Sleevendog, this "hit" a tastebud nerve with me. A few month's old thread, but for SEAFOOD or SAILING, I must respond. I'm a long time member of GW/H but have long stretches of inactivity. But you did say SQUID! I've read (as you also must have) that the cooking of squid (for tender texture) needs to be either quick/just until cooked), or long (until some squid seized something breaks down...). I am always too hungry to wait for the long cook. My dearest other is not crazy for squid (or any non-fish non-fried seafood) --- all the more for greedy me. I was not always a fan because the word "squid" is too close to SQUIRM, SQUISH, SQUALLOR. "Calamari" has a more acceptable tap on the eardrum -- until some well intentioned soul explains that it's SQUID! Locally, there is a Vietnamese restaurant that offers "Crispy Calamari" salad under their appetizer menu. I am addicted, but also pragmatic. I have made numerous attempts to duplicate it or to arrive at an acceptable facsimile. I don't have a photo of any of my experiments, but here are a couple of snapshots of the Vietnamese restaurant dish. (There must be a bunch of kindred spirits out there, who, join me in photographing delectable dishes, running them through our olfactory mass spectrometer, then attempt to duplicate or better the dish. Yes??) Next year, sleevendog, please take me with you when the squid is brought aboard. I just remembered this--one year (late 50's or early 60's) hundreds of squid were run ashore and were stranded all over the ledges in our cove and the bay. I was very young and so didn't appreciate what a windfall that was. But lobster, clams, mackerel, and haddock (and crab) were so abundant in those days. (Crabs would often be tossed back into the bay.) So, Sleevendog, tell me what delectable dishes you' e created with all that squid.

No 100 for this WFD is my post about matcha. ( green tea powder) Do I like it ? Meh it's alright but not terribly impressed. I tried it as a tea made with hot milk. Then because I could detect a faint seaweed smell, I next made pancakes with smoked salmon which were nice but so were DH's non matcha ones according to him. He didn't want matcha after smelling it. There is still some left so I will gradually use it but I wouldn't go out of my way ( ( which I already did) to purchase it again. Jasdip, the strawberries are tiny in real life so it didn't occur to me that they looked like lychee but I can see where you are coming from in the photo.

Simple stuff tonight Salmon lightly cooked in mirin-sake-soy-sugar (teriyaki) Oysters from Waluppa (sp) Bay Scallops coated in flour with onion and garlic and mushroom powder, sauteed Beef short ribs, I tried first cooking then at 350F with full steam for 10 min, then did a sort of rub, let sit to dry, then broiled at 425F no steam 3 minutes. I’ve a new cooking toy, and trying to figure out how it works.

I have found Albacore tuna to be tough, compared to Ahi tuna, and so I have avoided it, but perhaps I was cooking it wrong. I'm okay with canned albacore tuna, however. We often have blackened catfish, which is a Cajun dish popular in Texas and Louisiana. Basically, the fish is seasoned with a Cajun spice mix and then fried in a cast iron skillet with a lot of butter. I typically use the leftover butter on the rice that I have with it. The fishes we normally buy include ahi tuna, wild-caught salmon (in season), opah, swordfish, and red snapper. Occasionally, I will buy sole or flounder, if I happen to find it. I prefer to grill tuna, salmon and swordfish as steaks, and to keep the swordfish moist, I put a domed lid over the grill pan, but the main thing is not to cook it past 130° to 135°, and I check the temperature frequently when I think it is getting close. It is always better to undercook, as it can be put back in the pan if it needs more cooking. I cook ahi tuna steaks to 120°, and I buy sushi grade tuna so that temperature will not be an issue. We also eat a lot of sushi and sashimi, but I do not do anything unusual with that. For tuna, I normally season it with dill and lemon, but sometimes I make a marinade with soy (or ponzu) sauce, ginger, wasabi, and sesame oil. I do the same with salmon and sometimes use a teriyaki sauce at the end of cooking. For swordfish, I prefer to keep it simple, and just use dill, lemon, and white pepper. I prefer white pepper on fish to black pepper, but I also like Sichuan pepper. If the salmon I have is too thin to grill, I sometimes bake it with dill, capers, white pepper, and butter. I fry sole, flounder, or red snapper in butter the same way I do catfish, but without the Cajun seasoning. I also frequently make fish tempura, which is similar to fish and chips, but without the chips, and I use small pieces of any white fish for this and also make tempura vegetables to go with it. My favorite vegetable to use is turnip. When I fry catfish, I make a cornmeal batter for it, and make hush puppies to go with it, using any leftover batter for those and adding more ingredients as needed. I generally add Cajun seasoning to those and also jalapeño. I make salmon cakes using fresh salmon and use Marilyn's recipe (DanaIN, I believe) for that. The only fish I poach is salmon, and I use Julia Child's recipe for that, which yields a great broth that I freeze and then use for sauces. I have an 18" long oblong pan (with cover) for poaching a whole salmon, which I bought after Kevin came back from Seattle with a whole salmon for me from Pike Place Market. He was reluctant to buy that at first, but he had called me and asked me what I wanted from Seattle, and that is what I asked for. When he saw the fish at the market, he changed his mind and decided that he had to buy one. Typically, I do not make fish stew, but I did use salmon broth for fish chowder, once I had poached a salmon. We live very close (just a few blocks) from one of the best sushi restaurants in Coachella Valley (I think it is #1), and it is also reasonably priced. Therefore, I tend to go there rather than make sushi myself, but in L.A., I lived close to Japanese markets, and so I tended to make the sushi myself because it was very easy to get all of the necessary ingredients, including cooked sushi rice, although I sometimes cooked the rice myself. In addition to fish tacos (which I make with lettuce instead of cabbage), I like to make crêpes filled with salmon and a few capers, and I use a velouté sauce made with fish stock in the filling and on top. My favorite use for canned salmon is for making stuffed tomatoes, and the filling includes salmon, mayo, green onion, and lemon juice. When I was in my 20s, I would make a tuna casserole with wide egg noodles and a mushroom velouté sauce, but I have not made that in decades.