Canadians are blessed with a bounty of delicious seafood from both coasts. From lobster rolls to cod cakes, enjoy all the Pacific and Atlantic oceans have to offer with these fresh seafood recipes.
Nova Scotia Lobster Roll
When it comes to lobster rolls, the fresher the ingredients, the better. This recipe starts with a live lobster. Be sure to toast your bun before you fill it up with a mixture of mayo, lemon juice, green onions, chopped romaine hearts and tender morsels of lobster meat.
Pan-Seared B.C. Halibut and Spot Prawns with Morel, English Pea and Chorizo Ragoût
This dish, from the kitchens of Calgary’s Catch Restaurant and Oyster Bar, celebrates the best of British Columbia seafood with oven-cooked halibut and fresh spotted prawns, sizzled to perfection on a cast-iron skillet. The whole dish is topped with a mushroom-filled chorizo ragout and tender fingerling potatoes.
Karen Mersereau’s Seafood Fricot
Bursting with flavour, this dish is full of wild mushrooms, salty sea greens and fresh Acadian Peninsula oysters. Serve it piping hot with a drizzle of lobster butter and lots of crusty bread for a decadent lunch.
Ceviche and Chips
Fresh B.C. halibut and prawns make for a tender and tasty ceviche. The citric acid in fresh lime juice ‘cooks’ the fresh seafood, making it as easy as chopping and mixing it together.
The Savvy Sailor’s Salt Cod Cakes
These scrumptious cod cakes take some planning, but they’re truly worth the wait. The most important part of making cod cakes is to make sure you really rinse the salt off the cod, so be sure and soak the dried fish overnight in the fridge. For a classic dish, serve your cod cake with rhubarb raisin relish.
Fried Cod Tongues with Scrunchions
If you can’t make it to a Newfoundland kitchen party, you can cook this East Coast favourite right at home with this simple 5-ingredient recipe. Scrunchions are made from frying pieces of pork fat until the pieces are deliciously crispy and brown.
Seafood Chowder that Represents Vancouver Island
Nothing beats creamy chowder with homemade fish stock. To make your own, save fish bones in your freezer. Once you have gathered enough, simmer them with onions, carrots and celery. You’ll have a tasty base full of rich fishy flavour for your next chowder.
Teriyaki Salmon
Fresh ginger and lots of garden-picked garlic gives this simple pacific salmon recipe tons of flavour.
Stuffed Squid
Stuffed squid is the highlight of a lot of Newfoundland kitchen parties. This seafood delicacy is a super easy hors d’oeuvre that you just bake, slice and serve.
Seared Albacore Tuna Loin
Buttery pacific tuna gets a simple sear before being sliced crosswise into thin 1/4-inch pieces and smothered in gingery-garlic ponzu sauce.
Muri Ghonto (Fish Stew)
This hearty fish stew is a uniquely Canadian dish that comes from a traditional Bengali recipe with added Newfoundland influences. Cumin, tumeric, phoron, bay leaves, garlic and fresh coriander give this fish head stew tons of flavour.
Maple-Seared Scallops with Warm Chorizo and Kalamata Olive Ragout and Pea Coulis
Fresh sea scallops are given the sweet treatment in this tasty recipe. Get your pan good and hot before searing your scallops in caramelized maple syrup.
Peruvian Ceviche
This tasty Peruvian dish is adapted to Canada’s East Coast by cooking fresh Atlantic cod in lime juice. Serve this deliciously and unique appetizer on a bed of lettuce with lots of chips for scooping.
Oleg’s Seafood Chowder
There’s nothing more comforting than a big, warm bowl of seafood chowder on a winter night. This hearty recipe is a favourite among the crew of the Scotian Sea, a ship that braves the Atlantic ocean bringing supplies out to Newfoundland’s oil and gas workers.
Lobster Butter
Next time you treat yourself to fresh lobster, save the shells and whip up a batch of this luxurious butter. It makes a great additions to soups and chowder, and is a real treat with fresh corn on the cob.