Wild Creatures

“One can not think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.” Says Virginia Woolf.

I agree wholeheartedly and more. Life revolves around the table – the place where we are all nurtured for every moment of our lives. Food is love.

It is Sunday in mid-May, on the East Coast, soft shell crabs are at its peak. With the ease of good and fine company, we make a most simple and delectable meal of these wild creatures.

Sautéed soft shell crabs. What more speaks to us about the joys of anticipation of summer? Cooked in butter and a pinch of sea salt for a flash, … with the first bite, we are already envisioning the delights of a day by the sea.

So begins our convivial evening.

Tonight's menu, on this misty, damp, unseasonably fresh May evening, begins with the ease of jolly laughter. We debate whether if it is – perhaps, we, who are the wild creatures, who find such pleasure in devouring these crabs.

Ahh, such a delicious dilemma.

Our merry question is accompanied by ….

Toasted bread with a spread of black olives and sun-dried tomatoes marinated in olive oil

Salad composed of arugula, fennel, oranges, red onions and more black olives

Soft shell crabs simply sautéed in butter

Almond cookies with Coconut and Passion fruit sorbets

We feed our bodies with the bounty of Mother Nature. We feed our souls with the goodness of love and friendship. This is surely the recipe of Life.

The Edibles

Toast:

One baguette sliced at an angle

Your favourite black olives pitted and chopped

Sun-dried tomatoes marinated in olive oil, cut into slivers

1. Pre-heat oven to 250 degrees.

2. Drizzle the slices of bread with good olive oil and arrange on a baking sheet.
3. Spread chopped olives on each slice of bread and top with slivers of sun-dried tomatoes.
4. Lightly toasted in oven for 15 minutes.
5. Remove from oven and serve for immediate consumption.

Salad:

Wild arugula

Fennel, sliced thinly (a mandolin is an ideal tool)

Seedless oranges – rinds removed, flesh sliced and pith removed

Orange zest

Orange juice , fresh squeezed

Red onion, thinly sliced (again, with a mandolin)

Your favourite black olives pitted and chopped

Good olive oil

Balsamic vinegar, in a bottle with a spray top.

Salt

1. Marinate orange zest in olive oil in a small bowl. Set aside
2. To compose the salad, lay a large handful of the wild arugula on a platter, season with salt and moisten the leaves with some of the orange juice. Here I like to use my hands to toss the arugula.
3. Add slices of the fennel and drizzle the olive oil with the orange zest and toss with one hand and with the other add the slices of red onions. Toss well and add more of the orange zest olive oil, to taste.
4. Spread evenly on the platter. Spray the composition with a fine mist of balsamic vinegar.
5. Top with the slices of oranges and garnish with chopped olives.

Soft Shell Crabs:

Soft Shell Crabs (in season from Mid-May to July)

Lemon wedges

Salt and Pepper

Flour

Butter

Vegetable Oil

1. Clean crabs – not for the squeamish. First remove the apron from the lower underside. Lift and fold back the tapering points on either side of the back and remove the gray gills. Cut off the head, in back of the eyes, with scissors.
2. Gently pat dry soft shell crabs, with paper towels.
3. Put enough flour in deep dish and season with salt and pepper.
4. Lightly dredge each crab in flour. Shake off excess flour.
5. When oil butter mixture is hot, gently lay the crabs in the pan, top side down first. Sauté 3 – 4 minutes per side until the crabs turn a deep orange colour.
6. Note: Do not crowd crabs in the pan. Cook in batches, if necessary.
7. Serve immediately with lemon wedges.

Salmon Avocado Concasse'

This is a Marco classic :) 


I discovered this dish first in a restaurant in Italy and when looking for ideas for a light and fresh appetizer I decided to try to reproduce it at home.


Here's what's needed (4 people):


Two ripe avocados

• 4-6 medium sized tomatoes on the vine (depending on the size)
• A can of chickpeas
• Fresh salmon filet (200gr - 12oz) 
• 2% Milk
• Fresh Thyme
• Honey
• 2 shallots
• Extra Virgin olive oil
• Salt
• Red peppercorn
• Lemon

First thing to do is to marinate the salmon. I prepare a mix with milk, salt, thyme leaves, a bit of honey and let the salmon filet rest in it completely submerged overnight in the fridge.


In a dutch oven saucepan, I then put two teaspoons of oil, salt and chopped shallots and stir until it turns light brown. I then lower the burner and let it cool down for a couple of minutes, after which I add a bit of the marinade mix and lay down the salmon with the skin at the bottom. I then close the dutch oven and let cook for about 20 minutes at medium to low burner. Every 5 minutes I open the pan and make sure that the salmon has not completely dried up, adding the rest of the marinade mix as needed.


Since I'm going to have to chop the filet, I sometimes cut it in the thickest part with a wooden spoon to check if it's cooked all the way through.


Once it's done, I put the salmon on a plate, cover it with another plate and put it in the fridge for about 30 minutes to chill.


Now starts the fun part :) The avocado and tomatoes need to be chopped coarsely and stored temporarily in two separate cups.


I know of at least 5 ways of opening an Avocado. This is the one I use: cut in half longitudinally, take the pit out, cut the skin also longitudinally in half for each of the halves and peel it off. If the avocado is ripe, that should come out quite easily.


Once chopped, I put it in a container adding squeezed lemon (it would darken otherwise due to oxidation), olive oil and a pinch of salt.

I then cut the tomatoes, remove most of the seeds, and chop them in chunks of the same size as the avocado. Also put in a container with salt and oil, no lemon this time - the tomato's acidity would do.


Chick peas time. Chopping chick peas with the chopping knife is definitely not recommended. Neither using a blender. It creates a paste and we need a different consistency. I use a food mill or 'passatutto' which is a very manual, very old fashioned but very efficient piece of equipment for food processing, and it also has the added benefit of removing all chick peas skin from the paste.


But it still requires quite a bit of patience since the chickpeas will tend to form a layer on the filter. The secret is to (slowly) turn it backwards to detach the layer and then keep rotating until the only thing left on the inside of the filter are the skins.


I recommend to put a plate underneath the food mill and transfer the ground chickpeas to a container as it fills up. I use the whole can of chickpeas and at the end collect the paste that is stuck at the bottom of the food mill with a spoon. 


Time to take the salmon out of the fridge, and chop it in small pieces with a wooden spoon, putting it in a container with olive oil and a pinch of salt. I somehow do not like to touch it with metal. 


At this moment, in front of me I have four bowls with: chopped Avocado, chopped tomatoes, ground chickpeas, chopped salmon. 


I take four cylindrical glass molds and carefully smear them with olive oil on the inside, using a paper towel.


Then the building phase start: I first put a layer of salmon, then a layer of avocado, then a layer of tomatoes, then a layer of ground chickpeas to 'seal' the bottom. The oil inside the cups will prevent the concasse' to stick.


At this point, I put the four bowls in the fridge and leave them for about 30 minutes.

..and after 30 minutes, I take a large serving plate and, one by one, 'flip' the bowl with a rapid movement, pat the bottom (now top) of the bowl and lift it up gently. The concasse' should stay together nicely. 


Final touch: a bit of oil, and 4-5 red peppercorns on top of each.


And if everything went well, it should look like this

Buon Appetito!