Seafood Sunday

Sunday night consisted of a lot of cooking and a lot of yummy food! After inviting a few friends over for dinner, the next step was to try and come up with a menu. When cooking for more than 2, I tend to go a little overboard and this was no exception. I like to have (at least) one appetizer, a main course and side item, and who could leave out - dessert! 

For the first course:

Drunken Goat Cheese & Crackers!

I know I may go on a bit about goat cheese, but I seriously can't get enough of it! Drunken goat is of course no exception to the rule. It is amazing! For those of you who are not too familiar, this goat cheese is soaked in red wine for about 2 to 3 days, making it more fabulous than it already is. Who would have thought? 

For appetizer #2, I found this awesome recipe for a crab fondue from Simply Recipes. It was delicious! My boyfriend served as a huge help making this recipe. (Unfortunately, I did not get to take a photo before the dip was all gone, so I am using the original photo posted with the recipe.)

Yes, this dip really tastes as good as it looks.

Crab Fondue (Thanks to Simply Recipes)

Ingredients

- 18 ounces (or 3 6 ounce packages) of cream cheese

- 1/2 cup mayonnaise (We used light)

- 1 tsp of mustard (We used spicy dijon)

-  2 tbsp powdered sugar (We went without the sugar, but feel free to use it)

- 1/2 tsp garlic powder

- 1 to 2 tsp's of Old Bay Seasoning 

- 1/4 to 1/2 cup of dry white wine (We used Sauvignon Blanc)

- 1 to 2 tsp's lemon juice

- 1 tsp lemon zest

- 3/4 to 1 lb of lump crab meat, fresh or canned (We used canned)

- 1/4 cup of parsley

- 1 loaf of French or Italian Bread (cut up into small cube pieces)

Method

1. Slowly heat the cream cheese, mayo, powdered sugar, garlic powder, Old Bay, lemon zest, and mustard in a double boiler until the cheese is completely melted. (We just used a regular pot on the stove and found this to work just fine. Be sure to watch it carefully of course!)

2. Slowly stir in the wine and lemon juice (adjust quantities to taste and desired consistency). Slowly stir in the crab meat and onion greens.

3. Serve & Eat!

For the main entrée, I attempted tilapia stuffed with feta cheese & fresh spinach. It turned out awesome! 

Stuffed Tilapia (Serves 4)

Ingredients

- 4 fresh tilapia fillets

- Canola oil spray (or any other cooking spray you choose)

- 3/4 cup of feta cheese

- 1/2 bag of fresh spinach

- 1/2 cup olive oil

- Ground black pepper

Method 

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. 

2. Take your tilapia fillets and from the top cut them straight down the middle so you have two pieces out of your one. Take one of the pieces and cut down the center of your fish, leaving the top and bottom without a slice (be careful not to cut the fish in complete half, you still want to keep it together). You will end up with 4 fillets with a slice down the middle, and 4 fillets without one (leaving you with 8 in total). (Thankfully the nice guy behind the fish counter at Whole Foods did all the prepping for me. If it sounds too difficult, definitely don't hesitate to ask. They know what they are doing back there!)

2. Take out a baking tray and spray the bottom of it with canola oil (to prevent the fish from sticking). 

3. Then mix together the olive oil and ground black pepper in a small bowl. Take a basting brush and coat each piece of your fish with the mixture, to ensure that they don't become dried out. 

4. Place about an inch of water in a small frying pan on medium heat. Add your spinach and once it begins wilting a bit, remove from the burner and strain. Take a medium sized bowl and mix the spinach and feta together with black ground pepper (to taste). This will be your stuffing! 

5. Place the 4 fillets that do not have a slice down the middle down on the tray next to each other. Take the other 4 fillets (that are sliced down the center) on top of these, opening the slice as you place it down. (They will come together as one piece once baked, it's pretty cool!) Then take the spinach & feta stuffing and fill each fish with it. (See the photo above for help)

6. Bake for about 15 to 18 minutes, and serve! 

As a side item I decided to go with a Lemon Spaghetti which I found on Food Network, from one of my favorite chefs - Giada! Love her. I thought this would compliment the fish nicely, and it definitely did. 

Lemon Spaghetti 

(Thanks to Food Network & Giada!)

Ingredients

- 1 box of spaghetti

- 2/3 cup of olive oil

- 2/3 cup of grated Parmesan

- 1/2 cup of fresh squeezed lemon juice (about 3 to 4 lemons)

- Salt

- Ground black pepper

- Lemon zest (to your liking)

- 1/3 cup of fresh chopped basil leaves 

Method

1. Cook the pasta in a large pot of boiling salted water until tender but still firm to the bite, stirring occasionally, about 8 minutes. Meanwhile, whisk the oil, Parmesan, and lemon juice in a large bowl to blend.

2. Drain the pasta, reserving 1 cup of the cooking liquid. Toss the pasta with the lemon sauce, and the reserved cooking liquid, adding 1/4 cup at a time as needed to moisten.

3. Season with salt and pepper. Garnish with lemon zest and chopped basil, and eat!

And of course you can't have a dinner party without dessert! I went the easy route on this one and picked myself up a box of Trader Joe's Chunky Chocolate Cookie Dough. I was a big fan of these. 

Until Next Dine!