I know this looks like a long ass list of ingredients, but bear with me. I’ve tried my hardest to simplify the process of adding a ton of flavor without having to be a slave to the method or the list of ingredients. What I mean is…I am lazy. I really dislike recipes that make you constantly look back and forth at the dizzying lineup of spice quantities. 1/8 teaspoon and 1/2 teaspoon and 1/2 tablespoon. That’s recipe whiplash and I’m suing. So, for the recipe below, almost everything is measured by ones. Not hard to remember, and easy to customize if you’d like more or less of any particular flavor.

Ingredients

For the Chowder

• 2 T coconut oil
• 1 t cumin seeds
• 1 t brown mustard seeds
• 1 thumb size piece of ginger, finely minced
• 1 yellow onion, diced small
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 t curry powder (sweet or hot)
• 1 t garam masala
• 1 can full fat coconut milk
• 2 lbs white, flaky fish (we used cod)
• salt
• juice from 1 lime

For the Crou-tains

• 2-3 green plantains, diced small
• 3 T coconut oil
• salt

Method

For the Chowder

In a medium sized soup pot, melt the coconut oil over medium heat. Add the cumin and mustard seeds. Let them dance around the pot for a minute or two and then add the ginger, garlic and onion. Saute until the onion is cooked through. Add the curry and garam masala powders. Dump in the can of the coconut milk. Stir everything around to combine.

Now add the fish. Just toss the whole fillets in there. Stir them around in the pot, every so often, until they’re cooked through. Take 2 forks and pull the fish into flakes (just like if you were pulling apart a chicken breast or beef brisket). Remove the soup from the heat and stir in the lime juice.

For the Crou-tains (Paleo Croutons)

In a large saute pan, melt the coconut oil. Add the diced plantains. As always, the smaller the dice, the faster they’ll cook. Let the plantains fry until they’re cooked through and have a nice crust on the outside. Shouldn’t take more than 15 minutes.

Just like regular croutons, the crou-tains taste better the day they’re made. Not that they’re inedible the next day, they’re just not as crispy.

Perfectly crispy and easy to make, these fish sticks may fool even the most seasoned fish stick connoisseur.

Ingredients

• 1 ½ lbs haddock (or any firm, meaty white fish)
• roughly 6 oz of plantain chips (Check labels, ideally just plantains, palm oil and salt)
• F.O.C. (fat of choice), palm and coconut will work well here

Method

In a food processor, crush up the plantain chips until they’re the consistency of fine bread crumbs. Place the crumbs in a zip-top bag and add some salt, if the chips haven’t already been a-salted, I mean, salted. Corny? Yes.

Slice the fish fillets into strips/planks/sticks, widthwise. Working in batches, add a few fish strips to the zip-top bag and shake around until the strips are completely coated.

Melt your F.O.C. in a saute pan over medium heat. Place the coated strips in the pan and let them get brown before you flip them to the other side. This should take less than a minute for each side. If you’ve cut the fish sticks pretty thick, don’t forget you’ve got 4 sides to brown, not just 2.

Calamari is cheap, cheap, cheap. I paid $5/lb for wild caught. I know calamari can lend itself to more versatile recipes than just deep frying–but it’s just so goooood, I couldn’t help myself. There are no messy dredging stations and “club hand” simply does not exist.

Ingredients

• 1 ½ lbs cleaned calamari (tubes & tentacles)
• 1 c potato starch
• salt
• roughly 2 cups non-hydrogenated palm shortening

For the Sauce

• 6 oz (roughly 1) roasted red peppers
• couple leaves of basil
• 2 T olive oil
• red pepper flakes
• salt

Method

In a medium sized bowl, mix together the potato starch and a few dashes of salt. In a sauce pot, melt the palm shortening over medium to medium-high heat. The smaller the sauce pot the higher the oil level will be, but the smaller the batches will be, so choose accordingly. Line a pan with a few layers of paper towels and set next to the oil. Blend the ingredients for the sauce together in a blender or small food processor.

While the oil is heating up, make double sure your calamari tubes are cleaned by sticking your fingers inside and checking to see nothing gelatinous is inside. This would be a great task for a little boy, huh? If there is, pull it out and throw it away. Slice the tubes into rings. Leave the tentacle whole.

