Madison House Chef

Shrimp Tacos with a hint of Lime

shrimp cooked with lime and spices, served on a fresh corn tortilla, avocado, and chipotle infused sour cream

Here’s a new (to MHC) recipe that has already gone to “family favorites” status.

Rick Bayless’ Soft Taco Filling offers a no-fail, delicious (delicioso!), fresh tasting recipe that takes only a few minutes to cook. The shrimp can be served hot, for example on tacos, or cold as on a salad.

Baked Salmon with Fresh Baby Spinach

 
This is still one of our all time favorite ways to eat baked salmon; even the kids eat it.

When I first posted this recipe we were eager to eat and thus I missed the photo op prior to the first bite.  This time I clicked the shutter just prior to the first application of the fork.

The sauce has a pan asian flair with the sweet orange juice and the savory ginger balancing one another nicely.

 

Grilled Shrimp with Cilantro, Lime, and Peanuts

 

These Grilled Shrimp with cilantro, Lime and Peanuts are fresh with a great balance of flavors.

They’d be great as tapas, for lunch with a salad or simple light sandwich, or with cocktails.

We enjoyed these as part of a grilled tapas/small plates dinner (also made Bacon Wrapped Jalapeno Chicken Bites and Mini Burgers on Chips)

 

Sweet and Sour Shrimp (with photos)

When we lived in South Bend there was a tiny, delightful, store front Thai restaurant downtown that had the most amazing tofu stir fry (for lack of a better title or term), Thai spring rolls, and a sweet and sour sauce for the spring rolls that was simply amazing.  It was a perfect blend of sweet and savory/sour with a hint of heat.  I have drooled for that sauce time and time again. Tonight, I think I found it!

 

 

Rice with Junk (Shrimp and Edamame)

 
After reading Neil Peart’s book entitled Masked Rider: Cycling in West Africa where he soaks in the nuances of African life and along the way coins the phrase “rice with junk,” I don’t seem to be able to eat any time of rice topped with seafood or veg (or both) without calling it “rice with junk”.  Maybe Rice With Junk should be a new category?

Nevertheless, rice with junk is always delicious, quick and easy.

 

Planked Trout

 

Crispy Baked Fish

Quick. Easy. Healthy. Delicious. A taste of the UK.

In the continuing quest to recreate fish and chips that are not deep fried, Ken has put together another fish recipe whose satisfyingly crispy coating come from toasted panko (bread crumbs).

This recipe was inspired by a recipe in one of my favourite (spelling intentional) UK food magazines Good Food Eat Well which costs me over $1000 an issue … gosh I hope airfare goes down soon…

Baked Salmon with Fresh Baby Spinach

There is a significant reason why the only photos here are from prep and the steps leading up to baking.  Once the fish was plated, it was eagerly anticipated, quickly blessed, and devoured with abundant ‘mmmmmms’ before I could even think about photos. Oh, and the plates were beautiful and colorful, a treat not only for the palate, but also the eyes, but alas it was not to be. Because, not only did Ken and I enjoy the delicate and flavorful fish, and Madeleine her fair share, but Gregory and two of his friends gobbled up every morsel and continued to return to the sauce pot even after the salmon was gone to ladle the sweet reduction over rice, vegetables, and even the crackers that had come out with the cheese.  Keep in mind, these are hearty eating, 14 year old high school students who were eating this salmon dish. When teen boys eat like this, a food endorsement has been made. 

Thai Red Curry with Salmon (with photos)

For our main meal today, my husband, Ken prepared this full flavored Thai dish from the BBC GoodFood website; this recipe was first published in Sept. 2007 in BBC GoodFood magazine.  It’s easy to make and filled with satisfying taste, texture and aroma.  

The original recipe calls for green beans, but we opted for asparagus since it looked very good at the grocery and the addition of red pepper likewise was due to good looking produce.  This merely goes to show the versatility of red curry.

Shrimp Scampi, Low(er) Fat (One Protein-Three Meals)

Shrimp was on sale this week at the local HEB and looked pretty good, thus one of our primary proteins this week will be brown gulf shrimp.  The flavor of gulf shrimp is unmatched; I couldn’t imagine going back to white or tiger shrimp (not to mention the fact that white/tiger shrimp are no longer good, healthy, sustainable seafood sources… that’s another topic).  Gulf shrimp taste like… well, the sea.  Maybe, it’s that they actually have taste other than ‘fishy.’

What to make with shrimp … one of our all time favorites is Shrimp Scampi.

Catch of the Day – Trout with Garlic, Chili and Rosemary (with photos)

BBCGoodFood’s recipe (August 2010) for Bream cooked en papillote with garlic, chili and rosemary inspired our Catch of the Day Saturday meal. Here’s our variation on this delightfully flavorful fish dish.

