CUCUMBER CAVIAR CANAPES
KEY PISCES INGREDIENTS: Cucumber, caviar

1/2 English cucumber
6 tablespoons sour cream
5 ounces caviar

Wash cucumber well. Do not peel. Diagonally cut cucumber into eight 1/8-inch-thick slices. Serve cucumber slices topped with sour cream and caviar.

SERVINGS: serves 4 as an hors d'oeuvre
TIME: 45 minutes or less
Note: Any leftover caviar can be used to creatively brighten up a number of dishes, from scrambled eggs to pasta.
 

SPICY PUMPKIN SOUP
KEY PISCES INGREDIENTS: Pumpkin

4 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 medium yellow onions, chopped
2 teaspoons minced garlic
1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
2 teaspoons curry powder
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
Pinch ground cayenne pepper (optional)
3 (15 oz) cans 100 percent pumpkin or 6 cups of chopped roasted pumpkin*
5 cups of chicken broth (or vegetable broth for vegetarian option)
2 cups of milk
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup heavy cream
pumpkin seeds (toasted) for garnish

Melt butter in a 4-quart saucepan over mediium-high heat. Add onions and garlic and cook, stirring often, until softened, about 4 minutes. Add spices and stir for a minute more.

Add pumpkin and 5 cups of chicken broth; blend well. Bring to a boil and reduce heat, simmer for 10 to 15 minutes.

Transfer soup, in batches, to a blender or food processor. Cover tightly and blend until smooth. Return soup to saucepan.

With the soup on low heat, add brown sugar and mix. Slowly add milk while stirring to incorporate. Add cream. Adjust seasonings to taste. If a little too spicy, add more cream to cool it down. Serve in individual bowls. Sprinkle the top of each with oven toasted pumpkin seeds.

*To make pumpkin purée, cut a sugar pumpkin in half, scoop out the seeds and stringy stuff, lie face down on a tin-foil lined baking pan. Bake at 350°F until soft, about 45 minutes to an hour. Cool, scoop out the flesh. Freeze whatever you don't use for future use.

SERVINGS: makes 8 servings
TIME: 30-45 minutes
 

AHI POKE WITH OGO (Hawaiian-style Tuna & Sea Lettuce)
KEY PISCES INGREDIENTS: Raw tuna, seaweed

3/4 cup ogo (seaweed) fresh or reconstituted
2 pounds ahi, cubed (tuna, sashimi quality)
1/4 cup chopped green onions
1/8 cup red onions halved and thinly sliced
1 tablespoon Patis (fish sauce)
1/4 teaspoon Sweet chili sauce
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
2 teaspoon sesame oil
1/16 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup crushed macadamia nuts
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup thinly slivered cabbage for serving

Combine ingredients in large mixing bowl. Chill for one hour. Toss again before serving. Spread a layer of cabbage to cover the serving platter. Spoon the poke on top and serve.

SERVINGS: makes about 4 servings
TIME: 15 minutes to prep. 1 hour to chill
Note: Ogo and fish sauce should be available at health food and specialty stores
 

Pink & Green Peppercorned Salmon
KEY PISCES INGREDIENTS: Salmon (fish in general)

1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
6 tablespoons salt
1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger
2 or 3 dried bay leaves
1 teaspoon crushed whole allspice
1 salmon fillet with skin (2 1/2 to 3 lb.; 1 to 1 1/2 in. thick)
About 1/3 cup mixed whole peppercorns (pink, green)
About 1/2 cup apple or hickory wood chips
1 tablespoon honey
2 or3 thin red onion slices
Dill sprigs

In a 1- to 1 1/2-quart pan, bring 1 1/2 cups water, sugar, salt, ginger, bay leaves, and allspice to a boil. Stir until sugar dissolves. Remove from heat and let cool slightly.

Rinse salmon fillet, pat dry, and lay flat with skin down in a rimmed 12- by 15-inch pan. Pour sugar-salt mixture over salmon. Cover pan tightly and chill fish at least 4 or up to 24 hours, occasionally spooning brine over the fish.

Mound 16 charcoal briquets on the firegrate of a barbecue with a lid and ignite briquets. Or turn gas grill to high heat and close lid.

Meanwhile, add peppercorns to enough hot water to make them float; soak at least 15 minutes. Also add wood chips to enough warm water to make them float; soak at least 15 minutes.

Drain fish and discard brine. Rinse fish with cool water and pat dry. Set fish, skin side down, on a large sheet of foil; cut foil to fit outline of fish.

