Lobster Rolls | Lobster Anywhere

We live in Santa Cruz California. September is our summer. Usually the months of June - August are nice, warmish, and pretty sunny. But September, oh September, September is hot and perfect, just perfect! This is coming from a Brazilian girl of course, who thrives on muggy hot weather.

These days you'll catch us at the pool during hot late afternoons. All our windows are open. We watch the sun set over Monterey Bay, 43 miles away!

When the kids aren't in school they're in swimsuits. If we're not in the pool we're on the slip-n-slide or throwing water balloons at each other, minus Maria. Maria hates water balloons thrown at her although she's pretty good at throwing them at us.

So while the rest of the country is raving about pumpkin lattes we're  here enjoying our Summer - swimsuit, getting soaked, and cold lobster rolls.

Lobster Anywhere sent us a lobster roll kit. We made half a recipe and had plenty for the whole family.

My kids get so excited about getting packages. I get excited about the simplicity of getting a delicious dinner on the table in under 10 minutes.

The kit comes complete with a quick recipe so you can easy make a traditional roll. I dressed ours up with roasted tomatoes and some greens.

If you want to make your own lobster rolls at home here's a recipe you can try.

1 1/2 lbs lobster meat
1/2 cup mayonnaise
3 tablespoons lemon juice
salt and pepper to taste
4 split rolls, buttered and toasted

In a bowl combine the lobster meat, mayonnaise, lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste. Refrigerate for 5 minutes to allow the lobster to absorb the flavorings. Fill the rolls with lobster salad and eat immediately. You can also add finely chopped celery to the lobster salad for an extra crunch or chopped parsley for a little more flavor.

What's September like where you live?

Poke Salad | Day 13 of 31 Days of Salad

Mariko is more like a sister than a friend. We've known each other before we dived into this crazy food blogging business. She lived close by when Enzo was a newborn and her daughter Amaya was a newborn. It was good having her along for the crazy-new-parent-ride. She was friends with Christian before Christian and I started dating. Like I said, she's more like a sister than a friend. Mariko lives in Hawaii (lucky!) with her talented husband (ceramics artist) and her two awesome kids with awesome names, Amaya and Mozely. Oh, and Mariko can cook crazy good and has great taste in food. We went to NYC once and all we did was eat and she pretty much planned everything. If you go on a food trip take her! If you can't go on a food trip you can still get to know her through her blog, Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest. Thanks Mighty, love you lots. xoxo

There's pretty much only one way I like to eat fish.

Raw.

(I know. I'm weird.)

Occasionally I'll eat a cooked fish, but in general I don't cook fish at all, and I try to eat good sushi only. I've sworn off of mediocre sushi, so I don't get to eat fish very often, since eating good sushi is synonymous with spending good money.

Money well spent, in my opinion.

One of the nice things about living in Hawaii is that everybody gets me and my preference for uncooked fish.

Poke ("poh-kay") is a mix of cubed, raw fish (usually tuna, but octopus is common too) marinated with sauces and seasonings, and sometimes other thinly sliced veggies, like limu seaweed or raw onion. When you eat poke with rice the sauce seeps into the white grains, and it's hard to tell which I like better sometimes. It sounds so strange if you've never had it. I find it completely addictive. Poke is way easier to get and cheaper than sushi, and even the most run-down looking place can serve good poke.

There are some restaurants that serve poke, but generally it's a comfort food that you can find at local supermarkets and small convenience stores. The Superette in Kahuku is well known for their poke and rice, which sells by the pound. Students risk referrals and worse to go off campus for their poke and rice every day. Usually I have to stand in line behind them.

If you get a tub of poke and rice, kids lurk around to see if they can beg a bite or more. Better get extra.

I first had the poke appetizer at Stage Restaurant in Honolulu a couple of years ago, for Valentine's Day. I was really turned off by the decor of the place and especially by the butt of the life-size horse-lamp (yes. Really.) directly by my face, but they won me over with the first dish. Sometimes we decide to go back there simply because I get a craving for it and the inventive pastry chef's cotton candy. It's common in Hawaii for fine-dining restaurants to recall the flavors of common foods and dress them up. This version had the most perfectly crunchy Marcona almonds and popped with tobiko. The avocado was so unusual but the cream of it worked with the fish. Finish all of that mouth music off with the heat of a couple of slices of jalapeno and I was in heaven.

