Important: Use linguini or other thin noodle. The best kind is the fresh pasta found in the refrigerated section. Contadina is my favorite, but there are other brands. You’ll need about a ½ pound of pasta to feed two people.

Start your pasta water boiling while you fix the rest of the dish.

Mince 2 to 3 cloves of fresh garlic.

Next, sauté or toast the garlic in 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a deep skillet. It burns easily so be careful!

When the garlic is done, add 2 tablespoons fresh, minced parsley.

Add two cans (5.5 ounce cans) of minced clams including juice and heat slowly.

Add a dash of pepper flakes (two or three sprinkles.)

Add about ¼ cup chardonnay. Splurge and get a decent wine—not one from the “cooking” wine section of the store (salt is added to ”cooking wines”).

Simmer this whole mixture for a couple of minutes. It’s going to be mostly water.  Add 4 to 6 tablespoons of heavy cream.

When the pasta is done, add it to the pan with the clams. You need to simmer again, very low for at least 5 minutes. You don’t want to boil off the juice, but you want most of it to soak into the pasta. I usually heat it for about 5 minutes and then turn it off and let it sit another five or ten minutes.

Serve with parmesan cheese and garlic bread.

Note: You can substitute shrimp for the clams—if you do, you’ll need to add bottled clam juice or about 1 cup of chicken broth. Add the chopped shrimp right after the parsley and cook through before adding the clam juice and chardonnay.

The secret to grilled salmon is to avoid overgrilling. If anything it’s better slightly cool in the middle than overcooked. When you overcook it, that is when the fishy smell and taste enter the picture.

Start with fresh salmon, not frozen. It’s easier to grill with the skin on. If there are scales on the non-skin side (the eating side), rinse them off and pat dry. Sprinkle the eating side with seasoning. I use furikake flakes–I prefer Aji Nori or Nori Komi. (Furikake can be found in Asian stores. It’s a mix of salt, sugar, roasted sesame seeds and small pieces of nori seaweed. It’s very flavorful–mostly a fruity sweet sensation. The sugar in the mix helps helps the salmon sear. Delicious!)

If you don’t happen to have furikake flakes, I’d advise dissolving a 1/2 tsp sugar per salmon serving (about 1/4 to 1/3 of a pound), or a 1/2 tsp of honey or 1 tablespoon orange juice in soy sauce and water. Brush the eating side of the salmon before grilling.

Grill skin side first and then eating side last. If you aren’t sure when it is done, take it off and see if the middle flakes apart–a bit of resistance is okay! It takes about 15 minutes total to grill a 3/4 pound piece of salmon.

When the salmon is done, peel the skin off, cut to individual serving size and serve with salad and wild rice!

First, I would just like to say that I really don’t like fish. Or at least I’m very picky about fish dishes. I prefer that my fish not taste like fish at all. For this dish, I use tilapia or basa. Always get the freshest fish that you can find. I’ve found that grocery stores usually have the freshest fish on Tuesdays and Fridays. Go to place that has a decent-sized fish counter and ask when they get deliveries of the particular fish that you want to buy. Most of the time they will tell you! This recipe was made with just under a pound of fillets. Adjust the ingredients if you are making more or less fish.

Mix juice from ½ lemon, 2 tablespoons soy sauce and ¼ cup of sherry or white wine into a cup.

Mince a tablespoon of fresh parsley.

Mix a ½ teaspoon of seasoned salt with half cup of flour and coat both sides of the fish fillets.

Melt 3 tablespoons of butter or margarine in a skillet. Add the parsley and the fish fillets. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes. Pour the lemon juice mixture around the sides of the pan (don’t pour it over the fish). When one side of the fish has browned, turn it and then cover the skillet with a lid. Cook until the fish is tender and flakes with a fork, about 10 minutes.

That’s it! The fish takes on the flavor of the wine with a hint of lemon.

