Seafood for the Holidays
From brunch to snacks to the center of attention, plus recipes for zippy cocktail sauce and salmon 'bacon'
The leftovers are all finished off, for those of us who celebrated Thanksgiving last week. It was the first year in many that we didn’t host dinner here at our house, usually a small to medium sized group of family and friends. As I’ve mentioned before, Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday of the year—in part because it’s all about the meal, gathering around the table, sharing a leisurely day working our way through various stages of the meal from snacks through to dessert. And often, a rousing game of dominoes or cards later.
This year was a little different. Two dear friends, Kathy and John, who are usually around our table hosted this year, for a group of 30 or so. It was lively and festive and lots of fun. And it was odd to not be busy cooking and prepping the couple of days prior; I was asked to bring my mom’s fresh cranberry and orange relish (really, Ocean Spray’s recipe, but it’ll always by my mom’s as far as I’m concerned!), so my prep time was brief and easy. I look forward to hosting again next year but it was kinda nice to have a year off!
With no influence at all from me, it just so happened that a couple of seafood items made their way onto Kathy’s menu, including shrimp cocktail and deviled eggs with smoked salmon. Perfect examples of how seafood melds so well with holiday entertaining, whether it’s a festive open house, an elegant cocktail party, Christmas brunch, or a formal dinner.
The Kathy in question happens to be celebrated chef, author and consultant Kathy Casey who knows a thing or a million about entertaining with style and lots of flavor. The cocktail sauce she served with the shrimp had a sriracha kick of heat. She notes that you could start with purchased cocktail sauce and jazz it up with sriracha and extra lemon (pro tip: it’s great to take advantage of short cuts!). I’m sharing below the cocktail sauce recipe I included in my cookbook Crab.
And deviled eggs…who doesn’t love them?!? Kathy made three types drawing from her perfect book for deviled egg fans: D’Lish Deviled Eggs, including the one with smoked salmon. For that, finely minced smoked salmon is stirred into the yolk mixture, with tiny roses of smoked salmon on top (I did my best to recreate that in the photo above). In my latest book, Shellfish, there’s a recipe for deviled eggs with crab and wasabi—a little of both in the yolk mixture, a dab of extra crab on top. Maybe go elegant, and simply top classic deviled eggs with some caviar or other favorite fish roe.
For upcoming holiday gatherings, a few recipes I can suggest from past newsletters include Hot Salmon and Artichoke Dip, Grapefruit-Campari Granita for raw oysters, Herb-Marinated Shrimp with Cocktail Onions. As a centerpiece, many (at least here on the Dungeness crab coast) turn to Dungeness for festive meals this time of year. I highly recommend this Rosemary Roasted Crab, one of my all-time favorite crab preparations. And if you’re a year-round griller, Grilled Whole Salmon Dad’s Way would surely be a hit (and it’s easy enough to adapt for the oven, too.)
Not much in the brunch department yet, but that changes with the recipe for Salmon ‘Bacon’ that you’ll find below.
All cooking-shopping-eating and a couple bits of news
I won’t bore you with the discussions I’ve been having with myself about my focus here. It’s definitely more of a clarification than a big change—but going forward I’m more fully committed to topics related to cooking, shopping for, eating, and sharing seafood. Less focus on industry themes, news, issues, etc. aside from occasional tidbits that seem ideal for Savvy.
My hope is that approach aligns best with my tagline for this newsletter: where seafood lovers and the seafood curious can learn, engage and be inspired for more seafood adventures. I take “adventures” to include those in the kitchen and those while out-and-about, whether around town shopping and dining, or across the globe on travels.
And it echoes the responses I got to a little survey I had in the newsletter on its second anniversary. Recipes got by far the most votes for content folks wanted to see, followed closely by general techniques and how-tos, and travel themes.
