Shrimply irresistible!
Are you getting your daily dose of seafood? Nutrient packed fish can do wonders for strengthening your heart, mind, and entire body. Organizations, like the American Heart Association, recommend that you eat fish at least twice a week.
Yet, very few Americans can enjoy the health benefits of eating seafood every week. Uncertainty, how to cook fish, or what seafood recipes to make, makes it tricky for potential seafood lovers to dive in. That’s why some Americans find themselves rarely eating fish or completely cutting it out of their diet.
However, the truth is, you don’t have to be a culinary expert to make seafood dishes your guests will salivate over. Read on to learn how to make simple but savory seafood meals.
Health Benefits of Seafood Recipes
Ready to start chowing down on some delicious chowder? Or perhaps you’re stomach’s eyes are deadset on some decadent crab. Whatever seafood dish you’re thinking about serving up, you should take a moment to appreciate all of the health benefits.
Here are some of the health benefits of seafood dishes:
- Enhanced muscle recovery
- Enhanced heart health
- Reduced inflammation
- Improvement in certain eye conditions
- Reduced cancer risks
- Preventative for Alzheimer’s
- Lowers blood pressure
- Protects mental health
Many seafood recipes are full of heart-healthy omega 3 fatty acids. Fatty acids such as eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) are present in oily fish. Dishes serving up salmon, or anchovies, will be teeming with omega acids.
How Much Is Safe to Eat?
According to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, you should eat about 8 oz or more of seafood every week. It’s best if you eat a variety of fatty fish like sardines, herring, and salmon. You should also make sure you’re buying seafood from companies that emphasize freshness, like the Crab Dynasty, or local vendors.
- Stuffed Salmon Fillets
Avoid getting premade seafood recipes from the store, and instead, always opt to make them fresh at home. Stuffing your salmon fillets yourself means being able to load them with flavor. Flavors like savory herbs and delicious cream cheese.
Ingredients List
- 1 cup of cooked brown rice
- 8 oz of imitation crabmeat
- 2 tablespoons of soft cream cheese
- 2 tablespoons of melted butter
- 2 finely minced garlic cloves
- 1/2 teaspoon of oregano, dried basil, marjoram, thyme, and rosemary, crushed
- 1/2 teaspoon of crushed celery seeds
- 12 salmon fillets that are 8 oz each
- 3 tablespoons of olive oil
- 2 teaspoons of dill
- 1 teaspoon of salt
Make sure you take the time to gather up every herb we have listed on the ingredients list, no matter how small it may seem. It’s the blend of all the subtle herbs and spices together that allows the entree’s flavors to explode.
Cooking Stuffed Salmon
Start by preheating your oven to 400. Next, take out a large bowl and begin combining the cream cheese, crab, rice, butter, basil, garlic, oregano, marjoram, thyme, rosemary, and celery seed. After mixing those ingredients, set the bowl down and begin cutting the fillets.
Cut each fillet horizontally, creating a pocket. Stuff the pocket with the mixture and secure the fillet using toothpicks. Finally, place the salmon fillets on your greased baking pans and brush them with oil.
Lightly sprinkle on the dill and salt before baking the fillets for 20 minutes. Once the fish begins to flake easily with a fork, it’s done the cooking. Be sure to remove the toothpicks before serving your guests.
- Ahi Tuna with Coconut Curry
One of the best parts about our coconut curry is that it’s easy to throw together last minute. The entire cook time for this dish is about 30 minutes.
Ingredients List
Here are the ingredients you’ll need:
- 2 pounds of super fresh ahi tuna
- 2 tablespoons of peanut oil
- 1/4 cup of mirin
- 3 garlic cloves well smashed
- 1/4 cup of fresh ginger that’s julienned
- 1 teaspoon of your choice of Thai green curry paste
- 1/4 cup coconut milk
- 10 basil leaves
- 3 tablespoons of finely sliced shallots
- 1/2 cup carrots, julienned
- 1 teaspoon of fish sauce
- 1 tablespoon of lime juice
- Mint and cilantro to garnish
Begin by cutting the tuna up into cubes that are 2 inches wide. Next, season your tuna cubes using the sesame seeds and sea salt. Using a high heat setting, place your wok on the oven and let it heat up and add in peanut oil.
Searing the Tuna
Make sure to brown the tuna cube on 4 sides before moving to the next one. Now, you can set your seared tuna cubes aside and start making the coconut curry.
Coconut Curry
Wipe the wok out well and add in a tablespoon of oil. Once the oil starts smoking you can add in the garlic, curry paste, chiles, and ginger. Next, start swirling in the shallots, basil, and all of the carrots.
