1. Hollandaise Is a Takes no Prisoners Type of Sauce
Some find the rich flavor of hollandaise magnificent, others find it dull. It is the perfect accompaniment for seafood dishes. For those of us who require some "kick" to our sauces, there are lots of options. For those of us in a hurry, one of those options is the grocery store package variety found in those little red or yellow envelopes. So as not to be labeled a quitter, let us at least make an attempt at a real one:

Hollandaise Sauce
Yield: 1-1/4 cups

4 egg yolks
1 T. cold water
1 T. lemon juice
1/2 cup whole butter, melted, cooled to room temperature and foam skimmed from top
salt & pepper to taste

Directions: Beat egg yolks, water, & lemon juice until thick and lemon colored. Set into double boiler over barely simmering water. Heat and whip 2-3 minutes until warm not hot. Remove from heat. While constantly whipping egg yolk mixture, add 2 T. of the melted butter at a time. When all the butter has been added, continue to whip for one more minute. Add salt & pepper to taste. Good with chicken, vegetables, and seafood.

Professional Tip: Because Hollandaise sauce contains eggs that are barely cooked, like many other egg dishes you run the risk of spoilage. To be safe, serve hollandaise within 1-1/2 hours of creation.

Variations:

Food Processor Blender Hollandaise
Yield: 1-1/4 cups

4 egg yolks
1 to 2 T. lemon juice
pinch white pepper
1/2 cup hot melted butter

Directions: Blend egg yolks, lemon juice, and pepper in food processor or blender at high speed for 30 seconds. While still blending, remove cover of blender or open lid to processor and add melted butter a drop at a time. As mixture thickends, you may increase the flow to a thin stream of butter. Always serve hollandaise within an hour and a half.

Hint: Do not chill homemade hollandaise. If you do, you will chill the butter in the sauce and therefore harden the sauce.

Hollandaise can be changed by adding different flavorings:

Béarnaise Sauce: To one recipe of Hollandaise add--1/2 tsp. each of tarragon and chervil, pinch of cayenne. Good with broiled meats.

Figaro Sauce: To one recipe of Hollandaise add by whipping into the Hollandaise 1/4 cup tomato puree or 1 T. tomato paste. Good with chicken, seafood, and vegetables.

Maltese Sauce: To one recipe of Hollandaise whip in 2 T. of orange juice concentrate. Good with seafood, vegetables, chicken, veal and pork.

Professional Hint: Orange juice is not the only possibility. You might find other concentrated juices a wonderful flavor that tickles your pallet.

Mustard Sauce: To one recipe of Hollandaise whip in 1 T. of Dijon style mustard. Good with steaks, pork, chicken, green vegetables, and shellfish.

Redi-Base Sauce: 1 tsp. of any Redi-Base flavor whipped into your Hollandaise sauce will liven up your dishes. Example: Adding Seafood Redi-Base, dill, and a dried seafood seasoning to your Hollandaise will give spirit to your seafood dishes.

And for those of us with little patience, no time, or just not in the mood...get that little package from the grocery store and make any one of the changes we have talked about. There is no law that says all your creative cooking needs to be homemade.

Hollandaise Sauce Partners from Hope

2. Summer Seafood Dips
After a while, you get pretty tired of serving onion dip with everything. It's going to be summer soon, why not try something that is "swimmingly" good.

Clam Dip
Yield: 8 oz.

4 oz. softened cream cheese
4 oz. sour cream
2 tsp. Clam Base
1/2 tsp. Worchestshire Sauce
1 small can of chopped clams, completely drained

Directions. Whip above ingredients in mixer, except for clams. Fold in clams and serve with chips, raw vegetables, etc.

Variations: Substitute Shrimp, Crab, Lobster or Seafood Base for the Clam Base. Match with canned crab meat, salad shrimp or flaked smoked fish.

3. Seafood Soups & Chowders Any Time of Year.
The only thing that seems to be a certain about chowder is that is probably started with fish. We think the term comes from the French (chou'der or Chaudiere meaning pot). Unlike other culinary recipes, chowder recipes didn't show up in print until sometime in the 1800's. And of course, leave it to us.....we have, in many cases, taken out the seafood and put in our own variations, such as vegetables, chicken, and even meat.

What is wonderful about chowders is they are filling enough so that you can have a chowder and a salad to make a perfect spring/summer/fall meal. You still get the veggies you need along with a few potatoes and a protein in a smaller portion. Leave out the cream and you wind up with a dinner that might even help you keep a few pounds off to boot!

For those of us that can't get away from the grill duing the summer months, pre-cooking fish/seafood on the grill before adding it to your chowder gives it a little different flavor then just dealing with "poached" fish.

The History of Chowder

Seafood Chowder Recipes by Species of Fish

Try This Vegetable Chowder

A Wealth of Chowder Recipes from SoupSong

Variations on the Vegetable Chowder. Add cooked or grilled chicken or grilled pieces of beef.

4. Clamming Up!
I like clams on the 1/2 shell. I know there are a lot of you out there that think I'm taking a chance, but eating clams is like anything else....your nose--knows! There is also a way to keep clams longer so that I can enjoy this indulgence at my own pace. Freeze them whole. The shell of a clams is a very protective casing. Wash the clam, make sure his shell is tight (he is still alive) and freeze the little guy. When I'm in the mood, I take a couple out of the freezer and allow them to thaw. When they thaw, their shell pops open and they are ready to go. Someone get me the horseradish!

