Fish – Seafood

Sesame Seared Ahi Tuna with Lime Ginger Vinaigrette

~ The Blind Guy Cooks ~ Leave a comment

I love meals that are quick to fix and taste like you spent way too much time preparing them. Tuna steak is one of those things. It is very versatile and is like a blank canvass able to take any flavor combinations you can think to use. It tastes great with a simple salt and pepper to spicy Cajun. Tonight I prepared it by covering it with sesame seeds and then drizzling a lime and ginger vinaigrette. Here’s what I did.

Ingredients

6 tablespoons sesame seeds (approximately)
2 Ahi tuna fish steaks
Wasabi paste
2 or 3 tablespoons light cooking oil
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lime juice (or other vinegar)
1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper

Place sesame seeds in a shallow bowl or pie pan. Pat the tuna very dry. Smear a bit of wasabi paste on both sides of the fish. Don’t be shy with the wasabi. The cooking will tame it’s intense heat and really add to the flavor profile. Season the fish with salt and pepper. Then cover all sides of the tuna with sesame seeds. Place the steak in the bowl of sesame seeds and gently press to coat.

Heat a frying pan over medium-high heat and add the cooking oil. When the oil is shimmering, carefully lay the tuna fillets in the pan, not touching. Cook for 2 or 3 minutes then flip the tuna and cook 2 additional minutes Take care not to burn the sesame seeds. If the seeds start turning brown too quickly, lower the heat. Remove the fish to a plate.

In a small bowl, whisk together the lime juice, ginger and the oil. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Drizzle some of the lime-ginger vinaigrette over the fish and serve with salad greens.

Look at my mussels!

~ The Blind Guy Cooks ~ Leave a comment

I made Susan a special treat for her birthday: mussels in a creamy, garlic sauce. This is another one of those dishes that looks a heck of a lot more complicated than it truly is. The hardest, most time consuming part is de-bearding and cleaning the mussels and even that is not totally daunting. I won’t go into the process here but this site gives a pretty good tutorial on cleaning mussels.

Here is what I did to cook the mussels.

Ingredients

¼ cup butter
2 shallots, finely diced
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 ½ cup white wine
½ cup cream
3 lb fresh black mussels, cleaned
fresh parsley, for garnish

Directions

Melt butter over medium in a large sauce pan with a lid. Saute shallots and garlic in butter for about 3 minutes or until soft. Add wine and cream and bring to a boil. Boil to reduce liquid until thick, approximately 10 min. Taste sauce and season with salt and pepper as needed.

With sauce boiling add mussels, cover and cook 5 additional minutes. Once mussels are fully cooked and open divide among bowls and ladle cream sauce over. Sprinkle with parsley.

Tonight I served the mussels with pasta and crusty bread along with a nice Sauvignon Blanc.

Happy birthday Susan!

Scampi – Quick, easy and deceptively elegant

~ The Blind Guy Cooks ~ Leave a comment

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It seems shrimp was put on this earth simply for those nights when you need to whip up something quick and shrimp scampi has to be the easiest ways to cook shrimp. A little butter, a little lemon juice, garlic and parsley and in minutes you have a dish with a deceptive, light elegance. Here is what I did tonight:

Ingredients

1/3 cup butter
1 to 1 ½ pounds large shrimp, peeled and deveined
6 to 8 cloves of garlic, minced
1/3 cup chopped fresh parsley
1 red onion sliced thin and halved.
Juice from ½ lemon (Approximately 2 to 3 tablespoons)
Salt to taste

Directions

In a large skillet, heat butter over medium heat and sauté garlic until aromatic and just begins to soften. Add shrimp and cook until it begins to turn pink about two minutes. Turn shrimp and cook additional two to three minutes. Remove shrimp from pan and set aside.

Add onion to pan and sauté until soft and almost translucent. Return shrimp to pan. Add lemon juice and parsley and season with salt. Stir well. Remove pan from heat and serve immediately over angel hair or similar pasta or simply just eat.

Pecan Encrusted Salmon with Dijon Butter and Lemony Dill Peas

~ The Blind Guy Cooks ~ Leave a comment

The only regret I have when I cook salmon is that I live in Iowa. Some day, I will have a fresh Chinook salmon flown in from Pike’s Place Market in Seattle. That or hope that my niece Kelly is kind enough to send me a fresh caught Alaskan salmon on her next Alaskan fishing trip. But C’est la vie… I live in Iowa. I’m stuck with frozen fish, but as Susan said, “I’d rather eat frozen fish than no fish at all.”

Here is what I did with the frozen filets I had in my freezer.

Pecan Encrusted Salmon with Dijon Butter

Ingredients

¼ cup butter, melted
3 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1 ½ tablespoons honey
¼ cup dry bread crumbs
¼ cup finely chopped pecans
4 teaspoons chopped fresh parsley
4 (4 ounce) filets salmon
salt and pepper to taste
1 lemon, for garnish

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F°.

2. In a small bowl, stir together butter, mustard, and honey. Set aside. In another bowl, mix together bread crumbs, pecans, and parsley.

3. Brush each salmon fillet lightly with honey mustard mixture, and sprinkle the tops of the fillets with the bread crumb mixture. Lightly press the bread crumb mixture into the fillets

4. Bake salmon 12 to 15 minutes in the preheated oven, or until it flakes easily with a fork. Season with salt and pepper and spoon more Dijon butter over the filet, and garnish with a wedge of lemon.

Lemony Dill Peas

Ingredients

1 cup water
2 cups frozen green peas
3 tbsp lemon juice
2 tsp dried dill
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
Black pepper to taste

1. Add water to a medium-sized pot and bring the water to a boil, covered. Add the peas, cover partially, and let boil for about 4 minutes.

2. Remove from heat, drain (water can be reserved for making vegetable broth if desired), and rinse the peas with cold water (to stop cooking). Return the peas to the pot and stir in the lemon juice, dill, and mustard. Season to taste with black pepper. Serve immediately.

How does this sound for dinner tonight?

~ The Blind Guy Cooks ~ Leave a comment

Salmon Cakes (recipe from this month’s Cook’s Illustrated)

Ingredients

  • 3tablespoons plus ¾ cup panko bread crumbs  
  • 2tablespoons minced fresh parsley  
  • 2tablespoons mayonnaise
  • 4teaspoons lemon juice
  • 1 scallion , sliced thin
  • 1 small shallot , minced
  • 1teaspoon Dijon mustard
  • ¾teaspoon salt
  • ¼teaspoon pepper
  • pinch cayenne pepper
  • 1 (1 ¼ pound) skinless salmon fillet , cut into 1-inch pieces
  • ½cup vegetable oil

Instructions

  1. Combine 3 tablespoons panko, parsley, mayonnaise, lemon juice, scallion, shallot, mustard, salt, pepper, and cayenne in bowl. Working in 3 batches, pulse salmon in food processor until coarsely chopped into ¼-inch pieces, about 2 pulses, transferring each batch to bowl with panko mixture. Gently mix until uniformly combined.
  2. Place remaining ¾ cup panko in pie plate. Using 1/3-cup measure, scoop level amount of salmon mixture and transfer to baking sheet; repeat to make 8 cakes. Carefully coat each cake in bread crumbs, gently patting into disk measuring 2 ¾ inches in diameter and 1 inch high. Return coated cakes to baking sheet.
  3. Heat oil in 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat until shimmering. Place salmon cakes in skillet and cook without moving until golden brown, about 2 minutes. Carefully flip cakes and cook until second side is golden brown, 2 to 3 minutes. Transfer cakes to paper towel–lined plate to drain 1 minute. Serve.

I’m thinking some grilled asparagus would complement these very well.