Gulf Seafood

Gulf Seafood
- Simplified At Home with Three of Birmingham’s
Most Celebrated Chefs
W
Written by Rebecca Walden Photography by Beau Gustafson
Styling by Mary Beth Wetzel
b-metro.com
179
Bayou La Batre Shrimp with Hand
Rolled Garganelli Pasta, Heirloom
Tomato Sauce and Cardinal Basil
By Chef Chris Hastings, Hot & Hot Fish Club
Heirloom Tomato Sauce
4 T thyme
1 cup butter
1 onion chopped
2 pounds shrimp shells
1 pint heavy cream
4 pounds heirloom tomato scraps
Shrimp
8 oz portion Bayou La Batre shrimp
1 T butter
1 t olive oil
¼ t garlic clove sliced
1 t thyme
¼ cup tomato water
Garnish
Cardinal Basil
Garganelli Pasta (Cook)
1. Heirloom Tomato Sauce: Saute thyme and onions in butter. Add shrimp
shells and tomato. Add cream. Let simmer for 1 hr. Puree in blender and
strain through chinois.
2. Garganelli Pasta: Cook until al dente. Chill and hold for service.
3. Complete the Dish: Saute garlic and thyme in butter in olive oil. Add
shrimp. Add tomato water. Add heirloom tomato sauce and pasta. Let simmer until pasta is warm. Add basil.
With schedules incongruent to the habits of typical family life, restaurant ownership
and executive chef-dom present their own
work-life balance challenges.
Just ask Chris Hastings of Hot & Hot
Fish Club, Haller Magee of Satterfield’s, or
George Reis of Ocean and 26, all of whom
typically clock in workweeks upwards of 80
hours.
For them, Sundays are sacred, often the
only day of the week not spent at their restaurants, shopping for ingredients, or holed up
in an office, handling paperwork.
Lest you have the impression that Sunday is a departure from all things culinary,
think again. When you are truly passionate
about what you do, there is no “day off”, nor,
as these gentlemen remind us, would you
want there to be.
“It’s always been super important to us –
because of our very busy restaurant lifestyle –
180
b-metro.com
to insist on making time on Sundays to cook
together, to slow life down for a minute, and
just have conversation,” said Hastings of his
wife Idie, and their grown sons, Zeb and Vincent. “We cook and talk. Sometimes they are
hard conversations, sometimes they are light,
but just to be together in conversation is a
priority.”
“Cooking can be a real joy if you can
weave it into a life,” he said. “It shouldn’t be
viewed as an inconvenience; it’s an opportunity reconnect and celebrate the small moments that are so hard to come by.”
Satterfield’s Magee concurs.
“Even though I’m not ‘on the clock’ on
Sundays, preparing a nice meal for my wife
Micah is what I like to do,” he said. As the
owner of Muse Salon in Vestavia Hills, Micah keeps up a demanding work schedule of
her own.
“She does what she does and I do what I
do and we don’t really get to see each other
except when we’re asleep,” he said. “To be
able to cook is one of the most intimate
things we can do for each other, whether
that’s for our immediate family or a group
of friends. Gathering together, telling stories
and enjoying a good meal is what coming to
the table is all about.”
Their weekly Sunday ritual is often an informal cooking class of sorts for Micah, who
sometimes feels intimidated to be shoulder
to shoulder with Haller in the kitchen.
And Magee never stops learning. During a recent trip the couple took to Chicago,
where Micah attended a L’Oreal professional
course for small business owners, Haller
tagged along, only to end up in the kitchen
of famed restaurant, Girl and the Goat.
“I saw some stuff there that jacked me
up inspirationally,” he said. “The best part
of this is the experience of it,” he said.
b-metro.com
Vase courtesy of At Home Furnishings
181
Fennel and Citrus Stuffed Whole Gulf
Red Snapper
Haller Magee, Executive Chef, Satterfield’s
Ingredients
1 whole ( 3-4 pound) red snapper, bones removed
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 bulb fennel, thinly sliced
2 shallots thinly sliced
5 cloves garlic, minced
The juice of 2 lemons
¼ cup white wine
1 Tbsp chopped Italian parsley
1tsp chopped fresh tarragon
1tsp chopped fresh thyme
Directions
1.Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a 9x13 inch baking dish with cooking spray.
2.Heat 4 tablespoons of olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Stir in the cloves of minced garlic,
fennel, and sliced shallot. Cook and stir until the fennel has begun to soften, about 8 minutes.
Deglaze with lemon juice and white wine. Reduce by half, and then remove from heat. Transfer
vegetables to a bowl, and stir in chopped parsley, thyme, and tarragon. Reserve cooking oil.
3.Season the fish all over with salt and pepper to taste, then stuff snapper with fennel mixture. Use
kitchen twine to tie the snapper together in three places. Place the snapper into the prepared baking
dish, drizzle with reserved olive oil.
4.Bake in the preheated oven until the fish is no longer translucent, and flakes easily with a fork,
about 20 minutes.
Serves 4 people
182
b-metro.com
“Find your own style and cook what makes
you happy. As chefs, that’s what we do. We
get into this business to see people happy,
to entertain them and to nourish them. If
there’s one thing I’ve gathered from sitting
down with chefs all across the country, it’s
that cooking is one of the easiest ways for us
to convey our emotions and our story across
to others. We all have that same feeling and
passion. Just have fun with it.”
