Seafood

I like this seafood stuffing far better than the usual meat stuffing: it's surprisingly light and refined. If you want your cabbage rolls to look as pretty as ours do, make sure to use Savoy cabbage, then trim the cabbage leaves so they lie flat. Right after you blanch the leaves, lay each leaf, rib side up, on a cutting board and slice off the thick center rib. By removing the excess, you'll be able to roll the cabbage leaves tighter and more uniform-looking.

In this fast and easy recipe, the shrimp release their juices and create a delicious sauce in the pan. Using unpeeled shrimp with heads on does make it a little messier to eat, but the results are finger-licking good. If serving this as a main course, a bed of couscous or steamed rice is a nice accompaniment to help soak up the sauce.

This brothy chowder is loosely inspired by bouillabaisse, the classic Provençal seafood soup, but it’s both simpler and easier on the pocketbook. To go all the way with this dish, drizzle the soup with fresh aioli (or mix mayonnaise with minced fresh garlic and thin with lemon juice). Serve with crusty bread.

This entrée can easily be turned into a one-dish meal by serving it atop a bed of young escarole, sliced carrots, and shaved fennel—or any other hearty salad veggies—dressed with a little lemon juice and extra-virgin olive oil. This recipe will work well with other firm fish like swordfish.

This recipe originated in Mexico (specifically, the namesake town of Veracruz), but the ingredients are Spanish through and through. Using a whole fish is a much better value than buying fillets; plus, once you plate individual portions, it’s fun to “graze” on all the bits and pieces that still cling to the bones. (Don’t forget the cheeks—they’re the best part!)

Sardines are small and abundant and have a short life cycle, making them one of the most sustainable fish out there. They’re low in mercury and other toxins that build up in larger fish. Plus, the method used to fish them produces very little bycatch and has minimal environmental impact. Best of all, they are quick-cooking, versatile, and tasty! They can hold up to the bold flavors of the accompanying sauce. This is finger food at its best, perfect for outdoor cooking—and eating. If you have any seasoned fruit wood or grapevines, add to the coals or use to build the fire—the flavor will take you directly to the Mediterranean. If it’s not grilling season, you can make this indoors in a well-seasoned cast-iron skillet instead.

This dish is one of the first things I make once the Pacific salmon season has opened. It is the first sign that summer is near. Later in the summer, I make a similar dish with corn, zucchini, and tomatoes with fresh basil. Any combo of fresh, perfectly sweet, just-picked veggies will be a great complement to the fish. It’s especially important to buy wild salmon—even self-proclaimed “sustainable” salmon farms are dangerous because of the parasitic lice that thrive on farmed salmon; when the infested fish escape (a frequent occurrence), the lice threaten the wild salmon population. If wild salmon isn’t in season, use any sustainable fillet or steak that is of similar thickness. If available, use 1/4 cup chopped green garlic instead of the garlic cloves. And if you can find them, rainbow carrots are beautiful here.

There are so many things I love about this dish, but what I love most is that it’s made from basic pantry ingredients, so it can be made on the fly when you really don’t want to go shopping for food. It’s in the spirit of the classic linguine with clams, but made with canned tuna instead. Because of the simplicity of this dish, the quality of all the ingredients is critical to the final result. The breadcrumbs are optional but do add great texture.

Bagna cauda (“warm bath”) is a traditional Tuscan condiment for dressing veggies and greens. It is meant to showcase the two simple ingredients of anchovy and garlic, which are brought together with oil and butter and tempered by lemon juice. Raw or lightly steamed vegetables are the simplest pairing, but you can also use it to dress fish, especially tuna or swordfish, or dress beans. With a little extra lemon juice, it makes a fantastic salad dressing for sturdy greens.

Any fish market that fillets whole fish can provide fresh bones for your stock. Call ahead to reserve the bones as some markets put them in their own stock. When you have shrimp, lobster, or crab for dinner, freeze the shells for the next time you make fish stock. The stock tastes best when freshly made, but you can freeze it.

