National Seafood Month recipes and seafood sources, celebrate by eating out or cooking in

Halibut with vegetables. Photo credit iStockPhoto license.

October is National Seafood Month and many restaurants are offering new and original seafood dishes on their menus. McCormick & Schmick, an upscale chain in the pacific northwest, has menu specials of their most popular seafood dishes. Red Lobster also has menu specials to please most seafood lovers.

For adventurous home cooks, several online seafood vendors serve up delicious varieties of fish and seafood dishes.  Amazon has a fish and seafood section with many well known vendors. Many seafood products, like Chesapeake Bay Crab Cakes, come already prepared, just heat and serve. iGourmet has one of the most extensive and highest quality selections of fish and seafood including salmon, crab, and caviar. Or opt for lobster flown in from Maine from Three Sons Lobster & Fish Company.

If your budget dictates a frugal seafood feast, try cooking a dish or two at home. If you're not lucky enough to live near a fish market, fresh and frozen seafood are available in most grocery stores. Larger chains like Walmart and Costco offer live lobsters.

If you're not up for the adventure of dealing with a live lobster, shrimp, white fish like halibut, and oysters are excellent choices for a fish fry. For restaurant quality results, try coating your fish and seafood in a store bought tempura batter before frying. And serve up some hush puppies on the side, see recipe below. For cooking tips and recipes, check out the demonstration videos below.

Gulf Coast Hush Puppies

1 1/2 cups white or yellow cornmeal

1/2 cups flour

1 tablespoon sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon chili powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon onion powder

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1 egg, beaten

3/4 cup milk

1 cup bacon grease or oil

Sift dry ingredients together. Add egg and milk and stir to combine. Heat bacon grease in a sauce pan until bubbly hot. Drop tablespoons of batter into hot bacon grease, frying until golden. Drain on paper towels. Serve hot to a hungry cowboy or a couple of ranchers’ babies.

Hush Puppies were originally made from leftover cornmeal and fed to herd dogs’ puppies to keep them from whining for their working mothers.

Recipe courtesy of 'A  Cowboy Cookin' Every Night Southern Style' by Carol Bardelli, available soon in .PDF format.

John Chase shows you the simple way to prepare a flavorful fish, cooked perfectly in a frying pan.

Chef Daryl Mickler is one of the nation's foremost experts on seafood. As the Senior Executive Chef for Red Lobster. he's also seen the surveys showing that many people find cooking fish at home difficult and even intimidating. No need to fear! Chef Mickler is here to show America that cooking seafood at home can be simple and fun.