If you want to serve something amazing to someone special, you need to put this on their plate. Crab-Stuffed Lingcod is tender white fish stuffed with a fresh crab mixture and topped with a delicious garlic cream sauce.

Crab-Stuffed Lingcod

Crab stuffed lingcod combines the delicate yet flavorful lingcod with the saltiness of crab. Of course, anything stuffed with crab is bound to be good. In this case, lingcod, which normally feasts on crab in cold waters, gets stuffed with crab in a wonderful seafood dish.

Lingcod are bottom feeders, but since they are saltwater fish they lack that sort of “muddy” flavor of freshwater bottom feeders like catfish, for example. In fact, lingcod has a very delicate and non-fishy flavor. It cooks quickly and takes on the flavors of the crab perfectly.

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What actually is a lingcod?

A lingcod is actually neither a ling or a true cod. It just happens to look like those fish so it picked up the name due to its resemblance. The lingcod also goes by “cultus” and “buffalo” cod and is part of the greenling family.

Sometimes the lingcod has slightly blue flesh. More than a few amateur anglers have actually tossed this delicious fish out because they thought that the fish had gone bad. Actually, that is natural and not a problem at all.

As soon as the lingcod is cooked, even if the raw flesh is really blue, it will turn white.

The lingcod grows to about five or six feet long and fishermen love battling them because they are known for putting up a great fight.

One reason lingcod are ideal for stuffing with crab is that lingcod eat crab naturally. So, part of the delicate flavor of lingcod actually derives from crab being part of their diet.

Crab stuffed in lingcod cooks quickly

Most crab meat, unless you actually caught the crab yourself, is pre-cooked. Even if you caught the crab yourself, chances are likely that you also quick boiled the crab meat to make sure it doesn’t go bad.

Crabmeat spoils very quickly in the shell if you don’t cook it. So must crab fisherman actually make a point to cook the crab the same day they catch it.

In the case of stuffing crab in lingcod, this offers a lot of conveniences. Because lingcod tends to cook very quickly, especially over a hot grill, the crab meat just needs to be warmed to the same temperature the fish arrives at when it is cooked.

Just remember, lingcod is pretty easy to overcook and dry out so watch out for that. Fortunately, the lemon butter sauce can help hide some of that issue if you do let it sit too long on the heat. Just don’t rely on it completely.

However, try to just cook the stuffed lingcod to the point where the flesh is just starting to flake. You can tell it is pretty close when the flesh turns a shiny opaque white. This shows your oils in the fish are hot enough and it will even almost have a sort of translucent look on the edges of the fish.

What other kinds of fish can I use if I can’t find lingcod?

Lingcod is certainly less expensive than many other options, though not necessarily all. Other types of white fish that work exceptionally well include halibut, Dover sole, and cod like black cod.

Also, you don’t necessarily have to use a white fish. Salmon is another option too. Salmon has a much different flavor profile than any of the white fish options, of course, so make sure to take that into account.

The lemon cream butter sauce goes well with any of them. The sauce is actually so delicious you may find yourself wanting to spoon it up as if it were soup.

Can I make this on the stove or oven?

If you don’t have a pellet grill, you can totally make this easy fish recipe in the oven. Just preheat your oven to 350° and bake in there instead of on the grill. It’ll be missing a little bit of that live-fire flavor, but it’ll still be delicious.

What kind of appetizers work well with lingcod stuffed with crab?

Lingcod stuffed with crab, accompanied with the lemon cream sauce, looks elegant and tastes like something you find in a fine (and expensive) seafood restaurant. If appetizers will be served too, then something equally upscale might be the plan

This doesn’t have to mean time-consuming, expensive, or inconvenient. I have a few suggestions that I think make this dinner earn the right to be called fine dining.

• Caprese salad with balsamic reduction – Chances are the same fancy place serving crab-stuffed lingcod or halibut offers a Caprese salad as well.
• Fried wontons – You can do so much with wontons and you only need a few per person to make them an ideal appetizer
• Coleslaw with vinegar – This might not sound as fancy but coleslaw certainly tastes great with fish and crab