p Our subject this week has been seafood. I won't pretend to do the entire subject of seafood full justice, but we will encounter some great methods of preparation here in my second seafood blog.

Seafood is a tender and delicate flesh, requiring care with handling and applying heat. If marinating, 30 minutes and no more is sufficient. It’s a good idea to use seafood on the day it was purchased. If not take two zip lock bags and fill them with ice. Place the first bag in the meat drawer of your refrigerator, place your still wrapped seafood on top of the first ice bag and then place the second ice bag on top of all that. It’s important to keep you fish as close to 32 degrees as possible.

The flesh of seafood is not terribly dense and usually not too thick. Therefore, it cooks rather quickly. When I make blackened catfish I use a very hot pan, usually two minutes per side is all that's required for a perfectly cooked blackened catfish fillet.

On Monday we talked about roasted seafood with potatoes and vegetables which is an all-in-one dish, a casserole if you will. Another interesting method would be to wrap your seafood in corn husks. The ideal situation would be to buy some sweet corn to have with dinner and when stripping the husk off the corn toss away all of the corn silk and save the husks. Rinse these husks in cold water, no need to pat dry.

Whole seafood can be rather difficult to come by so usually we're talking steaks or fillets. Rub your fillets with some infused extra virgin olive oil, lightly sprinkle with some seasoning, add a slice of lemon or lime and wrap up it in the corn husks. Take some string and gently tie closed. Be sure to use wet string if you're grilling so they do not start on fire.

Place the corn husks on your hot barbecue grill. If cooking with indirect heat perhaps about 15 minutes might be appropriate, turning once. If using direct heat try about 10 minutes, turning once. Remember it all depends upon how hot your coals are and how hot it is inside your barbecue grill, with a hotter grill a shorter cooking time would be appropriate.

Packaged corn husks are readily available in the supermarket. These are dried. So when using these dried corn husks be sure to soak them for 20 to 30 minutes before wrapping up your seafood.

For a good portion of my life, I didn’t care much for seafood.

There are several reasons why this occurred, but I won’t bore you with them. As time went on, I became more and more knowledgeable about seafood and, therefore, I included seafood more often into my diet. My mother always was a big fan of seafood, and kept after me to be more adventurous. Gotta love motherhood. Now seafood is my first choice for a great meal. She would be so proud of her 6-foot-5 baby boy.

While I was in culinary school, we learned a great deal about seafood. And while in Italy, I worked in Florence’s premier seafood restaurant. The Italians are just wild about seafood. However, most of what they love over there could not be sold in restaurants here – partially because we could not get the ingredients and because the standard American palate would not care for those dishes.

One such dish was Witches Hair – angel hair pasta in a garlic sauce with sautéed cuttle fish (a type of squid). At the finish, the chef adds cuttle fish ink, which is very, very black and, therefore, makes the whole dish quite black – thus Witches Hair. We had studied this dish in culinary school, and when my wife arrived in Florence to join me, I took her to Venice for a weekend. We had dinner on the edge of the Grand Canal. Since Witches Hair was on the menu, we ordered it for her, and she just loved it. Imagine sitting at the edge of the Grand Canal with gondolas going by and enjoying this great plate of jet-black squid. Life doesn’t get any better than that.

Unfortunately, we are not going to Florence or Venice anytime soon, but we can enjoy some great seafood at home. Here’s a fool-proof roasted seafood dish that you’re going to love:

Roasted Seafood with Potatoes and Olives
Serves 2

12 ounces fresh cod, halibut or other white-fleshed fish
Salt and pepper
Quarter-cup extra virgin olive oil
12 black olives (optional); if you don’t care for olives try some broccoli flowerets
1 large potato
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 bay leaf
2 teaspoons fresh squeezed lemon juice (lime is good, too)
Quarter-cup white wine
2 tablespoons water

Preheat oven to 450.

Peel and slice your potato half-inch thick.

Drop your potato slices into a pot of slightly salted boiling water. Cook for 5 to 6 minutes until not quite done; drain.

