Top 124 Quotes & Sayings by Tom Douglas - Page 2

Maybe there are too many restaurants. Maybe some of mine need to close. So be it. I'll live with the market place.

It's always a good idea to chill your crab cake mixture for a few hours, or even overnight, before frying because they'll hold together better.

I was once made honorary mayor of my hometown of Newark, Del.

A chunk of seared albacore tuna, salted and peppered, then seared rare in a little oil in a hot skillet for just a minute or so per side, is the perfect addition to a savory plate of fried rice. Just slice the tuna across the grain and fan those mild, meaty slices over the top of the rice.

Often we eat squid fried, so it's fun to grill it for a change. To grill squid, slice the cleaned bodies open into two flat pieces and thread them, along with the tentacles, onto skewers, then grill quickly over a direct fire with the coals as close as possible to the grate, turning the squid several times.

One-pot meals make a lot of sense... because so much of what people hate about cooking is really the cleanup, the mess, the grease.

Razor clams are large, oblong clams, although not as big as geoducks.

I didn't go to university. I didn't go to culinary school, barely made it through high school.

Every chef has his treats. By that, I mean bits and pieces from things you're working on - crusty little cake trimmings, ends from a brisket, collars from a salmon, scraps. But they're snacks to me, and I eat them right off the cutting board - maybe too much.

I particularly like to make crunchy slices of garlic bread to serve with steamed clams.

The state of Washington calls tips 'wages.'

The two things that are going to make you a better baker without even trying are a scale and a thermometer in your oven.

Salsa verde is delicious with trout or most any fish.

Farm to table is a personal choice.

I'll never understand those greasy little deep-fried wings most bars serve.

Catfish's mild taste adapts well to a wide array of flavors, especially strong assertive ones, which is why you used to see it 'blackened' Cajun style on so many restaurant menus - a trick which soon became a tired cliche.

Ling cod is a mild-flavored and somewhat delicate fish that takes well to poaching, braising and pan-roasting.

Spanish chorizo is a spicy cured sausage that's especially tasty with clams.

Summer in Seattle allows me to indulge in some of the region's top culinary delights - I'm talking about wild king salmon and fresh, ripe Washington stone fruits and berries like cherries, peaches, plums, and blueberries.

Support a small chef. Not these big chains... but support the people who are out there trying to do things right and working hard to do that.

My longtime friend Steven Steinbock, who has worked with me for more than thirty years, is a master at panfrying fish and seafood.

Around the time I opened my second restaurant, Etta's, I had just finished judging at the Jack Daniels World Invitational BBQ Championship in Lynchburg, Tennessee. Back home in Seattle, my goal was to recreate the sweet and smoky taste of that BBQ using our local wild king salmon instead of pig.

We've become such a restaurant society.

It's just an American tradition to make sure people don't leave hungry. The worst thing is to have them say, 'Great dinner, but now I have to go get a burger.'

I can't believe how many people don't have time to cook but have time to watch football and 'The Voice.' They're certainly making a choice.

I think you owe it to your kids to teach them how to cook - you know, self-survival.

My wife and I decided to try and kick start our kitchens to a $15 minimum wage for cooks. I've probably had to go through and raise every menu price now by 50 cents because it took away my profit. I just underestimated what it was going to cost.

If deep-frying catfish, try a dredge of seasoned flour and cornmeal and add some bacon fat to the oil.

Most of the catfish you find at the fish counter has been farmed. Though I usually prefer to buy and eat wild fish, farmed catfish taste cleaner, without the muddy taste of their wild relatives.

Spooning a seasonal fruit relish onto a plate of grilled king salmon is very much my style - flavorful, straightforward, and unfussy. I also like the way fresh, ripe fruit balances the richness of the salmon.

The key to great fried squid is 'flash-frying' in hot oil for only a few minutes, which keeps it tender.

Thanks to the abundance of shellfish in Puget Sound, Washington State is the largest oyster producer in the country.

After being cooked, ling cod tends to bleed out some moisture, so, before serving, let it rest a few moments on a plate. Once the moisture has been released, you can carefully pick up the fillet with a slotted spatula and transfer it to another plate for saucing. This way, you won't sog out your beautiful sauce.

Albacore tuna has a mild flavor that's delicious served raw or seared briefly on the outside so that it's still rare on the inside.

Oysters, such as Dabobs, Quilcenes, Westcotts, and Willapas, to name just a few, are often named after the place they are harvested.

Steaming is a great way to cook any firm fleshed fish, but it's often overlooked by the home cook.

Most of America doesn't pay dishwashers $10.

In my 'Big Dinners' cookbook, I recreated my mother's recipe for crab dip. The creamy dressing for this dip, made with mayonnaise, tomato paste, a touch of honey, sliced chives, lemon juice and zest, horseradish and Tabasco, is reminiscent of Thousand Island dressing.

If you're going to start a fire, why cook just one chicken?

Who doesn't love digging into a plate of crab cakes or going after a chilled cracked crab with crab cracker, cocktail fork and a plastic bib for protection?

I don't ever preach to people.

Sweet Washington cherries and Walla Walla onions are two of my favorite local treats.

If you want something beautiful to put on the dinner table, pick up a sockeye, the salmon species with the most vivid red flesh.

If you don't have the confidence in baking, commit to making the recipe three times. The first two, do it exactly the way I've told you to make it. Twice. The first time you'll screw it up. The second time it will come out pretty good, and then the third time, make your adjustments.

I'm just sick of food going in the garbage.

Some of the best things you do are the things you don't do.

One of my favorite ways to eat albacore is tuna poke.

Tender and sweet, Manila clams partner well with a wide variety of foods - white wine, sake, beer, butter, leeks, fresh herbs, roasted peppers, olives, and wild mushrooms, to name a few.

The lakes in Washington State give us tons of crawfish.

Catfish has a nice firm texture and mild flavor.

Over the years I've tweaked my stuffing recipe many times, adding a variety of ingredients like sauteed wild mushrooms, dried cherries, fresh chevre, toasted hazelnuts, chopped ham hock meat, and other taste treats.

My favorite way to cook trout is whole, bone-in, on the grill. The fish are stuffed with sliced lemons and herb sprigs, brushed with oil, and cooked over fairly hot coals until the skin is crisp and the flesh is moist and flaky. Go ahead and gild the lily by adding a sauce.

I'm not exactly the best capitalist ever.

To shuck oysters, you'll need an oyster knife, a handy tool with a sturdy handle and a short, rigid blade which you can pick up for about ten bucks in a kitchenware shop or fish market. A quick trip online will yield any number of videos and slide shows with step-by-step instructions on how to shuck an oyster.

I don't know too many kids who ask to weed the garden.

If you just feel lazy and don't want to cook, then don't cook.

I don't answer my phone in a restaurant.

Cooking with your kids is a remarkable exercise to let them in on the purchasing part of the process - kids love to shop, and its great to take them to these ethnic places where people don't always speak the language.

The simplest way to prepare Dungeness crabs is to boil them in the shell and set them in front of your guests with crab crackers or crab hammers, cocktail forks, and plenty of napkins.

In some cities, McDonald's rules, but Seattle is ruled by teriyaki joints.