After waiting about 1 minute you can start swirling in the coconut milk and mirin. After about 8 minutes of letting the sauce simmer, you can season it with lime. Finally, serve the tuna over the sauce and garnish the plates with cilantro and julienned mint.
- Build a Raw Bar
The best part about seafood recipes is how appealing they look when you finish them. Plating and presenting food is an art, that affects the way you experience a meal.
Researchers have found that individuals eating food that has a great presentation, enjoy the flavors of their food more. Creating a raw bar is the ultimate way to present a wide array of seafood to your guests.
Create a Dazzling Display
When deciding what selection of chilled, fresh seafood to prepare, remember that the key to a good raw bar is variety. Allowing guests the opportunity to choose between sweet and salty, small, and large, is part of the fun a raw bar brings.
Almost every raw bar will have freshly shucked oysters, with half of the shell still intact. Yet, it’s not just the intact shell that makes oysters the star of the show. It’s every little detail you put into presenting them.
Cocktail Sauces
Along with leaving the shell intact, you’ll also want your oysters and other seafood to be sitting on platters of crushed ice. Tastefully add in lemon wedges, cocktail sauce, and mignonette.
Guests will love being able to choose how they want to dress up each oyster before devouring it. Next, if you want to go the extra mile, include seafood like sea urchin, sashimi, and ceviche.
Not Everything’s Raw
Building a raw bar doesn’t have to mean that every food item is raw. You can also add in cooked seafood items as well. Consider adding in shrimp cocktails, tasty chilled crab legs, and butter lobster tails.
- Poached Salmon with Hollandaise
Kill two birds with one stone, or in this case two fish, by making a meal that surprises guests and provides great leftovers! Poached salmon with hollandaise sauce is famous for providing days of leftovers, like salmon salad, and salmon cakes.
You’ll also be able to really “wow” your guests, since poaching fish is no longer a common cooking practice. You can expect this recipe to take about 30 minutes to complete, and it will feed up to 6 guests.
Ingredients List
Here are the ingredients you’ll need:
- 2 egg yolks from large eggs
- 1.5 tablespoons water
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1/2 teaspoon mustard (preferably Dijon)
- 1 tablespoon finely chopped tarragon
- Whole tarragon leaves (garnish)
- 1/8 teaspoon of cayenne pepper
- 1 stick of unsalted butter
- 1 teaspoon of salt
- 6 salmon fillets
- 1.5 cups of dry white wine
- 1 celery stick chopped coarsely
- 1/2 medium onion
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 tablespoon of black peppercorns
- Salt
If making a hollandaise sauce intimidates you, don’t worry, this one has a special secret.
Making No-Fail Hollandaise Sauce
Unlike other sauces that are easy to mess up, our recipe is for a no-fail hollandaise sauce. By whipping the yolks over medium heat and adding in butter, you’ll be able to create a less complicated version of hollandaise. A version that holds particularly well.
Using a heatproof bowl, set it over a pot of simmering water. At the same time, whisk your egg yolks with the water, mustard, lemon juice, finely chopped tarragon, and cayenne pepper.
Continue whisking until the mixture’s slightly thick, this usually takes 2 minutes. Start gradually adding in the butter, while still whisking, for another 5 minutes.
Go ahead and salt your sauce to taste. After you finish salting your sauce it’ll be ready to be gently spooned over a platter of salmon.
Poaching Salmon
Start by boiling a pot of water. Next, arrange the salmon fillets in a single layer on a deep skillet.
Begin adding in the wine, celery, onion, bay leaf, and peppercorns, along with boiling water, to cover the salmon. Make sure you have the salmon fully covered and then cook over low heat until the salmon is barely firm.
After about 10 minutes the salmon should be firm enough for you to stop cooking it. Once it’s firm, put the salmon on the serving platter and dab at it gently, patting it dry. Then lightly pour on the sauce.
Vegetarian Seafood Dishes
It’s a common misconception that vegetarians eat seafood recipes. While pescatarians enjoy indulging in fish and shrimp, vegetarians will not. Yet, don’t worry, offering vegetarians an alternative to fish is easier than you might think.
If one, or more of the guests at your dinner party are vegetarians, you’ll want to be sure you have non-meat alternatives available. We suggest you try cooking tempeh, as an alternative protein choice.
The flaky texture makes Tempeh perfect for making vegetarian “fish” fillets, “crab” cakes, and “fish” sticks. Remember, in seafood dishes, it’s often the spices that tie the meal together. Be sure to include seafood herbs and spices with your vegetarian dishes to make the meal have that famous seafood flavor.
Need more tasty meal ideas? Check out our health and food section today!