One bit of news: after two-plus years of writing this newsletter, I’ve just turned on a paid subscription option. To be very clear, this changes nothing at all for free subscribers. The same newsletter content I’ve been sending out somewhat irregularly will still be free. I know there are only so many Substacks I can afford to pay for and greatly appreciate how much outstanding content is available free of charge—and I want as many seafood lovers as possible to join the fun here. As a self-employed writer, though, every few dollars helps support the time and cost that go into producing the newsletter, so it’s there as an option.
For now there’s one small perk for paid subscribers: access to the recipe archive I’ve added on the home page. It offers links directly to recipes that have appeared in the newsletters thus far (about 30 so far), updated with each new issue. They’re organized by specific seafood, so you can scan down to “shrimp” to see what recipes I’ve published including shrimp.
Oh, and in non-seafood-related news: I just launched a new Substack, Long Live the Recipe Box! It goes all-in on a topic I brought up a year ago about preserving family food traditions, particularly recipes and the stories behind them. If that’s of interest, here’s the first newsletter that tells more of what I have in store.
Firecracker Cocktail Sauce
This is a recipe I included in my Crab cookbook with crab cocktail in mind. Of course, it’s perfect for shrimp or lobster cocktail, or serve with fried oysters or wherever else you might use cocktail sauce. It’s a relatively classic version, with an added dose of horseradish.
Using fresh horseradish makes a big difference, adding a good fiery-hot kick to the sauce, though prepared horseradish will give you fully respectable results as well. And you could use 3/4 cup of ketchup rather than both ketchup and chili sauce, though the latter does add a bit more texture to the mix. When serving crab cocktail, I like to put a bit of the cocktail sauce in the dish first so that when you get to the bottom you still have some of the zesty sauce for the last of the crab. Often when serving shrimp cocktail, it’s more of a dip situation (as on that Thanksgiving platter above) than piled into a dish with sauce.
A great option for snacks and cocktail parties is to serve a mini-cocktail bite in a Belgian endive leaf. These leaves are ideal little edible containers, you can put a small shrimp or two, or a bit of crabmeat, at the broad end of the leaf and top with a dollop of cocktail sauce. They look elegant on a tray and guests can pick them up from the tapered end of the leaf for a tidy bite.
Firecracker Cocktail Sauce
1/2 cup ketchup
1/4 cup chili sauce
2 tablespoons horseradish, preferably freshly grated
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 teaspoons minced green onion tops
1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
Hot pepper sauce, to taste
Combine the ketchup, chili sauce, horseradish, lemon juice, green onion, Worcestershire, and hot pepper sauce in a small bowl and stir to mix. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
Salmon “Bacon”
This is a sort of twist on smoked salmon, brining the fish as you traditionally would (though cut into thin strips first), the fish simply baked at a low temperature in the oven rather than smoked. It is just the thing to serve with scrambled eggs and toast for a holiday brunch (or really any time you want to add a bit of panache to breakfast), or use this “bacon” to make an interesting BLT sandwich. Be sure to choose a thicker fillet portion of salmon, from the head end rather than the tail end, so that the slices will be of relatively even size.
3 cups water
3/4 cup real maple syrup or honey
6 tablespoons kosher salt
1 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper
3/4 pound salmon fillet, skin and pin bones removed
1 to 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
Combine the water, maple syrup, and salt in a large shallow dish, such as a 9- by 13-inch baking dish. Stir to mix and let sit until the salt has dissolved, stirring occasionally, 15 to 20 minutes.
Sprinkle the pepper evenly over the top of the salmon fillet, rubbing well with your fingers to evenly coat the fish and help it adhere. Cut the salmon fillet across into 1/4-inch slices and lay them in the brine mixture, avoiding overlapping as much as you can. Cover the dish with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.
Lift the salmon strips from the brine and pat dry with paper towels. Set the strips on a wire rack and air dry until the surface of the fish is no longer moist to the touch, about 45 minutes. If you have a small fan, set it up to blow gently on the salmon to speed up the drying a bit.
Preheat the oven to 250°F. Line a large baking sheet with foil.
Brush both sides of each salmon strip with the oil and set them on the prepared baking sheet. Bake the salmon until aromatic and firm, about 45 minutes.
Makes 6 to 8 servings
