Archive for Seafood Recipes
Sustainable Fish: An Interview and Recipe From Chef Paul McCabe
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Chef Paul McCabe
Being recognized by the James Beard Foundation as a Rising Star of American Cuisine is only one of Chef Paul McCabe’s impressive achievements in the culinary world. He’s also won Golden Sceptre and Golden Baccus awards from the Southern California Restaurant Writers, the Wine Spectator Magazine Award of Excellence, and his restaurant Kitchen 1540 was named the Best Hotel Dining by San Diego City Search, Best New Restaurant by San Diego Magazine, and hailed as Best Restaurant Service by San Diego’s Ranch and Coast Magazine.
Chef Paul McCabe is the executive chef of the gorgeous L’Auberge Del Mar resort and its Kitchen 1540 restaurant, located in the coastal village of Del Mar in San Diego’s North County. Operating with a a farm to table philosophy, his kitchen proudly serves hormone free beef, sustainable seafood, and fresh local produce according to season. We were thrilled to have the opportunity to interview Chef Paul, and he graciously shared a restaurant recipe with us as well.
Savory Tv: We’ve been reading about your international experience in the culinary world, is there any one region or country that is near and dear to your heart outside of the US? Do you bring this influence to the kitchen at 1540?
Chef Paul McCabe: Spain is a great source of inspiration for me. The variety of ingredients and dining options are found no where else on the planet. You can get great tapas at the markets or small restaurants, the best cured meats and cheeses and Spain has more Michelin star restaurants than any other country. Here at Kitchen 1540, our kitchen is grounded in the craft of our industry, guided by principles of sustainability and creatively motivated by modern cooking techniques.
Savory Tv: We know that you choose local, organic, and sustainable ingredients in your cuisine. Sadly not long ago, a proposed ban for Atlantic bluefin tuna was rejected. Our question for you is: how do you feel about chefs serving non sustainable seafood to satisfy consumer demand?
Chef Paul McCabe: Well, who am I to tell other Chefs what to do or what to serve? I am adamantly against serving non sustainable seafood. We work closely with Kanaloa Seafood, a certified sustainable seafood distributor, to ensure that all seafood we order is from a sustainable source. About six months ago we made the decision to remove all Tuna from L’Auberge and Kitchen 1540 menus and have taken a stand to help save this magnificent Fish. I do believe it’s up to the Chefs and restaurants in this country to help educate the public.
Savory Tv: Do you think that restaurants are moving forward in this regard at all, towards responsibly serving sustainable fish on their menus?
Chef Paul McCabe: Yes! But not fast enough…if we want our grandchildren to see and experience this fish then we must act now!
Savory Tv: With summer quickly approaching, which ingredients are you looking forward to working with?
Chef Paul McCabe: Spring is my favorite season but San Diego farmers are growing some amazing produce! I always look forward to the corn, fava beans, heirloom tomatoes and all the incredible stone fruit.
Savory Tv: Thank you for joining us Chef! Have a wonderful Summer.
Clean Seas Hiramasa Crudo
Compressed Fennel, Sake Cured Steelhead Roe, Duck Cracklings
Ingredients
12 oz Clean Seas Hiramasa
1 Cup Kosher Salt
1/4 Cup Sugar
1/4 Coriander Seeds
Fennel Fronds from one bulb of fennel, chopped
4oz Fennel Bulb, Shaved and compressed in a cryovac machine
.5oz Micro Sorel
.5oz Sake Cured Steelhead Roe
2 Smoked Duck Skin, julienned
1/3 Cup Lemon Vinegar
1 Cup Extra Virgin Olive oil
Method
For the Hiramasa:
Clean the Hiramasa filets and set aside in the refrigerator. Mix the salt, sugar, coriander and fennel fronds in a bowl and mix. Cover the Hiramasa with the salt mixture and let cure for 3 hours. Wash the fish under cold water to remove the salt and pat dry.
For the Duck Cracklings:
Place a heavy bottomed sauté pan over medium heat and add the duck skin and cook until crisp, drain and set aside.
For the Vinaigrette:
Mix the vinegar and olive oil and set aside.
Presentation
Slice the Clean Seas Hiramasa in quarter inch pieces and place six on a rectangular plate. Mix the shaved fennel, sorel and some of the vinaigrette in a bowl and season with salt and pepper. Place the fennel salad on top of the fish and add the roe and duck cracklings and serve.
Chef Michael Smith’s Smoked Salmon Pasta With a Lemon Dill Cheese Sauce
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© www.fallflavours.ca
He’s a well known celebrity chef in Canada, but for those in the US and elsewhere who aren’t familiar, we’d like to introduce you to this James Beard award winning culinary gem. Michael Smith attended the Culinary Institute of America in NYC, worked for several restaurants both abroad and in NY, and is currently stars in Food Network Canada’s tv shows “Chef at Home” and “Chef at Large”. He also is a cookbook author, and you will see him soon in a future Iron Chef episode.
