Shellfish

Here’s a barbecue-style surf and turf! This recipe combines both barbecuing and grilling techniques, with slow-cooked brisket slices wrapped around fresh scallops and cooked on a hot grill. Our tasty way to use up leftover brisket slices was featured on Live with Regis and Kelly in 2007. Serve it hot off the grill as either an appetizer or a main course.

I was first given the opportunity to cook at the James Beard Foundation in 2003. It was exciting, because it is a huge honor to be invited to cook at the home of James Beard. My wife, Amy, and I, along with her parents, Don and Carolyn McLemore, came up with a simple plan: We would pull our cooker to New York, set up in front of the Foundation, and cook for a party of eighty to a hundred people. Big Bob Gibson’s regularly caters for six thousand to eight thousand people, so this seemed like a slam dunk! In the South it is not uncommon to drive down a city street and see smoke billowing from a portable cooker. Under a pop-up tent with a handwritten sign reading BBQ PLATE $5.00, you can find the most delicious barbecue you have ever tasted. New York City is a different cut of beef. In order to cook on the street you must first make the police department aware of your intentions and obtain a single-day or multiple-day “festival permit,” depending on how long your cooker will stay curbside. This is a tricky process for a bunch of folks from Alabama trying to navigate the system. While waiting for approval we found that the fire department needed to be included in all outdoor cooking discussions. And we couldn’t forget to hire a fire marshal to sit with the cooker overnight: safety first. Although logistics were tedious, the result was flawless. The New York City Police Department met us at the Lincoln Tunnel and gave us an escort to the Foundation. They also blocked off the one-way street in front of the event until we could parallel park at James Beard’s front door. Soon after, we were greeted by the fire department, who were not only concerned with fire safety but also with making our stay in the city pleasant. It was then that we realized we needed to cook more food. For Beard events, it is customary to offer your guests appetizers during the social period prior to dinner service. This is what we served. As always, our logic was, “You can’t mess anything up if you wrap it in bacon.”

These sweet, delectable scallops are browned and caramelized on the outside, moist on the inside, and ready in an instant.

Warm and aromatic—like bouillabaisse without all the fuss. Mussels are best eaten right away, so call everyone to the table when you put the mussels into the pot.

These scallops are pan-fried, but the effect is very similar to deep-fried. Panko crumbs or flakes are Japanese-style bread crumbs. They’re coarser and more irregularly shaped than regular bread crumbs, and although they look fresh, they’re dry. When used for frying, they absorb less oil and make a lighter, crunchier, more tender and delicate coating that stays crisp longer than ordinary coatings.

For a summer luncheon or a light supper, there’s nothing better than this lovely salad dressed with lemon and tarragon.

Bright green snow peas and rosy shrimp in a creamy, golden sauce—an elegant dish in only 20 minutes. (See photo)

Monkfish is perfect for this recipe because it doesn’t fall apart. It has a wonderfully tender and succulent texture similar to lobster, but monkfish is less expensive. This dish is also good with other types of fish and other kinds of seafood, such as scallops, shrimp, or lobster.

What makes this sandwich particularly special is the chile oil, and for this we must give credit where it is due. Many years ago, Sisha worked with a talented chef named Neil Swidler. An Arizona native later working in New Orleans, Neil made this strikingly beautiful and fiery oil and shared the recipe with Sisha, who will be forever grateful. This sandwich, our homage to a New Orleans classic, is our way of saying thanks. The chiles, by the way, can be found in Whole Foods and specialty markets, as well as in Mexican bodegas everywhere.

With no boiled shrimp and no mayo, this shrimp salad is immediately set apart from its traditional counterpart. It’s actually closer to a scampi sandwich. Eschewing the mayo keeps the contents light and the flavor assertive. Throwing a party? As the shrimp are particularly beautiful, this recipe could also be used to make canapés.

Lobster and sweet potato: a seemingly odd couple, we know, but they have in common great textures, beautiful color, and a certain sweetness. Knowing that tarragon and lobster is a classic combination, we dress the sweet potato with a tarragon vinaigrette; the fennel adds a complementary fresh taste.

I serve most risottos as a side dish, but this is an entrée-style risotto. With a fresh green salad and a glass of crisp Pinot Grigio, this is one of my favorite light suppers—and it’s based on leftovers!

Fra Diavolo means “Brother Devil.” In Italy, this refers to a dish that’s sprinkled heavily with black pepper and grilled. But in America the term is associated with spicy hot-pepper sauces, like the lobster Fra Diavolo that became popular in the 1930s and has been a fixture on Italian-American menus ever since. (It is actually unknown in Italy, where they don’t have the same type of lobsters we do.) I make my version of Fra Diavolo with shrimp because it’s lighter and easier for everyday cooking.

The clam and mussel soups that are specialties of Naples and the nearby coastlines inspired this recipe. I’ve added shrimp for more meatiness and dried crushed red pepper flakes simply because I like it spicy, but they’re optional. Whatever you do, be sure to serve this with plenty of crusty bread; the broth is phenomenal to sop up.

While a lexicographer might say that “jumbo shrimp” is an oxymoron, a chef knows it means something specific: Shrimp are marketed according to size, with different classifications depending on how many shrimp will constitute a pound. Jumbo shrimp are 11 to 15 per pound, and extra-large are 16 to 20 per pound; at the other end of the scale, miniature are 100 per pound, and small are 36 to 45. In general, the larger the shrimp, the more expensive they are; but if you’re peeling them or handling them in any way, the larger they are, the less work you have to do. A trade-off, like many things.

This is a beautiful dish, which I discovered on vacation with my family in Capri. Every year, we visit the same hotel—Hotel Quisisana—on this beautiful island in southern Italy. The region is rich in seafood, which they use for everything from antipasti to entrées. Some of the seafood can be a bit exotic for most American palates, especially squid. But don’t be afraid of it: You can buy squid that’s already cleaned from your fishmonger, and all you need to do is rinse, grill, and slice. Just like chicken. (Okay, not really just like chicken, but the steps are the same.)

It may seem strange to have a dish using couscous (made of semolina flour) in an Italian cookbook, but couscous is actually a staple of Sicilian cooking. Over the centuries, southern Italian—and especially Sicilian—culture has been greatly influenced by North Africa and Greece, and this recipe is a perfect culinary example.

Spaghetti with clams is very different from spaghetti with clam sauce. The former is a dish with a light, fragrant dressing tossed with whole clams; in my opinion, it’s the only way to make this dish. It’s also beautiful on the table; there’s something about the shells combined with pasta that just looks so satisfying. And satisfying it is. You could also use mussels, for a twist, or small New Zealand cockles, whose refined shape and delicate flavor make for a more elegant version.