Last night I was laying on my couch with my cat. I was feeling a bit bunk and kind of zoning, when I noticed the look my cat was giving me. She was totally saying "Why don't you blog?" I said "Don't judge me cat, I am busy/tired/full of other excuses." "You know you like taking food pictures and writing about stuff you make, and admit it, you miss the camaraderie of your fellow bloggers - they get you." "Fine! I will do a post tomorrow, I promise." "Okay...sure you will..." Take that sceptical cat! I'm posting! Anyway, this post is not about my bossy cat, it is about lobster.
I have a job where I occassionally benefit from perks. Most of them are wasted on me. Box seats to a hockey game - meh, an afternoon of golf - pass, but a while back we (my brother, dad and I) had a 30 lb box of lobster given to us. It came off the east coast dock Sat morning, boiled and packed, and arrived in our hands just in time for an amazing feast of a dinner. You can see the original haul at my brother's blog. It was the best day!
My brother and I sacrificed our fingers and foraged for all the remaining meat we could. You can see he made lobster rolls as well and then pasta. I did rolls and made a stock that I intend to use to make bisque.
The first thing I thought was "What kind of twist should I incorporate into my rolls?" I did some internet research, and then reconsidered. This was the best lobster I had ever had by far - why hide that - just go with it plain and simple! Here is all you need:
- shredded lobster (keep some of the bits in big hunks)
- a spritz of fresh lemon juice
- mayo (less is more, the lemon juice really makes it seem like more)
- a little finely diced celery
- some mixed greens for colour (I went with arugula and spinach from my garden)
- hot dog buns
I couldn't find the kind of top load buns I wanted, so I got large normal ones and trimmed off the edges. The toasty buttery outside of the bun is really a key part of the experience. Butter the outside, toast the buns, fill with some greens and top with a lobster salad of the remaining ingredients. Heaven! It amazes me sometimes how the simplest things, if made with real quality ingredients, can be the best. Yes, I ate both rolls myself :-)
Thursday, August 4, 2011
Lobster Roll
Saturday, October 9, 2010
Salmon Salad
I still exist! I'm going to go ahead and assume most of our readers have jumped ship under the assumption that we did. I'm still here, still cooking and baking, still eating, just have not been posting thanks to my little one's need for attention and her love of my laptop (I need to keep it hidden or risk losing keys). This is an oldie from the summer, but I wanted to pop something up during nap time so that I can try and get back into blogging. Nothing fancy, just took some leftover BBQ salmon (BBQ'd with butter, lemon and dill) and flaked it on top of spinach and mixed salad greens from my garden. I added some dried cranberries and goat cheese because I like adding those to most salads, and then topped with a quick balsamic dressing. Yay for posting! I hope to keep it up over the next little while again since I have realized a few recipes I use a lot need to be added.
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Prawn Sandwich
Dear British Soccer Fans,
I don't know why I am supposed to feel dissed when you call me a "prawn sandwich eater." I get that it basically means I am hoity toity, but really, who wouldn't want to sit in the nicer seats at the game, and more importantly, who wouldn't want to eat prawn sandwiches. Prawns are delicious. I think I will make myself a prawn sandwich right now.
Sincerely CourtJ
I seriously eat tons of prawn sandwiches. I always keep frozen uncooked prawns in the freezer because they take seconds to defrost, and so I can make myself a meal that feels fancy - because it has seafood in it - without having to do advance planning. For me a prawn sandwich is made up quite a lot like a tuna sandwich. I make up a "salad" with the prawns, some finely diced onion, peppers and mayo, and then layer the salad with other fixings to make an open faced sandwich that I warm up. Today's had goat cheese, finely sliced tomato and avocado. It's nice that something so easy to make can feel like such a treat!
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Seafood BBQ
Sum-sum-summertime is here! Well, not really, but that's what it felt like today, and a perfect sunny day on a weekend is a magical thing. I took the little one for a walk, and other family members spent the day doing yard work. I had flipped through one of our many Jamie Oliver cook books the other day and decided that a nice thing to do this evening would be to do a big seafood cook-up. Sadly, the fire ban that is on here prevented me from doing it on the fire pit, but the BBQ worked out pretty well.
