Seafood recipes for sharing from the Maritimes

Article content

Our cookbook of the week is Cook with Confidence by Moncton-based chef and TV host Dennis Prescott.

Jump to the recipes: baked oysters with garlic butter and Parmesan pangrattato, creamed lobster dip and smoky lime chicken with grilled jalapeño hot sauce.

Article content

Dennis Prescott has been shucking oysters since he was a child. The Moncton-based chef, TV host and cookbook author grew up in Riverview, a town on the south shore of New Brunswick’s Petitcodiac River. There are over 150 million oysters growing in his home province — a number that’s expected to increase. Though he’s travelled the world for his TV and volunteer work, “I’ll forever be biased toward the briny and sweet oysters grown up and down the New Brunswick Acadian Shores,” Prescott writes in his second book, Cook with Confidence (Penguin Canada, 2024).

Article content

Despite his early start opening shellfish, Prescott didn’t plan to become a chef. As a kid, obsessed with Led Zeppelin and his bedroom walls plastered with Pearl Jam posters, he dreamt of becoming a full-time musician. For nearly 20 years, he pursued his dream, ultimately moving to Nashville with his band: “A last kick at the can to see if we had what it takes to make it in the music industry.” It was there, with a lack of funds and a library card, that he learned how to cook.

The first dish Prescott made for his band and studio mates — gathered on camping chairs around three small tables pushed together — was chicken korma from a Jamie Oliver book. He was hooked.

Prescott spent the next several years in kitchens. First, honing his skills at home, and later, working at restaurants, catering, and running a coffee and doughnut market pop-up. He became an ambassador with World Vision Canada and the SDG2 Advocacy Hub’s Chefs’ Manifesto and published his first book, Eat Delicious (HarperCollins, 2017). He has also appeared on the History Channel’s The Food That Built America and co-hosted the Netflix series Restaurants on the Edge.

Article content

“I started cooking because I loved feeding people, and then I loved the act of cooking, and then I loved sharing those stories. I never thought that I would have Netflix reach out and want me to host a show or host a show on History. They weren’t moonshot goals for me because I didn’t know that even existed.”

Whether cookbooks or TV shows (he has projects in progress that will be announced in the near future), Prescott’s work centres on a core belief. “Food matters. And our time that we spend together centred around food really, really matters,” he says. “I’m a firm believer that with things like this cookbook and anything I do, I want to inspire community to spend more time at the table. I want to inspire fun and joy around food in the kitchen.”

From cooking in Hawaii’s Valley of the Kings to Hong Kong, Finland and Malta, Prescott’s experiences in kitchens worldwide influenced Cook with Confidence. The book features a recipe for Kenyan-style coconut chicken curry with his friend Beatrice’s chapati, inspired by a day cooking with her family in the rural village of Dzikunze, and grilled peel-and-eat shrimp with Caribbean-style hot pepper sauce, a nod to another friend, Alvin Franklin, “the King of Hot Sauce,” who he cooked with in St. Croix.

Article content

Article content

Chapters include snacks and starters, salads and sides, pasta, mains (meaty and vegetable-forward) and seafood. True to the title, the book’s more than 100 recipes are accompanied by tips for more confident home cooking, with essays on how to open an oyster, season, select and prepare shrimp, choose sustainable salmon and grill lobster.

“I would love to empower home cooks through this book. That was the goal, and I feel like we accomplished that, where we were able to enlighten folks at home with, ‘It doesn’t need to be as complicated as we’re making it out to be,’” says Prescott.

“The guiding light for me has always been that I want to make food that’s accessible and attainable while also being beautiful and delicious. We all want to serve something that we’re proud of. We all want to have that ‘ah’ moment when we serve people at the table. Obviously, it needs to taste delicious, but I think that the reality is it also needs to be accessible and attainable. We don’t all have access to higher-end ingredients, higher-end grocery stores, specialty markets, and things like that, so it has to be inclusive regardless.”

Article content

As much as Prescott draws on his experiences cooking around the world in his recipes, Cook with Confidence is firmly rooted in the Maritimes (as you may have guessed from the essay topics). In this sense, the book belongs to a new wave of Canadian cookbooks published in recent years that focus on regionality, from Vancouver Island and the Prairies to Nunavut.

Whether you live in Saskatchewan or the Northwest Territories, we all have different types of food that we love, says Prescott. Often, it’s not that people don’t want to try those dishes; it’s that they don’t even know they exist.

Take chicken fricot, an Acadian dish of chicken and dumplings. Though Prescott isn’t Acadian, he lives close to the Acadian Peninsula and grew up eating it. His family made the hearty stew whenever a nor’easter blew in, or they were under the weather and in need of some comfort. As much as the classic dish is a staple in his house, he knows people who live on the other side of the province who have never heard of it. “I really wanted to tell these stories — not just because it’s a story of home. Because it’s a story of me.”

Article content

Living in New Brunswick has influenced his “undying passion for seafood,” and Prescott is grateful to represent his home region in his work. He’s noticed a shift in mindset — especially since 2020. People seem to be more thoughtful about where their ingredients come from and are reconsidering foods they may have taken for granted, himself included. Unable to travel as he had in 2018 and 2019, Prescott shifted his focus to home.

