Project Description

Tender white fish, scallops and shrimp in a spicy sauce. Don’t let the long list of ingredients discourage you – this dish pulls together easily. Pair it with some rice and tender green beans for a fast, tasty and healthy meal. If you like it really hot then double up the amount of cayenne pepper. Note: this dish uses one portion, or 4 cups of the Marinara Sauce.

Ingredients:

Sauce
  • 2 tbsp. olive oil
  • 1 medium onion, diced
  • 2 stalks of celery, chopped
  • 1 green pepper, chopped
  • 1 jalapeño pepper, de-seeded and finely chopped
  • 2 large cloves of garlic, chopped
  • 1 tsp each of, white sugar, dried oregano and thyme
  • 2 tsp salt
  • 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
  • 6-8 grinds of pepper
  • 1/2 cup white wine
  • 1 portion (4 cups) Marinara Sauce
  • 1/2 cup chicken broth
  • 1 large fresh bay leaf

Seafood

  • 1 lb halibut, cut into large chunks (roughly 2″ pieces)
  • 8-10 ocean scallops
  • 15-18 large raw shrimp, peeled and deveined
  • 1 cup all purpose flour
  • 2 tbsp unsalted butter
  • 2 large cloves of garlic, finely chopped
  • 1/4 cup white wine

Difficulty: Intermediate

Prep Time: 20 min

Cook Time: 30 min

Lead Time: N/A

Freezer Friendly: No

Leftover Alert: N/A

The instructions below take you through the creation of the entire dish in one cooking session.

  1. Make the sauce first.  Heat up the olive oil on medium heat in a large saucepan.  Add the onion, celery and green pepper and sauté for 5 minutes or until the onions start to become tender. Add the garlic and sauté for another minute.
  2. Add all the spices except for the bay leaf and sauté for 30 seconds to get the oils in the spices to release.
  3. Add the white wine, stirring up any browning on the bottom of the pot, and cook until the wine has reduced in half, about 2 minutes.
  4. Add the chicken broth and cook until reduced in half as well.
  5. Add the Marinara Sauce and bay leaf, stir well, cover and simmer for 15-20 minutes.

The seafood is cooked separately and simply added into the sauce. This ensures that you don’t over-cook the seafood, making it tough or rubbery. Prior to cooking the seafood, ensure the sauce is simmering on a low heat next to the burner that you will be cooking the seafood in.

  1. Prepare the seafood by dredging the halibut pieces and scallops in flour. Set aside.
  2. In a large, non-stick frying pan, heat up the butter on medium heat, melt, then add the garlic and sauté for 30 seconds.
  3. Add the wine and cook for another 30 seconds.
  4. Add all the shrimp and as soon as they have turned pink on one side, flip and cook the other side. Quickly remove and keep in a dish to the side.
  5. Turn the heat up to medium high and add all the fish pieces. Lightly brown on one side (about 2-3 minutes) and flip to lightly brown the other side. Don’t worry if they are not cooked all the way through as they will continue to cook in the sauce.  Add the fish pieces to the sauce.
  6. Repeat this process for the scallops. Add more butter to the pan if needed.
  7. Take the sauce (with the scallops and fish pieces in it) off the heat.  Add all the shrimp pieces. Gently stir to ensure all the seafood is incorporated in the sauce.  Cover and allow to stand for 5-10 minutes before serving.

This is easily a weeknight meal since the sauce is made separately. Prepare the sauce the night before and clean all the seafood. Don’t dredge the fish and scallops in flour ahead of time as the flour will get gummy.

When you get home from work, start your rice, then heat up your sauce. While these are cooking, dredge your fish and scallops in flour and fry up. By the time your rice is cooked the Spicy Seafood is ready!

The Spicy Seafood is perfect served over rice and paired with another vegetable side. As the sauce itself is quite flavourful I recommend that you keep the vegetable simple, such as steamed brocolli or green beans. Note: the steps below assume you are making this as a weeknight meal, have made the sauce ahead of time and washed and cut any vegetables to be used as the side.

Both the Spicy Seafood and rice will keep their heat and can be prepared first and kept covered. The vegetable side will be the last item to be prepared as it tends to cool down faster. To pull the entire meal together, the following steps apply:

  1. Heat up the broth for the rice on high heat. Measure and rinse the rice and set aside.
  2. Place the sauce on medium heat to begin to re-heat.
  3. When the broth for the rice is boiling, add the rice, stir, cover and turn the heat down to low. Set your timer for 20 minutes.
  4. Place your vegetables for the vegetable side in a pot and set aside. Fill the kettle with water and start the kettle.
  5. Dredge the fish and scallop pieces in flour and cook the seafood according to the recipe instructions.
  6. The Spicy Seafood recipe should pull together roughly within the 20 minutes that the rice is cooking. Finish the cooking of both the Spicy Seafood and the rice, cover and set to the side.
  7. Add the boiled water from the kettle to the vegetable side , cook and prepare according to the directions for that side.
  8. Dinner is ready!