Gravlax hors d’oeuvres are easy to make as well as tasty. So take a walk on the wild side and make your own gravlax. You’ll be surprised at how easy it is. This post includes step-by-step instructions as well as photos.
Mussels are one of those seafood dishes that you have to be careful about when serving company. Many people object to their strong flavor and aroma. Charles and I love them, however, and we were once talking about our favorite ways to cook mussels when my mother, Pranee, told me about a dish she cooked at a now-defunct restaurant in Houston called Renu’s. It was simply mussles that had been steamed in water infused with lemongrass and it was served with a dipping sauce that Thais commonly use for seafood: a mixture of fish sauce, lime and chopped chilis.
The idea of pairing bacon and fish had never occurred to me until Charles and I tasted the fillet mignon of ahi encrusted with bacon at Atlantic restaurant in Baltimore. The memory of that meal inspired me to create this dish using Oregon albacore tuna. I’ve always loved the taste of pomegranate so I’ve incorporated it into a red wine and balsamic reduction as a sauce that goes perfectly with the tuna and greens.
Beaver brand, made by Oregon-based and family-owned Beaverton Foods, is the largest producer of non-refrigerated horseradish and specialty mustards in the U.S. The company also makes a wide variety of best-selling gourmet sauces, garlic, spices, and other unique specialty condiments packaged under these labels: Beaver, Inglehoffer, Napa Valley and Tulelake.
We rarely have lobster, and it always seems like such a heavy thing to have for dinner, with all that butter for dredging it, but I was inspired to grill lobster tails and use them to fill Vietnamese-style spring rolls, instead of the traditional pork and shrimp combo. As Emeril would say, it’s kicked up a notch.
Most people squeeze lemon juice on oysters in the half shell and then dunk them in cocktail sauce or ground horseradish, but I’ve always enjoyed the fresh flavor of mirin and ponzu and was inspired by a recipe for cucumber salsa for oysters in chef Nobu Matsuhisa’s book Nobu West. I added a twist of my own and served them to Mom and Charles, who eagerly gulped down my test bivalves. I broke with my usual abstinence and ate one too.
Smokes salmon is such a wondrous food in itself, why turn it into an ingredient? Because we can!
Smoked salmon, whether smoked cold or hot, is usually accompanied by breads or crackers and condiments such as cream cheese, onions, capers, sour cream … and the list can go on around the world.
My first taste of smoked salmon [...]
A sauce of fermented black beans, garlic, ginger and sweet dark soy sauce add a delicious savory Asian touch to oven-roasted rockfish. Fermented black beans, also called salted dried black beans, are actually soybeans that have been dried and fermented with salt and usually ginger. They’re used frequently in Cantonese cooking.
Cold somen noodles in miso sauce act as a foil for grilled Pacific spot prawns. This marriage of salty (noodles and miso sauce) and sweet (grilled prawns) are perfect for a light dinner on a hot summer day.
One of our favorite ways of enjoying sockeye this time of year is smoking with a flavored rub comprised of seasonings and spices. Another, less time-consuming method and one that lets you enjoy the flavor of the fish more, is to grill the fish fillet and then top it with a simple salsa made from fruit such as orange or mango.
In a scene in the movie Julie & Julia , the actress playing Julia Child, Meryl Streep, describes to her visiting sister how white wine and vinegar are reduced and massive quantities of butter are whipped into submission. In French beurre blanc, translated literally, means “white butter.” The sauce is butter whipped to a frothy, tangy, heavenly sensation. That’s the best way I can describe it. And when I opened a small Ziploc bag containing dried black trumpet mushrooms and inhaled the intensly earthy, almost truffle-like aroma, I knew they were destined for beurre blanc.
After coming home with a bounty of trout from Hebo Lake, we had a dilemma: What to do with the trout for dinner? Tired of fried trout, we decided to poach them in a broth of white wine, vegetables and herbs, and serve them with a dill sauce. It was a refreshing change and the sides of peas and carrots went wonderfully with the sauce.
I thought about our trip to Paris last weekend when Charles and I were fishing at Mt. Hebo Lake and Charles was reeling in his first 12-inch rainbow trout. It wasn’t that the fishing adventure reminded me in any way of our trip. Instead, it made me think of the seafood in Paris and the passage in Julia Child’s book “My Life in France”, where she eats her first French meal in Rouen at Restaurant La Couronne and has sole meunière. She describes the buttery sole melting in her mouth, and I thought…trout meunière.
Oregon and Ireland have more than cockles and mussels in common. The winter skies are similarly gray and wet, and there are more hues of green in nature in Oregon and Ireland than you can imagine, even during the wintertime.
Another commonality: great seafood. If you like the outdoors, why go to a fishmonger? Catch it yourself! [...]
For me, being in the outdoors and nature is a great stress reliever. No cell phones, beautiful mountains and streams, and even a tempestuous Pacific Ocean can be relaxing in a way that a good massage can be.
This past week was particularly stressful for me, so I looked forward to fishing on the jetty at [...]
I had not heard of razor clams until our arrival in the Pacific Northwest. At the market they are as elusive as wild truffles, seasonal wild mushrooms and fiddlehead ferns. If you find them fresh, change your dinner plans and prepare for a bivalve buffet. Option B, check for tides and conditions and forage your own. Option C, buy frozen. They do freeze well but you may have to purchase by the pound in set quantities.
In my opinion, forget the fancy or complicated preparations for these clams; simply pan-fried is best. Truthfully, there are many recipes for razors, just like other varieties, so if you prefer, get-a-googling and find one that suits you. Because of their enormous size, one clam, maybe two, should constitute an entree for one adult. Think clam steak!
One of the things that I love about living in Oregon is the bountiful and fresh seafood available. Another is that the state embraces Pacific Rim cultures. As an Asian-American who has lived lots of places in the U.S., I’ve found it one of the most welcoming places to be.
With our love of [...]
From my childhood in Thailand and Singapore, I remember a fish dish that Mom cooked. She would deep fry a whole fish and then smother it in sauce comprised of bell peppers, tomatoes and garlic that was simply seasoned with fish sauce. In most restaurants, this would probably pass as sweet and sour fish if [...]
Oregon is one of those states where lots of people forage for interesting food. Some forage the forests for wild mushrooms in the fall. Others forage for truffles buried beneath the forest floor, with their truffle-sniffing dogs in tow. Still others forage the many tidal pools at the coast…for what? you might ask. Read on and you’ll discover some tasty edibles.