Season fish with salt and pepper. In a bowl, combine wine garlic, bay leaf, lemon juice, wine and water. Place still warm potatoes into the bottom of a lightly buttered baking dish and place seasoned fish on top. Sprinkle olives or broccoli on the sides of the fish and pour the wine mixture over the top of the fish.

Bake for no more than 10 minutes. Remove from oven and let stand for 2 to 3 minutes. Serve and enjoy.

Scoopers (Darrel Anderson)

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We're going into some uncharted territory with this blog entry.

I've taken some photos to help illustrate the kitchen tools we've been discussing this week – measuring tools. As you can imagine it's extremely important to have a variety of accurate measuring tools. In cooking, some ingredients are so strong that you do not want a pinch of this or a shake of that; you truly want just the exact measurement called for. In baking, all ingredients fall under this category because, as they say, cooking is an art and baking is a science.

Earlier this week, I discussed scoops, or as they are known in the food industry dishers. There is a photo of dishers with today's blog. In that photo, on the far left, is shown a right-handed #40 scoop. In the center is a right-handed #10 scoop, and on the right is an ambidextrous #12 scoop. The ambidextrous scoop operates by just squeezing the handle with your whole hand, (either hand), whereas a right-handed scoops are operated by the thumb of your right hand.

The manufacturer of these right-handed scoops has color coded the handles. So I know when I'm searching through my drawer for my #40 scoop it's going to be the one with the purple handle. All scoops, including those from the manufacturer of the color-coded handles, have the number of the scoop stamped onto the sweeper arm inside the scoop. So if these pictures were truly close, close-ups of the scoop you would be able to see the number that corresponds to the size of the scoop.

But scoops aren't the only tool we use for measurement in our kitchen. The most common are teaspoons, tablespoons and cups (photo below). The cups are divided between liquid and dry measure. In one of my photos, I’ve shown a 1-cup and a 2-cup clear, liquid measure. For liquids, it is important that the measuring container be clear so as you fill the measuring cup with your liquid you can see from the outside when you reach the mark. It is much better than using the dry measure cups that may spill at the top, or if you don't fill it right to the top you won’t have an accurate measurement.

For the dry measuring cups, the picture (below) ranges from one-eighth of a cup up to 1 cup. For the spoons, we show one-eighth teaspoon, a quarter teaspoon, a half teaspoon and 1 teaspoon. The largest one, on the far left, is 1 tablespoon. When using these, you want to fill them a little over full and use the back edge of a table knife and scrape off the top so that you have an even and accurate measurement. The only liquids these would be used for are ingredients like vanilla extract. It’s a liquid and would be portioned with one of the measuring spoons.

When portioning out dry ingredients, don’t pack them tightly. Fluff up your ingredients and then scoop out what you need, scraping off the top with the back of a table knife. For any of you that have worked with brown sugar, and I'm sure that’s most of you, the recipes always call for a firmly packed measurement. I do believe this is the only exception.

If you want to get truly accurate measurements, then do as the pros do and use a scale. Shown in my last photo (below) is the one I’m currently using in my kitchen. As you can see, it looks new. The scale I’ve used for many years died a proud death a couple of weeks ago and now I’m using the one in the picture. As you can see the buttons on the front allow for several types on measurement – milliliters or fluid ounces and grams or pounds and ounces. It’s a great scale, and I’ve made some very successful recipes with it.

Whatever you do, be sure to have the right tools and be familiar with their operation.

Recently, Irene, a regular reader, asked me about a #40 scoop. I often reference these in my recipes such as the oatmeal peanut butter chocolate chip cookies. I would like to share my answer.

Scoops, or rather dishers, come in many sizes. Most households just consider them ice cream scoops and are not aware of the many uses in measurement that they can play. Their identity in measurement is based upon a quart – 32 fluid ounces. So what size is a #40 scoop? Well, there are 40 of these in a 32-ounce quart. Break that down and it is three-fourths an ounce per scoop. By that formula there would be four #4 scoops in a quart, they would each be 8 ounces – or 1 cup.