West Coast Razor Clam Preparation

Methods of Clamming

Top Clamming Destinations

5. Keeping Up With the Best Seafood Info--Is it Fresh?
How can you figure out if the fish is fresh? The fish's eyes should be clear and bulge a little. Only a few fish, such as walleye, have naturally cloudy eyes. Whole fish and fillets should have firm and shiny flesh. Dull flesh may mean the fish is old. Fresh whole fish also should have bright red gills free from slime. If the flesh doesn't spring back when pressed, the fish isn't fresh. There should be no darkening around the edges of the fish or brown or yellowish discoloration. The fish should smell fresh and mild, not fishy or ammonia-like.

Seafood Nutrition Chart

A Guide to Fish & Shellfish

Getting a Seafood Education

The Center for Food Safety & Applied Nutrition

Consumer Seafood Information

6. Market Watch...Going Shopping?
Dairy:
Heavy milk supplies continue to spur strong cheese production and cheese inventories are building. Seasonal trends predict that the low cheese prices should endure into next month. The butter market is depressed. Cream supplies have tightened over the past two weeks as diary production increased for the spring, but butter stocks remain ample. Butter prices are expected to remain attractive for the next few weeks. Take advantage of these good values!

Seafood: Fresh:
Cold temperatues continue to hamper salmon farming in the Northeast. The "super-chill" devastatiion has lessened supplies. This factor accompanied with heavy Lenten season retail activity is propelling the whole salmon market to its highest levels since October. Whole salmon prices could be volatile over the next few weeks. South American swordfish and tuna are still high priced due to bad weather and tighter supplies. Scallop prices should lower soon since as of March 1st harvesters are back to a full amount of days allowed at sea. Most other seafood species are moderately priced, especially since it's the middle of the Lenten season.

Seafood: Frozen:
Take advantage of the ease and convenience of frozen seafood during the month of March - National Frozen Food Month! Retailers should be running some decient specials even if we are talking about Lent....when supplies get a little tight and prices have a tendency to rise.

Meats:
Beef:
Prices on round cuts are down this week - excellent values! Middle meats are steady to higher. If demand continues to be steady, prices will trend up over the next two weeks. Looking further ahead, the percentage of choice cattle vs. select/no-roll will be smaller. This will put more pressure on the choice middle meats and prices will continue to trend up.

Pork Ham prices are still high going into the Easter holiday. Loin prices are still a bargain.

Chicken: Market is Steady

Lamb Prices on domestic lamb are very high going into the Easter holiday. Legs are about $.70 per pound higher than at Easter time last year.

Veal Market is Steady.

Produce:
Onions: Deficient onion stocks continue to drive the onion markets higher. U.S. onion shipments fell 25% last week, but Mexican shipments are on the rise which could bring some market relief shortly. Still, overall expensive onion prices are liable to endure into the spring.

Tomatoes: The tomato markets have reached their highest levels in eight weeks. Tomato supplies could remain limited cand costly through the end of the month.

Spinach: Prices are holding steady; hoever, there may be quality concerns on babjy spinach. Harsh weather conditions have damaged some of the young, tender leaves. It is also the transition period from one growing region to another. This may affect upcoming prices.

Pears: Green Anjous from Washington are still around. Sizing is heavy to large and prices are steady. Good quality with firm fruit and good sugar content.

Broccoli: The broccoli market is steady with no serious quality issues to be aware of. Supplies are starting to build which should help to keep market conditions steady.

Cauliflower: Lighter volume is keeping the market active and prices are unstable. Warmer weather has brought product on early which is resulting in generally lighter supplies.

On the Rise: Cucumbers, extra large bell eppers, spring mix and red potatoes.

Holding Steady: Grapes, bananas, mushrooms and celery.

Fat Free Soup Mix
2 cups powdered skim milk
3/4 cup cornstarch
1/4 cup Vegetable Redi-Base
2 T. dried onion flakes
1 tsp. basil, dried
1 tsp. thyme leaves, dried
1/2 tsp. pepper, ground

Directions: Combine all ingredients, mixing well. Store in airtight container until ready to use. To substitute for one can of condensed soup, combine 1/3 cup of dry mix with 1 1/4 cups cold water in a saucepan. Cook and stir until thickened. Add to your casserole as you would canned products. You vary these by adding muchrooms, or minced celery, etc.. 1/3 cup mix has 93 calories, 0.1 g. fat., 0.1 g fiber. Makes 1 Cup Soup.

This is what we found.

1. Mix 2 Tablespoons of the Fat Free Mix for every cup of stock in your soup. Example: If your soup calls for 4 cups of stock, use 8 T. of the mix.

2. Also, pre-mixing the Fat Free Dry Mix with cold water wasn't necessary. Remove some of the broth from your soup. Allow it to cool a little in a bowl and whip in the dry mix. We didn't have a problem with lumps....probably because of the dry milk in the mix. It might have a tendency to keep the cornstarch separated.

3. If you are making a casserole that calls for a can of condensed soup.....double the mix. Example: Calls for one can of Cream of Mushroom Soup. Make 8 oz. of stock and thicken it with 4 Tablespoons of the Dry Mix. (Make the stock, take it off the stove, add the dry mix and whip. Put it back on the stove and allow to come to a boil to thicken. Take it off the stove and use it in the casserole.

4. We found this stuff pretty fool-proof. We also made the mix with the other dry bases, such as the Mushroom and the Southwestern Base. Because the Very Low Sodium Bases are in a granular form, they worked equally well in the mix. Also, we varied the seasoning alot. We used everything from garlic granules and basil to give it a pesto flavor to our rubs like the lemon pepper which mixed well in chowders.

5. You don't need to add any of the seasoning when you first make the Fat Free Mix. We also left it with just the cornstarch and the dry milk. This gave us the option of adding any flavor as we went along in the recipe.