Seafood is healthy, tasty, and loads of fun for a cook to play with; there are just so many ways for one to cook it and most everyone likes some kind of seafood.

Red meat fish, like Salmons, have a really unique and distinct flavor that is like nothing else in the world, and one either loves it or hates it.  My favorite way to eat salmon is smoked, and cedar plank grilled has to be a close second.  Bake it, cake it or deep fry it, doesn’t matter at all, and the fish is loaded with omega three fatty acid, and it is a super for your body, how many health foods do you actually want to eat for dinner.

Scallops are a mollusk that can be found in all the world’s oceans, and can be notoriously finicky to cook just right.  The trick is to not overcook them, which makes them tough.  When they have lost their translucency, they are done and just let them be.  They are really easy to burn.  And as far as dry vs. wet scallops is concerned, you really do want dry flash frozen ones.  The wet variety is full of a preservative that causes them to take on water, and this really compromises the flavor of the product.

Crab is an amazing dish properly prepared, and I think the real secret to “blow your mind Dungeness” is cleaning the crab live, and not cooking it whole.  By not cooking the crab with all its guts inside the shell with it’s delicious meat, you aren’t making the meat taste like crab lungs, which, are mildly poisonous.  To clean a crab, live or dead, grab hold of its legs and sharply hit the front of it’s shell on the edge of a five gallon bucket, popping it’s top off.  Then break it in half and remove the remaining innards.  Simple as that.

Black Sea Bass is a white fish, and has to be my favorite fish for eating. It’s a great culinary arts favorite because it is so versatile, and tastes amazing in a variety of sauces, and over many types of palate. Over fishing in some parts of the world can make this an expensive fish to cook with in some places, but I was pleased to find that you can now purchase farmed fish as well, making this a fantastic resource for years to come.

Squid, or “Ika” in a sushi joint (”Eekah” is Japanese for squid) can be found in a lot of different places cooked in numerous ways, which is surprising to me as looks like snot with eyeballs.  But, eaten the world over and in a host of different ways, an adoring culinary public can’t be wrong.  Just try to remember when cleaning the little devils, they do have an ink sack, and it can burst on your clothing.  Don’t worry too much though, the ink is water soluble.   If you’ve got yourself a few, and you don’t know where to start, a simple pan fry in some butter can be a great way to go.