It’s a 2-for-1 seafood special! We have a new twist on a New Orleans staple plus we show you how to plate up the way the pros do. Grab the recipes at http://www.DinnerDeeAs.com and if you make any of them, send us a picture! E-mail us at DinnerDeeAs@fox.com or @DinnerDeeAs on Instagram. Watch Dinner DeeAs every weekday at 1p ET on FOX13.
I’m Jeff Philbin here daily
to relieve your dinnertime dread of dull dishes with inspiration for something new
that you can make tonight. We have a two for one seafood special. First up, a new twist on a New Orleans
staple seafood. Monica. It has nothing to do with friends. We’ll explain it all. Plus, how one of these can stop
your dinner from looking cookie cutter. How to plate up the way the pros do. I’m joined in the kitchen by a man
whose fame has spread much farther than the Safety Harbor market
and restaurant he runs, called the Tides. Chef John Walker shares
his seafood skills on Instagram and TikTok,
where he’s racked up over a million likes. With videos like this. All right, so we’ve sauteed our garlic
just for about 30s. We’re taking our mussels,
which have already been cleaned, and they’re going in
now is going to be a little fire. And we’re finishing
the sauce with a little bit of butter. Gives it a little bit of fizz Cassidy
and a little bit of richness to it. All that sauce
goes in all the mussels on top. That one too. Well, it’s delicious. And it just took that long. Oh, it’s so cool. Chef John, welcome to the dinner kitchen. I am just one view of almost
that 7 million views that that video took. So how does it feel every day
to invite the world into your workplace? It feels pretty good. it’s had some great response. And, yeah, it’s a lot of fun. And we’re teaching people to be
a little more comfortable with seafood. I absolutely love it. Super cool. Today, Chef John is sharing
a recipe with us seafood Monica, which is his take on a crawfish
Monica named for the wife of the New Orleans chef
who created back in 1984. And this has become
a staple of the New Orleans Jazz Festival. It has, it has,
and it’s usually made with crawfish. Only today
we’re doing it a little bit differently. Okay. we are doing seafood, and so we’re adding
some shrimp to it. Nice. So all we are doing
is adding a little bit of oil. And
what type of oil are you using right now. So we’re using avocado. We’re really making a push to the
to the oil sweet. Okay. We’ve still got a little better ways
to figure out. but we’re we’re getting closer every day. Okay. I’ve added a little bit of sense
of some crawfish in here, so we’re just making a nice base. The shrimp is cooked about halfway. Okay, so we’ve got fresh shrimp here. I got to ask you the question
because everyone wants to know what’s your take on frozen? I think there’s nothing wrong with it.
Okay. There’s a there’s a lot of people. again. No. Your sauce. If you know your sauce, you’re going
to have great quality ingredients. And that’s really what we focus on
okay. This market. All right. Now what did you just add there. I added a little bit of white wine okay. And I’m adding a little bit of our house
seasoning. Okay. So the house seasoning
because it’s really basic. Basic. It’s salt
pepper and granulated garlic okay. That’s it. It’s a 1 to 1 ratio. one part salt one part
black pepper one part granulated garlic. To grab Chef John’s recipe for his seafood
Monica head to dinner is.com. The easy way to find us
is using the camera app on your phone. All you have to do
is just point out the TV zoom in on that square in the corner
of the screen, which is called a QR code, because when your phone sees a link to
our site will appear right on your phone. Okay,
so what did you just added next here? I added in heavy cream. So we’re going to let this cook
and reduce a little bit. And then when it gets to the right
consistency, we will period. And at that point you really could
just put it in the bowl and have a spoon. I absolutely. Love it. And put some herbs on top or some croutons
and call it a day. I love that and this is going to be tossed
with a beautiful. It looks like you have
what Sally passed over there. Yeah we do. And that is handmade here in Tampa. Nice. Tampa pasta company. Okay. And they’re a great partner. but this is doing great. I think the next thing that we need to do is get the pasta cook,
and I’m like, you be the pasta man. I’d absolutely love to. Oh,
this looks absolutely fantastic. Very cool. Absolutely. I let her rip. I put it all in. And Our seafood Monica
has some more similar to do. So we’re taking a quick break. But when we come back, Chef John shares
his tips for the best seafood seasonings ahead a dinner Diaz. Welcome back to dinner, Diaz. Chef John Walker is with us today. He runs the Tide
