Coleslaw, tarter sauce and cocktail sauce: Fish and chips essentials

While quality fish fillets and fresh potatoes are the key ingredients to “fish and chips,” a good side of coleslaw and generous amounts of homemade tarter and cocktail sauce are essential to completing a fish dinner.

Coleslaw, a popular dish with early American settlers in New England, is a staple at fish and chip restaurants. There are two common recipes for coleslaw when served with fish, and both are delicious.

Coleslaw, cocktail sauce and tarter sauce are fish and chips essentials.

Capt. Mike Brouillette, who owns and operates the Papa B, has a tasty vinegar and oil-based coleslaw he perfected when he ran a barbecue catering business before he jumped full-time into the charter boat industry. Mike combines shredded cabbage with red wine vinegar, olive oil, garlic salt, oregano and black pepper. Delicious with fish and chips, Mike’s recipe also goes great with barbecued chicken and tri-tip.

Capt. Mike Brouillette’s coleslaw recipe is simple and delicious.

Capt. Mike’s Coleslaw

2 1/2 cups shredded cabbage

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 teaspoons red wine vinegar

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1/2 teaspoon garlic salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

Simply mix the ingredients and serve immediately. While some coleslaw recipes taste even better when prepared well in advance, the vinegar-based recipe is best served within minutes after it is prepared.

Capt. Mike’s Coleslaw goes as well with fish and chips as it does with chicken or tri-tip.

Another popular coleslaw recipe includes a combination of cabbage, carrots, onion, mayonnaise and buttermilk. The favorite coleslaw recipe of Capt. Andy’s wife, Sarah, tastes best when prepared several hours before dinner so it has time to soak up the flavors of its numerous ingredients.

Sarah Martin’s favorite coleslaw recipe pairs perfectly with fish and chips.

Traditional Coleslaw

4 cups finely chopped cabbage

2 tablespoons finely chopped carrot

1 tablespoon finely chopped yellow onion

1/4 cup mayonnaise

2 tablespoons sugar

2 tablespoons milk

2 tablespoons buttermilk

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

1/4 teaspoon salt

ground pepper, to taste

Mix the ingredients in a large bowl, cover and refrigerate for at least 6 hours. Tastes even better when refrigerated overnight. Stir a few times, if possible.

Traditional creamy coleslaw is a staple with fish and chips.
Homemade tarter and cocktail sauce are much better than any store-bought sauces.

Capt. Andy’s homemade tarter sauce is much more delicious than any store-bought sauce, and is quick and easy to make.

Tarter Sauce

3/4 cup mayonnaise

1/2 cup finely chopped dill pickle, or dill pickle relish

1/4 cup finely chopped white or yellow onion

2 teaspoons chopped capers

2 teaspoons Dijon mustard

2 teaspoons lemon juice

salt and pepper to taste

Combine the ingredients in a bowl and stir well.

The simple ingredients for delicious homemade tarter sauce.

Cocktail Sauce

Mix 1/2 cup ketchup with 1 teaspoon extra hot horseradish (ground horseradish, not creamy horseradish sauce). Add salt, pepper and several squeezes of lemon juice. Mix well. For hotter cocktail sauce, add a little more horseradish.

To catch a limit of rockfish, lingcod or halibut to go with these great coleslaw and tarter and cocktail sauce recipes, visit www.brookingsfishing.com for fishing charter information.

Grilled Rockfish and Shrimp

By Capt. Andy Martin – The mild flavor of Oregon Coast rockfish makes it a favorite for fish and chips and fish tacos, but it’s also amazing when combined with large shrimp or prawns, marinated and grilled. This is the perfect recipe when you want to enjoy rockfish or lingcod without frying it, and want to impress your dinner guests. Grilled Rockfish and Shrimp is flavorful and healthy, and sure to become a favorite way to enjoy freshly caught rockfish, or when clearing the freezer to prepare room for a future fishing trip.

Grilled Rockfish and Shrimp, served with rice.

Some remote Alaskan and British Columbia fishing lodges use this recipe to prepare rockfish, lingcod or halibut for their guests. It is easier than it may appear, and uses a simple mixture of ingredients. The fish is marinated by itself for an hour, and then another 15 minutes with the shrimp. On the grill, the fish is cooked for 10 minutes or less.

Grilled Rockfish and Shrimp is marinated in a simple mixture of soy sauce, cranberry juice, lime juice, garlic, sugar, red pepper flake and olive oil.

Grilled Rockfish and Shrimp

Ingredients

2 to 3 rockfish fillets, cut in half

6 to 8 large shrimp, shell on

1/4 cup soy sauce

1/4 cup cranberry juice (orange juice may be subsitited)

1/4 cup olive oil

Juice from one lime

2 garlic cloves, chopped

1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flake

1 tsp sugar

2 stalks green onion, chopped, for garnish

Mix the soy sauce, cranberry juice, lime juice, olive oil, garlic, sugar, and red pepper flake and place in a baking dish to marinate. Marinate the rockfish for one hour, then add the shrimp and marinate another 10-15 minutes.

Place the rockfish on a hot grill and cook for 5 minutes, allowing the fillets to get grill marks.

After turning over the rockfish, add shrimp to the grill and cook another 5 minutes.

Garnish with green onion, serve with rice or pasta.

Marinate the rockfish fillets, first, for an hour and no longer than 2 hours.
After marinating the fish for an hour, add the shrimp and marinate another 10 to 15 minutes. Don’t marinate the shrimp too long, as the lime juice will cook them, similar to ceviche.
Grill the rockfish first, for around 5 minutes, allowing them to get deep grill marks. Turn the fillets over and add the shrimp, cooking the rockfish and shrimp for another 5 minutes.
Grilled Rockfish and Shrimp is delicious, and healthy.

To catch a limit of rockfish on the Oregon Coast, check out our half-day fishing charters. Customers keep the fish they catch, and our crew fillets them back at the dock. For information, visit www.brookingsfishing.com.

Rockfish are fun to catch, and taste great on the grill. Pictured are a canary rockfish and vermillion rockfish caught during the summer of 2023 on the Dash of Brookings Fishing Charters.