Rub honey over top of fish. Drain peppercorns and pat evenly onto fish to set them lightly in place.

When coals are dotted with gray ash, in about 20 minutes, push half to each side of firegrate.

Drain wood chips and scatter 2 tablespoons on each mound of coals. For gas grill, put 1/4 cup chips in a foil pan and set over heat. Cover barbecue, and heat until chips start to smolder, about 10 minutes. Set grill 4 to 6 inches above the firegrate.

Place salmon on foil in center of grill (not directly over coals); if using gas, turn to lowest setting and adjust for indirect heat (parallel to sides of salmon, not beneath the fish). You’ll want to keep the cooking temperature at about 160 degrees.

Add wood chips as needed to produce a faint, steady stream of smoke. Moisture that accumulates on fish will evaporate. Cook salmon until a thermometer inserted in center of thickest part reads 140°, from 1 hour to 1 hour and 15 minutes.

Using wide spatulas, slide fillet with foil onto a rimless baking sheet, then slide fish from sheet onto a platter. Serve salmon warm, cool, or chilled.

Garnish with onion and dill. Cut fish across grain into wide slices or bite-size chunks; lift fish off skin.

SERVINGS: makes 8 to 10 servings
TIME: 15 minutes for marinade, 4-24 hours to refrigerate, 1-1/4 hour to grill
Note: The cooked fish can be prepared up to 3 days ahead; cover and chill.
 

Braised Endive with Garlic Cream
KEY PISCES INGREDIENTS: Endive

1 large garlic clove, minced
1 pint of non-ultrapasteurized heavy cream
salt
freshly ground black pepper
a few gratings of fresh nutmeg
2 tablespoons of unsalted butter
extra virgin olive oil
8 Belgian endives, any bruised outer leaves removed and the stem end trimmed, but otherwise left whole
5 thyme sprigs, the leaves chopped
3 tablespoons of freshly grated young pecorino

For Garnish: a handful of flat-leaf parsley leaves, lightly chopped

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. In a small bowl, mix the cream with the garlic. Season with salt, black pepper, and nutmeg and stir. Let sit, unrefrigerated while preparing the endive.

In a skillet large enough to hold all the endives in one layer, heat the butter and a drizzle of olive oil over a medium heat. Add the endives, the thyme, and a pinch of salt, and sauté the endives, turning them occasionally until they're golden all over.

Place the endives in a baking dish that will be used for serving. Make sure they fit them snugly (eight-by-twelve-inch ceramic dish recommended). Pour the garlic cream over the top, cover with aluminum foil, and bake for 45 minutes. Uncover the dish and spoon some of the cream over the endive. Sprinkle the top with the pecorino and put the dish back in the oven, uncovered; then bake until it is bubbling and the top has lightly browned, about another 15 minutes. Garnish with parsley and serve.

SERVINGS: makes 4-5 servings
TIME: 1 hour & 15 minutes
 

CANTALOUPE SORBET WITH MELON CONFETTI COMPOTE
KEY PISCES INGREDIENTS: Melon

2 pounds cantaloupe, peeled, seeded, cut into large pieces
1 1/4 cups Essencia or other sweet dessert wine
3/4 cup sugar
1 star anise pod* (optional)
1 cup 1/4-inch-dice peeled seeded watermelon
1 cup 1/4-inch-dice peeled seeded cantaloupe
1 cup 1/4-inch-dice peeled seeded honeydew melon
Fresh mint sprigs
*A brown, star-shaped seed pod available at specialty foods stores

Puree cantaloupe in blender. Add 1/2 cup Essencia and 1/2 cup sugar; blend until sugar dissolves. Transfer to ice cream maker; process according to manufacturer's instructions. Freeze in covered container.

Combine 3/4 cup Essencia, 1/4 cup sugar and star anise in heavy small saucepan. Stir over medium heat until sugar dissolves. Simmer until reduced to 1/2 cup, about 4 minutes. Chill until cold. Remove star anise from syrup. Add diced melon to syrup and toss gently. Scoop sorbet into glasses and spoon compote over top. Garnish with mint.

SERVINGS: makes 6 servings
TIME: 5-30 minutes for sorbet depending on machine instructions. Recommended several hours in freezer before serving. Allow 45 minutes to cook and cool compote.
Note: Sorbet can be made 1 week ahead. Compote can be made 1 day ahead.