Generally available scoop sizes are 4, 6, 8 10, 12, 16, 20, 24, 30, 40 and sometimes 100. As you can tell, the higher the number, the smaller the scoop. Many families use these strictly for ice cream and they work quite well for that purpose. Scoops, or dishers, have a mechanical sweeper arm coming across on the inside of the scoop that scrapes out the contents. The sweeper arm is attached to a lever that operated by the thumb of the right hand. So what about folks who are left handed? You can also find ambidextrous scoops. These have a squeeze handle and work very well in either hand.

The uses for these scoopers are endless. In cooking, it is important to have consistency. Items that are the same size not only look more professional, they will cook or bake more evenly. As I mentioned above, I use these for cookie recipes. Each one of my cookies are exactly the same size. In this fashion, when baked, they will all be done at the same time.

I also use these handy scoops for meatballs. I scoop out the meatball mix and of course all of the meatballs are the same size. I like to make large quantities of wild and brown rice. Cooked up with some veggies and spices it is a tasty dish. When it cools to room temperature I take one of my large scoops, say a #10, and portion out individual servings into sandwich bags. The bags are rolled up and placed into a large freezer bag. When frozen, I can remove these servings as desired and have them ready for the dinner plate in just a few minutes. And of course each serving is just the same size thanks to my #10 scoop.

I would recommend you go online and look these up. Remember to search for a disher. In the food industry, they are rarely called scoops. Dishers are inexpensive – $6 to $10 – and some websites offer free shipping. Have at least three in your inventory. Large like a #10, medium such as a #20 or #24 and small like #40 or higher.

A well made salsa can mean the difference between an average meal and memorable dinning experience.

The combination of a wide variety of complementary or contrasting flavors, colors, textures and aromas can bring your cooking experience to a much higher level. Generally speaking, the skills in making a good salsa are between you, your knife and your cutting board. The more consistent you get with your knife, the more attractive your results will be. Remember, the safest knife is the sharpest knife.

In the recipe for grapefruit orange salsa earlier this week, the predominance of citrus flavors is obvious. The acidity is increased with the addition of balsamic vinegar, but the whole dish works quite well. As a variation of this recipe you might add 2 tablespoons of ketchup and one clove of crushed garlic. Just these two ingredients will completely transform this salsa.

Whenever you sit down to eat, take a moment to think about what your plate would be like if you had a quarter to a third of a cup of salsa gracing your entrée. Different salsas are complementary of different foods. An obvious example is an apple-based salsa paired with any type of pork dish. But what would go with beef? How about a fire roasted corn and black bean salsa?

A hearty, bold salsa to go with the bold flavors of beef. This is a delectable and nutritious combination of vegetables to grace your plate. Once you've used this to accompany your grilled steak dinner, you can devour the rest the next day at lunch with some corn chips. Either way, your taste buds will thank you for being introduced to this tasty dish.

Fire Roasted Corn and Black Bean Salsa

1 medium red onion, minced

2 cloves garlic, crushed

3 ears corn, fire roasted and cut off of cob

8 ounces jicama, small dice

2 serrano chilies, remove seeds and ribs, minced

15-ounce can black beans, rinsed

3 tablespoons fresh squeezed lime juice

1 tablespoon sugar

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 teaspoon kosher salt

Combine all ingredients and toss well.   Flavor is best if made a day ahead.

If you have a gas cook top, strip your corn of the husk and silk. Using long tongs, place the corn directly in the high flame. Turn as needed to just singe the outside of the corn kernels. Additionally, when working with serrano chilies, it would be a good idea to wear disposable gloves. If not, when done be sure to thoroughly wash the tips of your fingers so as not to get the heat from the ribs and seeds onto your face or in your eyes.

The above recipe calls for jicama. Very crunchy and mildly sweet, I'm sure you won't use all of the jicama in just one recipe. So here's another tasty salsa that you can use with chicken or seafood.

Jicama Watermelon Salsa

1 cup diced seedless red watermelon

½ cup diced jicama

1 small red onion, diced, almost minced

¼ cup toasted pine nuts

½ ancho chili; stemmed, seeded and cut into fine strips

15-ounce can organic diced tomatoes, drained

zest of one orange

2 tablespoons cilantro, minced

2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar

1 tablespoon honey

½ teaspoon salt

In a large bowl, toss all ingredients thoroughly. Let stand for 10 minutes. If not using right away, store in refrigerator.