Meal ideas - How do you cook your catch?

I’m a terrible cook and one of my biggest challenge is coming up with ideas. I catch mostly salmon, crab, and rockfish, and I have a BBQ and Traeger.
I’m not looking for recipes, but more general ideas. Please tell me what’s your favorite way to cook your catch and what do you serve with it?

Mine might be: Salmon on the grill, mashed potatoes, green beans

If you have fish or seafood, what are you making?

I struggle to grill fish so usually avoid it, but something I should probably get better at. It just always seems sto stick and fall apart.

White fish ideas:
- Bread and bake - I like a panko/parm mixture, also using a mustard to get it to stick to the fillets is nice.
- This is another really good one that is baked: https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/roasted-nicoise-salad-with-halibut-green-beans-potatoes-artichoke-hearts (I omit the olives. also some of the timing is off, recommend using your best judgement there)
- Pan fry and make tacos
- Deep fry and make tacos
- Add to a thai style curry in chunks
- Bake or pan fry and add a cream/lemon sauce.

Salmon:
- whole fillet, cover in pesto and bake or put on grill in a tinfoil boat
- Variation of above but with chimichurri
- Variation of above but thin sliced white onions and thin lemon slices
- For "lesser salmon" and Kokanee - Chop up and make burgers or cakes (lots of spins on this)
- Miso-yaki salmon (think black cod marinade but with salmon: https://onolicioushawaii.com/misoyaki-butterfish/)

Crab:
I dont get that much crab so I usually just eat it straight from the shell, but i have also picked crab and used it to make sushi rolls, cakes, mix in eggs, etc.

something I added to my mix recently is putting a miso glaze on salmon fillet and cooking it in either an air fryer or small oven.

my glaze is basically 3 equal parts of:
1- white miso (Trader Joes has it, grocery stores usually have it in the produce area, it lasts forever in the fridge).
2-  low sodium soy sauce or coconut aminos (lowest sodium possible because the miso is salty), or ginger/soy dressing (like Neuman's).
3- honey, flavored honey, blackberry/huckleberry jam have been my favorites, just needs to be something thick enough to not make the glaze too runny plus add some sweetness and flavor.

I start with about a tablespoon of each item and then add as needed, if it needs to be thicker (miso) or thinner (#2), and sometimes I add some wasabi.  Make enough to cover the salmon plus have some left to dip in.  Spread the glaze in top of the salmon, it needs to not just run off the top, and cook at 320 to 350F to your normal internal temp. 

 

We like to marinate salmon overnight in a mix of sauces (wife takes care of that part) and then grill it on a cedar plank. It is delicious and the same dish at Ritz-Carlton restaurant in downtown costs $120

For Chinook I like to switch it up between:

Salt/pepper on the grill or broiled
Miso glaze under the broiler
Kinder brand Caramelized Onion Butter seasoning on the grill

But my favorite is to make poke.  I advise doing your own research to become comfortable as far as making your salmon suitable for poke, but I vacuum seal and freeze for sufficient time/temp, thaw, cube, marinate, eat.  Basic marinade for 1 lb of cubed salmon is 1/4C soy sauce, 1tsp sesame oil, 1 tsp rice vinegar, then add flavors/seasonings to your liking (e.g. garlic, ginger, chili, etc).

For Kokanee I mostly like to smoke them after 1-2 days in a wet brine, but also very good blackened with seasoning like lemon pepper.

I know you didn't ask for recipes, but this is one that the wife and I both enjoy and to be perfectly honest I am not a huge salmon lover but gobble this one up. It's more for the stovetop than the grill, but regardless figured I would share.
https://therecipecritic.com/wprm_print/marry-me-salmon

We typically pair it with rice or pasta depending on the mood.