I decided I had to make it myself. I couldn't wait.

It's not their exact appetizer, but it's pretty darn close. I added the sprouts and the arugula, because I envisioned it as a salad. The poke is so flavorful that the base of it needs some neutral flavors and the crisp of the salad helps play up everything else. It helps to keep the flavor from becoming monotonous. I love it.

And it's easier than getting a babysitter, except that I have to compete with my daughter for the last bite.

Poke Salad (inspired by Stage restaurant’s Ahi poke appetizer)
(printable version)

Serves 4-6 as a small dish

• ¼ Cup soy sauce
• 2 Tbsp sugar
• 2 Tbsp mirin
• ½ small red or sweet onion, thinly sliced and chopped into 1” pieces
• 2 Tbsp sherry vinegar
• ½ Cup toasted Marcona almonds
• 1 avocado (peeled and seeded) cut into 1/2” squares
• 1 lb sushi grade Ahi, cubed into ½” pieces
• ¼ teaspoon sesame oil
• 1 Cup sunflower sprouts
• 1 Cup baby arugula
• 2 Tbsp finely chopped green onion
• Sprinkle of sesame seeds
• 2 teaspoons thinly sliced jalapeno pepper, optional

1. Heat the soy sauce, sugar, and mirin in a small saucepan over medium high heat. Stir it around until it gets thicker, like maple syrup. This will take about 6 minutes, and the sauce will bubble for most of that time. Set it aside to cool.
2. Put the onion into a small bowl and sprinkle the sherry vinegar over it. Just a little will do. The onion will soak up the vinegar and add a bite of acid to the poke which is really lovely next to the sweetened soy sauce. Let it sit for 10 minutes. (This part is optional if your name is Scott Conant from Food Network’s Chopped.)
3. Chop up the Marcona almonds until they look like big, dry bread crumbs. Remove the onions from the sherry vinegar.
4. Toss the Ahi, cooled sauce, onions, almonds, and sesame oil in a medium bowl. Add the avocado and toss gently again. You have to be careful to keep the avocado from getting mushy and mixed in like a sauce—you want the chunks with the fish.
5. When serving, put a bit of the sprouts and arugula down on individual plates and top with the poke. Sprinkle on the sesame seeds, some of the green onion, and the pepper, if desired. You could serve the poke on its own, with rice, as well.

Day 1- Green Papaya Salad

Day 2- Avocado and Mango Salad

Day 3- Eggplant Vinaigrette

Day 4- White and Green Salad: Escarole, Pear, Avocado

Day 5- Salpicao

Day 6- Grated Raw Beet Salad

Day 7- Poppyseed Salad Dressing

Day 8- Orange, Honey, & Coconut Dessert Salad

Day 9- Quail Egg Salad

Day 10-Radish Salad
Day 11-Apple, Parmesan, and Pesto Salad
Day 12-BLT Quinoa Salad

Pineapple Glazed Salmon

Pineapple Glazed Salmon

(printable version)

(serves 4)

• 2 lbs fresh salmon fillet
• ½ cup crushed pineapples
• 3 tablespoons soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• ½ tablespoons fresh shredded ginger; pealed
• sunflower sprouts for garnish

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Cut salmon fillet into 4 equal-size pieces, skin side down, and lay fillets side by side in a baking dish.
3. Make the glaze by stirring the crushed pineapples, soy sauce, lemon juice, and ginger in a small mixing bowl with a wooden spoon.
4. Pour glaze over the fish.
5. Bake until fish is opaque but still bright pink in the center for 12-15 minutes.
6. Rinse the sunflower sprouts and use for garnish on top of the fish.

Moqueca Baiana de Peixe // Traditional Fish Stew of Bahia

Fish. The reason why we moved to Itacare Bahia was because of fish. You see, my husband is researching how Itacare went from an economy that survived on fishing to an economy that now survives on tourism. Itacare is a beautiful beach town where it's not uncommon to meet someone who tells you that they came on vacation and then never left. The good thing (and I guess the bad thing too) about tourism is that tourists often want to consume culture. They want a taste of the local and the traditional and here the local and traditional often tastes like fish. Moqueca Baiana, a traditional fish stew in Bahia, is served in almost every single restaurant you walk into. I'm glad because that means that there is still a demand for fish and so fishermen still have jobs.

