How do you ever wondered if you can save leftover seafood? Maybe you have some shrimp leftover from a party, or you have leftovers from a seafood boil. In today's episode, you are going to learn how to best store leftover seafood and how to reheat it. I have the biggest seafood guru I know, Christina from the Weekday Pescatarian on to chat and share her best tips with you.
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Here is a transcript of the interview
Eric: All right. I am super excited today to talk about leftover seafood and I have Christina from the Weekday Pescatarian here with me today. So, welcome to the podcast.
Christina: Oh, Eric, it's so great to be here.
Eric: We had her on back in the winter, that was January, February. I can't remember offhand, talking about seafood from Aldi and I love talking to her about seafood. I love her passion for it. So we brought her back on. And today we're going to talk about leftover seafood. But first, for those who don't know you, please share who you are, where you are currently residing and, what is a weekday pescatarian?
🐟 What is a Weekday Pescatarian?
Christina: Awesome. Well, my name is Christina Jolam and I'm a seafood focused recipe blogger. My website and all my recipes can be found at the Weekday Pescatarian. So about two and a half years ago, I moved to a seaside town in Portugal. I was already a pretty adventurous eater and a confident cook, but I really wanted to learn more about seafood.
So I started eating a pescatarian diet Monday through Friday. to really push me to try new seafoods and expand my fish IQ. So I started that as a 30 day experiment and I've just never looked back. So that's how my blog, Weekday Pescatarian, was born. So over there I share easy and impressive fish forward recipes from all around the world that hopefully inspire us to add a seafood dish or two to our weekly rotation.
Eric: That is great. Like, it's not really a diet per se, but more of like a lifestyle thing, but you could, I could do this here. It's not like you're having to pull out a whole page full of rules or something here.
It's like. Eat seafood on weekdays. Boom. Got it. So that's pretty easy.
Christina: Exactly. And really, pescatarian is kind of like a plant based diet that, that's supplemented with seafood. So I do eat vegetarian during the week as well, but it's just taught me so much about seafood. And it's just so much fun to do. So yeah, it's stuck, the lifestyle stuck around for sure.
Eric: Yes, definitely. And you know, there's so many different types of fish. I mean, you know, we all eat one type of chicken, you know. There's, you know, I felt like there's not as much like variation of chicken. I mean, dark meat, white meat, you know, wing, breast, you know.
But we're not eating like different, like, all there are different species of chicken, of course. I don't, you know, you don't go to the store and sah, Hey, I'm buying a, I don't know, I can't think of a chicken species here right now.
📅 How Long to Keep Leftover Seafood
Eric: So today, yeah, we're talking about leftover seafood.
Um, I think people, hear those words and some maybe going trembling in fear right now thinking like we can't eat leftover seafood here. Um, so you're here to tell us that yes, you can eat leftover seafood. Um, but first of course it starts with, You gotta store the seafood first. I mean, so for it to be able to be a leftover, so I thought we should kick it off by talking about what kind of , storing tips can you share for leftover seafood?
Christina: Yes. Um, I do have a few. So I think once you've cooked your seafood, whether that's, you know, white fish or salmon or tuna or, you know, shrimp, some kind of shellfish, you really want to put that into an airtight container. And we think, a lot of times, Oh, like that fishy smell. I'm going to try to keep it in the container and not, you know, let it spread in my refrigerator, which is true.
But actually a lot of times, what you're trying to do is. Protect your fish from absorbing other odors in the refrigerator. And so putting it into an airtight container, as opposed to, you know, slapping some plastic wrap over it is going to be your best option. So my personal rule of thumb is I can store cooked seafood for two to three days.
The USDA does say three to four days, and I am not arguing with them, but I'm just telling you that kind of my personal rule is, I've got a three day limit.
Of course seafood doesn't last that long in my house. So that's not an issue. But uh, yeah, three days is usually, two to three days is going to be my limit for how long I will keep seafood, cooked seafood, in the refrigerator. And then my last kind of food storage tip is is kind of a general food safety note, and that is you really want to refrigerate your seafood within two hours of cooking.
So, um, If you leave it out for more than two hours before you're able to put it back in the refrigerator, I would go ahead and toss that, as painful as it is. So, say if you've got a big tray, you've got a party going on, you've got a big tray of shrimp cocktail, chilled, sitting out with cocktail sauce or creamy sauce, if that sits out for more than two hours, you've got to toss it.