It’s easy to overwhelm oysters with a topping that’s too bold or too rich, but chef Rick Moonen knows just when to stop. His hors d’oeuvre, served at the 2008 Workshop, elevates the oysters’ briny flavor, and frankly, it’s just fun to eat. Each oyster makes a tangy splash in your mouth, with cool, warm, brisk, and sweet elements in perfect balance.

Who better to provide a cioppino recipe than Jesse Llapitan, the executive chef of San Francisco’s Palace Hotel, the city’s grande dame? Every San Franciscan puts his or her own stamp on this rustic fisherman’s stew, but the Dungeness crab is nonnegotiable. Chef Llapitan attended the 2005 Workshop.

This ten-minute recipe is California chef Ken Frank’s riff on the French classic, sole Véronique. Chef Frank substitutes a Northern California delicacy—bone-in sand dabs—and the tiny and tasty dark grapes known as Zante currants. The fish are lightly floured and sautéed, then sauced with warmed grapes, melted butter, parsley, and lemon. You can use the same preparation on any delicate fish, such as petrale or Dover sole.

Also known as sablefish, black cod thrives in the cold waters off the Pacific Coast, from California to Alaska. The fishery is managed sustainably, so many chefs have turned to black cod as a replacement for the more threatened Chilean sea bass. If you have ever had smoked sablefish in a New York delicatessen, you have eaten black cod. It is an oily fish, rich in heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids. Chef Bruce Hill, who attended the 1998 Workshop, makes it the centerpiece of this inspired East-West seafood stew, which relies on fregola—a toasty, couscous-like Sardinian pasta—for texture and Japanese miso for flavor depth. Dashi is Japanese stock.

Seasoned with chorizo, dried oregano, and cilantro, this deconstructed fish stew tastes like the specialty of some upscale restaurant in Mexico City. But it came to Cakebread Cellars from one of Denver’s foremost chefs, Kevin Taylor, a 1997 Workshop participant. For a dinner party, you can make the tomato broth a couple of hours ahead, stopping after you add the cooked chorizo and potatoes. Then all you need to do at dinner time is steam the fish on this flavorful base. You could add some clams or shrimp to the pot as well.

One of the benefits of working with so many chefs at the Workshop is that the experience sometimes takes us out of our comfort zone. We tend to shy away from spicy foods at the winery, but with this dish, Honolulu chef Alan Wong, who participated in the 1990 Workshop, reminded us that we don’t need to be so cautious. Our wine can happily accompany a dish with Thai flavors if the heat is balanced with a touch of sweetness and citrus and mellowed with coconut milk. We were pleased—and admittedly surprised—at how seamlessly our Anderson Valley Pinot Noir married with Alan’s red-curry sturgeon. Accompany the fish with stir-fried bok choy or spinach and steamed rice to soak up the luscious sauce.

From chef Greg Higgins, a 2000 Workshop participant, comes this idea of pairing salmon with cucumbers, saffron, tarragon, and a creamy white-wine reduction. No surprise that a chef from the Pacific Northwest would know what flavors are sublime with salmon.

Chef George Brown created this height-of-summer dish at the 2006 Workshop. He prepared the scallops in our wood-burning oven, but searing them in a hot skillet works as well. The creamed corn is thickened only by the corn’s natural starch, released when the kernels are grated. The chef’s idea of adding Chardonnay is a good one, as it helps to balance the corn’s sweetness.

After a few weeks in a brine of salt and lemon juice, lemons develop an appetizing, lightly pickled taste. Brian makes Moroccan-style preserved lemons at the winery and keeps a stash on hand to use in recipes like this one. The seasoned butter would complement swordfish, sole, shrimp, or salmon, or you could dollop it on steamed mussels or clams. For this dish, Brian slathers the butter on the grilled fish served over Frank Stitt’s Field Pea and Corn Salad (page 64), but wilted spinach would be an appealing accompaniment, too.

Although we grill a lot of salmon at Cakebread Cellars, we have also come to love the creamy texture of salmon roasted slowly in a low oven. This gentle cooking method seems to accentuate salmon’s richness and to yield a notably buttery result. Fish on the grill can overcook quickly, but the oven technique is much more forgiving. Accompany with Braised Radishes and Sugar Snap Peas (page 154).