When the sun starts to set the fishermen are usually coming in from a hard days work, bringing in the catch of the day. That's when Christian returns from his fieldwork and when I grab my iPod and head to the beach for a quick run. I like to run on the Orla, which is where all the colonial houses are, where the fishing boats dock, and where there is always soccer games and volleyball games and children playing in the sand. It's a mighty good place to be at, with an unbeatable energy.

Broiled Tilapia with Pesto and Parmesan

I've been thinking a lot about a good recipe to share for Mother's Day. I basically wanted a good tasting easy recipe where you could either email your partner and say, "here, make this" or if you're cooking for yourself it would still be a treat because it takes less than 15 minutes to make, yet it is full of flavor. I think broiled tilapia with pesto and parmesan is the perfect fit. The pesto, butter, parmesan mixture on top of the fish is splendid. The aroma of warm pesto is just so right, and the way melted parmesan forms a subtle crispy coat around the fish is also pretty fantastic.

My friend Melissa introduced me to this great dish.
She's kind of great like that.

Melissa is an amazing cook. She doesn't think she is, but really she is. She is also one of the most beautiful, kind, radiant woman that I know. I love being around her because she is always genuinely positive and because she is a very good mama to her kids. She creates a good balance between discipline and leniency. She is such a good example of the type of mother I'd like to be.

For a while we used to get together at least once a week, either at the gym or at the library. But then life got crazy with soccer, swim lessons, T-ball, and all those other lovely things that come with kids, Spring, and organized sports. Oh, and I started working part time too. Duh! That takes up all of my time these days.

A couple weeks ago I was craving Melissa time and we miraculously were able to get together for a quick lunch at her house. We had less then an hour before the both of us needed to run off and drive/pick-up our kids somewhere. In no time at all Melissa made the most incredible broiled Tilapia I have ever tasted.

Testing out Alaska Seafood Cod {and a cooking video, oh my}

It's not everyday we get to eat

sustainable seafood from Alaska.

But this week we did! I was so fortunate to have Alaska Seafood ship frozen cod right to my doorstep along with a beautiful seafood recipe book, recipe cards, and material on their work. I was so excited about the recipe cards and even more stoked that it was cold. It had come in the same cooler as the frozen fish so the recipe cards felt like paper thin ice cubes. It made me grin big.

Alaska Seafood represents all of Alaska's sustainable seafood industry. Their work is incredible and their fish is pure quality. 

Alaska teamed up with Foodbuzz to send food bloggers frozen fish so that we could test out the COOK IT FROZEN! technique. We received the fish for free (who's your lucky gal?!) and then proceded to cook the fish using our own recipes along with the COOK IT FROZEN! technique.

It was a great combo. 

My tried and true fish recipe is tilapia with pesto cooked in grape juice. It's so easy and so fast. Let's be honest, though, cod is a better fish but I'm usually scared to saute it in a pan because of it's thickness it would just take too long. So whenever I make cod I usually just bake it.

But the folks at Alaska Seafood coached me through the process of making my favorite fish recipe with my favorite fish; pan seared cod in pesto sauce. Their printed material and pan searing video was key to making this dish a success.

And it was!

Want to see?

and a special thanks to Foodbuzz, Alaska Seafood, and my friend Drew for his videography skills.
Go team go!

fish wrapped in bacon

I feed my family fat so that if we go down

we all go down together

Except for baby Maria who is one month short of her first birthday. Let's keep her litte heart un-clogged at least till then. Instead of the fish wrapped in bacon she had fish steamed with green beans; no salt no butter. Don't feel too bad for her though, she can make a party out of anything. 

As for the rest of us bacon-eating-people, we savored the grease to our heart's content. It even tasted good with mozzarella and honeydew. High-five for skewers!

But hold that thought.

Don't think about the skewers just yet. Focus on the fish. This will take you tops 15 minutes to make. Wrap bacon around fish and broil for 10 minutes. In recipe terms...

Fish Wrapped in Bacon

(printable version of this recipe) 

yields 8 medium sized pieces- serves 2

• 2 large fillets of talapia cut in fourths. You need to have 8 pieces total.
• 8 strips of bacon

1. Turn oven to broil
2. Raise oven rack so that it's 3 inches away from the broil
3. wrap a slice of bacon around each piece of fish and place on a cookie sheet that has sides so the grease won't drip.
4. Broil for 8-10 minutes
5. Remove and serve warm.

