Seafood

Vary this meal and go Italian instead with sun-dried tomato and garlic in olive oil instead of the peanut oil mixture. Or use any other type of flavored oil in this recipe.

The term herbes de Provence refers to the mix of herbs commonly used in southern French cooking. These include basil, thyme, chives, oregano, sage, rosemary, lavender, and dill, and can be used in almost any combination. You can purchase a premixed jar of herbes de Provence and use that in place of the herbs designated in this recipe. Any white fish tastes great in this dish. Try this with cod, sole, roughy, or snapper.

In America, we’re accustomed to eating sweet potatoes candied with maple syrup and brown sugar, or even topped with marshmallows, for a supersweet Thanksgiving side dish. But savory sweet potatoes are another experience entirely. Sweet potatoes with Creole seasoning are fabulous, and with this recipe they’re very easy to make. Any Cajun or Creole seasoning mix from the grocery will do, or make your own by mixing equal parts paprika, salt, and a dash of cayenne. Be careful with the cayenne, as a little goes a long way. Beets make a delicious red substitute for tomatoes if you can’t find good fresh ones for this dish. If you prefer white potatoes, feel free to substitute a large baking potato for the sweet potato. Frozen green beans are a quick solution when you want something green to toss into a pot meal. Simply shake some beans into the pot, reseal the bag, and keep it in the freezer. A single bag can often last for quite a few meals.

The nutty crunch of these fish sticks harkens back to that cafeteria offering in name only. So fun and easy to eat, they’re a great way to introduce younger generations to eating fish. We got Jack to eat fish by adding pecans to it. Catfish is a real staple here in the South, but if it’s not readily available in your area, try using flounder or cod.

Mama’s spaghetti and tuna casserole was delicious. We don’t want to give anyone the idea that it wasn’t by calling this Not-Your-Mama’s. But this casserole, full of creamed corn, olives, and cheese and topped with addictively crunchy fried onions, is really better than it has any right to be. Sorry, Mama!

Trust a riverboat captain to throw some fish on the grill. Mama’s husband, Michael Groover, makes his po’boy sandwiches with sweet, mild tilapia fillets and tartar sauce so tasty some of us have been known to eat it on its own. These po’boys are a big, messy, and delicious meal—a real Low Country favorite. Don’t forget to put a bottle of Tabasco on the table for extra punch!

A lemony butter sauce infuses these shrimp with a flavor that is perky and decadent all at once. You’ll be tempted to serve it over all your seafood dishes. But look out! You may find yourself talking in a Georgia drawl by the end of the meal. Serve this dish with white rice or Easy Almond Rice Pilaf (page 47) for a no-fuss fancy meal.

This is another quick-and-easy way to prepare shrimp that are smooth and buttery, with just the right amount of peppery fire to keep your family on its toes. We usually serve these with baked potatoes and a little bit of green salad on the side. Just pop the shrimp in the oven when the spuds are almost done and bring it all out to the table piping hot.

Mama likes to serve peppered shrimp in their jackets, and we’ve been improvising on her recipe for years. But for simple weeknight meals, we like to buy shelled shrimp. They’re easier to eat that way, and faster to cook. Here, we sauté them with mushrooms, which Bobby is fond of, and bacon (you can guess who thought of adding that!).

We’re always looking for new ways to cook shrimp. Here, the lip-smacking shrimp and veggies cook on skewers at the same time, making the meal fast and easy enough for a weeknight meal, even if shrimp seem like Saturday-night kind of food. Kids can even help out with threading the food onto the skewers. Serve this spicy recipe over Coconut-Orange Cashew Rice (page 66) and you’ve got a complete and extra special meal.

This recipe was born in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee where, as kids, we went camping with our parents. We caught fresh trout, and Mama cooked them right up on the grill in foil packs. It was the best-tasting fish we’d ever had. If we’re making this over a campfire, we serve it on its own. At home, it goes well with green beans.

Red snapper just about jump into your boat off the coast of Savannah, where there’s a fishing area near us known as the snapper bank. We like to sear the fillets and serve them with a delicious sauce of lemony butter with basil. In fact, we’d probably eat anything we put this butter sauce on.

When it’s so cold that even Bobby won’t cook out on the grill, we turn to this recipe. Broiling tuna (one of Bobby’s favorite fish) is a perfect way to sear the outside while keeping it nice and rare inside, and the superfast salsa is full of bright, spicy flavor. We started making our own salsas a few years ago and haven’t looked back.

We never get tired of the sweet, mild flavor of tilapia, but some nights we like to pair it with a nice bold sauce like this Italian combo, which offers salty capers and tangy tomatoes. Serve it with a side of rice to soak up all that delicious sauce.

Salmon is something so healthy that we just had to put mayonnaise on it. The lemon mayo gives it a great zesty flavor and oomph—it keeps the fish moist, too. Our lettuce and cucumber salad is a perfect match for this light dish.

When I host cooking school weekends at my place, I often do a Lowcountry Boil on Friday nights for my usual “meet and greet” session, where the folks attending can get to know one another—and me—a little bit. This is a specialty of the Lowcountry areas like Charleston and Savannah, where the people live near the water and have access to plenty of fresh shrimp. But of course you don’t need to live near the water to enjoy it. The traditional way to serve this is to basically dump it—spread it, if you will—across a large picnic table that has been covered with newspaper. You may want to fancy up the serving situation, but it’s fine to keep it casual, too. You can just tell your guests that’s how they do it down South.

This dish might sound a little strange coming from me, I grant you that. But you know I wouldn’t bother with it if it didn’t make me some dough, and the concoction has won me a bunch of money in contest ancillary categories over the years. It’s a Myron Mixon original recipe if ever there was one.

Trout is a freshwater fish, the majority of which swim in the rivers of Idaho and North Carolina. Because it’s so commonly farmed, trout is available in markets year-round. It’s a meaty fish with a naturally salty flavor, and it takes well to smoking. I like to eat smoked trout as a main dish with a little garlic butter on top and some cheese biscuits on the side. It’s also really good in a sandwich with some horseradish, or mixed into a dip with a little mayonnaise and sour cream.

Prawns are crustaceans similar to shrimp, but they’re a little bit different (it has to do with the number of overlapping plates on their scales, if you want to get technical). That said, the names are used pretty much interchangeably. To me, prawns are a little meatier and sweeter, so if you can get your hands on some, great. If not, substitute the best jumbo shrimp you can find. Serve these over a bed of wild rice, if you like.