Fish Toppings

[lostman]

Any of you stupendous chefs out there have some good recipes for some toppings for fish like the Ponchetrain topping and such that you get at Babin's or Landry's?

Got some tilapia and snapper fillets and we are looking for something to use with them. We usually coat them in olive oil and do a seasoning of some sort - Chacere's, dill, salt & pepper, etc - and then grill. Just want something different for a change.

CAD - I sure liked the steak and lobster dinner you had the other night - mmm mmm!

 

[ctrl+alt+del]

Thanks, but I liked it better!

Never tried this, but I think I will just have to, now that you bring it up. I usually come up with these off the top of my head:

Buy a package of crawfish tails. They usually have them at the HEB seafood dept and they usually come in 12 to 16oz. packages from what I remember. Heat a half-stick of butter (4 Tablespoons) on medium heat until melted. Add 1 teaspoon of cayenne, one tablespoon of garlic powder, one tablespoon of onion powder, 1 tablespoon of Tony Chachere's and saute the crawfish tails for about 10 mintues. Stir in 1 can of Campbell's Cream of Mushroom Soup (regular, not the low-fat and not the reduced sodium. That stuff is crap). Reduce heat to low and let simmer for about 10 minutes. This should yield a great topping.

 

[scottsins]

i would recommend adding 1/2 to 1 cup of white wine, along with about 1/2 a lemon worth of juice.

 

[ctrl+alt+del]

Man, sauces and topping are some of the best things to come up with because they are so easily modified and personalized. One of the many things about cooking I enjoy!

 

[scottsins]

reboot-

I wasn't bagging on your idera, by the way. The onlyu reason i recommended the white wine and lemon was because he initially mentioned ponchartrain, which I've always had with wine. I also like the acidity with any fish.

Those shrimp in the other thread look awesome.

 

[ctrl+alt+del]

Thanks! Oh I definitely agree about the wine and lemon juice. The only pitfall I find with adding wine and lemon juice it that you have to be real careful not to add too much as it will thin out the topping to where it doesn't stay on the food.

 

[next2naus]

1/4 Soy Sauce, tsp sesame oil, add cilantro, diced japs, diced 2 cloves garlic, add sugar (or splendra) to taste (counters the salinity of the soy)


or

Soy, Honey, sesame oil, sugar, garlic: makes a nice glaze

 

[NickDanger]

For snapper I like to get about a cup or so of peeeeecans and whirl them in the mini cuisinart with a T of corn starch. Press them HARD into the feelays. Saute them in butter.

I also get a C of Chardonnay and .5C Lemon juice and reduce by 1/2 and then add a mixture of 1/4C chardonnay and 2 T cornstarch and whisk for a mnute or 2. Then you reduce hea and add a stick of butter or 1.5 and whisk and add more lemon juice to taste.

Pour the sauce on the plate and put the pecan crusted fillet on top of the sauce.

 

[horn4life]

On any sauce you want to add the seafood (in this case crawfish) as late in the process as possible. You can always avoid "thinnning" by simply simmering the suace longer in 90% of cases. You can cheat and add in a little bit of corn starch like nearly ev ery chinese place does to thinken their sauces. Or you can all a little bit of flour at a time when initially melting down the butter while continually stirring to add thickness as well.

I would suggest also tossing a little bit of lump crab neat on top to "finish" the plating of the dish for presnetation and flavor purposes. (ps- all crab you will buy unless it is flipping around whole from the docks is already cooked)

 

[lostman]

THANKS!!! I knew the chefs here would come through. I have looked through a couple online places, but really would rather try something that someone else has had some success with.

I think we will just start at the top with CAD's post and work our way down. Probably dinner tomorrow night, though, since we are kinda busy tonight.

I'll post results here!

 

[horn4life]

Here is a fantastic starting point for almost any fish related sauce, and for other sauces as well "beurre blanc". this link is from a site that was on gumbopages.com when I went to chech the speling on google-The Link

Here is a frigging great link I found a second ago The Linkby going up steam on the site!

Make note of the Beurre manié the second item on the second link as it's one of the best short cuts for quick sauce making you can use, we slice off portions that we have refrigerated and it makes things go real quick during the week for a quick sausce starter.

At the bottom are all the "mother sauces" SO YOU SHOULD BE IN SAUCE BUSINESS IN NO TIME!

 

[NickDanger]

Another sauce we use on grilled tuna (which is a deal from Costco).
1 C champagne
3 T champagne vinegar (we always use white wine vinegar successfully)
3 T minced shallots
reduce by half and add 1 C heavy cream
a sprinkling of white pepper to taste and redduce by half again.

Take it off the heat and whisk in a stick of butter a piece or two at a time. I then add a little lemon juice to wake it up and strain and serve.

Another variation of that sauce is to use a nice red wine and substitute a heavier concentration of balsamic vinegar.

These sauces are also very good on grilled scallops (also a good deal at Costco). Bacon wrap and grill.

 

[Roger]

I prefer the snapper filets breaded lightly with a combo of crackers (crushed to a fine consistency), parmesian (preferably parmagiano-reggiano), salt, pepper, cayene and garlic powder. Sauteed preferrably in butter but your favorite oil will do fine. For the topping - saute fresh chopped garlic in butter (or olive oil) and at the last moment add lump crabmeat (could use crawfish tails) and then pour over the top of the fish.

Or you could go to Gaido's in galveston and let them do it for you

 

[SuperHero]

Simple recipe you can get at any Chinese restaurant:

Cut scallions and ginger into thin strips.
Cover grouper, snapper, flounder or any sea fish
Steam until fully cooked
Heat 1/4-1/2 cup oil and pour over fish
Add soy sauce to taste

Not very heavy, but very tasty. My non-asian friends love it.