The broiler is like that high school friend you once had. You were tight but you always had to watch your back because the moment you forgot about her she back stabbed you big time.

I've been back stabbed by the broiler many-a-times. Once in Hawaii making garlic bread and then 10 times again after that, making garlic bread. Basically the broiler will cook your food very fast so just stay close and watch for it. One minute it's raw and the nest it's burnt. Stay on the safe side and boil for less time than you need to then turn off your oven and lower the fish to the middle rack just so it stays warm.

Really, you can't mess this up.

and if you want you can even cut the pieces in half, throw in some honeydew, some fresh mozzarella, and put it on a skewer.

Now you can give me that high-five.

post-edit: just to be clear the melon and cheese does not go in the broiler. the end.

Crispy Cheese and Salmon Sandwiches

 Crispy cheese is the bomb.

Period.

You know when you make a quesadilla and the cheese oozes out of the sides and then it melts in the hot pan and gets crispy? That crispy cheese is like gold in our family. We all fight over it.

So, as an intelligent human being I've decided to end contention around here and just melt cheese on a skillet until crispy and then break off the pieces and stuff it in sandwiches. I make sure to evenly share with each member of the family, except for baby Maria who only has 3 1/2 teeth.

Crispy cheese is great with salmon sandwiches and salmon sandwiches that are shaped like sail boats are great for kids. 

Making salmon is so easy. I just don't make it as often as I'd like because I'd break the bank. However, when we do make it it's always a success.

Don't really know how to make salmon? No problem, you can see my post on the little foodie where I show you how to do it in less than 15 minutes.

Cod Pie with Gruyère Cheese

Martha doesn't lie, except for that one little incident. Her cook book  Everyday Food: Great Food Fast is indeed pretty great. The cod with leeks and tomatoes recipe on page 61 is simple and delish. If it wasn't plagiarism I would post the recipe, dang my moral standards. However, I will say that it's simple as baking cod, leeks, and tomatoes together with some olive oil, salt, and pepper. You can figure it out, specially if you bake at 450* for 30 minutes...o.k... my lips are sealed go get yourself a copy of the book already.

However, I will share a recipe I made the next day with the left over cod.

Cod Pie

• baked cod with leeks and tomatoes
• 8 sheets of phyllo dough cut in half
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 cup shredded gruyere cheese 

1. preheat the oven to 400*
2. cut the sheets of phyllo dough with kitchen shears. 
3. place 4 sheets on a cookie sheet and sprinkle 1/2 tablespoon of olive oil on top. Layer with cod and gruyere cheese.
4. Add 4 more sheets on top and sprinkle with olive oil. Layer again with cod and cheese. Repeat one more time.
5. bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown.

enjoy!

Salmon with Mayo-Salsa

Enzo took a 3 hour nap today. It was a pleasant surprise. It gave me enough time to make a nice summer dinner and it only took me an hour (I cook really slow). We had brown rice, lentils with zuccini, salad, fresh squeezed orange juice, and salmon. The salmon only took 5 minutes prep time and 20 minutes baking time and only 3 ingredients.

Salmon with Mayo-Salsa

• 1 pound salmon fillet (fresh NOT frozen)
• 1/4 cup chunky salsa
• 1/4 cup mayonnaise

1. Preheat oven to 350*
   
2. Rinse out the salmon under cold water.
3. Remove any skin and/or bones
4. Cut the salmon into 4 smaller fillets
5. Place the fillets on top of an ungreased cookie sheet.
6. Drain the salsa. Try to get as much of the water out as possible.
7. Mix the drained salsa with the mayonnaise and spoon over the salmon fillets.
8. Bake for 20 minutes.
9. Remove carefully with a spatula and serve warm with fresh lime juice.
   

Springtime Salad: Cantaloupe, Cucumber, and Scallops

We've been having lovely weather and today was no exception. It was so warm during dinner time that I decided we needed something refreshing to cool us down. This recipe is a variation from the Fruit Cookbook. This is one of my favorite cookbooks, even though I don't use it as often as I would like. However, it's given me so many good ideas on fun things to make with fruit. You could probably find it in your local library or get a used copy for .99 cents at Amazon.


