The Complete 15-Minute Gourmet: Seafood

By Paulette Mitchell and Nancy Bundt

Easily cook up an assortment of creative gourmet seafood recipes, including soups, salads, sandwiches, and entrees, in just fifteen minutes.

You don’t have to sacrifice flavor or nutrition just because your life is hectic. For more than twenty years, Paulette Mitchell has been creating gourmet dishes that can be prepared in fifteen minutes or less. Her speedy meals are sophisticated enough to please the palates of savvy gourmets, yet simple enough that a novice can prepare them. In just fifteen minutes, you could be feasting on:

• Tuna Salad Niçoise
• Salmon Ramen
• Warm Crab Salad Sandwiches
• Grilled Pesto Shrimp with Israeli Couscous
• Shrimp Coconut Milk Curry
• Mahi Mahi with Tomatillo Sauce

Whether you crave cuisine with an international flair or want a new spin on a traditional favorite, The Complete 15-Minute Gourmet Seafood has recipes that yield extraordinary results with minimal time and effort. You’ll be amazed by what you can create in just fifteen minutes.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Oct 5, 2008
• ISBN: 9781401604936

Book preview

Salads

CRABMEAT MARTINI SALAD WITH GINGERED PLUM DRESSING

Makes 4 servings

This elegant salad deserves an equally elegant presentation. Make it in advance and refrigerate for several hours before serving. Then bring out your best martini glasses (large enough to accommodate greens and a heaping ¾ cup salad)—chill them in the refrigerator, too, before filling. Add artisan olive bread and a cheese plate. And presto! A light lunch served with style for your most discerning guests.

1 tablespoon canola oil

1 small zucchini, cut into 3/8-inch cubes

½ yellow bell pepper, finely chopped

½ green bell pepper, finely chopped

1½ teaspoons minced garlic

s3 cup Gingered Plum Dressing

1 (6-ounce) can lump crab, drained and broken into chunks

1 tomato, cut into 3/8-inch dice

2 green onions, finely chopped

Salt to taste

2 cups finely shredded romaine lettuce

Lime wedges for garnish

• Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the zucchini, bell peppers, and garlic. Cook, stirring constantly, for 2 minutes or until the vegetables are crisp tender. Transfer the vegetables to a large shallow bowl and stir occasionally as they cool.

• Pour the dressing into a medium bowl. Gently stir in the crab, tomato, green onions, and the cooled vegetables. Season with salt. If time permits, transfer the mixture to a refrigerator container; cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or up to 8 hours before serving.

• To assemble the serving, put lettuce in the bottom of martini glasses and top with the crab mixture. Garnish with lime wedges.

TUNA AND CANNELLINI BEAN SALAD

Makes 4 servings

The Italians call this tonno e fagioli, and my friend Judy Witts Francini, who lives in Florence, creates it by cooking her beans from scratch for two to three hours with olive oil, garlic, and sage. For those of us in a hurry, canned cannellini beans will do just fine. But for this dish, I always use Italian tuna packed in olive oil.

3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

¼ cup finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

1 (15-ounce) can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed

1 cup thinly sliced red onion

1 (6-ounce) can Italian solid light tuna in olive oil, drained

Salt and pepper to taste

• Whisk together the lemon juice and olive oil in a medium bowl. Stir in the parsley.

• Add the beans, onion, and tuna; stir until evenly combined. Season with salt and pepper.

RASPBERRY-SHRIMP SALAD

Makes 4 servings

This refreshing salad is perfect when you’re expecting guests for lunch on a sweltering summer day. No need to turn on the stove—and no one needs to know you created the meal in mere minutes. Proudly present this colorful dish on pretty plates, accompanied by crusty rolls served with honey butter.

For the raspberry-walnut vinaigrette:

¼ cup raspberry vinegar

¼ cup walnut oil

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

1 teaspoon packed brown sugar

¼ teaspoon salt, or to taste

¼ teaspoon pepper, or to taste

For the salad:

16 asparagus spears, diagonally cut into 2-inch lengths

8 cups coarsely chopped romaine lettuce

8 ounces cooked, peeled, and deveined large (16 to 20 count) shrimp, halved vertically

4 green onions, coarsely chopped

2 cups raspberries

Freshly ground pepper for garnish

• Whisk together all the vinaigrette ingredients in a small bowl.

• Put the asparagus in a medium microwave-proof dish; add ¼ cup water. Cover and microwave on HIGH for 3 minutes or until crisp-tender. (Or cook the asparagus over simmering water in a stovetop steamer.) Drain and rinse with cold water.

