Pan-fried Lemon Bluefish with Caper-Tomato Salsa & Thyme - a simple, yet colorful presented recipe with enough acidity of lemon juice and white wine, to cut the richness and enhance the flavor of the bluefish.
Pan-fried Lemon Bluefish with Caper-Tomato Salsa
Friday Night Feast: Hot & Juicy Crawfish with Beer
Whether you refer to them as crawfish, crayfish or craw-daddies, these 3 to 5 inch crustaceans, the small fresh water version of a lobster, make a perfect picnic dinner with friends when paired with cold beer. For dark beer lovers I suggest Samuel Smith Imperial Stout - strong in taste, may be a little overwhelming for crawfish, but still good. For girls who like something nice and soft - Italian Ale is a perfect match. Contessa Italian Pale Ale is my favorite, it is bit fruity and very smooth.
Green Curry, Coconut, Garlic & Ginger Clams
This recipe is one of my favorite spicy seafood dishes - there's nothing better than eating this with your family for a relaxing night at home. Serve with chilled white wine. I personally like it with good riesling like Zind Humbrecht or Richter Veldenzer Elisenberg. Enjoy!
Russian Monday: Sour Cherry Vareniky
This recipe comes to me from childhood. My family lived in St. Petersburg which used to be called “Leningrad” at the time and every summer I used to visit my grandma’s in the village far out of town. She had log house with nice garden and lots of fruit trees. One among them was a cherry tree bearing a lot of small sour cherries. What’s interesting about my grandma’s house is that kitchen was completely separate in the small log cabin in the middle of the fruit garden. I vividly remember my grandma making berry and apricot jams, pressing apple juice and molding her cherry “vareniky” (pronounced as “va-re-ne-key”, i.e. dumplings). She has never been taking cherrystones out so dumplings were usually large and plump. I remember myself sitting on the kitchen windowsill and watching my grandma’s fast hands working the dough. I loved to spit those cherrystones out and never had a chance for it when my mom used to make vareniky with cottage cheese because cherries were not always easy to get in the city.