SPRING TIME SALAD

• 1 pound small scallops
• salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1/4 cup fresh lime juice (about 3 medium limes)
  
• 1/4 cup Thai fish sauce
• 2 tablespoons (firmly packed) light brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons minced garlic
• 1 cucumber, peeled, halved, seeded, and thinly sliced
• 1/2 of one cantaloupe, halved, seeded, peeled and sliced
• 1/4 cup dry roasted peanuts coarsely ground
• 1/4 cup shredded fresh cilantro leaves

1. Rinse the scallops and place in a cookie sheets. Season with salt and pepper and broil for 10-15 minutes, stiring ocassionally.
   
2. While the scallops are broiling mix in a medium size mixing bowl the lime juice, fish sauce, brown sugar, and garlic and refrigerate.
3. When the scallops are ready remove them from the cookie sheet and place them in the fridge for a couple minutes so they can cool down.
4. Stir the peanuts and cilantro into the dresssing
   
5. In a salad bowl mix the cucumbers, cantaloupe, and scallops and then spoon the dressing over the salad.
   

"I am Not Ready for Monday" pie

When I was in Hawaii I made a I'm in paradise and missing my husband pie. It's the pie above. Not really photogenic since it came out all one color but none the less it was the perfect comfort food at the time. The filling is coconut milk, sweet potato, and fresh mahi-mahi fish. It was scrumptious and totally highlighted some of the tastes of Hawaii. However, I made this pie halfway through my trip when I was really missing my husband who was on the other side of the world. I also made the pie as a result of watching the movie Waitress. Have you seen it? If you haven't than you must but beware that after you watch it you WILL HAVE TO make a pie. It's an urge you will not be able to control. The protagonist makes pies and has names for all of them such as the

BABY SCREAMING IT’S HEAD OFF IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT AND RUINING MY LIFE PIE - New York-style cheesecake, brandy brushed and topped with pecans and nutmeg

I found a website that has all the pies she makes and names here. So fun!
Today I am in a foul mood. I need to make a I am Not Ready for Monday Pie. What ingredients should I use? I'll pick my favorite suggestion and attempt to make the pie and then if I love it and change my opinion about Mondays I will gladly rename the pie after you.

Potato Vinaigrette and fried fish

Vinaigrettes are my favorite type of salad. I love the sour citrus taste in my mouth especially when I am eating greasy deep fried something or other. I made this on Saturday and was not going to post it because it took me 2 hours to make and I figured that most normal people would rather not spend 2 hours making anything, especially not during hot summer days. I can assure you that under normal circumstances this would probably have taken me 30-45 minutes. Had I not been listening to Car Talk, Wait, Wait don't Tell me, and This American Life while I was cooking I would of whipped this up in no time. It would of taken me 2 1/2 hours to finish this had my family not been starving. I REALLY wanted to hear the last 30 minutes of This American Life where they were interviewing the geeky girl who was switched at birth from her super rad biological family.

POTATO VINAIGRETTE (with a little something, something)

• 8 medium potatoes pealed and cubed
• 1/2 pound of green beens diced
• 3 beets sliced 1/4 inch
• 2 tomatoes cubed
• 2 tablespoons fresh chopped parsley
• 1/2 medium sized onion
• 2 tablespoons distilled white vinegar
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• salt and pepper to taste

1. cook the potatoes, beets, and green beans all in separate pans until tender
   
2. while the vegetables cook chop the onion in thin slices. I like to caramelize the onions because my husband is not that into raw onions. This is optional but adds a nice sweet taste.
3. cut the tomatoes and set aside
4. In a large bowl mix the potatoes, green beans and beets together. Let it cool down a bit before you add the tomatoes or else it makes the tomatoes soft.
5. Add the caramalized onions to the bowl along with the vinegar, olive oil and salt.
6. add the tomatoes and mix everything together
7. garnish with finely chopped parsley
8. serve warm or chilled, both ways work great.

FRIED FISH

People are usually terrified of making fried fish because (a) it's fried and (b) it stinks up your house BIG time.
If you can get past (a) then (b) can also be dealt with. On the burner next to the one where you are frying the fish have a pan with orange peels boiling with water the whole time you are frying. This totally helps diminsh the smell of fish