I have one of those BBQs with a side burner, so on that I fryed up some potatoes in duck fat. It was nice to have something a bit heavier to go with the seafood since it is pretty light. I also served it with pita and tzaziki. Cooking up all this seafood was pretty much guess work. I did some red snapper, live muscles, shrimp and some pre-cooked crab. I heated up the BBQ to high, and put the snapper in a BBQ "basket" so that I didn't have to worry about it flaking through the grates. Next I did the muscles in batches in BBQ baskets as well, and right at the end I threw the shrimp on and the crab legs to warm.
To dress it all, I threw on some knobs of butter with lime zest and juice, a finely chopped chili and some garlic.
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Marc's Creamy Salmon Miso Soup
I have been dreaming of this since I saw it 9 months ago on No Recipes. Mine doesn't have the lovely glistening fat that Marc's does, since it is so difficult to find salmon belly in land-locked Edmonton (and I didn't bother making the trek to any specialty shops to check for it). Still, it was ridiculously good and 
incredibly simple to make. I luckily had most of the ingredients on hand so only had to pick up soy milk and parsnips. And what was even better is that I got all the leftovers to myself!
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Budget Salmon Wellington
Or, how to make 150g of salmon feed 3 people. This was a spur of the moment kind of meal, when Court & her husband invited me to stay for dinner but had no real plans. We searched the fridge and found just enough ingredients to make a delicious, filling supper. Without enough pastry to wrap these, it wasn't a true "Wellington" but we figured it was close enough. I love when random creations like this turn out to be something terrific; I'm sure we all know it doesn't always turn out that way.
Salmon Wellington:
150g salmon, cut into 3 pieces
25 shrimp
1 leek, chopped
1 large carrot, chopped
1/2 cup full cream
1/4 cup cream cheese
dill
salt & pepper
1 block puff pastry
1 egg, beaten
Put the leeks and carrots in a pan with a little bit of margarine and cook for a few minutes until they soften, then add the cream and cream cheese and stir together until melted and at your desired consistency to coat the seafood. Add dill, salt, and pepper to taste.
Next, oil 3 ramekins and line the bottom with shrimp. Layer some sauce on top, then add the salmon, more sauce, another layer of shrimp, and finally the last of the sauce. When I started to run out of the sauce I just added more cream to stretch it out a bit further. Roll out the puff pastry and cut out circles to top the ramekins, then coat with the egg wash. Bake in a 350F/180C oven until the pastry has browned.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Pasta with Smoked Salmon
Another smoked salmon meal from last week. This was super tasty and was pretty light for a creamy pasta. I used Gnocchi no.85 noodles that I picked up on sale at the Italian Centre a couple of weeks ago, but anything goes with this. Quick, easy, and perfect with a glass of white wine.
Smoked Salmon Pasta (serves 2):
200g pasta
1/2 medium onion, chopped
2 tsp butter
2 cloves garlic
60g light cream cheese
white wine
2 large handfuls spinach, cooked & chopped
4 slices smoked wild salmon
salt & pepper
Bring a large pot of salted water to boil for the pasta. While that is heating, add the onion, garlic, and butter to a small pan and cook over med-low heat for 5-8 minutes. Once the water has come to the boil, plunge the spinach in for a minute and then scoop it out with a sieve and add the pasta to the boiling water to cook. Drain the spinach and chop. While the pasta is cooking, add the cream cheese and white wine and reduce until you reach your desired consistency for the sauce. Season with salt and pepper and stir in the chopped spinach to heat. When the pasta is ready, drain and add to the pan with the sauce. Finally, stir in the smoked salmon and serve.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Smoked Salmon Flatbread
I've been eating smoked salmon all week. It's the downside to being single, I suppose - most things are sold in packages too large for 1-2 meals. Though, really, how much of a hardship can delicious wild salmon be? What I was tired of was cream cheese; I rarely eat it, so after a couple of days it started to seem a bit sickly sweet. I decided to switch it up with some goat cheese, with added wasabi to give it a little kick. This was a great 5 minute dinner, and a cold flatbread is perfect for hot summer nights.
