Pan Seared Scallops with Mussel Risotto

Filming the pilot for Cooking with Poseidon continues to get closer to reality. We have a shoot scheduled at Santa Cruz Island for July 31st thru August 2nd. The format/script has not been completed yet, but I'm fairly certain we will be cooking fish so decided I better start practicing a few seafood recipes. This one has definite possibilities:

Pan-Seared Scallops with Mussel-Saffron Risotto and Chive Oil

Start by making a mussel broth to use in cooking the risotto. Heat olive oil in a pot and add the mussels. When the mussels open add diced leek, diced carrot, diced onion, diced celery, fresh thyme and a couple of bay leaves. Fill the pot with about 6 cups of water and simmer for 20 minutes. Strain the broth. Remove the meat from the mussels and set aside. If the mussels are large you might want to cut them into small pieces. Reserve a few whole for garnish.

Next make the risotto. Dice an onion and cook in olive oil, with a pinch of saffron until soft. Add arborio rice and cook until it starts to turn golden brown. Stir in white wine and keep stirring until the wine is absorbed. Add the mussel broth, one cup a time, stirring until absorbed after each addition, until the risotto is tender. Remove from the heat, add butter and stir in mussel meat.

Heat olive oil in a saute pan until hot. Season the scallops with salt and pepper. Working with 4 or 5 scallops at a time, place in the pan and sear until deep golden, about 3 or 4 minutes. Turn and cook for another 3 minutes.

Place a serving of the risotto in the center of a plate, arrange the scallops against the risotto, and drizzle the chive oil (recipe below) around the edge of the plate. Garnish with scallions.

And here you go--

Next time I will try to find larger scallops. The mussels were bigger than scallops!

To make the chive oil, cut chives into small pieces and put them in a blender with olive oil. Blend until smooth and bright green. Push the mixture through a fine mesh strainer.

Potstickers w/Cassidy & Seirra

Bob & Cynthia's granddaughter Cassidy (on the left in the Biale apron) and her friend Seirra were spending the weekend aboard Amore Mio. The girls wanted to have a little party and asked if I would teach them how to cook something. We decided on potstickers - pork, no shrimp- because Seirra won't eat anything "that comes from underneath the water"!The recipe we used was different from the one I previously posted, it was adapted from a Nancy Oakes (Boulevard in San Francisco) recipe. I made the filling before the girls arrived so they wouldn't know I was using mushrooms until after they tasted their dumplings. And it was a good thing I did because after Seirra tried one of her potstickers and found out there were mushrooms she let out a big "Ewww, I hate mushrooms". I tried to tell her that if she loved the potsticker with mushrooms, she must like mushrooms after all. I don't think she was convinced. Anyway, the filling is made by mixing together chopped shitake mushrooms, scallions, cilantro and fresh ginger with oil and soy sauce. Bake at 350 degrees for about 5 minutes and let cool before mixing in chopped pork and/or shrimp.The girls did a great job filling and forming the dumplings.

Cassidy (an adventuress eater, loved the dumplings) ready to serve the potstickers to our guests.

Mozzarella Cheese

For Jeff's birthday I bought him a mozzarella making kit. And of course, whatever I buy for Jeff I also buy for myself - so we can compare notes. Hmm, or maybe an excuse for me to get new toys!

Our first attempt at making the cheese was at Sarah & Jeff's house. We made a trip to Whole Foods to find a milk that wasn't ultra-pasteurized. Back at home we started by heating the milk with diluted calcium chloride, citric acid and diluted lipase powder-all from our kit. The calcium chloride helps to restore the balance between calcium and protein in store bought milk; the citric acid is used to acidify the milk and to enable the rennet (added later) to produce a firm curd; and the lipase powder is a natural enzyme used for flavor. When the milk reached 88 degrees we added dissolved rennet. The rennet is an enzyme that causes protein to coagulate. We let the milk heat to 105 degrees, stirring briefly every couple of minutes and then removed from the heat and let sit for 20 minutes. During this time the curd and whey fully separate.We drained off the whey and placed the curd in the microwave for one minute. Drained off more whey and kneaded the curd to release even more whey. Then we added some flaked salt (also from the kit) and heated again in the microwave. Now it was time to stretch the cheese. It should be soft, like taffy -- ours was hard and stringy....and looked like the inside of a baseball.It tasted good, but we are definitely going have to work on our technique.

Back home in Ventura, I decided to try again. We thought the problem may have been the temperature, so I wanted to follow the same procedures we previously used except for the temperature. I actually found the same milk we had used at a local health food store:

I felt like I got the curd to separate from the whey more this time, the texture felt softer and I was feeling pretty good about getting a nice soft, stretchy cheese.But when all was said and done, I ended up with the same hard stringy cheese that we produced in our first attempt.


