Cod with it’s mild flavor is a popular dish that is low in fat.  Cod also contains a good source of vitamin B12, B6, and niacin that can have great cardiovascular benefits, especially for women.  Check out this link here to learn more about the benefits of cod.  Please enjoy!

For some very popular cod recipes from RecipeZaar, click here.

• ¼ cup unsalted butter, softened
• 2 tbsp. flat leaf parsley, chopped
• 1 large garlic clove, minced
• 2 tbsp. minced shallots
• ½ tsp. Dijon mustard
• 1 thin piece prosciutto, minced
• 1 tbsp. flour
• 2 tbsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice
• Salt to taste
• Freshly ground pepper to taste
• 2 tbsp. canola oil
• 4-7 oz. fresh cod fillets
• Lemon wedges for garnish

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  Stir together first 10 ingredients in a small bowl and set aside.  Heat oil in a large oven-proof skillet over medium heat.  Season the cod with salt and pepper.  Cook in skillet for 4 minutes.  Turn fillets over and cook for 1 minute.  Spoon 1 tbsp. butter mixture over the top of each fillet; place skillet in oven, and bake for 2 minutes or until fish is cooked through.  Add any remaining butter to pan, and let melt, stirring with juices in pan.  Spoon over fish and serve immediately with lemon wedges.

Serves: 4

Total time: 30 minutes

If you enjoyed this post, you may also like...

1. Garlic and Lemon Marinated Chicken Breasts With Gnocchi and Sage Butter Sauce
2. Halibut With Citrus Butter Sauce
3. Pasta in Garlic-Almond Sauce

Yeah!!!  Crab season has started, a recipe from the archives.  LooLoo

During crab season this is a must for entertaining. It’s fun, it’s easy, it’s fast and everybody loves it.  I like to serve this succelent crab dish with a big green salad, and crusty french bread (dipping the bread in the sauce is a must).  It’s so good!!  I found this fabulous recipe from a cookbook “Cooking at the Winery with Jim May” that I aquired while wine tasting at the Alderbrook Winery a few years ago. This recipe was given to Rob Weinstock, Vineyard Manager at Alderbrook and his family more than forty years ago by the great San Francisco restauranteur Joe Paoli.  Go to www.alderbrook.com to check out this beautiful winery.

• 2 fresh Dungeness crabs cooked, cleaned, and cracked
• 1/4 pound butter
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 2 teaspoons Tabasco
• 4 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• 1/2 cup white wine
• 4 cloves garlic, crushed
• 6 sprigs rosemary
• Pepper to taste

Mix all ingredients, except crab, in a sauce pan large enough to hold the crab when added.
Simmer for 20 minutes until well blended.

Add crab and spoon sauce over it as it simmers for an additional 10 minutes.
Serve with crusty French bread, a green salad, and lots of napkins.

• Serves 4
• Total time: about 40 minutes

If you enjoyed this post, you may also like...

1. Crab Paoli
2. Crab and Andouille Sausage Cakes
3. Spiced Pepper Walnuts

For more recipes with halibut, click here. 

For the halibut:

• Corn tortillas, 8 to 10
• 1 lb. halibut fillets
• 1 cup flour
• 2 eggs
• 1 tbsp. water
• 1 tbsp. whipping cream
• 2 cups panko bread crumbs
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 4 tbsp. olive oil

For the creamy avocado slaw:

• 1 avocado
• 2 green onions, chopped
• 1 clove garlic, chopped
• ½  cup sour cream
• 1/4 cup mayonnaise
• 2 tbsp. green salsa
• 1 tsp. cider vinegar
• 1 tsp. red pepper chili flakes
• ½ lime, juiced
• 2 cups cabbage, thinly sliced

Prepare you creamy avocado cabbage slaw first.  In a large bowl, mix all ingredients thoroughly, adding your cabbage last, tossing to coat cabbage evenly.  Place in refrigerator while you prepare you tacos.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Place your tortillas in foil and warm in oven while you prepare your halibut.  Wash and trim skin off halibut.  Cut into 2- inch pieces.  Place flour in shallow dish.  In a medium size bowl, beat eggs with whipping cream and water.  Place panko bread crumbs in a shallow dish, add salt and pepper to taste.  Dredge halibut pieces one by one in flour, shaking to remove any excess flour, then dip into egg mixture, lastly coat with the panko bread crumbs.  Heat a nonstick skillet with olive oil until barely smoking.  Sauté halibut pieces to a golden brown turning once, about 5 minutes.  Place halibut pieces in an oven proof pan, to finish cooking.  About 8 minutes. 

