Seafood Recipes - Part 3

with D.C. Reid

After Catching and Cleaning Come Cooking and Consuming

After Catching and Cleaning Come Cooking and Consuming - Seafood Recipes from Maison de Dennis - Part Three, D.C. Reid, October 31, 1997

And of course there are more recipes for salmon and seafood than you can shake a hootchie at. No internet cookbook would be complete without stuffing, steaks, shellfish and smoked salmon. Enjoy.

Salmon Stuffing

Sage and Onion Dressing

2 cups bread crumbs
1 egg
1/2 cup finely chopped onions
1 tbsp. melted butter
1 sliced lemon
dash of salt
sage to taste

One would expect to find this very common stuffing in a turkey. It serves quite well in a fish, too, tempting the fussiest taste buds. Slightly fry the onions in butter then combine all ingredients except the lemons. Liberally stuff the body cavity. Put the lemons on the flank and wrap carefully to keep the flavours separate. Add 10 minutes cooking time, ie., a five pound salmon will take about 40 minutes at 400 - 450 fahrenheit.

Apple Stuffing

1 1/2 cups bread crumbs
1 diced apple
4 oz. apple juice
1 oz. raisins
2 oz. almonds
hint of butter
dash of cinnamon and cloves

Again, not a stuffing one would normally associate with fish, however, the lovely softness of the ingredients and the faint, elusive flavour of apples and cinnamon make this a winner. Start by frying the almonds for a minute in butter and then adding the raisins to the pan. Mix everything together and throw it in the salmon. The important ingredient is the apple juice - to make it moist - so do not skimp. Add 10 minutes to this foil-wrapped beauty. A few whole cranberries will tart this up for the kids.

The stuffing and lightly-seasoned salmon make these two recipes hot stuff for the little demons. On a wooden cutting board, lay an assortment of fresh vegetable crudites - celery, carrots, alfalfa sprouts, lettuce - and brand new crusty kaisers. Chutney tastes good, as does Branston pickle. I particularly like swiss cheese in a fresh salmon bun. Add sweet gherkin pickles and go a little mad, allowing the kids an almost-healthy junkfood: shoestring potatoes. Give everyone freshly- squeezed orange juice, adding champagne for the adults. Revel in your madness.

Salmon Steaks

2 salmon steaks 1 to 2 inches thick
healthy supply of tarragon leaves
1 oz. of sinfully cholesterized butter per steak
pepper to taste
white wine to taste

The spices in this recipe combine with the butter for a truly decadent meal. Keep that blush wine on ice. As before, cook the steaks in foil to keep in those juices. Check after 10 to 15 minutes in a 450-degree oven. A rice pilaf would be nice, as would some of Mr. Bush's favourite vegetable. Serve with good friends across the table. Toast one another with the world's most sustaining and sincere toast, knowing that such days and friends are few. Raise your glass against encroaching dark and declare, "To us."

Dennis' Secret Mussel Recipe

250 grm mussels per person
2 cups white wine
1 oz. sliced garlic
1 oz. sliced ginger root
1 oz. shallot, quartered
1 oz. butter
1 dash China Lily soy sauce
4 oz. brown sugar
1 oz. fresh oregano leaves, crumbled
1 baguette to rip to pieces and dip in the sauce.

One of Canada's fabulous secrets. Rinse the mussels in a pot, discarding those that have opened. Slosh in the white wine, the spices, finishing with a good layer of brown sugar. Leave aside to marinade while preparing the rest of the meal: scallops fried for 2 minutes in olive oil, cilantro and pepper then plunked over noodles - one of those three minute Ichiban shrimp soups (using one cup of water only). Bring the mussels to boil and stir three times in five minutes. Serve directly from the stove with a Sebastiano chardonnay. Swill out the last mussel. Lick your fringertips and don't tell a soul about this to-die-for recipe.

Smoking Salmon

If the balmy climate (of which everyone gloats, phoning friends in frigid Ottawa) didn't draw people to our coastal paradise, the smoked salmon would. The product sold in stores, retaurants, or even those nifty wooden crates cannot compare with salmon direct from a wood-smoke oven. In our house, we lay a five-pound slab on the counter to pluck a crumb before storage and devour the whole thing, standing there in our coats. And it costs hardly a drachma to make compared with the wheelbarrow of money to purchase the stuff.

Salmon cut into halves or 3/4-lb. chunks
5 cups water
3/4 cup salt
1 cup demerara sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 tbsp. China Lily soy sauce
2 tsp. lemon juice
1 tsp. onion powder
1 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. pepper

Cut de-scaled salmon in half down their backbones, or into thick even-sized chunks; salmon shrink during smoking, and thin pieces come out hard as hockey pucks. Pink salmon have a high reputation due to their oil content, however, I prefer chinook. Throw ingredients and fish in a pot and store in the fridge. In the morning, rinse each piece then let them sit on a rack to glaze for an hour. Sprinkle on demerara sugar. During smoking, bring the well-spaced chunks to 165 degrees Fahrenheit for one hour. This kills bacteria. Reduce temperature to 120 degrees and smoke 6 - 8 hours over hickory or alder chips. Now sit in the sun, nibbling the delicacy. Drink a beer in paradise and consider phoning your friends in Ottawa. You don't have to remind yourself, although you'll be thinking, "Nothing could be finer." Nothing, except perhaps catching just one more salmon. And, of course, you'll be right.

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