Our Favorite Spring Seafood: Shellfish

Spring is a great time for seafood! Most of our shellfish come into season during the Spring months, making it an ideal ingredient for this time of year. In this article, we’ve highlighted all of our seasonal Spring shellfish and provided some meal inspiration for each. Your Spring should be delicious and, with Cameron’s Seafood shellfish, it absolutely will be!

Sea Scallops

March and April are peak Scallop season. With the waters still crisp and cool in the Atlantic, scallops harvested this time of year are plump and excellently fresh-tasting. Our Sea Scallops are packed raw, in 1 lb. portions, averaging about 20-30 scallops per pound. We recommend around ½ lb. of scallops per person.

Risotto is an excellent option for Spring, even more so with the addition of seared Sea Scallops. We paired this Seared Sea Scallop Risotto with fresh and vibrant Spring vegetables and aromatics.

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Seared Scallops with Creamy Spring Risotto

Serves 4

Ingredients

Risotto Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 4 garlic cloves peeled and minced
• ½ cup yellow onions peeled and minced
• 1 cup arborio rice
• 2 3/4 cups chicken or vegetable broth
• 12 ounces half & half
• 1/2 cup grated parmesan
• Salt and pepper to taste

Seared Scallops:

• 1 lb. Cameron’s Seafood Sea Scallops
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/4 cup white wine
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 6 tablespoons salted butter cut into small cubes
• Steamed snow peas broccolini, English peas, and asparagus.

Instructions

1. Heat oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Once the oil is hot, add the garlic, onion, and arborio rice, stir to combine, and sauté for 1 minute. Pour in 1 cup of broth, stir to combine, and bring to a simmer. Simmer until the broth is almost completely absorbed, about 3-5 minutes, before adding another cup. Repeat until all the broth is absorbed. Add the half & half, stir to combine, and continue to simmer for about 10 minutes or until the rice is tender. The risotto will be a little loose and creamy, that’s perfectly normal. Add the parmesan, stir to combine, and season to taste with salt and pepper before serving.
2. Thoroughly pat scallops dry with paper towels and set aside. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Once hot, add the scallops, and sear until brown, about 2 minutes per side . Remove the scallops from the skillet and set aside.
3. Reduce heat to medium-low and deglaze the skillet with white wine and lemon juice, bring to a low simmer. Working in small batches, add the butter to the skillet, whisking until the butter has melted and blended with the pan-juices before adding the next batch. Return the scallops to the skillet, just long enough to reheat, and season everything to taste with salt and pepper.
4. Divide risotto and steamed veggies between plates and top with scallops and pan-sauce before serving.

Shucked Oysters

Spring marks the end of the Oyster season, so we set aside this time of year as a time to celebrate the last of the Oyster harvest. Our Shucked Oysters are shipped in pint jars with about 20 Oysters per jar. When meal planning and prepping, we recommend averaging about 10 Oysters per person.

Fried oysters are one of our favorite preparations. We love pairing our fried oysters with a zesty, creamy dip. To honor the season, we paired these fried oysters with a Spring-themed remoulade.

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Fried Oysters with Spring Remoulade

Serves 2-4

Ingredients

Fried Oyster Ingredients:

• 1 pint Cameron’s Seafood Shucked Oysters
• 3 eggs beaten
• ½ cup cornmeal
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons Old Bay Seasoning
• Vegetable oil for frying

Spring Remoulade:

• ½ cup mayonnaise
• 2 tablespoons sour cream
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• ¼ cup roasted red bell pepper drained
• 1 garlic clove peeled
• 2 tablespoons fresh chives chopped
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon capers drained
• Dash of hot sauce

Instructions

1. Thoroughly drain the oysters from their liquor, gently shaking to remove as much moisture as possible. Sandwich the oysters between a couple sheets of paper towels and gently pat to expel any additional moisture. Place the oysters in a large bowl with the beaten eggs, gently stir to combine, and set aside to soak for 10 minutes.
2. In another bowl, place the cornmeal, flour, and seasoning, whisk to combine. After the oysters have soaked, remove the oysters from the egg, letting any excess egg drip off, and coat in the dry ingredients. Heat oil in a deep fryer or high-sided skillet to 350-375°F. Working in batches (making sure not to overcrowd the fryer or skillet), fry for 3 minutes or until the oysters are golden brown, cooked through, and crispy. Set fried oysters aside to drain on a wire rack.
3. To make the remoulade, place the mayo, sour cream, mustard, red bell pepper, garlic, chives, lemon juice, capers, and hot sauce in the bowl of a food processor. Blend until smooth.
4. Serve fried oysters with the remoulade on the side for dipping and dunking.

Crawfish

Crawfish season is just hitting its stride in the Spring. Unlike some of our other featured shellfish, Crawfish like it a little on the warm side. Spring temperatures in the Delta are just right for crawfish and just right for our Spring dishes. Cameron’s Seafood Crawfish come fully cooked, in 5 lb. portions.

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Mini Crawfish Tea Sandwiches

Serves 10

Ingredients

• 5 lbs. Cameron’s Seafood Crawfish shells removed and tail chopped
• ⅔ cup mayonnaise
• ¼ cup celery minced
• ¼ cup red onion peeled and minced
• 1 tablespoon fresh chives chopped
• 1 tablespoon fresh tarragon chopped
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon Old Bay Seasoning
• 20 mini sandwich rolls split
• 1 stick salted butter melted

Instructions

1. Place crawfish, mayo, celery, onion, chives, tarragon, lemon juice, and seasoning in a large bowl, and stir until combined.
2. Preheat the oven to 350°F and line a large baking sheet with aluminum foil. Brush split sandwich rolls with melted butter, place on the prepared baking sheet, and place in the oven. Place in the oven and toast rolls for 10-12 minutes.
3. Remove toasted rolls from the oven and fill with the crawfish salad.

Mussels

Early Spring is a great time for mussels. This is when the quality and taste of the mussels are at peak (before the spawning seasoning in the Summer). We can’t get enough Spring mussels! Cameron’s Seafood Mussels come fully cooked, packed in 3 lbs portions. We recommend a serving of 1 lb of mussels per person.

This classic presentation of mussels steamed in beer is perfect for Spring. We even use a seasonal Spring beer to highlight the seasonality in this recipe.

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Saison Beer Steamed Mussels

Serves 3

Ingredients

• 4 tablespoons butter
• 3 garlic cloves peeled and minced
• 2 shallots peeled and sliced
• 1 lemon juiced
• 12 ounces Saison-style beer
• 3 lbs. Cameron’s Seafood Mussels
• 2 tablespoons fresh parsley chopped
• Crostini or toasted bread for dipping and dunking

Spring into Shellfish!

All of the shellfish we mentioned in this article is available at our online store, Cameron’s Seafood.com. We take pride in delivering the freshest seafood to our customers. As we say, ‘from shore to door, 3 days fresher than the grocery store’-all of our seafood is delivered right to your door when you schedule it, guaranteed!

Do you have a favorite shellfish recipe that you would like to share? Have a trick or tip that we haven’t covered? Feel free to share it with us! We’re always looking for new and innovative ways to cook and prepare our seafood.

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