Saturday was a good day. The whole day had something to do with food. I slept in, ate blueberry pancakes with maple syrup for breakfast (and OH MY GOD AMAZINGNESS were they blueberry-ish blueberry pancakes!), and then we decided to go to Formaggios, a fancy-shmancy cheese shop in Cambridge, to pick out some cheese. We got there, and while we were waiting for the girl to get us some aged gouda, we oogled and oggled everything else in the store. Naturally, we walked out of there with some rabbit pate, raspberry vinegar, and bamboo rice. Apparently, bamboo rice is just short-grained rice that is steeped in the essence of bamboo, but we were strangely attracted by it's lime-green hue, and impulse-buying resulted. Driving home, we started thinking of what sort of salad we wanted to make with our raspberry vinegar, and by the time we'd gotten home we'd decided that we just needed to have some ceviche to go with our salad and bread-and-cheese course. So, we headed to Russo's to pick up some fresh veggies and lots of citruses, and then over to New Deal to get some fish. Driving over there, I started to question if we were foodies. Ed doesn't like that term, and countered with the point that pre-WWII, or in a different country now, this sort of activity (going to a specialist shop for each different type of food) wasn't such a strange thing. Probably right, but now it seems like a sort of snobbism. Anyway, I don't mind, because we had an awesome meal out of it.
Things you can get at Formaggios: (left to right) Rabbit pate, goat cheese with paprika, bunderfleish (acquired in Europe, not here, but they have it at Formaggios), aged gouda. Bunderfleish is an air-cured beef, and it is like beef jerky only about 1000 times better. Especially sliced thin and layered on a sandwich with a good swiss cheese...
At New Deal, they had some dry scallops, which was exactly what we wanted. Apparently normal scallops have been soaked in some sort of preservative chemical, and take up a lot of water in the process. Thus, when you're paying per pound you're paying for a lot of water. Dry scallops, on the other hand, haven't been soaked in whatever solution normal scallops have been in, therefore taking up flavors of cooking better, as well as being more bang for your buck. The things you learn. Anyway, buy your scallops (or fish) from a reputable source, since you aren't really cooking it with ceviche. I mean, you're denaturing the proteins, resulting in a cooked-feeling texture, but any bad things in the fish will still be there.
Scallop Ceviche
1/2lb scallops
juice of two lemons
juice of two limes
juice of 1-1/2 blood oranges
1.5 tsp salt
1 tsp chili flakes
2 cloves garlic
5 small radishes
1/2 onion
2 tbs cilantro, finely chopped
2 tbs parsley, finely chopped
lemon juice as needed
Ed made this, and his directions were that you just lump it all together and let it sit. Here is more detail: Mix together your citrus juices. Finely slice the garlic, onion, and radishes. Cut off the tough part of the scallops, and slice it into approximately 1/3 inch slices. Put everything into a big bowl, and add enough lemon juice to cover the things in the bowl if the other juices don't do the trick. Let this sit in the refrigerator for at least two hours. Then you can eat it. It's amazing, the scallops will feel like they've been cooked.
The end result was delicious. The scallops were perfectly done, and had this wonderful tangy, citrus-y flavor. The radishes were a little over sour, though. The bamboo rice? Nothing worth writing home about. The subtle grassy flavor was completely masked by the more strong-flavored foods on the plate. Save your money and stick with white rice!
Raspberry-Honey Vinaigrette*
1/4C raspberry vinegar
1 tbs good-quality balsamic vinegar
3 tbs honey
1 tsp fresh ginger, chopped finely
~1/4C olive oil
1 tsp salt
a couple grinds of black pepper
1/2 tsp ground coriander
*These values are approximate. I never measure my salad dressings... adjust ingredients as needed.
Put everything except the oil in a bowl. Whisk to combine. Add the oil, whisking as you go. Stop adding oil when it looks and tastes oily enough to you.
Raspberry vinegar, balsamic vinegar, and honey, don't like to mix without some help...The rest of the salad was some mixed baby greens, spinach, watercress, pears (tossed with some butter and sugar and broiled until just softened), candied pecans (tossed with some butter and sugar and baked at 350 until toasted, sugar slightly caramelized), goat cheese, and craisins. This was the best salad I have had in forever and ever.
Yum.
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