Fish & Seafood

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. 

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: Much of my best work is there, so enjoy. 

Below you will find my favorite 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. 

SOME 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. 

LITTLE FISH
fresh anchovies

I love eating little fishes, anchovies, herring, sardines and such. They are delicious — and precious — when found fresh, but also lenf themselves to cured very very well.

More on Small and Unusual Fish:

SHAD and OTHER BONY FISHES
These are the fish that most Americans term “trash fish.” Why? Not because they taste icky, but because they have more bones than an “easy” fish such as striped bass or salmon. The extra set of bones makes then trickier to eat, but they are often fuller flavored than their pale cousins — salmon excepted, of course. The fish I’m talking about here are shad, herring. Sacramento pike minnow, carp, whitefish, mooneye, etc. Here are some of my favorite things to do with these fishies: 

‘EASY’ FISH RECIPES

By ‘easy’ I mean the typical fish you will see in a market or go out and catch yourself. My designation mostly means these fish do not have any extra sets of bones, have common food prejudices against them, are unusually ugly, slimy or otherwise visually disadvantaged. You will recipes for fish like striped bass, salmon, trout, rock cod, etc. 

SALMON RECIPES 

 
 HALIBUT RECIPES

STRIPED BASS or WHITE SEABASS

OTHER FISHES  

CRUSTACEANS, SQUID, SHELLFISH AND OCTOPI

I am using this category as a catch-all for everything non-fish: Shrimp, lobster, crabs, octopus, clams, oysters, etc. I’ve loved eating all of them since I was a boy; I ate so many clams one day on Block Island that my sisters thought I might explode.

CLAMS, OYSTERS, SCALLOPS, ETC

CRAB, SHRIMP, LOBSTER

SQUID-Y THINGS AND OCTOPI

  • Classic Italian Squid Ink Risotto
  • Octopus Salad with Oregano Oil
  • Sardinian Calamari Salad
  • Grilled Baby Octopus
  • Greek Pickled Octopus
  • Greek Stewed Cuttlefish with Fresh Fava Beans
  • Polpi in Umido, Italian Stewed Octopus
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