To serve, place halibut pieces in warmed tortillas, and top with creamy avocado cabbage slaw.

Serves: 6

Total time: 60 minutes

If you enjoyed this post, you may also like...

1. Creamy Cucumber-Avocado Salad Dressing
2. Parmesan Crusted Chicken with Sage Butter Sauce
3. Halibut With Citrus Butter Sauce

Jicama is a sweet root vegetable that adds a nice crunch to these quesadillas.  The Bay shrimp (baby shrimp), changes this quesadilla up from the traditional beef or chicken.  Served with guacamole, this is a perfect quick week night meal or appetizers for your next party!  Please enjoy!

My source for these wonderful quesadillas is the San Francisco chronicle’s friday wine section.

For more recipes with aioli click here.

The Aioli

• ½ tsp. minced garlic
• 1 to 2 tsp. chopped fresh tarragon
• Kosher salt, to taste
• ½ cup mayonnaise
• ½ tsp. lemon juice

The quesadillas

• 1 ear corn
• 5 oz. Monterey jack cheese, grated
• 8 oz. bay shrimp
• ½ cup finely chopped jicama
• 2 green onions, green part finely chopped, about ¼ cup
• Zest from 1 lemon
• 8 flour tortillas, 8-inch diameter
• ½ cup guacamole, mildly spiced

For the aioli

Place garlic and tarragon in a mortar with a little salt to taste and blend together with pestle.  Stir in the mayonnaise and lemon juice then refrigerate until ready to use.  The aioli can be made ahead.

For the quesadillas

Shuck corn and remove silks.  Rinse then loosely wrap in parchment or place in a microwave-safe container.  Microwave 2-3 minutes until cooked but still slightly crisp.  When cool enough, cut kernels off and set aside.

Divide the corn, cheese, jicama and green onion among four tortillas, layering the ingredients.  Top with a sprinkle of lemon zest.  Spread the remaining tortillas with tarragon aioli and place, aioli-side down atop the filling.  If you have some aioli left, refrigerate for another use.

Heat a dry skillet over medium-low heat.  Place a quesadilla in the skillet and cook, flipping at least once, until the cheese has melted and tortillas are lightly browned.  Repeat with the remaining quesadillas.

Cut quesadillas into wedges and top with some of the guacamole, or offer it on the side.  Serve immediately.

If you enjoyed this post, you may also like...

1. Panko Crusted Halibut Tacos with a Creamy Avocado Cabbage Slaw
2. Corn-Tomato Relish
3. “This Pasta Bursts With Colorful Flavors”

Now then, after doing my due diligence in sourcing this crab cake recipe, I realized I have had this recipe since 1998, shame on me for not making it sooner, because I cannot wait to make it again. Chef Nancy Oakes from Boulevard created this Fabulous recipe and it came from the sunday paper of the San Francisco Chronicle.  Please enjoy!

For more crab cake recipes click here. 

• 1 ½ cups fresh bread crumbs
• 1 tbsp. olive oil
• ¼ lb. crab meat
• 2 to 3 ounces andouille sausage, minced and sautéed until crisp
• 1 small rib celery, minced
• ¼ red onion, minced
• ¼ cup mayonnaise
• 1 tbsp. Dijon mustard
• 1 tbsp. chopped parsley
• ¼ tsp. minced fresh thyme
• ¼ tsp. Worcestershire sauce
• Dash of Tabasco sauce
• 2 eggs yolks
• 2 egg whites, whipped to stiff peaks
• Olive oil for sautéing

In a bowl, drizzle bread crumbs with olive oil, toss and let stand 20 minutes.