Working in batches, lightly dredge the rings in the starch and toss them into the oil. Don’t over crowd or they’re all stick together. You want to hear the sizzle and see bubbles. If you don’t, the oil isn’t hot enough. Using a spider or slotted spoon, swirl around the calamari every few seconds until they’re crispy. You’re NOT looking for brown-ness. Browned potato starch tastes burned. Test one or two out if you need to, before pulling the whole lot out. Place on the lined pan and sprinkle with salt.

We’re re-mixing the normal mayo-based salad. Don’t get me wrong, I like chicken salad (I’m partial to this one), but sometimes you just want something different. We’re using the classic ‘Holy Trinity’ of bell pepper, celery and onion found in Creole & Cajun dishes as the base of our salad, mixing in some Old Bay spiced mayo and viola–something different. We had planned to toss in some crawfish tails too–but after a trip to the grocery store, we kind of forgot about them and left them in the trunk to um…hang out. So, we nixed that idea and just bumped up the amount of shrimp.

Ingredients

• 1 ½ lbs shrimp, peeled & deveined
• 2 bell peppers, diced (whatever color is your favorite–or cheapest)
• 4 stalks celery (and the leaves), diced
• 3 green onions, diced
• 2 recipes mayo (about ½-¾ c)
• 1 ½ t Old Bay seasoning (taste and then add more if you’d like, it’s quite strong)
• 1 lemon, juiced
• s&p

Method

Bring a pot of water to boil, add the shrimp and cook until they’re pink, about 5 minutes. Once the shrimp are cool enough to handle, chop them up into bite size pieces. Dry them off really well with a dish/paper towel.

In your serving bowl, mix together all the ingredients.

Serve cold.

HB NOTE: I used the lightest green stalks of the celery. Since we’re eating it raw, it makes sense to use the most tender celery pieces and reserve the other dark green stalks for sauteing. Also, many people don’t know that the leaves of celery are edible–and make a wonderful salad, at that. We’ve made a few recipes using the celery root too.

Okay, really you’re supposed to call this kind of recipe ‘en papillote’…but that just sounds so stuffy and intimidating. It’s just some kind of protein (usually fish), aromatics (onions, lemons, herbs, etc.) stuffed inside a piece of  parchment paper that’s been formed into a pouch. This is an awesome way to cook any kind of fish, really. No mess to clean up and the steam created in the pouch keeps it nice and moist. We’ve got detailed, step-by-step pictures and even an illustration, so no excuses for not trying this out!

Ingredients

• 1 lb (about 4) salmon filets
• 1 leek
• 3 green onions
• thumb size piece of ginger, peeled and minced
• olive oil
• salt

Method

Get your oven to 350ºF. Tear off 4 sheets of parchment paper, making sure they’re all rectangular in size. Place a salmon filet on each piece of parchment, positioning it like the image/illustration to the left.

Cut off the green stalk of the leek, along with the root tip. Slice the leek lengthwise and continue to do so until the leek has been cut into thin ribbons (like the picture). Do the same to the green onions. Toss the leek and green onion ribbons in a bowl along with the ginger, olive oil and salt. Mix with your hands to combine.

Drizzle a bit of olive oil on top of each salmon filet and sprinkle with a bit of salt. Top each filet with a handful of the onion mixture.

To seal the salmon pouches:

1. Referring the illustration above, at the bigger, horizontal dotted lines, join the ends of the parchment paper around the salmon filets.

2. Now, fold down the edges, either by crimping them (lazy way) or folding them over each other, like closing a coffee bag (fancy pants way), all the way down, until you’ve reached the top of the salmon.

3. Refer back to the illustration above, the vertical, thin dotted lines are where you’re going to fold and tuck in the sides of the parchment paper.

Place all the pouches on a baking sheet. Bake for about 15 minutes. My filets were quite thin, as you can see from the picture. I did mine at 17 minutes and they were a bit overdone. Be careful when you open the pouches since they’ll have a bit of steam in them.

