Thursday, November 29th, 2012 | posted by mike
Back in the renaissance days there was a painter named Vittore Carpaccio who was famous for using a lot of bold, red hues in his paintings. The Italian raw beef dish, Carpaccio, must have derived its name from the splash of red on the plate.
Nowadays the recipe can be made using fish instead of beef. Fresh sashimi grade tuna even has a more vivid red color than beef.
The gorgeous bright orange color of fresh salmon looks and tastes great in Carpaccio and that’s today’s featured recipe.
One of our suppliers, Nick Alfiero from Harbor Fish in Maine, was kind enough to share this recipe with us. It’s an easy and super elegant appetizer for the holidays. We tried a version served with our Swedish mustard dill sauce and another with a dab of salmon caviar. All great!
Serve, as pictured, on a white platter, garnished with dill sprig, capers and lemon wedges, or on individual thin slices of brown bread.
I love a cold turkey sandwich salted and smothered in mayo as much as the next guy but what could we do with leftover turkey and seafood? The first thing that came to mind was 
Our biggest sellers are the Quahogs. The name comes from the Narragansett Indian “poquahock,” a name that goes back as far as 1753. Quahogs are North Atlantic hardshell clams that have different names at different sizes. Pasta necks, special necks, littlenecks, top necks, count necks…it can get a little confusing. To simplify things, just remember that a small quahog like a littleneck (less than 2 3/4 inches in diameter) will be tender for steaming, great in sauces or in dishes like Cataplana or paella, and sizes smaller than littlenecks will be even more tender. The next size up from littlenecks are cherrystones that are tougher for cooking but great on the half shell or chopped and stuffed. Anything larger than a cherrystone are just called quahogs and these are great chopped for chowders or sauces or nice big stuffies.
For 7000 years millions of South Americans, and now the rest of the world, have enjoyed the flavor and health benefits of black beans. Here in North America we’ve been singing about these benefits since childhood. “The musical fruit that’s good for your heart”, is really true. We now know that the soluble fiber in black beans and other legumes do help lower cholesterol and help prevent heart disease. This fat free super food is also full of protein, folate, vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. Black beans not only boast great anti-inflammatory properties, they also benefit the digestive tract and can help to prevent some cancers.
That being said, there’s something about the colder months that make you want to eat both mollusks and crustaceans. Florida stone crab season just opened, Nantucket cape scallops are about to open, Maine shrimp will be here in December and clams, mussels and oysters are all plump and looking good!
The produce outside our door, at the Ann Arbor Farmers Market, is still very plentiful. The corn and tomatoes are looking good but it’s sure starting to feel like fall and the time for hardy greens and a variety of squashes is here.
