Until recently, I had no idea what XO sauce was; I only knew that I loved it. (To get the Beyoncé puns out of my system from the top: I loved it like XO.)
I love this Ecuadorean addition of salty, crunchy popcorn to ceviche. Shrimp "cook" in the lime juice particularly well, although I have made this with firm-fleshed white fish as well as dry scallops. Ceviche is, of course, all about the freshness of the fish—so make sure that whatever you use is as fresh as you can get it.
A couple of years ago, my husband and I went to Portugal with friends. We traveled all over the country, and often for lunch, we found small, family-run restaurants where the husband fished, and the wife made a stew out of whatever was fresh-caught that day. These were some of our favorite meals—super fresh seafood prepared simply in a flavorful broth. Seafood stew made at home has since become one of our favorite suppers. Served with a green salad, a loaf of rustic bread, and lots of wine, this stew makes for a homey dinner with friends.
Tasty, tasty, tasty! Dashi often sounds like such a daunting task, however it is actually fairly quick and simple to make. It takes longer to source the ingredients than to make it! What a simple and delicious meal this is. I'm already looking forward to having it again.
Growing up in Scotland, the long summer days of my childhood were often spent fishing salmon in the fast-running local rivers with my grandfather. When I was young, we'd cure the fish and serve the it thinly sliced atop crisp green lettuce and cucumbers freshly picked from the garden.
I had a delicious calzone topped with a balsamic roasted cantaloupe and arugula at Portland's Oven and Shaker recently. I had never had nor thought of roasted cantaloupe, but it was surprisingly good -- it still tasted like melon, but deeper and almost squash-like. I knew I wanted to incorporate it into a sweet and savory dish, but I didn't have much direction.
This simple technique is a big change up from ordinary grilled fish. It produces a moist fillet with a hint of smokiness in 10 minutes. Note that the recipe calls for a charcoal grill, but you could use a gas grill outfitted with a smoker box or foil packet for the wood chips.
"This recipe is from my Seaward Inn Cookbook. My husband loves it so much that I am putting it on-line to reference while travelling. I serve it with egg noodles. The Seaward Inn is a lovely place in Rockport, MA, that we visited each summer while the Campbell family owned it. Great food and ambience!"
The trick protects your fingers from ever having to navigate the spice zone, even giving you a convenient handle on the stem end. It's also quite easy to do and makes your prep so much faster. And it naturally separates out the seeds, leaving them behind on the grater,
This recipe has nothing to do with barbecue. These shrimp are cooked in a roasting pan, not in a smoker or on the grill. Cooked in their shells with more pepper, garlic, and butter than you are probably comfortable with, the shrimp come out ready for you to peel and eat. Sop up every drop of the sauce with good French bread and make sure you have extra napkins.
This is a gorgeous hors d'oeuvre I've adapted from Weber's Art of the Grill. The original calls for a lot of garlic and dill to flavor the shrimp. I've reduced the garlic, added lemon zest, and replaced the dill with mint (the garden variety spearmint, which is growing rampant in my side yard). The salty prosciutto makes a great foil to the sweet shrimp and mint. I love these best at room temperature—the salt from the prosciutto is tempered just slightly, so the other flavors really sing. I like the presentation with one shrimp per skewer—but two per skewer works as well. I like to Microplane the garlic—it quickly and easily turns into a paste. The fussiest part of the dish is the prosciutto—I invariably end up with little bits that don't want to stay attached when I cut the prosciutto in half or when I wrap the shrimp. Good thing they fry up nicely and make a great garnish for salad, scrambled eggs, and even pizza!