Super quick fish chowder. I used cod because it’s a firm, meaty, flaky fish that’s pretty easy on the budget and difficult to overcook. I even found it wild-caught in the freezer section of the grocery store. Besides using my new favorite soup base of the cream-like, non-coconut tasting coconut creamer, I took out the normal chowder base of starchy potatoes and used fennel in its place, for texture and the nice anise flavor it adds.

Ingredients

• 2 fennel bulbs, fronds and core removed, chopped
• 1 onion, chopped
• F.O.C. (fat of choice)
• 1 pint original coconut creamer
• 1 qt stock (I’d use chicken or veg, as beef may be too strong and tinge the color of the soup)
• 1-1½ lb cod (not salt cod), cut into chunks
• juice of ½ lemon
• s&p
• 5 slices bacon, crisped up & crumbled (optional)
• green onions or chives, chopped (optional)

Method

In a large soup pot, saute the fennel and onion in a few tablespoons of your F.O.C. (I’d recommend bacon renderings!) until soft. Add the creamer & stock. Let it come to a simmer. Add the fish pieces and let them poach until they’re cooked through, about 10 minutes. Stir in the lemon juice. Serve topped with crumbled bacon & chives.

Ingredients

• 4 filets of salmon (about 24 ounces)
• 3 T FOC (fat of choice)

Blackened Seasoning

• 3 t paprika
• 1 t dried thyme
• 1 t dried oregano
• ½ t salt
• ¼ t cayenne
• ¼ t black pepper
• …or you can buy it

Tomato Gravy

• 1 onion, diced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 6 strips bacon, diced
• 1 14.5 can fire-roasted crushed tomatoes
• ½ c chicken stock
• ½ lemon, juiced
• S & P

It makes sense to start this recipe with the gravy as that can simmer away while you work on the fish. Add your diced bacon to a pan and cook on med-high heat, stirring occasionally until crispy. Remove and set aside–but keep the rendered fat in the pan. (We’ve tried adding the bacon and onions at the same time but it’s very difficult to get the bacon fully cooked without burning the onions).

In the same pan that’s now got delicious bacon grease in it, add your onions and garlic. Cook these until translucent and starting to brown slightly. When they’re ready, add your tomatoes, the stock, and the bacon to the party. Let this simmer on low while you work on your fish.

Make your blackened seasoning by dumping all the spices and mixing together, set aside. If you bought your salmon with skin on, you’ll want to remove the skin so you can season both sides. Do this by placing the salmon skin side down on a cutting board and passing your knife between the skin and flesh…as close to the skin as you can. It takes a little practice. Flip it over and take a look, trim off any remaining skin you missed. When you’ve got your skinless fish ready to go, pat dry with paper towels. You want the surface dry so you can achieve the optimal blackened effect. Season each side of the dry fish.

Place your fish in your hot pan/skillet (cast iron works well here) with your FOC. You need to hear a sizzle when you place the fish in otherwise it won’t be hot enough to sear/blacken before overcooking. Cook fish 2-5 minutes on each side. Peek under to check blackened-ness before turning. Don’t let the title of the dish fool you, you’re looking for more of a dark brown than black. Black probably means burned to a crisp and that is no bueno. If you’re unsure of this process you could try one piece of fish first to see if you can get it blackened on both sides without overcooking it in the middle.

Top your fish with the gravy and a squeeze of lemon. We served this with broccoli.

For the love of pesto, it is hard as heck to make it taste good without parmesan cheese. We’ve tried to make the basic green/basil pesto a few times and it always tastes bitter. So we decided to try a sun dried tomato version to see if the tomatoes would add a sweetness that was lacking in our previous efforts. I loved it so much I was like a kid with cookie dough, using my fingers to get out every last drop. The side dish you see in the pic is a recipe we will post soon, promise.