In a large bowl, combine bread crumbs with crab, sausage, celery, onion, mayonnaise, mustard, parsley, thyme, Worcestershire, Tabasco and egg yolks.  Blend well.  Fold in whipped egg whites.

Form mixture into 1 ½ inch cakes (for appetizers), or 4 individual cakes (for an entrée).  Sauté in olive oil in a heavy skillet until brown on both sides and hot throughout. 

Serves:  12 as an appetizer or 4 for 2 people

Total time:  1 hour plus

If you enjoyed this post, you may also like...

1. Crab Paoli
2. Crab Paoli
3. Ray’s Andouille Sausage with Brown Rice and Beans

For more “Seafood with Citrus Sauce” recipes click here.

 For Citrus Butter Sauce

• 1 cup dry white wine
• ¼ cup fresh grapefruit juice (from ½ grapefruit)
• 2 tbsp. fresh orange juice (from ½ orange)
• 1 ½ tbsp. fresh lemon juice (from ½ large lemon)
• 2 tbsp. champagne vinegar
• 2 tbsp. minced shallot (about 1)
• 2 tsp. finely chopped fresh parsley stems
• 1 ½ tbsp. chopped white mushrooms (1 small)
• 1 ½ tsp. white peppercorns
• 1 turkish or ½ California bay leaf
• 3 tbsp. heavy cream
• ¾ stick cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
• ½ tsp. salt or to taste

For Halibut

• 4 (6- to 8-oz) Pacific halibut steaks (3/4 to 1 inch thick) with skin
• ¾ tsp. salt
• ½ tsp. black pepper
• ¼ cup wondra flour
• 2 tbsp. olive oil
• 1 tsp. chopped fresh chives

Make Citrus Butter Sauce

Combine wine, juices, vinegar, shallot, parsley, mushroom, peppercorns and bay leaf in a 1 ½ to 2 quart heavy sauce pan and boil over moderately high heat until reduced to about 1/3 cup, 15 to 20 minutes.  Add cream and boil until liquid is reduced to about 1/3 cup again, 1 to 3 minutes.  Reduce heat to low and whisk in butter 1 piece at a time, adding each new piece before the previous one has completely liquefied and lifting pan off heat occasionally to cool sauce.

Remove from heat and pour sauce through a fine-mesh sieve into a metal bowl, pressing on and then discarding solids.  Whisk in salt, then set bowl over a saucepan of hot water to keep warm.

Make Halibut

Pat halibut dry and sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Dredge both sides of fish in flour, shaking off excess.

Heat oil in a 12-inch nonstick skillet over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking, then cook fish (in 2 batches if necessary), turning over once, until golden and just cooked through, 5 to 7 minutes (per batch).  Transfer fish with a slotted spatula to plates.  Whisk juices from fish into sauce, then drizzle over halibut and sprinkle with chives.

Serves:  4

Total time:  1 1/2 hour

If you enjoyed this post, you may also like...

1. Panko Crusted Halibut Tacos with a Creamy Avocado Cabbage Slaw
2. Roast Cod with Garlic Butter
3. Parmesan Crusted Chicken with Sage Butter Sauce

To learn more about Basque cooking Click here for Gerald Hirigoyens copy of “The Basque Kitchen”. 

• 4 hake Steaks, 1 inch thick, about 6 ounces each
• Kosher salt and freshly ground white pepper
• Flour for dredging
• ½ cup olive oil
• 2 tsp. minced garlic
• ½ cup chopped fresh parsley
• ¼ cup dry white wine
• ¼ shelled green peas
• 16 manila clams
• 3 hard boiled eggs, coarsely chopped
• 12 spears white or green asparagus, cooked and trimmed to 3 inches
• 2 tbsp. unsalted butter

Season both sides of the fish steaks with salt and pepper.  Dredge them in the flour and set aside.  Warm the olive oil in a large sauté pan over high heat.  Add the steaks and sauté for 1 ½ minutes on each side.  Remove the fish from the pan and set aside.