One Protein – 3 Meals (Salmon)

Salmon – one of my favorite fish, second only to mackerel … okay and maybe trout, and tuna is right up there… Nevertheless, salmon is one of the most versatile fish for flavors and ways to enjoy it.  Last week, we bought a nice, good size filet, half of the fish essentially.  I knew when we picked it up that it was more than we could possibly eat for one meal, but the wheels in my brain were already turning and processing recipes before we stepped up to the fish counter.  What else can I do with this salmon that would be delicious, cost saving, healthy/nutritious, and that everyone around the table would eat?

 

Mini Crab Cakes

 

Crab cakes have such versitility as a meal or appetizer. Likewise, the seasoning and 'sauces' can be tweaked to taste. 

 

 

 

 

 

Grilled Brook Trout

The very first time I ate trout was in Austria when traveling with my aunt.  I remember seeing this whole fish appear on my plate and wondering if I was going to embarrass myself by not eating much.  Turns out, the joke was on me.  Not only did I finish all of mine, but I remember looking around the table seeing if there was any place I could manage to retrieve one more fork full from. 

 

Smoked Whitefish / A New York Times Article

How exciting to pick up a copy of the NYTimes while getting coffee last week and finding an article about the whitefish that we had thoroughly enjoyed in the UP of Michigan.  A couple of places mentioned, including the one way up in the Copper Harbor place are all familiar.  For more information about the UP's flaky, moist, rich whitefish enjoy this article:  
New York Times article about Whitefish in the UP of Michigan.

"Signs for smoked fish abound outside gas stations and stores on U.S. Highway 2, the Upper Peninsula’s main east-west route, making it one of the area’s best-known specialties. Another is the pasty, a hearty Cornish pie filled with meat, rutabaga and gravy."

I chuckled when I read these true words about gas station and fish signs...and yes, we still have a couple of pasties in the freezer.  The article also mentions a place across from the copper mine.  This is the very spot, a little white building with a screen door entrance on the side that slams as you walk through, that we bought our first whitefish to cook on our own.  We used Jiffy corn bread mix as our coating and fried it in an electric frying pan atop a picnic table at the state park.  Lo these many years later, long before our children were born, I can still taste the sweetness of the fish. 

Wistfully I think to myself,  "It's time again (yes, already) to return to the UP for more fish. If only I had 3 more weeks of vacation.  And the first thing I'd do would be to go to our favorite whitefish spot that we pass on the way to Point Iriquois, a restaurant that also sells pieces of smoked fish to go."  Mmmm 

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Grilled Salmon

My husband sets the standard for grilling fish on the bbq.  The combination of simple seasoning and indirect heat combine to form delicious, moist, fleshy fish that allows the true flavor of the salmon to shine through.

One of the key elements to the consistent successful grilling of salmon is to grill it with the skin still on.  Grilled properly the flesh is removed effortlessly from the skin.

A second helpful tool for great grilled fish is a large oval fish grill basket. 

Lake Superior Whitefish

A view of the Coast Guard lighthouse overlooking Whitefish Point in the U.P. of Michigan (taken from the birding deck behind the museum buildings)

Grilled.  Pan Fried.  Beer Battered and Deep Fried.  Cooked over a campfire.  Shake n bake style using Jiffy Mix and cooked in an electic frying pan while tent camping.  Pate' on crackers. Smoked.  Whitefish's delicate taste and flaky flesh takes to each and every cooking method like a fish to water.  

 

 

A NEW Favorite Breakfast

Over years of travel and culinary collecting, Ken and I have compiled an ongoing list of the 100 Most Memorable Meals.  A new meal had found its way into the Top 10 Breakfast category -- this is the story of that meal.

Since I have had a taste for delicious, crisp, malty waffles since my birthday in June (a food tradition that began several years ago when we were camping in the Soo on my birthday) we decided to have breakfast at the Lockview Restaurant, located directly across from the Soo Locks Visitor Center before heading back downstate.  I, of course, ordered the light and delicious waffle which comes topped with strawberries and whipped cream (Happy Birthday to me, Happy Birthday to me...) and the kids each had French Toast -- another Lockview hit.  Ken looked over the menu and mulled his decision.  Something new appeared in the "Breakfast Features" box:  Whitefish and eggs.  Move over steak 'n eggs!   

Variations on a Pan Asian Meal

 

simple oven shrimp, fried rice, japanese short grain rice (rice cooker), bok choy/mushrooms

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fiesta Shrimp

Quick, easy and full of flavor! Great for cooking on a hot summer day (yes, it's 104 degrees here in the Rio Grande Valley)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pan Asian Flair

 

Tonight's dinner included more of the fabulous Japanese rice made in the rice cooker.  

