A Night by the Sea

It was just another Saturday night and we did not have the chance to be sitting by the ocean for dinner.
The catch from the sea came to us.  It was the next best thing.

Octopus and Shrimp Ceviche


Seafood ceviche is another one of my favourite food to order in restaurants.  My eyes light up whenever I see it on the menu.

Cooking octopus is a mystery, even after going through cookbooks and even the internet, seemingly no one can agree on how to do it properly.  From cooking it with cork to boiling in water or baking in oven.  I decided to try two ways and attempted to solve this mystery.

For one I cooked in the oven at 200 degrees for 4 hours after blanching in boiling water for 30 seconds.  It was cooked but it lost all its chewy texture, definitely not good enough for a ceviche.

The other one I simmer in water with one onion and 4 bay leaves for 35 minutes.  And that was my simple recipe in cooking octopus to perfection!

I also added halved shrimps and cucumber to Laylita's recipe.  The few things I would do differently is to watch the amount of lime juice in the marinade and not as much red onions. And 2 Jalapeno peppers instead 1.5.

http://laylita.com/recipes/2008/06/01/octopus-ceviche/

Tuna Tartare


Laziness does not make a good cook.  When I was at the sushi fish market I had the option of buying a filet of tuna or chopped tuna.  I thought the latter would save me time in slicing and dicing. I ended up with ground tuna at the end.  The flavour was still incredible, thanks to Rob Feenie's recipe but without the chunkiness of the tuna the dish was definitely somewhat off.


http://www.foodnetwork.ca/recipes/recipe.html?dishid=3171


Onion Crisps

When I was away a few weeks ago I ordered room service at the hotel that I was staying in since it was in the middle of nowhere.  (Sorry Parisppany, New Jersey)  I ordered a juicy steak that came with onion crisps.  And I told myself I had to learn to make onion crisps.  Soon!

This turned out to be the highlight for the night. I was shocked how easy it was to make, as long as there was a mandolin for quick slicing.  4 minutes each batch and we had an amazing dinner.  I urged you to try this soon, what a great side this would make at a summer barbecue?  The onion-flavoured oil was good for cooking too!

http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/crisp-fried-onions-10000001611641/

Ceviche 7.5/10
Tartare 7.5/10
Crisps 9/10