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.
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
Salmon and Trout Recipes
Recipes that focus on salmon, trout and char. They range from simple salads to fancy, date-night dishes.
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.
Hi Hank. I catch and eat a lot of striped bass (my favorite), crappie, sand bass, and catfish here in north Texas. But I have always caught and released largemouth bass. Everything I read says they are a sport fish not worth eating. I don’t catch many because I am not looking for them, but I always get one or two when I am on the lake and let them go … Thoughts?
Chad
Chad: In North Texas the water is likely to be warm, which means the meat of the bass might get mushy when cooked. This doesn’t always happen, but it does often enough that if you do keep one, you might put the meat into fish cakes, which takes care of this problem.
Hank in your book ” Hunt,Gather, Cook” you talk about skates and rays, do you include the Bat Ray under that category? Nobody I know eats them and they are one of the more common fish caught in the bay near where I live. Are they good to eat , do they require special preparation?
Gordon. Yes. Use the search engine on this site and you will see my recipe for bat ray.
When will you make the next cook book? Can I suggest Fish, Fish, Clam?
Oh yes I know you want to!