12 to 14 large shrimp, peeled and cleaned or 2 cups of smaller shrimp (marinate in chardonnay and soy sauce)

5 to 10 napa cabbage leaves (Chinese cabbage) chopped into two inch pieces (Depends on size and taste preference, but about two to three cups) If you can’t find it, add a couple stalks of chopped celery.
¾ cup diced carrots
4 ounces sliced mushrooms
1 cup broccoli
large handful of snap peas
sesame seeds

¼ tsp minced ginger
2 minced garlic cloves
1 ½ tablespoons oyster sauce
3 tablespoons light soy sauce

dissolve 3 tablespoons cornstarch in 2 cups chicken stock

1/8 cup mirin (sweet rice wine) or chardonnay

In skillet, sauté (or roast if you know how to do so without burning it!) the garlic in two tablespoons olive oil.

Add vegetables and sauté until cooked, approximately 10 minutes.

Add the minced ginger, oyster sauce and wine. Simmer for about five minutes.

Remove veggies from skillet and sauté shrimp and sesame seeds in a tablespoon of olive oil. You can also add/sauté scallops for this dish at the same time.

When the shrimp is cooked through, mix veggies back into the skillet. Add cornstarch/chicken stock and stir until thickened. Add soy sauce. If you wish to add imitation crab to the dish, add at this time (it is pre-cooked—adding it earlier tends to make it mushy).

Serve shrimp with vegetables over steamed rice.

Notes: Using precooked shrimp tends to make the dish lack seafood flavor. If the shrimp is precooked, you may want to add an extra half tablespoon of the oyster sauce, but be careful with this sauce. It can be very overpowering. Ginger can also be overpowering. If you don’t like ginger, sauté slices of this root with the garlic and remove the slices before adding the veggies. If you love ginger, you can double the amount of minced ginger, but be careful with it!

You can marinade the shrimp in the wine and soy sauce, saving the marinade for when you start cooking. Run it through a strainer before adding it back to the cooking mixture and make sure to cook thoroughly.

Mirin: Mirin is a Japanese sweet rice wine. You can substitute other rice wines, but they are usually salty rice wines, rather than “sweet.” Best substitute is probably a Chardonnay.

I stuff mainly fresh Atlantic Salmon or Tilapia, but the stuffing is good with flounder or any mild fish. Optional ingredients for the stuffing is in parenthesis.

For two people you’ll need two salmon (or other fish) fillets that together weigh just under a pound. In the case of salmon, skin it and rinse before stuffing.

Stuffing:

1 or 2 large wheat hamburger bun crumbled (or a mix of cooked white rice and bread)
Sauté the following in 2 tablespoons olive oil:
4 tablespoons minced celery (including some leaves)
2 tablespoon minced onion
3 tablespoons minced pepper (Mild Anaheim, yellow or red bell. You’re not looking for heat here, but a hint of seasoning flavor.)

When veggies are tender, remove from heat and cool. Then mix in a bowl:

1 tsp thyme
Bay Seasoning to taste (2 or 3 healthy shakes—1/4 tsp)
Shredded Monterrey Jack cheese—1/2 to 3/4 cup
Cooked veggies
¾ cup diced/shredded imitation lobster chunks or imitation crab (you can also substitute or add pre-cooked cocktail shrimp)
4 tablespoon mayonnaise—just enough to keep the stuffing together (you can use olive oil instead).

I refrigerate the stuffing for several hours before dinner, letting the flavors meld. I stuff the fish right before cooking and sprinkle with additional bay seasoning.

Cut the fish into 6 or 8 oz portions and cut a slit in the middle of each, leaving the ends intact (a sort of long “O” shape.) Fill the fish with stuffing. Do not “pack” the stuffing into the cut—rather allow some to layer over the top of the fish. Cook at 400 degrees for 15 to 18 minutes. I cook it uncovered on tinfoil in a toaster oven. Salmon should flake easily, but do not overcook as the salmon will become very dry.