Seafood Squares To Go

A new little snack, and meal, using seafood and fresh herbs, light things I want to eat for spring….

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Two of the fish I’m using for these squares (and shrimp). Salmon and cod, and of course the fresh herbs for both garnishes and sauces to go with each fish.

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This is somewhat inspired by dim sum, the act of taking seafood or fish, flavoring it, and wrapping it to either steam or fry…I used the transparent wrappers that are traditionally used for fresh vietnamese shrimp rolls.

There are four different sauces for each fish or shrimp packet, this is one of them. It’s a classic dill sauce used for salmon (mustard powder, capers, sour cream, lemon juice, and fresh dill). I added extra capers. There are millions of recipes online for dill sauce, use the one you like best.

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This is a bigger square for a regular dinner or lunch portion, made of salmon. The wrapper has been dipped in hot water and this is what it should look like after it’s been softened. Again these are vietnamese spring roll wrappers that you can find at most asian supermarkets. What I did was lay down a some dill, then I placed a square filet of steamed salmon before spreading the dill sauce as the last layer. Wrap it, steam for 5 minutes, and pan fry the bottom only until crisp.

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The bottom should be browned, this is so that there’s some texture contrast between the softness of the fish and the spring roll wrapper. Front and back sides displayed below.

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Serve with your favorite glass of white wine.

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There are four other flavors besides the salmon and dill, which will be miso sauce + cod + scallion, cod + fresh herbs(tarragon and sage), cod + pesto, and shrimp cilantro cakes + mango hot sauce.

To make the shrimp cilantro cake, you’ll need some 1/4 cup sesame oil, 10-15 pieces of fresh shrimp, handful of fresh cilantro,
1 tablespoon fish sauce, some salt to taste, 1 teaspoon chopped garlic, and 3 tablespoons of potato starch. Process all these ingredients until you get a thick paste. Shrimp is always much more flavorful if you can include the slimy red stuff in the head (where all the real flavor is) but of course if it grosses you out you don’t have to use it.

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And some sauces to go with these packets, along with the steamed pieces of fish. Don’t over steam or it will taste very dry.
From left to right, fresh pesto, Tarragon + sage + butter + garlic + breadcrumb mixture, miso sauce (miso paste, butter, sake, and honey…you can use the recipe here, the fresh dill sauce from earlier, and lastly…mango hot sauce.

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I am really addicted to this sauce. It’s called mango hot sauce and I didn’t scratch make this, someone gave it to me as a souvenir from their trip..It’s so good! To make it, I think you’d need fresh processed mango, some honey, and some sriracha hot sauce..I mixed this with some panko breadcrumb to make sure it holds it’s shape inside the fish packets.

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On small 3 x 3 squares of these wrappers, follow the same process as I did for the salmon, using the different sauces this time.

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Scallion, hot pepper, dill, and basil.

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Cod and miso sauce, with scallion on top.

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Mango hot sauce, shrimp cake, and hot pepper. I steamed the shrimp cake too, just spread out the paste evenly about 3/8″ and steam it on a flat surface- then you can cut them into little squares.

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Just a little snack to go.

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