Posts Tagged ‘seafood’

Grilled Fish Tacos

We are completely smitten with grilled seafood tacos this summer, and these are so yummy that they even inspired my sister, who didn’t think she liked fish tacos, to declare that she needed the recipe to make them herself.

First of all, it’s fun for everyone assemble their own tacos. What’s better than a semi-customizable dinner? Second, the components are pretty easy to make, and again, you can customize to your heart’s content. I happen to love radish matchsticks on mine, but there’s nothing to stop you from adding whatever else you like.  And finally, I mean, they’re grilled fish tacos…YUM!

With lots of company over the weekend, I figured it would be an ideal time to try the…


Nyonya Grilled Shrimp

HELP! I need someone to try this yummy shrimp dish with the coconut sauce that I chose to omit (during the first week of a diet) and tell me how it is, because I have to imagine it elevates the dish to something truly remarkable.

We got the grill into proper working order a few weeks ago—finally a real charcoal grill after all these years with gas—and have been on a grilling tear every since. Trying to lose a few (okay, 30) pounds, dinner choices have been limited to the de rigeur boneless chicken breasts, fish, and maybe some veal. But I was jonesing for something a little sweeter, plumper, juicier, more succulent a couple of…


Cedar-Planked Salmon

Yes, I am wayyyyyy behind. There are more than 30 dishes in my queue to write about, but this Cedar Planked Salmon with Lemon-Pepper Rub and Horseradish-Chive Sauce from last night was so scrumptious that it leapfrogged over everything else and jumped to the front of the line!

We’re those crazy variety of New Englanders who love to grill year-round, but there’s nothing more satisfying than firing up the coals on beautiful June weekends when it’s still relatively cool and there’s light in the sky until almost 9:00. And it’s even more fun to share those magical late-spring days kicking back with friends-laughing, gossiping and savoring the season. (When I told Matt we were having friends…


Fire-Roasted Clams

If you’re a clam fanatic, you absolutely must experience this dish—and the dramatic adventure that goes along with making it—at least once in your life. When you grow up on the Rhode Island shore, clams are a quintessential food staple, and when you grow up as David Cohen’s daughter, dad’s legendary clamboils and clam roasts are a sought-after annual tradition. My boys are now the next generation of roasted clam lovers, and they count down the days of summer until they get to have what they have come to affectionately name “Papa’s Clams.”

My dad officially refers to them as “Clams Like the Indians Used to Make”—and by Indians he unmistakably means Native Americans. So if you’re ready,…


I guess by late February we’re pretty sick of traditional winter comfort food, because we are on quite the Asian kick right now. Zippy, spicy, garlicky, gingery, cilantro-y ““ all good!

This cover recipe from Food & Wine instantly appealed to me, and one day last week, I thought it might be fun and easy to make with the cute little baby shrimp that gets sent gratis when we order our giant Toros from Texas Longhorn Shrimp. They’re too small to grill, so I threw them in for a quick sautè and they were fine, but we made it again last night with the real deal and it was even better with those grilled…


If macaroni and cheese conjures the vision of a blue box with a packet of powdered cheese that results in a big bowl of orange slop, be warned: this is not a dish for you. Mind you, I’ve eaten more than my share of the Krafted-in-a-food-lab version. Until, that is, I discovered the rapture of real macaroni and cheese.

Begging your pardon, but the Reiser princes have unanimously proclaimed the Lobster Mac & Cheese at Bobby Van’s to be the ne plus ultra of lobster mac & cheese. It’s at once crunchy, crispy, lusciously creamy, exquisitely cheesy, and it’s loaded with delightful plump chunks of fresh, sweet lobster. (I know…I’m bordering on food…


Okay, so it was spaghetti with shrimp scampi…but I have to tell you it was exceptional spaghetti and it made the dish especially mouthwatering.

This is one of our weekday standbys. I keep cleaned, top-quality IQF Texas Toros in the freezer, so the dish takes less than half an hour from start to finish, and it’s a cinch to pull together on late Little League nights or when I’m not in the mood to make anything complicated. I usually have the rest of the ingredients on hand in the fridge and pantry ““ pasta, garlic, butter, lemons, olive oil, parsley, salt and pepper ““ so it’s often a last-minute dish for us….


Talk about taking lemons and making lemonade!

But first, I have to back up and tell you a new culinary rule I made up the other night: “do not sip cocktails and then have a soup course before you serve grilled tuna.” Because while you’re slurping soup, the tuna is sitting on a platter on the kitchen counter cooking way beyond an appetizing degree of doneness. (Without the preliminary cocktails, you may possibly have a shot at remembering to slice the tuna before you eat the soup, thereby suspending further cooking and preserving the perfectly seared outside and raw interior.)

The tuna wasn’t horribly inedible or anything, but after a filling bowl of


Striped bass is a family favorite, so when we went to the funky aquaculture fish market at Cranberry Hole and found fresh stripers that had been caught that morning, we bit ““ hook, line and sinker.

Normally we grill it, and I make a topping I created a few years back out of a bounty of ripe tomatoes, onions, mint, parsley and a few other fresh ingredients. But this recipe, with shrimp and mussels, all roasted with a bouillabasse-like sauce in the oven, looked delish. When we found enormous Peruvian heads-on prawns at the store, we knew this recipe was meant to be. And it was also quite befitting that we finally saw Julie & Julia…


Okay, okay, pipe down now. I know this recipe isn’t from one of Ina’s books per se, BUT…it’s from Anna Pump, whom Ina calls her mentor. Anna’s specialty food shop, Loaves and Fishes in Sagaponack, is beloved here in the Hamptons, and her fourth book, “Summer on a Plate,” even has an endorsement on the front from Ina, who says, “No one has inspired me more than Anna Pump…” So that kinda counts, right?

Plus how could I not share the dish that all seven diners (including guest diner Uncle Dan) gave the maximum five stars?

So here’s the scoop. Yesterday afternoon we wound up at the Friday Farmers Market in the Nick & Toni’s parking lot…