Easy fish or shrimp in garlic sauce - original recipe by Barry L. Kramer, 2006
No shortage of flavor. If you like this and you like dill, try also the similar
variant "Seafood (fish, shrimp, or scallops) in lime
dill butter sauce".
any fresh fish (including salmon, flounder, steelhead trout, tilapia) or shrimp,
1/2 to 2 pounds
1/4 C olive oil
fresh lemon or lime juice (1/2 lemon or 1/2 lime to squeeze) - always use fresh
fruit
1-2 tsp sweet paprika
salt
2C water + 1 t Minor's Chicken Base, or 1 can (14.5 oz.) chicken broth or equivalent
1 T fresh finely chopped or dried basil
1/2 tsp dijon mustard
1 tbsp crushed or chopped garlic
2-3 tbsp white wine
1. Clean/skin fish (see Hint, bottom) or shell/devein shrimp; put in a large bowl and very lightly sprinkle with salt, a few T olive oil, lemon or lime juice (all of the juice of about a half a fruit), and generously sprinkle with paprika. Mix thoroughly and allow to marinate for 1/2 to 2 hours. If marinating over an hour, don't use too much juice - just a sprinkling.
2. Place about 1 T olive oil (or butter) in frying pan and add chicken broth, basil, dijon mustard, garlic, and wine and boil down at medium high to high heat until almost all of the liquid is reduced. Stir frequently during reduction. Reduce heat to low at end of reduction and be careful not to burn the sauce mixture at any time.
3. Move garlic to the very edge and add the fish or shrimp and any marinade liquid that separated. If using fish, first cook the nicest looking side down (so the nicest side is visible after you turn it). Cook at medium until done, turning once (shrimp cook quickly; fish requires a little longer). Shrimp can be tossed after both sides have been cooked. If it looks dry, add a little olive oil or butter and water to keep moist. Don't overcook.
4. When fish or shrimp is done, if liquid remains, move to the side (or remove and keep hot) and reduce liquid until thickened. If you removed anything (shrimp), it will have some liquid in it - pour the liquid into the pan when it starts to thicken. When the reduction is complete (that is, you have a thick sauce rather than a liquid), lower heat and combine; turn to disperse sauce and spices on all surfaces of fish or shrimp. If serving with sauteed portobello mushrooms or other vegetables, add them to the pan and mix with the sauce at this time.
Portobello mushrooms sauteed in olive oil and white wine and angel hair pasta with butter or olive oil and grated parmesan cheese (I prefer 'Bel Gioso' brand) is good with this.
This is a very good, easy recipe that works well with a variety of ingredients.
Once I had cooked some bacon and later cooked this recipe with shrimp in some of the leftover bacon fat that remained in the pan instead of the olive oil. Very tasty.
Hint: to skin thick fish fillets easily, heat a large nonstick pan on high until very hot. Spray with cooking spray. Quickly put fish in, skin side down. The high heat will very quickly allow the skin to be removed by running a fork between the meat and the skin. It doesn't take long (10-30 seconds). You must do this very quickly. Remove the fish as soon as the skin separates easily, remove the skin quickly, and then wash the fish fillet under cold water to avoid cooking it. The intent here is to heat the skin really hot really fast so it separates, but get it off before the heat transfers into the fish and cooks it. Ideally, you will have skin removed and the fish still raw. Works best for steelhead trout, and good for salmon. Once the skin is off, you can marinate it.