Phabulous Phish Pheast! a seafood extravaganza v.2

A while back we visited a friend out in Freeport, NY (Long Island) for the Seafood Festival and it was so much fun. It seems that seafood is one of those things that you love it or hate it... And we absolutely love it! After that adventure I kept making excuses to travel out to Long Island with a cooler stashed in the backseat to visit the fish market out on the pier, Two Cousins. Then we decided to kill two birds with one stone, he would come visit....with the cooler full of fish so we could have a fun visit and some delicious seafood! Seafood Extravaganza v.1 included some red snapper, fried calamari and fried soft shell crabs.

This time we had even more friends over and more seafood options including our first Iron Chef style showdown with a mystery ingredient! We decided that every guest would attempt a seafood dish and we would all have fun cooking together. And I have to say it actually did work out for the most part! But as always I decided to make about 3 dishes and so we decided to split dinner into two parts with a short rest in the middle were I finished my prep. The one big note for the evening was to get your mise en place all set and ready to go- while each recipe is easy in itself when you have 3 or 4 things to prep in a short time doing each little step takes time!

 

Now for the Menu:
Shrimp & Crab dip (Matt)

Fried Calamari
Scallop au Gratin (Randy) (*she used sea scallops but followed this recipe otherwise)
Spicy Salmon Cakes (Mike)

Salmon Ceviche
Asian Style Sauted Calamari
Cajun Shrimp Lettuce Wraps
Herb Butter Broiled Blow Fish tails ** secret ingredient**

Fresh Figs w Blue Cheese & Honey Drizzle
Red Velvet Cake (Jess...our token seafood hater!)
Tequila Shots! (Matt)

Herb Butter Blow Fish Tails (any firm white fish can be substituted)
6 tbsp butter (salted or unsalted - just add less salt if you use salted butter) - softened
2 tsp fresh ground pepper
1 tsp kosher salt
2 tbsp fresh chopped basil
2 cloves garlic finely diced
1 shallot diced 

1) combine all of the ingredients in a bowl and stir to combine (you can also use a small food processor)
2) place 1 tsp of the butter mix on each tail and place in broiler for 4-7 min