And so my preference at this point would be to do a smaller tray and put out what I think people are going to eat right now and then refill it as necessary, but keep that refill jar in the refrigerator so that you're not having to throw away, um, any of your seafood. So those are kind of my top storage tips for getting your seafood to last till leftovers.
Exactly.
Eric: Yeah. And that's a really good tip, you know, with not putting too much out at once here. It's, you know, , better to just take the extra effort. You know, we want to have like this big, huge portion of the thing, but sometimes it's better to just take the extra effort here so you don't end up, um, wasting food for sure.
I think generally with fish and stuff here is like, I don't think it takes too long for it to really, you know, cool down. As opposed to like, you know, you're not talking about taking a huge roast that you carve some pieces off and put that in the fridge and wait for that to cool down.
Like fish, I think seems to cool down prettyquickly. Um, so it's not like an issue of like, Oh, I need to get the thing cooled down into the fridge. Like most of the time, that's one thing too, is you don't want to put something that's piping hot into your refrigerator and ruining everything else you got going on.
Um, so I think it tends to get cooler faster.
Christina: Exactly. The same, the same thing that makes fish such a beautiful, quick cooking dinner option is also what helps it cool down quickly, which is it doesn't have those muscle fibers that something like a chuck roast or like you're saying a prime rib, like you, you don't have that connective tissue and the muscle fibers that those types of proteins have and so it's going to cook much faster and it will cool faster.
🔥 How to Reheat Seafood
Eric: Exactly. Alright, so now that we have, we have our seafood now, we have safely stored it here, and it's the next day. Um, so what are some reheating tips that you can employ that will still make your seafood, um, tasty?
Like putting leftover fried fish in the microwave isn't really my fave thing to do in the world here. Um, so, uh, what are some of your tips then?
Christina: Yes, so this is probably one of the most asked questions I get on the blog and I try to include some information on every seafood recipe, um, about how to reheat. But I'll give you some general rules.
So my general rule of thumb on reheating fish is that you want to heat over a low temperature. Kind of think of it as a gentle rewarming.
We're not trying to blast this. We're not charring anything on the second go around. We want to do this as gently as possible and really until it's just heated through something like, you know, chicken thighs, super forgiving. You can, you can blast it. You can do it slowly. Like it, it's a very forgiving type of protein. With fish, with seafood in general, you want to be very gentle when you're reheating things.
So think about low heat. My personal rule of thumb again, is you reheat seafood one time. So let's go back to you know, you've made a big batch of fill-in-the-blank seafood. Maybe you baked a whole side of salmon and you ate half of it. Now you have half of the side of salmon left. So for my next meal, if I'm gonna heat it, I'm just gonna pull out what I need for that meal, gently reheat it, leave everything else in the refrigerator.
So once I've reheated it once, then I'm going to toss, you know, whatever leftovers I have. Um, for like a breaded, like you were mentioning a breaded or a battered filet, baking in my mind is your best option in the oven, you know, around 375 just until heated through.
If you have a convection setting that can help with crisping both sides of your battered filet. But again, you don't want to blast the heat at it.
For an unbreaded fillet or, say, shrimp, I really like using just a simple sauté pan. Drizzle a little olive oil or a little bit of stock if you're going low fat. And then put the cover on. Put it on medium low. Heat it until it's kind of sizzly. Check it for temperature.
💡 Tips for Microwave
Christina: And you should be good to go. As you mentioned, microwave just as a rule is not my favorite option for reheating any kind of seafood. I know if you're taking, you know, your delicious leftovers to work, that's, you know, they probably don't have a sauté pan and a stovetop for you, so a microwave just is what it is.
If you absolutely have to, I would recommend using like a half power setting, like a 50% power and, you know, do it for maybe 90 seconds and then check it and see how much warmer it needs to get. Microwaves are notoriously uneven heaters. And so, you know, part of your fish fillet could be a rubber band and part of it could still be pretty chilly.
So just be mindful of that. If you have a different option, I would take a different option.
Eric: I think it's good pointing out that the half power said, I think people don't even realize that button is on the microwave. Like if I'm melting butter in a jar or something , like we, we have like a jar that we attach a lid to that we use for popcorn. So I will try to use the half setting at that point.