“I got hit between the eyes with this idea that we have access to all of these beautiful ingredients, delicious recipes, but also these stories — and these incredible stories of people that deserve to be told. I spent time on snow crab boats, on lobster boats, on oyster farms. I’ve done the whole A to Z in the last two to three years. It definitely changed not just how I cook and how I view food but who I am. You are seeing that across the board, and I love it. Because I feel like we all have that opportunity to be an ambassador for the food in our own backyard.”

BAKED OYSTERS WITH GARLIC BUTTER AND PARMESAN PANGRATTATO

Makes: 2 dozen

For the pangrattato:
2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
2 tbsp salted butter
1/2 cup panko breadcrumbs
1 garlic clove, minced
Zest of 1/2 lemon
2 tbsp chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley, plus more for garnish
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Article content

For the compound butter:
1/2 cup (1 stick) salted butter, softened
2 tsp minced fresh flat-leaf parsley
2 tsp minced fresh basil
1 garlic clove, minced
1 1/2 tsp lemon zest
1/2 tsp dried crushed red pepper flakes
1/4 tsp each sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

2 dozen of your favourite oysters, on the half shell

Step 1

Preheat the oven (or grill) to 400F and line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.

Step 2

Make the pangrattato: Heat the olive oil and butter in a large skillet over medium heat. When the butter has melted, add the panko, garlic, lemon zest, and parsley, and season with a good pinch of salt and pepper. Cook, stirring often, until the panko is crispy and light golden brown, about 3 to 4 minutes. Remove from the heat, fold in the Parmesan, and mix well. Set aside.

Step 3

Make the compound butter: In a medium bowl, combine the butter, parsley, basil, garlic, lemon zest, red pepper flakes, salt, and pepper, and mix well until completely combined and smooth.

Step 4

Arrange the oysters in a single layer on the prepared baking sheet. Top each oyster with about 1 teaspoon of compound butter, and sprinkle over a generous portion of the pangrattato. Transfer to the oven and bake for about 8 to 10 minutes, until the oysters are cooked through and the topping is perfectly golden brown. Serve immediately.

Article content

Step 5

Store any leftover compound butter in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 2 days or in the freezer for up to 2 months. Add a pat of it to a piece of seared fish or steak, toss it with pasta, or use it to dress simple steamed or roasted vegetables.

CREAMED LOBSTER DIP

Serves: 4 to 6

1/2 cup mayonnaise, homemade or store-bought
1/2 cup cream cheese, at room temperature
1 lb (454 g) cooked lobster meat, finely chopped
Zest of 1 lemon, divided
1 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 garlic clove, minced
1 tbsp minced fresh chives, plus more to garnish
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Potato chips, for serving

Step 1

In a medium bowl, combine the mayonnaise and cream cheese and mix until silky smooth. Fold in the lobster, 3/4 of your lemon zest, lemon juice, garlic, chives, salt and pepper. Taste and adjust the seasoning as necessary. Transfer to a serving dish and garnish with extra chives, the remaining lemon zest, and a crack of black pepper. Serve right away with potato chips alongside, or cover and refrigerate for up to 1 day. Bring to room temperature before serving.

Article content

SMOKY LIME CHICKEN WITH GRILLED JALAPEÑO HOT SAUCE

Serves: 6

For the chicken:
6 whole bone-in chicken legs (about 3 to 4 lb/1.4 to 1.8 kg)
2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 tbsp smoked paprika
1 tbsp coriander seeds, bashed in a mortar and pestle
Zest of 1 lime
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the hot sauce:
6 medium jalapeño peppers
4 garlic cloves, peeled
6 sprigs fresh cilantro
2 green onions, cut into 1-inch (2.5-cm) pieces
1 tbsp freshly squeezed lime juice
2 tbsp pure maple syrup
1/2 cup distilled white vinegar
1 tsp sea salt

For serving:
Warm corn tortillas (optional)
Salsa (optional)

Step 1

Marinate the chicken: Place the chicken legs in a large bowl, massage with the olive oil, paprika, coriander, and lime zest, and season with salt and pepper. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 4 hours or up to 24 hours.

Step 2

Preheat a grill for direct, medium-high heat grilling.

Step 3

Make the hot sauce: When the grill is hot, place the jalapeños directly on the grill grates and cook until beautifully charred all over, 25 to 30 minutes.

Step 4

Remove the stems from the jalapeños, place in a blender, and add the garlic, cilantro, green onions, lime juice, syrup, vinegar, and salt. Blend until smooth. Taste and adjust the seasoning as necessary. This can be made in advance and stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks (I almost always have a bottle or two hanging out in there). Leftover sauce can be used on tacos, burgers, scrambled eggs, or nachos — anywhere you’d like a little heat.

Article content

Step 5

Grill the chicken: Place the chicken directly on the grill grates, skin side down (skin side up if you’re using a pellet grill), and cook for 40 to 45 minutes, flipping every 10 minutes or so (no need to flip if using a pellet grill) or until perfectly golden, smoke-kissed, and an instant-read thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the chicken reaches 165F (74C). Rest at least 10 minutes before serving with the hot sauce alongside. Serve with corn tortillas and salsa alongside, if using.

Recipes and images excerpted from Cook with Confidence by Dennis Prescott. Copyright ©2024 Dennis Prescott. Photography by Dennis Prescott. Published by Penguin, an imprint of Penguin Canada, a division of Penguin Random House Canada Limited. Reproduced by arrangement with the Publisher. All rights reserved.

Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com and sign up for our cookbook and recipe newsletter, Cook This, here.

Article content