Ingredients

Pesto

• 1/2 c pine nuts or almonds
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1/2 c sun dried tomatoes (in oil if you can, rehydrate per instructions if dried)
• 1/4 c fresh parsley
• 1/2 c fresh basil
• 1 T tomato paste
• 3/4 c extra virgin olive oil
• S&P

Salmon

• 1 lb wild caught salmon fitlets
• 2 T extra virgin olive oil
• S&P

For the Pesto

Preheat your oven to 400ºF . On a baking sheet,  toast your pine nuts and roast your garlic. To roast the garlic, wrap the cloves in a small piece of foil with some olive oil drizzled on top and just stick it on the baking sheet, next to the nuts. This should take about 6-8 minutes. They’ll be a nice golden brown when they’re ready. Check frequently….burned garlic and pine nuts taste horribly horrible.  Add the pine nuts, roasted garlic, sun dried tomatoes, tomato paste and herbs to your food processor and blend. Stream in the olive oil until the pesto comes together.

For the Salmon

The salmon can have skin on or off, but make sure all the pin bones are removed by running your fingers across the center line of the salmon. They’re about the size of a sewing needle. Pat your salmon dry with a paper towel and place the fillets skin side down, on the same baking sheet you used for the nuts, but make sure you’ve oiled it with some olive oil, to prevent the skin from sticking. Drizzle the top of the fillets with olive oil and generously salt and pepper. Place in a 400°F oven for about 8 minutes or until the salmon gives slightly when you press down on it.

A kid-friendly riff on fish sticks. We made tartar sauce from scratch, I highly recommend you do the same. If you’re deathly afraid (which you shouldn’t be) of making mayo, substitute the homemade mayo for store bought, but DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT, buy store bought tartar sauce. It’s so gross…so, so gross. These seafood balls are cheap, cheap, cheap. I swear they could pass for crab cakes. We used cod (a cheap, easy to find, flaky, white fish that tastes way better than tilapia) and shrimp. Another nod to cod: you can find it wild-caught! Feel free to play around with the ratio of cod-to-shrimp, but do keep the total weight around 2 pounds.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 lb cod
• 1/2 lb shrimp
• juice of 1/2 lemon
• 3 T fresh parsley
• 2 T Old Bay
• 2 eggs
• 2 T tartar sauce
• 1/2 c almond flour

Breading Ingredients

• 1 egg
• 1/2 c water
• 1 c almond flour
• 1 t salt

Tartar Sauce Ingredients

• 2 recipes mayo (or use 3/4 c store-bought)
• 3 T pickle relish
• juice of 1/2 a lemon
• 1/4 t garlic powder
• salt

Method

For the tartar sauce:

In the smallest bowl of your food processor, blend all ingredients and stick in the fridge to chill while you make the seafood balls.

For the seafood balls:

In the largest bowl of your food processor, add all the ingredients (except the breading ingredients) and mix until everything has turned into a fine paste.

Heat a non-stick or cast iron saute pan with a few tablespoons of fat over medium-high heat.

In one soup bowl, mix together the egg and water. In another soup bowl, toss together the almond flour and salt. Scoop the seafood mixture into small balls. Drop and roll the seafood balls in the almond flour mixture, the egg mixture then in the almond flour again.

In batches, place the seafood balls in the saute pan and saute, until the balls are brown and crispy on all sides–about 3-4 minutes on each side.

I have a difficult time talking myself into making ceviche at home. Even though we’re not far from the coast here in Columbia, South Carolina, it is quite difficult to source fresh, wild ceviche-makin’ seafood. Insert lightbulb overhead. Why don’t I just pre-cook some seafood like shrimp and scallops, chill it and then make the tasty “broth” to go with. Wonder if you can tell the difference, we sure couldn’t.

Ingredients

• 1 lb. wild shrimp, peeled, deveined and tail-off
• 1/2 lb. bay scallops
• 1 mango, diced
• 2 limes, juiced
• 2 lemons, juiced
• 1 orange, juiced
• 1/2 handful cilantro, chopped
• 3 green onions, chopped
• chili garlic sauce, optional
• s&p

Method

Heat about 2 quarts of water on medium until it starts to simmer–no boiling allowed! While the water is coming to temperature, make sure to have the shrimp peeled, deveined and take the tail off. Chop the shrimp and scallops into bite size pieces. Alternatively, you could use pre-cooked shrimp…it may cost more, but it will save a bit of time. Once the water is ready, add the seafood and cook until the shrimp is pale pink. This will not take long, about 5 minutes. Strain the seafood from the water.

In a bowl add the rest of the ingredients. Add the cooked seafood and let chill before serving.