California Fusion Seafood

A favorite pastime of mine is to take seafood and do fun things with it. Besides just munching on it. I made this dish one day shortly after New Years and my lovely lady Katrina was quite happy for a few hours. Originally she wanted Pizza, and when the meal settled but a scant few hours later she was quite frustrated that there wasn't any leftover to sate her appetite. The late evening declaration "We should have gotten the Pizza!"  was noted, but totally ignored by me. We are after all supposed to be dieting and training to walk 13.1 miles in the  Huntington Beach 1/2 Marathon next February. ( we bought a pizza the following night after walking 6 miles for our training !)
This dish was way easy to make and since I already bought some 4 inch spring form pans last summer ( on sale at a Williams Sonoma store ) the presentation turned out quite nice.

All that is required is to take some of your favorite fresh fishes, crustaceans and shellfishes, clean thoroughly and cut them to an edible bite size, add Red and Green Jalapeno peppers to taste, several sprigs of Cilantro leaf lightly chopped, a small quantity of ripe Mango for sweetness and mix this concoction with 1 squeezed lime and 1/4 cup of Late Harvest Chardonnay. If you don't have the Chardonnay you can substitute it with 1/4 cup of Sake and 1/2 tsp Karo white corn syrup. (premixed)

     Fold the entire mixture together gently and pack tightly and liberally into the spring form pan. Place pan on your plate of choice. When the pan is released and gently removed it will look like the above photo. Add a few fresh Blackberry's and Blueberry's for garnish and you have a delightful creation that not only looks good, but tastes good too. But don't forget the Ponzu or Soy sauce with a little Wasabi!

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My accompanying dish to this was Yellowfin Tuna Tataki. Better known as Ahi tuna.

I merely took an extremely fresh Ahi Tuna Steak that was purchased at a local Japanese Market, cut away the grainy section ( which was used in the previous dish ), coated this fleshy rectangle of Ahi in ground pepper and paprika, seared all four sides on a griddle on the Bar-B-que and cut it into 1/4 in slices. I then placed the pieces on a colorful plate with dollops of Red, White, Brown and Wild rice. 

Just add some steamed veggies plus your favorite wine and this becomes a healthy, heart smart, fat burning meal for two.

Wp

Next up  ---  Wok Fried Tempura Temptations

[not so heart healthy]

Food & Fun 2010

Hot off the computer keys for 2010!! 

     We went to a fabulous show at The Great Park in Irvine, California yesterday!  Kooza!! Which is one of the newest shows by Cirque De Soleil. It was during the intermission at Cirque's Tapas Rouge event, that I tasted a new favorite canape. Peanut butter, honey and bananas on a roll. Elvis would be so proud! 

The rolls they used at this event were just plain bread rolls. So in keeping with my (hopefully unique) Twyst, I propose using the ever popular Kings Hawaiian rolls that are in most every Von's or Safeway store in California. 

     Generously spread peanut butter on half a lightly toasted  roll, add several dabs of honey, layer on two elongated slices of fresh Banana, sprinkle with sugar and then carmelize the sugar with a torch and you have a little bit of heaven on a roll. These are simple, inexpensive, and from the impressions I saw in the large number of people at the event, they will be quite a hit at any party.

     Now I just wonder if they would be better with Chili paste spread on the roll first? I only pose this question because another thing that Katrina and I ( the Nephews too ) like to have for a treat is to cut several Kings Hawaiian rolls in half, place them on a sheet of tin foil, then spread a bit of Sambal Olek Red Chili Paste on the roll, we then add a slice of Cheddar Cheese and crisp them in a toaster oven for 4 minutes. Sweet, spicy and CHEEEEESE!

Well, looks like more experiments are in the Que for this year!

Wp

Next on the menu, Fusion Sushi!