Specialty Salmon Sliders on Cornbread Rounds! Seafood Heaven...

While perusing this months' Coastal Living Issue, I came across their article "3 Tasty Simple Sauces".... hmmm... maybe we could try one of these recipes for the weekend?

Started out using their recipe for "Fish Sliders on Cornbread Rounds with Red Pepper Mayonnaise", then Tom and I did our own interpretation.  Not too many ingredients different, just gave it our own spin!  I will give you all their recipe and our "fixes"!

 For the fish sliders....

1 pound Salmon Filets (Coastal Living used Halibut) -Gave us an excuse to go down to our favorite fish market in Half Moon Bay....

3/4 tsp paprika

1/3 cup all-purpose flour

Dash of ground red pepper

1 1/2 tsp. kosher salt

1/4 tsp. fresh ground black pepper

2 large eggs

3 Tablespoons of Milk

2 cups of Italian Style Bread Crumbs (CL used panko -Japanese style breadcrumbs)

1/4 cup butter

1/2 cup olive oil (CL used veggie oil)

1. Combine first 5 ingredients in a shallow dish. Whisk eggs with milk in another shallow bowl.  Place breadcrumbs in another shallow dish. Dredge both sides of fish filets in seasoned flour, and then dip in egg mixture.  Dredge in breadcrumbs, and then place in frying pan - after oil is hot.

2. Place fish in hot oil mixture (butter and oil), cook two minutes on each side or until golden. (doesn't our salmon look pretty?)

Cornbread Rounds...

I totally cheated on this part  (hey, at least I am honest!) and  used a boxed mix of cornbread with some extra Bisquick thrown in, as my kitchen is too small to keep cornmeal on hand. The other extra ingredient that we added was fresh chopped rosemary from our small deck garden.  The perfect touch!

Here's CL recipe if you want to make cornbread the real way!

1 1/4 cups of yellow cornmeal

1 1/4 cups of unbleached all-purpose flour

1/4 cup sugar

1 Tablespoon baking powder

3/4 tsp salt

2 large eggs

1 1/2 cups milk

3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted

1.Combine first 5 ingredients in a bowl; make a well in center of mixture. Whisk together eggs, milk and butter; add to the dry mixture, stirring just until moistened.  Pour batter into a lightly greased 15 x 10 (we used 9 x 13 pan) jelly roll pan, spreading to the edges of pan.

2. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes, let cool completely in pan on wire rack

3. Cut cornbread into rounds using a 2 1/2 inch cutter. (I used a wine glass!) Place cornbread rounds on a lightly greased baking sheet, broil 1-2 minutes until browned, then flip and brown the other side.  Be very careful, these will burn quickly.  Don't walk away and forget about them!

Can you see my cornbread rounds waiting to go under the broiler while Tom is finishing up the fish? He's such a good sport, and we have such a great time cooking together.

Coastal Living had a great recipe for Red Pepper Mayonnaise, but we tried something a little different - 

Sun Dried tomatoes with fresh basil and rosemary..

Mix together:

1/2 cup mayonnaise

1 small garlic glove

2 Tablespoons chopped fresh basil

1 Tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary

1/4 cup chopped sun dried tomatoes, the ones packed in olive oil. Drain some of the olive oil off before adding to the mayonnaise mixture

Then stack your sliders! Spread the mayonnaise on the broiled cornbread rounds, add lettuce, and your fish - we also added yellow heirloom tomatoes (soooo good!)

Voila'! Pretty little sandwiches - 

We served our complete dinner with a roasted combination of Yukon golds, red potatoes, a red pepper, tossed with a garlic glove, olive oil, and herbs de provence. So incredibly easy; mix all together, about an hour before roasting, roast at 425 for about 30 minutes, then serve!

 Accompanied by a side of Tom's yummy cucumber salad!  Of course, we had to open our special bottle of Testarosa Chardonnay that we got at the winery a few weeks ago...  

Wonderful Sunday dinner!

Yum! Clam Linguine

One of the best things about living on the coast is our bounty of seafood! As you all know, I am not an oyster fan, but I do love clams, and they are easy to find at the local seafood market or grocery store.

I have had this recipe for over 20 years - the poor recipe card is almost in shreds and is curiously decorated with drops of butter? cream? clam juice? white wine? So easy to make and so incredibly rich and yummy! Simply take your time, and have all of the ingredients ready to go before starting....

Ingredients:

1 lb. of manilla clams shells still in their shells, scrubbed clean

6 T. of real butter (don't skimp!)

4 cloves minced/chopped garlic

1/2 tsp. of red pepper flakes

3/4 c. dry white wine (or more to taste if you're anything like Julia!)

1 1/2 cup cream (again, don't skimp!)

1 T lemon juice

2+ T fresh parsley chopped - I like Italian parsley for its flavor

2/3 c. Parmesan Cheese; shredded or shaved

Pasta - doesn't really matter what kind, this recipe is good on every kind of pasta. We've had it on spinach linguine many times, gorgeous presentation!

Melt butter,  then saute garlic and red pepper  in the butter til golden, add white wine and cream. Bring to a boil over medium high heat for 2 minutes. Add lemon juice, parsley and part of the Parmesan cheese, then add the clams. Put lid on sauce pan and let gently simmer while the clams slowly open in the sauce.

Cook pasta while clams are simmering, then drain. Toss pasta and clam sauce together and serve immediately topped with the remaining Parmesan cheese. Enjoy!