Smoked Salmon Flatbread for 1:
1 greek-style pita or panini
2-3 slices smoked wild salmon, torn
2-3 tbsp goat cheese
wasabi paste, to taste
red onion
capers
pepper
Put the pita in the oven to crisp it up, then mix a little wasabi paste into the goat cheese. Once the pita is crisp and then cooled, add the toppings and enjoy.
Monday, January 12, 2009
Shrimp Blossoms - New Best Appie
Looking at Tastespotting before the holidays, I saw this recipe and photos posted by Once Upon a Plate. It looked good, sounded easy, and I had most of the stuff needed to make it on hand, so when I had the fam over for dinner the other night, these started off the festivities. I literally thought a fight might break out over who got how many of these, they are creamy and delicious! I deviated ever so slightly with the quantities (due to not having quite enough), but mostly held to the recipe.
Wonton Shrimp Blossoms:
24 square wonton skins/wraps
10 ounces peeled, cooked shrimp, finely chopped
2 green onions/scallions, finely chopped
1/3 cup carrot, finely grated
4 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1/2 teaspoon salt
Small pinch cayenne pepper, or dash of Tabasco sauce
1 cup shredded Mozzarella cheese
Preheat oven to 350 F. Spray mini muffin pan with cooking spray. Gently press wanton wrappers into muffin cups, and spray again. Bake 8 minutes or until brown and crisp. Remove from oven and cool.
Meanwhile, combine remaining ingredients, mixing well.
Fill each baked wonton cup with some of the shrimp mixture. Place filled cups on a baking sheet as you fill them, then bake 5 to 6 minutes, or until filling is hot and bubbling around edges. I went a little longer than this to make sure everything was hot.
This one will definitely be stocked in my freezer going forward.
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Misoyaki Mahi-mahi
As Billingsgate Seafood Market (http://www.billingsgate.com/) was celebrating their 100 year anniversary this week, I stopped by on Saturday morning to check it out for the first time. I didn't try any of the tastings they were offering, but Court went by after lunch and said their Lobster Bisque was fantastic. I'll probably go more often now that I know they carry some of the harder to find things I've been looking for, like salmon roe and sashimi-grade fish (for those days when I don't want to make the trek to T&T). The prices were reasonable too; the mahi-mahi fillets were around $5 for 2 fillets.
This dish sounds - and tastes - a lot more complicated than it is. I make this quite often as it only requires 3 ingredients and works with any white fish as well as chicken and pork, and it doesn't hurt that it's super quick as well.
Misoyaki Mahi-mahi:
2 x 110-140g/4-5oz mahi-mahi fillets
1/4 cup mirin (or 1/4 cup sake + 1/2 - 1 tsp brown or white sugar)
1/4 cup white (light) miso
For the marinade, mix the mirin and miso until combined. If you're using sake + sugar instead of mirin, make sure to dissolve the sugar in the sake first before combining the miso so that the texture of the marinade stays smooth. Cover the fillets with the marinade and cover with cling film or put in a sealed bag for a few hours (or overnight)... or if you're like me, 30 minutes - because I usually decide to make this when I'm already hungry! While it marinades, start on the salad.
Preheat your broiler and wipe the marinade off the fillets. Put the fillets in the oven and watch them - it usually takes around 5 minutes each side. Today I've made this in the oven, but for chicken and pork I usually cut the meat stir-fry-style and use the stovetop to fry over medium-high heat until just cooked.
Sesame-Orange Spinach Salad:
2 tbsp toasted sesame seeds
1/2-1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp mirin or sake
1 tbsp rice wine vinegar (or white wine vinegar)
1/2-1 tsp soy
1 tsp sesame oil (optional)
sesame seeds to garnish
spinach
fresh or tinned mandarin orange segments, about 3/4 cup or 1-2 oranges
With a mortar and pestle or food processor, grind the sesame seeds and sugar together to make a paste. Add the mirin, vinegar, soy, and 4 mandarin orange segments and grind together, adding sesame oil if desired. If you're using fresh rather than tinned oranges, remember to remove the skin on each segment. Dress the spinach and add the remaining mandarin orange segments to the salad; garnish with sesame seeds.