Grilled Fish Tacos -
    2lbs Rockfish, Cabezon, or Lingcod fillets
    marinate for 30 min in...
    Juice of two limes
    1/4 up neutral oil (vegetable, peanut, canola oil)
    1/2 t ground cumin
    1/2 t ground coriander
    1/2 t paprika
    1/4 t cayenne pepper
    1/2 t salt
    1/4 t black pepper
    Grill until done, serve with cabbage, avocado, salsa, queso
 

Crab recipe - Singapore chili crab style
     Remove legs from the live crab (see video at bottom of post)
     Separate each leg by cutting it from the leg bracket.  Be sure to include the body meat on each leg.
     Give each leg segman a quick crack by hitting with the backside of you knife.  You don't want to go completely though, just cracking it to make eating easier later and to allow some of the sauce to penetrate while cooking.

     Ingredients:
         2 crabs cleaned as above
         Ginger paste:   
                5 garlic cloves minced
                1 in fresh ginger minced
                red chiles (to taste) minced
         Sauce:
               3 T ketchup
               1 T Siracha
               1 tsp salt
               1 T light soy sauce
                1/2 C chicken stock

         Other:
              Green onion finely chopped
              1 egg beaten
              2 limes (one juiced, one cut into wedges)
              1/2 C corn starch
              2 T C cooking oil

 Toss the individual legs in corn starch to coat.
 
 Add oil to hot pan, toss in crab legs
 Cook on both sides nice and red and starting to brown on edges.  About 3 min
 Add ginger paste, fry until fragrant, about 1 min
 Add sauce, cover and cook for 2-3 more minute
 Remove cover, add egg, lime juice, and green onion
 Gently fold crab into the rest of the ingredients
 Garnish with lime wedges
 Serve over rice


How to clean live crabs...

 )

Rockfish spend their whole lives in saltwater which means that the worst parasite expected is anisakis.
That said, any of the fish can be treated by flash freezing.

If the previous sentences didn't indicate it, I like eating fish raw, and Rockfish are an excellent species to practice with since flash freezing is only helpful for the anisakis.

The firmer fleshed ones like blacks are excellent if aged for longer periods, a week in good condition, which really pumps up the umami taste.

For any fish intended for raw consumption/aging you definitely want the right prep gear, including something to pith the fish with as well as break the spinal nerve. Saltwater ice or segregated cooling is also important for cooling the fish without promoting bacterial growth.

Additional techniques are applicable as well such as kombujime, or using moisture absorbent sheets to concentrate the flavor and retard the bacterial spoilage.

Those pichitto sheets are great for sashimi - improved texture and flavor for sure.

I'm allergic to crustaceans so I will skip the crab part.  I am pretty basic when cooking fish. Rockfish, perch, greenling, and lingcod  we do egg wash with Panko or other bread crumbs and pan fry in butter. Serve with lemon and tartare. Usually we have potatoes and a garden vegetable. We just had tuna, new potatoes, and broccoli. The potatoes cry out for a glass of milk.

When it comes to salmon we either bake it or barbecue it on a Weber with alder chips. We used to do the same with tuna but have switched to pan frying now.

Any leftover fish can be substituted for a meatpatty on a hamburger bun.

These are all great, and much different from what I normally make.
Had salmon with rogerdoger's miso glaze on Friday....so good.
Thanks to you all for the ideas!

I'm with you on this, Chris.  I like the taste of fish so I don't add much to it.  I stopped using Panko crumbs because I kept burning them - definitely operator technique on that - and switched to a mix of 3/4ers whole wheat flour and 1/4 baking powder.  The baking powder adds crunchiness and that mix is harder to overcook than Panko.

I'm allergic to crustaceans so I will skip the crab part.  I am pretty basic when cooking fish. Rockfish, perch, greenling, and lingcod  we do egg wash with Panko or other bread crumbs and pan fry in butter. Serve with lemon and tartare. Usually we have potatoes and a garden vegetable. We just had tuna, new potatoes, and broccoli. The potatoes cry out for a glass of milk.

When it comes to salmon we either bake it or barbecue it on a Weber with alder chips. We used to do the same with tuna but have switched to pan frying now.

Any leftover fish can be substituted for a meatpatty on a hamburger bun.