Maritime Recipes

Cooking fish and the side dishes that go with a fish dinner (and, of course, dessert) is a fine art on the Mid-Atlantic coast. Learn more and try your hand at some recipes.

Chesapeake Rockfish Imperial
Janice Marshall, Tylerton, MD
Winner, 2004 East Coast Commercial Fishermen's and Aquaculture Trade Expo Recipe Competition

2 lbs. rockfish fillets
5 tbsp. mayonnaise
Appx. 3 tbsp seafood seasoning
1 lb. crabmeat
2 tbsp. flour
1 stick (8 tbsp)  butter
1 cup milk
2 tsp. mustard
salt and pepper to taste
1 cup crushed Ritz crackers

Mix together 1½ tbsp of seafood seasoning and 3 tbsp of mayonnaise. Spread on both sides of rockfish. Broil fish 4 minutes on each side. Set aside. In frying pan, melt ½ stick (4 tbsp) butter, add flour and stir until mixed. Add milk, stirring constantly until thick. Set aside and cool. When cool add mayonnaise, mustard, crabmeat, salt, pepper, seafood seasoning. Fold together. Place on top of fillets. Set aside. Melt butter in frying pan. Stir in cracker crumbs until coated. Sprinkle on top of fish and crabmeat. Bake at 350º for 35 minutes.

Crab Balls
From the Smith Island Cookbook

1 lb. crabmeat
3 tbsp. self-rising flour
1 egg
3 drops hot pepper sauce
1 tbsp. mustard
2 tbsp. mayonnaise
1 tbsp. seafood seasoning

Gently sort through crabmeat, making sure to remove any small pieces of shell remaining in the meat. In a large bowl, combine all ingredients, and mix gently until thoroughly blended. Form into balls. Deep dry until golden. Yields about 30 balls.

Sweet Potato Pie
This recipe and the following two are from Ramona Whittington of Crisfield, MD, who shared many more delicious fish, side dish and dessert recipes during the ten days of the Water Ways program in the Maritime Kitchen.

2 pie shells
3 large fresh yams
1 tsp. vanilla flavoring
1 stick butter, melted
Canned milk
8 eggs
1 cup sugar (or to taste)

Preheat oven to 350º F. On the stove, boil yams until soft in the middle. Remove skins and allow to cool, then mash them and set aside. Whip the eggs and set aside. With an electric mixer, mix yams, vanilla, sugar, butter, and milk. Pour mixture into one pie crust in a pie pan and cover the mixture with the second crust, inverted on top. Bake at 350º until a knife inserted into the middle of the pie comes out dry.

Rockfish with Crabmeat Stuffing

4 medium-sized fillets of rockfish (or any good white fish) seasoned with salt and pepper
3 ounces crabmeat or shrimp (preferably fresh)
¾ cup bread crumbs
½ cup chopped green onions
3 tbsp light olive oil or butter
salt and pepper to taste
dash of seafood seasoning

Preheat oven to 350º F. In a large bowl, combine crabmeat (or shrimp), bread crumbs, green onions and olive oil. Mix until combined. Lay out two of the rockfish fillets in an oiled baking dish. Pat crabmeat stuffing onto the fillets and then place the other two fillets on top, making two crabmeat-and-rockfish sandwiches. Pin the fillets together with toothpicks or skewers and drizzle with olive oil or butter. Season with salt, pepper and seafood seasoning. Bake at 350º F for approximately 15 minutes. Cut fillets in half and serve.

Creamed Cornbread

4 eggs
2, 8½ oz. packages cornbread mix
2/3 cup vegetable oil
2 c. milk
1 17 oz. can creamed corn

Preheat oven to 375º F. Beat eggs in a large bowl until frothy. Fold in cornbread mix. Add oil and milk and mix until smooth. Stir in creamed corn. Pour batter into a well-greased 14x10-inch baking pan. Bake 45 minutes or until golden brown and firm.