Main CourseChesapeake Bay Seafood Recipes
The Chesapeake Bay Watershed includes more than 400,000 acres of land and thousands of miles of open bay, rivers and streams, making the Chesapeake Bay the largest estuary in North America. The region is famous for seafood including blue crabs, oysters, clams and fish.
The following selections of traditional Chesapeake Bay seafood recipes include examples of crabcakes, soft crabs, oyster dressing, oysters, clam fritters and fish chowder.
Oyster Dressing
Ingredients:
1 pint shucked oysters
1/2 cup chopped celery
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup butter
4 cups bread crumbs
1 tbsp. chopped parsley
1 tsp. sage
1/2 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. poultry seasoning
1/8 tsp pepper
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Drain oysters, reserve liquor. Remove any shell and chop oysters.
Cook celery and onion in butter until tender.
Add oysters and oyster liquor to vegetables; cook for 10 minutes.
Combine oysters, cooked vegetables, bread cubes and seasonings in a large bowl; mix thoroughly.
Add additional oyster liquor as needed.
Bake dressing in a greased casserole for 30 minutes or until edges are brown.
Clam Fritters
Ingredients:
12-18 shucked and chopped clams depending on size
1 egg
dash of baking powder
1/4 tsp. yellow or spicy brown mustard
2 tbsp. milk
seafood breader mix OR flour with a dash of salt and pepper
Instructions:
Shuck the clams, catching the juice in the bowl. You should end up with a pint of clams or more. Rinse the clams in their own juice. Use scissors and remove stomachs from the clams. The remaining parts of the clams may be cut up into small pieces with scissors or chopped in a food processor.
Add the clams, egg, baking powder, about 2 tablespoons of milk and mix.
Blend in the breader mix or seasoned flour and stir until the batter becomes thick like pancake batter.
Heat a cast iron skillet on relatively high heat and add enough cooking oil to cover the bottom of the pan.
Spoon the batter mix into the oil when the pan is hot enough.
Cook until brown and then carefully flip the fritters.
Serve immediately on hamburger buns with ketchup and mustard or just eat them as is.
Crabcakes
Ingredients:
1 lb. crab meat
1/2 cup bread crumbs
2 eggs
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1 tsp. dry mustard or yellow mustard
1 tsp. crab seasoning
1/4 tsp. black pepper
dash Worcestershire sauce
Instructions:
Mix eggs, mayo mustard, seasonings and Worcestershire sauce.
Blend in crab meat and bread crumbs.
Form into cakes and place on a platter lined with wax paper. Chill crab cakes for 30-60 minutes before cooking for best results.
Fry in a hot cast iron skillet until golden brown or broil in the oven until brown, flipping once.
Fried Soft Crabs
Ingredients:
6 soft shelled blue crabs
Seafood Breader Mix
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 cup peanut oil
Instructions:
Preheat broiler.
Shake crabs and breader mix in a plastic bag.
Saute soft crabs in peanut oil with high heat until brown, turning once.
Rockfish Chowder
Ingredients:
1 lb rockfish fillets
5 potatoes
1 onion, sliced
2 cups of evaporated milk
2 cups of water
1/4 stick butter
salt and pepper to taste
Instructions:
Rinse fillets and cut into small pieces.
Pare potatoes, cut into small pieces and boil 5 minutes.
Add sliced onion and fish. Cook until fish is done, about 20 minutes.
Add milk, water, butter salt and pepper.
Simmer a few minutes and serve hot.