So I don't end up like shattering my jar. So that is, that is definitely a good option. You know, if you have to use the microwave, you can reduce it. So you're not getting kind of blasted with things. Um, so yeah, these are all really good tips. If we have leftover fish, which isn't too often. But like we went to a catfish place in Tennessee. Pigeon Forge. We had some leftover catfish, so we just did ours in our air fryer. Um, And then we do a lot of like reheating in the air fryer as opposed to the microwave.
In the market for a air fryer? Check out our episode on Why Dual Basket Air Fryers are the Best!
Christina: That, that's a great point. So I don't right now have an air fryer. I am exploring it. My tiny European kitchen would have to, you know, I'll have to take a few things off the list to fit an air fryer, but I think it is a great option. And so an air fryer, my understanding is it's essentially a small convection oven.
So if you have an air fryer, yeah, putting something that's been breaded into the air fryer as a chance to reheat it is, I think, a great option. If you have a convection setting on your oven, it's going to do the same thing, especially if you put that on, say, a rack over a baking sheet and put your breaded filet or your breaded shrimp on top of that and set your oven to convection.
It'll have kind of the same effect. So yeah, I'm glad you brought that up an air fryer is a great option for rewarming fish as well.
Eric: Exactly. And you brought up a good point that, that that's really what an air fryer is. It's just a convection oven, but done in a smaller space. So I think it's more effective that way. I've used bigger air fryers than the one I have. And like, it doesn't do as good of a job. So like, that kind of smaller space is kind of the key for that.
Christina: And I suspect you're saving money and not heating your entire house also with an air fryer
Eric: That is a good point too. And me, who lives in a camper who has a broken oven, doesn't have the oven option anyway. So your fryer is, is my option. Um, which is, which it works out better anyway, cause, um, RV ovens are notoriously like the worst ovens in the world.
Christina: Okay. Good to know.
🥣 How to Repurpose Seafood Leftovers
Eric: All right. Um, so the last thing I want to look at here is, you know, you got these leftovers here, you know, we can just reheat them here, but do you have any kind of like, fun, repurposing kind of ideas you could share.
Christina: Yeah, absolutely.
I think if you've been on Weekday Pescatarian, you probably already know that I'm obsessed with sauces, and I think that they're one of the easiest ways to take kind of a ho hum protein and turn it into a restaurant quality meal.
And so, if you have leftover fish, especially something that was really simply prepared, maybe simply baked or, um, grilled, adding a new sauce to it on day two, whether that's you know, a Creamy Lemon Dill Sauce or kind of a sweet spicy Mardi Gras mustard or like a, a hot Cajun Shrimp Sauce over your, your grilled fish filet or shrimp would be really delightful and take minimal effort. Um, so even like while you're, you're gently reheating your fish filet or your shrimp, you could be whipping up that sauce.
Another, option that I like to use with repurposing fish is to take a fillet or like a whole side of salmon that's a leftover and kind of flake it up. So just changing the presentation. So instead of just serving the fish on the plate, now I'm going to flake it up over a grain bowl or a big salad.
Or if you like chowder, I love making like a great seafood chowder. I've got a recipe for lobster chowder on the site. Well, lobster is really expensive, but guess what? Flake up some white fish and add it to that instead of lobster. And now I've got an amazing, you know, fish chowder. Um, and it will serve a lot more than, you know, if I've got two leftover fish filets, you know, I can feed a crowd with that.
So it's not just a way to save, you know, your leftovers, but also a way to really save money and make that stretch further. Um, and then another tip I have on leftovers is to really use some go to flavor combinations. So, I love experimenting with new flavors and textures when I'm making seafood, or really any dish.
But if I'm focused on using up leftovers, and I'm wanting to make sure that the people I'm feeding will also enjoy the leftovers. I really want to make sure that I'm using flavor combinations they love. So say if you're cooking for a fam, your family, and you are, you know, y'all love your taco Tuesday flavor combinations.
You know, take your leftover fish and flake it up and serve it in taco shells or wrap it in flour tortillas and bake it off in the oven with some salsa for enchiladas. If you love, you know, pizza Fridays at your house and you've got a little pile of leftover shrimp from last night's dinner, chop up your shrimp and add it to like a simple white sauce pizza.
There's so many different ways that you can repurpose and really stretch those seafood leftovers in a way that keeps them tasting delicious and fresh, but different than when you had them the first night. So those are some of the tips. And I think, you know, like you said, Eric, there's, Lots of fish that you could just reheat and eat exactly like you did the first day.