Chef Michael currently lives in Prince Edward Island, (P.E.I.), a beautiful Province and Island in northeast Canada, close to Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. He was recently named the PEI’s ‘Food Ambassador’ and will be a star of the PEI’s Fall Flavours food festival from September 25 – October 4, 2009. Fall Flavors features over 150 culinary events, including delicious tasting workshops, ale and wine tastings, and interactive education including how to catch lobsters or harvest oysters. We will miss the event this year but are already RSVP’ing for 2010!
You will love this chef recipe video from our friends at Le Gourmet Tv: Michael shares a wonderful (and quick) Smoked Salmon Penne Pasta with a a lemon, dill, dijon and caper cream cheese sauce. You may download the printable PDF from Le Gourmet Tv here. Try your best to use fresh dill, but if it is not available, typically 1/4 teaspoon dried dill weed equals a four-inch sprig of dill. That said, add as much as you wish according to taste.
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Top Chef Masters Duet! Seafood Recipes from Chefs Chiarello and Keller
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Ciao Bello! Aspen 2009
Not double trouble but a charming duet! And no, it’s not about Heidi from Savory Tv and her affinity for men in white as shown left. Todays duo features the two San Francisco Bay area Top Chef Masters Michael Chiarello and Hubert Keller sharing seafood recipes, in this video from View From The Bay. Michael Chiarello shares his salsa verde swordfish meatball recipe in tomato based fisherman’s sauce and a Calabrian tartar sauce, while Hubert Keller shares his Scottish cold salmon with caviar and mustard seed sauce. (This was the dish made in the dorm room if you watch the show!) The two of them are very sweet together, and Keller confesses “the only thing we didn’t share in all these days was a bedroom”, and that although the show was “totally stressful”, “we compete in a more elegant manner” than traditional Top Chef relationships. Proof once and for all that maturity and respect are in fact possible in reality television. Bon appétit and buon appetito!
Read on for the recipes: Read More→
Rick Bayless Presents: Grilled Catfish with Chipotle Salsa
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Have you been watching Top Chef Masters Wednesday nights on Bravo Tv? If you have then you already know him , and if you haven’t, start watching, you’re missing out! For those not in the know, Rick Bayless has won multiple James Beard awards, is a cookbook author, and is the Chef / Restauranteur behind the wildly popular Frontera Grill and Topolobampo in Chicago. His culinary focus is devoted to modern interpretations of authentic Mexican cuisine, and he was called the “”greatest contribution to the Mexican table imaginable” by The New York Time’s Craig Claiborne.
In this video from our friends at Great Chefs, Rick prepares marinated and grilled catfish steaks with a chipotle tomatillo avocado salsa, garnished with cilantro sprigs. This recipe will involve some prep time, as Bayless recommends marinating the fish for several hours before grilling if possible, or, you may marinade the fish and make the salsa a day ahead of time. If you are not a catfish fan, he states that tuna, swordfish, or shark work can be used, and that skewered scallops are an excellent substitute as well.
Quick trivia regarding this dish: What is a chipotle pepper exactly? Nothing more than a smoked jalapeño, traditionally dry smoked over a wood fire. If you can’t find them, you may substitute canned chipotle chiles found in most grocery stores.
And here’s is the Spanish name for this recipe fyi: “Bagre Asado con Salsa de Aguacate Enchipotlado”, although if your Spanish is poor you may want to bypass announcing that to your guests!
Chipotle Salsa with Pan Roasted Tomatillos
Chef Rick Bayless
* 3 garlic cloves, peeled
* 4 medium (about 8 ounces total) tomatillos, husked, rinsed and cut in half
* 2 canned chipotle chiles en adobo (or more, if you like really spicy salsa), stemmed
* Salt
Set a large (10-inch) non-stick skillet over medium-high heat (if a non-stick skillet is unavailable, lay in a piece of foil). Lay in the garlic and tomatillos (cut side down). When the tomatillos are well browned, 3 or 4 minutes, turn everything over and brown the other side. (The tomatillos should be completely soft.)
Scoop the garlic and tomatillos into a blender jar or food processor with the chiles and 1/4 cup water. Process to a coarse puree. Pour into a salsa dish and cool.
Thin with a little additional water if necessary to give the salsa an easily spoonable consistency. Taste and season with salt, usually a generous 1/2 teaspoon.
Rick adds diced avocado to this salsa and marinates his fish steaks in the refrigerator for 2-3 hours before grilling. He sears both sides of the catfish steaks on the grill, and serves them with the remaining salsa, garnished with cilantro.
“Riffs on Chipotle Salsa: You can replace the tomatillos with roasted tomatoes (two 4-ounce plum tomatoes roasted like the tomatillos or ½ drained 15-ounce can fire-roasted tomatoes), but keep in mind that the tomato will tip the flavor toward sweet rather than tangy. A little cilantro, fresh thyme or parsley is always welcome, as is green or white onion—especially if it’s grilled. A splash of mescal (or the less-smoky tequila) makes a borracha (drunken) salsa that’s dynamite. Instead of pureeing the chiles, you can finely chop them and add them to the pureed (green) base; they’ll show up as little red flecks, and the salsa will be less smoky.” – Rick Bayless
On Twitter? Follow Rick Bayless at @Rick_Bayless for delicious updates and an occasional short recipe. We’ve gathered several of his twitter recipes here.
