Seafood Salad
I love seafood salad in the summer. Thanks to Ina (we are on a first name basis now) we got the idea of packing up our salad in a Chinese food cartons for an easy transport to the beach for a picnic. Everyone gets their own carton so no mess, no sand.
I poached the shrimp and scallops in a mixture of 4 cups of water and 1/2 cup white vinegar. I brought that to a boil and put the shrimp in for about 2 minutes (the shrimp was already peeled and deveined). After taking out the shrimp with a slotted spoon, I put in the scallops which took about 3 minutes. Stick to these minutes because otherwise the seafood gets too tough. I also took calamari, rubbed the bodies in olive oil, kosher salt and pepper and grilled them until crispy. Last seafood ingredient was a king crab leg. It came frozen so I soaked it in cold water for about 10 minutes until defrosted. Then put in a pot filled with water, a celery stick and a few slices of lemon. Make sure the crab is emerged in the water. Bring to boil. When the
water boils, the crab is done. I took all the seafood and sliced into 1/4" slices. I like the pieces chunky. I used about one pound for each seafood. Equal portions is best.
Now that the seafood was completely mixed up and cooled I added about 6 stalks of celery. Take each stalk and cut it into 2-3 long slices vertically and then cut into small pieces horizontally. Now you have small diced celery which I added to the seafood.
For the dressing. I added the dressing in right before I packed it for the picnic. I used a spicy mint pesto.
1 cup of basil leaves
1 1/2 cups of mint leaves
1 jalapeno, diced
1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup pine nuts
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
Add everything except the olive oil into the Cuisinart. Slowly drizzle in the olive oil or until the pesto is as oily as you want it. You might want more. I actually used more olive oil because I wanted this pesto more like a thin salad dressing.
Mix about 3 heaping tablespoons on top of the seafood and toss. Then decide if that is enough. You probably will have left overs from the pesto. Keep in the refrigerator in a plastic container and make sure you cover the top with olive oil otherwise the pesto will get moldy.
Enjoy.
Comments (Archived):
I love the idea of using the chinese food boxes. My grandfather was a box manufacturer here in Boston and that was one of his products. When the business first started at the turn of the century, that box type was used for ice cream.