Add the garlic and parsley, sauté for 1 minute.  Return the fish steaks to the pan and add the white wine, peas, clams, hard boiled eggs and asparagus.  Bring to a slow boil.  Cover and reduce the heat slightly.  Cooked until the fish steaks are cooked through and the clams are fully opened, 6 to 8 minutes, discarding any clams that have not opened.  Transfer the fish steaks to a serving platter or onto individual plates.

Add the butter to the pan and swirl the ingredients in a constant circular motion until the butter has melted and the sauce has bonded slightly.  Pour the sauce on top of the fish and serve immediately.

Serves:  4

Total time:  1 hour

If you enjoyed this post, you may also like...

1. Halibut With Citrus Butter Sauce
2. Panko Crusted Halibut Tacos with a Creamy Avocado Cabbage Slaw
3. Greek Mixed Grill Kabobs and Pine Nut Orzo Salad

My husband and I spent a few days down in Monterey where I picked up their local magazine the “Monterey Bay Wine & Travel”.  While scanning for fun things to do I came across this wonderful pasta recipe that did not have a name, it simply said “THIS PASTA BURST WITH COLORFUL FLAVORS”.  Armando Perez is the chef that prepared this dish.  He is one of the four “All Star” chefs at Gino’s Fine Italian Restaurant down in Salinas. It looked so yummy I couldn’t wait to get home and try it.

• ¼ cup olive oil
• ¼ cup finely chopped shallots
• 1 tbsp. minced garlic
• ¼ tsp. dried red pepper flakes
• 1 cup yellow cherry tomatoes
• 1 cup red cherry tomatoes
• 1 cup orange cherry tomatoes
• 1-1/2 cup dry white wine
• 1 lb. large shrimp, peeled and deveined
• 1 lb. linguini
• 4 cups fresh spinach, torn into bite size pieces
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• Fresh grated parmesan cheese

Heat the oil in a large, heavy skillet over medium heat.  Add shallots, garlic, red pepper flakes, and all the tomatoes.  Sauté until translucent, 2 minutes or so.  Add the wine.  Simmer until the wine reduces by half, 5 minutes or so.  Add the shrimp and cook stirring, until they are pink, 2 minutes or so. 

Meanwhile, bring a pot of salted water to a boil. 

Add the linguini, and cook until tender but still firm to the bite.  Drain pasta.  Add the pasta and spinach to the shrimp skillet.  Toss to combine.  Season with salt and pepper.  Serve immediately with fresh grated parmesan cheese.

• Serves 4
• Total time: about 1 hour

If you enjoyed this post, you may also like...

1. Pasta in Garlic-Almond Sauce
2. Joy’s Eggplant with Pasta and Marinara Sauce
3. Pasta with Italian Sausage, Spinach and Mushrooms

I found this fabulous recipe from a cookbook “Cooking at the Winery with Jim May” that I aquired while wine tasting at the Alderbrook Winery a few years ago. This recipe was given to Rob Weinstock, Vineyard Manager at Alderbrook and his family more than forty years ago by the great San Francisco restauranteur Joe Paoli.  Go to www.alderbrook.com to check out this beautiful winery.  During crab season this is a must for entertaining. It’s fun, It’s easy, it’s fast and everybody loves it.  Please enjoy!

Click here for more recipes using crab.

• 2 fresh Dungeness crabs cooked and cleaned
• 1/4 pound butter
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 2 teaspoons Tabasco
• 4 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• 1/2 cup white wine
• 4 cloves garlic, crushed
• 6 sprigs rosemary
• Pepper to taste

Mix all ingredients, except crab, in a sauce pan large enough to hold the crab when added.
Simmer for 20 minutes until well blended.

Add crab and spoon sauce over it as it cooks for an additional 10 minutes.
Serve with crusty French bread, a green salad and lots of napkins.

• Serves 4
• Total time: about 40 minutes

If you enjoyed this post, you may also like...

1. Crab Paoli
2. Crab and Andouille Sausage Cakes
3. Spiced Pepper Walnuts