One of the best parts of my cooking day yesterday was seeing these dishes together on my plate – the colors! Red, orange, yellow, green and all the dark hues on the salmon…it was gorgeous.
I also had a priceless experience gathering the ingredients for the Asian salmon dish. Yesterday morning I was still without chili paste and oyster sauce and so I took a trip to Young Oriental Food Market in North Canton. Mrs. Young and I had a delightful conversation about Korea and the summer I spent there. I got to practice my rusty Korean! She was also very interested in my menu and took some time recommending what she thought would be just the right chili paste for salmon. She told me to come back and tell her how it turned out.
Summer Fruit Crostata: My first challenge was the pastry – it was so tender and fragile – I had a hard time manipulating it. I also used frozen blueberries (frozen just last week from Grandma Esther’s bush!) but when I make this again, I will use fresh berries (as you can see from some of the photos…I had a blueberry puddle when I was done). I baked it for 24 minutes…should have baked it longer – it was not done in the middle. I used the round pizza pans with the holes thinking the crust would be crispier – that didn’t work. However, even though it doesn’t look like much, it tasted yummy – had a surprisingly bold overtone of orange which I really liked.
Eli’s Asian Salmon: A company dish. A Wow. Having said that, I don’t think this is a dish I will make for the boys again. Mr. #1 and Son #1 weren’t bowled over – it has strong flavors – that, coupled with the expense of buying salmon and gathering topping ingredients – it won’t make my “keepers” list. One error I made – the recipe says let the salmon sit for 15 minutes after putting the topping on. I was impatient and gave it just shy of 10 minutes. I think letting it soak in really makes a difference (tip for Mrs. #3).
Evolution Tomato Salad: LOVED THIS. Will try adding olives (Mr. #1 doesn’t like black olives – so I omitted this) and beans. Simple, delicious and beautiful!
Brocolli & Bowties: Nice dish…Mrs. #3 – take my advice – cut the salt. Two teaspoons is too much salt! (Mr. #1 disagrees with me). I took Barefoot’s hint that this could be made ahead and heated up right before serving. And although this made things a lot simpler at the end, I think it would have been better served piping hot as soon as it was cooked. I will definitely make this again.
Overall rating: Mr. #1: 5. Son #1: 6. Me: 10!!! (What else would I say? It’s my menu!)
I’m looking forward to August Mrs. #3! Bring it on!
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