I'm sold on the rice cooker.

 

 

 

Soup of the Day: Salmon Chowder

Salmon Chowder was this evening's Soup of the Day.  It took a day longer than expected to make/eat it because when we came home yesterday with salmon and potatoes (by the way, it's potatoes that differentiate chowder from soup) we realized we did not have any fish stock or other seafood stock. We didn't want chicken tasting soup (we have lots of chix and turkey stock) with fish in it.  What to do?  We made risotto with shrimp and before the risotto was even in the pan began to make seafood stock with the shrimp shells, which incidentally turned out to be luscious.  It happened so quickly that there aren't even photos of stock making this time.  

Crab Cakes with Roasted Red Pepper Couli

KAG is perfecting his (soon to be famous) roasted red pepper couli.  Most recently he added it atop Maryland style crab cakes. 

Delicious.   

The couli begins by roasting the red pepper in the oven at 400 degrees for at least 45 minutes.  Place the pepper uncovered in a foil lined baking pan. The foil helps keep the pan from ending up with much pepper-sludge, though we now have an old pan that is being used solely for roasting red peppers so the sludge issue is not much of an issue.   (KAG prefers oven roasting to over the flame roasting.  Oven roasting keeps it from inheriting a 'burnt' taste -- we want roasted here, not burnt!) 

Midway through the roasting, puncture a small hole in the side with a sharp knife to allow the excess pressure from the moisture/steam to escape.  If the red pepper is tight it has a good chance of exploding in the oven.  Can you say messy?

After 45 minutes or when pepper is very tender and collapsed, remove from oven, peel skin, cut into large pieces. After the pepper is prepared, place it and 2 tsp of balsamic vinegar (give or take depending upon the size of the red pepper)  in food processor and process until very smooth.  That's it!   Serve on, under, along side, with ... a myriad of 'nibblies.'

Crab stuffed Salmon

A delicious salmon lunch on a meatless day in Lent welcomed me thanks to KAG.  (The photos didn't do the fish justice thus I excluded them, but I'm certain you'll be able to get a sense of the finished product)

Crab stuffed Salmon

2 or 3 4 oz salmon fillets
6 ounces crab
1/3 C seasoned breadcrumbs
1 egg
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1/2 tsp worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp Old Bay seasoning

1. Remove skin and trim fillet, reserve any small pieces of salmon

2. Combine crab, breadcrumbs, egg, mustard, worcestershire sauce, Old Bay seasoning, and any pieces of salmon trimmings (mince - no skin, obviously) in a small bowl. Adjust seasoning amounts to your personal taste.

3. Place equal amounts of crab stuffing on the fillets, roll, secure with toothpick(s).

4. Place salmon-crab roll on its side in a baking dish.

5. Season top of roll with fresh ground pepper.

6.  Bake, uncovered at 400 degrees for 15 minutes (Time will vary slightly with thickness of fillet. If at the end of baking time fish is beginning to look dry, but is not quite finished, remove rolls to microwave safe dish and microwave for 45-60 seconds.)

Serve with a green vegetable and a spinach salad.

Maryland Style Crab Cakes

One of the delightful benefits of living out east was the abundance of fresh seafood.  Soft shell crabs, crab legs, fresh fish all season at reasonable prices (at least compared to the midwest price and availability).

Many an evening during soft shell crab season we sat at an old restaurant called Lincoln Logs (long since out of business) where newspaper covered long tables were graced with half bushel baskets full of soft crabs.  The meal came with salad bar and bread, but I don't know anyone who ate but a leaf or two of lettuce ever.  Crabs and beer; we'd eat until we couldn't move and then sit around later and pick the Old Bay Seasoning out of our fingers.

We miss crab probably more than anything, but from time to time we pick up a can (sigh, yes can) of crab and make crab cakes from the Phillip's (wonderful restaurant in D.C) recipe.

Maryland Style Crab Cakes

1 lb. Crab -- or whatever you've got
1 tsp. seafood seasoning
1/2 C breadcrumbs (panko works best)
1 egg
2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1/4 tsp. dry mustard
2 T mayo
1 tsp. lemon juice
1 T melted butter
1 tsp. parsley

1. Combine all ingredients except crab meat. Gently fold in crab meat.

2. Shape into cakes.

3. Pan fry or bake at 375 degrees for 12 to 15 minutes until cakes are evenly browned and reach an internal temperature of 165 degrees.

The crab cakes shown in the photo above was today's lunch.  Delicious.  Served on a bed of fresh organic spinach.  We only had one tiny can of crab today so the cakes aren't as crabby as they would be with a full pound, but let me tell you...  nothing went to waste.