Seafood Market and Safety Harbor. Oh, and he also educates the world
on all things seafood, on social media. On the side. He’s making a seafood Monica,
though with us. Crawfish, shrimp, pasta
in a parmesan cream. All good. Nothing bad there in my books. Before the break,
we cook garlic and avocado oil, adding crawfish, shrimp, a little wine,
some seasoning and heavy cream. Then we put our local pasta on the cook
for Sally, for trapping in that beautiful taste inside that corkscrew that it’s
just going to bring it all together. During the break,
we add butter to our seafood sauce. So We got the pasta was already cooked,
drained and ready to go. So what do we need
to do to finish the sauce? So I would like for you to use that
immersion blender okay. And blend this until it’s smooth. I’m gonna add some garlic over
here. And cut. Around for this pan. So we want that nice and smooth. And I’m going to add other shrimp and crawfish. And if you put that to. One side it’s kind. Of cool. Pull it all together. I always like to get like,
at least the first little bit in and then start bringing in. Oh, we got a little bit more here down here. All right I’m going to season. This is just a little bit of our
our house Creole seasoning. any other Creole seasoning. Veterans black and seasoning would work
proper terms. Seafood magic would work. All right. I suppose you. Could use old base. suppose you could. I suppose you could. You see the way. So I can ask you, what’s your favorite? my favorite is the one that we use. It’s not too spicy. It’s not too salty. There’s no missing MSD. I know what’s going into it. but a close
second would be Adams. And then, Paul Prudhomme. Obviously puts out some great products. He’s still a mainstay in that regard. Yeah, absolutely. That was just smooth enough for you. Okay. that is taste. Absolutely. Go for. These little cheese. Okay. You need a little bit of cheese. Just a little. Oh. Now going all in for it. Yeah. Now we go. There we go. Okay. to grab Chef John’s recipe for this
New Orleans classic. Head to dinner. He is become quite as fast on your phone by scanning that
QR code down there on the screen. All right. So what I’m going to do now
is I’m going to take this and I’m going to put this right into. This so that she’s got a little. Bit more. Flavors over here. Look at that.
Just come together like that. Oh all right so we’ve got that
I’m going to set this off to the side. I’m going to add some herbs okay. the recipe calls for chives. I think that is. That is looking
good. Smooth. We use a chive parsley thyme mixture okay. So now I’m just going to mix this together
and get this all hot. And then all we need to do
is put the pasta in. Nice. Nice. It’s thick. This would be great too.
Just on like a piece of French bread. I was just going to say you got a, like,
a nice little loaf of bread and you just kind of start
dipping with it. I’m just saying. Could be a new appetizer. Could be something you see at the time. So we’re just going to put the towel on the pot. We’re going to put that on here. And then. Give it a nice little toss here. Toss. And the facility passes like an absolute game changer
for a dish like this, because it’s just going to lock
everything in. Perfect vehicle for sure. Oh. Sounds a little thick, which is okay. It’s never a bad problem. And then we’re just going
to keep this moving and get it hot. Make sure that pasta is nice
and hot all the way through. We are going to add a little more. A little more cheese.
A little more cheese. Because you can never have enough. Cheese, never have enough. Cheese. The other thing
you can never have enough of. Oh, I don’t know. Could it be a certain little Greek
butter butter. Baby. All right. So we’re going to add a little bit of butter
and we’re going to work that in nice. That’s just going to smooth it out
so nicely on this. It just it does it you know it
definitely adds viscosity enhance flavor. and it’s just the. Thing that it needs at the end. You know. Beyond that though, it’s a quick dish. When we really think about
putting everything together, it’s quick. Here’s the thing is that if you you could
you could make this awesome have soup one day and then the next day
you could turn that into a pasta. so yeah, there’s a ton of different. So it’s economical and it’s way too, because you could spread it out
across many different ways. And if you don’t like crawfish,
just use shrimp. Yeah. And if you don’t like shrimp,
use crawfish. If you don’t like either one of them,
use your favorite shellfish. Or. Fish. I mean, this could be really versatile
into several different dishes. I love that I’m going to turn this on.
