Two Warm Bowls for the Holidays: Our Favorite Maine Seafood Recipes
From our kitchen to yours
When the light goes thin and the wind comes hard off the water, our kitchen leans on two recipes more than any others. One is a pot of seafood stew built low and slow on saffron and Sea Smoke. The other is a dish of haddock baked bright with citrus and Hello Zesto.
Both start where every good Maine meal starts: with what came out of the cold water this week. Sweet Gulf of Maine haddock, plump Casco Bay mussels, briny littlenecks. Buy the best product you can, treat it with respect, and it does most of the work for you.
That's why these are our holiday go-tos. They're warm, they're forgiving, and they come to the table in one vessel everyone can reach into. Set down a steaming Dutch oven or a bubbling baking dish, pass the bread, and the room takes care of itself.
Maine Seafood Stew with Sea Smoke
This is the pot we put on when the house is about to fill up. The technique is classic, and every step is about building layers of flavor before the seafood ever hits the pot.
Start by sweating your aromatics low and slow: onion, fennel, celery, and a good pinch of Sea Smoke. Seasoning at the start puts the smoke and the dulse into the foundation of the dish, not just the finish. Then toast the tomato paste, bloom the saffron in warm stock, and reduce the wine by half so you keep the acid and lose the raw edge.
Give the base its full thirty minutes. You're looking for a broth that tastes deep, round, and briny from the clam juice before any shellfish goes in.
The seafood goes in last and fast, in order of cook time. Clams first, then mussels, then the haddock laid right on top to gently steam. Pull it the moment the shells pop and the fish turns opaque, and fold in the parsley gently so the fish holds in big, tender pieces.
Two notes from the line. If you're hosting, make the base a day ahead; like any good braise it's better the second day, and you're ten minutes from dinner. And if you've got the afternoon, roast your own tomatoes. That's how we make it at home, and the char gives the broth a sweetness no can will.
Serves 6 to 8 · Total time about 1 hour 10 minutes (3 hours if you roast your own tomatoes)
Where this one came from: This is our adapted version of a wonderful Epicurious recipe, one of our favorite places to go for inspiration. We added saffron, brought in Maine seafood, and opened the door to roasting your own tomatoes instead of using canned. That's how we always make it, and it's one of our favorites for hosting guests.
Ingredients
Stew
¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 small fennel bulb, thinly sliced
1 celery stalk, finely chopped
2 teaspoons Sea Smoke, plus more to taste
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped (6 to 8 if you love garlic)
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 cup dry white wine
Generous pinch of saffron threads (about ½ teaspoon)
2 bay leaves
1 (15-ounce) can crushed tomatoes
1 (8-ounce) bottle Bar Harbor clam juice
1½ cups seafood or fish stock
1½ dozen littlenecks or topnecks, scrubbed
2 pounds Bangs Island mussels, rinsed and debearded
1½ pounds Maine haddock fillets (or Gulf of Maine cod, pollock, or hake), cut into 1½-inch pieces
3 tablespoons chopped parsley
Maine Salt Farm sea salt, for finishing
Toasts
4 tablespoons Maine-made unsalted butter, room temperature
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
½ teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
Maine Salt Farm sea salt
1 baguette, sliced
1 garlic clove, halved
Instructions
Stew
Heat the olive oil in a large Dutch oven (at least 6 quarts) over medium heat. Add the onion, fennel, celery, and Sea Smoke and cook, stirring now and then, until softened, 6 to 8 minutes. Add the garlic and cook, stirring, until golden and fragrant, 1 to 2 minutes.
Stir in the tomato paste and cook 1 minute. Meanwhile, warm ¼ cup of the stock and crumble the saffron into it to steep.
Add the wine, raise the heat to medium-high, and simmer until reduced by half, 5 to 7 minutes. Add the bay leaves, tomatoes, clam juice, the saffron with its liquid, and the remaining stock. Bring to a boil, then lower to a simmer, cover, and cook 30 minutes.
While the base simmers, soak the clams in a large bowl of well-salted cold water for 15 minutes so they release any grit. Drain, rinse, and repeat once more with fresh salted water. Drain and set aside.
