Fish and Seafood

Photo by Holly A. Heyser

I was an angler before I was a hunter, and I’ve been cooking fish and seafood, and developing my own recipes for everything that swims, skitters or just sits on the bottom of the water since I was a teenager. Seafood is my first culinary obsession.

For a time I worked professionally as a line cook in a seafood restaurant and spent a while earning my rent as a commercial clammer and fisherman. More recently I was the Fish & Seafood Writer for the New York Times website About.com. I quit that position to focus more on my work here, but that site is still up and running — and so long as it is, you will find many of my fish recipes hosted on their site. Don’t let this deter you: Some of my best work is there, so enjoy.

Below you will find my favorite fish and seafood recipes, some from “easy” fish, such as salmon, striped bass and trout — I call these “easy” because they are not a stretch for most cooks. I specialize in the weird, however (I am sure this shocks you) so you’ll also find more esoteric fish recipes here, too.

Basics

Some baseline techniques you will find useful as you come across various fish and seafood. Many of these apply to so many different kinds of seafood it’s worth compiling them here.

Perfect Seared Fish

How to pan-sear fish fillets, skin on or skinless, perfectly every time. It’s not hard, but there are a few tricks to it.

And here is my video on How to Sear Fish.

Simple Grilled Fish with Basil

Grilling a whole fish is an important skill to know. It requires a clean, hot grill, some oil, and lots of finesse.

Classic Fish and Chips

This is a basic fish and chips recipe you can use with any firm fish. Halibut, cod, haddock, redfish, walleye, perch, catfish, lingcod, shark… you get the picture.

Some Techniques on my About.com page

• How to Gut & Scale a Fish
• Filleting Flatfish (sole, flounder, fluke, etc)
• Simple Fish Stock
• Pan-Dressing a Small Flounder, such as a sand dab
• A Simple Tempura Batter

Recipes By Category

Easy Fish

Typical market fish, such as trout and salmon, snapper, halibut, bass, flounder, etc. I catch a lot of salmon, halibut and striped bass, so you will see a those recipes here.

Sharks, Little Fish and Oddballs

Fish you are less likely to see in a regular market. Shark recipes will be here, along with shad and other bony fish, as well as my recipes for little fish like herring, anchovies and sardines.

Crabs, Shellfish and Other Seafood

This is where you’ll find it if it doesn’t have fins. I do a lot of clamming and crabbing, and I eat a lot of octopus and squid. You’ll also find mussel recipes, too.