• Toss together the asparagus, lettuce, shrimp, and green onions in a large bowl. Add the vinaigrette; toss again. Add the raspberries and gently toss until evenly combined.

• Sprinkle the salads with pepper.

WARM SCALLOP AND AVOCADO SALAD

Makes 4 servings

This colorful salad takes its flavors from the popular Latin American appetizer called ceviche, a dish made with fish cooked in a marinade of lime juice, onions, tomatoes, and peppers, which quickly renders the flesh opaque. Here, the scallops are quickly cooked conventionally. Accompany this main dish salad with rustic bread.

2 tablespoons olive oil

¼ cup finely chopped red onion

2 tablespoons finely chopped jalapeño chili

½ teaspoon minced garlic

12 ounces sea scallops

1 plum tomato, cut into ½-inch cubes

½ orange bell pepper, cut into ½-inch chunks

1 avocado, cut into ½-inch cubes

¼ cup coarsely chopped fresh cilantro

2 tablespoons fresh lime juice

¼ teaspoon salt, or to taste

1 head Boston lettuce, leaves separated

• Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onion, chili, and garlic; cook, stirring constantly, for 2 minutes. Add the scallops and continue stirring gently for 2 minutes per side or until just cooked.

• Remove from the heat and gently stir in the remaining ingredients, except the lettuce.

• Arrange the lettuce leaves on plates and top with the warm salad.

TUNA SALADE NIÇOISE

Makes 4 servings

Whenever I’m in Nice, France, I choose this salad for lunch daily—I just can’t get enough of it. There, it is served everywhere, from bistros to sidewalk cafés to elegant restaurants. My very favorite location is a café next to Cours Saleya, the famous outdoor market, where most of the salad ingredients are purchased fresh each morning. The salad is made with France’s special tuna canned in olive oil, which offers great flavor. It’s now available in many markets at home, but you can use the water-packed variety if you prefer.

The variations of the salad are infinite. Here is the version I usually prepare, but there’s no need to follow the amounts exactly. Sometimes I add garbanzo beans and cucumber or other salad ingredients I have on hand. You really can’t go wrong with this exceptional blend of flavors. Of course, accompany the salad with a crusty French baguette.

4 small red-skinned potatoes, halved

8 ounces haricots verts (thin French green beans), ends trimmed

8 cups mesclun (mixed baby greens)

2 (6-ounce) cans solid white tuna packed in olive oil or water, drained and broken into large chunks

4 plum tomatoes, cut into ¼-inch slices

½ yellow bell pepper, cut into ¼-inch strips

2 hard-cooked eggs, each cut into 8 wedges

½ cup Niçoise olives

1 (2-ounce) can flat anchovies, drained, optional

1½ cups Basic Vinaigrette

Freshly ground pepper for garnish

• Put the potatoes in a small saucepan and cover with water. Cover the pan and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to medium and cook for 8 minutes or until tender. Drain well and rinse with cold water. Cut into ¼-inch slices.

• While the potatoes are cooking, put the haricots verts in a microwave-proof dish; add ¼ cup water. Cover and microwave on HIGH for 4 minutes or until crisp-tender. (Or cook the green beans over simmering water in a stovetop steamer.) Drain and rinse with cold water.

• To assemble the salads, spread the mesclun on dinner plates. Top the greens with an artful arrangement of the remaining ingredients, except the vinaigrette. Drizzle each salad with about ¼ cup vinaigrette and garnish with pepper.

• Serve extra vinaigrette in a container on the side.

TIP

Haricots verts is French for green string beans. It refers to the very slender green beans that are found in most supermarket produce departments.

SHRIMP AND RED GRAPEFRUIT SALAD

Makes 4 servings

For this refreshing salad, rather than peeling the grapefruit by hand, it’s best to slice away the peel on a cutting board with a sharp serrated knife. This method removes the bitter white pith and offers a more elegant look. I pick a large grapefruit (red because I love the color it adds to the salad) and use half for the vinaigrette and the other half for cutting into wedges. For speed, I purchase already-cooked shrimp that are chilled and ready to go.

For the red grapefruit vinaigrette:

¼ cup fresh grapefruit juice

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1 tablespoon honey mustard

1 teaspoon minced garlic

Salt and pepper to taste

For the salad:

½ cup (4 ounces) chèvre cheese

1 tablespoon