Oh well, it's back to the drawing board. John & Sarah think we have gone way overboard with this crazy experiment, but Jeff & I are up to the challenge and we will eventually make the perfect mozzarella for our pizzas. I'll keep you posted.

Memorial Day Weekend at Santa Cruz Island (May 22-24)

A couple of events I didn't have a chance to blog earlier:

We took the boat out to Santa Cruz Island for a few days. The first morning John woke me up at 5:30 a.m. to go fishing. I think I need to have a talk with him about sleeping in on vacation! But the fishing was great fun and I caught a couple of calico bass. Here's the one we kept:We threw the fish on the grill and served it with a mango salsa (mango, red onion, cilantro and lime). Nothing fresher or more delicious:The next morning John organized a fishing tournament with some of the other boaters. He partnered with Bobby and I was happy to sleep in. John won the tournament with this beautiful ocean white fish:

Our friends Staff & Jane thought they were very funny and paid off the bet with a jar-full of pennies and nickles! This is their boat Significant Other with Anacapa Island in the background:

Enough fish, the next night we barbecued a flap steak with chimichurri and roasted corn salad. The salad was made with grilled corn, cherry tomatoes, avocado, red onion, queso fresco (or goat cheese), lime juice and salt & pepper:

For the chimichurri, puree parsley, cilantro, scallions, garlic, wine vinegar, olive oil, salt, red pepper flakes and black pepper. Grill the flap steak, let rest for a few minutes and slice into strips. To serve, spoon some chimichurri on the plate, top with the roasted corn salad and the steak. Not a great picture, but you get the idea:When we arrived back at the dock in Ventura we had a great treat. Sarah, Jeff & Marco had been visiting friends in L.A. and stopped by to see us on their way back to Oakland.

What a sweetheart!!

Dinner with Peter (May 20)

Our good friend, Peter, has this fun idea about doing a cooking show aboard Poseidon. He came over for dinner tonight to discuss the business points. I'll fill you in on the exciting details if the show comes closer to fruition. Here is a picture of Peter from a couple of years ago aboard Poseidon at Santa Cruz Island.For dinner, we started with Stuffed Artichokes, Roman Style:

Fill a large bowl with cold water and add the juice of ½ lemon. Pull off and discard the tough outer leaves of the artichokes, until you get to the tender, lightly colored leaves. With a sharp paring knife, peel the green, tougher part of the stems and the green parts of the artichoke bases. Slice off about 1 inch from the tops of the artichokes. Gently spread open the leaves and remove the fuzzy inner chokes with a spoon or a melon baller. Rub half of the lemon all over the artichokes to prevent discoloration, then plunge the artichokes in the bowl of lemon water.

In a medium bowl, combine parsley, mint, garlic, salt and pepper and olive oil. One at a time, hold the artichokes over the bowl and press some of the herb mixture between the leaves and in the center of each artichoke. With your hands, push the leaves closer together, then place the artichokes, stem side up, in a deep, heavy pot that holds them snugly in one layer. Pour in the rest of the oil and the wine. Bring the liquid to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to medium low, cover, and cook until a thin knife can be inserted easily at the base of the artichokes, 30 to 40 minutes.

With a large spatula, transfer the cooked artichokes to a platter. If the liquid in the pot is watery, cook it over high heat until it is reduced enough to coat the back of a spoon. Spoon the juices over the artichokes, cool completely, and serve at room temperature, drizzled with some of the reduced juices. (The artichokes can be stored in the refrigerator for several days. Bring them back to room temperature before serving.)

And then - Angry Shrimp with Citrus/Arugula Salad:

Peel and cut blood oranges, tangelos and grapefruit over a plate. Drain the juice from the plate into a bowl. Season liberally with salt and pepper. Whisk in olive oil to form a vinaigrette (it should be about 2 parts juice to 1 part olive oil). Season the citrus sections with salt and pepper. Drizzle a little of the vinaigrette on them to marinate and put them on a platter.

Season large shrimp (peeled but with the tail on) liberally with salt and pepper. Preheat a sauté pan on high. Dredge the shrimp in a mixture of flour, chile powder, salt and pepper. Add olive oil to the pan and put in one layer of shrimp. You want them to caramelize, so don’t toss or move them. After about 3 minutes, turn the shrimp over and let caramelize. Remove from the pan. Add more olive oil to the already hot sauté pan. Add sliced garlic and let it get light brown. Add thinly sliced jalapenos and let them get soft. Add julienned basil and stand back – there’s a lot of water in basil and it will pop. Let it get crispy, less than a minute. Add orange zest to the basil/garlic/chile mixture in the sauté pan. Season with salt and pepper, then spoon basil/garlic/chile mixture over the shrimp. Toss the arugula (or spinach) with the vinaigrette and top with the marinated citrus.