It sounds good. And then I think we should grab
that beautiful bowl over there. Okay. Here. You want to bring it over on this side
here? Yeah, let’s do that. And then what we’re going to do is we’re just going to put that towel down there. And then I just like to start
in the middle. we’re going to build a little height. Yeah. And then what we’re going to do
is we’re going to grab a little more cheese. Oh come on now. And then we’re going
to grab a little more herbs. now you’re just teasing us. And then that’s that’s it. It’s simple. It’s easy
and straightforward. And most importantly, it’s delicious. It’s absolutely going to be delicious
because we have one dish done, but more show to go when we come back. How to make a meal with a mold
and stack it like a top chef ahead. And dinner is. Welcome back to dinner, dears. We’re cooking today with Chef
John Walker of the Tide Seafood Market and Provisions in Safety Harbor. Who’s with us today? Sharing his recipe for two dishes. New Orleans inspired seafood. Monica. And in a moment, a tuna tartare. Before the break,
we finish our seafood. Monica. It was that quick. We sauteed more garlic,
shrimp and crawfish and blended down our sauce from earlier in the show,
then brought it all together with our cooked pasta,
plus more cheese and more butter. Some fresh herbs bring it all together
for the perfect plate of seafood, pasta. And talking of perfect plating tricks, we’re about to learn some more
as we make a tuna tartare, this is really approachable,
Great way to have a nice light meal. All right. All right. So I put the tuna into a bowl. I’ve got some of our house
seasoning mix into that. Okay. I’m going to put a few sesame seeds first. I’m going to put a bunch of sesame
seeds in there. And then what we need is a little sesame
vinaigrette okay. That’s what we want to toast this with. And watch a video of that recipe. Find it on our website. [email protected]. all we’re really looking to do is coat
this. We’re not looking to make tuna soup
and cut by any stretch of the imagination. So we’re just going to take a little bit. And this is, fresh tuna never frozen. We buy, number one grade tuna. I’m going to put just
a little bit of avocado oil in. And again
avocado oil is a nice neutral oil. It just brings a little bit of fat
to this. It’s just kind of rounds the dish out a little bit. I’m going to put a glove on. Sure I may use a spoon. And I made it. All you did
when you brought any of those liquids again was just give you a nice clean,
but not to soak it. That’s it. That’s it all. Because what we don’t want to do is
we don’t want well, we’re going to press on it a little bit and we don’t want dressing
to go everywhere. So into the ring mold ring mold cookie cutter biscuit cutter. You could even actually do this
in a coffee mug. if you could get it in a coffee mug,
you’d have to start in reverse because you would end up turning.
You would just turn it over. So. So what keeps them from being able to just
kind of fall out or anything right now? So what we’re going to do
is we’re going to take this. Right. And so we’re just going to push it down
with our spoon. We’re going to push it
so that it fills that mold. And how important is it to just really gently go into it
versus like really like yeah. You don’t want to you don’t want to
put a lot of muscle into it. Because if you do, you’ll get dressing
that kind of comes around the side. And that’s you’re not going to make any. Friends that way. No, no friends want that one. You want the really the integrity
of this tuna to shine. So then we’re kind of put a little this is a half an avocado
that we’ve just smashed and put a little bit of our salt,
pepper and garlic mixture. So that SPG is coming back into play. Cheese and everything. It’s, it’s a mainstay in our kitchen. obviously we use salt and pepper
and garlic in different ways, but we do use it as a base
for all of our seasonings. Okay. And so I’m just kind of
working this around. And what’s the purpose right now of working it around like that
and taking so much finesse to get it. Just so that it’s a nice even layer. We don’t want to have it. sort of on and off. Yeah, yeah, it’s going to be it’s not going to be a perfect layer, but
it’s just a way to get enough to really. See. It. Absolutely. Right. Okay. so we’re going
to put a few cucumbers on top. And then I’m just going
to push that down as well. And then pickled onions. So pickled onions people get a little they get a little, confused how to make them super easy. So how is it super easy to you.
Can you do? All we did was we took, a red onion
and we julienned it, and you can see how much liquid is in here. Yeah, some of that does come off of the
the onion itself. But what we do is we cover it in
lime juice okay. And then season it with salt.
That’s simple. So it’s just those assets
that are really cooking it. Put it in a non-reactive pan, either
glass or plastic. Put it in the refrigerator overnight okay. It’s a done deal. So now is the great unveiling. So we’re just putting some nice even pressure. Oh look at that. Look how beautiful that. Looks at that. And I’m going to take this off. Wow. This right here
we’re going to garnish this. This is some beautiful microgreens
that we get from Brick Street Farms. Very cool, very cool. so we’ll put that on top. Very cool people. We’ve had them on the show here before. But they’re really great. All of our greens, all of our microgreens,
everything comes from them. And then we’re just going to garnish this
with some potato chips that we fry. And these are made
fresh in the restaurant. From potatoes. From potato, from potatoes. Just use the mandolin.
Just going from just. Slicing up some some thin slices. And then I don’t think I put this in
the recipe, but this is the X factor here. So this is pink
peppercorn black peppercorn and salt. And we’re just going to use this
as a garnish around the outside. Give it a little extra
seasoning on the chips. And then this is dinner. This is dinner for two
with a glass of wine. this is an appetizer. This is something you can start. You have a dinner party. Just something you can put out.
