Salmon Salad

It must be the weather. All this sun is making me crave seafood and shellfish. This particular meal was right up my alley. The salmon was a tad over cooked which was a shame - it made it a little dehydrated and tough but still totally edible. I cooked the Trader Joe's Harvest Grain's Blend (which by the way, is awesome) in a little turmeric, made a mustard vinaigrette for the greens and seared the salmon with lots of lemon and olive oil. Oh and by the way the Trader Joe's salmon comes with lemon!

Deep Fried Oyster po'boy

Mayo, Red Pepper, Onion, Sesame Seeds, and Sriracha

...all mixed together

Delectable Oysters in cornmeal

The awesome sandwhich

The fried oyster 

This is definitely one of the better meals I have made in awhile. Casey went down south for a boy's night and so I made something entirely unappetizing to him - fried oysters with a simplified remoulade. I seriously woke up this morning thinking about it. I love oysters. Raw, Fried, Smoked, Shooters. It's all awesome. I would have to say though that smoked is my least favorite if only because they are so dry and I really love the juicyness of them. This is a Bon Appetite recipe for Oyster Tacos - but I had nice bread rolls in the house and used those instead. The original remoulade recipe has a few more ingredients that I decided to leave out including the main one - relish. I really don't know what I would use the leftover relish for. But I loved the quick remoulade that I ended up doing. Also it called for freshly shucked oysters - which is a lot of work! I purchased and jar of medium oysters. Since I live the northwest I trust that they are fresh. Plus, I am deep frying them anyways. The oysters that I could not fit on the two sandwiches I made, I dunked in the leftover remoulade. *sigh* amazingness.


Oyster po'boy
Adapted from Bon Appetit

Remoulade

1/2 c. Mayo
3 Tb. minced red pepper
3 Tb. minced sweet onion
1 Tb. Sriracha
1 tsp. sesame seeds
freshly ground black pepper and salt


po'boy

1/2 c. yellow corn meal
1/4 c. all purpose flour
2 Tb. cornstarch
1/8 tsp. baking powder

lettuce /tomatoes/sandwich toppers

Mix all ingredients together for the Remoulade. Mix together first four po'boy ingredients. GENTLY dredge the oysters in the mixture. (I plopped them all in there but they are so juicy I got clumps of cornmeal that stuck together and not on the oyster and hence I got deep fried cornmeal balls). Deep fry the oysters for three minutes in 1 inch oil heated to 350. Place on sandwich.

Stuffed Tomatoes

The baked stuffed tomatoes.

Hollowed out tomatoes...

...than stuffed...

...and served with spinach quinoa.

I made sangria last night. It was pretty phenomenal, though it packed a bit more of a kick than I was anticipating. I added the juice of two blood oranges, juice of half a lime, rooibos tea, rum and calvados to some boxed red wine I got at Trader Joe's (which just opened in West Seattle!). The blood orange alone was amazing, I might actually make some this weekend it was so good. To me they taste like a sweeter grapefruit.

This weekend should be photorific. Case and I are traveling north to see the Tulip Festival in Mt. Vernon and onto to Deception Pass and Port Townsend. Later I'll be taking a photography class courtesy of a Groupon. I'm pretty stoked. I keep waffling on getting another lens. I'm ready to 'advance' but I cringe every time I see the price. I may end up renting a lens for a day or two and splurge if I fall in love with one.

As for these tomatoes - pretty damn good. I've never cooked with ground pork - only turkey and chicken. Maybe because Ground Turkey is very lean (healthy, yuck!). I was thrilled with them, Casey not as much. He wasn't a fan of the ground meat but I am totally okay with that texture.

Stuffed Tomatoes
Adapted from Bon Appetit

2 Large Tomatoes
1/2 lb. ground pork
1/2 onion, diced
1/2 c. peppers diced
1/2 c. leek diced
3 minced garlic cloves
1/3 c. bread crumbs
1 tsp. paprika
Handful of parmesan to sprinkle on top

Heat oil. Soften onion, peppers, leeks and garlic. While it is softening, hollow out the tomatoes, chop up the guts and add it to the veggies. Add pork. Add bread crumbs and whatever seasoning you desire to use. Stuff the tomatoes and top with parmesan. Bake it for 30 minutes.

Soupaholic

I find it odd that as our Seattle weather warms up I am making more soups. The one on the top is actually a vegetarian chili and the bottom is a potato leek soup with deep 'fried' shallots. Funny thing deep frying shallots - they never fried, like crispy fried. I was supposed to place a bunch of shallots in olive oil and butter and fry them for 30 minutes. They were in there an hour and never got crispy so I can only imagine the heat wasn't high enough. Oh well, they were amazing anyways and I think I'm actually glad that they were soft and probably saturated with oily goodness. Roasting the potatoes, leeks and arugula gave it a huge flavor boost. No bland soup here. 

The longer days have been giving me a ton of energy. Really happy perky energy. It's weird and a little uncomfortable but overall I suppose it's quite nice. I am making goals, plans, budgets, shopping lists. I'm going to the gym before work, which by the way, means waking up at 4:40. Now I just have to stick with it. I become incredibly discouraged when I 'fall off the horse'. But for now, it's working and that's fine with me.