Amazing seafood recipes by Chef Carmen Gonzalez

Celebrated New York chef Carmen Gonzalez is well known for combining the mouth-watering flavors of her native Puerto Rico with contemporary cooking.

She’s the mastermind behind countless delicious seafood recipes New Yorkers clamor for, and has joined forces with inn owner Kimberly Swan to open Carmen at The Danforth, located in Portland, Maine.

The two women recently hosted the Harvest Brunch, where she prepared such creations as Maine Lobster with Key Lime Mayonnaise & Avocado Relish on Tostones and Sweet Plantain & Guisado of Peekytoe Crabmeat Piononos.

You can click here to learn more about Chef Carmen and her seafood recipes.

Pan seared snapper filet with clams and chorizo stew

Ingredients for tasty seafood recipes like this one include:

• 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 12 1-1/2 inch slices of Spanish chorizo
• 3 cloves thinly sliced garlic
• 1-1/4 cups thinly sliced leeks
• 24 small clams
• 6 oz dry white wine
• 6 steamed fingerling potatoes
• 3 thinly sliced red tomatoes
• 2 tbsp cilantro leaves
• 6 oz fish stock
• 4.5 oz red snapper filets sliced in half
• 1/2 tbsp unsalted butter
• 8 chive sprigs

Preparations:

For the stew portion of this dish, heat 1/4 cup olive oil in a sauté pan over medium heat, add garlic and chorizo, and cook for 1 minute. Add your leeks and clams, and then add the dry white wine and let it reduce. Next, add tomatoes, potatoes, fish stock, and cilantro leaves.

Cover, and cook on reduced heat until clams open. While the stew portion of this recipe is cooking, heat the remaining 1/4 cup of olive oil in a cast iron skillet and sauté fish, cooking skin side first. Now, flip fish and place it in a 350-degree oven for 3-4 minutes.

Next, add butter to stew, and remove snapper from oven. Serve in a large, shallow bowl or dish by rimming the sides with clams and heaping the chorizo and potatoes in the center. Place fish skin side up on potatoes, cover with remaining stew mixture, and garnish with chive.

Grouper filet with chorizo, leeks, corn & root vegetable stew

Ingredients for seafood recipes like this fabulous stew are as follows:

• 1-1/2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 cup thinly sliced leeks
• 12 slices Spanish chorizo
• 2 cloves thinly sliced garlic
• 1 medium yuca, sweet potato, or butternut squash, peeled, diced and steamed
• 1 medium boniato or potato, peeled, diced and steamed
• 1 medium carrot, peeled, diced and steamed
• 2 corn cobs, steamed and shucked
• 1 oz white wine
• 1 tbsp cilantro leaves
• 10 oz chicken stock
• 1 red tomato, seeded and julienned
• 4 3-oz grouper filet, sliced in half diagonally
• 1 tbsp butter cilantro for garnish salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preparations:

Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a sauté pan over medium heat. Add leeks, chorizo, and garlic. Cook for 2 minutes. Add yuca, boniato, corn, and carrots. Season with salt and pepper. Add white wine, and reduce by half.

Next, add 1 tbsp cilantro leaves and your chicken stock. Cover, reduce heat, and cook for five minutes. Then add tomatoes, adjust seasoning to taste, and reduce heat to low. Next, heat remaining 1/2 tbsp olive oil in a cast iron skillet.

Salt and pepper fish on both sides. Sauté fish, skin side first, until skin is golden in color. Flip fish, and place in a 350-degree oven for 1-2 minutes.

Now, uncover stew, add butter, and remove grouper from oven. Finally, in a wide, shallow bowl, heap root vegetables, leek, and chorizo in center. Place fish skin side up on top, cover with remaining stew mixture, and garnish with cilantro.