And it’s just that easy. It’s that. Quality. Tuna, ripe avocado, cucumbers,
some pickled onions. The easy recipe, the easy dressing. that’s all you need. It’s all you need. Because if you make this or the seafood
Monica for your dinner, let us know. You can email us dinner. [email protected]. That’s what Mary Beth. She’s watching this in Seminole. Hi, Mary
Beth. She saw my trip to Captain
Hubbard’s Marina, where we selected seafood together, and he shared his family
recipe for grouper. Mary Beth told us we decided to have grouper for dinner
after watching captain Dylan prepare his. The recipe was absolutely delicious
and the grouper was so tasty. We will definitely use this recipe again. Thank you both, Chef John. I mean come on now you’re getting grouper
in two at the restaurant. You got any other tips for Mary
Beth and others that are like, hey, I want to try grouper. And another way, we. Sell
a ton of grouper. And actually we were voted best grouper
sandwich in Tampa Bay last year by the Tampa Bay Times and Creative
Loafing, the Tampa Bay times. It’s voting time again now, so vote for us
for best grouper sandwich. Take that Creole seasoning. Whether it’s Saturn’s, Paul Prunes,
Black and Magic. Come to the shop. Buy ours. Okay. Season it liberally on both sides. Put it on the grill
about three minutes inside a brioche bun. Oh. That’s like the best black sandwich
that points it. Can’t wait for that one. But I cannot wait for these dishes because after the break, we’re taste
testing our seafood. Monica. And this tuna
tartare I had on dinner this. Welcome back to dinner, Diaz. It’s been another seafood
spectacular today with chef John Walker. From the Tides and Safety Harbor. There are seafood market and restaurant. Or as the Tampa Bay times
food critic put it, one of the best seafood restaurants around. Chef John’s been sharing
how to make two dishes a seafood Monica crawfish, shrimp pasta
and this tuna tartare, which, if you just tuned
in, you can make at home, chef John said. So he gave you the permission to do so,
and all you need to do is just watch the show again
at dinner date.com to learn how. So where do you want to go
on this journey to get it? We want to start with a tool to start
your smile. Just walk right up or you like. All right, let’s go right into it.
I love it. So I like to just get a little
bit of everything. Okay. Put it on my chip here. Okay. And you go straight down pulling all. Of get all of. It in that beautiful avocado mash
that is just sitting right on top of that tuna
that had that beautiful vinaigrette
that we made many of my fingers here. You’re going right in.
I love it, my friend. Go right ahead
I’m going to get that pickles right. That’s what friends do exactly. Oh yeah. Nice light bite. That vinaigrette that just is like the glue for it all
to kind of come together. It doesn’t take away
from the beauty of the tuna, but accentuates
all of that butteriness from it. That just beautiful
burst of just flavor. There. The creamy avocado. Oh, that a bite from the pickled onion. Freshness from the cucumbers. Everything’s working. And then a beautiful chip
that just sometimes just doesn’t get it. Just like their share of joy and love. Potatoes. It’s potatoes. Just potatoes.
Oh potato. Done right. That’s right. All right. Let’s see
what’s going on with the pasta. Now. And you know remember this can be done with all kinds of different seafood. But as it is done right now though I don’t know if I want any more seafood
because it is so good that. I’m back in. And there’s two ways in which that the
shrimp and the crawfish were celebrate it. Right. We started with using it
and then just blitzing it to create that beautiful sauce that then was
fold it back in with more of that seafood. And don’t forget
that sauce could be thinned down. We’ll add a little cream, a little sherry. You’ve got a great bisque. I mean that’s
that’s just sort of the basis of it all. And a great pasta
that just absolutely completes it. It just locks in all that
beautiful flavor. You know, we’ve talked a couple times, but if you start with great ingredients,
you don’t have to do a lot and season it. It needs butter. Let’s be honest. And everything else. A little butter butter a. Little salt and pepper, you know. But you start with great ingredients
and it doesn’t take much. None of the stuff that we did
today was overly complicated. It was simple. All the tools that you have at the house. Simple. Easy. Delicious I love it. So much fun
with you today my friend. Thanks again to Chef John. A link to the tides and his social media
channels are at our website. Com which is where you can grab the recipe
for the dishes we’ve made today I’m Jeff Philbin. Thanks for watching
and see you next time with more dinner is. This is good. This is really good.