🗑️ How to Reheat a Seafood Boil
But if you're really looking for some new and interesting ways, I think those are, those are some great ones. And then the last point I wanted to make is seafood boils.
You just mentioned that you've been down in the South. Of course, seafood boils are a big deal.
Eric: Oh, absolutely.
Let Christian show you how to reheat a seafood boil.
Christina: A big deal. And one of the most popular, uh, articles on my site is how to reheat a seafood boil.
Because so many people make, either make a big seafood boil at their house or they go out to eat at one of these, um, seafood boil in a bag places and , you know, you're looking at this bag that's full of shrimp and maybe crab legs and potatoes and corn on the cob and you're like, what am I going to do with this?
But also it's so expensive. Why would I throw that out? So, um. Yeah, reheating and repurposing a seafood boil is literally one of my favorite things. So, you know, cut the corn off the cob, dice up your potatoes a little bit finer. You can even dice up your shrimp, you know, some of them, not pescatarian, but some of them use sausage.
You could dice that up. You can make a lovely... Brunch hash with that and put a couple of fried eggs over it. You can mix it in with scrambled eggs and make a great frittata. Um, you've got options for reheating that on top of the stove. If you just want to have a seafood boil on day two, you can put it in a little foil pack and put it in the oven and kind of heat it over a low heat.
So there's lots of great options, but I would say a seafood boil is one of those things that can be a little bit tricky because you have so many different elements of it. But, uh, you've really got some great options for reheating and repurposing that one as well.
Eric: Oh, definitely. I don't know if you ever, if anyone had ever tried like reheating corn in the microwave, it like takes forever. Like
Christina: What is that? Is there some weird density issue?
Eric: it. I think there is. Yeah. Cause it's so dense here.
Like, I cut it off the cob so that it doesn't take you like, you know, 10 minutes to reheat corn, you know, because it was just going to take a lot longer. If you're reheating the whole boil together in a microwave with the corn and potatoes, then the seafood is going to reheat really fast.
And it's just, you're going to have like, Oh, I'm going to have a cold bite of corn. I'm going to have like some, know, some fish jerky at the end of it here. So yeah, that, that is definitely a good one here. So that's a great idea to kind of like maybe divide and conquer the boil in different ways. That's really good advice.
Christina: Exactly.
🍴 Seafood Recipes
Eric: Well, thank you. Lots of really great ideas. Um, hope, you know, this encourages people that have leftover seafood and end up throwing it out most of the time, that there's some hope. There's a, there's a lot of really, really cool things you can do. And Christina has had so many great ideas and if they want to get more of these great ideas, um, where could they find you online?
Christina: Sure. Well, you can find all of my recipes at Weekday Pescatarian. I'm also super active on Pinterest and really all the other socials at Weekday Pescatarian.
So on my site, if you sign up for my weekly email, you'll be the first to get all of the new recipes that hit the blog. And you can also hit up the contact page on my website and send me any of your burning seafood questions, because whether it's leftovers or storing seafood or whatever, I'm, I'm really happy to help.
It's something I'm super passionate about. So shoot me a note and I will reply.
Eric: Well, thank you so much for once again being on our podcast. And so for you guys to know, here's a little like preview here. We're going to be doing a special series, with Christina on how to successfully cook seafood in different ways. So we're going to be covered grilling, baking, cooking on the stove top.
So that is something to be watching out for. We're going to be publishing that down the road, as a new monthly series. So, I'll be looking forward to those conversations. So great having you today. Thank you.
Christina: Pleasure to be here. Thanks, Eric.
Here are some recipes to check out -
Add a sauce! If you have leftover fish and want to serve it in a new way, make a simple sauce that changes the flavor.
Flake it up! Changing the presentation of the fish by flaking it over a big salad, a grain bowl or into a soup or chowder not only gives you a brand new dish, but it also helps stretch your leftovers to feed a crowd.
- Creamy Fish Pie
- Mediterranean Tossed Salad (add flaked salmon or leftover shrimp)
- Herby Pasta Salad with Feta and Walnuts (add leftover shrimp or fish)
- Seafood Chowder (add leftover fish, shrimp or lobster)
New ways to serve leftover seafood:
White fish:
Salmon:
Shrimp:
- Fried shrimp
- Pizza
- Ceviche (works for octopus, too!)
Seafood Boil:
- Make breakfast hash
- Add to Quiche
- How to Reheat Seafood Boil
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