Seafood and Cheese Combos
Am I the only one that finds it a sin to combine the two? I see it more and more as I eat at restaurants but I just can not stomach it and have tried.
While a few arent so bad, gorgonzola sprinkled on a salad with broiled shrimp or pasta and mussels/clams sprinkled with parmesan being a couple examples.
However, I have seen a ton lately. I know Mexican can do it often but I just dont get it: seafood tacos covered in all kinds of cheeses and sour cream, Another being scallops wrapped in some type of meet and cheese product that I have seen in a few spots. Even something as simple as a tuna steak sandwich with layers of cheese.
Is it just me? Seafood and dairy for the most part do not mix.
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theferlyone
Sep 18, 2008 07:59 PM
My initial thought was, tuna melt. I love those things. I thought about it, and came up with several more examples...the only bad one I thought of was this krab and cheese casserole they serve at the Chinese buffet a few towns over. But it's made with krab...I don't think it was the cheese that ruined it.
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First of all, I think more and more we are seeing cheese on everything. It's mostly a North American thing. Remember when fast food places would charge extra for the cheese on a burger? Now they just charge you for it automatically. If you don't want to pay for it, you have to ask them to leave it off.
I don't like cheese on top of most things, and certainly not seafood. Dairy is a much broader question, of course. It is not usually my preference.
I'm sure you could always find the odd European recipe for that combo, but it would be the exception.
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K K
Sep 17, 2008 10:57 PM
Go to any major big city where there is a great Cantonese seafood restaurant, they will gladly do a lobster baked with cheese. It's a Hong Kong style classic, although I can't remember when was the last time I had it.
And maybe your local Asian buffet dinner special would let you have half a lobster as the main attraction (usually a shrunken piece of sadness and dried up), where the top is baked with some mayo like cheese mix. Usually those renditions are a bit dodgy.
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re: dolores
Rubee
Sep 18, 2008 06:05 PM
Exactly.
I always found it odd how some non-Italians "adopt" this mantra and then tell everyone combining cheese and seafood is just "wrong". It's a regional Italian custom; however, as MMRuth points out, there are some parts of Italy that do serve seafood and cheese. It is certainly not a "sin", or else every other country that does this is wrong? I don't think so - For example, what about classic dishes like France's Lobster Thermidor and Coquilles St. Jacque, or Greece's traditional taverna dish of garides me feta (shrimp baked with tomatoes and feta). One can prefer not to combine seafood and cheese, or personally not like this combination, and it's a cultural Italian custom (BTW which I respect - I don't ask for cheese on a seafood dish at an Italian restaurant), but shouldn't be considered the definitive rule.
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Infomaniac
Sep 17, 2008 07:43 PM
A few combos I like are lobster mac n cheese, seafood newburg, tuna melt, and grilled squid stuffed with feta and mint.
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wow I don't see a problem, fish in cream sauces, fish pie and the wonderful Sole/Haddock/Halibut Mornay. Also grilled fish with melted butter or fried in butter. Also any of the above fish Florentine (bed of spinach and cheese sauce).
Tuna bake in a white sauce, with a crispy cheese topping.
What about a bagel with smoked salmon/lox/nova and cream cheese. Herrings in cream sauce.
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jayt90
Sep 17, 2008 09:01 AM
It does relate to early food experiences, at least for me. A cheese sauce over fish fillets was a favorite, growing up, and even now, sole mornay is a comfort food for me.
But I never encountered Mediterranean fish preparations, or Asian 'steam fish' until I left home. I can't get enough of all three ways to prepare fish, as long as they are two or three days apart. -
There is a fabulous Greek shrimp dish which includes tomato sauce & feta cheese. I really do think it's a cultural thing and relates not only to regional tastes but to ancestral availability.
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re: mrschef1
thew
Sep 18, 2008 06:48 PM
this was the first thing i thought of. shrimp saganaki. delicious. also an easy dish to make and it has the ooh factor when served to someone else.
that and lox and cream cheese
and despite what the italians say... sometimes an inauthentic blast of cheese is just what that seafood pasta needs to tie it together.
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southernitalian
Sep 17, 2008 08:34 AM
I'm one of the loudest ranters on all of the seafood and cheese threads. Literally makes me sick to my stomach. I think it's an Italian thing but I don't know. The worst is when people sprinkle grated cheese on mussells or clams in red sauce with pasta. I also see commercials for Red Lobsert or some other chain promoting parmesan fish or shrimp. That makes me throw up in my mouth. All of that said, I have one huge exception.....FILET o' FISH!!!!!!!!!!!!
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re: paulj
southernitalian
Sep 17, 2008 09:06 AM
Well, I'd say I'm obviously reacting to the concept and visual image, right?
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re: southernitalian
In my earlier post I was toning it down, but yankeefan, and southernitalian have summed up how I feel about this, EXCEPT that I can't even stomach the filet o fish. I ALWAYS get them without cheese. But, again, as I said before, to each his/her own. I just don't get it though.
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re: gordeaux
Richard 16
Sep 18, 2008 06:37 AM
It's not really a question of "getting it" - at least intellectually. As I'm sure you know it's personal preference. I find pork products make dishes heavy and greasy, especially pie crusts and chowders, but obviously I'm in the minority on this site. People like it, and who am I to question their likes?
