seafood chowder began with bouillabaisse in France. It is a simple, rich dish which can contain any number of species of fish and shellfish. Seafood can also be made in the Polish style, rather like sauerbraten.

A Guide to the Freshest Seafood in Los Angeles – LosAngelesSeafood.net

The foodies on television climb all over competing chefs who mix cheese and seafood in any manner. They insist the two should never be mixed. They are wrong.

Food you like together goes together. There are generations of people in the southern US who put peanuts in their cola. In England, they eat cold baked beans on toast for breakfast. So if you like it, put it on the table.

Hot dips are wonderful for parties. They can be easy to make, and can incorporate a collection of ingredients in different combinations so that just adding one thing, and taking away another can create a whole new taste.

Crab & Artichoke

What You Need:

• one 15 ounce jar creamy Alfredo sauce
• 8 ounces chunk imitation crab meat (Surimi)
• one jar artichoke hearts (NOT marinated)
• 3 ounces shredded Parmesan cheese
• 4 ounces drained, sliced water chestnuts

How to Make It:

Drain the artichoke hearts and the water chestnuts (if you can find artichoke bottoms, they are preferable, but hearts will work) Chop the artichokes and water chestnuts into quarters or a little smaller. Cut the Surimi into bite sized pieces.

Pour the Alfredo sauce into an ovenproof dish. Stir in the chopped vegetables and Surimi. Fold in half of the cheese. Spread the rest of the cheese on top.

Put the dip under the broiler for 4 to 5 minutes, until the cheese on top begins to bubble and brown.

If you would like a variation on the artichoke dip, instead of Parmesan, use 2 ounces of bleu cheese and 2 ounces of whole milk mozzarella. Fold the bleu into the dip, and put the mozzarella on top.

Alternatively, you can use Fontina cheese, and increase the amount of cheese to 6 ounces. Leave out the water chestnuts and artichokes, and instead fold 6 ounces spinach (use frozen spinach that is thawed and well drained)

What if you want something totally out of the ordinary? Then, instead of crab, try using a tin of drained oysters. Rinse the oysters well, cut them into quarters, and stir them into the dip.

Now the question is, what do you serve this dip with? A baguette, thinly sliced and brushed with a little olive oil and grilled works well. So do the scoop shaped tortilla chips and pita chips. Whatever you dip, it has to be stout to support the heavy dip. It works well using as a dip for raw veggies too, but it is a little hard to get a piece of crabmeat

For something even more savory, try using one of the above dips with smoked mussels, oysters, or octopus. You will need to rinse them well to remove the oil, and then chop them finely.

Should you want something a little lighter, try adding chopped cooked broccoli. You can increase the amount of spinach or artichokes hearts. You can even add cooked ground turkey in place of the crab or other shellfish.

Allow your imagination to run amok with dips. For your next party, try putting out a collection of hot dips that are all variations on a theme. Try some with meat, some with crab or shrimp, and some with just cheese and vegetables. Put out a big basket of bread, some toasted, some not. Put a couple of bottles of white wine out and watch your guests swarm the table. There will not be leftovers.

When you have too many guest to make imitation crab salad recipe for the crowd, try putting out some warm crab dips. You can do far more with Surimi that make crab salad.

Why be Crabby When You can be a Salad – CrabSalads.com

Los Angeles is a wonderful city. Every sort of restaurant imaginable, from Cuban to Ethiopian to Korean to Chinese Dim Sum seem to be located in every other block of the city. It is possible to take a world tour and never leave the city limits.

One thing you will notice in Los Angeles is some of the famous names. Mario Batali, the Iron Chef, has a restaurant there, as do Wolfgang Puck and Bobby Flay. Their food is spectacular, sometimes with prices to match. Sure you can have a bite to eat there for a reasonable price. However, for a whole meal, take your check book. That is not to say it is not worth it, but some people cannot justify spending the mortgage payment on a meal for four.

Then are the smaller, hole in the wall places. Those are sometimes fun. Sure, they may not be classy looking, and may be shabby chic leaning towards just plane shabby. Nevertheless, a restaurant must be judged on the quality of their fare, not by their decor.

Read their menu. Do they offer fresh, local seafood? Alternatively, is it all frozen, processed square breaded fish filets that more commonly come served on a bun with tartar sauce? Do they have calamari on the menu? How is it prepared?

Squid requires flash cooking at a high temperature, such as coating in a light breading and deep frying quickly, or long slow cooking at low temperatures in an acidic sauce. Otherwise it comes out reminiscent of chewing on rubber bands.

There is a collection of wonderful sushi restaurants in Los Angeles. There are also some sushi places that serve fish more suitable for cat food than wrapping in nori and sticky rice.

Koreatown (a horribly xenophobic sounding name for a wonderful community filled with groceries, pottery, natural remedies and food ready to be devoured with relish. With names like Fat Fish, Hokkaido, Boiling Crab, and Flaming Clam, you know the food has to be as creative as their names.

Off of Torrence Boulevard, at the Redondo Beach Pier, the primarily Asian influence offers not only fresh fish from their own tanks, which they use to make sashimi, but organic seafood.

Many of the sushi bars in Los Angeles are not Japanese sushi, but offer the Korean variety. Bu San, and O-Dae-San are only two of the many in the city. One place, The Prince, even offers octopus that is cut up alive and serve still moving.

If you are looking for sea food so fresh you have to slap it, you cannot go wrong in Los Angeles.

Seafood restaurant Los Angeles come in all nationalities and styles. You can find everything from seafood chowder to live octopus there. Let your imagination be your guide.

A Guide to the Freshest Seafood in Los Angeles – LosAngelesSeafood.net