Discard the bay leaves and raise the heat to medium. Add the clams, cover, and cook 3 minutes. Stir in the mussels, arrange the haddock on top, cover, and simmer until the shells open and the fish is just opaque, 5 to 6 minutes. Discard any shells that don't open. Remove from the heat, stir in the parsley gently so the fish stays in large pieces, and taste. Adjust with more Sea Smoke if you like.
Make ahead: The base, through step 3, can be made a day ahead and chilled. Reheat it before adding the seafood.
Toasts
While the stew simmers, mix the butter, parsley, lemon zest, and a pinch of Maine Salt Farm sea salt.
Heat the broiler. Toast the baguette slices on a rimmed baking sheet, turning once, until light golden, about 4 minutes. Rub the cut side of the garlic over the warm toasts.
Spread the toasts with the herb butter. Ladle the stew into shallow bowls, finish each with a pinch of Maine Salt Farm sea salt, and serve with the toasts.
For garlic lovers: Use 6 to 8 cloves in step 1 and rub the toasts generously with garlic.
For a more ambitious meal prep: Swap the canned tomatoes for roasted fresh ones. Halve 15 to 20 Roma tomatoes, toss with olive oil, Maine Salt Farm sea salt, and a few smashed garlic cloves, and roast at 400°F until soft and lightly charred, 30 to 40 minutes. Blend with an immersion blender into 2 cups of additional seafood stock, then strain out as much of the seeds and pulp as you like. Add it in step 3 in place of the crushed tomatoes.
Citrus Baked Haddock with Hello Zesto
If the stew is the showpiece, this is the dish that sneaks up on people. It's on the table in about half an hour, built from a short list of ingredients, and it tastes like you fussed.
Haddock is our everyday fish: sweet, clean, and mild, with a big, tender flake. It doesn't want to be buried, so we keep things bright. A quick citrus sauce of lemon and lime, a little garlic, and Hello Zesto, whose citrus and celery seed lean right into the fish.
Butter the dish, tuck the thyme around, cover it, and let the oven do the rest. The fish gently steams in its own juices and the sauce, so it stays moist without any babysitting.
A few things separate good from great here. Pat the fillets bone-dry before you season so the Hello Zesto sticks. Watch the clock, because thin fillets will be done well before the 15-minute mark; you want it just opaque and flaking at the touch of a fork. And don't leave those pan juices behind. That's your sauce, so spoon every bit of it back over the fish.
Serves 3 to 4 · Prep 10 minutes · Cook 15 to 20 minutes
Ingredients
Fish
1½ pounds Maine haddock fillets (or Gulf of Maine cod, pollock, or hake)
2 teaspoons Hello Zesto, divided
1 tablespoon Maine-made salted butter
3 to 4 sprigs fresh thyme
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
Maine Salt Farm sea salt, for finishing
Lemon wedges, for serving
Citrus sauce
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
Juice and zest of 1 lime
Juice and zest of 1 lemon
1 teaspoon Hello Zesto
Pinch of crushed red pepper (optional)
Instructions
Heat the oven to 350°F.
Whisk together the olive oil, garlic, lime and lemon juice and zest, 1 teaspoon of Hello Zesto, and red pepper flakes, if using.
Pat the haddock dry and sprinkle both sides with the remaining 1 teaspoon of Hello Zesto.
Butter a baking dish and lay the fillets in it. Pour the citrus sauce evenly over the fish and tuck the thyme sprigs around it.
Cover and bake 15 to 20 minutes, until the fish is opaque and flakes easily with a fork. Thinner fillets will be done sooner.
Spoon the pan juices over the fish, scatter with parsley, and finish with a light pinch of Maine Salt Farm sea salt. Serve with lemon wedges.
To serve: Roasted Maine potatoes.
Setting the holiday table
These two play beautifully together. Put the stew at the center of the table, still in the Dutch oven, with shallow bowls and a stack of herb-butter toasts for dragging through the broth. Follow it with the haddock and a pan of roasted Maine potatoes, or make the haddock the main event for a smaller crowd.
If your family keeps a Christmas Eve fish feast, you're already well on your way. Between the clams, mussels, and haddock, these two recipes put a good part of the spread on the table.
However you serve them, finish every bowl and every plate with a pinch of Maine Salt Farm sea salt right before it leaves the kitchen. That last bit of crunch and brine is what wakes the whole dish up.
From our kitchen to yours, happy holidays.
Comments