For Reis, the time to unwind and break
bread with his family needn’t be restricted
to the traditional Sunday afternoon spread.
More often than not, family time is carved
out between the cross-country meets of his
youngest, 14-year-old Peter, and the equally
hectic schedule of almost college-bound
Will.
So he opts for brunch.
“We make it a priority to get together for
Sunday brunch,” said Reis. One family favorite recipe is Reis’ Hangtown Fry, an easy to
prepare dish that also will impress, featuring
plump Bon Secour oysters harvested near
Mobile Bay. From cracking eggs to chopping
onions, meal prep is a family affair, even for
a pair of rough-and-tumble teenage boys,
who seem to enjoy their sous chef roles despite themselves.
In Reis’ kitchen, where inches from
the countertop a copy of The James Beard
Cookbook autographed by the man himself
stands, you wouldn’t expect to find such approachable fare on the menu. But, take it
from the chef, that marriage of simple, familiar flavors with the meaty sweetness of Alabama Gulf oysters is all it takes to make this
brunch-perfect recipe really sing (non oyster
lovers can substitute Alabama Gulf shrimp,
another one of his favorites).
Whether it’s Reis’ Hangtown Fry, Magee’s Citrus and Fennel Stuffed Snapper, or
Hastings Shrimp Pasta, Alabama Gulf Seafood is an oft-served staple.
“The reality is sometimes you want to
relax and be in your house, chilling out with
your family,” said Hastings. “Cooking simple
seafood dishes are a quick, easy and fun way
to spend quality time together.”
Local accessibility is better than ever.
From Dominick Ficarino’s Gulf shrimp,
available at select Publix Supermarkets, to
Evans Meats, Snapper Grabbers, Piggly Wiggly, Whole Foods and more, the Magic City
is replete with retailers who source their seafood from the most pristine fishing waters
along Alabama’s 53 miles of brief, beautiful
b-metro.com
183
coastline.
“I’m often asked by purveyors selling
seafood from Alaska or Hawaii why I won’t
consider working with them,” said Magee.
“My answer is always the same: ‘the Gulf
of Mexico is right here. I’m supporting this
community of families and fishermen. I’ve
built a relationship with these guys. I know
they are solid, and I know where this all this
fish comes from. For me to shop anywhere
outside the Gulf would just be foolish.’
They never ask me twice.”
It’s a mantra for which Hastings has
been a longtime advocate.
“Particularly after 2008 when things
got complicated and when people’s lives
got simpler, because they had to, you had
184
b-metro.com
more time with your family, you took stock
of what is important in your life, and that
wove into this larger conversation of leading
a simpler life,” he said. “How do we shop
differently? How do we cook differently?
How do feed our families in a better, less
processed way?”
Walking his talk, Hastings’ Gulf shrimp
recipe (see PG NUMBER HERE) calls for
a mere NUMBER main ingredients, one of
which are canned tomatoes, put up from
the fresh summer bounty of the Hastings’
own vegetable garden. It allows them to
make the dish, a family favorite, year-round
without having to settle for sub-par produce.
“We feed ourselves far too much processed food, and it’s killing us slowly. Food
is medicine. Thank goodness we are finally
starting to take a look at how we feed ourselves, and to view cooking as an opportunity to reconnect as a family.”
Perhaps you’ll find a little Alabama Gulf
Seafood inspiration with the recipes included here. No matter what you try, remember
to have fun with it.
“Don’t be afraid,” said Magee. “Cook
what you like, and find your style. When it
comes down to it, just have fun. Don’t forget what the end result is supposed to be:
to bring everybody to the table. As long as
it’s not lost in the technicality, cook from
your heart. Taste your food. It’s not rocket
science. Just put some love into it.”
Hangtown Fry
George Reis, Ocean
1 dozen shucked Nelson Bros Oysters (Bon Secour,
Alabama)
2 cup fine cornmeal
1 ½ tsp garlic powder
¾ tsp white pepper
¼ tsp black pepper
1 ½ tsp salt
1 tsp paprika
¼ tsp cayenne pepper (according to taste)
Or use a Spicy Zataran’s Corn Breading
2 cup buttermilk
Blend cornmeal & spices, place in bowl. In another bowl
place buttermilk and oyster together. Bread oysters one
by one. Set aside.
4 each thick sliced Benton’s Bacon – cut into ½” cubes
1 dozen fresh farm eggs, beaten
2 each vine ripe tomatoes, ½” cubes
8 each green onions, chopped
Salt & Pepper to taste
2 tbsp butter
Heat a 10” cast iron skillet over medium heat. Place
bacon in skillet and cook until just cooked through.
Remove bacon and set aside.
Using bacon grease in pan, fry the breaded oysters until
crisp on both sides. Remove and place on paper towels to
drain. Wipe pan clean.
Add butter to skillet over medium high heat. Add tomatoes and green onion. Cook briefly. Add eggs, slightly
scramble and add oysters. Mix and season with salt &
pepper.
Place in a preheated 350 degree oven and bake until set.
Remove and serve for brunch or lunch.
Serves 6
b-metro.com
185