There's a logical fallacy in presuming that simply because something in one culture is traditional means it's better - for example, the examples of Chinese blending dairy and fish/seafood and some favorite Italian dishes blending them are just two examples of how the assumptions are questioned.
For me it depends on the dish. Sometimes it's a great combo and sometimes lousy, with the whole range between.
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re: ipsedixit
I think you just summed it up best. That filet-o-fish is my one exception. Tuna melts from a can of tuna dont really count either here.
Fish pies and seafood gratins just dont do it for me. There is a time and a place. It just tipped me off the other day when I was at a Greek place with great grilled calamari and someone asked for parmesan.
Maybe it IS the Italian in me and how I grew up but just dont get it or stomach it.
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re: rubinow
MMRuth
Sep 16, 2008 05:34 PM
Yes - and there have been a number of threads on this topic - some quite, shall we say, heated! However, I have a Sardinian cookbook that I love, and there are comments in there about using cheese and fish together in Sardinian cuisine. I'll try to find the details in the a.m. One of my favorite recipes in the book combines bottarga and pecorino.
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re: MMRuth
MMRuth
Sep 17, 2008 03:30 PM
Perused the book a bit - another dish calling for cheese with seafood is Calamari stuffed with ricotta and bottarga, and pecorino sardo is another ingredient. The recipe for Spaghetti with pecorino and bottarga is apparently "a traditional recipe from the town of Carloforte on the island of San Pietro, home to some of Sardinia's finest tuna fisherman". There are also recipes for "Pasta with ricotta and bottarga", "Nettle Ravioli with branzino and ricotta", "Sole with Pecorino Sardo" (note says this is a classic way to combine land and sea in Sardinia, although "to some this is not a 'natural' or familiar combination".)
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re: rubinow
almansa
Sep 17, 2008 06:17 PM
I know Marcella Hazan quite well and have collaborated with her in the past. She says no seafood with cheese, no olive oil for dipping on the table (butter only), and no lemon twist with espresso. But that doesn't make any of these things wrong. Personally I do adhere to the no cheese (save for mascarpone which isn't cheese) with seafood rule. I have had parmesan crusted soft shells once though, and enjoyed them quite a bit.
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re: almansa
MMRuth
Sep 18, 2008 03:36 AM
It sounds like then that this use of cheese with seafood in Sardinia must be an anomaly in Italian cooking. I'd never combined cheese and seafood when cooking Italian food (pretty much from Hazan's book), but have enjoyed recipes I've made from that Sardinian one.
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scuzzo
Sep 16, 2008 02:06 PM
Sin??? Wrong??? Very different responses than "I don't care for it". I've had combinations with cheese and dairy that I enjoy very much. While I suppose I've combinations that did not work.
I would be curious to know if there are real guidelines and the logic behind them.
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I grewup on the East coast, and I agree with you 100%. I dig a good clam chowder, but that's abougt where it ends. A light cream sauce will work with pasta and shellfish as well, but cheese? Wrong, wrong , wrong. Fish sandwich with cheese? EWWWWW.
Tuna melt? EWWWWW. Yes, I know everyone has their own opinion, and whoever wants a cheesy fish combo is certainly entitled to it. To me however, it's really wrong.›5 Replies -
Sooeygun
Sep 16, 2008 03:58 AM
The first thing that I thought of was Coquille St. Jacques. Many versions have cheese on them.
But with your last statement about seafood and dairy, I have to disagree. Most seafood is lovely in a cream sauce.
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re: Sooeygun
alkapal
Sep 18, 2008 05:24 AM
mais non! coquilles st. jacques -- the classic -- has no cheese, pleeeeze!
http://www.corner-kitchen.com/index.php?page=vivian-s-recipes#scallops ( a nice recipe, and an appetizing blog, too).
and seafood and cream sauce, decadent and delish! esp. spiked with sherry!!!
pike quenelles (YAY!): http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D0CE6DC123BF937A3575BC0A967958260&n=Top%2FReference%2FTimes%20Topics%2FSubjects%2FF%2FFood
with sauce nantua: (double-YAY!): http://www3.uakron.edu/modlang/05trip/quenelles.htmlshrimp in garlic cream sauce: http://southernfood.about.com/od/shrimprecipes/r/bl30107x.htm
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re: alkapal
Sooeygun
Sep 18, 2008 07:37 AM
According to Larousse, coquille st. Jacques is actually just the term for scallops. All the recipes made with them are coquille st. jacques a la something or with other words added to the name (e.g. coquille st. jacques mornay..which is cheese sauce). That's why I said 'many versions have cheese'.
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re: Sooeygun
alkapal
Sep 18, 2008 07:41 AM
aaah. what's the one with the mashed potatoes piped around the edge of the gratin dish? do all of them have that? now that i've googled it, i see many recipes with the taters have gruyere and some have parm, too.
the version i had in england was without cheese, similar to this: http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/32... this site calls it "parisienne"
thanks.
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re: alkapal
Sooeygun
Sep 18, 2008 08:55 AM
Unfortunately, I'm at work and my Larousse is at home. I will have to look it up tonight. Until I looked up Coquille St. Jacques in the Larousse, I had pictured it as exactly the one you linked to with the potatoes and the scallop shell dish. I'll check what the 'classical' name is, if there is one.
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