No agenda of ‘eat more fish!’ here. I just like fish. I think it is a really clean canvas on which you can create myriad flavors. The flavors range from saline-clean to oily-‘fishy’ and a broad range in between that some try to force in to the category of ‘meaty’ or ‘steak-like’ which is mostly a marketing tool to all of us fat-XXX Americans to try and get us to buy fish. DISCLAIMER: DO NOT MISTAKE FISH FOR STEAK AND DON’T BE DUPED BY THOSE THAT ARE SELLING THAT BUCKET O’ GARBAGE!!!
Off my soapbox. My new reality involves a small child and trying to feed them what I feel is acceptable cuisine while not making 2-3 meals every night to please everyone who lives under this roof. I refuse to be Mac-and-cheese Dad or anything vaguely resembling that. That is not a slight at those who take this route. I simply feel that I have been given different gifts and if this is mine, my child is going to benefit from that or at minimum, experience it, if only to rule it out for future consumption. I may not be able to teach them prudent investment techniques or how to maximize their taxable income but I can make 2 star food out of 1 star provisions.
So I recently made butter crisped mahi-mahi. Ground bread crumbs, salt, pepper for the crust. Melt 2 to 1 ratio of butter to olive oil over medium high heat until the butter solids just start to turn brownish and develop that toasted flavor. Add coated fish and sear to seal in moisture. Turn, allow to brown and then place in 200 degree oven to hold until everything else is ready (and to finish slowly cooking through so you minimize moisture loss)
I wanted to use this a a collection point of simple fish/seafood recipes that will feed your children and wow your friends alike.
In the future, I will give more detail for:
BBQ Swordfish or Mahi-Mahi
Lemon-butter Seared Trout
Pumpkin seed crusted Salmon
Honey/Citrus/ Rosemary Grilled Salmon
Fennel dusted Shrimp
Cornmeal Catfish (which I know everyone and their mother will give their recipe for….fine…I am listening 
)
Maybe more…this is off the top of my head. Enjoy.
BBQ Mahi or Swordfish: Take the same spice rub you use for your brisket or pork shoulder and tweak it to have a little less sugar and a little bit of dried chipotle or smoked paprika. Rub flesh side of fish and grill over charcoal. Really prefer Mahi for this….
Trout: Heat pan and add 1 TBSP of unsalted butter. Let butter cook over medium heat until foamy and solids are just starting to brown and develop nutty smell. flour dust trout and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place flesh side down in pan. Sear until edges are golden brown. When golden, squeeze the juice of half lemon in pan and allow to reduce/infuse for 15 seconds. Flip fish and finish cooking through, skin side down. Plate over brown rice and drizzle sauce over all of it. Advanced version has the inclusion of thyme leaves and cold butter to the sauce after the fish is out of the pan. beurre blanc-ish….
Pumpkin seed crusted Salmon:
Save your pumpkin/squash seeds. Toast them in the oven. Grind them in a spice grinder into at least a powder or at a minimum to the point of coffee grounds. Add a pinch of salt and black pepper. Source Salmon filets with skin-on. Coat and rub flesh side of salmon with Pumpkin seed mixture. Sear over medium heat to brown the pumpkin seed crust. Turn skin side down and sear or place in oven until salmon is medium (10 minutes in 350 degree oven). Serve with white wine butter sauce or great as-is.
Honey/Citrus/ Rosemary Grilled Salmon
Marinate salmon filets in 1/2 cup orange juice, 1 TBSP of fresh rosemary, 2 TBSP of honey (salt and pepper) for no more than 4-6 hours. Grill flesh side down on medium heat for 2-3 minutes to make nice grill marks. Turn and place over indirect (covered) heat for 10-15 minutes until cooked medium. Sprinkle sea salt over top to serve.
Last of the list of fish/seafood items. The first here may be my favorite and one one my more original creations (history will prove me wrong but I hold on to the dream):
I should have titled this “Fennel seed and Coriander dusted shrimp” but alas, I am hasty, an obsessive worker, a husband and a father.
This is an item where simple is good, slightly more effort is REALLY good.
For simple: Toast (or microwave [you will ever-so-rarely see me use the word ‘microwave’ so this is your chance to use that flavor-alteration device for good]) a teaspoon of fennel seed and a 1/2 teaspoonof coriander seed for a few minutes in a sautee pan or 15 seconds in the microwave. (the act of toasting is relative. Your goal here is to make the oils in the seeds dance. Heat does the trick, no matter the conveyance). Grind those in a mortar and pestle with salt and black pepper to taste. Sprinkle over shrimp (preferably no smaller than 19-25 count:see note at bottom). Toss with olive oil to prevent sticking on the grill and grill until pink. Eat quickly as shrimp are terrible heat insulators.
Note: shrimp counts are done by how many it takes to make up a pound. The lower the number, the bigger the shrimp.
Catfish- part of me doesn’t even want to write this recipe because there are strong social, regional and economic stigmas that are tied to catfish. Some passionately bullish, some passionately derisive. I honestly don’t have time for that. Only time to cook, so here we go.
Take your bone-out catfish filets and soak that in a mixture that is 1 part milk, 1 part buttermilk. The milk serves to leech out the strong flavors, the buttermilk to tenderize and add acidity to the flesh.
Dredge in a mixture of 1 part fine cornmeal, 1 part coarse cornmeal, 1 part flour and a healthy TBSP of black pepper (salt to taste).
Fry, in medium high oil (just enough to half-cover the fish, flesh side down, until just golden. Turn, kill the heat and wait 2 minutes. Remove from pan and serve. Preferably with bacon-laced greens, fried okra and a spicy chipotle pepper remoulade that is a lot like a smoky, spicy tarter sauce.